I am so Thankful today for my husband, Eric, who has always been loving, forgiving, and my best friend.  He is the LOVE OF MY LIFE!!

I am so THANKFUL today for my daughters, Erica and Brittany.  They are wonderful ladies with successful lives that love their family and always try to be helpful to others.  They are the best of the younger generation. Erica is a wonderful mother and care giver to patients in her job. Brittany is artistic and a wonderful coach at Ozark Mt Gymnastics and also in silks.

I am so THANKFUL today for my sons-in-law, Shawn and Derek, they are both serving people in different ways.  Shawn is in the Navy serving our country and Derek is a Music Therapist serving people by helping them through whatever they are dealing with. They are both loving husbands and Shawn is a terrific Dad.

I am so THANKFUL today for my beautiful granddaughter, Alana.  Her excitement for life and all things dramatic brings joy and youthfulness to this mema.  She is a well behaved, respectful young lady.  Her parents are doing very well with her.

I am so THANKFUL for all my family.  We are not perfect but we love each other deeply.  Each one of us has our own personalities, families, joys and sorrows.   I thank God for each one.

A special thankfulness, for Cory Johnson, my nephew.  He suffered a great loss this year in the loss of his beautiful daughter, Persephone.  I am so thankful for his quiet strength in how he handled this dreadful situation.  I have been amazed by his courage in his time of sorrow and although I know it will be with him always, I know that he can and is making a wonderful life for himself.

Happy Birthday to my mom, Carrol Jean Russell Moeller, she is a great woman of God.  I am so proud to be her daughter.  I love you, Mom.

One last word, in this world we live in today, there is a lot of evil around.  However, there is a lot of whining going on also.  Let’s take a reality check and be truthful about what evil is.  As we join with our family today, let’s forget about all the “evil” things our aunt, sister, brother, parents or cousins have done to us.  Most of the time these family feuds are just a waste of the precious time God has given to us.  There are these situations in our big family and I would suggest that everyone examine their “hurt” feelings or if  you are holding things against  people that are your family, I would suggest that you spend time in prayer about it and remove the feelings that are causing you to lose time you can never get back and also look with truthfulness at the reason for the problem.

Evil in our world is real, I pray that God will protect me and my family from the spirits of darkness that dwell in our world today.  Real evil will only bow to the name of Jesus and cannot triumph over good.

That’s it for now, Happy Thanksgiving.  Have a great week and find a way to Take a Stand.

This past weekend Eric and I attended a chapel service at Williams Memorial Chapel on the campus of College of the Ozarks.  We were there to hear our niece, Rebecca Andrhea Stephenson, play with the College of the Ozarks Concert Band to honor the veterans.  It had been between 25 to 30 years since we had attended a service there.  At the time we went Eric was a student and required to attend a certain number of chapel services per semester.  I would occasionally attend with him.

Coming from a Pentecostal background the services, which are very structured, seemed very boring to me.  I remember thinking that it was a waste of time since I was superior to them because we didn’t plan out our services so obviously God was more pleased with our way of serving him. We left it open so the Spirit could move.  There’s nothing wrong with that it’s just I thought  if the service was planned out that God wouldn’t be pleased and wouldn’t ever be present!  Oh the foolishness of youth!

This past Sunday my thoughts were much less judgmental.  The music the band played honored both veterans and God.  The song the choir sang honored God.  The sermon topic was on marriage and how to honor God’s definition of marriage and therefore honored God.  The scriptures read were from the same Bible I have used my whole life to honor God. There was a quiet, reverent moment when the congregation was singing:

I love you, Lord and I lift my voice

to worship you, Oh my soul rejoice,

Take joy my King, in what you hear

Let it be a sweet, sweet sound in your ear

that I could feel God’s approval.  I don’t know what the denomination of Williams Memorial Chapel is, but I know that at that moment in my heart I felt that if we set aside our “superior” ideas, we can honor God wherever we are and that is what matters most.  As long as we are serving the God of the Bible and believe in His Son, Jesus Christ as our path to Salvation, the style of the service doesn’t matter.  It only matters if the substance honors God.

After chapel we had a wonderful brunch at the Keeter Center and then had a Stephenson family photo session.  Here is one of the photos and believe me all the others are even better than this.  It is one of my favorite yearly photo sessions.

Just a word on the Paris Islamic terrorist attacks…..pray for healing for their country.  Pray for our country to be protected from these Islamic extremists.  I encourage you to listen to President Obama’s speech at the G20 Summit.  My impression is that our President seemed weak and insulting.  He has more anger toward Repbulicans and is saying some very undiplomatic things about our country and the Republicans while at the same time trying to appease the terrorists.  I am proud of America, and I know that God blessed us with this country and I pray for an awakening that will remind people that if we turn God away, he will not bless us or our country.  Pray for our leaders, yes, even our President that God will turn his heart toward Him.

As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.  We will be proud of America’s heritage of being a light to the world.  We will TAKE A STAND and call evil for evil.  We will help others in need, while at the same time protecting our country.  We will continue to pray for our country and try to live a life that honors God.

Have a great week and find a way to Take a Stand.

The following pics are of my beautiful Erica.  She and her daughter will be leaving in a few days to join Shawn in Florida.  It is going to be hard for me to see them move, however it is an exciting adventure for their little family and I am praying God’s protection and blessing over them all.

The last picture is of Tamara to replace on I took of her right after she got off work.  LOL.   Love you, Tam.

