Best Comment During School Today!!!

Me: God's love for us is so big! even in our sin God loves us, we have to turn from our sin but STILL in our sin God loves us! He loves us even though we don't deserve it, THATS because God is a GRACIOUS GOD!!!

Kid: Whaaaaaat??? God ain’t a RACIST!!!

Me: I said God is GRACIOUS, NOT RACIST!!! 😂😂😂😂

I’m a writer- i have the best imagination everrrrrr!!!!! BUUUUUUUUT-You can’t make this funny of stuff up if you tried!!!! Just another Sunday at Landmark and i wouldn’t want it any other way!!!!

♥Mary Frances :)

Then Peter Said Game!!!!

So right now the Sunday School rooms are in a bit of a rigamarol so the really young kids are combined with the next age up which means the lesson has to be really simple and short to keep the attention span of all the kids so even with songs and a craft there’s still about 10 extra minutes… so I was trying to think of a game that would interest both age groups…

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Well the only thing that came to my mind was Duck, duck, duck  GOOSE!!! Buuuuuuuut I was thinking there’s like no spiritual aspect to this game… how can I make it spiritual so it’s NOT just a game to fill time??? 

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Hmmmm… oh I knoooooow…. I could make it Biblical… liiiiiiiike…. And I got the inspiration from God and ALL THE KIDS LOVED IT!!!! 

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Instead of Duck, duck GOOSE!!! We played, Then Peter said!!

Sooooooo you play it just like duck, duck GOOSE!!! Buuuuuuut you go around saying, Then Peter said, Then Peter said, Then Peter said, Then Peter said, Then Peter said, Then Peter said, REPENT!!!! Annnnnnnd if you’re the one they touch then you have to run around and get back to your spot in a prayerful/repentant position!!!!

It went soooooo great! The kids had a blast and the best part is that the Sunday School kids are memorizing the first part of Acts 2:38 without even trying!!!!

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If we have time, we will probably play this with the kids this Sunday again and I plan to play this with my nieces and nephews and the next family get together!!!

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Of course, I’m sharing the game on here BECAUSE, I’d love for you all to play the game as well!!! 

♥Mary Frances :)

Did you forget something???

 Soooooooooo a few months ago, I'm driving home from church when my sister calls me! I rarely answer the phone due to ALWAYS keeping it on silent, buuuuuuut, I happened to catch this call!!!!

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My sister is like, did you forget something at church?! I'm liiiiiiiike, UH, NO! She's like, Did you forget SOMEONE at church! I'm like, Noooooooo!!! She's like, ARE YOU SURE??? I'm sitting there in my car thinking, okaaaaaaayyy, I love your kids almost like my own, buuuuuuuuut they're NOT my kids. At the end of the day, they're not my responsibility!!!

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Buuuuuuuuuut NOT wanting to give my sister total attitude about it and start a fight, I was like, Oh had wanted me to take MaryJo and Odin home today? She's like, UH HOW ABOUT YOUR KID YOU BROUGHT TO CHURCH WITH YOU???

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AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!! I gasped!!! I forgot I had picked up a Sunday School kid!!!! I was liiiiiiike, OMW....

ABBY!!!

(Yes, I spoil kids-IF they're the only one that comes, annnnnd I just got paid!!! Hee, hee!!!)

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My sister was like, YEEEEEEEEESSSS!!!!

 I'm liiiiiiiiike OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOPS!!!

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You always wonder about those parents that forget a kid, 

UNTIL IT'S YOU!!!!

LPC Thanksgiving Feast 2018!!!

Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeelllllllll I started the day off at about 5:20 am, so by the time it was time to start waking up kids, I figured COFFEE #2 was in order!!!

Annnnnnnnnnd then THE WAKING UP BEGAN!!! Thankfully most of the children were awake and getting ready when I knocked at 8 and told them I'd be back in another 30 minutes. Only One child had to be completely woken up and ONLY one person had to take a shower...MAAAAAAAAAAANNN I remember the good O day when NO ONE was late from taking a shower...NOW here we are 12 or 13 years later and everyone is all AMERICANIZED...Thankful YES, buuuuuuuuut NOT for the waiting!!! LOL It's like a mixed feeling...JUST HURRY UP AND GET OUT HERE!!!! AHAHAHAHAAAA!!!

