SHE'S GRADUATING!

I really can't believe my little sister is
graduating college already. It seems like just yesterday she was entering Palm Beach Atlantic University and going through Fish Week (Freshman Welcome Week). Now I know I sound like a mom but really it's crazy that she is so grown up and such a classy lady. Not only is she beautiful outside but her heart is gold and filled with God's love. I've watched her make an impact in her friend's lives by the way she talks, dresses, and lives her life. She truly has been the hands and feet of Christ's body. Kirstie Kylene is my sister. My best girl friend. We've sold lemonade together, cut Barbie's hair together, played in the backyard sprinklers together, fibbed together, danced together, shopped together, cried together, prayed together, and laughed A LOT together. This Saturday she will receive her college diploma and off into the working world she will go. I know she will carry with her the wisdom and grace that God has given to her to share the gospel wherever she goes. She going to change lives for the Kingdom I just know it! Go get 'em girl! I love you!

Beloved Boynton

I miss my hometown. Boynton Beach, FL. About an hour north of Miami and 20 minutes south of fun-filled West Palm Beach, it's a rather quiet Florida town. I miss the palm trees and the salty wind it blows into the city. I miss the ave. Atlantic Avenue that is. It's a fun strip in downtown Delray Beach (one city south) with yummy cafes and ice cream shops. I miss taking runs along AIA and taking in the beautiful scenery of the ocean. I am 100% beach girl. I love me some mountains but the beach is where my heart is. It's weird not having sand in my car and a beach chair in the trunk. As ghetto as it is, I miss the Boynton Beach mall and Congress Avenue. (which is totally built-up and commercialized now, holy moly) I miss the hot, sunny days where drinking just 2 bottles of water in an hour is barely enough to stay hydrated. I miss Rotelli's, Doc's, and Sandwiches by the Sea. But most of all I just miss my family. I miss mom, dad, Kirstie, granny and Buddy. I hope I see them soon!!!!!!

Teenagers These Days

This is a SHOUT OUT to my 3 Bible Study Gals. These are the three girls I mentor. They are 9th and 10th graders and they have such a special place in my heart. They don't have boyfriends. They don't drink or do drugs. They don't hate their parents or authority. They don't dress to impress. They have hearts of gold. And I'll tell ya why....

They love their Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and they show it by the way they talk, act, and live. I have so much respect for who they are choosing to be for Christ. It makes me think back to my high school days when I was so focused on how "cute" I could dress... when I dated dramatically and sporatically and broke hearts and got my heart broken over and over again... when I didn't understand purity or sacrificial love....and when God was someone who only wanted me to behave and obey.

My teenage years were filled with insecurity, competition, and vanity. Always trying to outdue the next pretty girl in school. Always worried about what my boyfriend thought I looked like. Always too ashamed to talk to God about my sin. I didn't know hope. I didn't know mercy. I didn't know what a relationship with Christ looked like. I didn't understand His grace. I didn't know He cared about my struggles with my looks or about my purity. I thought those issues were too little for God to care about.

I am thankful that God didn't leave me alone when I was 15. He kept appearing and showing me that He loved me. Through friends at college, professors, preachers, my sister and my parents, Jesus showed me that he was more concerned with what my heart condition looked like than my appearance. A friend just reminded me recently of the verse in 2 Corinthians 4 that says we are not to lose heart, though outwardly we are wasting away but inwardly we are being renewed day by day by God's word.

Thank the Lord that I am becoming more beautiful to Him each day though to the world I am looking more worn-old-wrinkled-flawed.

I have great hope for these three young ladies: Caroline, Katie & Laura. They understand that the true beauty is kept locked away from the eye but shines through from the heart. (yeah, I just thought that up myself...lol)

I hope I have kids that grow up to be gems like they are.

No body really cares

I'm sorry. I feel the need to vent. I think it's getting a little crazy on the online world. I mean a website designed just to leave a message about what you're doing at the moment?? Come on. Lame. Lame. Lame. I know I don't care and if I do care, I'll just read your facebook status (if you have one up at the moment). LOL Sorry for you Twitter members. Love you, but really? REALLY? Instead of posting "What are you doing?" ditties, get outside and take a run, take a camera to the park and shoot away, go get a smoothie and take a drive, walk your dog, call your mama but no one cares to know frankly if you just ate a pretzel or if you like SCRUBS, or if you "Just don't know"---> (those status' drive me bonkers) Ok. I'm done.

