The New Year

Resolutions...do you make them? I used to but stopped years ago when I figured out that it was a waste of my time. I never, or hardly ever, followed up on them. Examples: 1. Stop smoking (nope, not yet) 2. Watch my weight..ok, I'm doing that one, watching it creep slowly upward. 3. Exercise more..yeah, right! Just a few examples and the list went on and on. As this new year approaches, I am going to make one resolution and really try to stick to it. MAKE TIME DAILY ALONE WITH GOD.

Now, I know He is always with me, we have an open line of communication. Really, I talk to him several times a day. Here's the scenario: I get up,I make coffee, take coffee to "my room", turn TV on to Headline News to see what's happening in the world..then my conversation with God begins, often going something like this: "God, what is this world coming to?" ..."Thank you, God, that I don't live there."; "Bless those poor people, God, they must be devastated." And through out the day it goes; "God, my back and shoulder are really hurting." "Lord, please be with the kids today and keep them safe." And He hears all these comments, even though most of them aren't said aloud. They are said from my heart and He knows my heart.

However, I really think He'd like it if I devoted some "alone" time with Him daily,(without the TV in the background, or without me doing daily chores.) Time when I just sit, read some scripture and reflect on it. Listen to Him with my heart, cause that's how He speaks to us you know. Oh, I read my Bible, but I must admit sometimes I do it more out of a sense of obligation and that's definitely not how it should be. So my resolution is to try my very hardest to be how He wants me to be, closer.

The title of this blog is Just A Closer Walk...He's waiting for me to take that first step every day. That's how my "closer walk" will take place. He gives us free will, to walk or stay put...I want to walk, how about you?

I pray you are blessed.
Jude

THE REASON FOR THE SEASON

Wishing you all a very Merry CHRISTmas.

I Pray You Will Be Blessed

PLEASE REMEMBER TO TURN OFF MY PLAYLIST AT THE BOTTOM OF THE PAGE,then sit back, relax, and be blessed. Sheri Easter is my favorite gospel singer and she does such a beautiful job on this song. I know, we all feel like there are times when we need God to send his angels. I pray you'll be blessed.
Love, hugs and prayers,
Jude

Faith

This is one of my favorite quotes. It is on a page of a perpetual desk calendar that my mom sent to me when I had my heart attack in 1997. I still keep that calendar on my desk.

The pictures are of the church that I grew up in. The first picture is the way the church looks now. The second picture is my cousin, Dixie, and me. (no, we did not wear shorts to church, lol) The picture was taken one summer day when we were with our aunt just driving around. Dixie and I were very close growing up, as close as sisters. I think God knew that my real little sister and I would not be able to grow up together so he placed Dixie,(who was also adopted) and me together. My dear cousin was taken to her Heavenly home earlier this year. I miss her, but I know we will be together again some sweet day.

Church played such an important part in our lives. As I said, we grew up there. All our cousins, aunts, uncles and other relatives went to this church. We were there for every service, unless you were really really sick, you better be ready for church. Some really wonderful childhood memories come from this church; Bible school, Sunday school, Homecoming dinners, Baptist Young Peoples meetings, revivals. It was in this church that I learned of God's loving grace, of Jesus' love for all of us. Here, on a Saturday night, during revival, when I was 13 years old, I prayed at the alter and accepted Jesus as my saviour. Has my life been perfect since that time? No, of course not. Life will not be perfect on this earth. But, I am promised a perfect eternal life in Heaven one day. So no matter what comes my way, between now and my last day of life, I will hold fast to my faith and in the knowledge that God has it all under control.

Kit is "Jesus is our Saviour" by HBFaithInChrist designs.

Great song if you need some inspiration for the day.

