7 Lovely Awards

Tami Benson, author of the blog Lessons by Heart just gave me 7 Lovely Awards. Isn’t that sweet of her? Tami has a great blog, and her love for the Lord shines brightly in her blog, which is why I love to visit her blog, and why I would encourage others to visit her blog too.

These are the seven awards that Tami gifted me with…

Mystical Allure Award

Mystical Allure Award

My good friend, Brother Wendell Brown, gifted poet and author of the blog, Forever Poetic, blessed me with the Mystical Allure Award several days ago (Isn’t it pretty?),  however, sadly, at that time, I was in a lot of pain, and I was weighed down with the heavy burden of depression, and so I thought to myself, “I’ll just respond to this when I feel better.” 

It wasn’t that I didn’t appreciate the award, because I did. The sad fact was that I was too consumed with myself to respond. Have you ever been there? I didn’t feel like doing anything… no writing… no cooking… no cleaning… no talking to anyone, not even my beloved family and friends. The worst part about all of this is that I didn’t even feel like talking to my Lord and Savior (I didn’t even realize this until I wrote the words!).

Best Moment Award

Gray Poet, please forgive me for taking so long to respond to your gift of the Best Moment Award to me. I truly appreciate your kindness Gray Poet, and I pray the Lord blesses you abundantly for the beauty you share in your poetry.

The requirement for receiving this “Best Moment” award are to simply write an acceptance speech and nominate other bloggers. I’m truly not sure what my best moment was or is, (perhaps I haven’t even achieved my best moment yet!). However, I do know this… Whatever, and whenever my best moment is, it will be because my Lord and my Savior, Jesus Christ, inspired me, giving me the ability and the words to write according to His will.

Shine On Award, Beautiful Mama Blog Award, Super Sweet Blogging Award

Greetings My Beloved Readers,

During my illness, and possibly before and possibly since (does anyone else ever lose track of time?) I was nominated for several blogging awards. Some awards I had already received, so I couldn’t accept them, though I am deeply appreciative that someone would think of me for an award. If I missed an award, or failed to acknowledge your nomination of me, please accept my humble apologies, and grant me your mercy and grace, because I truly got behind in reading communications while I was ill, and afterward, it was quite overwhelming, as I’m sure you understand.

Since I got so far behind, I’m going to attempt to just combine my acceptance for these awards into one acceptance. At almost 52 years old, I’ve learned to work smarter, not harder. 😀 Therefore, without further ado, what follows is my acceptance for the Shine On Award (It’s really pretty and shiney, and I love all things shiny and sparkly), the Beautiful Mama Blog Award (I am a mama, and as far as the beautiful part goes, my mama always said, “Beauty is only skin deep, but ugly goes clear to the bone”), and the Super Sweet Blogging Award (It’s a pretty picture of cupcakes, now you know I love cupcakes, so I have to accept this one)…

Shine On Award Rules:
Swift Expression

1. Link back to the blogger who nominated you – Swift Expression

2. Put the Award on your blog.

3. Share 7 little secrets about yourself.

4. Nominate 5 – 10 other bloggers who make others happy too.

Seven Little Secrets About Me:

1. 

   Image Credit: http://thepraiseandworshipconnection.blogspot.com/ 2010/12/hallelujah-factor.html

   One of my favorite sayings is “Hallelujah!”, which means God be praised, and if you were to meet me and talk to me in person, you would frequently hear that exclamation bursting forth from my lips! After all, there are a whole lot of things to praise God about, even when I’m going through a bad time.

2. Coming from a small family, I’ve always longed for a large family, and God has seen fit to answer that unspoken prayer… While I only have two children, I am expecting my eighth grandchild in May, and my ninth grandchild in July – Hallelujah!

3. 

   Flower and Sparkle Cupcake

   My husband and I got one of our granddaughters a guinea pig for Christmas a year ago, and it turns out that we bought a pregnant guinea pig, who had four little piggies. My daughter decided they would keep one (another female, so there would be no more little piggies), and the pet store graciously accepted the other three little piggies when they were weaned from their mama, Hallelujah!

4. My granddaughter named the guinea pig that we bought her “Sparkle Cupcake” and her baby was named “Flower,” and I’m not sure how it happened, but when my daughter and her family moved away, my husband and I came to be the proud owners of Sparkle and Flower – Hallelujah!
5. My first car was a white 1974 Ford Mustang II, which I was quite proud of, even though we had to turn the air conditioner off when we drove up a mountain, because it just didn’t have much power.
6. I love to sing (though not everyone loves to hear me), and I can think of a song for just about any topic or situation, and sometimes in the middle of conversations, I will burst into a song about whatever it is we happen to be discussing.
7. I LOVE worshiping in dance, and over the years, I have started several dance ministries – the first one, Signs of Light, was comprised of teens who did sign language and interpretive movement to worship songs; the second one, Vessels of Mercy, began with a group of five of us, who ministered to female inmates first, and then to our home church – the group eventually grew to a membership of seventeen; the third group that I began was comprised of only two, and we traveled to many churches, colleges and seminars and ministered.

