A Picture of my life...

If you could take a picture of things that represent your life what would it look like... here is mine.

Each item in this picture represents the important things in my life... they speak of me without a word being spoken... they represent my past, my now and my future, my hopes and my legacy....

The shofar is a symbol of my desire to see a sound released over NE Arkansas, West TN and SE MO that will break the bondage's that have entrapped the people and the land of this region...I had the privilege of driving from 2008 to 2010 each month through these areas. God sent some wonderful people to speak into my life in July 2008 at the same time He provided me a job that payed me to drive from Ripley TN to Blytheville, AR (my home town)... I got paid to do a prayer drive each month... NOW THAT WAS A GOD THING!  I wandered all over the bootheel of  Missouri, NE Arkansas and what I call the Hwy 51 area of West TN and even out a little farther... it was one of the most amazing times in my life.  I thought when the job ended my assignment had ended.  I was wrong, God had simply put me on an extended leave as I dealt with the illness and the going home of my husband.  Recently HE has reignited the fire in my heart to see this region become all that it is meant to be... SOUND THE ALARM...AWAKEN THE WATCHMEN!!!! 

The Scarves are prophetically dyed scarves from dyed4you  and often are with me when I take my shofar to a service or on a prayer assignment. The first scarf is called Redeemed (on the right in the picture), it was literally purchased without me releasing any information to dyed4you about me.  Allowing them to design what they felt the Lord said to them ...  and this what they came up with:  the colors & what they represent - Fuchsia - passion, Storm - cleansing, Cranberry - worth the ultimate price, Burgundy - bought with a price!  I am passionate about what moves my heart, I am an all or nothing kind of girl... If I am in I am all in, if I love, I love with all of me... the rest is related to my testimony!  You can go here to listen to my testimony and you will understand how well Meghan and her team hear from God.  I received Redeemed just a few weeks before my husband was diagnosed with lung cancer. It represents who I am in the eyes of God and was something tangible for me to hold onto during the hardest days of my life. The second scarf, is called Comfort,  colors & what they represent - Purple - The Promises of God, Dusty Rose - Peace: the Father's care over His children, White - Purity.  I ordered this specific scarf the day they sent my husband home from the hospital with hospice and told us he had only a few weeks at best to live (he died 2 weeks to the day we left the hospital).  I ordered it to wear at his funeral, it arrived 10 days after the funeral... it represents God's complete attention to every detail of my life... HE wanted me to always see this scarf as a representation of  His love for me and that HE was and will always be my Comforter, and not as a reminder of a funeral... each breath I take is monitored by HIM. 

The oil is from   Abba Anointing Oil  it is called Cassia, - In the spiritual sense, cassia speaks of humility, being stripped of pride, set apart (holy) with a servant's heart.  It represents the process I have been through in the last 17 months of my life. I have been stripped of everything I thought I could not live without... my husband, my home, my hopes and dreams, my pride.... I was crushed and broken, yet HE has healed me and made me whole... now HE  is pouring the anointing into me that HE can use for HIS purpose.  It is an ongoing process.... I humbly submit daily to His love and adjustments of me.

The small  picture on the left  just behind the shofar is of the four most beautiful people in the world to me, my children Elliott, Jennifer, Michael and Jessica, they represent the best of who I am.  Each one is very unique and wonderfully made.  They have been thru a lot with me in the days of my craziness but God gave me the chance to redeem my relationship with each of them.  He also gave me a promise regarding them, in the upper left hand corner of the picture is the word sanctuary... one of the meaning of the word is:  A sacred and inviolable asylum; a place of refuge and protection; shelter; refuge; protection.


The ladybug pin in front of the shofar  and the ultrasound picture on the right represent the 2nd generation of my legacy.... My Granddaughters, Lilly Grace (called Lilly Bug) and Sydney Lynn who was my firstborn grandbaby! My goal is to live each day of my life as well as I can so that they and all my grandbabies yet to come will bear the fruit of what God is doing in my life long after I am gone...  They are my blessings on legs, the bright stars in my dark nights and gifts beyond compare.  They are the reason on the days I get it all wrong, that I get back up and try harder the next day!


The last thing in this picture represents my future... The painting is by a dear sweet girl by the name of Jeanne Nelson.  I fell in love with this cabin in the woods a few years ago, but it is only recently I understood why.   It represents my future place of sanctuary, my dream home in my old age, a place of peace and of fulfillment. It speaks to my hope that one day I will again have a place to call home a place where someone will hold me tight when I need to cry, will be there to hold my hand in my old age and love me as Christ loves me. It is hidden away from the world and yet appears to me to be the safest place on earth, a place I will be happy and safe til I take my last breath and finally see my Jesus...

