Born to Die

And the angels filled the sky
All of heaven wondered why
Why their King would choose to be
Be a baby born to die...."
("Born to Die", Bebo Norman)

The temperatures are dropping (with an exception of the bizarre 65 degree weather on Monday), stores are crowded, and everyone is scurrying to put up all of their decorations. No one has anytime to sit down let alone really ponder the beauty of wintertime or the blessings that we receive each day from our heavenly Father. My life is so busy, and often I don't take the time to really sit back and think about Christ. Sure, I spend time in the Word and prayer, but I want to really ABIDE in Him, dwell on Him, live in Him as a branch does in the Vine throughout every moment of my day. I have so much to be thankful for, and even if every good thing in this life was ripped away, I would still have every reason to rejoice in the eternal salvation purchased for me on the cross of Calvary.

Yesterday, I was holding a baby. As I looked into his big brown eyes and at his little cheeks, I was reminded that our God became so helpless. I know, we always hear about this, to the point that it really doesn't shake us up to much anymore. But take a moment and just stop. Think about the fact that God became flesh and dwelt among us. When our car breaks down and we don't have any money to fix it, when we are struggling and laboring through a very hard trial, when we face opposition from others for the sake of Christ, when we are weary of struggling with sin and selfishness....the fact that God became flesh brings everything into perspective. This year, I have been trying to think not only of his first coming--full humanity and full deity, wrapped in a tiny, crying, needy package--but also his awaited return--fully King and Lord, "Who is called Faithful and True....dressed in a robe dipped with blood...(whose name) is the Word of God." (Revelation 19:11,13) Hallelujah!!! If you are truly His child, then THAT is something worth looking forward to!

Today, I would have been 11 weeks pregnant with our first baby. God in His sovereignty called this little one home, and I trust Him. He became flesh and dwelt among us, He bore our sin and carried our sorrows, it is truly finished because Jesus paid the price. No struggle in this world can take away our joy.

Rejoice and bow with me, for the King Reigns. Worthy is the Lamb.

Every Man Needs a Good Scar....

Okay, so I am a few days late on my promised blog, but hopefully this story will be worth the wait. As many of you know, Daniel is a deer hunter and has been very succesful the past two years of hunting. This year, he started off on a bad foot, going out into the woods 7 or 8 times, only spotting deer 2 or 3 of those times, and coming home empty handed every time. Although the thought of grinding up deer meat for hours in the kitchen was less than appealing, I was still feeling his frustration each time when he would go out and come home with no sucess story.

This past Friday morning, Daniel went out again at 5:45am. Mind you, this is after getting home from work at nearly 1:00 am. So, on not quite 5 hours of sleep, he gets up and drives 20 minutes to the property, hikes 10 minutes into the woods, and spends another 5 or 10 minutes climbing into a tree.

I, on the other hand, was dreaming about climbing crumbling ladders and searching all over for D (I know, I have weird dreams) when my phone rings at 7:15am. It was Daniel's ringtone, so I knew he had succeeded in his quest! He confirmed; he had indeed gotten a deer, but also something else that he hadn't quite bargained for.

"Um, well the gun kicked back and have a head wound and it's bleeding pretty badly......but I feel fine, really. I feel fine. Honest."

I was less than sure of his "fineness" and was out of bed before you could say....well, I don't know what, but I got up pretty quickly. After a quick hunt for warm clothing and suitable head bandages, I was out the door. He called me back to reassure me that the freezing temperatures had stopped his bleeding....and that he still felt fine. Great.

About 45 minutes later I show up to the place where he hunts and start running down the trail. That didn't last for too long, but I continued to walk (speedily, nonetheless) to him....I find him, still in his tree stand, beckoning for me to be quiet. He was trying to get a shot at ANOTHER BUCK.

Let's recap here. Daniel is bleeding from the head and has already shot one deer. My honey is indeed a manly man.

