Birthday Fun!

My birthday this week was wonderful! The most exciting part was that my parents took me out to go get my learners driving permit....which I passed!  Exciting it was, yet tense at the same time. Thankfully, I had studied on the Internet for a while the night before plus my super Dad helped me too. 

Taking my test (I am not sure what the phones were for)

The next day Mom and Dad took me to practice driving (Don't worry, we practiced in a huge abandoned parking lot)

The first thing we did that day though, was go to a gun range and shoot my Dads hand guns. The gun range was in a building and because it was so loud we had to wear ear coverings. I felt so bad for the people that worked in the range and couldn't help wondering how bad their hearing was! 

Dad and I smiling (I just made the hit closest to the center)

Me shooting

Dad shooting

Mom shooting

After this we went to get my learners permit which took at least 3 hours. Then we went and got lunch which sort of turned into "lunner" (half lunch, half dinner). While we were eating, our waitress, who was an older Chinese lady, came up to re-fill our drinks. She asked my Mom if she wanted tea and my mom nodded yes then she asked me if I wanted more Dr.. Pepper and I nodded yes, then she asked my Dad something and walked away. We all looked at each other and Dad said "Did she really ask me if I wanted more moonshine?" "That is what it sounded like", Mom said. Then, the lady came back and laughed and said, "I was just joking!" We all laughed! Later, The lady went on to tell us that when she lived in Kentucky they would go fishing and when they were done they would go visit all the old stills. 

After we finished eating we had a few errands to run. Then, right when I thought that all the fun had ended....it started all over again!

 While we were gone the kids had decorated our bedroom and set up a gorgeous tea party. My marvelous Mom surprised me by buying beautiful teacups with saucers and a lovely rack to hang them on! I love them sooo much! While we drank our tea and ate little treats, we told the kids all about our day and got really hyper because of all the sugar we had that day and started acting silly....which was fun.   The girls even made a canopy out of curtains around my bed which was soooo beautiful. 

The table set up nice and fancy

My bed with the canopy (I share the bed with Gabby)

My favorite tea cup

Me holding up some of the treats we got

There was a lot more that happened that day which would take forever to tell so I just named off the highlights of the day. Oh! Something we found out while we were at the gun range......Never try to break into our house while my Mom is home...she has the best shot in the county! :) Of course, we could just use the Southern Home Security System......That will be a post for another day! 

My Sisters Blog is Now Up!!!!

Hi! Today I am excited to announce the "grand opening" of my sister Mikaela's blog,"Seven Crossings"! I have been anxiously waiting to tell you all about it and rather impatiently harassing her to finish it up! Since I have the pleasure of being her sister, I also have the pleasure of overhearing some of her upcoming blog posts, one of which will hopefully be coming out today, about valentines day and its origins. I can't wait to read the finished product! 

We would both be so blessed if you would come by and follow her blog......I have also heard news that she will be having a "blog recommendation" giveaway for every ten followers she gets. :) I know this may sound a little different than regular giveaways, and it is, but I will expound upon what we mean later.

I hope you all have a blessed valentines day....and remember "Gods love is everlasting". 

P.S. I will post some pictures of our valentines day later! 

Abel/Cain Mix Up :(

Good Morning! This morning I am actually not going to be writing a post for Flavors of Favor because I just realized that I made a big mistake on my last post. When I began talking about "Abel" I should have been talking about Cain. :( I get those two soooo confused......I have to remember the saying my little sister says, "Abel was able, Cain couldn't" . I will try to get in there and change the names sometime today. 

Also, I will be doing the Flavors of Favor post every Monday, Wednesday, Friday and maybe Sundays. 

Oh! I believe my blog renovation is pretty much done. Grace, from her lovely blog Blog Designs By Grace, made me this wonderful header, button and signature! If you are in need of a header, Favicon, button, signature or even want her to design your whole blog for you just click on the link and fill in the form on her blog. Her "whole blog design" includes all that I just listed and includes a background and tabs. I also recommend stopping by her main blog, It's My Life and checking out some of the gorgeous giveaways that are going on right now. Thank you Grace!!!

I would love to hear what you all think of my new designs so if you get the chance drop me a comment and tell me what y'all think. 

May Yahweh bless you and keep you,

May Yahweh make his face shine on you and be gracious to you,

May Yahweh lift up his countenance on you and give you peace all the days of your life,

And may Yahweh conform you into the image of Christ.

