THANKS-GIVING.....

What a wonderful word and a great thought…thanksgiving. But I wonder how much of “that” is really going on.... Yes I’m up early, while checking e-mails, I heard thanks-giving…and the Lord began to speak….and I listened.

It has been a busy and exciting week. Loria (youngest daughter), and her two girls Kenna Boo, and Karris have been here since Sunday morn. All the way from Nashville, Tennessee…..Theresa, husband Eric and their two girls, Treasure and Cherish-Faye, got in about midnight. A festive time indeed!!! Kameki’s family lives here and will be over shortly…..All the children here except Little John and family in Maryland….he may show up…..

It has been a week of giving…Karris is about 21/2 and very smart and eventful, we’ve given some instructions…Kenna Boo is beginning teenage years and is very mannerly still, but needs prompting here and there. Last night we had a good time cooking together, she kept saying, “Grandma anything else I can do”?, GOTTA LOVE THAT!!!

David and Samuel are very conscious of what all has to be done when a house full of family shows. Sam is a good shopper and helped pay for “special” stuff we needed for the house, asking “don’t we need this, don’t we need that”.? Thanks-giving. He is so sharing and still has a nice “nest egg”, from his days of working at ITT, always willing to share. David is the "best all around" handyman, can fix and critique about anything!! I'm always calling LORENZO (his middle name). Thanks-giving. And of course there is my love and best friend on earth, John Torrence, my husband of 23 years, he did something so special, I can’t talk about it now, it was more than I deserved…Thanks-giving.

The giving of the self to me is the greatest giving. Things are ok, and good and needful... but give me you, I give you me. For God so loved the world that he gave Himself in the form of His loving Son Jesus, THANKS-GIVING……..
Happy Thanks-Giving to all…
Torrence

WITH OPEN EYES..........

So much stuff I hadn’t noticed before……Its interesting how we can go somewhere and never notice the view. I was taken back today as I journeyed to my voice class. I guess the third time was the charm…But then I thought, the other two times, I was just trying to get to Marie Street, without getting lost!! But since I now know the way, I can look around and SEE some of the markers, I never noticed before.

There is the Malabar Park on the left, very nice and a great park, tennis courts, volley ball, tables and grilling areas, walking paths, a great park. It was there all the time, but I was looking straight ahead….And there is the Post Office, there, never seen it before…. And the Berry Patch, a very nice facility for pre-schoolers. The Seed and Feed store that reminded me of my parents store, so many years ago. And there was the Produce store, closer than the one on US 1 that I frequent. I had seen the Palm Bay Community Hospital, but there is an Assisted Living right next to it, oh my... so much in that area.

I got to thinking, how much have I missed in life, by just looking one way, failing to look around and really SEE whats around me, other people, their views, their struggles, their differences yet their familiarities. It made me come home and write…….

I learned something today, slow down and swell the roses….or at least look around, there maybe something worth taking a second look, right at your door or in your back yard. I thought, right around me on Malabar Road so many things I had never noticed….Careful there is a lesson in this….

Blessings
Torrence

A CALL FROM AFAR.......STILL FRIENDS

On this day, the 18th of November, I received a call from a friend, from long ago. I still can’t believe I have just talked to Terry Baker, my childhood friend of some 40 years ago. We talked and laughed and reminisced for over two hours, until she had to go to the bathroom, and I needed to make tuna fish salad. Haha!

My friend has lived in Boston since 1968, the year her father and friend of the family, Harry Lee Baker quit his job at Dupont and took off to Boston, Massachuttsets. We all thought it “strange”, and rumors still swirl… Anyway, Terry was gone and I was so sad. I had tried to keep up with her, but with little success through the years.

Terry became a nurse and still practices her profession in a hospital there. Tragedy struck her life in an awful way some five years ago, when her son suffered a brutal and senseless death in the city. I sent her a card, and lifted her in prayer, but no respond. When my sister and mother died last year, she had contacted the family, and the family gave me the message, but still no Terry. But today….

