Jesus is the gift

Yes, Jesus Is The Gift!

Jesus is the gift that perfectly fits every heart

and it is with His love that all celebration starts.

We rejoice in Him as we remember His birth

and thank God for sending His only Son to earth.

His life led from a manger to a cross on a hill

where He faithfully followed His Father’s perfect will.

He freely laid down everything so that we could live,

and there is no greater treasure anyone could give.

Like a scarlet ribbon His love wrapped around the cross

and He offered it to us all at the greatest cost.

So each time that we give we remember what He’s done

and honor the perfect Gift—God’s one and only Son.

— Holley Gerth

Taken from Dayspring.com

The Lord Speaks, and Points!

When the Lord finished speaking to Moses on Mount Sinai, He gave him the two tablets of the Testimony, the tablets of stone inscribed by the finger of God. - Exodus 31:18

It has been too long since I have blogged. It has been a whirlwind of a month for me. God has been shaking me up a bit, and "pointing with His finger" at me. He as been doing some amazing things in my life. The Scripture above is "speaking into me" as our Lord has been doing as well.

I was in an accident with an 18 wheeler and it literally shook me up. I was in the right lane, he was in the left lane. The lanes were very narrow, too narrow from what the police officer told me later, explaining that when two 18 wheelers are driving down this little stretch of the road side by side, that many times they hit each other’s side mirrors! I was ahead of him, not quite a car length ahead of him. We were both headed in the same direction, when all of the sudden I was pushed forward and sent spinning and rocking back and forth and found myself heading straight into oncoming traffic!

I was left “shaken up” and “praising God” that I wasn’t in hurt any more than I was! I was quite sore, in fact where my seatbelt was I had a pretty good injury from it.

Then shortly after that I had a severe injury to my left foot! Needless to say I have been and still am hobbling around. I have had some time to pray and ponder many things over this last month. It has been a time of Thanksgiving, and a time of prayer, contemplation, and surrender. God has been “shaking me up a bit” during this time. I think God needs to shake me up from time to time, as I am sure he needs to with each of us.

At the beginning of this Scripture, is says that "the Lord finished speaking to Moses.” Don’t you love it that the Lord was speaking to Him! Oh how I love the way the Lord speaks to us! I love it that He cares enough to visit with us, that He trusts us with the particular mission that He gives to each of us (even if He needs to "shake us up" a bit). The more He gives you the more He trusts you! Oh Lord, how I want you to trust me with what you have given me!

During this last month, I have been in such a beautiful time of communion with our Lord, and yet I have also been in a place where He has had to shake me up a bit, spin me around, get me facing some of my fears (the oncoming traffic if you will) and showing me the miracles of Himself. “The finger of the Lord” has been pointing out many things to me. Pointing me in certain directions, directions that I am ready to follow.

I am stepping into a new "chapter" of my life as I leave my beloved job of the last seven years. I have been the Vice President of this wonderful organization, and the last year the Lord has had me in preparation to leave. I gave my formal notice back in May that I would be leaving by December 31st in order to step into the calling of being a Writer, Author, Speaker and Life Coach. I have been coaching for many years now and continue doing so. There is new and exciting news about that and I will be sending out regular communication about that in the coming days and weeks ahead! Look for the news!

Well, that time is upon me and I remain grateful for all of my years there, as I have been give SO much. The Lord has done great things! My five book series entitled “Confessions of a Pastor’s Wife” will be released the 18th of this month! This first book in the series is entitled “He Speaks Can You Hear Him?” And boy does He speak! This book, takes you through my faith journey, I reveal what He says and also how He speaks to us.

Lord I pray that each of us who hear from you recognize the joy and privilege it is to be in communication with you, and the honor it is that you have us do things for you and unto your glory. Lord let us always be faithful in our service to you. Let us always be listening for you, surrendering unto you, and obedient unto you. Thank you for the ride of a lifetime, Thank you for the beautiful people in our lives, Thank you for your grace, your love, your mercy, your trust, and the work you give us to do. Thank you for this advent season to remind us that you are coming, always coming into our hearts! Amen.

Kathryn

Kathryn Bonner
Awakenings Life Coaching (Isaiah 50:4)
www.KathrynBonner.com

More wonderful friends!