Numbers 6:24-26

Flavors Of Favor-Day 2

Today's Flavors of Favor post will not be talking about how God gave favor to an individual person but a group of people or more specific, the Hebrew midwives that the Bible tells us about in Exodus chapter 1. This is what the Bible says: "Now a new king arose over Egypt, who did not know Joseph. He said to his people, "Behold, the people of the sons of Israel are more and mightier than we.  "Come, let us deal wisely with them, or else they will multiply and in the event of war, they will also join themselves to those who hate us, and fight against us and depart from the land." Exodus 1:8-10

Pharaohs grand scheme was to make the Israelites their slaves and put them to hard work but something amazing happened. The Bible says that the harder the Egyptians afflicted the Israelites the mightier and more populous the Israelites became! Well Pharaoh saw this and called all the Hebrew midwives together and told them that if a baby boy was born to kill him but if it was a girl it could live. Then the Bible says this, "But the midwives feared God, and did not do as the king of Egypt had commanded them, but let the boys live." Wow! What courage they must have had to be able to defy the Pharaoh like that! And of course the Pharaoh notices this and asks the midwives why they did not obey him. Guess what they do? They lie! Here is what they answered him and said, "Because the Hebrew women are not as the Egyptian women; for they are vigorous and give birth before the midwife can get to them." Now here is a interesting question. Is it OK to lie? One of the seven things that God hates most is a lying tongue. (Proverbs 6:16-17)  Maybe we should see what happens after the midwives lie. This is what it says:

 "So God was good (or gave favor) to the midwives, and the people multiplied, and became very mighty. Because the midwives feared God, He established households for them." God gave favor to the midwives? But they lied! Lets look at why God blessed them because it says why. It says "Because the midwives feared God". The Bible says that the fear of Yahweh is the beginning of knowledge. How did they fear God? Well if they killed the baby boys that would be murder and I am sure they all knew about Cain and what happened to him when he murdered and I am sure none of them wanted to go through what Cain had to go through for the rest of his life. They feared God by realizing that He had the power to do the same to them as He had done to Cain and they decided to follow God and obey Him. 

I think I have come to the conclusion that if someone is harming another person and they must lie in order to save them then God is pleased. But if you lie for your own selfish benefit then God will not be pleased. Since I love reading about WW2 I hear of many instances where people must lie to save other people's lives. In many cases the person is lying to benefit another person and if caught are risking their own lives. It would take me forever to really study this subject deeply but what I have realized by reading this is that there are times when people must lie but I believe it only to be when someone's life is in danger. (When I say someone, I mean a living human being. I notice that many young girl stories like to show that lying, even to your parents, is OK if it is benefiting your "favorite horse"  or animal. I believe that this is a point in the story where the girl should practice some submission towards her parents because her parents are more important than her pet. 1 Peter 2:18) 

So lets take a look at how God showed favor toward the midwives. It says that "He established households for them". Meaning that they were able to have children. Back then most midwives were women who were not able to have children. We see here that God blessed them by letting them be able to have children. And guess what this meant to the Pharaoh? More baby boys to deal with! As before, Pharaoh sees this and appoints his own men to go and kill the baby boys. But this is a story for another time. 

Would you please stop and pray for a minute? Please pray first that God will give us His spirit so that we may be bold and able to stand up for what God tells us. Also pray that we will learn to fear Yahweh. Proverbs 1:7 says, "The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge". Now we do not only fear Him but we also love Him. Same way with our parents. I love my parents soooooo much, yet I also fear them if I do not obey because I know a consequence is coming! :) 

I hope you have enjoyed today's Flavors of Favor post. I am thankful that you have stopped by! I pray that you have learned more about Gods favor through the Hebrew midwives examples. I pray that Gods favor shines down upon you today.

Oh! By the way my new header will be in soon....just incase y'all were wondering if I was just going to leave it like that! :) I can't wait for y'all to see it. It is so pretty! Thank you to Grace who also made my button and my new signature. Thank you also to Storyteller who was so sweet to offer to make me a header as well. Well, that is all the announcements for today. I hope you all have a blessed Sunday! 

Flavors of Favor-Day One

Rise and shine! Today is my first post for Flavors of Favor.....I am so excited!  I hope this time encourages you and me to look at how God showed favor to His people throughout the Bible.  

