Blessed

Today I had the privilege to witness the baptism of six children (and became godmother to four of them). It was such a moving experience to watch this - and a reminder to myself that I, too, am one of God's children.

Shortly before the service, we'd been having a discussion with the pastor, and one of the women told him she'd like to be baptized again. He explained that we don't need a second baptism (nor do we do additional baptisms), but I could understand her desire.

A few years ago, while in a deep depression and feeling very alone, I turned to a pastor. Finally, he drug me into the sanctuary, up to the baptismal font. He had me dip my hands in the water, and dipped his own into it and made a cross on my forehead with the water. For the first time possibly ever, I truly felt that I was a blessed child of God. I felt peace. I felt loved.

It wasn't a second baptism, but it was a reminder of who I am. It was a reminder of what I am. And I think this is something we all need from time to time. There are times when I'm depressed that I will dip my hand into water and draw a cross on my forehead myself, just as a physical reminder. There are times I will just stand under the shower and let myself feel the Holy Spirit within the water.

And there are times, like today, when I get the opportunity to be reminded as I watch others be baptized, and can feel God. There is no greater feeling than that of God's grace and love, and the knowledge that I am His beloved child - that I am blessed.

Things that Make Me Go 'What the...?' (pt 2)

Some days...

Have you ever had one of those days where you wake up, and pretty much everything you read gets under your skin? I'm currently having one of those days.

The Blame Game:

It started with reading that Facebook is being forced by users to remove one of their feeling statuses. I can no longer make my status "I am feeling fat" - because apparently this will cause low self-image. "Fat isn't a feeling" is the reasoning behind the removal. Well, anyone who doesn't think we can feel fat has obviously not had one of those yummy delicious meals that we just cannot stop eating, even though we knew 3 plates earlier we were already full.

I also learned today that rock music is to blame for depression, drunkenness, suicide, hopelessness, etc. The only way to avoid those feelings is to change your music to classical or Christian music.

Thou Shalt not Scroll Past God Posts without Liking:

Or how about the ever popular memes" "Sadly, 97% of Facebook users won't repost this. When Jesus died on the cross, He was thinking of you. If you are the 3% who cares, repost and like this. Repost if you love God. He already saw you read it." Because, we all know God gives a damn if we're liking posts about Him on Facebook.

The Biggest Gift of God (huh?):

Another one that just made me want to scream:  "Parents are the biggest gift of God in this world." I won't even get into that one.

Apparently, technology is also a gift from God, but the meme I saw that on said it was second after Life. Glad whoever wrote that one has their priorities straight.

Watching Someone Drown (aka the one that irritated me the most):

"The worst thing is watching someone drown and not being able to convince them that they can be saved if they only looked up. The Savior walks on water."

Ok, I do understand the concept behind this one. But, it's still wrong. We are not supposed to sit there and watch someone drown, all while yelling "Hey! Turn to God! It'll be fine. You'll be ok if you just believe!"  I believe we're to actually be the hand reaching out to them, helping them out. We're to be there with them, loving them, guiding them, showing them, did I mention loving them? We're to jump in after them, hold them close, and stay beside them while they swim to the surface.

Sitting there and watching someone drown does absolutely nothing. Trying to brow-beat them into believing does absolutely nothing.

And thus ends my rant:

I'm sure I could come up with several others, but we'll hold it here for now. By the way, for those who recognized the "pt 2" in the title... after I started writing this post, I remembered I had written another "Things that make me go 'what the...?'" a few months ago.

A Mother is About Heart (Who's My Mommy?)

Mother's Day is quickly approaching - a time when children, young and old, give flowers and cards and gifts to the women who raised them. A time when we celebrate these special women.

As a young child, I didn't have a mother to give anything to. While we were making cards in school, or little paper flowers, I knew I had no one who would appreciate the odd little works of art I created. My biological mom left when I was 2 years old. For six years, I was raised by my father. I'm sure I gave these school-made crafts to my aunt, or one of my grandmothers, but I can't remember for certain.

As an older child, I remember fretting during Mother's Day. Did I make the breakfast in bed right? Is the gift going to be enough? Am I being quiet enough? Will I get beaten if I wake her up for breakfast? Until I left home at 18, Mother's Day was the day I had to choke up the ability to show love to a woman who I did love in a way, but did not respect.

