Frankly, I must bee honest.  I shielded mine.  I shielded them from the pain and hurt I knew they would feel if they watched the videos and heard the recounted tails of horror.  But that really all came to a head last week when we watch the unthinkable happen again to the Twin Towers.  The middle SON vowed to never fly.  The SONS were all holding back tears and tears were indeed the right emotion and yes, followed by anger.

The show we watched was indeed graphic.  They were not ready.  I was not ready.  I never was and never will be.  But in the moments before I could say “cover your eyes” or “leave the room,” we saw human beings falling and jumping to their deaths.  That is just really hard for children to comprehend.

Real life.  Real death.  And as I explained to the SONS, this is not some war game on your play station or PSP –  this is real life.  And real life has some very dark, horrible and grievous moments in it. And this was certainly one.

I remember many things about my mother, but  every year as we approach the anniversary of 9/11 I can remember her calling me like it was yesterday.  Mom was a native of New Jersey who had frequented the streets of New York for years, with horror in her voice as she said” Turn on the TV a plane just flew into the Twin Towers.” She knew right then and there it was no accident.  I assured her it was an accident and she simply said “No Corby, this is no accident.” Her voice had a sound unlike any sound I had ever heard from her before.

Her voice resonates in my mind every time I think of 9/11.  None of our friends or family were lost that day.  All those we personally knew in New York or New Jersey were safe.  However, several of their friends were killed

But it was early this morning I watched such an inspiration message about Lauren Manning, who survived 9/11 and had burns over 82% of her body. An amazing women and amazing story.  Her book is entitled  “Unmeasured Strength”.

In the interview she said  the following things that so stood out to me on this Thankful Thursday:

1. I made a conscious decision, a very conscious decision, to live that day.  I became determined to heal.

2. I have reconciled that I live with vast degrees of imperfections

3.  And I’ve learned to inhabit the body that I have

4. I am more relaxed with the notion that not everything turns out the way we think it should

5. I am more forgiving and patient

6.  We can be touched by a tragedy but not be held by it!

Amazing how the human spirit can triumph over tragedy.  This woman is beautiful from the inside out!  She said she chose to live that day. Others did not have a choice.

Wow amazing life-giving words on this Thankful Thursday.

Later I picked up the morning newspaper and  it said that at 1:00p.m. on Sunday they were asking all Cowetans to observe a time of remembrance by ringing bells and sounding sirens.  The very thought of that then as I read it, and even now as I write it, brings tears to my eyes.

A city full of bells and sirens.  Ringing in honor the lost  that day.  What a beautiful thing to do for such sad moment in history.

I feel certain on that horrible day ten years ago, the angels of God were ringing bells in glory and sounding horns as they ushered in so many to heaven.

On this Thankful Thursday, I pray that you are blessed and encouraged and that you hear the message of hope in the midst of all the tragedy.

Sometimes busyness keeps us so busy we don’t get in touch with our feelings and our life.

For the last several weeks Winters and I have been working like mad men putting the final touches on the websites and waiting on shipments of books to arrive.  We have written flyers to promote the new books and created new bookmarks as well.  I have been working on a six-week series for a Pure Empowerment seminar to start in September as well.  We are tired to say the least.

We have spent hours sending emails and contacting churches about speaking, teaching and sharing our books and message with the world.  Yes, the world. Two little people in Newnan, Georgia, are trying to make a difference in the world for Christ. But too often we find ourselves waiting for someone to return our e-mail or call us back. Sometimes you need help to change the world.  I am sure you can relate.

So on this Thankful Thursday, I find myself both excited and exhausted.  Trying to make a difference requires commitment and dedication. It also requires us to know when to rest.

One way I love to rest and restore is through yoga. Many of you know I love yoga.  It use to freak my sweet little Godly mother out and I had to always remind her I was not doing some crazy meditation to some guru but to our Lord.  I think she finally got over it, but it was not easy for her.

Recently, I found out a group meets at the club house in my neighborhood.  I have been attending it and I love it!  I love how I feel and I love how my body responds to yoga. It works for me! Remember – efficient and effective.

But the strangest thing has happened since I have been attending.  Now mind you I usually do videos in my house with the Sons of Thunder wildly running around upstairs or in and out the front door.  I am relaxed and experiencing inner peace, but just so much.  Right?

But Monday I was in these contorted positions and poses like the Downward Dog, Warrior 1 and the Child’s Pose and I began to tear up. I couldn’t help but wonder what in the world was going on. Then yesterday the same thing happened.