How she found me? By chance my sister Kaye was visiting Mr. Harry Lee in the hospital, when Terry called from Boston to check on him. She got my phone number from her, and called. What prompted this call after so many years, I don't really know. But I'm thankful and happy. There have been other opportunities in the past, but thankful to get the call today. I tend to over think things, another thing I'm "working on". I am a work in progress.........

It was as though we had never been apart, so much to talk and laugh about, and so much sadness also, the death of her mother in 1989, the lost of three of her brothers, and a son brutally taken in the prime of life.

She talked fondly of my now deceased parents, and the Sunday School beach trips, and the Christmas and Easter plays, and not to mention Mother and Father Day plays, and of course the Children Day productions....….

God willing, we plan to attend the Woodington High School's Reunion in September 2009. I do hope to see her again…..after so long a time….friends from afar….
Blessings
Torrence

FORGIVE, AND PRAY ON........

Praise is always in order, we live to praise God, for this is our life and strength. Praise is what we do, everyday, regardless of situations and circumstances and difficulties, and good times and bad; our job is the same….WE PRAISE GOD!

There was a lady at the prayer service last night, who was somewhat sad because she has been looking for work with no success (YET). We took her case to God and we’re waiting for some news; even now. One of the sisters said that when we pray…“believe from the bottom of our hearts that God will help us”. This is my husbands SOAPBOX, (one of them), he’s always saying, believe what you pray and go on. Not so much the “praying, but the “believing”.

Jesus said in Mark 11:24, “ Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them,” Jesus goes on to say in verse 25, “And when ye stand praying, forgive, if ye have ought against any: that your Father also which is in heaven may forgive your trespasses”. 26.) “But if ye do not forgive, neither will your Father which is in heaven forgive your trespasses.”

Interesting how all of this goes together almost as ONE MAN. The formula is wonderful, pray, believe, receive, and be sure you have forgiven all…

There will be those times when God will not move in the way of our desire, but I believe He will let us know this, as we are “sensitive” to His voice.
Sis. Taylor was uplifted as we praised God and separated to our different homes. We praise our God, pray believing, and forgive so that God will hear us and be pleased……

Blessings
Torrence

FOREMOST AVENUE.......

An interesting name I guess, but very fitting I thought as I arrived there walking well and happily for the first time last week. Florida is beautiful and the weather now is well, ‘WALKABLE”. Of course the “locals” walk regardless of the temperature…Really…. it’s a sight to see, but this is Florida.

My goal is to reach Jupiter Street, and I’m getting there. But there are a few little steps first. I started counting off the streets last week, from Bougainvillea, to Americana, then Melitas, Mable St., Napple and finally Foremost. I kept thinking Jupiter Street is moving…but I could see the red stop sign, and the cars going back and forward, so I felt I can make it..maybe next week!LOL.

Walking in Palm Bay is great, the city is layed out with thoughtfulness and common sense. There are wide walking paths away from the sidewalks and traffic, you really feel safe and car fumes free. All the major thoroughfares, like Jupiter, Americana, Minton, New Haven, and Malabar etc. have these trails where you can walk, run or bike without fear of being hit by the traffic, love it!

Upon getting to Napple St. for the first time, I thought, that’s enough, far enough;(gotta walk home you know). The voice of reason, took a back seat to, NO! GO ONE MORE STREET….I did, when I saw the name of it, I cracked up, Foremost Avenue………

I needed to push myself to that street, it was therapeutic for me, go on to the Foremost, go beyond what you think you can accomplish, go beyond your own expectation of yourself, go on……….haha

I have to “go on” and fix supper, and get to prayer service tonight.
Foremost Blessings to all…
Torrence

A PRAYER FOR MR. PRESIDENT.......

President Bush must be the loneliest person on earth!!!! And also one of the most heart broken. I have lived long enough to know about the cruelty of mankind, and you can really see it in the way America is treating her president, her lame duck president. His own “conservative” party is treating him like a dog, talking about him, blaming all their problems on him, kicking him when he’s down. The election is over, the world will go on, but President Bush is a person who needs love and respect like anyone else.