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Annnnnnnnd this lil cutie-patootie that will be joining us in a few years...as soon as she's potty trained!!! I learned to make that rule...Ummmmm I love babies buuuuuuuut, I can't watch and change them all in one service and still actually get something and be a part of the service!! 

 My lil Deedee!!! I've known her since she was born!!! Always my baby!!! 

Don't be ________AND LAZY!!!

Sooooooooo a lot of the kids I pick up have gotten really lazy about coming on Sunday mornings because it means, WAKING UP EARLY, where as coming on Wednesday nights, they're already up. Soooooooooooo a few weeks ago, when I was dropping them off, I asked one of the girls, Lola, are you going to come on Sunday morning???

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Soooooooooooo she's like, IDK...I'll probably be sleeping!!! Soooooooooo I'm like, GIRRRRRRL, don't be LAZY!!! Sooooooooo she just kinda smiles and I'm like, YOU KNOW what MY MOM (Who was her Bible class teacher when she was a baby) would say to me growing up when I didn't want to do something? She's like, WHAT? I'm like, she'd say,

DON'T BE FAT AND LAZY!!! 

I'm like, WEEEEEEEELLLL...

She just looks at me all confused, because she's like REALLY, REALLY SKINNY!!! Like literally this long, straight stick!!! LOL I'm like, weeeeeeeeeeeeeeelllll...

In YOUR CASE...

DON'T BE SKINNY AND LAZY!!! 

AHAHAHAAAA!!!!

♥Mary Frances :)
Mom's advice here

Perfect timing!!!!

Soooooo we had the Daughrtey's at our church last month and for one of the times he was preaching, he was talking about God blessing Abraham and stuff and he got to the part...

"Now the LORD had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will shew thee:" (Genesis 12:1)

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"And I will make of thee a great nation..."annnd at that very moment one of the kids let out this HUUUUUUUGE SNEEZE...

AHHHHHHCHOOOOOOOOOO!!!! 

And Bro. Daughrty was like...  And I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing... was like, SUCH PERFECT TIMING!!! I was just like, WOW!!! I'm not to sure if anyone else noticed it buuuuuuuut I was pretty impressed!!! AHAHAHAHAHAAAAA!!!!

♥Mary Frances :)

A GOOD SPIRIT!!!

Soooooo Wednesday night at kids church, my brother and his wife were doing this game with the kids where they had take M&Ms and put them into 4 different cups according to their colors. So they did 4 boys first and the boy that won got to go up against the girl that one in her group of four girls, WELLLLLL this girl Queen by far beat ALL the other girls...

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Buuuuuuuuuuuuuuut OF COURSE one of the kids noticed that all the M&Ms that she had split up, there were NO BLUE M&Ms, so of course all the girls that lost were like, THATS NOT FAIR!!! So Queen looks at her cups and then, INSTEAD OF BALKING BACK AT HER TEAM MATES, she is like, YOU KNOW WHAT, your right, I DIDN'T have any blue ones, I PROMISE I DID NOT EAT THEM, buuuuuut they're right, that wasn't FAIR, LETS PLAY IT AGAIN, SO I CAN WIN FAIRLY!!!

Annnnnnnnnnnd YOU KNOW WHAT, that was EXACTLEY WHAT SHE DID!!! She played the game AGAIN and WON AGAIN....buuuuuut this time, FAIR AND SQUARE!!! Then she went on and played against the boy that won AND beat him too!!!

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Buuuuuuuuuuuut I couldn't help but think, WHAT A GOOD SPIRIT this little girl Queen had about it! She was confident enough in her ability to win that game, to risk losing her prize AND PLAY IT AGAIN!!!  When the other girls started complaining about her winning unfairly, she could have been like, NO I WON!!! And you know what, SHE DID WIN! It was NOT her fault that she hadn't been given any blue M&M's, AND my brother and sis-in-law I'm SURE would NOT have made her play again to prove it!