So I ask my beautiful long-legged yoga instructor, What is going on with me?  I had my own suspicions but I wanted her take on it.  I know these past few years have been hard and this past year was probably the hardest, but crying in yoga class? Really are you kidding me?

But sure enough I was pretty much dead on and my suspicions were right. Remember,  life keeps us busy.  Life keeps us distracted and as I said last week, there is very little time to find inner peace.  But in the moment of peaceful exercise and relaxation we hear the hurt of our heart, we are reminded to let go of the regrets, past disappointment and rejection.  We feel  more deeply because we are still. We are in the moment and in the moment we are present with all the good, the bad and sometimes even the ugly.  And when someone reaches out to you with a hug or a kind gesture, we feel it deeply.

We often feel whatever we need to feel and what we are often too busy to feel or what we really do not want to feel or even remember. That is a long thought but so true.  Sometimes in the hug of another we are reminded we will never feel the hug of one we loved so dearly, like our mother, our father, our sister or friend.  A simple hug can mean so much more.

In yoga our bodies are in these strong, wide open stances and all hurt and pain as my teacher explained are not all bound up and held tightly, but released!  When my mother died, I began to soon ache in almost every part of my body almost all the time.  I knew it was the stress and the grief.  I have worked hard to release that pain.  But yesterday as I lay quietly on the floor in a room full of women I was alone.  Alone in my own moment.  I am on my own journey. As a wife, a mother, sister, a daughter-in-law, a friend and I am also a grieving child. I was reminded to let go, move on, move through and just be …

My  journey includes a desire to change the world for Christ through teaching speaking and writing, but in the  moment on the mat I reminded myself that I must care for my soul too. I have to find times of restoration and so do you dear sweet sister.

On this Thankful Thursday I pray you will find time to care for your soul, your hurt and your life.  Show yourself compassion, mercy and grace the same amount you usually impart it to others.  And remember that sometimes we must simply be still.

Be blessed and encourage abundantly on this Thankful Thursday as we are thankful for healing, however it comes to us.  Whether it be a hug, a word of encouragement or on a yoga mat in a room full of women with silence and tears!

I know I have said that a million times.

But they do.  And yesterday, on Facebook I posted a song by JJ Heller that always moves me.  It is appropriately entitled “What does love really mean”.  The singers sweet voice and the powerful words always touches me so deeply.  When I need a pick me up and a quick reminder of  the true love I go to YouTube, type in one of two songs this being one of them and I am inspired all over again…

What does love really mean?

Most often we define love as we understand love to be, in our earthly finite minds…

Love can mean many things to many people but to the believer it is a distinct kind of Love.  A love that represents forgiveness, faith, restoration and unconditional love.  True love we can hardly be comprehend.

We can get so caught up in seeking love from others that we seek love the wrong way.  We can seek it through sex when what we really wanted was love and not sex at all.  We seek love through wanting approval so we seek love through our work and become a work Alcoholic. The thought being, if I give all of myself to them, then they will love me or if I am successful and rich then they will love me.

It makes me sad just thinking about it because that is a counterfeit love. That is a love based on doing something to get something in return or love based on our performance.   But that is not love.  True love says “I love you no matter what” and “I will love you for you” for richer or poorer and in sickness and in health. I simply value you. You as person.  I am not saying we shouldn’t work to improve ourselves but we should not do it  just so someone will love us more.

But again so often we feel loved  for “what we do” and “how we do it”.

We seek approval Love.  The “I know they will love me when I’m thinner, more successful, get that promotion or when others think I ‘m important again”.  But that is not really love, is it?

No, that is not true love.

True love says your important no matter what.  You are so important just because you are you… That is God’s kind of true love.

And just because the world doesn’t recognize it, or a boss doesn’t acknowledge it or your parent doesn’t see it, doesn’t make  you any less valuable.  You are important just for being you!

In the bible God talks about unconditional love~ Unconditional love is when we love someone regardless of their qualities or actions.

The beautiful thing is that no one is to far from the love, grace and mercy of God.  Sometimes it is hard to wrap our heads around it but God  loves the liar, the drunkard, the adulterer, mistress, the thief, the murder, the hopeless shop clerk, the person who abandoned you, the parent who let you down all those years ago, the child who disappointed you and He loves you and me too.  His love is far and deep and very, very wide.