I finally get to him and watch him make his descent. He is talking to me very seriously and intensely, but its hard not to laugh at the massive vulcan like sign made from dried blood in the middle of his eyebrows. Yet, the puddle of his blood on the leaves was not so funny. We get him cleaned up....or enough to prevent him from continuing to bleed while he takes care of his deer....and get him and our future dinners out of the woods.

When we finally get home and get all of the dried blood off, it's easier to see the wound. He has a crescent shaped gouge from the scope of his gun whacking him in the forehead--a combination of extreme cold, excitement, lack of sleep, and his being in the tree stand for a total of 10 minutes before the deer showed up. His dad, the good Dr. Spencer, told us to try butterfly bandages instead of stitches....hopefully it won't scar too badly!


We learned our lesson....well actually, he told me later that day that he was "Glad that it happened....that he'd have a cool scar now," so maybe not :)

Oh, how I love him. The excitement never ends around here!

Hope you guys had equally exciting, yet less traumatic weekends! At least he didn't have to get stiches, and we have 40 pounds of meat in the freezer to show for it all!

Our Happy Little Tree

....more pictures to come! Oh, and QUITE the story from yesterday....tune in next time! For now I will keep you in suspense ;)

Holiday Time and serving HIM in all things

Well, here we are in December. Sorry (to those of you who are actually reading my blog!) for the long delay between posts. I think that it was a combination of busyness, forgetfulness, and not much to blog about. Sometimes I'll think during my day, "Wow, this would make a good blog!" (nerdy, I know) and then by the time it comes to blogging, I have forgotten what it was. Ho hum. Well, I will try to do better.

I have been feeling the itch to decorate for Christmas this year more than I ever have before. I think that it's probably because it's the first year that I have my own "home" (outside of college dorms/houses) and a husband who enjoys when I decorate. I have been on the hunt for inexpensive ways to make the house look cheery and have "scored" on various levels:

1.) Daniel's sweet Momma let me "borrow" some things of hers that she doesn't really use much anymore now that her kids are all out of the house. So I got some lights, some ornaments, and a few little Christmasy thingamabobs.
2.) Making ornaments out of old pictures and cardstock/cardboard
3.) Searching google for do-it-yourself ornaments....I made a spiral snowman, but I'm not sure how long he'll last (one of his arms has already fallen off...)
4.) Family Dollar/Dollar Tree ornaments, ribbons, and such. Can't go wrong with $1-$2 a pop!
5.) Walmart $1 stockings and $7.50 tree stand. YES!
6.) Tomorrow we will go and get our jolly little Douglas Fir tree from Home Depot for $16.97

A holly jolly AND frugal Christmas :)

P.S...Does anyone know where I could buy a nice creche/nativity set?

In other news, Daniel and I have been talking about what kinds of traditions we want to establish in our family on holidays. We've come up with an exciting plan for Thanksgiving! We want to do a sort of "advent", starting about 7 days before Thanksgiving day. Each day, we will talk about a characteristic of Christ that we are thankful for (for example, we are thankful for Christ's power, we are thankful for Christ's grace, we are thankful for Christ's sufferings, etc.). We were also thinking of making some kind of board (like a science-fair stand up board) and decorating it more each year. We would have it up on Thanksgiving day to remind us of our Lord and Savior, the One that we are most thankful for. What do you guys think?

Thanks for reading :) I pray that Christ will draw you more to Himself today by the love and grace of His Spirit and that you may be able to grasp how wide and high and deep is His love....(read Ephesians 3!!!)

xxoo

Weeping for a night...joy in the morning

I hate to admit it, but lately I have been somewhat of an emotional roller coaster....my poor husband can vouch for me. It has been really hard having him gone so much, especially at night, and I have been crying at the drop of a hat (almost literally). Today, in one of my 4-year-old moments, Daniel looked rather lost for words. I honestly hate it because it's almost like something takes over me and I just CAN'T get over how I feel (Sin warring against my members....Paul talks about it in Romans. A daily battle!) He has learned that sometimes I just need him to hold me while I cry all over his shirt, and he very graciously allows me to do so...what a good man :)

Anyway, after he left for work I decided that it was time to be productive for the kingdom and not keep moping around all day long. I got dressed and headed out to visit my new friend Jen, the one with the four kids who I mentioned in my second post from last week. What a blessed time it was! The Lord really answered my prayers with her, and we were able to talk about a lot of things....from mommy issues (yet to really experience these!) to wife issues to, most importantly, spiritual issues. I really sense in her a hunger to grow and learn from the Word. Oh, how I pray that this little seed will blossom. Please pray for her and her family too!

The Lord gave me such joy from obeying Him. It is so true that our joy and peace overflow when we obey Christ by loving Him and loving others (the fruit of the SPIRIT is love, joy, peace....) Last night Pastor Jonathan preached on love and joy from this beautiful list, and I was convicted and stirred up to cultivate these fruits. What a Gracious Lord....He is already doing so in me, even with my tiny, tiny baby steps.

When I got home, our neighbor Wynell came over and we (he, Daniel, and I) talked more about what it looks like to follow Jesus wholeheartedly. We were reading from Romans 6, that we as Christians are dead to sin and alive to Christ and from I Corinthians 15, that death has lost its sting because it is swallowed up in Christ's victory....oh Father, may THIS be my joy, my firm foundation, my only hope.

May we run HARD after Him....even if it sometimes looks like baby steps. And may we overcome our flesh and walk in victory and newness of life...

Blessings, dear friends....and as the French say, bon week-end! :)

Chocolate flavored saw dust and three months of bliss

In order to prevent ourselves from spending wayyyy too much money (and waaayyy too many calories) on junk food, Daniel and I instituted a once a week dessert rule about 2 months ago. Our long awaited "Dessert Fridays" often turn into "Dessert Weekends" but, nonetheless, it is effective for the most part. I spent all of this past week waiting with baited breath to try the new peppermint chocolate chip milkshake from chick-fil-a....Friday afternoon rolls around and I make my way over to Chick-fil-a, visions of ice-creamy goodness dancing in my head. The cashier (Bethany!) asked if I wanted the whipped cream and cherry. Did I want the whipped cream and cherry!?? Do you SERIOUSLY have to ask? I gave my hearty approval to pack on the goods. My minty-chocolately bliss lasted for a solid 30 minutes, and was well worth the wait. (Sidebar: If you like a thicker shake, tell them....they'll go easy on the syrup flavoring which will make it less thin!)

Later that night, Daniel had yet to have any dessert. The week before, I made choc-oat-chip cookie bars which he absolutely adored (evidenced by their complete disappearance within a 24 hour period.) He told me to make them again, adding a bit less sugar this time. I went to the kitchen in search of my recipe when I realized that it had been on the chocolate chip bag, now long gone as I had transferred the chips into a ziploc. My only other alternative? Typing "healthy choc-oat-chip cookies" into the google search bar. Well, apparently "a bit less sugar" does not equal "health food cookies." I was wondering why the dough was so thick and dry but decided that it didnt matter too much.

Boy, was I wrong.

Daniel ate two of my sawdust squares before passing them off to Cali, the human garbage disposal. My poor honey.

Don't worry though, I redeemed myself the next day by making cookies again....sort of, since I still didnt really follow the recipe that I found, and they only tasted good fresh. Oh well, at least he ate these ones.....and there's always next Friday........

In other news, we have officially been married for 1/4 of a year today :) God has shown us so much in this short time, and we are growing (and stretching) in ways that, although they are not always super comfortable, are making us more holy. I pray that I will make Daniel love Christ more each day as he has done for me. What a joy it is to serve my precious husband.

I pray that your weekend was a blessing and that Christ is more beautiful to you today than He's ever been before.

Wanna get something by me? Tell me at 1am.....

My husband and I work opposite schedules. He waits tables from 11-2:30ish every weekday and I am a secretary at a tutoring center from 3-7 Monday through Thursday. When I get home around 7:15, Daniel is preparing to leave for job #2 (night supervisor in Union's library) from 8pm-12:30am....needless to say, we don't see too terribly much of each other during the week.

