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Friday, April 2, 2010

In Her Easter Bonnet With All the Frills Upon it! FRIDAY FOLLOW!



The promise I made to myself earlier this week with all of you as my witnesses is harder to do than I thought! BUT, I have done it....so far! I decided to use the slogan..."MOVE FIRST....THEN BLOG!" to get back into the routine of exercise that my new Mac sabotaged so well. (Yes, I blame this lovely hunk of technology.) Every day since March 30th I have moved my body in serious workouts before coming to see you all. (Ha! "since the 30th"?...that's what?....FOUR DAYS !) This morning I even took a BEFORE photo of myself, but you will never see it unless there is an amazing AFTER photo to put next to it! :)

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This Sunday is Easter Sunday! The photo above shows you my background experience with Easter as a little girl. It was about Jesus & pretty dresses. Because we loved Jesus we dressed up for Him on that special day. Even though I am not the excited one with her arms stretched out all drama-queenish, I loved my new dresses, shiny shoes and especially the WHITE GLOVES made of lace!

I still love Jesus very much & I'm looking forward to our Easter service in two days, but the fancy dresses are a thing of the past. I probably won't wear my usual jeans that I wear on most Sundays to service, but new clothes are no longer a part of the day for me. I helped stuff Easter eggs this week for the kids ministry egg hunt & I love seeing the little ones all dressed up special.......but my focus is completely different than it used to be on this celebrated day each Spring.

The best part of the holiday for me are the words, "It is finished." When Jesus uttered those famous words on the cross, He was not talking about His life being finished or even that His time of suffering on the cross being finished.

The thing that is........ done with..... over........ finished.......... is our need to run to Him for forgiveness every time we blow it. He was talking about the price for our sins being paid for. We ARE forgiven, not just at that moment but forever. PAID IN FULL. I am forgiven of my past mess ups, my current mess ups and my future mess ups. What? That just sounds too good, how can that be true?

The word "sin" has come to include a lot of things that are truthfully not sinful. A bad thought is not a sin. A drink of alcohol is not a sin. Smoking is not a sin. Staying home on Sunday morning is not a sin. Going to a bar is not a sin. (Can you tell what kind of church I was raised in?) Any of these things can become a sinful thing if they begin to control you rather than you controlling them.

The cross and what happened there is huge in that it was the beginning of our freedom. I don't keep running BACK to the cross to get forgiveness, I live FROM the cross in total forgiveness for my mistakes. I can say to Jesus, 'Wow, I messed up there. Thank you so much for forgiving me, it won't happen again." And go on with my day. Just like that! Honest! FREEDOM!!

*** And yes, I have accepted Jesus' forgiveness for letting my mom dress my firstborn son in the Easter outfit you see below! Not so sure that Hubs is forgiving me yet though! Ha!



MckLinky Blog Hop
http://thetrendytreehouse.blogspot.com/

10 comments:

  1. Yes, I love your blog & will definitely be back!

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  2. Hi Brenda!
    No way are you 55!! You don't look a day over 35! Very nice to meet you and looking forward to reading you as well!
    Happy Easter!
    Java

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  3. Hi Brenda!! Following you back!! Thanks for stopping by my blog! I am right there with you because my oldest is getting married 10/16/10!! He is moving away too...but only 1 1/2 hrs. I too don't like those saying about a son is a son till he takes a wife! Who in the world wrote that?? It better not be true...lol...
    I guess we can follow the marriage of our sons together! Nice to meet you and I'm looking forward to our new friendship!
    Java

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  4. Brenda -- I'm with you regardng the move first. I took a yoga class this morning in Cali and boy did it raise some awareness, alright. I'm not MINDFUL of how much my body is like the tinman and needs some oil in the joints, LOL. My balance isn't that bad (from my dance class days) but the limberness is lacking, LOL. Sending cyber support for MOVING first!

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  5. Stopping by from FF & now following you!!!
    http://tatumsreviews.blogspot.com/

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  6. I....LOVE this picture!!! Most of all, I love your wonderful, carefree pose! That is just the sweetest thing I've seen all day! Thank you so much for sharing!

    Happy Easter!!

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  7. It will be an interesting journey for us to see our little boys become married men! Yikes is right!

    I actually do not like coffee! lol...I'm 100% a tea drinker..I just liked the names!!

    Have a good nite!

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  8. Ah! Easter memories and I am so glad that Jesus gave this day to celebrate! Thanks for coming by Not Just Paper and Glue

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  9. Hi there! Stopping in to be your newest follower from Friday Follow! Hope you can swing by mine!
    Happy Easter!

    Bridgette Groschen
    The Groschen Goblins
    www.groschengoblins.com

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  10. It sure is a lot of Love in my family. Thank You.

    I'm your newest follower. Congrats on 101 followers! :)

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Hi Thanks for reading! Please leave a comment even if it has nothing to do with the specific blog, it's great to know that you are writing stuff that real live people actually read, ya know?
Brenda