Encouragement for "the challengers".

This is for those of you, and others, that have decided to take my "challenge".

I received this email, and I thought that this might really encourage you (or it may just really hurt! I had a hard time reading it!! :)). This is so true for many of us, definitely me!! :).

I hope that all of "the challenged" are doing well on the challenge! I am afraid that I am not very regular, and I am still so quick to forget that worshiping Him is more important than worrying about our daily life all of the time!! :)

I also must confess that I have been rather worried and a little scared about this election. Thankfully, God has blessed me with such a peace that I know that whoever wins, God is in control! It has been so wonderful to not worry about whether or not so and so is going to win. Whoever wins, God has a plan, and we can only see a very small portion of it, while He is looking at the whole of it!! (He is probably laughing to Himself thinking "You silly people! I have it under control!! I know the whole plan, you don't! Why do you run around like chickens with your heads cut off when something you don't like happens? I am in control!!" don't you think? :))

(Romans 13:1)


I knelt to pray but not for long, I had too much to do.

I had to hurry and get to work For bills would soon be due.

So I knelt and said a hurried prayer, And jumped up off my knees.

My Christian duty was now done My soul could rest at ease..... All day long I had no time To spread a word of cheer No time to speak of Christ to friends, They'd laugh at me I'd fear.

No time, no time, too much to do, That was my constant cry, No time to give to souls in need But at last the time, the time to die I went before the Lord, I came, I stood with downcast eyes.

For in his hands God held a book; It was the book of life.

God looked into his book and said 'Your name I cannot find I once was going to write it down... But never found the time'

Now do you have the time to spend with God?


RE AD THE FIRST LINE CAREFULLY. . If God brings you to it, He will bring you through it. Happy moments, praise God. Difficult moments, seek God. Quiet moments, worship God. Painful moments, trust God. Every moment, thank God.

Love, Sarah

Challenge for Friends :).....

Hello to all!

I was sitting outside this morning reading my History (I tend to get more done when I am alone. That is, if the kittens don't bother me, or maybe I should say, if I don't get distracted with those cute little darlings!! :)), and it hit me that it is almost November. AHHHHH!! was my first thought, but I had to sit back for a moment and think. Why do we get so wrapped up in our own selfish doings and ignore what God is doing in our lives? I am the worst at it I am sure. I tend to get wrapped up in thinking about getting Christmas presents made, or dreaming about the future, or wasting my time thinking or getting mad at things that don't really matter.



I think that we all tend to do that, but here is a verse that I found that has been very helpful.

Psalms 106:1 "Praise the LORD! Oh give thanks to the LORD, for He is good. For his loving kindness is everlasting."



When we are praising the LORD at all times, we don't have time to wallow in self pity, or think about useless things. Besides, aren't we trying to live for the LORD? If so, then we should think this is something wonderful to do, but we don't. We don't because we are sinners and need the LORD, and it is our sinful nature that doesn't want the good.



I have just finished reading a book called The Chosen by Chaim Potok, it was very good. It is about a boy named Reuven who is Jewish. He ends up becoming friends with a Hasidim Jew through an interesting set of circumstances. As I was reading it, I was thinking the whole time how funny it is that we all have different ways of viewing the Bible, but the Bible stays the same.

If the Bible stays the same then God definitely stays the same. So, we should worship Him the same as people did thousands of years ago. I tend to think, "well, that was the way those people worshipped back then. Times are different now." But if God is the same as always, then why should we change the way we worship to ten minutes a day when people would do it all day long?



I know that we all have things to do during the day that need to get done (washing the dishes, cooking, cleaning, etc.), but what if we try to take five minutes out of every hour if possible to just say a prayer of thanks to the Giver? I want to do this as a challenge to those who want to do it with me. Of course, we may not be able to do it every hour, and it doesn't have to be five minutes only either. Sometimes you might find your self in a situation (washing dishes, driving by yourself, getting ready for bed, etc.) that you could pray for longer. (I especially like to pray while I am washing dishes. :)



I hope that you will want to do this with me!! Please post comments as you do it, and let me know what God shows you during that time!

I would love to hear your comments on this!

Sarah for the Herd

The "latest" update

Hey all! Here is a little update!


First off, last weekend we shipped all of the yearlings! We run some yearlings on our ranch for Mr. Mackenzie. He will then pay us, at the end of the year, by how much they weigh. He then sells them to someone else for beef. So Saturday we woke up at 5:00 (even though we are ranchers, we are not accustomed to waking up so early....:)) and got started on the very busy day. After eating breakfast, Becca and Josh headed out to saddle up the horses while mom and I started getting as much food prep for lunch as we could. When the other riders got here, they all headed out to get the 500 head of cattle. Around 8:00 or so, Mr. Mackenzie and the buyer showed up. While we waited for the riders to come with the yearlings, we sipped coffee, ate coffee cake, and visited. When all of the yearlings were in, they headed out to help weigh while mom and I cleaned up from the mid morning snack and started getting food heated while watching the eight semi trucks line up for loading. By 11:45 the round up crew had finished and were HUNGRY. Everyone left after lunch and the rest of us rested. Needless to say, we slept in the next morning. :)



We are all making homemade gifts for Christmas, so we have that to finish up as quickly as possible as well! The gals will get to work on that while our guys go hunting November 1-4, in Tucumcari. We're all excited for that for different reasons. :)



Well, that is the "latest" update!! Hope to hear some comments from y'all!


Sarah for The Herd :)

Rebecca's Trip

Here is the big long account of my trip!

(Sept. 30) I left my house on Tuesday- the start! - and went home with my Grandma and spent the night there.

