Sweet and Simple

I'll make this blog post short and sweet...a fabulous co-worker of mine (Karen Cherry) inspired me to take a moment out of my busy Monday to update my blog...

So what to write about?

Today is Valentine's Day and I could wax poetically on the meaning of love, get all gushy and weird about it and make all of you extremely uncomfortable. But since I like having people actually READ my blog without gagging (I hope), I'll just say this:

I am extremely blessed to have a fabulous husband who despite my grumpy mood this morning (for no reason) surprised me at work with flowers, seriously dark Lindt truffles and my absolute favorite root beer made in PA.

I am one lucky girl!

Putting it All Into Practice

"It has been an interesting week."

I feel like I say this sentence constantly! Constant repetition doesn't make it any less true, it just is a reflection that Aaron and I are in an "interesting" phase in our lives at the moment. I think I need to come up with a new catchphrase to use when people ask me how I'm doing...

How about, "It has been a shockingly bizarre week" or "I did things I never thought I'd do this week" or (my favorite) "I'm trying to hang on and at the same time become a better version of myself this week, how are you?"

This week has mostly been good. Aaron was able to get a shift at the new surgery center where he works and it looks like business might be picking up there, plus he got another 2 shifts at the hospital for March. Any news in that area is good!

Our first small group meeting was last Sunday and it's only been a week, but we've already started really developing some relationships with the people we met. It truly is an amazing group of people - we're all so different and even though we're at different phases in our lives, we're able to encourage each other and study God's word together...pretty incredible!

It feels good to be connected - the series our church is doing is called "freegrowthreport.com" and is really centered around taking a hard and honest look at your spiritual growth, identifying what areas need work and then taking those steps to grow. I love the sermon series and our small group is really built around expanding those Sunday sermons into practical areas of our lives.
One of the areas Aaron and I have really committed to working on together is reading the Bible. We were both fortunate enough to grow up in Christian homes and in the church, participated in memorizing verses, AWANA and even Bible quizzing...yet somehow that area of our lives has really fallen by the wayside. Not a good thing when the Bible is a major way God speaks to us!

I am proud to report that we've both been reading daily this week, both together and separately. Together we're working through the book of Proverbs, taking 2 chapters at a time. It really is an incredible book, full of so much practical wisdom. On my own I'm reading a book my sister Kate lent me (If Mama Ain't Happy, Ain't Nobody Happy) along with a Psalm a day.

The Psalm I read today just really impacted me, it was an incredible reminder of just how amazing our God is...we try to put Him in this little human box, to try to understand his vast awesomeness and it severely limits our view of Him and his power.

Psalm 29 (Excerpts from)

³The voice of the LORD is over the waters;
the God of glory thunders,
the LORD thunders over the mighty waters.
⁴ The voice of the LORD is powerful;
the voice of the LORD is majestic.
⁷ The voice of the LORD strikes
with flashes of lightning.
⁹ The voice of the LORD twists the oaks
and strips the forests bare.
And in his temple all cry, “Glory!”
¹⁰ The LORD sits enthroned over the flood;
the LORD is enthroned as King forever.
¹¹ The LORD gives strength to his people;
the LORD blesses his people with peace.

I think too often I am guilty of putting my own human limitations on God, of brushing off problems in my life as not worth of His attention or of being too big for Him to handle...which is insane considering we're talking about the omniscient, omnipresent being who created the entire universe, right?

Now that I have started reading His Word daily, I've noticed a difference...I look forward to that time, it sets the tone for my entire day. I read on my own in the morning and again with Aaron that night...its the perfect way to begin and end my day.

Of course this is only week one of trying to make this a habit, so I could absolutely use your prayers that I keep putting God's Word as a priority in my life and please let me know if there's anything I can pray about for any of you!

Ways...

"God works in mysterious ways"

I roll my eyes automatically when I hear that phrase, mostly because it has been said to me by well-meaning people who are at a loss to explain why life is hard or doesn't make sense. To me it always seemed like a platitude rather than a truth.

Let's be honest...

God works in some seriously bizarre messed-up and not-so-fun-at-the-time ways...and I have to say I'm actually thankful for that. Because it means that even in the midst of mistakes and crushed hopes and struggles, I can actually hang onto that truth that somehow God is working through this, through me and Aaron to move us in the next direction of our lives.

As we started this week, we were collectively holding our breath...waiting to see what disaster would hit us, since last week held so many pitfalls - culminating when a deer collided with our car. Amazingly this week really only had one disappointment, which we took in stride.

I can't really put my finger on what exactly helped change our outlook and attitudes, but I'm betting it is on our decision to stop reacting and being overwhelmed by things we cannot control. That doesn't mean we sit back and do nothing to find Aaron full time work or stop searching for a creative solution to finance the repair of our deer-bashed car. It really just means that we finally just let go. For two people who really enjoy controlling our lives, it hasn't been easy!

But when we finally agreed to let go of all that worry over finances and our future, just keep putting one foot in front of the other and most importantly give all of that over to God...we both felt like a weight had been lifted. Of course things aren't perfect. Of course we'll have rough days and frustrating times. The difference is the change in our perspective.

Today was interesting. We spent almost the entire day at church and are exhausted...Aaron led worship in 4 different services while fighting a chest cold and I spent plenty of time running after my favorite 2 year old Sunday school class while trying not to get sick to my stomach.













Our pastor's message was incredible, you can check it out here: http://orbc.net/messages.htm

This was the first Sunday we decided to tithe in a long time and its something that we plan on doing regularly and are looking forward to seeing how God is going to use that in our future.

We decided to join a small group and went to a "connection" event at the church to try to get synced up with one and guess what? Aaron is now LEADING a small group.

Ok God. Seriously? Are you chuckling up there?

Its a 6 week group we're trying out, so we'll see how it goes - I'm excited to see how being involved in a small group is really going to grow us in our faith and in relationships with the rest of the people in our group.