Beautiful Mama Blog Award Rules:
Musings and Rants

• Click the award image, save it and use it in your acceptance post.
• List 3 things you love about motherhood.
• Nominate other deserving mamas; you may choose as many as you like. (And let them know of the nomination)

1. Obviously, I love my children, and though they are adults now (my son, the oldest, will be 30 in May, and my youngest, just turned 28), they will always be my babies.
2. I loved taking my children for rides. Often, when one needed to talk privately, we would climb into my mini-van and take a ride, sometimes parking beside a pond, or (on the rare occasions that I had money, we would go through the drive through and sit in the parking lot), while we talked about whatever was on their minds. I would always ask the Lord to give me the wisdom to know how to respond to their questions or issues, and He never failed me.
3. I had the blessing and honor of leading both of my children to Christ.

Super Sweet Blogging Award
Musings and Rants

• Answer the question listed below
• Nominate other blog friends (if you want)
• Post the award logo somewhere on your blog.
• Send a link to the nominees so they are aware you are giving them the award and/or tag game.

Here is your question nominees to get your awards:

Name the one thing you are grateful for today (excluding this tag game/blog award.)

I am so grateful that God chose me to be His beloved daughter:

“You didn’t choose Me. I chose you. I appointed you to go and produce fruit that will last, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask for, using My name.”

~ John 15:16 NLT ~

His word makes it very clear that He chose me, because He loves me, and because it gave Him great pleasure to choose me…

Long ago, even before He made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in His eyes. His unchanging plan has always been to adopt us into His own family by bringing us to Himself through Jesus Christ. And this gave Him great pleasure. So we praise God for the wonderful kindness He has poured out on us because we belong to His dearly loved Son. He is so rich in kindness that He purchased our freedom through the blood of His Son, and our sins are forgiven. He has showered His kindness on us, along with all wisdom and understanding.

~ Ephesians 1:4-8 NLT ~

Hallelujah! Isn’t that a wonderful thing to be grateful for? 

And now, in no particular order, her are the five people that I would like to nominate for all of the awards above (yes, I really mean all for all – why not? And if one of my nominees is not yet a mother, perhaps she will be someday :D):

1. Anna Bachinsky – if you want to be inspired, please take the time to check out her blog, A journey of faith… 
   
2. Carri – this beautiful woman loves the Lord, loves her little “Muppin” and is a homeschooling mom (something I secretly longed to do, but did not have enough confidence in myself or God at the time) – go ahead and visit her blog, 
   

   Grace Unveiled

3. Wendy – I love Wendy’s poems and pictures that glorify God. Her blog, GREENLIGHTLADY, is an inspiration… I should ask her what made her choose the name of her blog — regardless, her blog is a must read!

4. Diana Rasmussen – What a beautiful, eye catching blog, Prayers and Promises is! Diana is a mom, gifted songwriter and poet who genuinely loves the Lord. You must visit this site and be blessed by it!
5. Martha L. Shaw – this multi-talented woman is a teacher, writer and woman of God I encourage you to visit her site, In Love With The Lord Poetry and Prose as well as the other sites above!

Very Inspiring Blogger Award Nomination

A very sweet and courageous young woman named Tabitha has nominated me for the Very Inspiring Blogger Award. Wow. I am very honored to accept this award, and I am especially blessed to receive it from a young woman who has waged a courageous battle against the forces of evil that have tried to destroy her, and risen above her circumstances as a Victorious Woman of God. I encourage those of you who follow my blog to check out Tabitha’s blog at http://ichosetolive.wordpress.com…

I know that many of my fellow bloggers do not accept awards, so I just want to state up front that I will not be offended by anyone who turns this award down, nor do I require any explanations. I love you all and appreciate the talent that God has gifted you with, and my reason for nominating you is simply to acknowledge what an inspiration each one of you have been to me. Therefore, even if you don’t accept the award, please do accept my love and appreciation to each one of you for inspiring me each day.

1. Link back to the person who nominated you
2. Post the award image on your page
3. Tell seven (7) random facts about yourself
4. Nominate fifteen (15) other blogs

In keeping with the rules of accepting the award, here are 7 random facts about myself:

1. I am a Jesus Freak… I love Jesus with all of my heart, soul, mind and strength… I think about Him when I wake up, when I lie down to sleep, and all of the in between times… He is a consuming fire, the love of my life, the reason I am alive, and I am able to love others deeply because HE LOVES ME!
   
