By now you know the meaning of PINE and PINECONE, so I will share with you why PINECONE Promises. Besides being fun to say, promises means as much to me as PINECONE does. I was born in 1973, and grew up with so many good songs from Bill and Gloria Gaither. I know many of us who love Jesus are so grateful for their lives and music. Their song, I Am A Promise, hit the airwaves when I was 2 years old. Mama Sisson, my maternal grandmother, told me often throughout my life, that she was always amazed at how I could sing that song, with that great big word, "potentiality!" when I was only 2. It makes me smile every time I think of her saying this. Again, because of copyright, I can't sing it for you, but it's such a great song, I really think you should look it up. Written for children, it still speaks straight to my heart, to remind me that I can be ANYTHING GOD wants me to be! (If you listen to the original Gaither recording with Gloria, you will hear her say, "you might be 6 or 66 and still wondering what you're going to be when you grow up--maybe you're still waiting for your best dreams to come true" which brought a burst of tears from me, when I listened to it about a year ago, and thought about how I have been singing this song since I was 2, and I am still waiting for so many of GOD's promises to come to pass, to use me, for whatever He wants me to be!) I am becoming what GOD wants me to be! I Am A Promise, and I am His Promise, with a capital P!
Promises in Pinecone Promises is for GOD's promises. His word never fails. I am memorizing the Christmas Story right now, the first 2 chapters of Matthew, and the first 2 chapters of Luke, and as I listen to remember, I hear over and over, "For no word from GOD will ever fail", and, "blessed is she who has believed that the LORD would fulfill his promises to her!" And Isaiah 55, "As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it. You will go out with joy and be led forth in peace; the mountains and hills will burst into song before you, and all the trees of the field will clap their hands. Instead of the thornbush will grow the juniper, and instead of briers the myrtle will grow. This will be for the LORD's renown,for an everlasting sign, that will endure forever."
GOD's Promises are the only reason I can even imagine having a life motto, and seeking to pursue it. His faithfulness leads me onward and upward! His steadfastness. His power. His mercy. His provision. His strength, and comfort, and joy, and goodness. All that He is, which is All.
So it was, that after years of thinking I would never start a nonprofit, I filed Pinecone Promises as a nonprofit foundation, with the Arkansas Secretary of State one year ago today, on Epiphany, January 6, 2023.
PINECONE is my life motto, and the motto for PINECONE Promises: Pour IN Everything, Cheer ON Everyone, Seed First the Kingdom of GOD, Come ON Earth, and next I will share with you the mission of Pinecone Promises, in Part 2!