It wasn't until I turned 18 that I came to understand what a Mother truly is - a Mother worthy of gifts and cards and hugs and love. That year, I actually came to know and understand Mothers in a whole new light.

When I ran away from home at 18 - still a senior in high school - I had no where to live. I walked the street that first night... slept at friends' houses the next couple nights.... met a man at a party, and moved in with him that night for a week or so. Ended up spending a week in the hospital for depression. When I was discharged from the hospital, I was again homeless. A woman I had met only a couple times just before my hospital stay took me in.

This woman  had 3 of her own children, and a grandchild, and a few other "strays" like myself, all living with her in her small home. She didn't have a lot of money, but had a lot of love. She would stay up all hours of the night letting me talk, complain or just cry. She showed me more love than I had ever known before. When I was scared, she eased my fears. When I was sad, she comforted me. When I just couldn't stop crying, she cried with me. When I was happy, she shared in that joy. When someone mistreated me, she was like a lioness protecting her cub. I called her "Mom" (although, the full term we'd all come up with was "unofficially adoptive mother"). I still call her Mom even though I do not talk to her nearly as much as I should. She helped me learn to love, and helped me grow as a person.

I lived there for 5 months, before moving in with my new boyfriend's family. This man is now my husband, and has been for 20 years. I often tell him I only married him for his mother. She is so much like the woman I described in the paragraph before. She took me in without knowing me. She stayed up many nights to listen to me. She, like my "unofficially adoptive mother", taught me much on how to love, and on what a Mom is and should be.

And, these two women couldn't have come at a better time. Shortly after meeting both of these women, I ended up pregnant with my first child. I don't think I could have raised, or even truly loved, this little baby girl (or the 5 children who followed) had it not been for the lessons and love I received from these two new Moms I had acquired.

Thank you God for bringing these real Mother's into my life... to protect me and guide me; to love me and heal me; to teach me how to be a love and trust and how to be a mother myself.

Mother's aren't always the women who gave birth to you. Nor are they always the women who raised you when you were a child. A true mother is the one who guided you, loved you, protected you, held you, laughed and cried with you. My two Moms may not have given birth to me, or even knew me when I was a child - but I love them more than ever.

Happy Mother's Day Mom and Mom :) God bless you both!

Why Won't He Follow Jesus?!?

Have you ever had someone you care about just not believe in God? You talk until you're blue in the face, trying to convince that person that he needs to believe. He needs to be saved. He needs to follow Christ! And, he just shakes his head stubbornly. 

A couple weeks ago in Bible Study, we were discussing how it can sometimes be so frustrating when these people just don't seem to get it. Why can't they see the importance? Why can't they just understand? Why won't they follow Jesus?!?

You can lead a horse to water...

I'm sure you've heard the old adage, "you can lead a horse to water, but you can't force him to drink." This is so true. But, there is something we can do. We can show the horse how good the water is!

Ok, before you all turn your noses up at the thought of getting down on your hands and knees and sticking your head in the water trough, perhaps I should try a different approach...

Have you ever tried to feed a 6 month old baby a new baby food? You open that jar of carrots and dip the spoon in. You bring it to your adorable, smiling baby's face. And that precious little thing clamps her mouth shut, glares at you, and shakes her head. You turn that spoon into an airplane... and she bats the plane away. You make chug-a-chug-a-choo-choo noises, and she smiles a little, but clamps those lips even tighter.

What do most of us do? We suck it up and bring that spoon to our own lips, making exaggerated "mmmmmm" noises as we show her just how yummy it is. This tactic often works (although, I highly recommend not using this technique with any "meat" baby food, unless you're an incredibly talented actor; and I recommend not using blueberry buckle, or vanilla custard, or other such delicious treat or baby will never get any).

Show how wonderful it is to follow God!

We need to be using this technique when trying to lead people to God. We need to show them just how yummy He is. We need to show the extensive joy that lives in our hearts (and, if you're not feeling that joy... you need to bring yourself back to Christ, before leading someone else...). We need to show how much love is in our hearts by being a flowing fresh spring of love, letting it pour out of us with everyone we meet (and, I mean real love... not the condescending "you're wrong" kind of false love many spew).

We must show the blessings that come with being in the grace of God. 

We can't be condescending to non-believers. We can't be pushy. We can't be threatening ("if you don't turn to Christ now, you're going to burn in eternal hellfire!").

