Welcome to my week

Happy President's Day Everyone! This day is a little more special to me, because I have a patriotic follow-up on Thursday. I'll be celebrating becoming a U.S.A. citizen of ten years. Yes, (as I shared with my women's small group @ church) I am a relatively young citizen, but have enjoyed the privilege of voting these past ten years. By the way, that's what pushed me to complete the process (a long process) of becoming an American. I know that the Lord also used that somehow to move me along the path to becoming a citizen of Heaven that same year 4 months later. So, I'm thinking of the wonder that I live in a great country that was founded on the truth of God's word and laws. Today, I am thankful for the many blessings of what that means in my life. I can worship Him in freedom, live a life full of freedom and choice. And when I think about the majority of the world not even having an inkling of what that means -- it makes me angry. It also helps line me up with the real battle -- God's mission for each of us to spread His truth, His gospel. It makes me a more committed Christian -- to see past my nose and pray for the lost, pray for His victory across our land and the world. It is a great life that we have in Him, don't you agree?
I wasn't too sure how to begin my post, so peeked in on Leanne's set-up and profile. I was a little disturbed that the blog set-up folks take a person's birthdate and translate that over to an astrological match-up. Why would that concern me? Well, I know that the worship of the stars is in part the scheme behind the astrology junk found in newspapers and other sources. It is one of the idols of this world and I have learned never to read my "daily forcast" in astrology (put together by a medium-type warned about in the Bible) because I see no reason to give the devil a foothold in my life. I also don't need to give God reason to curse me by in any way worshipping a false idol. So, when you are asked to give your birthdate when you sign up on your profile, you could leave your birthdate blank (unless someone knows how to remove this altogether) and hence you won't be identified as a particular sign. Perhaps the blog folks could be talked to about this concern, also. If anyone knows how to go about doing that -- I would appreciate it. I'm sure that we will run into these kind of worldly stumbling blocks from time to time, so pray that the Lord will remove it from our paths. And we'll use this one as a learning and grow because of it coming into our lives.
Well, sisters of mine, I pray that the Lord will BLESS you and shine brightly upon your day. I pray for protection around you so that your heart can be tender to His touch and leading in your life. Lovingly, Bethea