Tuesday of TRIBUTE to TWINS(Part 3)RACHEL

TWIN TRIBUTE

RACHEL

&

ROSS

2008's GREAT GRADS!

BEAR WITH ME RACHEL...YOUR PART is COMING...Meanwhile

NEVER LET GO...HOLD ON
STAY FULL OF SPIRIT

And God remembered Rachel, and God hearkened to her, and opened... and Rachel said, God has taken away my reproach” -Genesis 30:22-23

You were not named after Rachel in the Bible though you are as BEAUTIFUL as she! YOU are named in memory of a precious little Rachel...who resides with the angels!

RACHEL - a name easy to agree upon!

MY TRIBUTE TO

RACHEL RAE

The name Rachel is of Hebrew origin (Rachil) meaning "ewe, a female sheep".

Jesus Christ is known as the "lamb of God" yet many biblical passages shows Him also as our Shepherd. Jesus said, "I am the good shepherd; and I know mine own and mine own know me...and I lay down my life for my sheep." (John 10:14). The poor man's one little EWE lamb is a vivid image of a treasure.

So, my little "ewe" RACHEL...YOU are not only a precious lamb but a treasure!Our Lord has called you to minister as a nurse. You have selected this purpose to pursue next year in an accredited nursing program. The 5 characteristics most wanted in a nurse are in your name acroynm below. These are what I've seen exemplified in YOU! How much more your parents, your family and friends must see! So I know Our Heavenly Father has placed these traits in you to blossom and use for His Glory!

R READY for THE RACE, focused & dedicated R RESPONSIBLE

A AMICABLE, AMBITIOUS, ASSERTIVE..........A ATHENA AWARD WINNER

C CARING, COMPASSIONATE, COMMITTED...E EXCELS in SPORTS

H HELPING, HEALTH CONSCIOUS, HOME LOVING

E ENERGETIC, EMPATHETIC, EXCELLENCE

L LOVING & LOYAL & LIKEABLE

RACHEL was selected this year as the recipient of the ATHENA AWARD!

This award goes to an outstanding female athlete in individual or team sports.

Rachel excels in both!

"Rachel is the captain of the track team and is a three-year letter winner. She has been to state two years running in the 4x100 and 4x400 meter relays. She has been All-Section in 2005, 2006 and 2007, while receiving All-State in 2006 and 2007. She was also captain of the 2007 soccer team and a two-time letter winner. She also played basketball receiving two letters.

Academically, she has been on the 'A' honor roll every year since seventh grade. Rachel has maintained a 4.0 grade point average throughout junior and senior high school and has lettered in academics in 2006 and 2007."

Rachel's Favorite Quote:

"Where there is great love there are always miracles."

After reading through all of Rachel's awards, honors, activities, positions of leadership and services, one can certainly tell that RACHEL has been given great love by parents who believe in her and in ROSS.

BECAUSE THEY BOTH HAVE RISEN TO GREAT EXPECTATIONS!

They have been motivated to go to a new level!

RACHEL & ROSS

had people around them that recognized their POTENTIAL,watered that seed planted with much positive reinforcement and encouragement,listened to their DREAMS,

saw their God given attributes

so that now they both will step forward

and

make those DREAMS a REALITY!

RACHEL'S FAVORITE SONG "If We Are The Body..." was in my Sat. post TSMS so here's another one

LOVE THEM LIKE JESUS!
by Casting Crown

The love of her life is drifting away

They’re losing the fight for another day

The life that she’s known is falling apart

A fatherless home, a child’s broken heart

You’re holding her hand, you’re straining for words

You trying to make - sense of it all

She’s desperate for hope, darkness clouding her view

She’s looking to you Just love her like Jesus, carry her to Him

His yoke is easy, His burden is light

You don’t need the answers to all of life’s questions

Just know that He loves her and stay by her side

Love her like Jesus Love her like Jesus

The gifts lie in wait, in a room painted blue

Little blessing from Heaven would be there soon

Hope fades in the night, blue skies turn to grey

As the little one slips away

You’re holding their hand, you’re straining for words

You’re trying to make sense of it all

They’re desperate for hope, darkness clouding their view

They’re looking to you

Just love them like Jesus, carry them to Him

His yoke is easy, His burden is light

You don’t need the answers to all of life’s questions

Just know that He loves them and stay by their side

Love them like Jesus

Lord of all creation holds our lives in His hands

The God of all the nations holds our lives in His hands

The Rock of our salvation holds our lives in His hands

He cares for them just as He cares for you

So love them like Jesus, love them like Jesus

You don’t need the answers to all of life’s questions

Just know that He loves them and stay by their side

Love them like Jesus Love them like Jesus

Rachel - As a nurse, wife and mother that's what you'll do!