So that is what the picture of my life means to me... what does yours say about you?  I pray if you don't have a picture of your life in your mind, you seek the one who can help you find it... Jesus.

Where did you lose your KEYS?

This morning as I was walking I came up with the brilliant plan to stick my car key under my arm band that was holding my phone, thinking if my keys fell I would feel them or hear them.  LOL... you know how that worked, right! As I finished my second mile I realized I had lost them.  I was dumbfounded for a minute then I was a little panic stricken, then I realized where they probably fell... on that little hill I like to jog up. The problem is the little hill was at least 2/3 of a mile away which meant I had to walk ALL the way around to that place to see if in fact they were there.  I of course looked on my way there and I kept saying God where are those keys... my spirit answered, you know exactly where they are.  I was a little frustrated I could not just snap my fingers and be there, but I figured since I had to re-walk the path I might as well  use it usefully, so I started praying....

God started whispering,  Nora sometimes you get so caught up in the moment or things around you , that  you don’t realize you have dropped your keys... you are wide open and it is only when you get to a place of needing those keys do you realize that you are trying to operate without a very important thing... Just like you have been operating the last few weeks without Me.  Just like you have to walk around this path again to find the exact place you lost the keys, I had to walk you around the path to the place of where you dropped Me off.  I need you to understand where you dropped ME off & why you dropped ME off.

We like to holler OH God where are You, OH GOD why did YOU  leave me when things get tough or the enemy is in our face laughing at us as we are stumbling the path blindly.  But the truth is we are the ones who leave HIM on the side of the path when it isn't convenient having Holy Spirit in our ear going... no that is not a wise choice.  We may not even notice the first lap or two, then there comes a moment when you realize you are not hearing HIM as you have, you are not at peace about anything and every little wind that blows scares you.  You can’t see people the way HE sees them, you view them thru your mistrust or need, you question their motives, your motives and you have no way of seeing the truth, because chaos is the enemies best friend.  We will realize where we let go of HIS hand and then in our selfishness we ask GOD to just transport us  to that moment and just start from there, but alas there is a process. That process is meant to teach us something so that maybe we won’t take one more lap without HIM.  I experienced that in the last few days. 

Two things I learned through this, I still feel the  need for others approval and I see myself as alone and in need... OUCH!  Correction is a hard thing, and it hurts, but the peace that comes with it is so past any words I can put to paper... here is the truth HE gave me.... I am accepted in the Beloved even when I miss it, I am chased daily with a love that surpasses all understanding, I am not alone, I never have been... My DADDY GOD has been there thru it all!  I am a blessed daughter of the MOST HIGH GOD!  Thank YOU FATHER GOD for YOUR forgiveness, grace and love!!!!

My beloved spoke and said to me,

"Arise, my darling,

my beautiful one, come with me. See! The winter is past;

the rains are over and gone. Flowers appear on the earth;

the season of singing has come,

the cooing of doves

is heard in our land. The fig tree forms its early fruit;

the blossoming vines spread their fragrance.

Arise, come, my darling;

my beautiful one, come with me." (Song of Solomon 2:10-13 NIV)

Lesson's I learned from my husband

Lesson’s I learned from my husband

I was listening to the song the other day Bless the Broken Road by Rascal Flatts. It was our wedding song when my deceased husband and I were married almost 7 years ago.  I was worried it would cause a flood of tears and pain, it did not. It did cause a flood of happy memories, wishful dreams that did not come true and understanding that sometimes we can’t always see the bigger picture.  As I was walking and listening, I kept hitting repeat trying to figure out what I was feeling and hearing in my heart and spirit. I realized that my husband who was a part of the broken road I am still on and while he was on the road with me he taught me some very important lessons in 6 ½ year. Lessons that will serve me well for the rest of my life and I want to share a few of those lessons here, for your amusement or maybe as a way of showing that even in lose there is good that can be found.

