Saturday, June 13, 2009

Daddy's Empty Chair...


Good afternoon! I hope you all are having a great weekend. My sister sent me this in an email, and I may have forwarded it on to some of you, but since it is so close to Father's day, and I miss my daddy so much....I thought I would post this here:

Daddy's Empty Chair~
"A man's daughter had asked the local minister to come and pray with her father.

When the minister arrived, he found the man lying in bed with his head propped up on two pillows.

An empty chair sat beside his bed. The minister assumed that the old fellow had been informed of his visit.

"I guess you were expecting me, he said.

'No, who are you?" said the father.

The minister told him his name and then remarked,

"I saw the empty chair and I figured you knew I was going to show up,"

"Oh yeah, the chair," said the bedridden man.

"Would you mind closing the door?" Puzzled, the minister shut the door.

"I have never told anyone this, not even my daughter," said the man.

"But all of my life I have never known how to pray.

At church I used to hear the pastor talk about prayer, but it went right over my head."

I abandoned any attempt at prayer," the old man continued,

"Until one day four years ago, my best friend said to me,

"Johnny, prayer is just a simple matter of having a conversation with Jesus. Here is what I suggest."

"Sit down in a chair; place an empty chair in front of you, and in faith see Jesus on the chair.

It's not spooky because he promised, 'I will be with you always'.

"Then just speak to him in the same way you're doing with me right now."

"So, I tried it and I've liked it so much that I do it a couple of hours every day.

I'm careful though If my daughter saw me talking to an empty chair, she'd either have a nervous breakdown or send me off to the funny farm."

The minister was deeply moved by the story and encouraged the old man to continue on the journey.

Then he prayed with him, anointed him with oil, and returned to the church.

Two nights later the daughter called to tell the minister that her daddy had died that afternoon.

Did he die in peace?" he asked.

Yes, when I left the house about two o'clock, he called me over to his bedside, told me how much he loved me and kissed me on the cheek.

When I got back from the store an hour later, I found him dead.

But there was something strange about his death. Apparently, just before Daddy died, he leaned over and rested his head on the chair beside the bed.

What do you make of that?"

The minister wiped a tear from his eye and said, "I wish we could all go like that."


It is comforting to me to know that my dad was able to talk with Jesus in his last days. He told us all about it. I know Jesus carried him when he could no longer carry himself. To those of you that still have your daddys...take some time during the next week to tell them how much you love and appreciate them.



SUMMER GIVEAWAY COMING!
I am putting together a shabby mixed media goody bag for a giveaway and a summer fun beach themed jewelry kit giveaway. So check back on Monday for pics and giveaway rules!

Monday, June 8, 2009

Time to Vote!

You have GOT to go and look at the amazing entries for the Mind Wide Open Challenge this month! I told you all earlier that I entered my measly little ol ATC. Well you need to go see all the amazing works of art that were submitted. ANd don't forget to vote. You have til the 16th.




Did you notice my cool banner up above? I got the banner from Cassandra "Blogs n such" She has a bunch of cool blog backgrounds, banners and gadgets....just click on the blog name and check them out.

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And I just had to show you these....on Marie Mail Art group we did an ATC binder Jam. There were four of us. One persone started the binders then they went around and each person added more to them. I was the last one so I got to keep mine and send the other three back to the first person who will then mail them out. It was so cool, and the binders are for storing all our ATC's....Very fun....Anyway, the picture above is what the fronts and backs look like.

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I just had to show you all this amazing shrine that Tristan made for the mind wide open challenge. Isn't it beautiful? You can see more of Tristan's amazing work and his incredibly warped but funny swnse of humor on his blog "Enchanted Revelry"

Ta Ta for now....Becs