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Monday, February 22, 2010

Sad it's over...

I've been looking forward to the weekend of February 20th since Christmas. It was all I'd hoped for and maybe even more!

Mars, Elle, and I took a road trip. Planned to leave at 10 am. Actually left at 11 am. Stopped for a long lunch. Took the wrong interstate. Missed the road to take us to the correct interstate. Turned around. Made it there at 5:00 pm. Not bad timing for what went on!

The cousins arrived late that night. All 13 of us stayed up till 1 am, talking, catching up, having fun.


Went to a 3 hour lunch at an Irish Pub. Enjoyed the amazing weather as we sat outside.

We rode a train into the big city of Charlotte.


We went to the Black Eyed Peas.


And they were amazing. Taboo rode a motorcycle hanging from the ceiling, above the audience!


Black Eyed Peas rocked it out Saturday night.

We had so much fun in Charlotte and at the concert.

And then it came to an end...


Sad it's over! Let's make it a tradition.

Thursday, February 18, 2010

Guess Who I'm Going to See?

Guess who I'm going to see on Saturday night???

I'll give you a few hints:

1. I searched for a picture of these people and I became slightly frightened.
2. These people performed at the Grammy's this year.

3. I'm pretty sure Saturday night is going to be a good night...

4. I Gotta Feeling you've guessed it.














Excuse my corny hints... But did you guess correctly?

There are 13 of us, all my family members, going to see the Black Eyed Peas on Saturday night. My fantastic cousin Mary Ann is letting us all cram in her house in Charlotte and I couldn't be happier about it! I'll report back on how the concert was and hopefully share pictures!

Have a good weekend!

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Heaven: Maybe not as Bad as I Thought?

Well Dad, this is for you!

I have had one of those weeks. It's been up and down and all around. Not bad!

I have had some conversations with Nat, Erin (my small group leader) and Val this week that have been awesome and I want to tell you a little about them.

They have been about heaven. You know, honestly a lot of times I think that I really don't want to go to heaven. I'd rather sit down here on earth, have a cute family, and be successful down here. But what happens if I don't have a cute family? What happens when I get confused about my purpose? When I lose sight of Christ for a brief moment and end up way off track and in misery?

Maybe what I've been hoping for, this picture perfect life on earth, well maybe that's just all wrong. Maybe I should have my hope in heaven... Stop thinking about the success I want in this world. And start thinking about how wonderfully magical and magnificent heaven will be! Think about how exciting it will be to see my Savior's face who loves me.

Maybe thinking about heaven and being with my Creator will drive me to joyfulness. Joyfulness because He loves me. Joyfulness because I will be in a perfect place some day.

This perfect place isn't a place where I'm going to be bored singing hymns all day long. This place, I believe, will have everything I could ever desire. There will be no sorrow, no death, no pain. I can't even imagine that. And I think that's where the problem comes in. I can't imagine how glorious heaven will be. But talking about it has made me excited!

For me, putting things that I like and imagining those in heaven make it better. I think (but I certainly haven't seen this in the Bible) there will be trade and commerce in Heaven. I think it's going to be a lot like this earth, except for no pain. We might even have families, husbands, kids. We'll know our Christian friends who are on Earth when we're in Heaven.

And we will get to have our quiet time, but with Jesus sitting right there! Alone time with Jesus face-to-face!

How awesome will that be, y'all? Am I the only one who thinks that maybe heaven won't be as bad as I thought (as terrible as it is that I thought that)?

"He'll wipe every tear from their eyes. Death is gone for good—tears gone, crying gone, pain gone—all the first order of things gone." Revelation 21:4

I can't even imagine the freedom in a life with no tears, crying, pain, death. Not only will heaven be exempt of those things, there will be things there that are entertaining, things that make me laugh, things that make me smile.

Get excited, folks! It's going to be awesome.

Saturday, February 6, 2010

Anyone Want to Break Free?

Sunday I went to McKay's bookstore and found yet another book (or five) that I really wanted to buy. These books were used! They were cheap! So, I gave myself a break. I chose to buy only two books and the second season of the O.C.! (YES, I am actually watching it as I blog).

So anyways, I started one of my new books yesterday, Breaking Free by Beth Moore.

I have to tell you that I am so excited about it! I read 30 pages last night (yes, it was Friday night, and I did stay in to read and study; it was rainy!) and thoroughly enjoyed each and every page.

The entire theme of the book is to "Discover the Victory of Total Surrender." Beth Moore says that she has never written anything that means more to her than the message of this book. I am so excited about it because I don't think that I have ever experienced total surrender. But, oh how amazing that would be! To be completely and utterly free!

'A Christian is held captive by anything that hinders the abundant and effective Spirit-filled life God planned for him or her.'

A way to see if we are being held captive is to see if we are enjoying five benefits that God wants His children to experience which are:

1. To know God and believe Him
2. To glorify God
3. To find satisfaction in God
4. To experience God's peace
5. To enjoy God's presence

Beth Moore reminds me that God intends for each of us to be able to enjoy these things every single day. He wants us to have these. He doesn't want it to just be during a period of our lives or just some days, maybe once a week? No, every single day we can believe God, glorify God, find satisfaction in Him, have peace, and enjoy His presence! These things aren't just a prize for a few elite believers. He wants us to be set free more than we even want it, because we can't even conceive what it's like, and He loves us that much!

He wants me and you to live and breathe each of these blessings!

I hope that you know how much Jesus Christ loves you and wants the best for you.

My prayer recently is that I would be able to understand that I don't do a thing to earn or take away from the love that Jesus Christ has for me; that I haven't done a thing for the righteousness that has been laid upon me through the sacrifice of God's Son; and that understanding these things would set me free that I might live an abundant life, a Spirit-filled life here on earth!

How awesome would that be!?

Want to Break Free with me? I'm not too far along in the book yet so if you want to pick up the book and read along with me, I'd love that! Let me know if you do! We can talk/e-mail/facebook chat about it.

Wednesday, February 3, 2010

Now, Where does Phil Live???


I don't know where the heck Phil was yesterday, but it sure wasn't Tennessee.

We had a rainy Groundhog Day, and I'm pretty sure I didn't see even a peep of the sun all day. And I definitely didn't see a shadow!

Oh, but Phil the groundhog-- well, since he's so official, and he saw his shadow, and that means 6 more weeks of winter. This was ever so upsetting to me yesterday.

Then it dawned on me that in all actuality, Phil is just a groundhog and a shadow really means nothing. Why would I trust this groundhog? Well, he can text, tweet and get on facebook, but still, he's a groundhog. Groundhogs aren't the most reputable animal; I'm not sure that I've ever heard anyone mention a groundhog without mentioning Groundhog's Day. So why entrust our hopes and desires of an early Spring in this one fat, virtually unknown animal? Beats me!

So don't be discouraged! There is still hope beyond Phil, because he's just a groundhog!