Idols

Well, it's been a while since my last post but I'm hoping to be better about keeping up with my blog now that school is out. We shall see...

Anyway, I've been thinking a lot about idols since Sunday night when we were talking about this in my small group. I was immediately convicted by an illustration that I saw because it was picture of what I often do in my own life (I wish I had the ability to draw it on here to show you, but that's not possible). Sometimes it is just so easy for me to put other things in front of God in my life. They are not necessarily bad things, but it's the fact that they are more important to me in the moment that concerns me.....

As I was thinking about this issue, and many other conversations that I have recently had with people, I realized just how much of a struggle idolatry is for so many people who truly want to follow Jesus. The world has created these man-made standards that many of us feel like we have to measure up to, whether it be with our jobs, parenting, marriage, body image, possessions, sex, addictions, social status, hobbies, etc. The sad thing is we want to meet these standards or feel a certain way about ourselves so bad that we allow ourselves to lust after these "things" that have no eternal value whatsoever! We will do just about anything, including sin, to fulfill our desires. In turn, we create alters in our hearts and we worship these certain areas/things in our lives, we do everything in our power to find fulfillment. In the process we neglect the things in life that are most important. It's sickening! This is nothing new, it's a topic discussed in churches quite frequently.

I think about all of these things we chase after, then I think about God. My Creator, Sustainer, Provider, Redeemer... and the fact that He loves me and He thinks I'm perfect, in fact He made me this way. He desires more than anything else for me to love Him and follow Him with ALL of my heart. He promises to meet my needs in EVERY situation. He promises that I can find true fulfillment ONLY through Him. If this is true, why do we spend so much time trying to fulfill other temporary desires???? ---Deception!

It bothers me because I REALLY want to be fully reliant on and fulfilled by Him. I don't want to just say it, but I want it to be. I think of how sad it must be for Him to watch his followers bounce around from one thing to another trying to find joy, peace, and acceptance when all we really have to do is look to Him. He is the only thing that we have in this life that is of any eternal value, why not invest in Him instead of our own selfish desires? When we leave this world, we are not taking any of our "stuff"(jobs, houses, cars, bodies, friends, family) with us.

So I ask myself, Is God enough for me? I have a friend who has posed this question before and it really made me think.... If you lost everything you had, your home, family, job, possessions, every sense of worldly security, would God be enough for you? Would you be fine with JUST Him? Do you know Him well enough to feel confident? The first time I thought about this, I honestly had to question myself. Then when I have times like this where I really ask God to search my heart and reveal to me any unknown sin or anything that I am putting before Him, and He does... it really puts things into perspective and makes me see how much I do not rely on Him in ALL areas of my life. It also makes me see how much I want to truly, truly, truly say, "You're enough for me, God."

What's Up

There are only 27 more days of school left and I can hardly wait! I LOVE summer vacation. Matthew and I will be headed to Pawley's Island the first week of summer...so excited! We thought about going on a cruise, but we really wanted to go with other people and that just didn't work out. It is probably for the better since our alone time is pretty limited. Matthew decided he was more "into" the beach idea than a cruise, he said he just wants to relax and have no agenda. I don't blame him and I know he needs it. Hopefully our departure will go a little more smoothly this year.....

In the meantime I am totally loving my class! I'm gonna miss them so much next year. It seems like every other year is a really good group. Hopefully next year will be just as pleasant. I also love the people that I teach with. I have such a good team...so thankful for them. Today the second grade teachers started our workout program after school. We are doing kickboxing in the gym everyday after school. We had a lot of fun today. I think I can hang....it was pretty easy today so I'm hoping it gets more intense as we progress. One of the second grade teacher is the owner of a Tae-Kwan-Do gym in Mauldin so she is leading our "workout program." I love doing it at school and with other people. I just go in the bathroom after school and change and workout....it's much better than trying to get motivated after coming home. I also love the feeling of coming home and being "done" for the day. I have been kind of slack about working out lately because we have been so busy. I can't stand the way I feel when I am slacking. I can't stand the way my pants feel either! It's also good because we start right at three o'clock so if I do have something to do I still have the rest of the afternoon to do it, perfect! I hope it continues without fizzling out.