ABC's of being a good wife

Since it's my sweet husband, D.R's, birthday naturally I have been thinking about him a lot today. Thinking about the meal we'll share together tonight. About the movie we'll watch and laugh at together. About how we'll play with Champ together later tonight. And other stuff; wink. I found this in the book I'm reading, "Created to be his help meet" by Debi Pearl. It is a fabulous book telling how to be the wife God created you to be and how to make your husband truly adore you. Yeah, it's a must-read if you're a wife. Go here and read about the "3 different types of men" to determine which one yours leans towards. Mine is pretty obvious (Mr. Command Man) while he does show aspects of the other two also. Betty, seriously, you need to read this. Matt is 100% Mr. Visionary. :) While I was reading I was like, "Matt" and then a paragraph later, "Matt" again. lol

O.K. here's a fun ditty to read about who to be to your husband. :)
A-Admit when you are wrong.
B-Be positive
C-Cuddle
D-Do it his way
E-Encourage him
F-Fix his breakfast
G-Give back rubs
H-Hug often
I-"I love you" should be said many times daily
J-Joke around in a playful manner
K-Know his needs
L-Listen to him
M-Manage your home well
N-Never hold grudges
O-Open your eyes in the morning and smile
P-Pray for him daily
Q-Quit nagging him
R-Reminisce about good times
S-Show respect and honor
T-Trust, and earn his trust
U-Understand his need for reverence
V-Vulnerability is a feminine trait; cultivate it
W-Wink at him
X-X is for private time :)
Y-Yearn to please him
Z-Zealously guard him with your love

Drive It Out!

*just an aside. If you are a faithful blog follower, by now you have come to realize that you may be waiting weeks inbetween posts from this gal. I'm not a day by day journaler, though I would like to be. I converse with God easily in my own head and sometimes I think if I got it out on paper or screen, no one would really understand but God. lol so I will stick to writing about my instances of growth: those times in my life when I learn something about God, about love, about forgiveness or kindness. I will document those simply because I want to remember them and learn from them. Stones of remembrance that remind me of God's goodness to me. Here's the current thing my flesh is battling.

Fear.

There is no fear in love...

Wait, you mean I can't be "cautious" with my heart and truly love someone? I can't protect myself and guard myself and still love the person who doesn't know Christ? I don't have a right to be afraid of the guy who walks in off the street wanting food and starring blankly at me.

No.

1 John 4 says that 'we know and rely on the love God has for us.' We RELY on it. Do I really rely on God for His love to consume me so much that it blots out fear? Do I live each day believing that God will protect me from harm because I am in the center of His will for my life? Not often enough.

I have been fearful at work. The church is a haven for me; a safe place of surrender and mercy even during the week as I work; but lately I have begun to fear the people whom I should be loving the most. I fear the lost. I fear the homeless man who smells like trash and cigarettes. I judge them because I fear them. I think I've been using my fear as a way to justify the judgment I pass. Fear is crippling and I know I wasn't created to feel this way. I know that because it hurts. I hate being fearful. It makes it painful to love somebody.

A homeless man came into the church today wanting some help with transportation but really what he wanted was just to talk to someone. He's been coming for a while and clearly doesn't know the Lord because there is no hope in him. He's always a talker but today he seemed different. He had a desperate, hopeless, lost-puppy look in his eye that said, "Does God care about me?" But instead of encouraging him with scripture and telling him the promises of God, I was wondering if he had a knife in his pocket. Or if he got a gun somewhere and was so depressed that he might not be thinking straight. I was so scared honestly that I was frozen to my chair. I didn't even want to reach for the phone when it rang. I was consumed with fear. I was not trusting God's provision over me. I was not believing that God loved me enough to care about the situation I was in and calm my nerves.

'God is love.' Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him. There is no fear in love. But perfect love DRIVES OUT fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love. We love because He first loved us.' 1 john 4:16b-19a

This tells me that I have the ability to love people as Christ loves me! I just have to choose to let the Holy Spirit love through me. I need to be praying each morning that God will give me a spirit of love for these lost sheep and that His love in me would drive my fear far away.

I love the promises of God. They are so rich and so many! Speaking of rich, I am really craving something sweet. I may have to go steal more candy from my husband's easter basket, AGAIN. ha poor guy.

A.N.T.H.E.M.

This is from John Piper's website.
Strategies for Fighting Lust: I know as women we think, "we don't deal with that. That's a man's problem." But let's be honest ladies; we battle a fantasy world too complete with thoughts of that cute actor in that chick flick we watched or that hot doctor in the show on t.v. or even the attractive man at church with the cute kids. We fight it too. I know I do. I'm sick of my flesh winning. I thought this was great and I love acronyms. They help to recall it easier. I hope this benefits you in your struggle to "make no provision for the flesh". (Rm 13:14)

A-avoid sights and situations that arouse unfitting desire."Flee youthful passions and pursue righteousness" (2 Timothy 2:22).

N- say NO! "Resist the devil and HE WILL flee from you." James 4:7 What a great promise!

T- turn my mind forcefully toward Christ as the superior satisfaction. Saying "No" will not suffice. You must turn your mind from defense to offense. Attack the promises of sin with the promises of Christ.

H- hold the promises of Christ fimly in my mind until it pushes the image out. Fight for as long as it takes. Imagine a garage door was coming down on your toddler; you would hold that door up and yell for help for as long as it took to save your child.

E- enjoy a superior satisfaction. Cultivate pleasure for Christ alone. He is appealing! Psalm 90:14 "Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love, that we may rejoice and be glad all our days."

M- move into a useful activity away from idleness and other vulnerable behaviors. 1 Corinthians 15:58 "Be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord."