In the Meantime...

Remember when at the end of the night, our television sets would all end programming with the same image and then you got the color bars on all channels until the morning? 

So what do you do when it seems like chaos is overcoming virtually every sector in the world? I believe the best plan is not to buy into the panic and realize that things will go back to normal very soon. As soon as the temperatures begin to warm up, it will be a miracle as many will claim it is due to their efforts, that they now have the CoVid-19 under control. Who knows someone may even claim to have discovered a vaccine and now its due to those efforts, that we are over the worst and back to better days ahead.

Meanwhile people continue to spiral out of control as Disney parks around the world, close their doors til the end of March. You see schools, churches, malls and more slowly closing down in hopes of waiting this issue out. Stockpiling is still out of control as people hoard more products than they can possibly use in months to come. It just shows where greed has gotten out of control. Some cities are even closing down and it makes you wonder, just how prepared were we, IF this had been something more serious.

Was this just a test to see how prepared any of us really are?

Was this a global scenario to see how anyone could and would respond?

What if they had more devastating results and the contagion spread faster than anyone could control?

These were the very questions I ran by my husband last night. What if this was simply a test before something more lethal could be released? Are any of us truly prepared like we should have been?

What I think this will do, is show the areas of weakness that can be shored up. Not like stock piling a years worth of toilet paper. This shows how even weak Amazon is, in supplying products to buyers when we believed in them to always have a surplus of supplies at the ready. But making sure you have all the emergency supplies on hand like we all tell ourselves we either have or should get soon.

Until then, for me and my family, we will take normal precautions for now, and respond to the things our local leaders are asking for. We will still continue to do what we do every day. Nothing is going to change that much for us, because we know that this will be over, before anyone knows it will.

I will continue to laugh at the funny meme's people are posting in an effort to find something hopeful and makes you laugh in the midst of the unknown. Life must go on, and it will. We will find joy in our morning devotions, watching BBC series that take our minds off of what the media is spewing, and try to remember to enjoy time with our neighbors a bit more. Let's make sure that we take care of those around us, that might not understand what is happening. Let's think about others while we wait for the world to press the reset button and we wake up from a time that no one thought was possible.

It makes you wonder, if the world panics like this, what will happen when the church is raptured?

Scheduling New Surprises

For those of you that are into crafting and making homemade items, perhaps the best piece of advice I received for helping me keep track of what I should be making is to follow the retail stores. Now I know that might sound crazy especially when it seems like they're getting such early jumps on holidays and it feels as if Christmas will be just around the corner before we know it. But it is the best advice I have gotten to ensure that (1) I am making what needs to be made so I can stock my store in enough time so people can buy it and have it shipped in time to enjoy it. (2) It keeps me ahead of some of the heavy hitters in the wreath making industry that seem to have deep budgets that they can buy in massive quantities.

So with that being said, even though Easter is just a week away, I am moving on with Mother's Day items and even more so with the Patriotic theme, that will be great for most of the summer and into early Fall if you think about it. Since I don't repeat my wreath designs it really challenges me to stay creative. I have to admit I pray about it a lot since I have given my business over to God. On top of that, I am working hard to be successful, but I should pray more before I begin my self imposed work day. Like most creatives, there is a business side to our creative creations. We can't simply create and hope that someone will find them and buy them.

We have to be a shipping and receiving department to ensure you have enough supplies on hand to create custom orders and to make sure that you have enough to begin your next creation. You also have to be customer service and marketing. I have spent most of my work history in Customer Service and I know what I like personally so I want to ensure my customers get the very best service from me from start to finish. I also host DIY tutorials for both a paid and public group so I want to make sure that I am putting all my efforts into making them feel like they are truly getting the best from me as well.

I have also tried to manage my own personal growth by attending online management and marketing classes for women entrepreneurs in order to stay with the growing trends to online business. One doesn't want to be left behind and I want to be one of the ones to watch, not one following in the path of those who have gone before me. So I need to stay creative and innovative. Soon I will be launching my own video business series that will help women entrepreneurs to get started with a little help from me. I only wish those were available for me while I was getting started. I mean they have been but they've been priced out of what a starter business can afford. So while I may seem like the cheapest one out there offering my DIY's at a low cost, I know not everyone can afford $50 a month to follow the bigger entities in the business because they're not there yet making that kind of money to be able to afford that. Trust me, it's a struggle for me to pay for my own as well.

