I was thinking today, I want to start a journal. For a year. I want to write at least one line in it everyday, for one year. Then I want to look back over the trials and joys of the year and see how God grew and stretched me. I want to see what God does in the course of a year.
The next coming months are going to be crazy. Crazy busy, crazy exciting, crazy fun, crazy stressful. I am EXCITED. I am SCARED. Some things are coming up that I want to write about. I want to journal the journey. JOURNAL THE JOURNEY. I'm going some place new. I'm getting out of my cozy Orange County bubble. I'm leaving my house for a far, FAR, away place this summer to do some good hard work. I'll write more about it as things start to happen. But for now, I want to start a journal.
Anywho, on to other things. Here's some pictures from my phone this last week.
Does your cat sleep like this? We have three dogs and a cat now. It's practically a farm up in here. Since we live in the forest, we tried keeping the cat locked up in the house for the night to prevent his getting eaten by, oh, I dunno. Bobcats? Coyotes? Mountain lions? All of the above? Problem is, by locking Kitty in, the dogs are also locked in, so they've been having accidents in the house. Yuck. So now we've been keeping the doggie door open, Kitty goes out all night, fingers crossed no one eats him. The problem now? Mice. Kitty brings in mice almost everyday. 5am seems to be his favorite time to bring them in. Brett now keeps gloves on his nightstand so he can get up and grab any mice and throw them outside. It's way fun.
Does your youngest son watch TV like this? I love Matt. He's just so weird.
My youngest son is also a smarty pants. Last week he got a bunch of medals for scoring very high in all his STAR testing for the last three years. Straight A's, very organized. Just like his dad. Matt has a huge concern for quality and timely work.
Yard vermin. There goes the neighborhood.
My good friends birthday! Love her. A bunch of us took her over to Slater's 50/50 in Huntington. They're famous for bacon related foods, which we all seem to love. That cake right there is bacon chocolate cake.
Yes, I ate all these burgers.
Sisters and sisters and sisters.
I have two little brothers. I remember when I was small, being walked across the street to a neighbors house to stay overnight. My mom was in labor, and my dad was dropping us off. I asked my dad what sex the baby was going to be. He said a boy. My head dropped, a loud sigh followed, and I remember thinking that it wasn't fair. I already HAD a brother, now I'll have two?? Why??? Mom came home with a redheaded little baby that looked nothing like Chris and I. I was SOOOOO disappointed. Where was my sister? Why couldn't I have a female sibling to be best friends with? Two boys were too many. We fought like animals constantly. Argued all the time. Poor mom. I don't think we got along once during the whole time we lived in the same house. Not to mention the car situation. When it was just Chris and I, we fit in the backseat just fine. Sure, Chris would be annoying me from his side of the car, but he couldn't quite reach me. We even got to sit in the front seat back then! Until that one time mom left us in an idling car in the garage. I put the car in drive and it went through the wall of the kitchen. Oops. But that's beside the point. When David and his car seat showed up, they hogged up all the room in the backseat. And as he got older, he squished me into the door. I appreciated nothing about having brothers until about ten years ago.
Awww, look, there's weird little David, and Chris, who only ate chocolate sundaes. No nuts.
This was life BD. Before David. Chris was much more manageable before David came along.
Chris and his wife Kim, David in the back. Life AD. After David. Chaos.
The one good thing about having brothers, video games were a constant, and I loved them. I still have not met a female who can match my skills on first person shooters, or Mortal Kombat. Brothers are good for that. And soccer scrimmages. Also, when stuff got broken in the house, it usually worked to blame them. Just kidding! Maybe. And I guess Chris and Dave make good uncles to my boys. Alright, ALRIGHT. They ARE good uncles. Just took me awhile to realize how nice siblings can be.I guess we've (and by we I mean me) matured over the years. I've learned there can be pros to having brothers.
Here's the thing. I never had sisters. And God knew best. I ended up giving birth to three boys. My kids love that I can do boy stuff with them. I never grew out of being a tomboy. God prepared me for this role from the beginning, surrounding me with crazy boys.