We live in a world with lost and deceived people and lost people will hurt you.  Frankly, even saved people will hurt you. But that does not mean we can’t pray for them and that God can’t change them. And if we sin, brokenness, or hurt in our lives we must also pray that God heal us too.

Now let me be clear God hates the sin but He loves the sinner.

He died on the cross for all of us.  The good, the bad and the ugly. Let’s remember when hanging on the cross Jesus said to the one thief  ”Today you will be in paradise with me”.  He promised the thief hope and cared for His soul.  He will care for yours too.

Today on this Thankful Thursday don’t let your heart be full of hurt or even conditional love for others.

If someone has wounded you so deep you see no signs of ever recovering.  Let is go.  Pray for them and pray they will have an encounter with the our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ because no one is to far from the grasp of  Jesus!

Let go of the pain that is holding you back from living the life God has for you. Celebrate that He loves you for you and stop trying to earn love or earn grace.  It is a gift God-lovingly gives because He first loved us, we can love others.

On this Thankful Thursday be thankful for a savior who loves you no matter what.

Don’t waste one more minute of your life in regret. Regretting that someone did not love you or treat you better!

Because, my sweet sister, you have the greatest gift of true love ever in the Son of God!

I love remembering that Jesus will love me for me! Not for what I have done or what I will be become…I needed to be reminded of this again and just thought someone else today might need to be reminded of it too!

No one is to far from the loving touch of our savior not even you or me.

Jesus loves you dear friend! Listen to the Lord as He says to you I will love you for you! Just You! Not for your education, your looks, your income, your position, your power, or talent but I love you for YOU!

Be blessed and encouraged abundantly today as you remember and celebrate that you are loved. Now walk in love!

Check out video on my Facebook page or on you tube it will bless you! JJ Heller What Love Really Means!

You might see some typo’s Winters was out of the office… Sorry…

In The Power Prayer Girls Handbook, I write about praying not only for others, but also for yourself.  I also mention that when God heals we need to give thanks and glory to God for our healing. God cares about your every need.

Pray for your health.  Pray for your physical, emotional and spiritual well-being.  We need to pray specifically for our bodies.  Pray for your mind.  Pray for whatever you need to pray about, but by all means pray!

It is so important to pray for ourselves and to ask God to take care of us.

I usually pray something like this when praying for my health: “Lord, I bind sickness and disease from my body.  I pray Lord that my body is healthy.”  I ask the Lord to heal whatever it is that needs healing and I ask the Lord to take care of certain areas of my body. For example, my thyroid, my voice, my heart.  I have prayed for my hormones and countless other things.  You get the point I am sure.  I think the more specific the better and I have done this for years.

Several years back I became really sick.  I had no energy and was completely depleted.  I also had an odd pain in the front of my neck.  

It was a very, very stressful time with Winters’ work and my parents’ health decline and all the other responsibilities as a mother.

I finally went to the school nurse, yes, you read that correctly.  We loved Miss Kathleen and I was busy so I popped in to ask if indeed the pain in my neck was near my thyroid and she confirmed my concern.  She immediately said “you need to go to the doctor and soon”.  So I did.

My primary care doctor whom I love, listened to all my concerns and ran every crazy test I wanted from Lyme disease to mononucleosis to potential thyroid problems.

It was confirmed I had  hyper thyroid and my doctor soon sent me to a specialist.

The doctors were giving me all kinds of feedback on how I would have to treat the problem, much of which I did not like hearing. The treatments were extreme and there was very little room for other medical options.

I was very sick and felt completely spent. I went on medication for about a year, but was told the most likely option was going to be to radiate the thyroid with a little tiny pill. I would then be on medication the rest of my life.

My options were limited according to the specialist. I told the doctor from day one I was believing for a healing, but the doctor was very glib and said ”It is unlikely.”  She went on to say “rarely, if ever, does anyone get healed.” So I said “well, I am praying that I am one of those people.”

The doctor went on to say that stress had nothing to do with it either.   Stress has nothing to do with it, okay now you are kidding me! We all know stress has almost everything to do with everything!

I know she was doing her job and I was doing mine – believing I could be healed in the name of Jesus!

I was certain all the stress in my life was greatly contributing to my problem.   I tried to cut out as much stress as possible, eat better, take more vitamins, get more rest and I even started getting massages, and I also spoke to a counselor to help me.

Even a counselor knows when she needs a counselor!  But most of all I continued to believe and pray for my healing.