Ross - with your creative side and sales/marketing,

YOU ARE WINNERS!

I BELIEVE IN YOU

and

ALL YOUR GOD-GIVEN POTENTIAL

just

WAITING

to

EXPLORE and EXPLODE

CARRIE & DALE

You as parents have raised them well,

and should be commended also for their excellence !

“Train a TWIN in the way they should go and when they are old they shall not depart from it.”

Proverbs 22:6.

and also

“Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. Love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.”

Deuteronomy 6:4-8

I AM IMPRESSED & HONORED

TO

CONGRATULATE

ROSS & RACHEL

on a job well...

started

All your accomplishments are but "dust in the wind"

if you just let them

sit on a shelf or

don't use them for a purpose driven life

designed by

the Almighty Father

ONLY FOR YOU

PUT A SMILE ON HIS FACE

GIVE HIM THANKS

& PRAISE!

YOU ARE HIS MASTERPIECE

But YOU have "only just begun"...

Proverbs 11:28 tells us " a life devoted to things is a dead life, a stump;

God-shaped life is a flourishing tree. (Msg)

“But blessed are those who trust in the Lord and have made the Lord their hope and confidence. They are like trees planted along a riverbank, with roots that reach deep into the water. Such trees are not bothered by the heat or worried by long months of drought. Their leaves stay green, and they never stop producing fruit. "

Jeremiah 17:7-8

Tuesday of TRIBUTE to TWINS (Part Two) ROSS

ROSS & RACHEL

I've avoided putting your names in this order so you wouldn't be confused with...
as your mom put it "the famous ones" (but I didn't even know them) from ...

Words to I'LL BE THERE FOR YOU...by Rembrandts (Theme Song)

So no one told you life was gonna be this way
Your jobs a joke, you're broke, your love life's D.O.A.
It's like you're always stuck in second gear
And it hasn't been your day, your week, your month,or even your year
but..I'll be there for you
When the rain starts to pour
I'll be there for you
Like I've been there before
I'll be there for you
'Cuz you're there for me too...You're still in bed at ten
And work began at eight
You've burned your breakfast
So far... things are goin' great
Your mother warned you there'd be days like these
Oh but she didn't tell you when the world has brought
You down to your knees that...I'll be there for you
When the rain starts to pour
I'll be there for you
Like I've been there before
I'll be there for you
'Cuz you're there for me too...No one could ever know me
No one could ever see me
Seems you're the only one who knows
What it's like to be me
Someone to face the day with
Make it through all the rest with
Someone I'll always laugh with
Even at my worst I'm best with you, yeah
It's like you're always stuck in second gear
And it hasn't been your day, your week, your month,or even your year...
I'll be there for you
When the rain starts to pour
I'll be there for you
Like I've been there before
I'll be there for you'
Cuz you're there for me too...I'll be there for you
I'll be there for you
I'll be there for you'Cuz you're there for me too...

Theme song from "FRIENDS"
*********************************************************************

But since you were born before this show started...YOU deserve THIS TRIBUTE!!!

Ross & Rachel

Though we don't really know each other that well because as you were growing up,
I was here in Mexico, as I said...and as this song so beautifully says "I'll Be There For You".

I was not "there for YOU" but YOUR Mom & Dad have been there for you and always will be.
But more than they, and all your wonderful family...JESUS will be there for YOU!

And I have a special line of communication with HIM and HIS WORD through prayer,
so in that way, I have been there for you!

Though the years from Kindergarten to 12th grade have now gone by, and it would seem that because we have not really spent time together or communicated much that I don't know you all that well. But that isn't so. I do know your mother and father, your grandparents, your aunts and uncles ... and because of them, I know YOU! What I didn't know, I recently learned by reading about YOU both. I'm sure that by knowing them and reading about you that I still have much I could learn about YOU! I will try my best to convey the truths I have learned in this

TRIBUTE TO YOU

Let me draw a comparison! Just like I wrote above about YOU

we don't know Our Heavenly Father.

So He sent us HIS SON, Jesus Christ.

Much has been written about Him

from different points of view.

But the Holy Bible

was written so that we might learn

HIS CHARACTER

to be like HIM

in ALL we do

because

we were created in HIS IMAGE!

I can READ HIS WORD & should daily

TO KNOW HIM BETTER.

But if I don't stay in touch

through PRAYER & FELLOWSHIP,

I will loose out on knowing HIM better.