Today's individual is a man named Simeon. Now, we do not know much about Simeon's life. Actually, all we will ever know about Simeon is summed up in a couple verses in the the gospel of Luke when Mary and Joseph were taking their first born Son Jesus to be dedicated to Yahweh God. Here is what the verses say:

 " And there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon; and this man was righteous and devout, looking for the consolation of Israel; and the Holy Spirit was upon him.  And it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord's Christ. And he came in the Spirit into the temple; and when the parents brought in the child Jesus, to carry out for Him the custom of the Law, then he took Him into his arms, and blessed God, and said, "Now Lord, You are releasing Your bond-servant to depart in peace, According to Your word;  For my eyes have seen Your salvation,  Which You have prepared in the presence of all peoples,  A LIGHT OF REVELATION TO THE GENTILES, And the glory of Your people Israel."  And His father and mother were amazed at the things which were being said about Him.  And Simeon blessed them and said to Mary His mother, "Behold, this Child is appointed for the fall and rise of many in Israel, and for a sign to be opposed-- and a sword will pierce even your own soul--to the end that thoughts from many hearts may be revealed." 

 Luke 2:25-35

Another word or synonym for favor is gift. Do you think that Simeon was happy to get to see Jesus? Wouldn't you have liked to be the one to see the very person who would one day die for you to set you free and give you eternal life? I know I would, and that if God had told me that I would get to see Jesus I would be soooo excited! Do you think that God gave Simeon a gift or "favor"? I believe so. Just imagine Simeon's joy in getting to see the One who would one day set his people free!

If you are reading this post I would like to ask you to stop and pray for a minute. The Bible says,"The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much."   James 5:16 

God will hear you if you come to Him and ask of His will. One way that we know we are praying His will is if He tells us in His Word to pray for it. " Pray for the peace of Jerusalem. May they prosper who love you.  May peace be within your walls, And prosperity within your palaces.  For the sake of my brothers and my friends, I will now say, May peace be within you. For the sake of the house of the LORD our God, I will seek your good."  Psalms 122:6-9

Today I am going to ask you to pray for the peace of Jerusalem or all Israel for that matter.  I am going to ask you to pray that God will bring healing to their land, bring healing to their hearts and help them to understand and follow Jesus Christ and our Abba Father. Will you join me in praying for His chosen  people and God's chosen city? 

Thank you so much for joining me today at the Proclaiming Grace Cafe! I hope you have enjoyed your time here and I hope you will come back. If you have any questions or comments I would love to hear from you! May God show His favor to you today. 

In Christ,

Evangela Grace

Flavors Of Favor- New Morning Posts

Grace- acceptance, benefit, favor, gift, joy, pleasure, thanks

When my Mom asked me what grace was the other day I was surprised. Not because of what it meant but because I did not know what it meant! When I first thought of grace in a spiritual sense I thought of it as something very deep. Something that you can only thoroughly understand by hours of study on the subject. 

I knew what the characteristic grace was, graceful or showing grace in actions of movement but the other meaning of grace surprised me. Favor. Acceptance. Pleasure. These are a few that stood out to me. My Mom suggested that I try looking for something in scripture every day where someone was shown grace or favor so I thought I would share my finds with you every day. (Though, don't hold me to it. Flexibility is our family's middle name!) At least I should be able to do it a couple days a week if I cannot every day. My Mom came up with the name, Flavors Of Favor. The theme for that time is going to be tea time! (Yum!)  I am hoping that every time I do a Flavors of Favor post to have a different picture of tea cups or something to do with tea. I found tons of wonderful pictures on Pinterest that I cannot wait to use! So, would you like a spot of tea? If so, meet me at the Proclaiming Grace cafe once a day to enjoy a refreshing cup of Gods favor. 

In Christ,

Evangela Grace

By the way, I am working on up-dating my blog so if you have anything you would like me to add or maybe change  I would love to hear from you!  Also, I am just got a new button for my blog. You can see the button by clicking here. I am also working on getting a new header. Both items were made for by a wonderful girl named Grace at her blog, Blog Designs By Grace. All the designs she makes are free of charge and she is so great to work with!  If you are needing blog buttons, headers, signatures and more she would be my first recommendation! 

Thank you Grace!