Tim & Melanie Barosh are on the left and Bruce (my wonderful husband) and I are on the right. Tim & Mel live in the Houston area. We've been friends since 1999. They came in town this weekend, and we are having lunch outside at the Cheesecake Factory. Mel & I love the Cheesecake Factory! It was wonderful hanging out with them. When we lived in Houston I hung out with Mel all the time. We used to work together, she's a stay home mom now with two little girls and is pregnant now with their son! They are working on three different names for the baby, Noah, Emerson and Cash. Tim has always been a Johnny Cash fan, and he thinks that would be a nice strong name for him. Bruce and I like it too! Mel's still not quite sure about it. Tim is the worship pastor at Crossbridge in Sugar Land. Check out Mel's blog and vote yes or no for the name. They are taking a poll... her blog is http://popsiclesontheporch.blogspot.com/
Bruce, my husband thinks that "Bruce" would sound nice... Bruce Barosh... hmmm... what do you think :)

This is my sweet girlfriend Jennifer! She is such a precious friend to me. I just love the way she loves God! She radiates her love for Him, and He just shines out of her. This is Jen and I eating outside at Kirby Lane. We love going to Kirby Lane, it's SO Austin! We are out on the patio, the weather was perfect! Jen is pregnant is this picture with her 3rd child. He's now born and precious! His name is Jude Echo Stone Frost! I love that name! Jude means "praise", and with Echo, it is "Repeated Praise!" They are praising the Lord for this sweet addition! Check out Jennifer's blog at: http://www.frostbrother.blogspot.com/ for the updates on her boys... God is good! I love it that he gave us girlfriends!

Be blessed,

Kathryn

Friends are such a lovely Gift from God!

My dear friend Bev! I have known her since my sophomore year in high school, where we were best friends! We went to MacArthur in San Antonio. She is such an incredible gal, a great mom and an amazing artist, married to a wonderful man. I love the way she has such a joy about her. She has always been an inspiration to me, always makes me laugh, and I can talk to her about anything. She knows me well, and loves me in spite of myself... that's a true gift from God, the gift of Bev!

Jeanette is on the left, I'm in the center, and Bev is on the right... I've always been really short, and they are obviously really tall... so it makes it rather comical (at least Bev and I have always thought so :)) Anyway both Jeanette and Bev are incredibly talented. Bev has been making glass beads and jewelry for some time now. Jeanette (whom I've now known for a little over 2 years) received a gift from her husband for Christmas last year. It was a kit with all the supplies necessary for making glass beads! Jeannette wanted to learn how to do it, and I thought... "Wow! I actually know someone who does this!" So... we took a trip to San Antonio a few months back and Bev taught Jeannette how to make glass beads. It was fascinating to watch how quickly she learned and how beautiful to connect friends! They are both so creative! God is the ultimate in creativity!

This is my Wednesday morning reunion, prayer, accountability group! We come together early each Wednesday morning at the What-a-burger! We share with each other our prayer needs, the things that our Lord has called us to do, our moments closest to Christ that week. I'm in the front in the pink baseball cap (with absolutely NO makeup!) and Jan is behind me. Fran is in the bright tye-dye shirt, and Nancy is behind her. I love these girls! What a blessing they are to me!

These are some of my favorite people on the planet! I have the honor and the privilege to have been working with this group of gals for the last several years! They are such wonderful friends! Each of them brings something of such beauty and value to my life! We are here celebrating Kati's birthday. Kati is in the black shirt, she's such a sweetie, and that's her little boy Kolton (who is truly a miracle baby!). Then in the red shirt is Suzi Q, she's such a great gal with a real depth! Then there is Tammie who is such a joy and absolutely cracks me up! Of course that's me on the far right. Life is wonderful with with all the beautiful friends in our lives!

I tried to post more pictures of other friends but it wouldn't let me :( that just means that this is to be continued... I give thanks to God for wonderful friends recognizing the gift from God that they are.

Kathryn

Trick or Treat!!?? I look pretty scary!!

Halloween has always been fun for me! Here I am looking pretty scary! I'm all hunched over like the hunch back, and wearing my beautiful smile with my big ol' rotten BillyBob Teeth!! Very Very Scary!!!!!!!!!!!!

The last few years though it just hasn't been the same since Bruce and I have become empty nester's. It seems like over the last four years or so there haven't been very many trick or treater's coming around either. I know that a lot of that is because of the fact that you "can't trust" people like you used to be able to. However, last night we had tons of kiddos coming out! It was so much fun!

Each year we loved getting our two daughters all dressed up for Halloween! They loved it too! It really is some of the best memories we hold onto! I would always get dressed up with them. Many times there would be several events to go to during that week. At the girls school, at the church and then trick or treating in the neighborhood. So the girls would switch into each other's costumes on the different days for the different events! Even though they were 2 years and 8 months apart, they were close to the same size, which made it easy for them to share clothing.

They would dress up as a witch, a princess, a rabbit coming out of a hat, Sheera Princess of power, a ghost, and angel, a moo cow with utters, oh, the list goes on and on! I would dress up as Marge Simpson with the big blue hair, a unicorn, mini-mouse, a flapper girl...

Last night was funny! My picture above tells it all! I was a "House Wife Gone Bad, VERY bad!" I took it on in full character too, I slumped my body over like the hunch back, and had my hair in rollers, and Bruce (my wonderful husband) got me some of those hideous BillyBob teeth to wear and WA LA! I was transformed in the this beauty you see here!

Anyway, the kiddos that came loved it, some of the little bitty ones didn't love it, and their parents just Hee Hawed with laughter! It was fun, but still not the same without our daughters. Oh how I love you Tabby and Kellie!

