"Blessed is the man who hears Me, watching daily at My gates, waiting at the posts of My doors" (Proverbs 8:34).

Oh, how true. Anyone who truly hears the gospel is so blessed. It’s funny but, used to, when I would read a bible passage that says ‘blessed is,’ I thought it meant IF we do such ‘n such (whatever the specific verse is referring to), we WILL be blessed or rewarded somehow. So I thought the ‘blessed’ verses were telling us something we need to go do in order to be blessed. Now I see that they are saying we are blessed already, if we are able to do whatever the verse is referring to. If we are able to hear the gospel, we have been blessed already.

I love this verse:

And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona for flesh and blood hath not revealed [it] unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven. Matt 16:17

The Lord Jesus had just asked, ‘Whom do men say that I, the son of man, am?’ Simon Peter answered and said, ‘Thou art the Christ, the son of the living God.’ That’s when Jesus replied by saying, ’Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven.’ The Lord Jesus was telling Simon Peter that he is truly blessed already because he is able to SEE Christ and know he is the son of the living God. The blessing is that he can see Christ, because on his own, he would not be able to.

The beatitudes in Matthew 5 use the word blessed many times. Blessed are the poor in spirit, blessed are they that mourn, blessed the meek, blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness, blessed are the merciful, blessed are the pure in heart, blessed are the peacemakers….. Are these verses telling us we need to muster up these qualities, and when we do we will be blessed or rewarded in some way? ---If so, I am surely in trouble. I can’t seem to muster up anything good within myself, much less these qualities. There is no way I can be blessed then.

I no longer believe we are to DO to be blessed. I believe we already ARE blessed if we are able to do any of these virtuous things ever, (and probably won't even know when we do them) because the only way we CAN is if Christ is working in us. And oh, what a blessing that is! It means that Christ has saved us and is working in us. What greater blessing or reward could there be? ---Praise his wonderful name.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

We had a wonderful Christmas day yesterday. I cooked all morning and everything turned out delicious, if I do say so myself. The buttermilk pie was exceptionally good! Jocelyne, Cody & Jenny, Whitney, & Corbin were here with Bo, Mason & I. We ate lunch, then opened presents. We didn't do alot of presents this year, but it was no big deal. Corbin got a Nerf gun that everybody had fun playing with. Cody, Jenny & Corbin had to leave after a while to go to Dalhart to visit Jenny's family, so Bo, Jocelyne, Whitney, Mason & I went bowling. That was lots of fun. Bo was really hot yesterday! He bowled a 183. I started out really bad and had of score of around 50 the first game, but ended up improving and doing OK with a score of 130 in the second game. Mason did great the first game but petered out in the second. Whitney did pretty good in the first and bad in the second and Jocelyne stunk in both games. You just need to work on your moves Jocelyne! LOL. One, two, three, four, slide.

Anyway, Jocelyne left for Austin this morning, and Bo went to Gruver, so it's just back to Mason & I. We took the day off from school, but will start back tomorrow.

Hope you had a good Christmas!

I really enjoy Christmas time. I love the getting together with family and fellowship, all the good food, the pretty lights, the trees and such. It’s just a special time, I think. I must say though that I don’t especially associate Christ with Christmas time anymore than I associate Christ with Valentine’s Day or any other holiday. I mean it’s hard to not think about it with all the nativity scenes and things you read and hear people say about it being Christ’s birthday and such, but I do feel like the Christ that’s being talked about by so many, is not the same Christ that I worship anyway. I worship a Christ that totally and completely accomplished salvation for his people. Nothing needs to be added to it. He did it all and every single person he died for WILL be saved. To say that we must add something to his death on the cross is robbing Christ of his glory, I believe, and God will not stand for that. And why should he? Everything that we do is tainted with sin. God is perfect and holy and just. He cannot and will not look upon sin. We need a perfect substitute and we have one in Christ, but it will and must be ALL Christ’s work and absolutely none of ours. It seems that in most religions today, we are told that we must make a decision, pray a prayer, DO SOMETHING in order to be saved. Not so! Christ, on the cross said, "It is finished." The work is done. All God's people are saved already. Praise his holy name. There is nothing we need to do.