I know I have this as the first song on my playlist, but it seems to have a little more effect on me if I watch this video. I love Sherri Easter and she just makes this song touch your heart. Often, if I'm feeling a little down, I watch this and take it to heart. Talk to God..he'll take your pain, trouble or whatever is bothering you. Hope you are blessed by this. Remember to turn off the playlist at the bottom of this page first.
Blessings my friends,
Jude

ACLU: Prayer Held Before Gate City-Sullivan South Football Game Unconstitutional

This is the headline of a local newspaper just a few days ago. It's time to get on my soapbox! The prayer was offered in memory of a Sullivan South football player who died during a game a couple of weeks ago. He was a 6-foot-4, 250-pound defensive linemen who was considered one of the best lineman in the state and was an All-Northeast Tennessee pick. He helped the Rebels win their fourth consecutive Mountain Lakes Conference title.

This prayer was given by a student from the opposing team! What a true show of sportsmanship, not to mention christian love, care and concern for the family, teammates and friends of the player.

The story behind the headlines goes on to say that the ACLU was notified by ONE person. Apparently, if anyone else was offended by this, they at least had the common decency and respect to keep their mouth shut.

As a Christian, I have had it up to my eyeballs with the ACLU lurking around waiting to hear someone say the name God or Jesus in public so they can jump in with both feet. Christians need to take a stand, we are Americans, we have civil liberties also. It's time to stand up. Actually, it's past time. We stood idly by and watched as prayer was taken out of our schools. As a child, I remember when the Children's Bible Ministry visited all schools in our area, once a month. We looked forward to it. I think it made us better adults and parents. It instilled family and moral values in us. Each school day was started by the Pledge of Allegiance (including the words 'one nation, under God'), the Lord's Prayer, and someone was lucky enough to get to read their favorite Bible verse.

Big trouble at school, back then, was when you didn't finish your homework, you were caught chewing gum in class or passing notes to your friends, and the biggest one of all..cheating on a test. Those were the "good ole days".

Now, when you send a child to school, you just pray that they get there and back safely. I wonder where the ACLU was during the Columbine shootings, and all the other school tragedies. Is it them who are trying to make sure our schools are safe? Where are they when gangs are taking over neighborhoods, innocent people losing their lives from gangs fighting over 'territory' that doesn't even belong to them?

I suppose I've said enough for one night..oh, believe me, I could go on and on! I'll just close with this plea...don't let some group or even our own government, lead you in the wrong direction. I know, in the end, Christians will be persecuted, (we are now) but, it will get worse. I'm prepared for that, because I know where I'm going when my time here is over. And whether you are a born again Christian or not, I'll be praying for you. If anyone is offended by my little soapbox rant... I do not apologize, I can't. I must stand up for what I believe in.
Blessings,
Jude (Miss Scarlett)

My All Time Favorite Hymn

Remember to turn off my playlist at the bottom of this page.

I love this song, always have. I wake up daily with the intention of walking closer to Him, once in a great while I succeed. Most days I fail miserably. Daily "stuff" often gets in my path and in my effort to kick it out of the way, I usually manage to kick it into something else that proceeds to fall on my path, most times that something is stuck to something else and before I know it, I've wasted the entire day just kicking things out of the way to be able to "walk closer". Am I making sense here? Surely, I'm not the only one who does this. What I should do is ask God to take these stumbling blocks out of my path. Oh, I pray every morning, usually asking God to watch over my family and keep them safe. I ask for forgiveness, thank Him for my many blessings and ask Him to bless those who are less fortunate. But at some point during my day, I miss the opportunity to do more to walk closer. Kinda like with this blog, I know there aren't many people who see it, still, I don't know who may stumble upon it. I started it with the intention of "walking closer", maybe just planting a seed so someone would be blessed. Then, I get started on something else and just like now, I see it's been a couple of weeks since I've posted here. But, you know the wonderful thing is...at the end of the day...God knows I'm still only human and He loves me anyway!Just like when our children get a little off track every now and then...we still love them dearly and we gently try to guide them back on track. We never give up on them and best of all...God never gives up on us!

Be Blessed

Gary and I are so blessed and our hearts are so touched by this song, that I wanted to share it with you all. You will need to go to the bottom of the page and turn off my playlist first. Then just listen to the words of this song and the beautiful voice of Gordon Mote. I pray you are as blessed by it as we are.

