SAYING NO TO THE KNEE-JERK REACTIONS

SAYING NO TO A KNEE-JERK REACTION

With all that is going on in the world, I sometimes get distracted and let my emotions take the lead in my reactions to what I hear and see. I know I’m not the only one who does that! But Romans 12:2 tells us: “Be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.” Yes, God does express emotions. He gets angry; He laughs; He has joy; He has all the emotions we have, but we need to read the Word of God and get to know Him to see where these emotions are appropriate and where they’re not. We must always bring our thinking back to what God says, not just go with a knee-jerk reaction.

 

I read an article about some Russian scientists who are studying DNA. They found that in the 90% of DNA that is not producing proteins, there is a set-up that responds to frequencies and language. The scientists proved that our very DNA responds to words and frequencies and that those same elements can alter our DNA.

 

I believe that when a person gets born again of God’s spirit, the spiritual gift we receive gives us the ability to change our DNA to accept and believe what God says and do things His way. But as the Bible tells us, we must continue feeding our DNA the right frequencies and the true words of God so that we don’t go back into the more childish emotional responses we might have had in our past.

 

Years ago, a funny incident happened to me that illustrates this principle: God has given us the ability to be the person He called us to be. We have an old self and a new self, and the new self in Christ is much better for you and everyone around you!

 

Here’s what happened: I got in the car and started backing out. The passenger-side mirror got caught on the side of the garage door, so I moved up a little and tried again. And it got caught again. Then I pulled up a little and went to the left as far as I could without hitting a stack of boxes. I tried backing out again, to no avail. Then I got angry, jerked the steering wheel to the left, and hit the stack of boxes.

 

Eventually, I did manage to get the car backed out, but I was mad: “Who moved the boxes so close, and who the heck parked this car anyway?!”

 

I got about two blocks away, and I was still all fired up, angry as heck. Then I caught myself: “Wait a minute; that’s not me!” I listened to a preacher talk about those times when he did or said something that was totally of the flesh and not the spirit. He called these outbursts “fits of carnality.”

 

My angry response to the boxes wasn’t from the Christ in me. Luke 17:6 came to mind: “Say unto this sycamine tree, ‘Be thou plucked up by the root, and be thou planted in the sea; and it should obey you.’” I said out loud: “Anger, I rebuke you in the name of Jesus Christ. Get out. I’m not having you.”

 

The record of Jesus talking to the unfruitful fig tree also came quickly to mind:  ^“And seeing a fig tree afar off having leaves, he [Jesus] came, if haply he might find anything thereon: and when he came to it, he found nothing but leaves; for the time of figs was not yet. And Jesus answered and said unto it, ‘No man eat fruit of thee hereafter forever.’ And his disciples heard it. In the morning, as they passed by, they saw the fig tree dried up from the roots” (Mark 11:13,14 and 21).

 

So, I spoke to my anger in the same way: “I call you plucked up by the roots. And anger, you don’t have any good fruit, so I call you dried up from the roots.”

 

The insane anger I had over the silly garage incident left immediately, and I had a great day.

 

Thank God for His mercy and that He never leaves us but is always willing to help us when we need Him so desperately. Even though I falter at times, I know for sure that in the depths of my heart, I will always be clinging tightly to this great truth from Philippians 1:6: “Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.”

 

What we hear and what we say can even change our DNA! God’s given us the ability to better ourselves. And to those of you younger people who will be having children, you will be passing on your DNA. Give them your best!   

 

Here are some questions that can help make this Preach Letter more personal for you:

 

1. Have you ever caught yourself being mean, angry, or laughing in a weird, uncontrollable way, and wondered, “Where did that come from? That’s not me!” Describe the incident.

2. In a situation where you had a “fit of carnality,” were you able to arrest it? How?

3. What verses or self-talk could you or do you already use to back off a “fit of carnality” incident?

4. Recently, what things have you done or said that are like the fig tree with no good fruit? What are you doing about it?