I will miss out on a chance of a lifetime!

The time will pass

before my eyes

like it has with you

and

it will be time "to graduate"-move ahead!

I will have to depend on what I can read

to catch up quickly.

But

as if I had been there each year!

MY TRIBUTE

TO

ROSS

Your name is Scottish or Gaelic in origin for either males or females.

There is much more history on it as a last name (like your cousins).

It's meaning is "headland, cape"or "bluff, cliff".
A place in Scotland has that name.

It may also be derived from the Gaelic word for "red".

There are 4 variants of the name: Rosse, Rossell, Rossiter, Rosston.

Ross was a popular male name in the 1990 census.

Perhaps that's why when your mom's work had the contest

to name the other twin

ROSS

was chosen!

R Reliable, Responsible or Reasonable

O Observative for creative objects & Optimistic

S Sales oriented and knowledgeable; takes a Stand

S Sports minded and active

That's who you are, from what I can see!

Your Favorite Quote:

"Stand up for what you believe in

even if it means standing alone"

Your Favorite Song:

Rock/Grunge

"Fall on Me" by Fuel

I posted this last Saturday,[though it wasn't a big hit I'm sure it's because it wasn't understood or the style others like]but I liked it and posted it! And it doesn't matter 'cause it's your song
and as your quote says

"STAND"

By the way, there is only

ONE HOMECOMING KING

2007-2008

Senior class

with the great name

ROSS

You have chosen to attend University of Wisconsin Stout (where your mom went) with a unique major: Packaging. Here's what you wrote:

"I chose my major because it is a unique major. I have a creative side to me. I have always been interested in drawing, creating objects such as cartoon books, posters, ceramic and paper containers. I have a basic mathematical aptitude that can partner with my creative side and sales ability. For the past couple of years, I have taken a lot of interest in packaging and design. My high school marketing teacher is a Stout graduate so she planted the seed. Through my high school class in Marketing, I realized I could combine my creative abilities with my interest in marketing and sales. I learned that designing/producing packaging for a product is a fundamental factor to the success of marketing a product."

I guess for me, from your own words,

THAT says it all.

You are a hard worker and you have vision. You are creative!

I BELIEVE IN YOU!

May God grant YOU the desires of your heart!

Once more, I am going to break to tell you MORE about the other

TWIN of my TRIBUTE

at my next post

SO

STAY TUNED or COME BACK SOON

for

(PART 3)

on

RACHEL

RACHEL & ROSS: I BELIEVE in YOU!

"IF" RACHEL & ROSS ...

"IF" by RUDYARD KIPLING

Way back when I graduated from high school, this was & still is a very famous poem written by Rudyard Kipling. It applies still today! I believe we even had to study it in English class along with Simon & Garfunkel's

 

"Bridge over Troubled Waters"

RACHEL & ROSS
If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you
But make allowance for their doubting too,
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:
If you can dream--and not make dreams your master,
If you can think--and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools:
If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it all on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on!"
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings--nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much,
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And--which is more--you'll be a Man/Woman

my son/my daughter
--Rudyard Kipling

But back then, there was also a song by Bread called "IF" and it went like this:


The words in this YouTube video are from the poem by Rudyard Kipling and the song by Bread. When I listen to a lot of my "oldies", I can now think about them as IF to my Lord and Savior!

Lyrics to the song being song by Bread!

If a picture paints a thousand words, Then why can't I paint You? 

The words will never show the You I've come to know.

If a face could launch a thousand ships, Then where am I to go? 

There's no one home but You, You're all that's left me too.
And when my love for life is running dry, You come and pour Yourself on me.

If a man could be two places at one time, I'd be with You.

Tomorrow and today, beside You all the way.

If the world should stop revolving spinning slowly down to die, I'd spend the end with You.

And when the world was through,

Then one by one the stars would all go out,

Then You and I would simply fly away.

TOMORROW IS TUESDAY of TRIBUTE to TWINS

RACHEL & ROSS

FAMILY DAY-TRIBUTE to TWINS GRADUATING

RACHEL & ROSS...

WHAT A FANTASTIC FAMILY!

Here's how you and your family looked when I left for Mexico

JACK & JAN have been truly blessed by their children and their children's children

They were faithful to the Lord and the Lord remains faithful and steadfast to them and their offspring:

PAM, JACK, KIM & CARRIE

You are each a GEMSTONE in Your Father's Crown!

THERE IS NO GREATER LEGACY!

...then to pass on the faith of our fathers...

JACK & JAN

You have blessed me greatly

and I love you and thank you!