11)      A hardhead makes for soft a** (translation: butt) -  My husband was wont to say I was a bit stubborn and I was a woman who loved to get her way.  I am not stubborn more like one track minded. I get a thought in my head on how it should go or be done and I sometimes can’t see another’s point of view.  My husband was the child of a farmer and farmed some himself as an adult, he knew about farming and he knew about land.  But when we (meaning me) decided to start an heirloom vegetable business I studied the organic ways of handling the land and basic farming methods and techniques.  When I excitedly shared my new knowledge of farming and the way we were going to do it, my husband was amused to put it nicely.  But I was going to have my way in this so I talked and talked and he finally gave in to hush me up!  So we set out on our grand adventure… We tilled up the land to my specifications… him alternating between huffing and laughing. We planted EVERYTHING by hand and I decided on spacing, row size etc.  The first year was our experimenting year which is why I am sure there wasn’t more back lash to my new farming methods.  So here we go, first thing that took me by surprise was rain, as in too much of it early on and not nearly enough later in the growing season.  Everything we planted in the flat I so demanded we plant at was either washed away or moved over til our rows looked like coiled snakes.  The year we decided to do this was the first of 2 years of major rainfall and flooding in the spring.  So we ended up having to replant about 50% of our vegetables.  Then for the rest of the year there was almost no rain at all.  I had vegetables spread all over with no way to water them and that caused way more work than it should have been. Then my spacing lead to vegetables to close or to spread out which made it hard to get a tiller down between rows and that meant weeding was a nightmare. My husband did his best to explain to me farming was a lot like gambling sometimes you win, sometimes you don’t. Gambling is something that makes me sick to my stomach after the first $20.00 is spent so when some of my gambling did not pay off, I realized I should have listened more and read less.  After the first year I learned a few things… he was way smarter than I gave him credit for, he had the patience of Job and he should have put his foot down with me and made me see the sense of his way of farming.  I am not a woman who would buck his final word, but a few days of me pouting was not something he handled well… I was a wee bit spoiled, so I got away with more than I should have. LOL

22)      Real men can say no and still love their wives as Christ loved the Church – As I stated earlier my husband often let me get away with more than I should have, but there were times in our lives when he did not back down.  He made decision based on a few simple principles: Was it going to cause me harm.  Was it going to cause harm to our marriage.  Did the benefit out way the cost. Please notice the order of those principles that was his order not mine, I and our marriage came first with him ALWAYS.  In the entire time we were married we only had one true fight and it was very early in our marriage. It was not a pretty thing and I will not expose him or myself with the details, but the bottom line was this, I was spending more time taking care of everyone and everything else I was involved in than I was investing time in our relationship the way that I should. I of course was explaining how important everything I was doing was, after all 75% of what I was doing involved church.  But he was not going to let this one alone and I finally saw his way, well not really at first but I gave cause I cannot abide strife.  He however was right and I stopped being on call 24/7 and I made a promise that he got at least one day a week of my undivided time  Most weeks he got more time and others we worked together on my project of the week.  It taught me balance and it taught me to include him in anything he was willing to be a part of and to let him sit out anything he did not want to be a part of. He taught me to respect his and others choices.  He taught me that real love was not only protecting me from the big bad world but it was also protecting me from myself.

33)      Fussing in the back of a boat will not get you any closer to the bank but it will get you a trolling motor of your own. -  Now fishing and camping was our favorite thing to do.  We loved to be in a boat all day, getting all sunburned and smelling like fish or just bait, depending on how the fishing went.  I am a crappie fishing bank hugging fool; he on the other hand alternated  between sitting 3 inches off the bank brimm fishing or 10 foot off a bank just trolling.  Made me insane… I never knew if I was going to be in a tree unable to jig or so far out I could not get the line out…. I fussed & fussed, I whined… so one day I come home to find he has tied (think Jethro Bodine) a trolling motor to the back of the boat just for me.   First trip out I was excited, I finally had some control over the boat… every true southern woman’s dream!   My excitement didn’t last long, it was work and it was frustrating.  About the time I got the boat where I wanted the wind would blow it out of position or he would shift and I spent more time wrestling with that stupid trolling motor than I did fishing.  I quickly realized that I had made him feel that nothing he did was right and I was stealing the pleasure he took in fishing with me. Needless to say, I was a little ashamed of myself.  I learned that if you want to be part of the solution to a problem that there will be work involved and whining is never the answer to a problem. He taught me to look at problems from another point of view (see the theme here LOL).  He never took the trolling motor off the boat, it was there when my stepson bought the boat from me after his death.  I think he realized I needed the constant reminder of it and truthfully he simply enjoyed teaching me this lesson, we laughed often about that Bodined’ trolling motor.

On a daily basis I have opportunity to use and remember these lessons so loving taught me by my husband.  These are things that I will carry with me for the rest of my life, not as sorrowful burdens, but as valuable tools and evidence of his great love for me.  That love so much like Christ’s love for us.  When God has to teach us a lesson or allow us to face the consequences of our actions, it is always covered in love and in the end meant for our good. I lost my husband, my home and my entire way of life… yet I am still here and I still have a purpose and there is still a plan for my life. Good will come from what was meant to crush us if we will hold on and believe.