Oh by golly have a holly jolly Christmas this year!

So I was praying a little bit ago, asking the Lord what He wanted me to do today (as the book I told you about has challenged me to do). I heard the Lord say, "Love your husband." I thought, okay! I like doing that. But what does that look like today, when he's at work? & God showed me - put away the dishes. Clean the bathroom. Pick up leaves that Sage has dragged in. What encouragement! I sometimes get a little down about the "mundane-ness" of that part of my life... clean, do laundry, etc. I want to do those things, because I'm called to love Josh in part through keeping our home nice, but sometimes it's a bit draining & I lack joy in those tasks. But I need to continue to view these things as a high calling, as part of loving Josh, & not as the world views them, as boring & something to be look down on. This is part of my purpose & when I do it as obedience to the Lord, He gives me joy in it!

I also wanted to share a story from this book; I got excited about it & I think some of you might as well.

"Obedience, in little things or big things, brings an exquisite thrill. 'My joy, which no man can take from you,' says Jesus.
I was attending a conference in a village. The speaker was an Indian businessman who had worked & lived in Burma for many years. When the Japanese bombed Rangoon, he with other Indians fled for their lives. They lost everything. He had only his Bible & the suit he was wearing. He walked hundreds of miles to return to India. He said that hardships were many, but it was sweet to feel the Presence of Jesus & to have his Bible. While he was talking & giving a great witness to the people, a quick thought came to me just before I had to return to my town: 'Give him all the money in your purse.'
Well! I had to go home by train. Should I not save a bit for my train fare! Of course I had learned not to argue with God - just obey. I put all I had in an envelope & gave it to him.
Then I hurried off to catch my train. A boy was running swiftly ahead of me. When I got to the station the boy came out of the ticket office with a ticket - & gave it to me. I looked surprised! He told me he was at the meeting, saw me put the money in an envelope & give it to the speaker. Then he said, 'God told me to buy your ticket, so I ran.' The train was ready to pull out. 'Get in quickly, Amma.' So I did. The train was off; I waved to the boy. I sat there with that exquisite thrill that comes when people obey God's Plan."

I pray I can be so obedient.

I've got a couple pictures to share - yay Christmas!

Here is our Christmas tree! I just love it.

Our stockings are hung by the chimney with care! (Note the new color of the walls - no more yellow! Yay!)

Sage says Merry Christmas!

C

I don't even know.

I just spent about 15 minutes writing a post, then deleted it. It felt so pointless. I recently felt challenged to make the things that I say point towards the Lord. Talking about my life, my experiences, & my feelings should point towards the Lord. Now, I still enjoy randomness & silliness because I don't think we should be serious all the time. God is fun! He's hilarious! But I do want to say things that point to scripture, & I want to give advice that causes people to seek the Lord & not just "Godly counsel."

Josh & I were given two copies of "God Guides" by Mary Geegh. It's basically stories written by a missionary in India that speak of the Lord's power & challenges us to truly seek Him & expect to hear Him! I prayed today for the Lord to show me what to do today. & He did! I never pray to find out what my day's plans should be. But shouldn't I??

I'm not very far in the book, but I already recommend you read it.

I'm pretty sure God has some plans to grow & stretch Josh & I in 2008. I think by this time next year we will be drastically different.

I'm so excited for Christmas. We're spending it in Austin this year with my parents, & I'm just looking forward to all of us being in the new house, hanging out & taking a break. (I think the biggest surprise going from college to the real world is that you go from having a MONTH off for Christmas to having... two days. Two days. Saddddd.)

Tomorrow is Josh & I's (the proper grammar of that whole Josh & me's, Josh & my's, is just beyond me - I blame public schooling) annual Christmas date. Each year we get all dressed up & go out to eat & exchange gifts & look at Christmas lights. Yay!

I really hope you all have a very Merry Christmas & that you experience Christ in new & exciting ways!

C

Messiness

I'm SO SORRY for being such a blogspot loser. I went almost a month without blogging! Hopefully I did not lose my loyal fans... well, I know my mom will still read. :-)

I really have had a lot I've wanted to write about, but we've been so busy with the house & potty training a puppy & the holidays that I just never got around to it. So here's a fast update:

*The living room is painted as of last night! I had help from Becca & Kristin & FINALLY those yellow walls are gone. I love the color. I will post pictures eventually, I need to get everything in there situated, & things on the walls, etc. (If you want to see pictures of the outside of the house, let me know & I will email them to you, but I'm definitely not putting them on here for all the world to see :-) ) I'm thinking I'll start painting the kitchen tomorrow, to get rid of the Fiesta Green we've got going on in there. When that room is done, I will be just ecstatic! Those are the two rooms I wanted done quickly.

*Sage is a mess. She's very cute, but less cute to me since I'm the one that picks up her poop! The potty training is going slowly. Toby serves as a pretty good babysitter; they chase each other around & he smacks her silly sometimes (literally... it's funny). Here they are together...

*About a month ago we went on a retreat where God spoke a lot to us. He refined us in several ways, showing us how much our world affects us & how weak our flesh really is. As a result, we stopped watching most TV shows, stopped listening to top 40 stations, & will not be watching movies with even one, "not that bad" sexual scene (which means getting rid of some movies such as "How to Lose a Guy in Ten Days"). I hate that those things were even part of our lives. It's not about more rules for us to follow... Josh & I just realized how we look too much like people that don't know the Lord, & what He has for us is so much better than that, & I have seen God bless our lives in several ways since cutting those things out. We want to look more like Jesus!