A FEW YEARS LATER, YOUR MOM, CARRIE(my youngest cousin)

BLESSED ME WITH THIS MEMORY of YOU

AND THE NEXT TIME WE WERE TOGETHER, YOU HAD GROWN EVEN MORE CARRIE BLESSED ME AGAIN WITH "MUCHO" & THIS PHOTO

MY HOW YOU HAVE GROWN IN THE TIME THAT I'VE BEEN HERE IN MEXICO!

And now it's almost time for YOUR GRADUATION!

SO

TUESDAY I will write more of my TRIBUTE TO YOU

RACHEL & ROSS

This scripture verse is one of my favorites, and I learned it is one of your favorites!

You were born the year before my youngest brother went home to be with the Lord and he had chosen this verse also for his final departure in his service

In place of him, I was blessed double with you both

"...but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength.

They will soar on wings like eagles;

they will run and not grow weary,

they will walk and not be faint.

ISAIAH 40:31

IT IS MY PRAYER FOR YOU AS YOU START OUT ON A NEW PHASE OF YOUR LIFE JOURNEY and A GODLY PURPOSE DRIVEN LIFE and DESTINY

LORD, I pray that Rachel and Ross

will daily find strength in the Lord, that their hope will be renewed in only Him!

that Rachel and Ross will soar on wings like eagles,

that Ross and Rachel will run and not grow weary

and they will walk and not grow faint!

Lord, be with them each day so that Rachel and Ross will make all decisions

with Your Wisdom through the Power of Your Word

and the Holy Spirit alive in them!

Light their way and keep them ever close to You!

May their heart seek Your heart as they daily walk

closer to You and Your purpose and plan for their blessed life.

Give them the fruits of Your Spirit and guard them daily with the full armor of God!

We Trust You and thank You for Rachel & Ross!

In Jesus' precious Name.

Amen

Tuesday of TRIBUTE to TWINS(Part One)

I'm setting aside this day to try my best to write a VERY SPECIAL TRIBUTE to TWO!

'CAUSE IT's TWOs DAY!!! TWO for TUES DAY...TWO FOR ONE....TWO, TWO, 2.....

I originally wanted to post this to only one immediately after her mom, one of my favorite cousins, sent me some great news! Then I thought, ." well, this deal ...needs some time to put this together with photos, music, verses, the "whole" works to celebrate this right and do a proper tribute!" [Sounds like procrastination or an excuse to me!]
And along came the 10 days of Global Prayer and no time to do this the justice it merited! So I put it on hold but continued to ponder how I could do my best to show my desire to honor "her" and suddenly I realized it was not just about her but she has a twin brother, who deserves it also. Now that makes this much more complicated...

NOW TWOs DAY has really become TWO: TWINS and not the Minnesota Twins: baseball team
Though they are from MINNESOTA and maybe someday the TWINS will be looking to sign'em!

The problem is that I'm here in Mexico and they(and much of their life history and accomplishments have been there)( while I am here)! In other words, I have missed out
on their entire lives up to this point, since Kindergarten probably...that is until last summer! I was blessed to watch her play in the State Finals of Soccer in Blaine, MN!

TUESDAY's TRIBUTE is to TWO SENIORS GRADUATING FROM HIGH SCHOOL
RACHEL & ROSS

Daughter and son of Carrie(my cuz) and her husband, Dale

(Proud Parents of these 4)

(due to unforseen technical problems this TRIBUTE will have to be postponed)

but trust me
it's coming soon, perhaps even to a theater near you!

So this is just PART ONE!!!

I will continue on next TUESDAY TRIBUTE!

Meanwhile, ENJOY the YOU TUBE video for all GRADUATES.... and keep watch for the CONTINUATION... of RACHEL and ROSS


Words: Deborah D. Smith
Music: Michael W. Smith

Packing up the dreams God planted
In the fertile soil of you
Can't believe the hopes He's granted
Means a chapter in your life is through
But we'll keep you close as always
It won't even seem you've gone
'Cause our hearts in big and small ways
Will keep the love that keeps us strong

Chorus:
And friends are friends forever
If the Lord's the Lord of them
And a friend will not say never
'Cause the welcome will not end
Though it's hard to let you go
In the Father's hands we know
That a lifetime's not too long to live as friends.

With the faith and love God's given
Springing from the hope we know
We will pray the joy you'll live in
Is the strength that now you show

But we'll keep you close as always
It won't even seem you've gone
'Cause our hearts in big and small ways
Will keep the love that keeps us strong

Chorus