When D gets home around 12:45am, he wakes me up and attempts to carry on a conversation with me. I'm thinking that he will, at some point, realize that this is rather useless and simply be content with a sleepy smile and an "I'm glad you're home honey." At this point, he will ask me something and receive a "hmph" or a "huh" in response. I try so hard to wake up, really I do, it's just sooo comfy in my warm bed and....my....pillow.....zzzz........

Anyway, it does lead to rather interesting dreams and confusing memories in the morning ("Did you tell me such and such last night or did I imagine that??") The other night, he ran in smelling like smoke and yelling "I think something's on FIRE!" I replied, "Really? Wow...that's...hmmm....yea...zzzz" About 2 seconds later (In my twilight zone drifting minutes seem like seconds and hours minutes) he came flying back in saying, "Woah, Longhorn steakhouse is on fire! It's burning to the ground!"

The next night (during our 45 minutes of together time) we were at Moe's, happily muching on funkmeister tacos and all you can eat chips and salsa (tomatilla! yessss) when our good friend Cali says, "Hey, we should drive over and look at the remains of Longhorn." It all came flooding back like a distant memory. Seriously, my days just run together with my dreamlike nights now....but it does make for something (mildly) interesting to blog about :)

I am really excited for this weekend. We will be spending time together (woo!) with our friends the French's and the Campbell's, great brothers and sisters in the Lord whom we love and miss dearly. Also, we are having a Thanksgiving meal with our church family at Pleasant Plains...did I mention how much I love them?

I pray that your weekend is full of the presence of Christ and the joy of the Spirit...and memories that will last :)

The Light of life

I'm writing from the corner of my couch, looking out at the clear blue sky. It is a gorgeous day in West Tennessee, 65 and sunny according to weather.com! Despite the beauty of this day, part of me (not a big enough part!) is heavy because in reality (since the spiritual is way more real than the physical) there are people all around me who are in deep darkness....

....They do not know Christ. They do not know His power to "melt a heart of stone." Many, in truth, do not want to know Him or even hear about Him. They are, as Romans 1 says, "exchang(ing) the truth of God for a lie, and worship(ing) and serv(ing) created things rather than the Creator."

The soul-anchoring hope that we have in Jesus (see here) inspires us to keep going....to keep loving people despite their hatred, to keep reaching out despite their rejection, to keep preaching the truth even when they plug their ears and run, screaming, in the other direction. Do you know why? Because it's not about us and it's not done by us. God's Spirit is at work-calling, drawing, leading people to repentance by His extraordinary Grace. We are merely the vessel, holding and pouring out that precious, Living Water.

And yet, oh, how I am tempted to become prideful! What a ridiculous thought, right? Pride? From ME of all people? Oh Savior please, keep saving me....

Pray for Daniel and I as we strive to abide in Christ and to reach out to our neighbors here in our little apartment community. How desperately they need to know Him! Some have expressed interest and are even responding to the Word....pray that they will grow in their knowledge and love of the Savior and that they would (if they are not already) become sheep in His fold. Pray particularly for a woman who has consistently come to hear Daniel preach on Saturday afternoons who has four small children and an unbelieving husband....she, like the rest of us, needs the grace of Christ to get by. Oh Father, may we be able to show it to her!

John 8:12-When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, "I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life."

Diving In

When I was little, I always liked jumping off of the tall diving boards at lakes and swimming pools. Despite the fact that it would usually take me a good 15 or 20 minutes to work up the courage to actually jump off, I was never deterred from making the climb and staring, knees knocking, over the edge.

Some things in life never change.

Take this blog for example. I created it with full intention to "dive" exuberantly into blogosphere with the ranks of other experienced and witty bloggers. Here I am, nearly a month later, writing my first post. Although it's taken me some time to work up the actual lift off of the diving board, I am here, throwing myself in with abandon, and enjoying the rush. Okay, so this is only a blog, but you get my point...hopefully the next post won't take so much effort :)