6 months

It's been a great 6 months.  We love you James a.k.a. Jammy Jam.  Happy 1/2 Birthday (a little late)!

Redemption

When we built our home 6 years ago we plated 7 Bradford pear trees in our yard. Six of the seven trees have bloomed beautifully. And then there was tree number seven. The seventh tree has never bloomed, I really thought it might be dead, Never having heart to pull it up, it stayed. I always had a little hope that it would one day bloom. As I was pulling in driveway a few weeks ago something caught my eye in the corner of my yard. The tree had blossomed. To say I was excited was a understatement. I put my car in park, jumped out and rushed past the other tress that are triple in size and beauty to get a closer look at what I thought was dead but was really alive. Redemption. That was all my mind could come up with. Isn’t it so like God to take something useless and something that seems to be nothing and make it into a thing of beauty.

When the blood of Christ was poured out, redemption came. He took us dead in our sin and made us alive again. A line of one of my favorite songs says “You make beautiful things, You make beautiful things out of the dust, You make beautiful things, You make beautiful things out of us”. He makes all things beautiful. Redemption.

My Brother

I have a baby brother. Well maybe I should just say I have a brother, he is 19 after all. For the past 19 years I have had a built in friend to love, to fight with, the cry with, and just to walk down the same road with. In less then a week he will be leaving for boot camp. Those words make me feel nauseous to type. He decided last year that he was going to join the Air Force. My thought was sure, I bet you are, I had always assumed that he would stay around and work for my dad. Looks like the joke was on me, he really did it. I am proud, scared, nervous, and excited all at the same time. I know that this will be a great journey for him. I am certain it will feel like something is missing when I do not see him at church on Sunday's but I also will feel proud to know that my brother is making a difference. I know that he signed up so he could "leave this one horse town". But I also know that when he does something he commits to it. I know that he will serve his country with pride and honor. While we will miss him, we are trusting that God is using this time to grow him into the man that He wants him to become. Please be praying for my brother, Andrew as well as my family as he embarks on this journey. Sarah loves you Uncle Angoo and so do I!

The Big Picture

As I was leaving from work the other day, I fumbled around for my keys to unlock my car doors when something on the driver’s side seat of the car caught my eye. I quickly opened my door to find a beautiful bouquet of purple flowers. I knew the name that would be signed at the bottom of the card attached to the flowers, but not what it was going to say. It wasn’t my birthday, anniversary, or any other kind of significant date that I could think of. I thought to myself, “Why is he giving my flowers?” Maybe my subtle “hints” of reminding him constantly that the last time he sent my flowers was in 2007 (October 31, 2007 not that I am counting or anything. I didn’t even take the time to breathe in their wonderful aroma, before grabbing the card to try and satisfy my need-to-know itch. The card read “I will love you until the last one fades away”. Of course my mind starts to wonder “Does this mean he is going to love me for about another week or so and that is it?” You would think after almost six years of marriage he could think of a better way to tell me he was leaving me. I figured it was either that, or he was really bad at coming up with sweet things to put on a card. So after several phone calls to my mom and some friends, we came to the conclusion that he was just really bad at writing sweet things on a card. I finally saw my husband and thanked him for the flowers. He asked if I read the card, I said yes after a long pause with a puzzled look. He smiled at me and said “you don’t get it do you?” He points out to me that there is one “fake” flower in the bouquet. I missed it! I was too concerned about what was in the card, that I did not take the time to look at what was right in front of me. It made me realize just how often I miss the big picture with God because I am too busy reading into and analyzing everything instead of just opening my eyes. It also taught me that when God puts everything in front of me, I don’t need to get so caught up in the words that I miss the beauty that ties everything together. He has provided me with everything I need to know! Sometimes we just need to take a step back look at the big picture and take the time to smell the sweet aroma of Christ and everything will make perfect sense!

Follow The Leader

I want to scream “This is not what I signed up for”
He gently reminds me I surrendered my all to Him.
I feel hurt, forsaken, alone.
He brings scripture to my mind about Him never leaving me.
I want to run,
I am not sure if I want to run away from the life I have
Or run to Him begging for understanding.
To whom much is given, much is expected.
He gave His all for me,
But I do not want to give Him my time.

My mouth speaks words of being willing to be uncomfortable for Him.
My heart fills with anger the moment something becomes out of place in my perfect world.
The words He speaks to me seem contradictory.
He reminds me His plan is perfect.

I muster up the strength to tell Him I am willing
He tells me He knew I would be
I am humbled
He leads me to the path I will walk down
With my hand in His, together we take the first steps.

His Child

If you were to walk in to my home you would hear the word “no” around a hundred times in an hour. I have a one year old who loves to jump. She is not bias, she will jump off of anything! Last night was no exception, after telling my daughter no a million times she decide not to heed my instruction and jumped anyhow. Her landing did not go so well, to be exact her face was the first thing to hit the floor. As she stood up tears streaming down her face she said mama in her sweet little pitiful voice and raised her hands for me to pick her up. I ran to her, swopped her up in my arms hugged her and let her know that she would be ok because “mama was here”. I wiped the tears from her eyes, loved up on her a little bit more and she was ready to play again. Much to my dismay this time she headed to the couch and started to climb. I thought to myself here we go again. This time something different happened. She chose to slide down and skipped the jumping off. I applauded her and said “Sarah’s a big girl”! She liked that. She loved know that she made the right choice.

So many times in life God warns us against things that will leave us hurt and broken. Yet we do not always heed his advice and we take the jump into sin. When we take that leap we end up standing there hurt and upset crying and reaching out to the same God that we just disobeyed. He comes, immediately picks us up tells us it’s ok because He is here, and when we have gained our confidence back and feel as if we are ready to face the world again he sends us off but always stays close by. And when He sees us heading back to our old ways he thinks please no not again. When we turn from the sin that we were headed to he says “oh, how you are growing!” and we can feel good having the peace of knowing that we are growing in Christ.

Deuteronomy 31:6 (New International Version)
Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the LORD your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you."