But I did wind up with sisters, too! Later in life God blessed me with quite a few sisters in Christ. And that's way better, because I'll know them for eternity! I can't even begin to tell you how thankful and blessed I am in the sister department. And I don't even deserve it.
Proverbs 17:17 A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity. (Ha! Very True.)
Colossians 3:12-14 Put on then, as God’s chosen
ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility,
meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a
complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has
forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these put on love,
which binds everything together in perfect harmony.
Proverbs 11:14 Where there is no guidance, a people falls, but in an abundance of counselors there is safety.
Proverbs 27:17 Iron sharpens iron, and one man sharpens another.
Proverbs 27:9
Perfume and incense bring joy to the heart, and the pleasantness of a friend springs from their heartfelt advice.
“The next best thing to being wise oneself is to live in a circle of those who are.”~ C.S. Lewis
Easter! Done! Sheesh. That was a busy one. Lot's to do at church, lot's to do at home. I love Easter, but even more than Easter, I love Good Friday. I love the remembrance of what Jesus suffered for me on the cross. All so I could stand in front of a holy God. Did you know that? Do you even know what that means? Jesus died as a propitiation for my sin. And I don't deserve it. I'm not a good person. I never will be. I will never be good enough to go to heaven. But Jesus was. He led the perfect life, He NEVER sinned, and he sacrificed himself, the spotless lamb, in my place. And now because of what HE did, I can go to heaven. Insane. Amazing. Grace. LOVE. My God is so good.
I know, I know, you don't even believe in God. You think I'm crazy for believing in a man who called himself the Son of God. But I ask you, have you read the bible? Have you studied the facts of history? Do you realize that there are over 250 DOCUMENTED prophecies that spoke of Jesus' coming in the old testament? Hundreds of years before Jesus was even born? Don't believe the bible? Too many historians can prove that the words of the old testament are dated accurately. There's too much proof that Jesus was who he said he was. But you can do the research yourself. I did. I didn't ever want to believe in something because I was told to. The more I read, the more I am convicted daily. The bible is not all stories. I always thought it was. Wow. Wrong. It's history, it's love, it's tragedy, it's the ugliness of the human heart.
Think you are a good person? Really? Ever lie? Ever cheat? Think bad of someone? Wish harm on someone? Gossip? Lust after someone else's spouse? Sin Sin Sin. Fits of anger, bad attitudes, selfishness, drunkenness, the list goes on. God calls it sin, and NONE OF US can be called good people. NOT ONE. We are all prone to sin. God can see into your heart, doesn't even matter if you actually DO the sin, if you think it, that's just as bad! Because that's what is in your heart! We can't do enough good deeds to atone for our sin. There is no measuring stick available to see if we've done enough good in this world to get into heaven. We fall short. God cannot abide being around sin, that's just His nature.We can't stand in front of God in our sinful state. That's why Jesus did what He did. He died on the cross, as the sacrifice for OUR sin. He took the punishment meant for me, so that I CAN stand before God, blameless. God calls it love. Do you love anyone enough to die for them? To be flogged, beaten within an inch of your life, drag a giant wooden cross almost a mile, have nails hammered in between the bones of your wrist and ankles to support your own weight, and then slowly suffocate to death? Not to mention the humiliation of doing all this naked, being spit on, stoned, laughed at, and mocked. Could you do that? There's nothing in this world that can satisfy me, there never has been. Gratify, yes, sometimes, momentarily. But not satisfy. Only Jesus filled the holes I had in my heart completely, and I am eternally grateful.
Here's some pictures from Easter, I didn't get that many, I got home late and totally forgot to take more. Brett's sister came over with her family, and my newlywed niece Candice and her sweet hubby Josh. They were a crack up, I am so excited to see them grow together in marriage.
This is the music team at church. I'm the assistant to the kids music director, and this was a rehearsal for Palm Sunday. These kids are awesome.