2. I love to sing, dance and worship the Lord… anywhere… anytime… If I’m at McDonald’s, WalMart, Food Lion, Family Dollar, Church… it doesn’t really matter, if there’s a song on my heart (which there usually is), I will sing loud, and dance for joy.
3. I have a song for just about every conversation, and my children were blessed to inherit this unique ability as well…
4. I have 2 grandpiggies (Guinea Pigs) named Sparkle Cupcake and Flower.
5. I have 2 children and by July 2013, I will have 9 grandchildren – Hallelujah!
6. My favorite color is purple… (I bet you didn’t see that coming!)
7. I’ve asked God to let me live to be 120 years old like Moses, who had great eyesight and was fit enough to climb a mountain on the day he died.

This is the part that I was looking forward to… Below are my nominations for the Most Inspiring Blogger Award, and I’m going to share my reasons for nominating them as well. I know that wasn’t part of the rules, but I think it’s a good thing to share my reasons, don’t you agree? Also, these nominees are listed in no particular order, just as they pop into my head…

1. The Hidden Paths – I know this inspiring blogger personally, and though she doesn’t post often, when she does post, it is always inspiring, and always a word in season. She was the one who inspired me to begin blogging in October.

2. In Love With The Lord Poetry and Prose – This lovely lady is so gifted and talented, and she tells it like it is. She isn’t afraid to be open and vulnerable, which is part of what makes her poetry and her prose so inspiring.

3. CindyFrench-stranger than fiction stories – This woman knows what trials and tribulations are about, and still she glorifies the Lord. She has no idea, but as I have been suffering with chronic (constant) back and leg pain, her testimonies have been an encouragement and an inspiration for me. I think to myself, “If God can do that for her, He can surely do it for me too.” Thank you Cindy!

4. re-Ver(sing) Verses – This humble young woman loves to dig deep into the Word of God. Much like a mother bird, she takes the word, chews it up, and then regurgitates it to her baby birdies, and what she regurgitates is rich and sustaining.

5. Paulette’s Blog – Due to the busyness of the season, I haven’t visited Paulette’s blog for a few weeks, but I can tell you that I’ve thought of it often, and I’ve hungered to go back… Every Wednesday, Paulette hosts a praise and worship service like no other. When I enter her blog on Wednesdays, I enter into the Holy of Holies, and when I leave, I am filled and satisfied… Many times, the Lord has given me a word to share after visiting Paulette’s blog. Please don’t ever stop, because there are so many of us who need this!

6. Evangelist Isabel Vasquez – This anointed woman of God shares a lot of wisdom at her site. It is rich with biblically sound doctrine, but the best thing is that she is an encourager and an edifier. She not only encourages and blesses you with the words she writes on her blog, but she also visits the blogs of others, leaving her words of blessing behind.

7. Big Dreams – Just Older – This blogger has a heart filled with love and compassion for others. She has known what it is to suffer, and therefore, she is able to comfort others with the comfort that she has been given. She is such a blessing and inspiration to others.

8. Sisters of Christ – This blogger is another woman of God who has suffered much, yet because she has suffered much, she is able to love much, and it comes through in each and every blog post. When you visit her site, you know immediately that you have entered into a safe haven filled with the love of Christ.

9. beautifulmess916 – This beautiful blogger has really touched my heart. She has a deep love for the Lord, and more than anything, her heart’s desire is to minister. The Lord says if we will delight ourselves in Him, then He will give us the desires of our heart. My beautiful blogging friend, keep delighting in Him and inspiring others to do the same, because He has heard your cry!

10. A Christian imagination – This woman has so much talent and passion for the Lord. As I read her posts, I get excited and I get a vision for so many different avenues of worshiping God. If you love fairy tales, you must stop by and read her improvement on many of the fairy tales we grew up reading… I mean, I don’t know about you, but some of those “happily ever after” fairy tales didn’t always leave me with warm fuzzy feelings. It is so inspiring to see the many gifts that the Lord has given to His people, and especially to this blogger.

11. Hope* the happy hugger – I met this lovely blogger when I started participating in the Daily Prompts. I sense that this blogger has much pain inside, and yet, when I visit her blog, she offers only encouragement, and when she visits other blogs, she almost always leaves a *hug*. I think perhaps she doesn’t even realize just how special her *hugs* are. They inspire others to want to be kinder and more caring, and doesn’t the world need a lot more people like that?

12. terry1954 – This blogger loves to write, and what she writes is so positive and encouraging. This is another person that I sense carries deep pain, and yet she offers goodness and joy at her site, and it is always a pleasure to stop by and read what she has written. She inspires others to want to be and do better.