And, we also can't be boring. I know so many people who just sit in church like it's an obligation to be there. They pray because "oh, I suppose I have to..." They might do something for others, but it's not from the heart - it's because they feel if they don't, they'll look bad in God's eyes. They read the Bible because they're told to do so. But they just seem unhappy. You can't see any joy or sparkle or love in their eyes.

This isn't what it's like to follow Christ! This is definitely not what a person feels deep down when they know they are a beloved child of God! That realization... the knowledge that God loves me! God has chosen me! It completely fills me with joy. And we need to have infectious joy if we want to get others to drink that water and eat that spoonful. We need to show others just how insanely wonderful following Christ is.

May God's blessings be with each of you, and may you feel the true joy of Christ.

The Dying Art of Compassion

A few days ago, a friend of mine joined us for Bible study. It was evident her heart was still breaking over the death of her 1 week old granddaughter. The rest of us - there was nothing we could say or do to make her feel better. Instead, we prayed with her, and for her, and more importantly - we suffered with her. This is what Compassion means - to suffer with. As her sisters in Christ - as her friends - as Christians - it was our responsibility, and our privilege, to be there with her and for her in her suffering.

In my God's Great Blessings Devotional for Jan 15 - 21, the virtue/blessing discussed was Compassion: For Healing, For Life, That Shares His Light, That Lives in Truth, For the Least, and In Action. I thoroughly loved the devotionals and scripture readings. Compassion is something I firmly believe in, and something I find missing from so many people. And yet, it is the one thing we can give regardless of the situation. It is one way we can help someone who's in pain. And, it is the one thing that can help another person turn things around.

A couple years ago, my then-17 year old daughter left me a note before she went to school to inform her father and I that she was pregnant. Naturally, we were not happy to hear this. It was sinful behavior on her part. But we suffered it with her. We stood beside her. We supported her as she made the decision to give her child up for adoption. I was in the delivery room when this baby was born, and held both him and my daughter. I was in her hospital room the day his new parents took him from my daughter, and I cried with her. Yes, she made a bad choice back then. I could have chosen to push her away and let her suffer on her own. But, I strongly believe that this is not what God would have wanted. I strongly believe that this would not have been Christlike.

A few years ago, a family my children were close to were evicted from their apartment. The family was very poor, and both children were mentally disabled. One night, the father snuck down into a community kitchen, and stole food intended for a party the next day. He took only enough to feed himself, his wife, and his kids. He was evicted.

My children, upon hearing this tale, simply asked "We know he did wrong, but, why evict him? The family he stole from can easily afford to replace the food taken... they could even give him all the food they made, and still easily afford to replace it. And obviously he can't afford to feed his family - how's he going to afford a new home for them?" They stated quite emphatically that even in our financially poor state, they would have found a way to pay for the food taken if the family would just be allowed to stay.

My heart swelled at hearing these words. As I already stated, compassion for others is one thing very important to me. It's one thing I have always tried to teach my children and show my children. Regardless of what sins a person commits, and how we feel about those sins (i.e. yes yes, hate the sin), we should always be willing to show compassion to another human. I know many people who read this blog don't agree with this. They feel that compassion is tolerance for sin. They feel that compassion is the way of the world, not the way of God. But they are so wrong.

How many parables did Jesus tell where compassion was at the center of the lesson? The Good Samaritan - where a Samaritan shows compassion to an injured man, when others had walked right past this man without a care. The Prodigal Son - where a father shows compassion to his son after the son had  dishonored him and squandered his father's wealth.

Or, there's the time when Jesus helps the Centurion who pleads with Jesus to heal his servant - a plea that was driven by compassion for the servant. And there's the time Jesus had compassion for those whom had been following him for days and had no food. God had so much compassion for each of us, even in our horribly sinful state, that He gave His Son so that we may live.

God is compassion, and we should all strive to be more compassionate. Why be compassionate? Some quotes from God's Great Blessings Devotional:

"It allows broken people to start healing again."
"What must I do to inherit eternal life? Do compassion, Jesus replies in his parable."
"Compassion allows God to bless us with His life."
"May our compassion for others be just as undivided, just as empowered - offered not for ourselves but for the blessing of us all."

OMG... I What!??!!?

I was reading/working in my "God's Great Blessings devotional" tonight - trying to get a little caught up. I finally finished the 2nd virtue/blessing. The second week's word was "Loving."