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AND it got me to thinking, are we CONFIDENT ENOUGH IN GOD, that he will do what is best for us, that we are willing to LOSE the prize we had been waiting for, JUST so he can teach us, TO REALLY TRUST IN HIM???? If something is God's will, you won't  have to manipulate a situation for it to happen, GOD WILL MAKE IT HAPPEN!!!

Do you trust God ENOUGH to say, you know what God, I'm willing to let go, SO YOU CAN PROVE yourself to me, SO YOU CAN SHOW ME, that you REALLY CAN DO IT! The right way! Without MY "HELP" and ON YOUR OWN TERMS!!! When we try to manipulate a situation, our confidence is NOT truly in God's ability, BUT IN OUR ABILITY TO MAKE GOD'S WILL COME TO PASS!!!

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Trusting in God is MORE than just believing that he is going to do what you think he should do, IT'S BELIEVEING that he is doing what's BEST FOR YOU, EVEN when he doesn't do what YOU THINK HE SHOULD DO!!!  Ok God, I thought you gave this to me, BUT my confidence in you to what is best for me, is high enough to say, OK, LET'S DO THIS AGAIN!!! SHOW ME WHAT YOU CAN REALLY DO GOD!!! MY FRIENDS, He ONLY has GOOD PLANS FOR US, You can put your confidence IN HIM!!!

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"For the LORD shall be thy confidence, and shall keep thy foot from being taken." (Proverbs 3:26)

♥Mary Frances :)

Which one has MORE attitude???

Take a wild guess as to which one of these little loves has more attitude????

THE LITTLE ONE!!!

Annnnnd the WINNER IS:

THE ADORABLE LITTLE MISS CHRISTINA!!! She truly puts a picture to the saying, "Dynamite comes in small packages" She totally has that "BIG SISTER" personality even tho she's NOT!!!! I soooooooooo adore her!!!

♥Mary Frances :)

Another cRaZy Wednesday...

So I always like to have a treat to give the kids when they get off the van and go home at the end of the night, its kinda a threat to them to behave on the way home buuuuut I mean, lets be honest, in the ALMOST NINE YEARS I've been doing this, I think I ONLY have actually NOT given them treats like twice...and more than likely it was cuz I was in a bad mood that I ACTUALLY didn't give it to them!

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 Weeeeeeelllll the kids LOOOOOVE Mexican candy, they've requested it many times, therefore, the last several weeks I've been buying the big O bulk bags from Food City and they've been VERY pleased with this!!! Last night in the van on the way to church they were asking me what the treat was this week and I said, CANDY!!! They were like, Mexican candy??? I'm like, YUP!!! They're like, AGAIN??? Its ALWAYS Mexican candy don't you have anything else? I'm like, Nooooo...they're like griping about it...Soooooooo I'm like, OMW, you guys, I just remembered, I DID BRING ANOTHER KIND OF CANDY!!!! They're like, YOU DID??? I'm like, YES!!! I don't IF you guys have ever heard of it before buuuuuuuuut its called...

NO CANDY!!!!

AHAHAHAHAHAHA

AHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

Mary's House!!!

So there are some younger kids in my group that we pick up on Wednesdays that are FINALLY potty trained and old enough to come for Wednesday night Bible School now, So they've been coming for the last several weeks.

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Weeeeeeeellll tonight, when we got to church, the little ones were all like, YAAAAAY! We're here, we're at...

 MARY'S HOUSE!!!

AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

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The older kids were all like, this is NOT Mary's house!!! The little ones were like, YES IT IS!!! I was like, UH WAIT A SECOND, You guys think this is MY HOUSE??? They were all like, YES!!! I'm like, THIS IS NOT MY HOUSE...but I wouldn't mind it being my house...WELLLL on second thought it would be A LOT to clean!!!!