*It's been amazing what God has wanted for us since moving here. With all that happened with my job, getting so involved in our church so quickly, we are amazed at what He had planned for us. & we continue to be amazed, b/c He has more. It's scary tho. I feel inadequate, & it's going to be a challenge, pushing me outside of what I am comfortable with. But every time I feel that way, & am obedient anyways, the Lord shows up in a HUGE way. More details to come....

*At the retreat mentioned above, the speaker showed us a way that he spends time with the Lord & gets to know Him more, & I have been doing it & loving it! Basically, you create your own list of who God is. I'm reading through the Bible chronologically right now, so after I do my reading, I just flip through the Word & read wherever I land, & search for descriptions of my God. (I'm a goober & I have two lists going - one of nouns & one of adjectives.) Here is an example-

Pardoner of iniquity - Micah 7:18
Husband - Isa. 54:5, Hosea 2:16
My avenger - Rom. 12:9

Incomparable - Isa. 40:18
Perfect in timing - Hab. 2:3
Alluring & tender - Hosea 2:14

Look those verses up - they are good! Anyways, this has been an exciting way to get into the Word, & I know that I'm always going to find more to describe the Lord that I am betrothed to. I recommend doing it. :-)

I just realized I meant to explain the title for this post, so here you go - messy house, messy dog, messy me. & working on all of them!

MERRY CHRISTMAS! Yay... I love Christmas!

C

We're in!

Sorry for the lack of updating! Last week was just crazy. Every day all I did was pack, load my car, drive to the house, unload, & back again. My goal was to get everything but the furniture over to the house so Saturday all we had to move was furniture. I succeeded for the most part, & Saturday we had 6 guys & 1 girl (yay Alexis!) come help us move. So we're finally in the house! However, I have no motivation at all to unpack & put things where they belong. Partly because a lot of things, like wall decor, will have to be taken down when I get around to painting. (I have six rooms I want to paint soon - not much will stay the same). Soooo our house will be a mess for a while. Oh well. We are still excited to entertain & have people over, regardless of half-painted walls.

& we get Sage a week from today! YAY!

That's all I got for you for now... I'm not feeling that great so this is short. But I wanted to update you all. More to come!

C

A lesson...

I'm sitting in my favorite coffeeshop where I often come to do work (they make really good iced lattes) & I'm waiting on the pastor I work for to be done with his meeting (in the same coffeeshop) so I can ask him some questions about something I'm doing. I had a really horrible day yesterday - for those of you that were readers of my old blog when I used stars to rate my days - this would have been a two star day (with the one star rating being for death or tragedy). It was mainly emotional; I was feeling a bit lonely, & feeling somewhat purposeless - what am I doing that actually MATTERS?? (Then I hit my face on a door & that left a welp, knocked over gatorade at the grocery store & turned my pants red, & had to call Animal Services because a roaming dog I saw didn't have identification & I didn't want him to be hit by a car. Bad day.)

Back to today. As I wait, I picked up my Bible to do the whole "I don't know what to read right now so I'll just read what I open it up to" thing. It opened up to Acts 6. I thought... "Really? Acts? Well....... okay."

1Now in these days when the disciples were increasing in number, a complaint by the Hellenists arose against the Hebrews because their widows were being neglected in the daily distribution. 2And the twelve summoned the full number of the disciples and said, "It is not right that we should give up preaching the word of God to serve tables. 3Therefore, brothers, pick out from among you seven men of good repute, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we will appoint to this duty. 4But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word." 5And what they said pleased the whole gathering, and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit, and Philip, and Prochorus, and Nicanor, and Timon, and Parmenas, and Nicolaus, a proselyte of Antioch. 6These they set before the apostles, and they prayed and laid their hands on them.
7And the word of God continued to increase, and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests became obedient to the faith.

It hit me. I am "serving tables!" I am doing things that free up the time of others so they can continue to pray & preach the Word of God. Because of the work of the "table servers," the Word of God continued to increase & the number of the disciples multiplied greatly. So encouraging! I pray that God is able to do things because of my obedience in this job. What a good reminder... the Lord is good to speak to us when we listen!

I'm going to start packing today.... I AM! We close on the house TOMORROW!!

C

Meet Sage!

A boy or a girl?!

I'm SO STINKIN excited to pick out our puppy tomorrow!!! We're visiting the breeder out at their ranch & I'm hoping she'll let us stick around for a while after we pick him/her out just so we can play with all the adorable puppies!! I just love animals. Especially cute ones. & I'm so excited to get our puppy & name it & get it cute toys & train it (altho I'm not sure how long I will remain excited about housebreaking). We have several couples here in SA & a few elsewhere that are going through the whole get pregnant, deliberate over whether it's a girl or a boy, have emotionally draining conversations over baby names, etc. process, & this whole puppy thing is OUR version of it. Yaaaaaaay! I will post pictures after tomorrow. :-)

This time next week we will officially own a house! & in two weeks we move!

I really like lighting candles with matches. Not lighters. I like the smell of a lit match.

I think I want to throw a Halloween party next year. I was so sad not to get to dress up this year. Dressing up is super fun. & not to mention popcorn balls. YUM. I think this is an idea in the making... only 363 days to go!

As it turns out, my brain seems to be in shallow mode today.

C