In case I forgot to explain... the way this book is set up, there are 6 days which each have a scripture reading and then a devotional, all having to do with one specific virtue, and then the 7th day is just questions reflecting on that virtue. So, January 1-7 was about Listening. And the 8-14 was about Loving (yes, I'm a week behind... a two week trip to Iowa will do that...).

The 6 days on Loving... 

Loving: As God Sings; As God Deserves; As God Loves; My Spouse; With All Knowledge; and My Enemies.

So, I reread each scripture passage, and each devotional, making mental notes as I went along; and sometimes pausing to meditate and pray on a certain section. I love the topic of love in the Bible. I just knew I'd come up with something great on the topic to write a post about. But... before I started writing my post, I wanted to check out day 7 and get those questions out of the way so I could really focus on my post.

"Do you love yourself? What exactly does that mean to you?"

Answer: "Yes."

WOAH! What?!? Hold up! Back up! Delete...
And, reread the question. "Do you love yourself?"

"Yes."

I sat staring at that one little word for several minutes. Even now, writing this post... writing that answer... I find myself stopping and staring at those three little letters.

Yes? Where on earth did that answer come from? Well, of course, the answer to "where on earth did that answer come from" is easy now... it didn't come from earth. It came from God.

But quite honestly, I was (am) shell-shocked at the ease of which that answer slipped from my fingertips. I have never loved myself. I have never found myself worthy of love - not from myself, nor from friends or family, and especially not from God. Things in my past... things in my present... most likely things in my future... all prevent me from being worthy of love - or, at least, this was my thinking before.

But somehow, somewhere, at some point in time, it finally sunk in. I am loved. I am worthy of love. And I do love myself. Ok, so maybe I'm not really always all that worthy of love - especially from God, considering all the ways I've found to be stupid in my life. But, He still loves me! I AM a beloved child of God! Oh My God, I want to scream this from the rooftop. I'm suddenly so completely filled with love, I'm crying. I'm overwhelmed with it all... but in a spectacular way. I want to run around from person to person, giving each one a big kiss on the cheek and proclaiming "YOU are loved"... "and YOU are loved!"... "and YOU are loved!"...and then go kiss a mirror and scream "I love you!"

And, I've gotten myself so completely energized and excited and filled with love, that I have completely forgotten where I intended on going with this post. Therefore, I'm not even going to bother to try making it go anywhere.... it's already gone to the most important place - Love.

I LOVE MYSELF! Thank you God! And, thank you! 

And to all my lovely, wonderful readers and friends.... I love you, and God loves you, too. And I pray you all love yourselves, because you are worth it.

God Bless!
 

Honor Thy Father and Mother?

Last week's virtue from my devotional was Listening... Listening to Him, to His call, for His Spirit, to each other, with honor, and to life. Reading and praying on these topics was actually rather helpful for me. Each one brought a lot of ideas of posts, but time prevented me from sitting and writing. But then I read the one regarding listening with honor. I almost didn't make it through that one. It was only one page, like the others. And it was the same scripture (Proverbs 1:1-9) that a few of the others had been about. But they threw in one more Scripture reading - Exodus 20:12

Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee.

 This one verse has haunted me for years. It has been the one verse I've wanted stripped from the Bible all together. 

My parents used to quote this one verse quite often. They'd break pretty much every commandment, but then quote this one verse. 

When I finally found the courage to tell someone what was going on - my pastor - he quoted this one verse. 

I grew up being punched, kicked, called fat and good for nothing, being told I would never amount to anything. I was told my only chance was to be a whore - that's the closest thing I'd find to love. I was starved for a couple days at a time, drug out of bed by my hair at 2 am to be pushed down the stairs, thrown out of the house when I was ten in the middle of a Minnesota winter. I was forced to clean up my own vomit if I couldn't make it to the bathroom when I had the stomach flu. I was burned with cigarettes, and made to drink alcohol. I had my face slammed into walls, and heavy objects thrown at me. 

And I'm supposed to honor these people!?!? 

But, the devotional explained this in a rather interesting way - one I hadn't considered before. Our parents do teach us... even if they're bad parents. Good, godly parents, teach us how to live. By listening to them, and following them, we learn how to also be good, godly people. Bad, dangerous, ungodly parents? They also teach us how to live - or rather, how not to live. By listening to them we can still learn how to be good, godly people. 

