Strugglin...

One of the things that I struggle with is control...I like to have control. Being a follower of Christ, this is hard. I have chosen to give up all control of my life. The personality I have likes to have control, make decisions, and be organized. If I can create a plan to get to the end, then I will. I like to have the course planned out.

Now, for the most part, this is ok. I know that God has a plan for my life that is far greater than I could even imagine. He knows what is best.

It becomes hard when I am in the midst of a situation where I do not know what happens. I can not know what happens...when it involves more than one person, you can't really decide what happens on your own. So for now, I put my trust in the creator of the universe to comfort me, lead and guide me, and when I absolutely need to know, He will show me the way.

Until then...I'll struggle through this with God by my side.

Persistant Prayer

I am always amazed when God begins to answers prayers. I have been praying about a certain situation, and have multiple people praying for this situation. Tonight, I had a conversation with somebody and what they told me floored me. I see God working in this situation, and my heart is encouraged. Jesus is reaching out for this person, and he is beginning to see his need for a saviour, he is recognizing he can't do it on his own. I sit in awe of this big God I serve, and yet the attention to detail He gives. He hears each and every prayer...He is concerned about the things close to my heart and to those who are his children.

I do believe that our prayers and petitions to God matter. Jesus tells the parable of the persistent widow in Luke 18:1-8. The woman keeps coming to the judge and pleaing with him to grant her justice. Because of her persistence, He grants her plea. And just as the unjust judge grants her request, how much more does God bring about justice for those he loves. What is intriguing is the very last sentence in verse 8 "However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?" When I read that, I can't help but ponder my own prayer life, and my dependence upon prayer. When all is said and done, will God recognize me as someone who was persistent in prayer? Depending on the creator of the universe for everything, the big and the small, in my life?

27 Dresses

I saw 27 Dresses with my good friend Amada this afternoon. In all reality, I should have been preparing my powerpoint for Transform Your Community at FPU tomorrow, but decided that I needed to have some fun this week.

The movie was pretty cute. Of course, it is a chick flick, but it wasn't a cheesy chick flick.

If you get a chance, I would recommend seeing it. Especially if you can make it to the twilight matinee at Signature Theatre at Manchester....only $5.50. Sure beats 10 bucks!

Proverbs 31:More Than a Wife of Noble Character

For those of you who read the Bible or have ever attended church, you all know Proverbs 31 to be the Proverb that talks about the wife of noble character. This morning, Scott Hansen passed by my office and told me that Proverbs 31:8-9 was my theme verse. Now I knew that there were 2 "parts" to this Proverb, but realized that many people do not. Proverbs 31:1-9 is an oracle King Lemuel's mother taught him ("Sayings of King Lemuel") and Proverbs 31:10-31 is the "Epilogue:The Wife of Noble Character". Scott told me to look it up and he would come back by my office. So I opened up my Bible, and looked at the passages that I had underlined at one time or another in my life (actually, the past year since I have had this Bible for a little over a year).
This is what it says: "Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute. Speak up and judge fairly; defend the rights of the poor and needy"

Scott brought up this passage again in our staff meeting.

I found all of this interesting for multiple reasons:

1. I realized that there are certain parts of the Bible that are "known" for certain things. In this case, most think that Proverbs 31 only talks about the wife of noble character, when in reality it talks about freeing the oppressed, speaking up for those who do not have a voice, defending those who can not defend themseleves, etc.
2. I have never heard these verses used by others when talking about the poor, the needy, those who are not treated fairly. We all know of Isaiah 1:17, Isaiah 58 (specifically vs 6-8), Micah 6:10, just to name a few.
3. How many other passages of scripture do we miss, do I miss because of the importance that is put on one part over another?

It is my prayer that we would all dig deeper into the scriptures and not rely solely on what we are being taught in church....who knows what you might miss out on.

New Car!

I almost forgot...I bought a new car 13 days ago!

I bought a 2008 Honda Accord LXP with the bluetooth hands free phone. I love driving my new car. It is extremely comfortable. My favorite thing happened today though...

I filled up my car with gas for the first time. Now you are probably thinking, "so what?" I'll tell you what, I didn't have to fill up for 2 weeks, I got 23 miles to the gallon, and it only cost me 47 bucks to fill up....This is a phenomenal difference than my explorer....

Although I miss driving my explorer, I am fully convinced I made the right decision. When the sun is shinning again, I will make sure to post a picture of me and my new ride :)

And if anybody is looking to buy an SUV, I have a 1996 Explorer XLT V8 for sale....

My Life is A Whirlwind

Once again, I have been absent from the world of bloginess due to, well, a lot of different things. At first, it was because of Christmas, my sister being in town, New Years....but once January 2nd hit, I feel like all I have done is work, which isn't entirely true.

So for my three loyal readers, who probably already know all of this, here has been my life in a nutshell...

• Christmas Eve Eve (Dec 23) I made my family go bowling. It was so much fun and also so funny to watch my family bowl, especially my mom.
• Christmas Eve we hung out at the house all day and watched movies. For dinner, we had my mom's famous ribs...they are so good and take approximately 2 days to prepare. My cousin, her husband, and their twins came over for dinner and the kids opened up their presents. I forgot how much fun opening up presents was when I was three...
• Christmas Day-spent the morning at my grandmas with my dad's side of the fam and then the afternoon at my cousins with my mom's side of the fam...over all a great day.
• Hung out with friends in town for the holidays, ate a lot of good food, had a lot of fun...
• New Years Ashley, Berger, Blake and I went down to Hollywood for a couple of days. We went to Santa Monica on Sunday, the boys watched Fresno State win the bowl game while Ash and I got pedicures and say Juno (a movie I highly recommend) during the day on Monday. Monday night we went to a club in Hollywood and danced the night away. We all had a great time. Tuesday we headed home....
• Jan 2....back to work after approximately 10 days off.
• Prayer focus 2008 took place at The Bridge from Jan 2-5. I was co-in charge of the project, which had its ups and downs in terms of issues, but overall was a fantastic time. Approximately 260 showed up during the week....in 2006 there were about 50. It shows that we are becoming a praying church.
• The week of Jan 7th, I had a meeting EVERY NIGHT! It was a little ridiculous.
• With missions month fast approaching, things have become crazy at work. Not only do I have to put all of my time and energy into planning this thing, my regular work continues on as well.
• Went to Catalina this past weekend as my last break before this week and the following 5 weeks come. I had a great time with Misty and Sue. The weather was gorgeous, about 70 all weekend. We ate, we played cards, I drank beer while they drank virgin drinks or water since they are both pregnant, hung out with some very nice, cute guys, and got a little bit of a tan. All in all, a fantastic weekend, one in which I wish hadn't ended. You know you have had a good weekend when you do not want to go back to reality.
• Monday night we had our first team meeting for our Haiti vision trip that seven of us are going on in March over spring break. Missions month 2008 hasn't happened yet and we are already planning missions month 2009...if that is not crazy then I don't know what is.
• Tonight was the first night I felt like I was able to do whatever I wanted...which ended up being me hanging out with Blake since he got his wisdom teeth pulled today. After Taco Tuesdays at Rubios, I filled up my new car with gas for the first time, went home and put on my sweats (which I would live in if I could) and sat and watched American Idol. It was great.

My life is going to be crazy these next six weeks, which I am excited about and dreading all at the same time. I have been challenged by numerous people lately to make sure that I am taking time for myself, to make sure that I keep that balance in my life. I am going to try to do that, but looking at my calendar for the weeks to come, I am not quite sure how that happens...