I continued to take my medication and we then moved to Oklahoma. My new doctor said it was time to check and see if my thyroid was working right. Praise God, because in August of 20o9, I was declared healthy! Praise the Lord.  Just last week we checked my blood work again and everything looks great!  The thyroid is working perfectly!

A Thankful Thursday does not go by that I do not give thanks for my continued health and healing.  But dear sisters, please remember I was believing and confessing my healing while I was being treated.  Faith is believing things that are not as though they are.

Jesus said, to have the faith of a mustard seed, I feel confident each of us can muster up mustard seed faith!

I believe a lot of things contributed to my health and recovery, but I know for certain that believing God can heal is imperative.  We must pray for our healing even in the midst of bad news and the worst diagnoses. We are to profess and declare the healing touch of Jesus.  I still continue to believe and trust God to keep me healthy and I never take my health for granted.

Praise the Lord~ Our God is an awesome God!

So today on this Thankful Thursday, if you have experienced any kind of healing or someone you know has, then let’s give thanks and celebrate the healing touch of Jesus!

Let’s give God all the Glory!

I have thought of myself as a city girl.  However, I was raised on a farm for the first 9 years of my life, with horses, dogs, cats, chickens, and ducks.  It was a great life.  We had a small barn and I could saddle and ride my horse whenever I wanted.  I do so love the country, but I do love the city, too.  The theater, the restaurants and the shopping are wonderful.  Having lived all across America from Tulsa to Beverly Hills, New York City to Washington D.C., and from Alaska to Georgia, I have grown to appreciate the unique gifts of a small town.  For the last nine years, we dreamed of one day returning to Grand Lake, to the water and to family.

The country life is pretty wonderful and now as Fall approaches, the trees are turning and Winterspointe is more beautiful than ever.  One thing I enjoy most is reading my bible on the back porch and taking in the splendor of the view.   I also love to take my walks up the road to the mailbox with the Sons of Thunder.

One afternoon, I convinced the boys to take a walk with me up to the mailbox.  Now, Seth is my listener and he is like his father in that respect.  He wasn’t feeling well so he stayed home.   Caleb and Levi are pretty much me made over and over and over again.  John’s mother loves to say “the apple didn’t fall far from the tree” and she is right.  They love to talk and they have a comment for everything.  So needless to say, the beautiful and serene walk is full of chatter, laughter and a thousand questions that come at me at the rate of an AK-47.

I will often point to a tree and say can we at least walk to that tree in silence and enjoy the view for one moment.  Everyone agrees, but it is a Herculean task which comes to an abrupt stop the moment we reach the tree and then the questions return.

On this particular day, Levi was running down the hill a hundred miles an hour.  I could see a fall coming at any moment.  It seemed inevitable.  So I quickly urged him to stop and suggested maybe he walk or even just skip.  “SKIP!”  Levi exclaimed,  I’m not sure I can skip.  Don’t girls skip?  Boys don’t skip do they mom?”   You get the picture (AK-47 questions.)

Now Caleb is my teacher.  It is his natural gifting, so he chimes in to agree this is a good idea and he will demonstrate.  I decided I , too, would demonstrate the lost art of skipping. The very, very  lost art of skipping.

Kid’s skip. Women don’t skip.  Men don’t skip!  If they did we would probably be calling the Hospital.  Kids are the ones who ought to be skipping.  With video games and TV, I am not  sure kids even skip… well especially boys.  But for that one brief moment we  SKIPPED.  We laughed, we teased, we joked and I remembered what it was like to be a child again in the woods and to just simply BE.  It was a brief moment in time where we just skipped!  I have to admit I was a pretty good Skipper!

The trials of life will surely come and they are usually right around the wooded bend in the road, often when we least expect them.  Our trial came in the dark, just one week later when one of the Sons of Thunder, Seth, became so sick he had to be hospitalized and have surgery.  We faced death that night, but we were ready and equipped with God’s word and a multitude of believers standing in agreement for his healing!  A small town rallied around with prayers , gifts and endless support. Prayers poured in from all over the country for our sweet son and for our whole family.   Seth has returned home from the hospital and we rejoice in his healing and health.

Yes, the trials will come, but we must not forget how to embrace our child-like faith and believe in the impossible and in miracles!  We must also remember to keep our child-like imagination and to laugh much.  We must also remember to never give up on the dream God has placed in our hearts.  Sometimes we have to take leaps of faith .  And sometimes maybe even skip!

Be blessed and and encouraged abundantly today