So I can wait to share some of my surprises with both groups for April. I find that setting up a schedule helps both me and those that follow to know what to expect and what exciting things are coming. Until then, I just pray that God continues to open some surprising doors of opportunities for me so that I too, can be a trail blazer in the business world.

Lots to do!

I am super excited for the first LIVE video in my private wreath making group. It will be just me and the wonderful ladies who have joined our group. It gives me the opportunity to work with them more intimately, they get to ask more questions while we go through the process to make an adorable spring or Easter Wreath.

This will also be my first time, setting up my video lights and setting the stage without help from my husband who is still traveling. It will be fun to figure things out on a smaller scale before I open thing up on a bigger scale for my public LIVE on Friday at 5pm PST. If you haven't seen my videos, I have included a sample below for you to see what I have been doing in my small business.

I usually have Steve's help setting everything up to ensure it goes smoothly from light set up to working the camera, answering the questions we get and reading everyone's comments so I can simply work on showing people how to make a beautiful wreath.

Until that time tonight, I will be working on how I want tonight's wreath to come together, and get all my supplies cut and ready so when I click on the "Go Live" button, I'm ready to go. It should be interesting. Have any of you, used the "Go Live" option on your Facebook page? If you are operating a small business you are missing out on some FREE marketing through the largest social media outlet there is.

Facebook knows that almost everyone has a smart phone and spends time streaming videos. I mean think about it, if you at the doctor's office waiting, what are you doing? Where do you go? Think of all the people that can be attracted to what you are doing, simply by 'showing' them how to do it. I have grown my business by 200% simply by doing just that. I hope you will join me and my Facebook page at Kat's Creations! I would LOVE to have you come watch what we make each week, that my viewers vote on, so even I won't know until tomorrow night at 5pm when the poll closes. Hope to see you on Friday!

Getting Schooled

The one thing I have learned since really taking my small business seriously this year, instead of merely making things that people might want to buy, is relearning the business world. What worked for small businesses 5 years ago, no longer works today. This is why you see so many big name brick and mortar stores closing their doors and relying on online sales. This generation of consumers is driven by social media.

This generation of consumers is always on their smart phones and computers. They want to look and shop from the comfort of their own home, so how does one stay competitive in a world where people can shop prices within minutes to find the best deals.

I refuse to give up the notion that customer service and loyalty remains key even though watching LL Bean give up their lifetime warranty on their products so simply given a year or more to make any necessary changes. Why? Well if you read the article, it was part in people shopping their products at garage sales and then asking the company to provide a new product in exchange for the old one, even though they claim the number of opportunities wasn't driven by this claim. I think it has. There will always be those who take advantage of the system to get it to work for them. I mean who would even think to do such a thing right? Yet this generation of consumers is getting smarter and now know how to work the system.

So one needs to be educated on how small business needs to stay afloat in a competitive market, so it is back to school but with those that are successful and willing to pass along their training to you. I have signed up with those small business owners that I can relate to such as Jennifer Allwood, a successful and wonderfully talented entrepreneur that has business classes on such things like using social media to promote your business and why it works so well. She has recently closed her classes temporarily to help those that have signed up and be able to really coach effectively to what works. You simply can't sit on all your social media sites and promote your wares anymore. I mean who wants to follow someone's Facebook or Instagram pages when all they do is be hit with more pictures of what you are selling right?

So it is a slow process for someone like me, but I am learning. I guess the saying that it is never too old to teach an old dog new tricks still applies. Well for this girl, I LOVE learning. I don't think we should ever stop. In fact when I was a corporate trainer for years, the one thing we understood to be successful in the working world is never settle for what you know. Always be learning, and the more you know the more you will provide a valuable asset against someone who is a one trick pony.

Prayer Does Change Things

Every morning I wake up and immediately look at my social media feeds. From notifications on different sites to instant messages it seems the need for prayer is greater than ever and it breaks my heart. So many are asking for the immediate power most of us as Christians have access to and that is God's throne room with a simple prayer request.

I will admit it can be overwhelming at times because it seems as you run through your feeds, that is all it seems to be...someone dying of cancer, someone lost their job, someone just lost their home in a fire, divorce issues, relationship issues, job changes, and even healing for whatever is ailing someone.