 

Love, Carolyn

 

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BE ENCOURAGED

Tomorrow night is a full moon. It’s a time when Satanic groups, witches’ covens, and warlocks get together for Satanic rituals. You say, “I’m not interested.” That may be true, but did you know that one of the things they do at those gatherings is spew curses and spells toward Christian people and families? They send out demons to stir up and inflict pain, misery, and mayhem, especially upon the followers of Jesus Christ.

 

I want to share a story from the past, about the day I started feeling the effects of one of these gatherings.

 

BE ENCOURAGED

Yesterday evening, I was feeling the pressure of the witches and Satan worshippers, who were revving up for their full moon gatherings to curse Christians. It felt like a huge dark cloud was pushing down on me, making me tired and discouraged. But the Lord told me right away, “Be encouraged.” I knew the best way was to preach myself happy. I started quoting some scriptures. The burden left as the truth of God’s Word entered in. The more I spoke those scriptures to myself, the happier I got. Then, even more scriptures came to mind. They cleared away the darkness entirely.

 

I started with Isaiah 54:17: “No weapon formed against me shall prosper.” Then, “For it is God who worketh in me both to will and do of His good pleasure.” Then, “The joy of the Lord is my strength,” “I am strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man,” “If God be for me, who can be against me?” “I am more than a conqueror through him that loved us,” and “I have victory through my Lord Jesus Christ.”   

 

Then I spoke with tongues because the Word of God says it builds up our spirits on the inside and is perfect prayer.

 

I closed with this scripture from Psalm 118:24: “This is the day the Lord hath made; We [I ] will rejoice and be glad in it.”

 

Spiritually, I saw and felt the lightning of the Lord crash through the dark cloud and explode it. Like in Psalm 18:14: “Yea, he sent out his arrows, and scattered them; and he shot out lightnings, and discomfited them.” The definition of the Hebrew word for “discomfited” is “to move noisily, confuse, break, consume, crush, destroy, trouble and vex.”

 

I was reminded of when the four lepers outside Samaria decided to boldly walk toward the Syrian enemy camp that had surrounded the city and was starving it out.  Then “the Lord had the host of the Syrians hear a noise of chariots, and a noise of horses, even the noise of a great host, wherefore they arose and fled in the twilight, and left their tents, and their horses, and their asses, and fled for their life.” The enemy’s plans were destroyed, and Samaria prospered once again. (See 2 Kings 7:3-7).

 

I also quickly reflected on the three enemy tribes who came together to destroy Jehoshaphat and his people. When the people “began to sing and to praise, the Lord sent ambushments.” And the three tribes could not be united together against the believers. They began to fight against each other instead. (See 2 Chron. 20: 15-25).

 

Then, at the tower of Babel, the people were united against God and His plan. But God intervened and confused their languages so that they could not communicate with each other; they couldn’t even understand what each other was saying. (See Gen. 11: 1-9).

 

When I built myself up with the scriptures, I was no longer under the dark cloud of discouragement. The lightning of God came and broke the gloom intended for me.

 

Then, when I reminded myself of what God did for His people when they were threatened, I knew that we would be free and protected from any curse the Satan worshippers would try to put on us. Why? Because the Lord will allow strife, confusion, noise, trouble, and destruction to come on any attempt they might have to unite against God’s beloved.

 

In James 3:16, God says: “For where envy and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work.” So I believe that where these full-moon gatherings are, the demons of envy and strife cause all havoc within the group, as well as within the individuals’ bodies and minds. We know that when Jesus confronted the Apostle Paul, “immediately there fell from his eyes as it had been scales: and he received sight forthwith, and arose and was baptized” (Acts 9:18). So I pray this for anyone in those groups who desires to get free.

 

The full moon is made for God’s people, not the devil! We’re taking it back!

 

Take a moment to pray against the witches, warlocks, and Satan worshipers who are speaking curses against our Lord and our people today.

 

Love, Carolyn

 

Other scriptures that help are Phil. 2:10, Phil. 2:13, Neh. 8: 10, Eph. 3:16, Rom. 8:31, Rom. 8:37, 1 Cor. 15:57, Jude 20, Rom 8:26-27.

