Well, it's been a long time since I've blogged and although I enjoy blogging, I don't know that I'd even be blogging right now, if it wasn't for the state of my heart. Lately I've felt a heaviness in my heart and in my attitude...I keep thinking, "who is this person?...where is my joy that I know comes only from HIM?" Well, lately it has all come to a head and I've been burdened. Tonight on my way home I just kept reciting to myself Matthew 11:27-29, "Come to me all who are weary and heavy burdened and I will give you rest." Two parts of this verse stuck out to me tonight...1. Come-we must first come to God with our problems...even though he knows them, he wants us to come to him and 2. he WILL give us rest...it's not a "maybe" or "only if he feels like it," it's a promise...he WILL give us rest and frankly...I've needed and yearned for that. Someone once told me that some of the most intimate moments you should ever have with God should be in your house...in your room...alone and I've always held that close to my heart. So tonight, after having one of "those days," I decided to come home, just be in the presence of God while listening to 'Forever Reign.' This song is one of my personal favorites...I feel it describes everything I'm thinking when I'm talking to God and it makes me feel so refreshed but unworthy at the same time. And after spending some time by myself with God, my journal, and reading God's word, I feel refreshed! Now, know that this isn't something I rarely do (reading and praying). I try my hardest to stay focused and constantly in God's word, and although I sometimes fail, it's times like these when I play music and just have my own worship service with God that I feel renewed, closer to him, and filled by his spirit!...How refreshing!! I'll leave you with the lyrics to 'Forever Reign' and challenge you to really think about these words and what they mean...what it means to have God's love, even when there's nothing good in us and that it's in HIS presence that we're made whole!
'You are good, you are good when there's nothing good in me. You are love, you are love on display for all to see. You are light, you are light when the darkness closes in, You are hope, you are hope, you have covered all my sin. You are peace, you are peace when my fear is crippling, you are true, you are true, even in my wandering. You are joy, you are joy, you're the reason that I sing, you are life, you are life, in you death has lost its sting...and oh, I'm running to your arms, I'm running to your arms...the riches of your love will always be enough. Nothing compares to your embrace, light of the world forever reign. You are more, you are more, than my words will ever say. YOu are Lord, you are Lord all creation will proclaim. You are here, you are here in your presence I'm made whole. You are God, you are God, of all else I'm letting go....and oh, I'm running to your arms, I'm running to your arms...the riches of your love, will always be enough...nothing compares to your embrace. Light of the world, forever reign. I'm running to your arms, I'm running to your arms, the riches of your love, will always be enough. Nothing compares to your embrace...light of the world forever reign!! My heart will sing, no other name...Jesus...Jesus! My heart will sing no other name...Jesus...Jesus! My heart will sing, no other name...Jesus...Jesus! My heart will sing no other name...Jesus...Jesus! And oh, I'm running to your arms, I'm running to your arms...the riches of your love will always be enough...nothing compares to your embrace. Light of the world, forever reign!
Well hello there bloggy world! I must say before I get too far into this post that I've done GREAT with implementing and enjoying things from my Favorite Things blog (all except #8 and 9 so far, which is HUGE)! I have felt so much more relaxed in the past week just knowing I've organized more "stuff" in my house, going to lunch with my mom, enjoying long talks, with friends, reading my bible more, and I can't leave out enjoying my peppermint mochas! If you recall though, my #1 was spending more quality time with Jared and not giving him the "leftover me." SO....this week, that was my main mission and although I failed a few times, I told him earlier this week I wanted to take him on a surprise date...something that I plan, pay for, and devote my time and thoughts to! So...it was on to brainstorming...I came up with the idea off of a cute website called thedatingdivas.com to have a gift bag and everything in the bag be theme oriented. Let me just say that coming up with a theme was the hardest part...but I eventually thought of pretending to be tourists and do tourist things. Throughout the night I kept filling the bag with different items that had a "clue" attached to them and although the clues weren't that great, it was fun coming up with them (the clues were all song lyrics that had the word of what we were going to be doing in them). So here are some photos to help tell the story....
First clue of the night...
That's right...we went to Margaritaville for dinner.
Clue #2- I forgot to take a picture of it but I had a white t-shirt with the clue "You look good in my shirt" attached. (Jared's face was priceless when he saw this one...I think he was afraid he was going to have to wear my white tank top and as I said, my clues weren't the greatest) but it was off to get tacky tourist spraypainted t-shirts.
This was probably the best part of the night. We spent quite a while trying to figure out which tacky design we wanted, laughed at some of them, questioned some of them, but when it was all said and done, this is what we left with (and we had our names spraypainted on the front...how tacky does that get?!?!)
Clue #3 (again I forgot to take a picture) was of a seashell with some lyrics about seashells (I already forgot the lyrics) and the idea was to go to that Everything's $1.00 store across from Walmart on the beach (but they were closed...next time I'll have to do some more resesarch before I plan our date).
And Clue #4 was some lyrics that said, "Beach baby, Beach baby give me your hand," and then something about walking by the shore under the moonlight. Again, I had to improvise and pull up a picture of the moon shining on the shore on my phone and stick my post it to that as the final clue BUT I did plan ahead enough to get towels and a blanket to go lay on the beach with and brought a cooler with ice (I was supposed to remember to get drinks when we got our t-shirts but forgot so we were left with a cooler full of ice and no drinks) but it made it even better us laughing over my poor planning skills! So off to the beach we went (and it was chilly) but there wasn't ONE person on the beach and the moon was beaming so bright you could see everything....it was PERFECT!! Here's a pic of my modest (yeah right) love modeling...
