Birthday Blessings!

It's been a whole week since my birthday and I have not told yall what I got yet! This was the first year in many that I got real presents that I did not have to buy myself! And they were GREAT presents.

I got some couple presents this year, from two (new) couples!

(In my best Price is Right voice...)First off we have the lovely Kristi and Wendell! They gave me a gift card to 100% Bible Bookstore. And I already used it lol. I got myself a really solid devotional on personal revival, which I'm sure I will be telling you guys about shortly! It's really good. Thanks Kristi!!!

My friends Tisha and Brian got me a cute little sundress, that is just a tad bit short but perfect for my favorite place in the world and my newest toy! A BRAND NEW CAMERA!!! OOOOOOOOOO! (Note: All pictures for the rest of this post were taken by said camera!) Courtesy of Daddy...This camera is waterproof, shockproof, freezeproof, and dust proof, and comes with a very big, orange, funny looking floating strap (that I think might glow in the dark!).

And from Mummy, a very special machine that you will hopefully be hearing about a LOT in the future! I will be using it to make some cool things, including Christmas presents hopefully.

For those of you who have no clue what it is...it's a serger. Used to make just about every piece of clothing you own. I already bought some stretch material to attempt to make a tshirt.

And lastly, Daniel gave me the most thoughtful gift...a beautiful hand made-card, and sailing lessons! They haven't happened yet, and considering there's a tropical storm outside, probably won't happen for a while. But when they do, I'll be ready in my black sundress, with my water camera and an extra tshirt in case I get went!

Thanks for the wonderful presents guys! I love them ALL!

Chapter 3

Do you ever think any of these thoughts?

If I have my devotions, God will be pleased with me. If I have don't devotions, God will be disappointed with me.

Having daily devotions makes me more spiritual.

If I have devotions my day will go better. If I don't, I know it will be a disaster.

I have to have daily devotions - every good Christian does.

These thoughts tend to keep us in bondage to lies. The truth is "if we belong to [God], we already have his favor; He could not love us any more and He could not love us any less."

So if those are reasons to have devotions, why should we have them? In this week's chapter, Nancy gives us four reasons for quiet time that affect our inner life:
- Communion - to experience intimate union with God, who desires a deep, growing relationship with us.
- Purification - to cleanse our hearts and our lives. God uses the water of the Word to cleanse us. (John 17:17; 15:3; Ephesians 5:25-26).
- Restoration - to have our supply of grace, strength, and wisdom replenished and to gain fresh perspective and renewed desire and strength to serve him another day.
- Instruction - so that God would show us what He is like and how to live in a way that pleases Him.

She goes on to ask, "whom does the Lord teach? He instructs those whose hearts are humble - those who have a teachable spirit, whose who know how little they know and how much they need to learn. And He teaches those who fear Him and those who reverence and stand in awe of Him."

I don't know about you guys, but I would never use the word "teachable" to describe myself. But I am growing, and hopefully one day, that will change.

So my questions for the week are:

What are some inferior motives you have for spending time with God?

Think of someone you share a close relationship with. What are some elements of that relationship that help make it successful, and how can you apply it to your relationship with God?

If you haven't already read the chapter, I would encourage you to do it. It's such an amazing chapter, full of so much wisdom, and I think I covered about 3%. If I could I would quote the entire book!

That's my schedule and I'm sticking to it!

Guess what guys! I started running...I've been twice so far. And it was suprisingly not too bad.

I think I always secretly wanted to be a runner. I always envied those super fit people who could run for hours and make it look so easy, while I was trying to make it around the field once without stopping to breathe.

So does running twice make me a runner? I'm sure I have terrible form, don't breathe properly, have no clue what I'm doing, can only run for two minutes at a time...and probably look like this...

But I ran, and I have plans to run again...so that makes me a runner (in my own eyes at least)!

Now I just have to become a better runner. That means being able to run a little bit long than just two minutes. So I made myself a plan.

Week 1 Run one min, walk 90 seconds. Repeat eight times. Do three times a week.
Week 2 Run two mins, walk one min. Repeat seven times. Do three times a week.
Week 3 Run three mins, walk one min. Repeat six times. Do three times a week.
Week 4 Run five mins, walk two mins. Repeat four times. Do three times a week.
Week 5 Run eight mins, walk two mins. Repeat three times. Do three times a week.
Week 6 Run 12 mins, walk one min. Repeat three times. Do three times a week.
Week 7 Run 15 mins, walk one min, run 15 mins. Do three times a week.
Week 8 Run 30 mins continuously.