 

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CONFRONTING WORRY ABOUT YOUR CHILDREN

Many parents, grandparents, and guardians have children either going away to college or going back to school this month. Here is a Preach Letter that I think can really help you with that:

CONFRONTING WORRY ABOUT YOUR CHILDREN

The mechanic didn’t call me right away about my “baby car” and I started to worry. I can’t even imagine how you parents are tempted to worry about your children. There are two things that can help stop our minds from spiraling downward. First: The Word of God. It doesn’t take a lot of scriptures; it just takes the right ones. Isaiah 54:13 says: “And all thy children shall be taught of the Lord; and great shall be the peace of thy children.” What does that mean?

It means that the Lord is their teacher, whether He works through you or someone else, or circumstances or in any other way, He will do it if you pray for it and believe it. You are not their savior, Jesus is! God has entrusted them to you, but you have to pray for them, believing that the Lord is around them and with them every day to care for, guide, and instruct. If I were a parent, I’d be praying this scripture every morning over my children and every night too. And the second half of the verse also: “Great shall be the peace of [my] children.” 

I also suggest Psalm 91:11-12 “For he shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways. They shall bear thee up in their hands, lest thou dash thy foot against a stone.” Stones are in the physical realm, so this scripture is telling us that angels are available to keep your children (and you too) from being tripped up by physical things. You can name a great number of possible stumbling blocks, such as bullies, bad friends, bad habits, bad health, etc. Angels’ jobs are to minister for you, so use their abilities like the scripture says, to keep an eye on your children and keep them from tripping up. Of course, we can pray this scripture for other family members and friends too.

Lastly, this is a great verse for parents (maybe I should have listed this one first!): “Cast all your anxiety on Him because He cares for you” (1 Peter 5:7). You can say, “God I give You my anxiety today because You care about me and You can take care of the stress. Thank you so much. In Jesus’ name.”

I said there were two things needed to get rid of worry. The first is to believe what God says in the scriptures and pray the ones that work for you. The second important thing is to talk to your children. And I don’t mean telling them how much you worry. That will only enforce the negative. But instead, ask them questions about what’s going on in their lives. Listen with your heart to their answers. And be bold enough to pray with them.

I didn’t pray with my mechanic, but I did pray a verse I found in the gospels about transportation and then I called him and was totally at ease. My baby truck was going to get fixed. I believe your kids will be okay too, if you pray the scriptures over them and love them. The Lord will even show us different ways to express our love, if we are listening.

 

When was the last time you read some of First Corinthians 13, the chapter on love? I hadn’t read it in a while, but when I did today, it really inspired and blessed me.

 

The Excellence of Love

 

“If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love [for others growing out of God’s love for me], then I have become only a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal [just an annoying distraction].

 

And if I have the gift of prophecy [and speak a new message from God to the people], and understand all mysteries, and [possess] all knowledge; and if I have all [sufficient] faith so that I can remove mountains, but do not have love [reaching out to others], I am nothing.

 

If I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body to be burned, but do not have love, it does me no good at all.

 

Love endures with patience and serenity, love is kind and thoughtful, and is not jealous or envious; love does not brag and is not proud or arrogant.

 

It is not rude; it is not self-seeking, it is not provoked [nor overly sensitive and easily angered]; it does not take into account a wrong endured.

 

It does not rejoice at injustice, but rejoices with the truth [when right and truth prevail]. Love bears all things [regardless of what comes], believes all things [looking for the best in each one], hopes all things [remaining steadfast during difficult times], endures all things [without weakening].

 

Love never fails [it never fades nor ends]” (1 Cor. 13:1-8).

 

Love, Carolyn

 

Lots of exciting Las Vegas stories – seeing behind the scenes of everyday events. Check it out in paperback or e-book from Amazon, WINGS: A Journey in Faith.

 

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HE WILL KEEP YOU SAFE

HE WILL KEEP YOU SAFE

It was the summer of 1969. I was new in town, a hippie from the San Francisco Bay Area, and now I lived in a suburb of Chicago with my parents for a couple of months before college started. I was a “flower child” of the 60’s, which meant tank tops, long skirts, and combat boots, among other things. I was 19. I got a summer job as a lifeguard at the local pool and hung out after work with the other lifeguards, going to bars in nearby towns to party. It was fun. I didn’t make any permanent friends—too shy really, and not very good at socializing with new people. But I was attracted to this older guy—the “bad boy” guy who stood apart from the crowd.

