Today is a day to remember our brave men and women who fight for our country that lost their lives for our freedom and freedoms around the world. May we remember and not forget our brave men and women.

As the month of May quickly passes by, I can only think of how babies grow up so quickly from infancy, to toddlers, to preschoolers,to elementary age, to middle school, to high school and then to graduate.

Class of 2015 I wish you the best in life and my prayer is that you grow in the grace of God and our Lord Jesus Christ as you experience the world of life. Knowing your human, and yet called by the grace of God to be His child. Go into the world be a child of God and not a child of the devil. Knowing this world is a life full of love, hope, joy and hardship. May God bless your future and your life. Make not only your parents proud of you and yourself, but make God proud of you.

Proverbs 3:4-8 KJV (4) So shalt thou find favour and good understanding in the sight of God and man. (5) Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. (6) In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths. (7) Be not wise in thine own eyes: fear the LORD, and depart from evil. (8) It shall be health to thy navel, and marrow to thy bones.

Can you live for Jesus today? It is easy to say the words I will live for you Lord, but to truly mean it and do it, is something else. If you are given a second chance in life how will you use those days? Consider today was your last and the next minute you get to begin anew again. Live it for Jesus. This might be your last chance.

One can either be bitter towards God for the problems one is handed in life, or rely on it has it being solved in God's timing. God's timing is the miracle. Our timing is how can we fix it attitude. Sarah tried to fix Abraham desire of a child by giving him her maid, only to discover that was not God's plan but hers for at ninety she had a child.

Genesis 21:2 KJV
For Sarah conceived, and bare Abraham a son in his old age, at the set time of which God had spoken to him.

The other day as I mailed a letter at the post office waiting for a stamp, I was getting impatient as the elderly explained to the postmaster about how she emailed her friend, but she could not send a package by email. She wanted to send something to her friend she had not seen in a long time. Yet she desired to get this item as fast as she could to her friend. All I could think, was this explanation so important to this elderly woman, that she had to share it with the post office. Small towns are like that, everyone seems to like to share their business. It is called small talk don't you know. Yet it was driving me nuts because I had to get home to go to take a friend to the doctor. By the time the lady was done, I had about fifteen minutes to get home and was twenty minutes away. I was so distressed that without thinking I began to make my own commentary of my plight to the post master of how I was in a hurry. By the time I got out of the post office, i had five minutes to get home, I finally realized I too must be getting old.

Rerun section for Word Press is fixed and soon updates will be up as well. However there maybe some changes there. Take a look and read awhile. Just click the Rerun and Update page for any changes to Reruns and Updates or click here

There is a new Rerun and Update section. Currently there is an update problem on my Word Press Biog for Turtle30cshell Updates and Reruns. Yet updating and archiving is still going on, on the mainsite. Take a look and read awhile. Just click the Rerun and Update or click here

I remember as a child the stories of children being kidnapped, and of course not much details were given to us children, but enough to remind us not to talk to strangers, or to run and get mom or dad if we felt in danger. The stories that plagued our news in Texas of missing children greatly disturbed me as a child. I remember one story of a child crossing guard in Texas being kidnapped. It was not my school but one in the same city of Texas. I did not remember the name of the child, but the image from the news is still etched in my mind, for she was about my age and nothing I could do about it.

The horror stories of child kidnappings plague our world, our nation, our state, county, our city and towns. We can not escape evil people that want to destroy our children.Teaching our children to scream, and to run, is the only thing that might keep them safe from a predator. Yet it not full proof.

Milk boxes, news stories, images at the post office of missing children, along with images on social media, and our local grocery stories, can only tell of children's who lives are being destroyed, that might never get repaired if never found. Today is missing children day. Our nation is searching, and with amber alert, law enforcement and nosey neighbors our world is becoming safer but not full proof to protection against the terror of children being kidnapping and rape. Better to be over protective of our children then under protective.