So if it is so simple, why do we feel overwhelmed? Why do we read their post and agree silently that we will pray for them and move on to the next feed. If you're like me, you almost regret opening it to begin with because it can be so overwhelming. However what I don't believe we see when prayer is being requested is the response or the answer to that prayer. Those don't get posted as often as we would like, and perhaps if we did more of those as well, it might encourage more prayer because we can get validation in a way that it does change things at least on a visible level.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not questioning God's answers to our many requests, but I do know it can seem overwhelming when that is all you see in your news feeds through social media. But the one thing I can tell you is that prayer does change things. It begins a process that God is already aware of and it begins to make a difference in the spiritual realm, the one we can not see. One day we might have access to see what happens when someone stops what they are doing and prays for another, but for those of us that know God, it works. We just might not get the answer we want.

We might pray for someone to be healed of cancer, and it might be an every day prayer for months and then they get worse and die. Did God not get that one? Of course He did. He might have extended that persons' earthly time to give them a change to get in their final goodbyes and get their affairs in order, maybe to share their faith with others during the worst time in their life, but realize one thing...cancer didn't win. If they're a believer in Christ, they have been 100% fully restored, healed and are waiting for us in heaven. They just got their healing on the other side of this earthly life.

It's all about perspective and I don't mean ours, although... it wouldn't hurt sometimes to shift our own, but it is about God's perspective. What we don't see playing out before our own eyes but it is accomplishing all He has set out to accomplish by allowing these things to run their course. For some living their final day on earth...they might pray for one more day. One more day to tell those they love just how much they are loved, and how much of an impact they have had in our lives. One more day to spend enjoying all those little moments we take for granted trying to cross things of our perpetual to do list and miss out. One more day to enjoy the rain falling and listening and using all five sense to engage in this day.

Most of all, I hope that you take the time to pray for someone when they ask. Let them know that you are praying for them, not simply click a "Like" or a "Heart" on their social media page. Write a prayer if you have time so others can join in and affirm those thoughts. Most of all, keep encouraging them. We need a lot more cheerleaders in this world and prayer does change things. Keep on praying!

It's True if It's on the Internet

You've all seen the commercial for State Farm the debate over how things that aren't true can't be found on the Internet right? Where did you hear that? From the Internet.

Yet how many people find their version of truth to match up with the lifestyle they feel that is okay because of something they read on the Internet. Like the Internet is a source for the absolute truth right?

Makes you wonder just how silly people can be especially if you watch the commercial about woman who dates a French model she found on the Internet because he said he was. You watch it and think, people can't be that gullible right?

I would challenge you on what some people might believe just because someone else tells them, or they find it on the Internet. What we need to be doing when someone tells us that someone tweeted that information to them that they believe is true is " shoot the bird! It's a lie!"

"Well Facebook said..." The only book your face should be looking for the truth in is the Bible! Stop believing the stuff you read on the Internet.

In fact, there is so much falsehood on the Internet, like your favorite celebrity just died, only to find out it was an Internet scam or rumor. There are even websites geared to help you weed out the lies that sound so convincing you might just believe them.

I mean how many of you have been conned by something you read on the Internet? I know I have. Guilty as charged.

We need to begin doing what we used to and go to the source to determine if things are true or not. If you aren't sure God exists or that He really created the entire universe, or that Jesus really is the Son of God, you would go to the Bible. It's the Word of God. It is 100% true. Those who would say otherwise just don't like some of what they read so they disregard it.

One of the biggest reasons evolutionists don't want to believe in God is found in a devotional Greg Laurie, Pastor of Harvest Church in Riverside shared that I love is this:

"To say that all of the beauties of God's creation came about randomly is ridiculous. The person who believes in the theory of evolution makes a choice to believe it. I believe they make that choice because the lifestyle they want to live has no place for God. If there is a Creator, then there is a God. If there is God, then there is a Judge. If there is a Judge, then there is a judgment. And if there is a judgment, they will have to stand there one day. So they have to try to find a way to write God out of the script.

But I think we know intuitively there is a Master Designer behind it all. To look at this world and say that it all just came about randomly borders on the absurd. It would be like saying the 747 aircraft was not the result of the engineering efforts of countless engineers, designers, and workmen at Boeing, but came into being because a tornado swept through a junkyard, and after it was done, there it sat in all its glory.