(Oct. 1) We got up the next morning, and my Papa took their van into the shop to get the oil changed. He got home, we took off for Dallas, TX., and we arrived in Wichita Falls, TX and got a motel there. We then went to the new movie that is out "Fireproof" (EXCELLENT movie!!).

(Oct. 2) We got going on the road the next day and arrived in Dallas sometime around lunch. We found where our hotel was, then we went cruising around downtown Dallas looking for all the places we were going to so we knew how to get there.

We then went to the John F. Kennedy museum- which was lots of fun. It is at the old schoolbook warehouse where the murderer was when he shot JFK. They showed movies and pictures of the evidence that John Wilkes Booth killed him.

We then went to the hotel and changed clothes for the evening and went to the High Kings concert. Grandma had bought Valet parking because she wasn't sure what the parking would be down there. We arrived at the Majestic Theatre about an hour before they started, and they took our car. We asked what restaurants were close by, and they suggested this hotel restaurant just across the street. It was a nice place, and we had fun deciphering a message that was written backwards on a wall. We then went to the concert.

I had been hooked on the High Kings by some friends, and we listened to their CD about every time we cleaned house and had it pretty much memorized. That made it fun at the concert because I could sing along. It was lots of fun seeing (and hearing. :)) them sing and do a little Irish dancing. They sang a couple of new songs but mainly the ones already on their CD. I bought a couple of CD’s which they signed.

The Majestic Theatre was a gorgeous place! It looked like it stepped out of some movie of the olden days. We couldn't take our camera in, so we did not get any pictures of that.

After the show we got in the line for Valet parking. We were near the end of it, and after a while the guys came along grabbing tickets from the people in line. We moved slowly up the line till we were at the front. And we waited. And we waited. People trickled past us. And we waited. We and some ladies were the only ones left. And we waited. The ladies got their car and left. Papa asked the Valet people who were standing around counting their tips if they had our car. They got this look of “Oh no” on their faces and started looking for the key on their holder thing. Nothing there. Looked in the top where they kept their stuff. Nothing there. WE were getting worried. Grandma’s key was in the car, and they had Papa’s! It was already 10:30 and we did not want to be up all night waiting for a locksmith. They started looking in their little grocery trash bag- and found it at the bottom! Luckily the boss, who had just left, did not grab the bag and take it to the dump. Phew!
(Oct. 3) We got up and went to the Creation Museum in Glen Rose, TX. That was a pretty cool place. They have a fossil of a human footprint with a dinosaur footprint over it. (The picture is my Papa, Grandma and I in front of the fossil mentioned above.) Pretty cool. They have created an environment that is the condition like it would be before the flood. They have had smaller animals in it, snakes, mice, etc. The poisonous snakes in there, after growing up in this environment, have venom that is not poisonous! It was really cool! They had animals that were growing much faster then any animals now- growing much bigger than we have now.

We went straight to the Medieval Times restaurant and jousting place after the museum. We got there an 1 ½ before the show started and waited around. They recommended getting there an 1 1/2 before the show started to see everything. The horses were behind glass which I thought was a bummer, and all things they recommended getting there early for was the stuff they were selling, which was expensive. When it was time for the show they seat you in your knights section, and you eat without any forks, knives or spoons. Messy. They then jousted/ fought while you ate. Boy! At times they were hitting so hard there were sparks flying everywhere! Then at other times, it was slow and funny as they acted out the movements behind or ahead of the other person. They did do the jousting where they ride at each other with the long poles and hit the other person. Those sticks would splinter. Then they would fight on ground after having been knocked off with swords or other weapons of the time. I think they really could have been hurt by each other if they didn't pay attention. We really enjoyed the whole thing.

(Oct. 4) We then traveled to Odessa, TX , we and had dinner with relatives down there. We had a good visit and spent the night there.

(Oct. 5) Went to church Sunday in Kermit, TX, with a pastor of Grandma and Papa’s who had moved there. We had lunch with them and a good visit. We then traveled on to Alamogordo and spent the night with relatives living there.

(Oct. 6) We then traveled to Corona and stayed with my Grandma’s brother and his wife, Uncle Mac and Aunt Betty Ann. They showed us all around their ranch, which is pretty. We got to see some petroglyphs! Aunt Betty was so cute. She had left me/us a snack in a bag in a tree so surprise! we had a snack! Then left donuts in a rock they called the “donut hole”, and a message near a long tunnel of rock. That was really sweet and fun. The message was to Sunflower Girl, and because she couldn't’t decided which other name, also to She Who Sews wishing me a happy early birthday. She signed it from Walks with Bulls (Uncle Mac) and Always Hunting (Aunt Betty because she is always hunting for keys, purse, etc.) That was so cute and thoughtful! Spent the night there and enjoyed a leisurely morning then hit the road home. (Oct. 7)
Well, how’s that for a LOONNGG post?

Rebecca
There’s No Place Like Home!

Newcomer (well, not so new now!) Freckle

Hey All!

Sorry that I was so late in getting this posted! The baby horse's name is Freckle! As you can see in the pictures that Rebecca posted earlier, she was born a light brown color. I noticed a few days after she was born that she had a dark spot of fur right behind her ear. So, she had a freckle! Now she is changing color to a darker brown. I was hoping that she would stay the same color that she was originally, but I guess not! Oh, well!

I am having lost of fun training her. I have recently taught her (it is still in the learning process) to come when I whistle! She is doing better every time we work on it. She is lovable and just so cute! i can't wait until I can ride her, but I also want her to stay a cute little baby! She is growing up so fast!



Rebecca has been away fro a week on her high school graduation trip with my grandparents (although she's not officially graduated, yet). She came home today, and we are all enjoying having her back! She will post some of her trip highlights later.

See you later, Gator!
Sarah for the herd