Oceans

For as long as I can remember song lyrics have had a huge effect on me. I'm so thankful that God has blessed people with the ability to create amazing song lyrics that draw my attention to Christ. I'm also thankful for the beautiful way people create the music so these lyrics just flow out of my mouth. I'm definitely one who loves to harmonize and appreciates the music we sing in church. 
In the last several months there have been some great new worship songs in the Christian Music industry. We've been singing Hillsong United's "Oceans" for the last couple of months at my church. I love this song. As I was driving home tonight I was singing along to this song on the radio and the words to the bridge hit me even harder than before.  

"Spirit lead me where my trust is without borders
Let me walk upon the waters
Wherever You would call me
Take me deeper than my feet could ever wander
And my faith will be made stronger
In the presence of my Savior"

I've sung this bridge countless times and never really let the words sink in. So often I put a border on how much I'm going to trust the Lord. "I'll only trust you with this, and not with this." Why do I put that border on my trust in Him when I know that what He will do is so much greater than anything that I could possibly do. There is no limit to what Christ can do! Over the last couple of weeks I've been struggling with trusting God with everything. I feel like I've been on an emotional roller coaster. One minute my faith is totally focused on Christ and the next I'm doubting and full of anxiety. I know that God is working at growing me closer to Him. The second half of that bridge is my prayer right now. "Take me deeper than my feet could ever wander and my faith will be made stronger in the presence of my Savior." I know that as I trust God with EVERYTHING He will cause my faith the grow. 

The mess is coming to an end!

Well, for once I have an excuse for my crazy messy house/apartment...whatever you want to call it. I'm in the process of moving. By next weekend I should be all moved in to my new place. I'm really excited about it. It is a little bigger than where I am now and the location is so nice! But I think most of all I'm excited about a fresh start. As I've been packing and gradually moving things to my new place I've been purging. I have so much stuff. And a lot of it I don't need. My prayer is that I'm getting rid of enough stuff that I can enjoy the new space and not feel like it is totally packed like my current home is. A fresh start is going to be wonderful!

Here are some pics of the new place. Danika made sure to pose for every picture I took. :)

The living room is a little smaller than my current home. I may be surprised when I move my furniture in though. We'll see. All of the other space is bigger though.

Not sure why

I'm not sure why God allows certain things to happen in our lives. When hard things come up our initial reaction can often be "why Lord!" That has been my reaction today. Why did today have to go like it did? It wasn't a crazy life changing thing, but it was hard. In the midst of that I was reminded by a friend that God knows and for whatever reason He has me going through this trial. It makes me think back to a recent message I heard in church. "God is sovereign over every situation in your life. And since God sovereignly places us where we are, where we are is a place of worship." So my response needs to be to worship Him, surrender, and seek Him. It definitely is a hard thing to remember, but I really want that peace that I know God will give me when I seek Him.
So if nothing else because of this trial I am learning that through the trial I can and need to worship Him. I'm reminded of the worship chorus: "Lord, I need You. Oh, I need You. Every hour I need You. My one defense, my righteousness, Oh God, how I need you!" I think that song will be on my lips all day tomorrow.

Twelve

Not much to say for today. I spent the entire day on my couch with a box of kleenex and paper bag handy. Not feeling terrible, but the cough and majorly stuffed up nose put a damper on my weekend. I left the house once to get more kleenex. Ha! 

To make the evening a little more enjoyable I lit my Christmas candles. I love having candles lit. It makes my house feel cozy. 

Eleven

I love this girl so much! Friday was her sixth birthday. I can't believe that she is six already! Time is flying. Six years ago today I held her for the first time in the hospital. Such a wonderful memory. 

I love her excited for everything. For her birthday dinner she wanted rice cakes with cream cheese and bacon sandwiches. She let the rest of us put tomatoes and lettuce on our sandwiches along with the bacon. Then we went and saw Frozen together. Unfortunately I wasn't feeling good at all. I'm pretty sure that was the worst day of my cold. 

Ten

One of my students randomly handed me a bouquet of flowers after school on Thursday. I still don't know why since she wasn't at school on Friday. It was so sweet. Definitely brought a smile to my face. 

Nine

My friends tonight. 

Hoping this cold doesn't last long. 

My head is pounding...waiting for 8 to take some more. 

Eight

Tuesday we had our Christmas concert at school. I love my coworkers!! 

