Life

“Everyone I’ve met carries with them a picture of what they want life to be. This picture may be well defined…”I want to get married, have 2.5 children, live in this neighborhood…” or it may an unconscious picture that drives their decision-making. I believe that God asks us to give up the picture. Not because there is something wrong with it but because He has something else in mind. This is where the rub is. Most often we don’t trust Him to give us a life that is better than the one we dream up for ourselves. Jesus said in Luke 9:24 & 25, “For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it. What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit his very self?” Let go of your picture so you can enter the adventure that God has for you!”

-ht: Fridays

Definitely Maybe

“Sometimes, no matter how carefully you plan your playlist, there is no right track for what awaits you”

Fort!

What do we do on a rainy afternoon….make a fort and watch The Notebook!

Alive!

Life is so startling it leaves little room for other occupations—Emily Dickenson

“Practice seeing beauty—practice being astonished by life, take time every day where you in a moment become breathless, remove the dust and see the treasure that is there” –Kim McManus

Loving on the Driscoll Sermons Again

Trial: Marriage and Men

Trial: Marriage and Women

Yikes…Mark Driscoll sure knows how to bring the heat and speak some godly truth.  Here are some of the key points or statements that I found particularly interesting from these two sermons:

• Ephesians 5:25. Husbands are to love their wives as the church. Is he selfish or selfless does he take from you or give himself up from you.
• Some of you ladies are very foolish on who you spend time with. You’re like Eve.
• You men are dating and wanting to marry God’s daughters.  Do you really think you can lie, manipulate, hit her, neglect her, abuse her, put your hands all over her? You are damaging His daughter. God is her Father and you cannot think that after abusing His daughter that you can cry out for His help and ask for help to do it some more….there is no excuse for any man who claims the name of Christ to treat a woman in a dishonorable, disrespectful way
• Don’t just date a man you can put up with.  Date a man you can trust and respect.  Date someone who is godly not one who is harsh, inconsiderate, immature.
• Marry a man who you agree with the course of his life and if you don’t agree with the course of his life then you shouldn’t marry him because wherever he is going that is where you’re going and once you are married then you’re going there too.

While we’re at it….here are some points from Francis and Lisa Chan’s podcast on Christ-Centered Marriages.(What can I say…I have to listen to something while I’m running!)

• The goal is not to have a happy marriage. You can have a happy marriage and still come to the end of your life and realize that you didn’t please God. The idea is having a Christ-centered marriage and one of the by-products is a happy, fulfilled marriage.
• Those who are most ready for marriage are those who need it the least. That doesn’t mean there’s not a desire to get married.
• I found life in Christ. I don’t need somebody to give me life.
• Think through ahead of time. Are we after the same thing? Do we both want God to be number one in our lives?
• There’s this mission first and my marriage is a part of that and comes under that. I don’t have time.  There’s more to life.

Earth

There are a few things that I can think of that I’m going to miss this year by not being in the States.  One of those was seeing this last Wednesday.   Read the article here.  Watching the movie is definitely on my list of things to do. Maybe I’ll get lucky and they’ll have it at a dollar theatre? Here’s to hoping!  If not….maybe I’ll just give in and buy it and these dvds!  Until then, I’ll keep on experiencing “earth” here and remember that I get to go on my morning runs with zebras, blesbok, wildebeasts, and ostriches!  And that I just went on Safari and saw some of these guys…

15 Hours

A group of bloggers are on a plane for 15 hours headed to India.  They will experience firsthand the ministry of Compassion International.  Check out their blogs and read about what they’ll be doing here!  We recently had a mission team with a couple who was able to meet up with a child they sponsor through Compasssion nearby our base.  They were thrilled to see the little girl and to see how their monthly donation changed her life.  Now they have a memory to put to the pictures, letters and packages they send and receive.  While she has hope and knows that someone cares even if they are an ocean away.

Cold…

Remind me why I decided to go to a place that gets COLD? The type of cold that forces you to wear a winter coat and a hat.  Although, I will admit that I do love my white hat, but still!  I don’t like being cold.  Maybe in December I’ll pick better!  Maybe not, but really.  I hate the transition!  Where one day the weather is fabulous and warm and then BAM we lied it really is going to get cold here.  You really will need that winter coat and that heater and that sleeping bag…..here’s to a few more weeks of semi-warm, please?

Songs on My Mind

Single Ladies by Beyonce

Hot n Cold by Katy Perry

Come on Get Higher by Matt Nathanson

I wish…

I wish…

-I had a car here.

-The weather wasn’t getting cold…and I wasn’t wearing a winter coat.

-Money grew on trees to buy plane tickets.

-I could go dancing

-There was a Target here.

-I could go on vacation and visit Carrie.

-I could take a nap.

-I knew what was next.

-I could eat some good Mexican or Chinese food.

-I could go to Panera.

ht: Carrie