Thank you to all the veterans who have served this country.  It is easy to say these words without really thinking through what all the sacrifices really are.  You will never know, unless you served or unless you are a member of the family.  I know several men in our family have served and I am so proud of them.  My husband didn’t make the choice to go into the military and has often said that he respects men that have made that choice, to defend the freedoms of Americans.  To protect a country that at times doesn’t honor those who fight whether they agree with the “cause or not”  takes a special kind of person.  It takes someone who wants to SERVE.    The training itself means putting themselves out of the way.  The serving in war takes a special selflessness.  To be willing to give your own life and to watch those buddies and friends fighting beside them be wounded or worse, to give their lives, takes a special kind of selfless servitude.

Please take the time to pray for our veterans that are dealing with scars that we could not understand even if we wanted to.  There are so many hurting men and women and they need our support.  Do something to learn about the disorders and illnesses so that if you come into contact with a veteran who just needs a friend, companionship, a job, or help in any way you can return their selfless servitude.

The top photo is a photo taken at College of the Ozarks at the Viet Nam Memorial.  It is a beautiful memorial and well worth a visit on a campus that values American patriotism and service.

Thank you to Allen Skeen for his service in the Navy during Viet Nam.  He is a quiet hero that doesn’t talk about his experience but he did share a story or two with Brittany for a school paper one year and made a tremendous impression upon all of us.

These photos are of my grandfather Rex Johnson.  He fought in WWII.  He was injured and lost an eye.  He was awarded a purple heart and is a hero.  Once again, he very rarely spoke of his service.  The pictures are Grandad, Granny and my dad, one of Grandad alone, and one of Grandad taken in Fayetteville when he met another veteran and spent time with him.  He admired the other man for his service.

My amazing nephew, Sean Simmons.  He served in Afghanistan and I am so proud of him and am grateful for his selflessness.

His dad Doug served and his Grandpa Simmons also.  It is a part of his DNA to serve.

Thank you also to Adam Jensen, Jake Long, Bob Jordan, and so many others that I can’t even begin to list them all.

NOW A FEW PONDERINGS ON THE PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE:  I thought it was very good.  There was a lot of quality answers and questions.  I think that John Kasich should run on a different ticket.  He is  a little annoying.    I like the Bush family, as a great American family, however I don’t think that Jeb is what or who we need right now.  Rand is a little too libertarian for my taste.  Carly Fiorna is an intelligent candidate with a lot of knowledge, however, she has at times supported some policies when running in California that are a little less than conservative.  Donald Trump is what he is and while I can’t say I support him for president, I do like that he has made the others stop playing the same old political games.  Ben Carson is someone that I have liked for a long time before he was running for president.  I feel like he would seriously work to save America from the social collapse.  Of course, no man can do this, but he could help facilitate it.  I could see Marco Rubio in a presidential role.  Ted Cruz is raring to go… he is smart and unafraid to change the system.  These are just some of the observations.  Now there was an earlier debate with Chris Christie, who was ok, but just tries too hard to be bombastic.  Mike Huckabee was on that one and he is a good man with a lot of good ideas, however, I believe him and Rick Santorum both lost their chance in the last cycle.  Bobby Jindal is a good man with a sincere desire for America to be a great country again but he came on way too strong last night.  I have made no decision on who I think it should be but these are just some observations, if you care to know what I am thinking.

One more topic, MIZZOU and the riotous, bullying, protests.  Thank God we have free speech.  Even if we don’t agree with what these students, who basically bullied until they got two men to resign jobs they had worked at for years, they have the right to protest.  However, they do not have a right to interfere with the livelihood of hardworking Americans just because they cannot handle some language that is harsh or Halloween costumes that might offend them.  I know there will be some who will disagree with me.  These kids want to protest but they want to shut up anyone who doesn’t agree with them.  That’s not how it should work.  We are all free to spout offensive, rude comments if we want.  We shouldn’t and hopefully we don’t want to, however, when you have one group that does and tries to shut down journalists and people with opposite views it breeds anger and hatred on all sides.  I do have one suggestion for these students who are protesting….. CONSIDER SERVING YOUR COUNTRY IN THE MILITARY.  Consider putting your sensitive feelings away and doing something useful for your country.  Consider that your loud and abrasive language is offensive to others.  And lastly, take some real classes, not ones that are studying Lady GaGa and 50 Shades of Grey….like maybe studying in depth the Constitution and Bill of Rights of the United States of America.  Be grateful that you live here and not in a country where your actions could get you locked up or even killed.  Consider a period of time in your life of SELFLESS SERVITUDE.

Thank God for the United States and for our Armed Forces.  I also want to thank my son-in-law Shawn, who is now a Sailor in the United States Navy.  We are proud of your choice to serve.

Have a great week and find a way to TAKE A STAND!!

Thank you so much to John and Judy Goss and also, Christina Evans for the chance to take their photos this past week.  Both photo shoots had a lot of laughs and fun moments.  I am blessed to get to be involved in capturing a moment in time for them.  Thanks Tamara for being my sidekick and assistant on another adventure.

A few days ago, I got to watch my daughter and granddaughter (6 yrs old) run in their first 1 mile run together.  It was fun to see the excitement on my granddaughters face as she accepted her first medal.  It was great to get to be there.

The politics this last week have been very interesting.  Just keep paying attention and praying for God to lead and guide in your decisions.  There’s a lot of incorrect information being put out and it is your responsibility to not spread “rumors”.

Hey, if you see someone being mistreated, stop and take a stand for them.  Give them support and comfort.

Have a good week and find a way to take a stand.