A collection of my many interests: rubber stamping, health and nutrition, all things Market America, my spiritual journey, and the mishaps and quirks of my everyday life.

Thursday, May 20, 2010

What God has done for us.

I want to share with everyone what God has been doing in my life, and the truth that He has been showing me. I have been reading a book by Andrew Farley, The Naked Gospel,  that is the clearest, simplest presentation of truth that I think I have ever seen. God had been showing me the truths in this book for a long time, and He has used it to nail everything down.
   On Tuesday of last week I saw a commercial for Oprah, and I knew that I had to see that program. I forgot about it and missed almost the whole show, but I did get to see the last 15 minutes, and as soon as it was over I called Barnes & Noble and reserved the book that they had discussed on the show. It was Women, Food, and God by Geneen Roth, and I could see that I really, really needed this book. I finished reading Farley's book on Friday, and Saturday I got the Roth book. At the end of The Naked Gospel he says to just be yourself, and I wondered, who in the world is that? When I began reading Women, Food, and God He began showing me who I am. It took at least one-and-a-half hours to get through the Prologue and first 2 pages of the first chapter, because I was constantly stopping, thinking, talking to God, and writing, and I want to share the insights that God gave me.
   Over the last few weeks, God has been nailing down the truth that the old man is dead and the new man, created perfect by God, is who I am now. As I read I realized that when we are born a bar is set for us by our parents, then teachers, and then the church. That bar is expectations, perfection, etc., and we spend our lives jumping, trying to reach that bar. Most of the pain I had experienced over the years, and there was a lot of pain, was from killing myself trying to reach that bar. Then I saw that it was like a dog in front of a refrigerator, and on top of that refrigerator is something that he desperately wants. So he jumps, and jumps, and jumps, and jumps, and will go on jumping for a long time to get it, but he can jump forever and never, ever reach it because it is impossinble for his little legs to propel him that far. He will never reach it, but he keeps jumping. Then I saw God reach out and take that thing off the refrigerator, come to me with it, and say,"Sit down. Rest. Stop jumping. I already did it for you. Here, take it, rest in what I have done. I made you whole, perfect. I did away with the bar. Quit jumping." What a wonderful, beautiful God we have! He does it all, and He wants us to rest in Him, not kill ourselves trying to do what He has already done. So now I can look you in the eye and say something that to most people is quite heretical: I am not broken. I am perfect. Walking in the Spirit is walking in truth, and this is the truth that I intend to walk in, leaving behind the guilt and shame of never being good enough, being broken and never able to fix myself. Give it up, people, God has already done it!
Blessings,
Janis
PS: If you read these books, please read The Naked Gospel first. Roth does not seem to be a Christian, and the truth in the Farley book is foundational to what she has to say.

Friday, May 7, 2010

My Suze Weinberg Wannabe Post

   One of my favorite blogs is Suze Weinberg's. She is an artist who lives in New Jersey, and she leads one of the most interesting lives I have ever seen. She is always going out with friends, riding with her motorcycle friends, going into New York City for shows, etc., and she takes tons of pictures. I would love to share everything with others the way she does, so I have started taking my camera with me everywhere. Sometimes I actually remember that I have it and take pictures! I ate lunch with Jim and Cynthia Stephens the last Sunday that I was in town, and I took a picture of them to make up for the day that I wanted to take a picture of everyone and the darn camera wouldn't work. (So who knew that the diagram for the batteries meant that the batteries should go in upside down from what it said? Stupid camera!) Anyway, here's their picture. I love these people!
   Last weekend was the big Morris fishin' weekend. The men went somewhere near Brunswick, Ga. to fish, and the women had a big award dinner. It was the GOLL awards: Girls of Linnie's Legacy. Linnie Morris was my mother-in-law, and she had 7 children, 3 boys and 4 girls. Each woman and child received an award, and I wish we had a video of this because it was great fun, and really funny. I won't go through all the awards, but I received the "Married to a Morris the Longest" award, Beth's was a Spirit award, and Daphene's was "Best Use of Facebook". We dressed up in prom dresses, formals, and  extra fancy dresses, did our makeup for hours, painted nails, did hair, etc., etc .. It reminded me of a commercial that was on years ago: a dog was making a sandwich and he had lettuce, tomatoes, bread, meat, and a lot of other stuff flying up in the air he was going at it so hard. I expected to see lipstick, powder, brushes, nail polish, etc. go flying any time. But we finally got all put together and went over to my sister-in-law, Janice's house for pictures, then on to the country club in Alma for the dinner. Ok, side note here:  When I married Andy, we couldn't wait for Janice to get married so there would be some way to distinguish the two of us. Wouldn't you know, she married a Morris. So I am Janis Morris, and she is Janice Morris Morris.
   Without further ado, here are the pictures of the GOLL Awards Dinner. I'm starting with the preparations that afternoon (before pictures). This is my sister-in-law Sue and her daughter Cathy.
 Our newest member of the family, Tammy, who received her official Morris  adoption papers at the dinner, is working with Sue's granddaughter Sammie, while Beth is looking on.



Remember Sue? This is the after. Ain't she purty? Love the earrings!


My beautiful daughter Beth and daughter-in-law Daphene. Beth has had this dress for years; it still had the tag on it, and she was thrilled to finally get to wear it. We had to show their gorgeous gams, as Andy would say.
Hey, that's worth a second look!
You know,when I look in the mirror, this old woman is NOT what I see! From looking at all these pictures, I think it is evident that I need to learn a whole lot more about makeup. Market America has a line of cosmetics called Motives, and they have just come out with a set of DVD's on applying makeup. That is a set of DVD's that I have to have! If I improve, I will post an after pic. Pray for me!

   The eye makeup was pretty nice, but you can't see it in the picture. I even had silver glitter on my eyelids. There is a funny story about that ...I'll save that for another day.
   Now we are at the dinner. Other people got much better pictures than these; as you know, I am a dismal photographer! I won't comment on the pictures except to say, look for the  children as they choo-choo around the room in perfect stair-step order.

   Well, I will comment on this one. The two girls on the left are my grandnieces Sarah and Ashleigh (sorry if I spelled your names wrong, girls!) These dresses were spectacular!
   Remember the choo-choo?
 

   Now the next two are a riot! Someone said to look at Amelia posing, and I turned around and saw Cara taking a picture of her. I couldn't get my camera fast enough! These are my two wonderful, amazing, never-a-dull-moment grandkids:                                                                                                              
  
I think I'll call this "Miss May".

What beautiful grandnieces and grandkids! (Ok, so I said I wouldn't comment. So sue me!)
  This one includes the token male!
   Janice presided over the festivities. They played a song that was appropriate for each recipient, and Janice gave a speech about each one. It was so funny! I wish I could remember everything. Sue got the Fashionista award, and when Janice said that the award was going to someone with 35 pairs of slacks, I knew it was Sue. I was staying at her house, and I had just thought to myself the day before:"She has the most clothes of anyone I ever saw!" She has a whole room for a closet, and clothes in every other closet and the laundry room. What fun!

Aren't the grands grand?
This is the next day, with yesterday's hair and makeup. It is pretty strange to see someone with messy hair, casual clothes, day-old makeup, and glitter on her eyelids!
The men have returned from the big fishin' weekend! Too bad I don't have pictures of all of them.
      
Well, that wraps it up. When I got back to SC, I spent 2 days on the couch, but it was worth it. I had the best time! The Morris women are a wonderful bunch, and so much fun to be around. Can't wait to see what we do next year!
   Oh, and on Sunday, Amelia threw the cat in the pool. What a riot!
 Blessings,
Janis