Giving and Receiving

The  thought I have been pondering the most this Christmas:

God sent His son as a baby - The King of Kings and Lord of Lords dependent upon humans to care for His basic needs of food and clothing and bathing - a helpless baby DEPENDENT on a teenage girl of all things.  This is making Him the MOST VULNERABLE.  :) 
Have you ever met a teenage girl....HELLO!
 I have no doubt God kept a close watch on His Son as Mary cared for Him - but she still needed to feed, hold, and care for that very human baby.

God - The King of Kings and Lord of Lords Placed His Holy and perfect self in a position to NEED people, to RECEIVE help and  provision and service from humans.

This last year we have been in a receiving position - more than I care to admit honestly - but this last couple of years through the receiving we have seen Jesus more clearly than ever in our entire lives. 
Our pride and our independence really dislikes to receive - we prefer to give and to serve not to receive and be served!
  (this goes for most people in general) 

It is so much more fun to give.

 It is Biblical to give and it feels good and we can see Jesus  when we give, we can be the hands and the feet of Jesus when we serve others.

What I have learned is that in the receiving - not only the receiving of the gift of Salvation - but the receiving of love from others and being served and blessed and being vulnerable, and humble, we can see Jesus even more clearly and there is 
NO
 PRIDE OR INDEPENDENCE OR SELF RELIANCE
 when we are in that state of receiving. 

It feels good to give it is right it is Biblical.
It is Jesus in action.
  Sometimes we must give even  more that we are comfy giving.  

It feels humbling to receive it is right  it is Biblical.
It is Jesus in action.
Sometimes we have to receive even more than we are comfy with.  

God likes to keep us uncomfortable on either end of the spectrum to keep us looking to HIM to keep us seeing JESUS MORE CLEARLY!


We GIVE our lives to Jesus, when we RECEIVE Jesus!!


We spend the rest of our lives GIVING  because of our LOVE for  HIM and we spend the rest of our lives RECEIVING HIS LOVE and His Blessings because of HIS LOVE FOR US.

Click...AND...Be Glad!

Ok....so to end the year with meaning, and be healthy and happy and support something totally awesome and to be a part of something so much bigger than yourself and to just do something plain fun and good....

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And ENTER!!!!!!!  TODAY!!!!!!

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Our Star

This is our Christmas star.  We love it because  there are a lot of stories that go with this star and it represents a lot of different "seasons" in our life. 
This is the story of our star:

It was made for us and given to us by one of our bestest friends.  He is so creative and thoughtful and just showed up with it SEVERAL years ago.  He made about 10 of them I think and gave them to friends.  He is such a giver, and so incredibly thoughtful.  He is known for these kinds of deeds, and he always does these things just quietly and beautifully.  We absolutely love him and his entire family. 
 Thank you Jim Walker for the star.

Well, as I mentioned he made one for several families around here...and every year it is a bit of a competition to see who gets their star up first, and it always exciting to see  what color and arrangement of bulbs everyone decides on for the year.  It's very fun and a bit competitive. 

Needless to say....we never win the competition.
  We always get our star up, but it's usually Rick Martin that beats us, and it's usually Jim that puts his star up the highest, and it usually Pickardt's that looks the most festive, and Buckners and us are usually neck in neck, which is all good because we live close enough to see each other's star, so we can easily monitor who's pulling the star out of storage so the other is never far behind.

Then,

2 years ago, Charlie cut his hand VERY bad, and I was thinking it was a 'no star year'.  He was in a cast.  But, of course our friends came over and just put that beautiful star up for us...it  also happened to be one of the coldest days of the year I believe, and we have a very tall metal roof that they had to climb on to get our star in position. 
 It was so incredibly sweet I can't tell you how blessed we felt.  Of course, they put beautiful bulbs in, and made it look perfect.
  They also SCREWED IT TO THE ROOF so it is very secure up there; it is SO secure that we don't take it down all year long, we just don't plug it in after New Years.

So, this year...we plugged our star in;
our star that represents so much to us...
it represents...Christmas...friendship...giving...serving...celebration...competition :) .


  As I was looking at it this year...I just had to laugh...it also is very representative of the year we have had:


It is disorganized...late (even though we only had to plug it in), and its only half lit. 
 Some of the bulbs are flickering, some are shining brightly, some are flickering (as they are trying like heck to stay going), they are every color and in no particular order, and some are just plain burned out.

Charlie was going to replace some bulbs and try to make it pretty, and organized, but the more I looked at it, the more I loved it because it's just up there on our roof telling the truth of what is going on in the house below.

Merry Merry Christmas!!!

Yep! It's Confirmed.

I posted a few weeks ago about Kole's knee and how the Lord had healed him, click here if you haven't read it yet, because I have a follow-up to the story.

Kole went back to the Dr. after his 3 week "rest" and the Dr. rechecked his knee.  After watching the video and examining his knee, he felt like he did need an MRI after-all.  He felt his ACL was perhaps "loose".

Monday 12-12 Kole had the MRI, and today...yes TODAY...we went back to the Dr. for the results.  And guess what????????  Yep, it's confirmed...Kole's knee is FINE!!!  He is showing some bruised bone...oh yes, confirmation that there was TRAUMA...but guess what???? NO DAMAGE.  ACL is in tact.  Knee is good to GO! 