Following this plan, I should be able to run a full 30 minutes by the end of November. I'm going to try to run four days a week, that way if I miss a day (like last night) I can still get in my three days of running. And hopefully, it will make the transition between weeks a teensy bit easier. Just thinking about running for five minutes scares me to death!

I will run outside as much as possible. But when it rains, like its been doing for about three days straight, I will go to the gym, which I hate.

The good thing is I'll be finishing right before Christmas, which means I can combine rewarding myself with Christmas presents. Hmmm, what should I reward myself with? Something to encourage me to keep running.

What do you guys think? Is my plan doable? And what should I reward myself with?

A Day of Turning

I just read something from the Desiring God blog I want to share with you guys.

Here’s the challenge John Piper issues as he closes his chapter on prayer (chapter 6) in Desiring God:

[O]ne of the main reasons so many of God’s children don’t have a significant life of prayer is not so much that we don’t want to, but that we don’t plan to. If you want to take a four-week vacation, you don’t just get up one summer morning and say, “Hey, let’s go today!” You won’t have anything ready. You won’t know where to go. Nothing has been planned.

But that is how many of us treat prayer. We get up day after day and realize that significant times of prayer should be a part of our life, but nothing’s ever ready. We don’t know where to go. Nothing has been planned. No time. No place. No procedure. And we all know that the opposite of planning is not a wonderful flow of deep, spontaneous experiences in prayer. The opposite of planning is the rut. If you don’t plan a vacation, you will probably stay home and watch TV. The natural, unplanned flow of spiritual life sinks to the lowest ebb of vitality. There is a race to be run and a fight to be fought. If you want renewal in your life of prayer, you must plan to see it.

Therefore, my simple exhortation is this: Let us take time this very day to rethink our priorities and how prayer fits in. Make some new resolve. Try some new venture with God. Set a time. Set a place. Choose a portion of Scripture to guide you. Don’t be tyrannized by the press of busy days. We all need midcourse corrections. Make this a day of turning to prayer—for the glory of God and for the fullness of your joy. (Desiring God, 2003 edition, pages 182–183)

Wow...you can't get where you want to go without a plan. I definitely want a significant prayer life! Like I said yesterday, my goal for the next year is to get fit, spiritually and physically. And so I need a plan...

I'm going to spend the weekend thinking about it and let you guys know my plan next week.

P.S. My birthday update is coming soon too!

Birthday Resolutions...

It's my birthday! I turn 24 today. Does that count as mid-twenties? Does that mean I'm getting old? It sure doesn't feel like it...

I think today is a good day to evaluate my life, to look back at the last year and figure out where I want to go from here.

What did I achieve as a 23 year old? What were the highlights? Hmm...well to start with, I got married! It was definitely the best decision of my life. Marriage has been so good so far, and now I'm more in love with Daniel than ever. (For good reason...I'll show you guys my birthday present later.)

Other than that though, I can't say that I'm really in a different place this year than I was last year. I feel like I've been stuck in a rut for the last few months. I want to be growing and maturing, but it's just not happening.

So today, I'm making some changes! Where do I want to be in a year? Mostly, I would like to be healthy and in shape, both physically and spiritually. I want to be a morning person, who wakes up early every day (and loves doing it!) to go for a run and spend some quality time with the Lord. And as a result, I want to be full of joy and energy! I would like to run a marathon...or maybe just a 5K. I would like to be a prayer warrior, and be learning new things about God every day. That seems like a really good goal right?

But how can I get there? I think I need some practical guidelines to help me put this into place. I need to start small and work my way up!

Any ideas?

J-A-M-JAMAICA! - 10 random facts

Week before last my company sent me to Jamaica for training. Of course, when they told me I was going, what I really heard was "We're sending you to Jamaica for vacaion". So after long, exhausting days at the office in Jamaica, me and my coworkers spent our weekends and evenings exploring and eating!

While I learned absolutely nothing about my job, I did learn alot about Jamaica...or at least the parts we got to see. So without further ado, I present some random facts I learned about Jamrock!

1. Jamaican money is confusing.



Their dollar is like $85 to $1. When we got there and changed our money I knew I was wealthy beyond my wildest dreams. I turned $100 into like $9,000..and then I realized a pizza is $2,000, a book is $850, and a taxi ride is $1,300! WHOA! Confusing! My $10,000 disappeared like nothing, and I'm still trying to figure out where it went!

P.S. I'm pretty sure we got ripped off by everyone. We were spotted as tourists everywhere we went!