What does it mean to be Loyal? What does it mean to not betray a friend. Jonathan was faithful to David and closer then a brother despite his father. David was loyal to Jonathan and Saul, even though Saul had tried to kill him. Ruth was loyal to her mother in law and willing went ot a country not her own. Enoch was the first man loyal to God, that God translated him up to heaven. Yet these were all individual relationships, and not Country. Loyalty day is about loyalty to country. Let us look at the price of loyalty.

2 Samuel 11:6-13 KJV
(6) And David sent to Joab, saying, Send me Uriah the Hittite. And Joab sent Uriah to David.
(7) And when Uriah was come unto him, David demanded of him how Joab did, and how the people did, and how the war prospered.
(8) And David said to Uriah, Go down to thy house, and wash thy feet. And Uriah departed out of the king's house, and there followed him a mess of meat from the king.
(9) But Uriah slept at the door of the king's house with all the servants of his lord, and went not down to his house.
(10) And when they had told David, saying, Uriah went not down unto his house, David said unto Uriah, Camest thou not from thy journey? why then didst thou not go down unto thine house?
(11) And Uriah said unto David, The ark, and Israel, and Judah, abide in tents; and my lord Joab, and the servants of my lord, are encamped in the open fields; shall I then go into mine house, to eat and to drink, and to lie with my wife? as thou livest, and as thy soul liveth, I will not do this thing.
(12) And David said to Uriah, Tarry here to day also, and to morrow I will let thee depart. So Uriah abode in Jerusalem that day, and the morrow.
(13) And when David had called him, he did eat and drink before him; and he made him drunk: and at even he went out to lie on his bed with the servants of his lord, but went not down to his house.

Uriah as far as individual may of shown more loyalty not only to his men but his country then King David. Not even going to his own house because the Ark and Israel were in tents and at war, he would not go to his own house tell Israel was at home. His patriotism only caused the king to betray him. So it with loyalty, loyalty to God, loyalty to country and the king to the point he took not care of his own. This loyalty would cost him his life, for King David had impregnated his wife. King David had hope to cover the pregnancy up with returning Uriah to his wife for a short visit home that never took place.

The moral to the story, don't get stuck between the king and his lover even if it is your wife. Uriah probably never knew what hit him, for he was put on the front line. His loyalty would put him right on the frontlines. He would die a hero to Israel and no one would know the crime of David, until the son of Bathesheba was born and later got sick and died. The truth came out before all of Israel, by the prophet Nathan who came as a messenger from God.

This is point, David was loyal king, but even he was just a man. Ones loyalty to one's nation can have its own breaking points. The breaking point is because of one's own sin, or betrayal. I am American, and I am loyal to God and my country, yet my betrayal point is probably when the law betrays me. I am not a person of power but I know the one that has all the power his name is Jesus. My loyalty is to my faith. I stumble and often find myself weak when I should be strong, because learning to trust God is a moment by moment goaled because of my humanity. It took David one night looking out a window to fall, it only takes a person with that right temptation to fall.

If we truly walk by the Spirit of God as a believer,one will not fulfill the flesh, but the humanity say oh no, i fulfill my needs of my flesh. Because of the desires for fun, freedom and mischief making, one never considers that the mischief making is the problem.

Romans 7:22-8:2 KJV
(22) For I delight in the law of God after the inward man:
(23) But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.
(24) O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?
(25) I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.
(1) There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.
(2) For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.

Let us not use the freedom of Christ as a reason to sin, but understand that we all are vulernable to those things that might make us a betrayer to one self and others. May the loyalty to our nation not betray our Lord. Let our loyalty to family and friends not betray our faith. Let our faith not betray another. Let us not be alarmed when we search our soul and find one self to be a betrayer of secrets through gossip, and through protest against those things we feel are not correct in our country, despite our law made by our government. Let the betrayal be for improvement not chaos of war. Let our loyalty be for the betterment of country, humanity and home.

by Christina Farris 5/1/2015

Seldom does anyone in America think about freedom to write or to speak, because it is a liberty we hold dear. Yet it not always so simple, for men and women, who risk there life in war and places were freedom is not like our to bring the News.

Sunday May 3 is National Freedom of the Press Day. Pick up the Sunday paper and thank the good Lord above of the freedoms we have that can be a curse if you are on the wrong side of the story.