Once a mom, ALWAYS a mom! Missin' my girlies.
This post is in honor of you two! :)
Love you,
Mom

At the Publishing House Recording My Book on CD! Having such fun!!

I flew into Oklahoma on Tuesday to go to the Publishing House to record my new book on CD! It was such a great time for me. I praise God for all that He is and is doing in my life. He is allowing me to proclaim His goodness and majesty, and I stand in awe of Him and give thanks unto Him for allowing me this wonderful privilege. I pray that I honor Him in all of it.

The first photo is the cover of my book. It's a five book series entitled "Confessions of a Pastor's Wife" and the first book in this series is "He Speaks, Can You Hear Him?" It now has an official release date of December 18th, 2007! However you can order it now from me by going to my website www.KathrynBonner.com and click on the picture of the book to get your copy early, before it's released publicly! I would be blessed should you choose to do that, and I do believe that you will be blessed as well.

The second photo is a picture in the lobby of the publishing house. The had a welcome sign out for me at the front desk! They also had a reserved parking space for me in the very first parking space! I took a picture of it also for my scrap book! Pretty cool!

The third picture is me (on the left) Janey Hays (in the center) and Stacy Baker (on the right). They took me out to lunch at a really sweet tea room. They are both in Acquisitions at the publishing house. Janey is my acquisitions person. She is so cute, at the restaurant she was telling the wait staff that I was one of their authors and that she is the one who "discovered" me. It was fun! I was laughing and saying yep, you discovered me, but no one really knows me! We laughed and she said, "Not YET, but they will!" I just giggled, we all did

God is good!

Blessings to you,
Kathryn

MY FIRST BOOK SIGNING!!

Here I am the 2nd day of the SHINE Conference in front of the bookstore where they had a wonderful display of my book set up for me. I have to be honest, signing books and standing there was honestly a bit awkward for me. The entire staff was incredibly kind and helpful. I had a lovely time though! God is SO good!

Here I am the last night of the SHINE Conference in in front of the HUGE SHINE sign on the stage of Shoreline Christian Center in Austin, Texas!

I have really been excited about the last few days! That's me, with my books and poster inside the bookstore at Shoreline Christian Center! The above photo is the stage, and the name of the women's conference is SHINE. This was my very first place to do a book signing! My heart felt thanks to my friend Pastor Laura Koke who gave me the wonderful opportunity, and a special thanks to her entire staff who loved on me completely. Laura and her husband Rob pastor the church together. It's a large church with about 5000 in attendance. They had there SHINE conference for 3 days Wednesday - Friday.

I was blessed with the opportunity to meet and have lunch with Michelle McKinney-Hammond. (check out her website: http://www.michellehammond.com/) She was one of the speakers there, she was able to pour so much into me during the two hours at lunch! What a great gift from God to me. She has authored THIRTY books and is under contract for two more. She shared with me that before she ever became a published author that she sent out HUNDREDS of proposals to HUNDREDS of publishing houses and receive HUNDREDS of rejection letters before she became published. She asked me how many publishing houses did I send my proposals out to before I got picked up. I shared with her that I sent SIX proposals and and got a contract in the mail before I got ONE rejection letter. She looked at me and said "Girl! That never happens!" She told me to be sure and recognize the blessing in this, not to take it for granted. I know that this is most unusual to happen, and I honestly am ever thankful to our Lord. I am still in a bit of shock that I am now a published author... I SO enjoyed my visit with her, her wisdom, hilarious since of humor, grace and realness. She truly moved me in our talking. I pray the Lord continues to bless her ministry, as she has so much to offer! She truly loves the Lord, and wants everyone on the planet to "get it" so that they might live as we are intended to!

I also had the privilege of dining with Wendy Treat (check out her website: http://www.wendytreat.com/) who was another speaker there. She like me is also a pastor's wife. She was wonderful to visit with, very passionate and full of wisdom and confidence in her God-given abilities.

I am praising our Lord Jesus for every bit of this book, and all of the fun that comes along with it. I also met and visited with several pastor's wives who I know will be able to relate to it. Several pastor's wives purchased copies. We exchanged phone numbers and information, I believe that the Lord has connected us! I have newly found Sister's in Christ.

I also had a younger gal come up to me explaining that she had her baby in last November, she was still in high school. I believe that the Lord will speak to her through the reading of it as well. She felt like because I had a teenage pregnancy (19 and delivered at 20) that she would find hope and healing and a place of relating. I pray that she will seek after the Lord always as she raises her child. I give thanks that her own mother was there with her and was very supportive of her. I pray that the Lord would use this for a ministry for her later on... oh the wonderful hope and security we have in Him!

This is a FIVE book series entitled "Confessions of a Pastor's Wife" and the first book that is "HE Speaks, Can You Hear Him" Go to my website at http://www.kathrynbonner.com/ to purchase it NOW before it goes out on the market in December 18th.

Forever Praising Him,
Kathryn