13. transcendingbordersblog – This young lady knows what it is to suffer, and yet, in the midst of her suffering, she continues to obey and glorify God. While others have offered their opinions, she stands firm on the Word of the Lord, choosing to walk in obedience to Him, rather than take the easy way out. She inspires me to want to do better.

14. His Love is Better Than Wine – This blogger has one of the prettiest sites (all pink and whatnot), and she has a whole lot of wisdom and love to share. She also knows how to have fun – I mean whoever said that being a Christian means no more fun? Stop by and read her little pearls of wisdom and who knows? While reading those pearls of wisdom, you might discover that this Christianity thing is lots of fun!

15. Musings&Rants – When I read this blog, I come away with joy… Do you know what I’m talking about? Joy of living, joy of the Lord… As this blogger shares her musings and rants, sometimes I chuckle and laugh right out loud (lrol?) 😀 She reviews television shows and movies, talks about her daughter, and then before you know it, she’s talking about the Lord. He has given this blogger a zest for life, and it comes through her blogs.

Hallelujah! There you have it – my 15 nominees for the Very Inspiring Blogger Award. Again, my beloved friends, there is no pressure to accept the award… In fact, I’ll be honest with you… one of my reasons for accepting the award was so that I could write about you, and I’ve done that now. Mission accomplished! 😀

In Christ’s Matchless and Enduring Love,
Cheryl

Kreative Blogger Award

Today I received my first blogging award, and I am very honored. It’s called the Kreative Blogger Award, and MRSMOONEY27 presented this award to me. When I started this, I never expected to win anything. I just wanted to obey the Lord and write the things that He places on my heart, and sometimes just post my own silly rambling thoughts. Thank you so much MRSMOONEY27 for presenting this award to me. The Rules of this award are:

• Thank the blogger who nominated you and link back to their blog.
• List seven random things about yourself.
• Nominate 10 other blogs that you admire and enjoy.
• Notify the nominees.
• Display the award logo on your blog.

Seven random things about me (in no particular order) are:

1. I LOVE Jesus!
2. In only 7 years, I will be the grandmother of 9 (and I only have 2 children)!
3. I’ve always dreamed of being an author and writing a book, and now at age 51, I’ve begun writing my first book.
4. I’ve been married to the same man for 31 1/2 years and my love for him has grown stronger with each passing year.
5. I like playing word games.
6. I have a song for nearly every conversation or situation that arises, and I don’t mind belting it out anywhere I happen to be… Walmart… Food Lion… McDonald’s… wherever…
7. It is my prayer that others will be blessed and inspired by my testimony, and walk away knowing that if God can mend and heal my broken heart, then He is more than able to do exceedingly, abundantly above all that they could ever hope for or ask. 🙂

Nominate 10 other blogs that you admire and enjoy:

1. The Hidden Paths – Prophetess Chantay’s blog is a blessing to all who read what the Lord has placed in her heart to share with His people.

2. DEB’S BLOG – Deb’s “Simple Poems” richly bless and inspire me everyday.

3. greenlightlady – Greenlightlady’s poetry and photography are so beautiful and inspiring. I look forward to the beauty that she shares with each post.

4. Longing for a Holiday at Sea – This lovely woman has taken her readers with her on her own spiritual journey each day for nearly a year, as she has gone through many trials and tests, and through it all, she has drawn closer to the Lord, and pulled others closer as well.

5. FOREVER POETIC – Wendell Brown has the unique gift of creating pictures of those things that are invisible with his words. As you read his poetry, you are immediately able to see what such invisible things as love, hope, and faithfulness look like. You’re able to hear what they sound like, feel what they feel like, and you can even smell them.

6. Paulette’s Blog – This beautiful woman makes blogging interactive, as she her blog becomes the meeting place for men and women of God to join together in worship, singing, dancing, praying together and speaking life and encouragement to one another.

7. Scottish Warriors For Christ – The articles and poetry, as well as the wisdom shared on this blog is more valuable than you could ever imagine.

8. Sisters of Christ – This is a blog by a woman who has been dealt many blows in her life, but she is no longer a victim, and no longer merely a survivor. This is a blog written by a woman who is victorious – she has overcome much of the pain of her past, and now seeks to empower other women who have suffered or are in the midst of trials.

9. cries of my heart – Jodikarren, the author of this blog is a young woman who is an example to all, that by the grace and power of God, you can overcome all obstacles and live a life that is pleasing to Him.

10. Hope* the happy hugger – The author of this blog has a gentle spirit that is soothing, and she has the ability to encourage you when she visits your blog, and after reading her blog, you will find yourself leaving feeling uplifted and encouraged.