Love hugs and prayers,

Jude

Sit a spell, and be comforted

One of my favorite verses, Mark 4:39, and one of my favorite places, Watauga Lake so close to our home. The verse contains the words "Peace, Be Still" and at church we sing the song

with that title: "He says peace, peace be still, lifts His hands, peace be still; like a child my heart obeys Him, when He says, Peace, Be Still." It's such a comforting song and a comforting feeling to know that no matter what we are facing, God has it all under control.

I pray you are blessed with the knowledge that, even if it doesn't appear so in our human minds,..all is well as long as we believe and let Him take control.

My Beautiful TN Mountains

I am so abundantly blessed. I have a loving family, friends that I cherish, a sister who is so close in heart that we could be twins, the promise of eternal life when my life here is over, in the meantime God provides my every need and gives me this beautiful view to enjoy daily. Yes, I consider myself truly blessed.

Kit is Angelscrapper's new "Fall Splendor". The frame, I've had for sometime now and don't recall where I found it.

Old Post/New Post

This is an older post that I have re-done. It goes with the Never Forget page on my Veranda blog. But just in case you missed it there, I wanted to put it here also. I did the journaling for a challenge a few years ago..the challenge was based on George Ella Lyon's poem titled "Where I'm From". You were challenged to scrap a page about where you were from without using pictures. This is my version and I must admit, I'm quite happy with it. I hope you enjoy it also and you may even want to try one of your own.

Note: you may have to click on the page to enlarge it for reading.

Kit is "Magnolia" by Zalinka-Dallien.

Church In The Wildwood

This beautiful little church is located very near the campground we love to go to. It sits so quietly at the end of a wooded lane and is still in use today. I love to visit this little church and it is the focus of several digital scrap pages that I have done.

The kit is again the latest one by my friend Angelscrapper, called "Summer Breeze".
The song is an old favorite by William S. Pitts.

Apple Seeds

This is a page that I did a couple of years ago and came across it while clearing some things from my computer. I don't remember where I found the quote but how profound it is!
Think about it for a minute... my God knows exactly how many apples can come from one seed when planted and it's tree produces.
Thank you for looking in and I hope you received a blessing from my humble attempt.

Imagine

I think this song, by MercyMe, says it all. No other words are needed, except, I pray you are blessed by this.

Storm

This is a view from the "veranda" yesterday afternoon. Big winds, lots and lots of rain. We have so many really big tall trees in our back yard and every time we get a storm like this with high winds, I go to the big picture window in my bedroom which looks out into the back yard and I pray to God to keep the trees tall and strong and firmly rooted. Yesterday when the wind was blowing so hard and there was thunder and lightning, I was standing at my window praying that prayer when Gary came into the room and said "Honey, I don't think you should be standing in front of that window right now." I told him I just finished my prayer and had him come look at the trees closest to the house...Honestly...Not even one leaf was blowing on them...even though all the other trees were swaying and leaves were being blown off.

The trees in the picture are in our front yard. I don't know why but I never worry about them falling. Our neighbors, a few houses away, had a huge tree to fall but it didn't hit their house. Don't even try to tell me that God doesn't hear our humble pleas.

Background is from JaelopDesigns "Praise the Lord". The word art is mine, I've used it before on a storm pic. It is just so comforting to me.

Must Reads

I know some of you may be like my Gary..not much on just sitting down to read a book, but what kind of friend would I be if I didn't let you all know about these two books? No other work of fiction has so touched my heart and soul. In fact while I was reading them, I kind of wished I could be the character in them. (my goodness, what a thought!). Now, before you say "I don't have time to read a book", let me tell you that they are only 100 pages long (OK, the second one "Day With A Perfect Stranger" has 101 pages). I read them in one sitting, passed them on to my sister-in-law, she did the same thing, one sitting.
I called my sister, told her about them and she went straight to Barnes and Nobles as soon as we finished talking.
Here's the 'clincher', Gary, who simply does not understand my love of books and how I can become so engrossed in one, has read BOTH of them today! If you don't want to purchase them, go to your local library and check them out, that's what I did, but now I'm going to buy them just so I'll have them to loan out to family and friends.
Go to Barnes and Nobles or Amazon on the internet and look them up, read the reviews. If you read the books, please let me know what you thought of them. I was truly BLESSED by them and I hope you will be also.


