A New Season

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Looking forward to a new season…

Breast cancer treatment has dominated my life since I found the lump April 22, 2017.  I completed my first round of chemo in September last year. Chemotherapy was one of the hardest things I’ve lived through.

I had a bilateral mastectomy with lymph node removal and reconstruction in October 2017.  I didn’t heal well from the surgery, but they did get all the cancer.  “No cancer in the lymph nodes and in the margins” is how they put it. They won’t declare me cancer free, but I am in remission.  The incisions finally healed just in time for radiation.

Radiation was quite an ordeal. I had to be treated every day. I left the house every day regardless of the weather at 8:45 to drive about twenty minutes for a treatment that lasted about five minutes. I did this alone for seven weeks. I cannot explain how it felt to lie beneath a machine that looks like a Kitchenaid mixer that has the power to heal or to destroy. One morning, my treatment was delayed because of a malfunction. Wasn’t that a nerve wracking morning! I prayed and sang (as best one can on one’s back) praises and worship to God “Thou of LORD art a shield to me—my glory and the lifter of my head.”  God was my only companion in that radioactive room. God was my heart and lungs’ only shield.

I completed my last chemo—Herceptin—last month.  I’d been going for treatments for over a year for that. It didn’t make me sick like the first round of chemo, but it did make me feel exhausted, thick headed at times, and weaker.

So here I am, August 20, 2018. Sixteen months after I found the lump that changed my life forever. I have pain. I still have stiffness and discomfort when I try to move my arm sometimes. I have scars from surgery and scars from the radiation burns. But I have life. I have something else, too.

I have a new boldness to speak to others. I have a new boldness to share my faith in Jesus Christ. I have a new burden to pray for others—right in the moment—right with them if possible. I have a new trust in my Jesus. I feel closer to him than ever before, and my faith has been built by reading His word and hearing His word come out of my own mouth in faith. “Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God.”

“I will live and not die and declare the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living.”

I’ve learned that symptoms and tests are facts. The word of God is truth.

I will trust the LORD in all things.

Just a little of why I’ve not been here. You can catch up with me at my other blog, Harvest Lane Cottage.

God bless you all!

Laura Lane

 

How to Fix the United States’ Troubles

 

We are a blessed nation.

2 Chronicles 7:14 gives the solution to this nation’s troubles.

It all depends on us.

“If my people, which are called by my name,

(Christians)

 

shall humble themselves,

(having or showing a modest or low estimate of one’s own importance)

and pray,

(just talking to God)


and seek my face,

(worship, Bible reading, prayer, quiet listening)

and turn from their wicked ways;

(What are you watching on t.v. or movies? What are you reading? Is it wholesome? Are you seeking a clean pure heart? Kind to others, even those in your home? Honest? There are all kinds of sins that some Christians overlook. We need to really seek the Lord and ask him to reveal those to us. We need to be different than the average American.)

then will I hear from heaven,

and will forgive their sin,

and will heal their land.”

Let’s do our part!

Thank you God!

 

My Diagnosis of Breast Cancer

Thank you to everyone who is praying for me. I’ve been writing at Harvest Lane Cottage for quite awhile, and I wrote about my diagnosis of breast cancer.

I am more than halfway through chemotherapy. I should be finished by mid-September. I have never looked forward to fall like this before!

Be blessed, and visit at Harvest Lane Cottage to keep updated.