Something else that's exciting for me is the Women's Retreat this weekend! We will be leaving on Friday around noon for a weekend in Charleston, I can't wait. I always have so much fun on the retreats! I have the best roommates in the world too so that's a huge plus! On Saturday we have the afternoon to do whatever we would like...I think shopping is on the agenda, yay! I feel like I need a weekend getaway to refresh and refocus, I know it will be great! I am also taking Monday off to relax and recover, aahh. I saved my two personal days just for this weekend and it has FINALLY come.

Matthew is doing well too. He has been very busy lately with his school semester coming to an end. He is actually in class right now and I think next Monday night is his last class. He will be going up the KY in a couple of weeks to take another three day class then he will be done for the summer. His last semester will be in the fall, then graduation.... Praise the Lord!!!! He is still trying to perfect his skateboarding techniques so he goes to the skate park whenever he has spare time which is pretty much never....maybe once or twice a month. He did his fourth funeral today for one of the seniors that passed in our church. I wasn't there, but I'm sure it went well. He stays on the go most of the time, but he absolutely loves what he's doing. He's so passionate and motivated, he continues to amaze me everyday.

That's us! God is so good and we are so thankful!

Short, But Sweet.....

That's how I felt about my visit with my two sweet friends last night. We met at Starbucks and I felt like we had been there for 20 minutes, (which was really an hour and a half) and we had just gotten our conversation started and it was time for them to close.... and time for us to say goodbye. :( I probably could have stayed and talked all night, but I was thankful for the time that we did get to spend together.

It was great to catch up with Carrie and Rachel . We laughed and just really had a great time! They always say, "time flies when you're havin' fun," isn't that so true!

Wanna Know Why I Never Cook???

There is a reason why I never cook....it's because I have a very serious phobia of burning the house down. This is a new phobia that has just recently come about in the last two weeks since I almost burned the house down for the second time in three years. I'm not talking about a little bit of smoke, I'm talkin flames and fire on the stove.....twice now!!

The first time this happened, we had just moved into the house. Literally, I think we had maybe lived there about a month, max. It may have even been one of my first times using the stove since moving in. Matthew was headed to the church for a brief meeting and I told him that I would cook while he was gone and it would probably be ready about the time he got home. So, I turn on the stove to start boiling the water and all of a sudden the eye of the stove just burst into flames about two feet high. I didn't know what to do so I ran for the door (I guess I was going to just let the house burn down) but Matthew had locked the front door when he left the house and there was no time to find the keys and try to get out. I was screaming at the top of my lungs and crying hysterically. I was afraid to pour water on the stove because my neighbor growing up did that and it caused the fire to spread. I couldn't find the phone to call 911 and the fire was growing hgher and higher by the second. I finally grabbed the pot and filled it with water and took my chances. I figured I was going to die either way because I was locked in the house anyway. I poured the water on the stove and the fire died out. By this time, maybe a minute had gone by, I was pouring sweat and hyperventalating. I went in the den, sat on the couch and bawled until Matthew got home. It took me a while to recover from this, but I finally did...

Two years later ( few weeks ago), and a remodeled kitchen later....I had just finished cooking dinner for Lyn and Cameron, some friends whose baby had surgery. I decided to stay at home while Matthew delivered the meal so I could cook dinner for us. Again, the eye if the stove caught on fire and it was burning hard. I starting my hysterical screaming, crying and running around. My first instict was to call Matthew (before putting out the fire). Obviously I don't think straight in those kinds of situations. I got halfway through dialing his number and the fire was getting higher so I hung up. I quick tried to move the pot that was on top of the fire without buring myself, then I turned off the stove and threw water over it again. When the fire was out, I called Matthew hysterical. I was screaming and crying...I couldn't even talk. He started yelling at me to calm down because he couldn't understand what I was saying, I think I scared him too. It was so scary!

Needless to say, we ended up just going out to eat and I haven't turned the stove on since that night. I did make quesadillas the other night and rather than cooking them in a frying pan, I decided to cook them on the griddle. I think I might be scarred for life.....good thing we are not home often to cook and I love to go out to eat.....