The background I used is by HBFIC "Good Friday" blogtrain.

For Sissy

I did this page for my "little sister" (remember Miss Vidalia?). This is one of her favorite songs and she sent me an e-mail a few days ago asking if I could find it on YouTube and send her the link..(she is just getting started on the computer and needed a few pointers but she is learning very quickly.) Anyway, she loves the song by Ray Boltz but there is a male member of our choir who does an amazing job on this song, but he doesn't do any recordings, says he's only singing for the Lord. Sissy got to hear him sing it at church when she was here last summer and it's become one of her favorite songs.

I hope the page is a blessing for you, Sissy. I am so very proud of you for all you've done, all you're going to do and for being the very best sister ever! I love you more than you will ever know.

Thank you all for looking in and I pray you will be blessed as well. The picture is from the internet, song by Ray Boltz and the cross is from HBC FaithInChrist Scraps "Good Friday" kit.

Praising God

God works in mysterious ways. How many times have we said that, or heard that? I know I have, more times than I can count. But I guess I didn't really think about it as much as I have tonight. (there's a story coming here).
We were just coming out of the choir room tonight and getting ready to sing our first song, when I noticed this young lady come in and sit down in the pew behind Gary (humid day today, so with his emphysema, he didn't feel that he could sing), anyway... she sat down behind him and I saw him turn around and shake her hand and welcome her. Usually, while we sing our first song the congregation mingles and shake hands, and welcome visitors, that sort of thing. Well, this young lady came in all alone, so one of our teenagers went back and asked if she would like to sit with them (our young people like to sit together on the first two or three pews) she said yes and joined them. OK, we finished singing, joined the congregation and our preacher began his sermon. At the end of the sermon, we of course have alter call, if anyone has special prayer requests, feels the Holy Spirit convict their hearts to be saved, or what ever need anyone may have. Well, this young lady came forward to be saved and all of our teenagers gathered around her and prayed with her and the preacher. What a wonderful thing when a young person turns to the Lord!!
OK, here's where I get to the part about God working in mysterious ways. It turns out this young lady is only 18 and she came into our church not knowing anyone who goes there. We all thought she was probably someone's friend, maybe had gone to school with them, maybe a cousin of their's....NOPE, she did not know a single person in our church!!! Now, she is one of us!
Tell me God doesn't work in mysterious ways!

God's Sunshine

Today was such a beautiful day, the sun shining so brightly, a beautiful blue sky with not a cloud in sight. I hope you all enjoy this little prayer and take some time to thank God for His many blessings. I know we all have trials and troubles, but if you take a minute to think about it, I'm sure your blessings will out weigh them.

I came across this "prayer" on a desk calendar that Mom sent me several years ago. It doesn't have an author's name, so I can't give credit for it. The overlay is my very favorite one by our lovely "angelscrapper" (Miss Carol).

Standing Up For What You Believe In

OK...this is really getting to me..this thing about whether or not Miss California gets to keep her crown. So I just gotta put my 2 cents worth in!

This beautiful young lady, standing up for what she believes in, should be admired for what she is doing. She does not believe in same-sex marriage, she is a Christian and publicly states it. We, as Christians, believe that marriage is between a man and a woman. That is God's word, period, no if's, and's, or but's. Now pageant officials are saying that she is representing the state of CA. and by her statement, she is "offending the people of the state she is representing". I say, better to offend them than to offend God. Now it seems that Donald Trump ,who is apparently the "owner" of the Miss USA pageant, (I guess you can buy anything if you have enough money), will make the final decision on whether she keeps her crown or not. Well, Mr. Trump, even if this crown was made of solid gold and encrusted with diamonds, it would be trash compared to the crown this young lady will receive from God for taking a stand as a Christian. We should all think of this, daily. What have I done that would be pleasing to God today?