No where in the bible are we told to celebrate Christ’s birthday, and we really don’t even know what day he was born. I don’t like seeing all the images men make to represent Christ at Christmas time and all year long, for that matter. (Are we to even make images of Christ?) How in the world could any doll or picture or even a real baby represent the glory and wonderfulness of Christ, our savior? I really find all the nativity scenes at Christmas time offensive.

I’m not against having a holiday called Christmas. It’s fine with me as a day of getting together with family and friends and such, and as I said, I really enjoy the holiday, but I don’t agree with setting the day aside as being more special than any other as far as remembering Christ. Christ’s birth and death should be celebrated in our hearts everyday.

So…… Merry Christmas to you or Happy Holidays or WHATEVER! May you have a wonderful holiday.

It rained all day yesterday and then snowed last night, so we have ice covered with snow. There are lots of broken tree limbs all over the city because of the heavy ice. The trees look so pretty all covered with ice, but the broken limbs look pretty sad. And it's cold outside!


Mason helped me in the kitchen yesterday make some Christmas candy and cookies.

Congratulations Jenny! Last night Jenny, my daughter-in-law graduated with honors with her bachelor's degree from WTAMU. She has worked very hard and I know it took alot of effort with a husband and son to take care of while going to school, so I am very proud of her.

Whitney & I went to the graduation and afterwards Jenny's dad took us all out to the Amarillo Club, a very nice restaurant on the 31st floor of a tall building in Amarillo. (Bo didnt get to go because his company had their Christmas party last night). It was such a nice place. The food was great and the view was spectacular!

I enjoyed it so much, just spending time with my kids.













I even got to have a dance with my son!

Well, I just thought I was on the mend. I woke up Saturday morning and the whole thing started all over again. Ugh. I have been so sick the last 3 1/2 days. Today I am out of bed (and in my chair). I am feeling a little better, but still weak and tired. Hopefully, the worst is over. The nausea is better and that's been the worst of it, I think. I was planning to work tomorrow, but don't know if I'll be able to. One good thing is that feeling so bad makes you really appreciate feeling good, which I tend to take for granted. I have been thinking about my mother while I've been sick because she has been taking chemotherapy and she feels this way most of the time. How miserable that must be. Yesterday was her birthday. She turned 77. She has decided to stop the chemotherapy. It just makes her feel too bad and it's something she would have to continue the rest of her life. Odd, the very treatment you need to keep you alive keeps you in misery while you're alive. ---Or as in the case of my Adam, the chemotherapy itself kills you.

Sometimes this life is hard, but it sure makes heaven look good.

We made it back from Las Vegas and had a good time there. We went to the National Rodeo Finals two nights, which was really good. We also ate at some very nice restaurants. One was called Lawry's. (Yes, the same Lawry's that makes the seasoning in the grocery store). We had prime rib which was outstanding, but I wouldn't say it was quite as good as what it cost though. My goodness, it was expensive. Thankfully we weren't paying for it, but the company that took us out there. An animal health company that Bo's company buys medicine from. And that sure was NICE of them! There was a girl with our group that got sick while we were there. A stomach flu or virus or something. She stayed in her room most of the time. Then yesterday around noon (after we were home), I started feeling sick at my stomach and proceeded to get worse and worse. Ugh, I had an awful night and have been weak and still feeling bad all day today. I am keeping food down now though, so hopefully I am on the mend.

Bo is taking a group of work associates pheasant hunting tomorrow and Sunday. Guess I'll just be hanging out around the house. Hope you have a good weekend!

Is anybody even reading this?

Bo & I are leaving for Las Vegas tomorrow and will be there until Wednesday. We're going for the National Rodeo Finals. It should be fun even though Las Vegas isnt one of my favorite places to go, it is very interesting and I know we'll have a good time. We are staying at the Treasure Island Hotel on the strip. I just like to walk around looking at all the fancy hotels and casinos. They are so spectacular and something to see! So... I'll talk to you when we get back.