Aunt Pickle's Blog

Deuteronomy 28:1 HCSB "Now if you faithfully obey the Lord your God and are careful to follow all His commands I am giving you today, the Lord your God will put you far above all the nations of the earth." Many of us know true unconditional love. Not the love between spouses but the love between child and parent. I believe it can be said that one or both of our parents have, at one point or another, shown love unconditionally- beyond our own understanding.   Remember a time that your parent acted unconditionally toward you. How did it make you feel? Did it humble you? Did it bring remorse to your heart? Did you ever make that mistake again? Did you ever sin against your parent again? What did they do? Forgiveness is an amazing thing. We are taught forgiveness at a very very early age. I believe forgiveness is the first step to unconditional love. After forgiveness is obedience. Once we have been forgiven of a mishap and truly repented of it we don't want to do it aga

Mark 8: 34- 38 HCSB "Summoning the crowd along with His disciples, He said to them, "If anyone wants to be My follower, he must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life because of Me and the gospel will save it. For what does it benefit a man to gain the whole world yet lose his life? What can a man give in exchange for his life? For whoever is ashamed of Me and of My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will also be ashamed of him when He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels." Let's talk about this passage for a second. First off, realize that Jesus is talking to his disciples and those surrounding him. This is what he spoke after rebuking Peter. Again, we find that in Jesus day it wasn't all that different than today. There was sin and skeptics. It was a struggle to follow him then just like now. However, today in America, you don'

Some of you know I've been attending a different church these past several months. It's been an amazing experience! One of the things I love about this church is the community. Everyone is encouraged to do everything. I have been participating in a women's book club/ study. We're reading " You're Already Amazing: Embracing Who You Are, Becoming All God Created You to Be" by Holley Gerth. I recommend this book to every woman; young and not so young. Holley has a way of getting you to think about your life from a perspective that only you and God will understand. She helps you recognize your strengths, your weaknesses, your relationship with God and many other things. This book has helped me look at my life and see that I've been doing things not so bad but I've been human and slacking. You can purchase this book here and I'm sure any local book store. Please find $10 out of your budget to buy this book and commit to yours

It's been a good chapter, it's been an eventful chapter. There's been love, loss, tears, sorrow, happiness, gratefulness, appreciation, growth and now it's time to move on. I think it's super interesting to look back at my life and see all the changes and all the growth that has happened. I give God all the credit because I know with all my being that it's because of Him that I am sitting here today about to tell you that He provided for me once again! As most of you know I have had 2 jobs for the past almost 6 years. I have worked in the insurance industry at one job and with developmentally disabled adults at the 2nd. I have loved both jobs immensely! Well, about 3 months ago I learned of a position at an insurance company that I knew I would be perfect for! A trainer position at Pekin Insurance. During the phone interview I was feeling super hopeful. 3-4 wks later I had a face-to-face interview which I, again, felt hopeful. Then 2-3 wks later I had a 2n

Jeremiah 29: 11-14 "11 For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.12 Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you.13 You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.14 I will be found by you," declares the Lord, "and will bring you back from captivity. I will gather you from all the nations and places where I have banished you," declares the Lord, "and will bring you back to the place from which I carried you into exile." We all know Jeremiah 29:11... or maybe I should say we recognize the scripture address... if you've been in any Christian bookstore it's plastered all over. If you've ever been anywhere that has a Christian something or other there's a good chance that you've seen this passage. You may not know what it says but you've seen it. 29:11 states that the Lord knows th

Have you ever really listened to the lyrics of "Praise You in the Storm" by Casting Crowns? 1 I lift up my eyes to the hills— where does my help come from? 2 My help comes from the LORD, the Maker of heaven and earth. Psalms 121: 1&2 God does not want bad things for us but, because of free will, we have the choice to live a life that will throw us bad events. When bad events happen to us, something small- like my car breaking down on the side of the road for no good reason or something huge- like the main office of your business burning down in the middle of the night, He's there. God calls us to praise Him always. When we find out that it's only going to cost $62 to fix the problem of the car which died on the side of the road it's easy to praise Him. When we find out our best friend's cancer has been surgically removed, it's easy to praise Him. When we find out that we're going to get a raise, it's easy to praise Him. When we find