Daphney

My sweet niece was born on March 23, 2009. She weighed 6 lb. 11oz. and was 19in long. Her name is Daphney and she is the first grandchild on my side of the family. Needless to say my mom is thrilled to be a grandma. It is so funny to see how excited she is! Everywhere we go we need to look in the baby section and see if there is anything she "needs." I'm excited to be an aunt again too! I thought that this would really be beneficial for me too, I was thinking that maybe my mom would finally stop begging me to have a baby. Has that stopped? Nope, not at all....In fact, I have gotten more frequent requests now than ever before. Goodness!! Gotta love her. One things for sure, this child along with all other future grandchildren will have a grandma that loves them and wants to see them as much as possible. I have posted some pictures of this sweet new addition to our family.

Happy Times

Spring break has been an action packed week with little rest and lots of play. I have gotten to spend time with lots of friends and family, it's been nice. It's hard to believe that it is already almost over! I have gotten to go work-out almost every morning with Caroline and Susan, which has been great. We went to the Chris Tomlin concert the other night which was amazing. I didn't realize that he sang so many songs that I knew....awesome! Life is good here in Simpsonville...nothing too overly exciting, just really good. I love time with good friends and family and I'm so thankful for both. The "cherry on top" of all of this goodness is that I get to see my sweet friend, Rachel from Texas this week too! YAY! I love it!

Off to dinner....I'll continue later...

Palm Sunday

I just love this time of year when the weather starts to warm up and Spring is in the air. I also love this time of year because I am reminded of what Jesus has done for me....and words cannot even begin to express my gratitude. I am reminded of a man who came to Earth with a single goal..a man who never lost sight of why he was here, He never took his eyes off God and what God had asked him to do. Then I have to ask myself, how often do I know what God has asked me to do, but still in the midst of it all I take my eyes off of him? Too often, I know.

Too often I worry about personal comfort and my own self and my eyes are not clearly set on Christ and all that He has for me. As a believer I am called to live a sacrificial life, in fact I am called to face hardships and find joy in trials. (what?) For example, when Jesus was going to Jerusalem he took the twelve disciples aside and told them that everything that was written about the Son of Man would be fulfilled. He said, "He will be handed over to the Gentiles. They will mock him, spit on him, flog him, and kill him. On the third day he will rise again." He knew what was coming....but he never looked back. As believers, aren't we guaranteed to face similar treatment? I mean, if we truly want "to live as Jesus did?" It can be painful and flat out hard sometimes. Isn't it so much easier to back away and take our own route rather than facing the mocking, spit, and pain?

There is only one way that we can face this kind of life, the life that Christ has called us to, and that is through preparing ourselves for times that may be hard, but also preparing ourselves to do what God asks, no matter what. Being in the Word and knowing the truths of Scripture. We have to be prepared for battle! As said in Ephesians 6 we must put on the full armor of God because when you are following Christ and his plans for you, you better believe there is a war going on.

Jesus was prepared for His death on the cross. Before going to Jerusalem, he sent two of his disciples ahead of Him to find the colt and bring it to him. He was following the path that he knew God had and preparing to make his "Triumphal Entry." Later in scripture it says that "They brought the colt to Jesus, threw their cloaks on the colt and put Jesus on it. As he went along, people spread their cloaks on the road. When he came near the Mount of Olives, the whole crowd of disciples began joyfully to praise God in loud voices for all the miracles they had seen; "Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in the heavens and glory in the highest!" (what a beautiful picture) Then some of the Pharisees told Jesus to rebuke his disciples, and this was his reply, "if they keep quiet, the stones will cry out." (WOW! We truly can't keep the truth about Christ quiet, we should be shouting our praise... or something with no life whatsoever (a rock) will cry out....He IS that worthy of praise!) It said that "as he approached Jerusalem and saw the city, he wept over it and said, "If you, even you, had only known on this day what would bring you peace-but now it is hidden from your eyes. The day will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment against you and encircle you and hem you in on every side. They will dash you to the ground, you and your children within these walls. They will not leave one stone on another, because you did not recognize the time of God's coming to you." then Jesus in humility and boldness entered into the temple area and began driving out those who were selling. I imagine he was flipping tables and raging with righteous anger. He told them, "My house will be a house of prayer; but you have made it a den of robbers." Whoa! Can you believe it? He showed them didn't he? As a believer I am called to a standard of living that is attractive and different. As a follower I should also be displaying that same boldness in humility, but isn't it is so much easier to be prideful and passive?
The leaders were trying to kill Jesus, but they were unable to because the people were hanging on his every word. The ultimate portrayal of love and sacrifice was only days away....

What an amazing God we serve!