And, this is true. I can't hit my children, or in any way hurt them. I never tell them they're worthless. I encourage them in all they do, or want to do. I hate when people use their abuse as an excuse to abuse. Those who do that - they weren't listening. They were blindly following. But I listened - not just to what my parents did, as a way of seeing what not to do, but also to God and to how He wanted me to live. I am not a perfect parent. I'm not even close. But I did learn. More than I ever realized. 

And, by learning to listen to parents like this, I learned how to listen to others - friends, family, coworkers, children, and even enemies. I learned to love others - all of these groups of "others." 

"In our listening, we learn. But we also gain - a blessed garb of empowered honor." (God's Great Blessings, Patricia Raybon).

 

Goals Schmoals

So everywhere I look, bloggers are setting goals for 2014. Who sets goals? I mean... really? Especially for a blog. I mean... don't other people just suddenly get smacked in the face with something and need to write about it and share it even if it sucks?

Hmm...  just me?

Well, I have decided to follow this nasty evil trend of being organized, and make a few goals as well in regards to my blog(s).

My 2014 Blogging Goals:

Immediate goals (like, maybe, if I'm sober enough, I'll be doing this New Years Eve/Day):

1) Get rid of the rest of my blogs. The Bottom Shelf has already been deleted. Passions Garden and Whispers in the Hall will also be going. I may keep Darkside of the Rose up just because that's my other personality. Well... passions and whispers are as well, but one doesn't serve me, and the other doesn't get any traffic.

2) Redesign Sermons from a Psycho. I had considered also renaming it... but well, I like the name. It fits me. Some may not take what I say seriously simply because of the name - because I don't have it named something respectable and polite and toned down. But c'mon - how many Christians do you know that are reserved and polite and always appear to be that perfect stereotypical church-goer? The point of Sermons from a Psycho is that it doesn't matter who you are, what you are, or what you've done - you are a beloved child of God's. Heck... if He can love someone nuts like me, I'm pretty sure the rest of you are covered as well.

Ongoing goals (you know, the kind that will probably only last the first week, but I'm going to pretend to try to stick to):

The following goals are going to be weekly goals. I haven't yet figured out which day will be designated for which type of post - maybe there won't be a particular schedule. Except for Wednesday. I have reserved Wednesdays- and NOT for the usual Wednesday rewind many people do. Quite honestly, I don't like those rewinds. Mainly, because I've usually read the posts already and I want fresh content. Of course, the occasional re-share is nice - especially if there is a particular reason (i.e. a bunch of bloggers are debating a topic you wrote about 2 years ago... please share your work!). I just don't like the once a week all I get to read is the same ol' stuff I've read before... and probaby commented on.... and probably already wrote my own post spawned from yours.

But anyway... moving along...

1) Wordless Wednesdays. Yes, you read that correctly. Wordless Wednesday. God can be found in everything, and often we tend to try so hard to put Him into words that we forget the beauty of everything He's created and everything He is. So, every Wednesday, I am going to take a photo... and I think I just may try to encourage people to caption it (so... yeah... it wouldn't be entirely wordless I guess....)

2) Blessings (yeah, maybe I'll come up with a catchier name for this weekly bit...). A couple months ago, I purchased a devotional "The One Year God's Great Blessings Devotional." I've peeked at a few of the devotions, but because the book starts on January 1, I decided to wait to really get into it. But, what I really like about this book is that it is broken up in weekly segments, and each segment is a specific blessing. For example... Jan 1 - 7 deals with Listening (Listening to Him; Listening to His Call; Listening for His Spirit; etc); Jan 8 - 14 are about Love. If you follow the link to the book on Amazon, and click on "Look Inside" - then skip to the Index, you'll see all the topics covered. There are 52 total. And hey! 2014 has 52 weeks... So, each week, I will be writing a post regarding the devotionals (or, at least, regarding the topic of the week and/or one or more of the scripture references).

3. Theology (hey! Maybe I should do this one on Thursdays...). I will read something (anything really... not too particular) from a theologian (anyone really... still not too particular) or in some way about some kind of theology... and will give my thoughts on the whole topic.

4. Stay crazy and unpredictable! I do want to stick with writing some specific things, but I still want to give myself the freedom to just write what I feel, when I feel it. If it fits in with the blessing or theology topic of the week, great. If it doesn't - too bad. I'm going to torment my readers anyway. :)

Sermons from a Psycho Specials!