Its interesting how his own party is still “sticking it to him”, saying all kinds of things, yet they say the Democrats are the problem….What problem? It is true that things have gotten horribly out of sink under his watch, and the deficet is at an all time high, and the wars, and rumors of wars, and the domestic front is terrible, and the housing mess, and the wall street debacle, and no healthcare, or caring, and the energy mess, and the economy in general, and AIG gets more money!!,and now GM wants some welfare, and on and on. Did not the GOP see it coming, who’s in charge here…....But is it all his fault, does he take ALL the blame...don't think so!

But for Mr. Bush’s own party to come out and beat him to death is to me …DEPLORABLE. I read what Sarah Palin said, blaming "the administration", for their loss to Obama...Oh really???? I pray for the presidents,(and always have), as the Bible teaches us to do in 1 Timothy 2:1-4 I EXHORT THEREFORE, THAT, FIRST OF ALL, SUPPLICATIONS, PRAYERS, INTERCESSIONS, AND GIVING OF THANKS, BE MADE FOR ALL MEN;2) FOR KINGS, AND FOR ALL THAT ARE IN AUTHORITY; THAT WE MAY LEAD A QUIET AND PEACEABLE LIFE IN ALL GODLINESS AND HONESTY. 3) FOR THIS IS GOOD AND ACCEPTABLE IN THE SIGHT OF GOD OUR SAVIOUR; 4.)WHO WILL HAVE ALL MEN TO BE SAVED, AND TO COME UNTO THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE TRUTH. I pray for President Bush, just as I pray for President-elect Obama, for this is pleasing to the Lord……

To be shunned by your own party, how terrible. I see it as history repeating itself, I remember when Mr. Clinton was in his “mess”, Al Gore distanced himself from him, and “Little Al”, lost… even Tennessee... Mr. McCain distanced himself from Mr. Bush, guess what, he lost horribly….Mama use to say, God don’t like ugly..

Wonder why the good religious conservative party,(they call themselves religious) don’t rally around her president and “show him some love……, didn’t he do nothing good and honorable? If not, shouldn’t we love him anyway? President Bush didn't know the things would happen as they did when he came into office. There will be unseen things come up on Obama's watch too. I like to think Mr. Bush did the best he could, I like to think good rather than bad....... Sure glad God and people loved me when I was “unlovable”…and still do. Now we move forward.....real life in progress.

There was a woman on tv last night crying, her job with DHL is gone, I felt for her, I was touched as if I knew her. I feel this way about President Bush. I've always liked the fellow, though he made some wrong turns, well who hasn't, but I have nothing against him.... Jesus said,"He that is without sin, cast the first stone". I've wanted to write about this for awhile now, but the fallout just continues, and I can't help myself...LOL. I hate injustices on any front, are we not all Americans, are we not all people, I think so. I like what Jesus said in Matthew 7:12, "Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets".

No man is an island, the whole world is in turmoil, we don’t know whats in the mind of God, or whats in the future; God holds the destiny of America in His hands (as always).In the world, but not of the world, we march to the beat of a different drummer..... I do know God wants me to do right all the time, and to pray for our leaders, and treat them with respect, regardless of what I personally think about them. The Holy writ says…pray for them,,,so things will go well with you; and because God wants all men to be saved, and to come to the knowledge of the truth! Wow… how wonderful… Remember, God loves all men….Lets pray for President Bush….

Blessings,
Torrence

A BUSY HAPPY DAY...

I really wanted to go shopping…… I like to get all my housework done by Friday, (major stuff), you know cleaning is an everyday EVENT!…I like to kick back on Saturday to prepare for church, and family ministry,(and shopping), but it didn’t happen this week !

So today was EVERYTHING day, I did laundry, (the guys do there’s), cleaned bathrooms, changed linen, mopped, vacuumed, rearranged stuffed, dusted and worked the computer. LOL. I put on several of my favorite cd’s and got to working….boy did I feel good. I thank God I’m feeling really better these days… it may be those ACAI BERRIES.....still was thinking about shopping, but it was raining anyway. Oh well…..later

About 6:00 pm, I was a bit tired and was in no mood to mess up the kitchen with “cooking” supper. We seldom eat out, but what a good night to “goof off”…......

Ready for bed, from my busy good feeling day, glad I’ll get an extra hour to sleep…yeah, fall back….......
Sweet dreams,
Torrence