 

This guy was different, intriguing. He liked to play pool. So, a group of us went to a bar to play pool almost every night; or as it turned out, he and his male friends played pool and I watched, till the early hours of the morning. He paid attention to me and that was a lonely time in my life, so if someone paid attention to me, I was all ears, all attention, all “gaga” over him. We never had sex but still there was this attraction, this connection. Then one night I decided for some reason not to go out after work.

 

I got a call from one of this guy’s friends about 8 o’clock that night, telling me the guy I liked really wanted me to come meet him down in the parking lot by my work. I was totally into it and started to get ready to go out. Then I stopped. I had this niggling feeling that something was wrong.

 

I didn’t know it at the time, but it was the Lord giving me a warning. I figuratively felt a cement wall rise up in me. In my hippie-love attitude I had been totally ready to hop in the car and take off to town to meet him, but this odd feeling, like a cement wall encasing me, stopped me. I couldn’t go. It was weird, but I just knew I couldn’t go.

 

The next day, I donned my lifeguard swimsuit and off to work I went. After work, one of my coworkers pulled me aside where no one else could hear. He looked all around to make sure no one was near, then whispering, he told me the story: “I just wanted to let you know that guy showed up last night at the parking lot with a gun! He was looking for you. He was in a hurry to get out of town and head cross-country. He said he was planning to take you with him! He was really mad when you didn’t show up but he didn’t wait long till he pealed outta here.”

 

You can imagine the flip-flops my mind did with that! Well, there you are. I was dumb, but still the Lord took care of me and kept me safe. He kept me from showing up that night. I don’t know what would have happened had I gone, but it wasn’t going to be good. The Lord loved me when I was dumb as dirt! Ephesians says:

 

“Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh [is working] in the children of disobedience:

 

“Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.

 

“But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us [made us alive] together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved)” (Eph. 2: 1-5).

 

The thing is, that at the time, I was already a Christian, but I didn’t understand so many things in the Bible and I really didn’t know how to apply Bible things to my everyday life. I certainly didn’t know the Lord like I do now.  But what I learned by experience is that when we truly love the Lord, no matter how much Bible we know or don’t know, His love for us is unconditional.

 

I know for sure that Proverbs 29:25 is true: “Whoso putteth his trust in the Lord shall be safe.”

 

And though I’ve walked through the valley of death and gotten myself into trouble many times, “I will fear no evil: for thou [Lord] art with me [always]” (Ps. 23:4).

 

The Lord has kept me safe (and smarter now too!) and He will do it for you. Love Him, trust Him.

 

“And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment” (Mark 12:30).

 

Love, Carolyn

 

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WISDOM IS THE PRINCIPAL THING

WISDOM IS THE PRINCIPAL THING

October 2014. My knee started hurting, then my thigh, then my back; I forgot to just ask for wisdom from the Lord on what it was and what to do to make it go away. I took ibuprophen and was handling it myself. The pain subsided somewhat, but it wasn’t going away. I persevered on my own for about two weeks and it was wearing me down. I finally woke up spiritually and ask the Lord for wisdom. The message I got was to ask my roommate, Jane, to pray with me for the answer, so that’s what we did. The next day I went off to work like every other day. Only this day I got the revelation of what was causing my pain and the wisdom from God on how to get rid of it.

 

I sat down on the floor to touch up another baseboard in one of the penthouse rooms of a Las Vegas Strip hotel. Then as I crawled along to the next spot, I got the news flash from the Lord! I was sitting in a scrunched down position with both legs tucked under me to the side and I was bent over. I put my legs on the other side and the same exact pinch happened on the other side and I realized I’d been sitting and crawling in this position for about two weeks, 7 hours a day. No wonder I was having pinches and pain. I made a conscious effort to change how I was positioning myself and the pain dissipated and in a day or so, the pain was gone.