1. Guest blogger series! Yup, I am going to do at least 2 series' on specific topics, and beg for articles from specific people. Topics and people and deadlines to be determined, but we're probably looking at April/May... and again in Sept/Oct. Or so.

2. Lent - 40 days of  Sermons! I started this last year as a way of disciplining myself. Instead of giving something up, I chose to add something - something that would require me to focus on God. I decided to write a blog post every day during the Lent season. I did fairly well - only missing 3 or 4 days... up until March 10th. Then, for some reason, I had a tough time and only put out 6 or 7 posts. I ended the season with only 28 posts. So, this year, my goal is 40. And, I encourage anyone else who wants to join in, please do so. Maybe we can encourage each other to stay on course.

Anyway...

Well, I think I have rambled off enough blogging goals. God bless each of you and I hope the last couple days of 2013 are wonderful for you!

One Year Ago Today

Today marks the 1st anniversary of Sermons from a Psycho. One year. It really is so hard to believe something which started as a challenge has become so much a part of my life.

One year ago today - I had just learned a week earlier that my father-in-law was diagnosed with terminal cancer. When I first got together with his son 20 years ago, Mom and Dad both took me into their home. For 20 years they treated me as their own daughter, knowing I didn't have parents of my own. For 20 years they'd supported me, loved me, looked out for me. And now he was dying.

One year ago, I lived by the motto "Never trust, never love, never cry." I'd lived by that motto for 30 years. And yet, I found myself turning to someone... crying on his shoulder in the middle of the road, and asking him to take me to see my father-in-law in the hospital. 

One year ago today - we went, we saw, we visited. On the drive home, this friend and I were talking, and he mentioned that he still had to write his sermon for that Sunday. I quite jokingly told him I'd write it for him.

Now you must understand me one year ago - I did not go to church other than Christmas, Easter, and the occasional special occasion. I donned black capes and lit candles in my front yard just to make people wonder about me. I studied tarot and runes and astrology and numerology. While I was a Christian, I was not an active one - instead, spent my time between studying different religions and rituals and beliefs, and dressing up like a vampire and writing stories of such.

So, for me to suggest writing a sermon? Well, I think we both found it a bit humorous. And that's when he did it - he unintentionally issued a challenge by telling me he'd really love to see what I could come up with in a sermon. Of course, he was equally jesting in saying this.

But... that night... One year ago today - I sat down at my computer, created a new blog, and wrote my first "sermon."

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It's hard to believe that this one unintentionally issued challenge could have changed my life so much in such a small amount of time. I started going to church more often. I stopped studying everything occult, and focused my attention on Biblical studies. I started asking questions and really trying to determine what I believe and why. I started praying. I started desiring and working on a relationship with Christ.

My motto - it pretty much flew out the window. While I am still hesitant on the idea of trusting others, caring about others, and letting them see me cry - I'm no longer bound to the laws which kept me locked within myself for so many years.

My father-in-law - he was told a 1 year and 1 week ago that he had cancer, and that it was terminal, and that he had 6 months to a year to live. He's still kickin'.

This friend of mine - he moved away... a couple states away. And while it's taken me a long time of fighting feelings of betrayal, he's remained a true and patient friend. Not only did he awaken something spiritual within me through his challenge one year ago, but within this past year, he has taught me the meaning of friendship and trust. He is the reason that motto I once lived by is no longer.

And I have gained so many new friends in my quest to gain a better understanding and better relationship with God. Many of these friends are bloggers - they're people I interact with usually daily, sharing stories of how we've grown and what we believe and why. Sharing tears and hardships. Sometimes having some wonderful debates (out-right fights) over theology. I can't imagine my life without this community of Christian bloggers/friends.

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I am having a rather emotional morning as I look back on the past year. Yes, it has definitely had its downs. And it's had its ups. It has been an intense year of growth (and of realizing just how immature I am). And I am grateful for every moment.

Thank you Lord. For all you've given me, for all you've shown me, for the wonderful people you've directed into my life to help teach me, for every bump and twist in the road... I thank you.

To my amazing friend who started this craziness... I thought I'd know exactly what to say by the time I made it to this part of the post... but words fail me. All I can say is thank you. From the bottom of my heart, I thank you.

To all the friends I have made along the way... thank you for your continued support, encouragement, and love. I have enjoyed reading your work, and having each of you make me think. May the Lord continue to bless you all.

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And with that... Happy Anniversary to Sermons from a Psycho! :-)

God bless!