Yet people will look at something as intricate and amazing as the human body and the creation around us and say it all came about randomly. The Bible says, "Only fools say in their hearts, 'There is no God' " (Psalm 53:1)."

There is no religion on earth that shows God redeeming the lost, the alienated, like God of Abraham, Issac and Jacob does. No other religion in the world offers a redeeming God. In most cultures in order to pay a debt, there has to be some sort of restitution, money, labor, or material possessions. In fact if you ever read the small print of your credit card paperwork when you applied for it shows that the credit card company has the right to call your loan at ANY time. Bet you wish you read that one, right? Meaning ANYTHING they want, they can ask you to bring your account current 100%, no more payments otherwise they will take legal action.

Aren't you glad that we serve a God that LOVES us enough that He provided a way out of this mess we are in. It is through the redemption and the blood of His perfect Son, Jesus Christ, that if we believe in Him, that He died, that He rose again and turn from our sins, He can save us and restore us? There is NO OTHER WAY!

John 14:6. "Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but by me."

Not believing in Mohammad, Not Buddah, Not any of the other New Age gods, Not in being good enough, providing all your wealth to help the world, NOTHING but what Jesus Christ offered on the cross.

In Romans 3:10, "It is written. There is no one righteous. No even one."

Ecclesiastes 7:20, Indeed, there is no one on earth who is righteous, no one who does what is right and never sins."
 
 So if you're wondering if that latest information from a church you've been looking into or a friend has shared with you goes against what the Bible teaches. it is probably a cult. We need to be reading our Bible so we know what the truth is and can be prepared to know what isn't.

When people look at counterfeit money to determine if it's fake or not, you know how they prepare, not by looking at all the fakes, but by studying the real currency.

We need to be spending more time looking at what is true than reading stuff on the Internet that claims it's true. Grab your Bible next time and see if it lines up with God's Word before you believe any of the stuff that is surrounding our culture today. 

Are We Living in a Godless Culture?

Social media is a great thing. It allows us to connect almost instantly to anyone, anywhere. We can share stories, swap pictures and videos, and interact with one another even though we are on opposites sides of the world.

But it can also allow you to see the world and just how much has changed since the foundation of this great nation, known as America. It shows you the ugly side of life and how far we have fallen. I can now see looking back historical at how the nation of Israel, God's chosen people fell away and we are doomed to repeat the very same mistake unless we wise up before it happens.

Just this weekend, I had the glorious opportunity to immerse myself in history as we celebrated Good Friday through Resurrection Sunday. It always brings me back to humble beginnings when we can see how much the world was changed through the birth, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. It's the very reason for celebration because all the other religious figures of the world are still in their graves. This is what makes Christianity stand apart and thus perhaps, why the world has been hating Christians ever since it happened.

But you know what I've noticed is that just because you attempt to control people with barbaric acts of violence, create rules to take everything away, Jesus still lives. You could take it all away and our faith would still stand strong.

It was during this weekend, that I came across a Facebook post about the rising persecution of Christians all around the world thanks to folks like ISIS and other religious groups who are trying to strike fear into the hearts of believers of Jesus everywhere. It wasn't something that a lot of the local news or world news programs even reported on. It was a group of African students who were killed because they either confessed they were Christian and believers of Jesus or they weren't. Those who weren't followers of Jesus, were let go by the way.

It was the same for people all around the Middle East, in China, North Korea, anywhere that Jesus is hated, you will find groups rising up to kill Christians. Why?

Are we forcing our beliefs on you?

Is that even possible? We can't force anyone to do anything they don't want to do. Look at the Holocaust as an example of what forcing people to do, gets you. It doesn't.

Are we forcing the truth of the Bible upon people who don't want to read it?

Are we forcing people to bend and yield to our ways over their own desires?

Or is it quite possible, the Christian way of life is simply about loving a God who was willing to die for us because He loved us enough to save us?

No one is forced into anything, in fact that is the very reason God created free will. He didn't want a bunch of people he created, to serve him and love him just because He forced us to.

Nope, is simple, we get our own choice. To chose to believe it all, everything the Bible tells us is true and that Jesus is who He said He was, and lives in Heaven waiting for us to join Him.