 

Just because you don’t have an instant miracle of healing, doesn’t mean God’s not healing you. He’s given us many ways to get pain free and to get healed up.

 

There’s much to learn about healing but whenever we get sick there is always one thing we should do first and that’s take it to the Lord in prayer, and ask for wisdom. Ask Him: “Should I go to the doctor? Ask someone to pray for me? Drink more water and take a couple aspirin? What should I do, Lord?”

 

We ask for His wisdom on what to do to get healed. God wants us to be healthy, so He’s glad to give us His wisdom.

 

In Proverbs 4:7, God tells us: “Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom: and with all thy getting get understanding.”

 

In the Old Testament, when God asked King Soloman what he wanted most, Soloman said he wanted wisdom. “And God gave Solomon wisdom and understanding exceeding much, and largeness of heart, even as the sand that is on the sea shore” (1 Kings 4:29).

In the New Testament, James 3:17 tells us more about God’s kind of wisdom:

 

James 3:17 says: “The wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy.”

 

Did you see that? The Lord is saying that His wisdom is “EASY to be entreated.” God did NOT make it hard, nor did he make it only for special people, but for all of us who are born again of His spirit.

 

I keep a small copy of this painting by Zurbaran above my desk where I take care of a lot of my day-to-day affairs—bills, research folders, medical stuff, etc. I think it’s a great representation of how the Holy Spirit (represented by the dove) gets someone’s attention to focus upward on the spiritual and get wisdom from God for the everyday stuff.

 

So how does this wisdom come? Unlike Zurbaran, we don’t always, or maybe never, get a vision of a dove, but we do get the Lord’s wisdom in the same way natural wisdom comes to us—by the senses of seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, touching, or a combination of any of these, which sometimes exhibits as a sense of knowing. The big difference is that the spiritual senses are not in the natural, but in the spiritual realm, affecting the natural. But as with the natural senses, we need to pay attention to what our senses are registering, study them, focus on them, and test them, so that we become more expert in the messages they’re presenting to us.

 

How about us taking just one of the five senses this week to focus on and find out what we can learn. Touch, smell, taste, see, and hear. Which one do you choose?

 

Love, Carolyn

 

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THE 'TO' IN 'GLORY TO GLORY'

THE “TO” IN “GLORY TO GLORY”

2 Corinthians 3:18 tells us that when we seek the Lord we are being changed from glory to glory. “But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass [mirror] the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.” It’s not just the one time, when we get born again, but the many times we are required by God to drop aspects of our old nature and put on the new nature of the Christ within. The glory part on either side, is awesome, but what about the “to” part in between?

 

CHANGE – OUCH! Keeping the status quo may not be exciting, but at least it’s somewhat comfortable—it’s what we’re used to. But when we want to see more of the Lord in our lives, we often need to step out into a learning area – the “to” time. And since God knows our hearts, He sometimes lets us be thrown into a “to” time and we don’t even know it’s happening, or why, or how we got there.

 

In a documentary video I saw, the guide was talking to a tour group in the Negev desert. The guide had the students look across the way at a bare hillside traversed with well-worn sheep paths. The group watched as two shepherd girls led their flock across the landscape. He told the group that in this area, this was called “green pastures!” It looked totally brown and barren in the video, but the guide went on to tell the students that they needed to look a bit closer at the situation with the sheep. That’s what we need to do with the “to” places – look a bit closer to see what the Lord wants to get out of the experience.

 

The guide explained that the sheep paths were just far enough apart so that a sheep on either side could reach into the area between paths to eat. Eat what? It didn’t look like there was anything there. He explained that there was a little moisture in the morning and it only was enough to moisten around the bottom of the rocks. That’s where small tufts of grass would grow. The video panned in and sure enough you could see the damp darkened part at the bottom of the rocks and there popped up 3-inch to 5-inch thin tufts of grass. There was so little to eat, the sheep had to keep moving from one tuft to the next, but as they went, they were rewarded with enough food to satisfy them.  

