Earlier this week, Hannah and I helped at the church getting things ready for VBS. We worked on banners. Our theme this year is a Western Round Up.


My cowboy turned out so cute. Even Hannah was enamored by him.



Kelsey even showed up to work. :)



This still isn't the finished product. It's all filled in and finished and looks great, if I do say so myself! LOL


And this one is the little cowgirl. Kelsey and Hannah helped with this one. Both banners turned out fantastic. They'll look good hanging in the sanctuary.

Kendra made some farm animals to hang on the walls, but I haven't snagged their pictures yet. They turned out really cute too.

Right now I'm getting ready to pack for Georgia. We're going to Atlanta tomorrow and visiting a couple of sites there this weekend. I know I'll have lots of pictures to share when we get back.

Hope y'all have a great weekend!

Are We Diotrephes or Demetrius?

Last night my devotions were on III John verses 9-14,

" I wrote unto the church: but Diotrephes, who loveth to have the preeminence among them, receiveth us not. Wherefore, if I come, I will remember his deeds which he doeth, prating against us with malicious words: and not content therewith, neither doth he himself receive the brethren, and forbiddeth them that would, and casteth them out of the church. Beloved, follow not that which is evil, but that which is good. He that doeth good is of God: but he that doeth evil hath not seen God. Demetrius hath good report of all men, and of the truth itself: yea, and we also bear record; and ye know that our record is true. I had many things to write, but I will not with ink and pen write unto thee: But I trust I shall shortly see thee, and we shall speak face to face. Peace be to thee. Our friends salute thee. Greet the friends by name."

Diotrephes had a very high approval rating of himself. He felt himself superior to others that entered the church. He refused to welcome itinerant preachers. The brethren!! Probably because they did not meet up to his standards and preferences. Raise your hand if you know anyone like that. o/ <---that's me raising my hand. :P

On the flip side, John discusses Demetrius. A sinner saved by grace not esteeming himself better than anyone else. Someone who had a "...good report of ALL men..." I got to thinking about that. I think sometimes we think it is our duty to seek out the bad report instead of trying to find the good report in others. What makes us better than our brethren?

Mind you, there are those that cause strife and division and those people are to be marked and avoided. But that's a whole other issue. I'm talking about the poor dears that are shunned and thought lowly of because they don't fit "the mold." And too many times those that are shunned are turned off to anything Holy because of our rotten attitudes and self righteous judgements.

I was discussing a situation with someone today and how a church had treated their family. They didn't homeschool, the girls didn't wear skirts clear down to the ankle, the children were considered worldly and the parents weren't doing a good job and were looked down upon. In several instances they were shunned by the Deotrephes in that church for not meeting up to their personal standards. Even though this family has GREAT standards! And by the way, personal standards are just that....personal. I've said it here at Thimble Thoughts before and I'll say it again, the Bible says we are to work out our OWN salvation. God will deal with us according to the things He feels we need to be dealt with. It is our job to be open to His will for our lives. If we are not open and we do not allow Him to deal in areas HE feels we need to be dealt with, there, and only there, do we have the problem.

The whole point of this post is to ask ourselves how we make others feel when they enter our church and are part of God's family. Are we a Diotrephes, looking down our noses at others? Or are we Demetrius, looking for the good report in all men?

VBS Next Week!!

Next week we will be having our VBS at church. Our theme is a cowboy round up theme and it's going to be so cute.

Hannah and I went today and worked on banners and pictures with Kendra. Kelsey showed up after she got off work. It was fun and tomorrow we'll finish up what we didn't get to today.

We took a couple of pics, but I haven't had time to download them yet. I might get to share some pictures tomorrow night. We'll see.

Harrison is attending VBS at another church this week. He had a good time last night and is looking forward to tonight. Justin is taking him and then hanging out with a friend until its time to pick him up. It's so nice having a child that can drive. hehe

I made a huge pot of spaghetti last night so we're having leftovers. It's also nice that I don't have to cook tonight. Toss a little salad together, and voila!

This is such a boring post, but if I don't post something I'll be reprimanded by someone for not updating. So please forgive me that there is no humor, excitement, spiritual uplifting, etc.

Date Night!

I took Hannah to the doctor this morning. She has an ear infection. She has some sinus stuff going on but I think she'll be feeling better in a few days.

Justin spent time with Kelsey and her family tonight, Hannah and Harry were at my mother-in-law's, and Bruce and I had our date night. We had a gift card to Applebee's so had supper there. Then Bruce had an idea....

....so we went to Dairy Queen.

I was shoveling it in by the spoonfulls, but.......


......Bruce was the one getting the brain freezes.

When we got home, we visited with my neighbors, who just laid down some hardwood floors. It looked great! I know they're going to love it.