The world did have a beginning and one day it will also have an end. That is just the way it is. And when we get to the end, our choices will make eternal decisions for us. It is really that simple. And perhaps that is why people hate God.

Maybe He didn't answer their prayer the way, they wanted.

Maybe those laws, He created, aren't the life they want to live.

Maybe we want what we want, and we don't need any help from God.

God is so loving that He will provide all those choices for you. He doesn't owe us an answer and even if He did, we might not like the answer we get anyway, kinda like our children do when they want something and they don't get it.

Back to my story, this entire Facebook post was literally a wall of shame, mockery, hate, anger, hurt, and sadness. From posting wild pictures of Jesus, to mocking any aspect of people being killed for their faith, was posted in well over 600+ comments by the time I gave up looking at it. While there were a handful of Christians doing all they could to share and support the truth of this post, well over 90% were not having anything to do with it and made their opinions known.

Is this a sign that we are living in a Godless culture?

I believe with all my heart it is. From removing our prayer from school, to removing the 10 Commandments from the government offices, to removing crosses or any religious item that may offend someone, is happening every single day. While we fight to keep our freedoms, it is sad to see what we are letting slip away for the sake of doing what makes others feel good in their own eyes.

Why is it that if any other religious group were to face the type of persecution that Christians are, people would not tolerate it. Why are we making concessions for Islam in this country when we are a nation founded on Godly principles? 

I believe my dear friends and family, that what we are seeing is the hand of God removing His hand of blessing upon our nation, and when that happens, our continued disobedience will leave God no choice but to administer his judgment until we wake up and call upon Him to save us.

But if the Facebook post is any indication of what the majority of the world feels, may God come quickly because things are going to get pretty bad before people wake up any time soon, if they ever do. So when faced with persecution for your faith in Jesus?

Stand boldly with Him for the Bible clearly spells it out for us as believers:

John 15:18-21“If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you... If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you... because they do not know Him who sent Me." 

John 16:1-4 “These things I have spoken to you, that you should not be made to stumble. They will put you out of the synagogues [today it might be from churches]; yes, the time is coming that whoever kills you will think that he offers God service. And these things they will do to you because they have not known the Father nor Me. But these things I have told you, that when the time comes, you may remember that I told you of them."

Matthew 5:10-12 "Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, For theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven...."< br />Romans 8:35-39 "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? ...Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us"

2 Corinthians 12:9-10 "And He said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.' Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ’s sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong."

Staying Connected

I can't believe looking back, I've been a blogger since 2009 and I absolutely love it. It began as a way to journal my thoughts into the great unknown, the internet back then, and hoped in time, I could look back and see my life as it has progressed.

Something unusual I wasn't expecting happened instead. I met some really exceptional people. Women and men, just like me, that had so many things in common, most our faith in Jesus Christ. But also struggles, trials, storms, and issues that kept us bonded in a way that Facebook and all the other social media platforms can't.

Maybe it's that you can write more in the space provided. A way to personalize, just who you are from you page layouts, music preferences and photos.

But I have also noticed when looking at my blog list, that so many have simply left.

Maybe they don't blog any more.

Maybe they simply have chosen a different social media platform to connect.

Maybe they aren't here physically any longer and have passed away. I hope that isn't the case.

That is why it is extremely important to stay connected and even to make new connections as well. So whatever social media platform you're on, let's connect. It's simple too, if you follow me, I'll follow you. I hope to see you there but if you're just a blogger, lets connect as well and join me!

Here is how to find me:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kathleen.smith.92102
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Pirate2240
Instagram: https://instagram.com/reviewsfromtheheart/
Pinterest:  https://www.pinterest.com/ksmith2768/

Are you a Thermostat or a Thermometer?

If you are on any form of social media lately, there seems to be a trend whenever something news worthy happens. People post videos or leave comments stating their personal opinion on what is happening. But do we really understand the impact that have not only on our own lives but on the lives of people around us or who visit our social media sites?

When you think about these things and your life, are you a thermostat or a thermometer?

A thermometer is affected by its surroundings, depending on the temperature, it either goes up or down.

A thermostat affects its surrounding. It controls the heat or coldness.

Do you merely react to what is happening around you or do you have some sort of impact on it.