So there it is, my surprise date night and although everything didn't go according to plan, that's what made the night even better is us laughing about it all. Here's a few more pictures.
This year I hope to enjoy some more of my favorite things such as..... 1. Jared (this is my #1 because he's sitting here as I type this list and kept telling me this needed to be my #1) and even though I added this because he's sitting next to me, I must say spending time with him is one of my favorite things to do and lately he's been getting the "leftover me." I've been so busy trying to establish and maintain friendships, busy with work, and church that a lot of times he gets the "leftover me," but this year I'm making it a goal to be intentional about not giving him the "leftover me." (Ok, enough about that)!
2. Long talks with good friends. The picture I posted is from one that I had with my dear friend, Cassie today at Panera. She has been such a great friend and I enjoy our weekly "dates" where we share what's on our hearts, some of our favorite books, laughter, joy, but most of all just knowing that I can go and spend time with a good friend that accepts me the way I am, never makes me feel guilty, and who I know I can be myself with…ALWAYS! And I have many friends that I truly value and love!
3. More Starbuck’s Peppermint Mochas. I just found out they now offer these all year and this is the ONLY thing I like at Starbucks (so far). I think I love these though because every time I have one, it’s with a friend.
4. Bike rides. Jared just got me a bike for Christmas and I LOVE it!! I’ve wanted one for a long time and am so excited that we can exercise and explore together.
5. Organizing. I know this sounds weird being a “favorite” but I truly LOVE organization. Call me OCD, but I just LOVE it. I love knowing everything is in its spot instead of being cluttered. I was putting dishes away this afternoon and the Tupperware fell out everywhere…I organized it but then thought, “why do I even have this? I have yet to find a good way to organize it? So I might be doing away with Tupperware here shortly.
6. Spending time with my mom. Since I started my job at ARINC, my mom and I have had more opportunities to go to lunch and spend time together since we both work out on the beach and I LOVE that and hope there’s only more of that to come!
7. More time to myself. This is something I haven’t done AT ALL. I’ve been so overwhelmed lately trying to be everything to everybody that I’ve come to a point where I’m just plain wore out and giving only half of myself to everyone. I need to remember and put into practice that I can’t be that, sometimes I have to say no, and realize that people will still love me if I take time to myself and say no sometimes.
8. Cooking. Ok, I know what you’re thinking…”one of her favorite things is to cook?!...why?...she burns everything!!!” but as horrible as I am at it, I’ve come to love it more and more and hope to make (and not burn) many more meals this year.
9. Playing tennis. This is something I used to do A LOT and haven’t done much lately other than a week ago with my friend Ginny, but hope to be doing much more of in the coming year!
Sorry for the random “favorites” but I just wanted to share (thought that maybe by sharing, it would help me be more aware of it and try harder to do these things more).
Well, it's been quite some time since my last post so I thought I should start the new year off right and give a brief update of what's been happenin' since my last post. Since Thanksgiving I've attended numerous Christmas parties, to include my work party, Jared's work party, our small group party, and Leadership Bay's Christmas social! I had a nice Christmas that included tons of family, tons of food, tons of good friends, and tons of Christmas decorating, baking, and carols. Christmas Eve we went over to my dad's house and had Christmas with them, then came back to my apartment and Jared and I had our own little Christmas (wasn't what I had pictured but it was still nice). I pictured sitting by the fireplace, sipping on some hot cocoa, while cookies baked and opening our presents with laughter and love and while it was still nice there was no hot cocoa, no fire, and no baked cookies. I've come to learn (and again this year) that I have to throw all expectations out the window. We didn't have cookies, cocoa, and a fire for any particular reason other than I just felt so rushed all day that by the time "our" Christmas came, I was over it! The week of Christmas I had been super sick (that's a HUGE understatement) but needless to say, I didn't want it to ruin Christmas. After we had our Christmas, we went over to Jared's parents and watched (a Christmas movie I'm sure, but I was so out of it from being sick, I really don't remember) and since I was so sick and tired, just asked if we could stay there that night. I slept in the middle bedroom that happened to have all the wrapping paper in it and let me just say that his parents were like Santa's little helpers. The next morning I awoke to come out into a dimly lit living room filled with Christmas lights, the smell of brewing coffee, and presents filling in the room. It was like I was a child again...it brought me back to years prior when my siblings and I couldn't wait to wake up and call our grandparents (at the late hour of 5am...crazy right?!) Anyways, it was a wonderful morning spent with them as we sat around, opened presents, ate breakfast, read about the birth of our Savior and hurried to get ready for lunch (Tom, Cassie and the kids came over)...I thought this would be a good idea since it was right around the corner from the church and Tom had to preach at both services and it ended up being a wonderful time with great friends! After lunch we hurried on to the 2 o'clock service and then went to spend the rest of the evening with my mom, stepdad, and grandmother (which was also wonderful and filled with food, laughter, long talks, and presents)! Since Christmas I have been trying to rest, visit with friends (who are either home for the break or off because they're school teachers, reflect on the past year, and think about the things that I want to change in the coming year, things I want to do in the coming year, and the person I want to continue to become. I constantly feel the need to change and better myself, better my actions, thoughts, motives, humility (meaning become more and more humble), and love people more through all of the prior mentioned. So here's to the *NEW* year and all that comes with it!