Wendy for her laughter. Betsy for her logic. Patti for her compassion. Kim for her help. Linda for her listening. Martha for prayer. 

I told them it should be our new tradition to take a group picture after every concert. 

Seven

One of my favorite ornaments. 

I've had this one for a long time and I always love putting it on my tree. 

Seven...

My computer is being goofy so I'll have to post "Seven" tomorrow. 

Six

I was blessed with two concerts today. This afternoon I was able to see my Dad direct and my Mom sing in the Healdsburg Chorus Christmas Concert. It was wonderful! The music was beautiful! 

I'm so proud of my parents and how they using their musical abilities to glorify God! I'm so blessed to have their example. 

The second concert was my church's Christmas Concert. And to my wonderful surprise I saw this lovely lady there! I'm praising the Lord with how far this girl has come since her back surgery a few weeks ago. God is good! (oh and I totally had to stand on my toes to be this level with her!) 

Five

Peanuts Uno with Dani this morning. I love our little sleepovers! 

Four

Took this cutie to Barnes and Noble tonight. We braved the cold and rain. 

Surprise, surprise she spent the entire time looking at Star Wars Angry Birds books. 

Since it is our school book fair the teachers went there and sang Christmas carols tonight. 

Three

Took my kiddos to Barnes and Noble today to sing Christmas Carols. 

I loved hearing them sweetly sing about Christ's birth. 

Such a simple yet great ministry opportunity! 

Treated them to some hot chocolate. Check out the result.
We had the 5th grade with us too so thats about 30 hot chocolates.
They loved it!
And I guess even the Starbucks workers were taking pictures of all of the red cups. :) 

Two

My favorite view this winter! 

I love my little tree. :) 

One

Favorite spot to sit this winter. 

A little hard to see but it is my parent's new gas fireplace. 

Love love love!! 

So thankful

I'm a little late in writing about thanksgiving, but better late than never! 

God has been so good to me! I have a wonderful family who loves me and loves the Lord. I've been blessed with great friends. I have a job that I love. And most of all I'm thankful that I am a child of God. Life would be terrible without the hope I have in Christ. 

Facepalm

Gotta love those days when you encourage a friend and later realize that you need to listen to you own advice. I just want to smack myself on the head and tell myself to get with it! So after telling my friend to start reciting God's truth and promises I now need to do that myself.
TRUTH: God loves me more than I can even imagine.
TRUTH: I have been saved and will spend eternity with Christ!

Blessed

I'm currently in a Bible study on the book of Mark. I've been blessed by every week of this study. I don't know why it surprises me when God speaks to me through His Word and those who teach it. Last week this quote from my Bible study stood out to me. 

"Jesus never fails to see us with love, even though we have scars of sin and a rumpled nature that shows in out stutter-step faithfulness." 

Thank you , Jesus, for always loving me!

Fantastic Book!

Usually at my job we have a required reading over the summer. Sometimes it is related to teaching and other times it is related to our lives as believers. This summer because of the transition of having a new principal we did not have a required reading. Instead we were given the option of joining a group once a week to read and discuss the book "Instruments in the Redeemer's Hands" by Paul David Tripp. I was excited because I had read the book in college. It was one of the few books in college that I enjoyed...mostly because it was easy for me to follow where as many of the books for my Bible classes seemed so over my head. Don't get me wrong, I know they were good books I just had a hard time following them.
I pulled out my copy that I had underlined and written notes in and dove right in. I liked the book then and I love the book now! It is fun to see the things I underlined and commented on when I was in college and see the new things I'm discovering this time around. If you haven't read the book I strongly recommend picking it up and giving it a good read.

Here are a few quotes I've grabbed onto just from reading the first 2 chapters this week and last week.

We must faithfully proclaim, "Hope is only found in Jesus Christ, the king of Kings. In Him, lasting, personal heart change is possible."

The good news of the kingdom is not freedom from hardship, suffering, and loss. It is the news of a Redeemer who has come to rescue me from myself.  

When a certain set of desires rules our hearts, we reduce prayer to the menu of human desire. Worse, we shrink God from his position of all-wise, all-loving, all-powerful Father to a divine waiter we expect to deliver everything we ask. But God will not shrink to this size. He will only be our Father and King, who "satisfies your desire with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagle's" (Ps. 103:5)  

 I'm so excited to keep reading this book!!