In the Bible we have two clear examples of who were thermostats and one who was a thermometer.

Noah and Mary, the mother of Jesus were thermostats. Despite where they were living, and things were definitely a whole lot worse than the world we are living in, they remained unaffected by things happening around them. They refused to be influenced by their environment. They held on to their moral upbringing and remained uncompromised in their faith.

Lot on the other hand was a thermometer. Living in the land of Sodom, definitely an evil place and not one you would want to live in. He was not happy there. He could have been a leader among the people living there and influenced things going on, but he didn't. He compromised. When the angels came announcing the destruction of the city, he had a hard time being convinced it was time to go. Even though he was spared, along with a handful of his family members, he wasn't strong enough to influence the lives of people around him. Even his wife took a sneak peek and looked back to see the destruction and faced the consequences of her decision to disobey the angels warnings.

It shows there is no power in a uncompromised life.

We often complain about how we are based on what is happening around us. Our job as Christians, however is to permeate and effect the culture around us.

When you walk into a room as a Christian, it should impact the people there. They should know you are a Christian. Not in a pious or self righteous way, but you should affect conversations.

So what does your social media sites say about you?

Would someone who stops by your page for the first time know without a doubt you're a Christian, or it is difficult to tell?

Do you stay positive when the negative things are happening all around you? Do you refrain from being impacted by what is happening around you and stand firm in your faith? Do you complain about how things are so bad in your life or are you making positive changes?

Might be time to move from becoming a thermometer and become a thermostat instead. Let's make a positive change both in the messages we are reflecting on our social media sites and even what is happening in the world. We can be the type of change that influences people not being influenced by what is happening.

I love how The Message translates Romans 12:1-2, "So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you."

From the NIV, " Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will." 

For some of us, it might just be the time to adjust our thermostats!!! I think now, more than ever, we have the ability to reach out to people and influence the positive change in our culture. Social media makes the more popular than ever before. 

And when you walk into a room and people change because you are there, count it all joy! You are impacting them in a powerful way by the how your life is a witness to them. 

The best compliment I received on my Facebook site by someone I "friended" is that it is so positive. It's encouraging and uplifting. That is just what I mean when I say how our lives and social media can have impacts on people we don't even realize. What does yours say about you?


 

In the Not So Distant Future

Seems like lately the future isn't looking so bright when you think of things from a world perspective. The jobless rate is still slowing moving upward, the health care crisis is way beyond control and even the economy is slipping in a downward trend. Have you noticed lately the prices of everything seem to be climbing but the overall product weight is shrinking, which means we are in fact paying way more for a whole lot less. Just check the size of your potato chip bags lately?

So what does the future look like? Will it get any better or are we sitting on the verge of a far worse depression then the one that hit us in 1929? I mean can anyone get a loan anymore with a fairly decent rate? Now banks, like Bank of America, Wells Fargo and Chase are going to begin to charge their customers a $5 fee to use their debit cards every month. That will add $60 to the banks bottom line for every single customer that uses their debit cards. Isn't that a bit ridiculous? Trust me, as a BofA customer, I am not happy and unless they change their business practices, I will be shopping for another bank.

However lately the talk on the Internet and through the social media channels is that something is brewing and it doesn't look good. In fact just watching the stock market go up and down like a Merry-Go-Round is enough to make you sick. One person commented to my husband about why we aren't investing our money in anything lately is that "We" are hurting the economy. Huh? I mean are they going to help us out when "their" investments turn out to be a bad idea? Yeah right and if you believe that one, I have a bridge I'd like to see you here in the desert.

So are any of you making any plans now, to prepare for what might come? I know a few of my friends have started growing their own food, are learning to can foods and store items that they can use for awhile and some have started trading out their US money for gold. Do they know something we don't?

You know who won't be at all affected if the US economy goes belly up? The Amish! They have been self-sufficient since the beginning, learning to rely on what they can grow, and are not dependent on the economy for anything. I think there is a lesson to be learned in the process of history, and there is a valuable lesson to be seen there. We need to be more self-reliant and serving our communities and neighborhoods more. For if the way the world is going, we can only pray that God will rapture the believers before it all goes south! At least I know where I will spending my eternity and that is the only security I need. Makes me wonder just what the year 2012 will bring?

I'd love to hear your thoughts so please share them with me.