 

That’s how it is when we traverse the “to” between the glory spots. It is in these times that the Lord does some restoring of our souls. Our spirits are perfect the minute we get born again, but our souls need some help and it’s in the times between the glory levels that the growing pains take place in our souls. A great Bible example of this is seen in the life of Joseph.

 

Joseph was the youngest son and the favorite of his father. He was happy and blessed, but he had one recognizable downfall: his pride. He had a dream and instead of keeping it to himself, he bragged about it to his brothers, who already didn’t like him because their father liked him best.

 

“Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers, they hated him all the more. He said to them, ‘Listen to this dream I had: We were binding sheaves of grain out in the field when suddenly my sheaf rose and stood upright, while your sheaves gathered around mine and bowed down to it.’

 

“His brothers said to him, ‘Do you intend to reign over us? Will you actually rule us?’ And they hated him all the more because of his dream and what he had said” (Gen. 37:5-8).

 

Joseph was young and excited about his dream. He wanted everyone to know how blessed he was, so he told his brothers and his parents about the prophesy God gave him. But this was a big mistake! The prophesy was for him alone. It was prideful of him and unthoughtful to blatantly blast his family with his private revelation. He was a child and probably meant no harm, but sometimes we as adults also want to blast people with how great and righteous we are as Christians and all the wonderful things we’re doing, and God doing for us. But as we go through the “to” from glory to glory, the Lord has the knack for humbling us, so that we remember that we are not so smart, really, without His guidance!

 

Joseph’s brothers were so jealous and hateful, they at first planned to kill him outright. But the oldest brother talked the others out of it. However, they did decide to throw him in a pit, where he’d die on his own.

 

When we are in the transitional period between the times of glory (in that “to” place) we sometimes feel like we’ve been thrown in a pit too! My friend who was taking his son to school certainly felt that way, but he did the right thing. He continued to pray and look for the blessings.

 

Back to Joseph: After the brothers threw Joseph into the pit to die, they sat down to eat and when they looked up they saw a company of Ishmaelites and decided they could sell Joseph instead, and make some money. But there was another tribe, the Midianites, who came by just then.

 

“Then there passed by Midianites, merchantmen; and they drew and lifted up Joseph out of the pit and sold Joseph to the Ishmeelites for twenty pieces of silver: and they brought Joseph into Egypt.

 

“And Reuben [the older brother] returned unto the pit; and, behold, Joseph was not in the pit; and he rent his clothes” (Gen. 37:28-29).

 

And this was just the beginning of Joseph experiencing the “to,” between his glory with his father and the glory he ended up having as Pharaoh’s right-hand man.

 

What do you think Joseph thought about? What emotional trauma did he go through during this time? He found out his brothers hated him enough to want to kill him. They not only stole his prized jacket, a gift from his father, but they didn’t even leave him with any water. He never knew that they were going to come back for him and sell him instead, though the idea they would trade him for money would hardly be much of a consolation in such a situation. Then he was probably tied up by the Midianites, then handed over to the Ishmeelites, who also probably treated him harshly as a foreigner and a prisoner till they could get him to Egypt, where they’d also sell him as merchandise.

 

When Joseph got to Egypt, he had a few glory times, but went through more “to” experiences as well. But we never again see him bragging about himself like he did before. Instead, he gave God the credit. He grew up in that “to” period and learned to humble himself and find out what God intended to teach him in those times.

 

The Lord is with us in all the good times and all the tough times too. In each experience where we are challenged to get rid of some old characteristics like fear, arrogance, bitterness, anger, laziness, or whatever it is, God will lead us to those tufts of sweet grass at the base of the rocks, like He did for the sheep. And we can come through to a higher place of glory in Him, like Joseph did in the land of Egypt.

 

Love, Carolyn

 

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LANGUAGE?

 Thank you everyone who reads my posts!!! God bless you all individually with the desires of your hearts. He loves us all and we mean so much to Him! I want to learn some new languages so that I can write my posts in the other languages I learn. So I have a question for you.

Do you all read my posts in English or are they translated on Blogger into another language? What language do you get my posts translated into. Please send me your answers to my email at carolynmolica@hotmail.com. Thanks you so much!

Love, Carolyn