Kole was fitted for a knee brace and did an explosive "JUMP", right in the Dr. office, he was so excited.  Dr. thought Kole had some good "hops".  Before we could make it to the car Kole called his basketball coach and said, "Put me in coach, I'm good to go".

Kole SPRINTED to the car, yes SPRINTED, and headed right  to his basketball game!!! 

Whoop Whoop!!!  

We are happy here at the Brewer house....Kole can sweat at practice again, which is a blessing.  He is a teenager that NEEDS to sweat...that is good for him.  His stress relief is "SWEAT".  

God is good and I know He healed Kole and now we just have an MRI to prove it.  :) 

  I realize God does not always see fit to heal us when we ask...sometimes we have to go through the surgery or the sickness, or  loss.  But sometimes He sees fit to heal us and in either situation we just trust him and when He does see fit to heal... then we just have to give Him praise and give HIM and HIM alone the Glory!  But, when He heals or when He doesn't He is always with us. He  NEVER NEVER leaves us.  And I know that God is with my friend whom He did not see fit to heal from her cancer and she will have to go through a difficult surgery on Friday.  But God is just as much with her through it all as He was with Kole when He healed him.

  God knows it all and He is good.  ALL THE TIME!!!

Freauff Family

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This is a MUST READ!  Then click on the fundraiser and  read about the fundraiser that everyone can participate in!!!

Please participate and be a part of bringing 4 precious boys home to a wonderful family.  

Happy Anniversary Charlie

Happy Anniversary to my man!!!  22 years!!!!  

Genesis 9:7

New International Version (NIV)

 ⁷ As for you, be fruitful and increase in number; multiply on the earth and increase upon it.”

We have done things as the Bible says to some degree....we have multiplied...I'm not sure how fruitful we are at times....but we have multiplied.  We have multiplied in numbers, in every area we started out with, there are many MORE of us, we have MORE horses, we have MORE debt, we have MORE dogs, MORE cars.

We have also multiplied in other areas.  We have more love, more happiness, more stress, we are more tired, we are more involved, we have more fun.

We do things bigger.  We love bigger, we drive bigger cars, we have a bigger house, we have a bigger family, we have a bigger circle of friends.

We have definitely multiplied.  :)

When we got married Charlie sold his cows so he could marry me...seriously this was the ultimate sacrifice, if you know a man that loves cows, and is willing to sell them to marry you, he LOVES YOU A BUNCH!!!  When we got married, this is what we had.......

a horse we couldn't afford

                                 a dog we couldn't keep

                              bills we couldn't pay

                                 a goat we couldn't stand

                                         

The horse was in need of expensive food, so it stayed with my folks, the dog was Charlie's and tried to attack me every chance he got, so he stayed with Charlie's folks, the bills were from college, so they stayed with us, and  the goat was my dowry, so it stayed with us until Charlie sent me to the sale with it.

I love my man more everyday, we have been through some stuff, but we have had 22 very blessed years, and I wouldn't change a thing.  We have probably done everything wrong, but we have done it together, and we are committed and I can say I love him a thousand times more today than I did 22 years ago and I loved him a whole bunch.

The best advice from a little old lady at the church we were attending when we got married, was, " The couple that prays together, stays together," we have lived by this and done it consistently for 22 years and so far so good!

Happy Birthday Reecey Roo "4"

Today is Reece's Birthday, and he is "4" years old.

  This kid has kept us guessing since he was concieved.  He does things on his very own schedule. He is probably our most passionate kid.  He is passionate when he is having fun, he is passionate when he is excited or telling a story, or asking a simple question.    He is also quite passionate when he is mad or sad.  This kid can have us in stitches one minute and stressed out the next. 

 He is AWESOME.

  He sends me into orbit half the time and then a fit of laughter the other half.

  

With Reece, you never have to wonder what he is thinking or what he is feeling because it may change on a dime, but whatever it happens to be at that moment it is full on, all out, every time.

 I was told by a dear friend (Mindy) that Reece will make a difference in this world...she is one of the people that just "get" this kid.  So my prayer for Reece is that he infact makes a difference in this world and it is a difference that is for the good :) .  I pray that all this energy is harnessed by the Lord and that He will guide him all the days of his life.

One of Reece's many talents is that he has a nick name for just about everybody, but he doesn't see it as a nick name, he decides what he thinks people's names are and that IS their name no matter what.  Shelly, one of our bestest friends that we are around all the time, for years and years NOW has a new name, thanks to Reece. 

 Her name is Flash! 

  Esther is quite confused because Shelly stated her real name at a restaurant once, and Esther said, " I thought your name was Flash."  

Lashae's dogs are no longer Kate and Mabel, but Cake and Abel....Uncle Jim, is now Uncle Ben.  

The funny thing is that we all begin using the nick name because Reece is so passionate, he is convinced that the names are as he says....so we just go along with it and start calling our friends names like FLASH!!!

A fun fact I did not realize until Lashae pointed it out to me the other day..Reece means energetic.  Boy did we call that one right!!!

Happy Birthday Roo!!!! 

We love you!!!!

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