Sincerely,

ஐღ Laura of Harvest Lane Cottage ღஐ 

…doing what I can with what I’ve got

where I am on a short shoestring budget!

~~~~~

 

Cherry Pits, Erma Bombeck, and Jehovah God

I remember a quote from Erma Bombeck.  You’ll remember her from the seventies.  She said, “If life is a bowl of cherries, why am I aways in the pits?”  A lot of us can relate.  That’s what made Mrs. Bombeck so popular.  She was famous for her witty way of stating the obvious.

God is famous for stating the not-so-obvious.  It is He, Jehovah God, our father, who through the Holy Spirit, inspired Paul to write, “And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.” Romans 8:28.

Unfortunately, that verse does not not mean that everything that happens to us is good.  Quite the contrary.  It doesn’t even mean that all things work together for good for everyone.  It means He uses whatever the circumstances are to work for those who love Him, the ones He called for His purpose.

So, we have to trust Him even when we don’t feel like it, even when we cannot see any way that He can make things good.  Trust, it all comes down to trusting Him and being patient for His perfect will and His perfect timing.

So, next time I’m pitting cherries again, I’ll remember that He is Good all the time, not just when we’re eating the cherry jam.

Trust and Obey for there’s no other way…to be happy in Jesus but to trust and obey.

Blessings,

Laura

~~~~~

May I suggest?

Cherry Fluffy Stuff

~~~~~

 

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Forgetting What is Behind….

“With every rising of the sun

Think of your life as just begun.

~

The past has shriveled and buried deep,

All yesterdays. There let them sleep.

~

Nor seek to summon back one ghost

Of that innumerable host.

~

Concern yourself with but to-day,

Woo it, and teach it to obey

~

Your will and wish. Since time began

To-day has been the friend of man;

~

But in his blindness and his sorrow

He looks to yesterday and to-morrow.”

………………………..

Author unknown*

 

Have a wonderful today!

Laura

 

 

*From the Character Classic Tiger and Tom, ISBN 1881545083

Happy Easter

May God bless you as you draw close to Him.

May you feel God’s Holy Spirit with you, and may your heart be tuned in to His voice.

May you develop an insatiable desire to know Jesus better by reading The Word.

May you walk in divine health and peace.

It’s time to trust God.

Happy Easter!

Laura of Harvest Lane Cottage

The Top Ten Wedding Shower Gifts That No One Else Will Bring

Bridal shower and wedding season is upon us.  Have you ever found yourself feeling a bit awkward when you gave or received a duplicate gift? Do you ever find yourself wondering what gift to give the bride—especially if this is the sixth wedding or shower you’ve attended this summer?

I’ve got some terrific ideas for the bride that will be appreciated, enjoyed, and no one else will duplicate! Remember… she’s a bride for a day and a wife for life!

Read more….

The Wife’s Influence on the Home

“In the last analysis, home happiness depends on the wife. Her spirit gives the home its atmosphere. Her hands fashion its beauty. Her heart makes its love. And the end is so worthy, so noble, so divine, that no woman who has been called to be a wife, and has listened to the call, should consider any price too great to pay, to be the light, the joy, the blessing, the inspiration of a home.”

J.R.R. Miller

Dear ladies,

Does it seem a heavy burden that Reverend Miller puts upon wives? I’ve read several things that he has written. Some paint such an ideal picture of a wife, I wonder if perhaps some of his quotes might be discouraging to wives. I think his intention was to encourage women in their high calling—to show what can be and maybe ought to be. There is truth in his writings, but they can make a woman feel burdened down with perfectionism. Read more….

December Morning Thoughts

It was a peaceful Christmas weekend.

I’d like to take it easy for a couple of days.

When you’re a wife and mother, that’s not easy.

My family seems to make more mess at Christmastime than most any other time of year.

~smile~

First there will be straightening and finding places for new things as well as a few returns to make. Then cleaning, homeschool planning, thrifty efforts and real estate investment must take center stage!

The New Year is coming!

God bless you all.

Thank you all for encouraging me relentlessly

during a very long and difficult 2016.

~smile~I thank God He was there to help me through it all.

He will be there to help me through 2017, too, whatever it brings.

What about you?

Have you given your life to Jesus Christ?

“God is our refuge and strength,

a very present help in struggle.”

Psalm 46:1

He’s proven Himself true over and over in my life.

Make Jesus Christ Lord of your life.

He’s the best new year’s resolution I ever made.

ஐღLauraღஐ 

…doing what I can with what I’ve got

where I am on a short shoestring budget!

~~~~~