pretzels

I'm reading a few books right now - They are all so appealing and I don't read often enough to just start and finish one quickly, so I am working on a few... One that I haven't written about yet is "Battlefield of the Mind: Winning the Battle in Your Mind" by Joyce Meyer. 
So far, these are some inspring thoughts...

"Satan takes our circumstances and builds strongholds in our lives - how he wages war on the battlefield of the mind.  But, thank God, we have weapons to tear down the strongholds.  God doesn't abandon us and leave us helpless." (p. 24)

"You may have some major strongholds in your life that need to be broken.  Let me encourage you by saying, "God is on your side."  There is a war going on, and your mind is the battlefield.  But the good news is that God is fighting on your side." (p. 24)

"Our past may explain why we're suffering, but we must not use it as an excuse to stay in bondage." (p. 23)

"It is easy to quit, it takes faith to go through." (p. 33)

"When we begin to feel that the battle of the mind is just too difficult and that we aren't going to make it, then we must be able to cast down that kind of thinking and choose to think that we are going to make it!" (p. 34)

"When the battle seems endless and you think you'll never make it, remember that you are reprogramming a very carnal, fleshly, worldly mind to think as God thinks.  Impossible?  No!  Difficult?  Yes!" (p. 34)


Scripture to help us through:
Isaiah 43:2
When you go through deep waters,
I will be with you.
When you go through rivers of difficulty,
you will not drown.
When you walk through the fire of oppression,
you will not be burned up;
the flames will not consume you.

This guy is from December 2011, we were doing Christmas shopping in LaCrosse and I was able to pull him into the booth down by Orange Julius - In fact, I think we had an Orange Julius to accompany the pretzel bites we were chewing on.  Were we not the perfect pair?

Yowch - just got home from day one of two of childbirth classes.  Hardest thing I've done after losing Joe - tomorrow will be even harder, and the actual birthing hours the hardest.  Now, I know my mom will be a fabulous "partner" but it pains me to go through this without my husband.  Especially in a class of 6 cutsie husband and wife couples.  Luckily, there is only one 'gag me with a spoon' couple, but I am the only one with a non-husband partner.  We listened to a 'relaxation' CD and in one spot the woman said, "now imagine big strong hands massaging your back" - ok, my ability to relax from that point on was gone - I got so stinkin' sad.  The class reminded me of something I'd like to share about our love.  As I looked around at the couples seated in chairs, I noticed how they were all the set six inches apart - it reminded me of when Joe and I ever had to sit in separate chairs (we preferred one big one or a couch), we always scooted them as close as possible to each other... sometimes the arms were even overlapping.  Maybe that is childish love, but we needed to be as close as possible to each other, at all times...