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They were like,  BUUUUUT it's Mary's church....cuz that's what kids always say, I'm going to Mary's church are you going to Mary's church??? So i'm like, its MY CHURCH in the sense that this is the church I GO TOO... buuuuut its NOT MY CHURCH... I am NOT the Pastor!!!! BAHAHAHA!!!

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A few weeks ago they thought the church van was MY VAN!!! They were asking WHY I never drive my van??? I was like, I don't have one!!!! They were like, isn't this a van we're riding in??? I was like, well YEAH, buuuuut it is most DEFINATLEY NOT MINE!!! Annnnnnd the reason WHY i'm not driving it is because for SOME ODD REASON...

I'M NOT ALLOWED TO!!! AHAHAAHA!!!

♥Mary Frances :)

My secret!!!

Tonight this boy came to Wednesday Bible school for the first time. He is 13-years-old and from a Muslim family that migrated over from the middle east. The first time I met him, I was with his younger sister at their apartmen and she called him over from the playground, I said, "Hi! I'm Mary! And he said very politely, "YES, I know who you are!" I'm like, YOU DO??? He's like, "YES, ALL THE KIDS AROUND HERE TALK ABOUT YOU!!!" I'm like, REALLY??? He's like, "YES! What is your secret that they all like  you???"

I'm like, weeeeeeeeeellllllll...I don't really know...BROWNIES??? AHAHAHA!!!

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Buuuuuuut REALLY was thinking about it...I don't buy them things like the people from the mega churches do, I mean, candy and a hamburger here and there buuuut NOTHING big, like the church that gives them all bikes for Christmas, or take them shopping for clothes, I don't have the smoke lights at my church and a dance club to offer them...the only thing I really got is GOOD cookies and brownies I make and bring them on Tuesdays, buuuuuuuuuuuut other than that,

THE ONLY THING

 I HAVE IS LOVE!!!

Love, love, LOVE...that's all I've got!!! 

MY SECRET IS LOVE!!! God blessed me with a really big heart and an overflowing ability to love. Never doubt the worth of your love to someone that really needs it! They not act like it, they may not respond when you say that you love them, buuuuuut don't be fooled. They TREASURE LOVE!!!

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They may choose to go to a mega church for a party or some fancy new gadget, buuuuut ten years from now, when the parties have crashed and all the electronic toys have broken, it won't be those things that they remember, it will be YOUR LOVE!!!

NEVER DOUBT THE VALUE OF YOUR LOVE!!!

God, please love THEM, through ME!!!

There is someone waiting for it today...

GO LOVE THEM!!! 

♥Mary Frances :)

Future Dr? Future Nurse? Future _______?????

So last Sunday...

Me and Jac just start CRACKIN up listening to the conversation to the church going on amongst the Sunday School kids in the van!!! So we're driving past some kind of big fancy house and one of the boys says, When I grow up, i'm going to have a house like that!!!

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Soooo one of the girls just BUSTS up laughing!!! She is like HA!!! What kind of job are you going to have??? He is like, HEY! I'm going to be a DOCTOR when I grow up!!! Another one of the kids is like, A DOCTOR??? HA!!! You'll probabley ONLY make it to being a nurse!!!

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ANOTHER one of the kids is like, A NURSE??? Yeah right!!! I see him more like...

WORKIN AT...

McDONALD'S!!!

The boy totally unfazed by them dissing him, excitedly says, as IF the job was equally as wonderful as being a doctor...WELL, if I work there,

 AT LEAST I'LL GET FREE FOOD!!!

At this point me and Jac just busted up laughing!!! I'm like HEEEEEY at least the boy has PLANS and AMBITION to WORK of some sort!!! ANNNND if free food is THE PUSH...heeeey...its all good!!! Cuz you know what the Bible says, If a man doesn't work he shouldn't eat!!!
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Soooo watch out McDonald's, you better get some EXTRA fries cookin up cuz we got your future workers in our van!!!! Wooot!!! Wooot!!!

♥Mary Frances :)