Yesterday was 

Forever Friends...we are a group of ladies who gather together each week for a time of fellowship and food and then a time of sharing prayer requests, needs, and then prayer.  We meet on Monday's at 11 AM at Golden Corral here in Branson.  The group was begun many years ago by my friend, Barbara Fairchild to that women could meet and make friends.  All women are invited to attend.  We do take an offering most weeks so that we can help those in time of need: we have helped with electric, groceries, car repairs, etc.

I have not been able to go very often since we changed the day of the meeting (we used to meet on Tuesday's) but while working on Sunday afternoon I did the stuff that usually bogs me down on Monday mornings so that I could go...I have been missing my FF and connecting with the ladies.  I was glad that I was able to attend.  It was just what I needed ~ to be with other Christian ladies and being encouraged.

If any of you ladies are in the Branson area and would like to attend, just give me a call at the campground, 417.338.1038.  I would be happy to have you come and share in this special time.

As I have shared on here and yesterday at FF that I have been struggling with getting things done, getting myself back on track with exercising and eating right.  And was encouraged with words and hugs.  Well that encouragement continued this morning as I rolled out of bed at 5:51...the alarm had gone off at 5:45...I heard someone say..."you can do it" and so I made my way to the bike...oh how my legs were hurting and it would have been so easy to just give up and crawl back into bed...but I didn't...I told myself

and I did...I did 30 minutes on the bike...5.91 miles and burned 307 calories...better than yesterday ~ that is a good thing right?  I also drank my first of 3 bottles of water for the day.

After exercising I gathered my Bible, devotional book and journal...glanced outside at the beautiful sunrise and made my way to the sunroom...it is so peaceful in there and I am so thankful for the peaceful setting to study God's word, learn and reflect.

Something I struggle with is falling back into old habits/thinking patterns and over the past couple of days I have found myself asking "why is it so much easier to do the things that I don't want to do?  why is it so much easier to be the victim and not the conqueror?  why do I let the old negative tapes rewind and play over and over in my mind?"  and so this morning I asked the Lord to help me and was reminded of 

and was reminded that

Christ loves me, there is no doubt about it...HE Love Me!!!  I am his daughter, I am the daughter of the King.  Yes I have been hurt in some horrible ways BUT I have been healed in my heart.  And even though I have been healed it does not mean I won't forget what has happened to me...BUT I can take the love that others have shown me, given me and SHARE that love with others...just because I have been hurt in the past doesn't mean I have to live in the hurt today...I can be free of the pain and share my healing with others, to be an encouragement to others.  

Further reading this morning I came across a quote from Lori Swindoll:  Each of us have something broken in our lives: a broken promise, a broken dream, a broken marriage, a broken heart.  And we must each decide how we are going to deal with our own brokenness.

Wow!  Wow! Wow...thank you Lord for showing me that it is okay to be healthy, to be loved and to love others.  And to use the pain from my past to encourage others and to let others know that the past is in the past and it does not define who we are today.    Yesterday Barbara shared from 

(I am reading it right now) and you can check it out here, and the one thing that struck me was "I am not the abuse of my past" and Jesus confirmed with me this morning that I am not my past...yes I am who I am due to my past but my past does not define me.

As I was getting ready to end this post I was reminded of something that I talked with Marla & Charles about often...how my life is like a spiral graph

we start life in the center of the circle and as we go through life and move through the circle we may come to the same situation or a memory come back up but how I dealt with it the first time is different then the second time, the third time...and that is where I am today...for who knows why, lots of the issues of the abuse from my past keeps coming to the surface right now but how I deal with it is different from the times before...that is how my healing has been...each time IT comes up I deal with it differently...I no longer let anger control how I deal with things, now I turn to God, asking Him to help me through these rough waters ( or as Charles used to say "get those wild horses back under control")  I respond differently and the hurt and the pain doesn't surround me like it used to.

I don't know if that is making any sense but it does to me.

I would like to ask that as you think of me, say a prayer for me to be open to how God wants to use the pains of my past to bring Glory to His Name!!!