New Post, New Me, New York

Hello my delectable fan base......of three.

I would sometimes come on here and my heart would go out to Oh, Meadville, and Cleveland, and South Bend and Tallinn and even Wilmington and every other sweet individual who would get a free moment on the computer, come and see me and........"AH still nothing from Deena."

And then I would think of all of the fantastic places to see and things to read, where individuals actually change their template and have their name signed in cursive and even know how to add links and coupons and such, and..... I would think, "It is better for them to have somewhere else to go!" :)

I have never been a "gottablogjustcuzIhavenothingtodo" kind of person. Now I know we live in a day and age when all of a sudden every single SAH Mom thinks she is the next thing to Dickens and is awaiting some magazine to call and either want to star them and their cutesy creations they just "thought up" or of course buy the rights to their photos which they just can.not.live.without. I am not one to feel like I better get with it or life is passing me by. I only get on here when I really want to connect with someone and most importantly brag on the Lord.

Tonight I am reeling from the past two weeks of abundant blessings from the Lord and excited that I can now get back on a blog after a long awaited updating process for the ole' compute.

God is so good. If you doubt that, close this site, get on your knees and thank God for 30 things. By that time you will realize you are blessed beyond reason.

Most of you have traveled with me from Ohio to New York, from two bedrooms to each child having their own bed, from business to a breath of fresh air, from people that I knew and knew me almost inside and out, to new faces needing a faithful friend and a zillion hugs. I still chuckle to think that I am a Pastor's wife. It makes me laugh out loud. Yep, right out loud. It reminds me that God has a sense of humor and of why He gave an overabundance of humor to me.

Have done some growing up these last few months here. And whenever you have growing you have the pains of getting out of the normal and into the new normal. One of my children whom will remain nameless unless I am bribed said to me the other day, "Mom, I think I have growing pains in my mouth, my jaw hurts." If I wasn't so quickly reminded of my own troubles with my own mouth, I would have laughed even harder than I allowed myself to.

One thing I have learned just recently is that God will bless me even when I do not feel like I deserve it. We find ourselves doing it. We act as if God's blessing is determined by our good behavior. Though we know that we know that we know we cannot reach Heaven's gates, gain access to glory by any of our own merit, we still live day by day as if God is waiting for that last good deed spotlessly preformed by us to allow Him to give us good gifts.

Can I get a "Amen?"....



An "Oh me?"


Recently as some of you may know, a man in our church saw fit to bless us in the way of furniture, and lots of it. New, beautiful bedroom furniture , and a couch and chairs for our living room that would even warrant Mary E's approval and liking. Goodness it might even make her covet them. I digress.....

In all of this whirlwind of blessing I really was sent reeling spiritually. I knew I wasn't warranting the bed we were given with the new mattress and box springs and all, but I was thankful....SO thankful. Overwhelmingly thankful.

Then the couch came and chairs and I thought that this man just had to have the wrong couple he wanted to bless...... then the chest of drawers and the mirror..... I almost didn't want to think of my own sinful heart for fear that God would remember and renig on all my beautiful Amish make oak wonderfulness.

Then it was the nightstands. I clapped my hands together as they were carried up stairs, half bewildered into almost craziness and half feeling like the windows of heaven really had opened up and poured us out a blessing.

And then in the stillness when the movers had gone, the kids were somewhere playing and Joel was straightening up God came and met with me.

He reminded me of Darlene Rose. A beautiful missionary bride who lost her husband in a prison camp just a few years after they were married, herself in a terrible camp, half starved, sick and in a cell praying for just one banana.

She reasoned with God as to persactly how He could manage to get her one. Hmmm, through that gate, by the hand of that person, and then she just plum gave up. She told Him, "God, it's okay. I know you cannot get me one and it is alright." and went on her daily grind.

But God was working, smiling at her brilliant plan. He already had a plan of His own choosing. It was from a very unique source and it was not one banana.


It was one hundred.


She should have been excited at the answer to prayer but she wasn't. Not at first anyway. See the goodness of God leads us all to repentance Romans says. She was sorry she doubted and in her pity for herself God came to her and said, "My child, don't you know that I desire to bless you exceeding abundantly above all that you ask or think?"

And she ate and enjoyed her Father's goodness.



Many, many many days I coveted, wished, hoped and it was deferred. So and so had a house, beds, rugs. And then I finally gave it up. "Lord, it's okay. I know that where we are you cannot get these things to us." Oh perhaps not out loud, but in my heart of hearts....you know, that heart that is so deceitful and wicked that we cannot even know it ourselves?

There I doubted him.

And when the movers left and God moved in my heart, His words, His WORD was just the same to me as it was to her in that cell that day.

"My child, don't you know that I desire to bless you exceeding abundantly above all that you could ask or think?"


And as my husband called the Salvation Army to carry our old couch and chairs away, the ones that we stuffed with our old Winter coats so you could sit on them.... I remembered how God is my Father and he wants to bless me and give me good gifts just as I want to bless my own children. I desire it, I love to, long to give them something that will bless them, encourage them, make them happier than they even imagined possible.

That is what God wants to do for you.

For me.

That is what God DID for me, and keeps on doing for me, and it truly is "the Lord's doing" and "marvelous in our eyes."