The following is copied from an associated press release:

The state pageant has been investigating whether she violated her contract by making public appearances with groups opposed to same-sex marriage. Prejean also failed to reveal that she once posed in her underwear.

Ok.. maybe this is true. But I ask, was the picture of her underwear anymore revealing than the so called "swim suits" that the contestants wear? Who, among us, has not made a mistake in our years past? If you haven't, I'd like to shake your hand...cause I've made plenty of mistakes in my past. In fact, as long as I'm living on this earth, I'm sure I'll continue to make mistakes..it's human nature, but by the grace of God, he forgives my mistakes, just as He forgives yours, if you are a child of Him.

It's time that all Christians take a stand. We already are forbidden to pray in school and read the Bible. I remember when I was growing up, our school day did not start until we had the Pledge of Allegiance, someone had the honor of reading a verse or two of scripture and we said the Lord's Prayer. Try doing that in school now...your child will more than likely be sent home, or at least to the principal's office.

This is just me....standing up for what I believe in.

National Day of Prayer

I did this page in remembrance of National Day of Prayer on May 7. Just a reminder that God will hear you wherever you choose to talk to Him. He's always listening, not only to your words, but also to your heart. So I hope that you will find a few moments to spend with Him , not only on National Day of Prayer, but everyday.

The background is from "Life In Blue" by Claire 7799. The poem is by Michael Dubina

I Wonder.....

I was looking through some pictures that I took last year when Gary and I went to Pigeon Forge for our anniversary. We drove through Cades Cove, a place that I dearly love. I love the old cabins, the mills and the old churches and cemeteries. So this morning, as I sat in our beautiful sanctuary, with the numerous chandeliers, stained glass windows, carpet and padded pews, not to mention the central heat and air, I thought about these pics that I had taken of the old churches in Cades Cove. It was pouring rain, when we left to go to church this morning, a little chilly because of the rain, but hey, we had umbrellas and the car was in the carport, nice and dry. I got to thinking about the people who went to these old churches so many years ago. Their cabins many miles from the church, certainly no carpet or padded pews to sit on and I wondered about the weather they endured to be able to go to church and worship the Lord. I'm sure some walked, rode horseback, or open horse drawn buggies. In the winter they had a stove in the sanctuary, in the summer I can see the ladies with their paper fans and all the windows open. Yet, despite these hardships, they were true to their beliefs and church was an important part of their life. It's what kept a lot of them going through the hardships of life back then.

So I wonder....would we do any of this today? Would we be willing to ride in the rain and snow, or the stifling July heat to sit on wooden benches without central heat and air to hear the word of God. I wonder......

The Old Country Church

I love the older hymns. It seems that they just tug at my heartstrings when I hear them, of course, I guess that's what they are suppose to do. Though I don't really have a voice meant for singing, they still let me sing in the church choir (lol). I say that I'm just "makin' my joyful noise unto the Lord". He knows my voice (He's the one who gave it to me) and He knows what's in my heart.
This is a page that I did a couple of years ago and posted on Flair. I don't think I've posted it anywhere else. I hope you get a blessing from it.
The kit is from 2mrssummer'sdesigns.

My Favorite Hymn

I know I've posted this page on my other site, but it is my very favorite hymn and if you have never heard it sung by Anne Murray, you are really missing a blessing. I wanted this to be my first posting on this new blog, in hopes that someone would be inspired by it.

I know a lot of people are put off by these types of sites, but I feel led to do this. Please don't think I'll be doing any "preaching or pushing my beliefs" on anyone. I just simply want to praise the Lord for all the blessings He has bestowed on me and maybe "plant a few seeds" along the way.

The pictrue was found on the internet.