We had a great time tonight. I love my darlin'. I value and treasure each of our little dates.

Loads of Pics!!!

Our teens attended a youth rally at Cornerstone last weekend. I picked Kelsey and her sister, Mady, up for the youth rally and we met everyone there. It was really good. One of the best I've been to!
Kelsey and Justin

Jeremy, Justin C, Jamie C, and Caleb R!

Jeremy!

Kendra and Kelsey!

Brother Bo!

Brother Bo had the youth Pastors come up without their socks and shoes and had everyone vote for the one they thought had the most beautiful feet.

The poor guys had to stand up there with their feet exposed, but I must say they handled it quite nicely.

Each row of pews walked by the........contestants.........looking and gawking at hairy, man-feet!

The King James 1611 Boys were there to sing. They were great, as always!

The church was divided between two teams. The Red team and the Blue team. We were on the Red team.

It must be nice to have a dad so tall....hehe

After the cheers, they announced the Beautiful Feet winner. It was our very own Brother RJ! Look at that face. Doesn't he look proud? I know we were. Yes, we were proud that our Youth Pastor took home the Beautiful Feet award. A gift certificate to a shoe store. Our Youth Pastor, Brother RJ, has the most beautiful feet between here and 200 miles to Georgia. I say that because there was a Youth Pastor there with his church that had driven 200 miles to be there. So yeah!

Gettin' ready to start the service!

A few of our people took home door prizes.

A group from Brother Bo's church sang and they were really good. I enjoyed them very much!

On Monday, Hannah, Harrison, and I left with Kendra, Jordan, and Janet to Tennessee. Here they are on the front porch of a rest stop. LOL

I have no idea what this is, but like Dee Dee said, if I were the artist I would have named this Bad Hair Day.

We stayed on the campground where Janet's parents keep their camper. There were cabins we stayed in just above the river. They were really nice and a great place to just unwind and relax.

Monday night we met up with Brother Johnny and his family and Brother Wayne and Mrs. Vickie at the camper and cooked out for supper.

Baby Darlin' enjoyed resting on her mama's lap. How peaceful is that?

Brother Wayne grilled the steaks and chicken and Mrs. Vickie stewed the taters. Everything was delish!

Harrison's steak was so good he didn't even bother cutting it!

Baby Girl was busy playing in Brother Wayne's water pump. She kept telling her daddy that she was dirty and needed to wash. hehe

It was a great time of fellowship. We had fun.

Brother Johnny had Baby Darlin' crackin' up. How sweet is that smile!

Mrs. Vickie was busy in and out entertaining. She's so sweet!!

We played this game of bean bag toss. It's sort of like horse shoes, only more fun.

Look who's stylin' with her shades!

Tuesday morning waited for Harrison to cast his rod for the very first time. I do believe he loved the fishing more than anything. He never caught anything, but he had a good time.

Jordan enjoyed his time fishing too!!

While Kendra, Hannah, and Harry went swimming, Janet, Jordan, and I played Prison Rummy. Jordan decided we weren't going to keep score, so I have no idea who won. I'm pretty sure it was Janet, though.

Harrison was having a ball when we got to the pool. He wanted me to take a pic of him jumping in. So here it is.....

Kendra and Hannah did some action poses for me too.

Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

After supper Tuesday night, the children wanted to fish a little more before starting a fire and eating s'mores. Hannah placed the worm on Harrison's hook, but she did NOT like doing that. She was very disturbed by all the wiggling and knowing the hook had to hurt the little guys.

But she was a trooper and did it anyway.

Look at Janet....all ready to start the fire. She's a pyromaniac, I tell ya!

Hannah's fiery marshmallows!

Mmmm, S'mores!

Mmmm, toasty!

Mmmm, hot and toasty!

More chocolate, Mrs. Janet! More chocolate!!!

There was a forgotten bag of trash left at the bottom of the steps. When Janet walked out to do something, she proceeded down the steps and in the dark she saw a white tail raise from the trash. If you look closely, you can see a skunk. I've never known Janet to move so quickly, but those little legs FLEW back into the cabin!

We had talked about going to Dollywood, but we were having just as much fun riding the little shoe and truck at the bath house. We spent a lot of quarters on those rides, but we saved a bundle by staying there at the campground.

When we left Wed afternoon, Brother Wayne and Mrs. Vickie wanted us to try a restaurant called the Gondalier. The pizza was SUPERB and the dessert of Raspberry and white chocolate cake was unbelievable!

Look at Mrs. Vickie. She loves this place so much she took home a pizza box as a souveniour.

We had a great time and did nothing at all but relax and take it easy. It was wonderful. It was glorious. I could definitely do that again!