2. In Jamaica, you don't tip people. You give them donations. And everyone expects a donation. The tour guides (who you already paid), the man hitting on you and trying to give you an ugly statue you don't want, the man who gave you a tour of the waterfall and gardens, even the man chillin on the side of the beach and waterfall (taking credit for God's work).

3. Ocho Rios and Montego Bay are the tourist names. They are more affectionately know as Ochie and MoBay by the locals.

4. The fountain of youth can be found in Ochie, aka Fire Wata!



It's a tiny little pool and sulfer spring somewhere in the back of the bush! You can actually light the water on fire...or the gas or whatever...point is you can walk through water that's on fire! Pretty cool! It comes complete with a full body massage by a bonafide rasta, healing of all your bodily problems, and dinner cooked on a rock on top of the fire...and all for just a small donation of course! :)

5. Jamaica's version of potcakes are goats...they're everywhere.



6. Speaking of everywhere...







There were billboards all over the place, for everything from phones to mackeral in tomato soup.

7. I almost died 33,349,238 times in a week riding in taxis going 100 miles an hour up winding mountain roads, overtaking on curves, right next to 1,00,000 foot drops. I thought Bahamians couldn't drive!





This was our limo for the week. ;) We rode in style!

8. The mountains are really high up and Kingston is huge!



You can't tell but all three of us were scared to death in this picture! There's a huge drop right next to us and we were all scared of heights. It really is beautiful though.

9. Nothing compares to floating in fresh water rivers and climbing waterfalls. It was absolute heaven!







10. The word likkle gets used in every conversation, and everytime I hear it laugh a likkle inside and then proceed to use it in every sentence for the rest of the day. I have the worst Jamaican accent ever, and I am only a likkle bit affraid of using it! (Told ya!)

I had a great time in Jamaica! I can't wait to go back!

Chapter 2

Last night, I wrote about Chapter 1 of our book. Today, I'll catch up to the Bible study by talking about Chapter 2.

Chapter 2 - Made for Intimacy

In this chapter, Nancy talks about the need in each of us to fellowship with God. She says "In the Scriptures, we encounter a God who moves toward us, who seeks to draw us to himself, who knows us intimately and passionately, and who invites us to know him in the same way". Doesn't this just sound so good to you? I can't tell you how much I long to love God intimately and passionately! And to feel his love for me! I long to be admired and cherished by my Creator!

I have to confess that lately I have not been feeling any of that. I haven't had good time with God for a few weeks, and I'm really suffering for it. I've been more sad, angry, depressed, anxious...basically I've been feeling every negative emotion there is! And I know its because I haven't spent time with my Father. God forgive me! I know I need it!

Our discussion on chapter 2 mainly focused on the section of the chapter regarding Martha and Mary. The book contrasts the love Mary had for Jesus, with Martha's desire to get things done. She chose to be busy instead of spending time with the Lover of her soul, and she suffered for it. She became anxious and angry, kind of like I'm feeling now.

But Jesus tells her "It's ok...your company means more to me than your cooking. You are more important to me than anything you can do for me".

Like Nancy says, "There is only one place where that angry, reactive, overwhelmed self can be transformed - the same place that Mary chose - the feet of Jesus".

Will you choose with me to sit at the feet of Jesus today?

Questions to Consider
1. Who do you know that has an intimate, growing relationship with God? How did they get that relationship?

2. If people were to look at your life, what would they say is important to you?

Chapter 1

I realize I'm about two to three weeks behind in blogging about the book. I'm not really sure why. I've been meaning to write for a while, but I keep making excuses. I really want to tell you guys about my trip to Jamaica, but the pictures are on my computer at work and I can't blog from work! But I'll get them for tomorrow...promise!

Tonight we discussed chapter 2 of our book, A Place of Quiet Rest, and I remembered why I love this book so much! But before we go there, let's back track a little...

Chapter 1 - A Day in the Life of the Lord

This chapter discusses Jesus's life and how he handled the people and situations that followed him everywhere. One particular day, as described in Mark 21-38, Jesus did more than most of us get done in a week (or ever??). He taught in the synagogue, cast out an evil spirit, went to his best friend's house where he had to heal his sick mother-in-law, went to the door and found an entire town of sick and demon-possessed waiting on him, and healed many of them! I'm sure he went to bed exhausted that night. And yet in verse 25 we see that the next day "very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed." I wonder how much sleep he actually got that night?

If that was me, I think I would have slept in the next day. I really love sleep! Why in the world would he get up early after being awake late at night healing people?!

Keep reading...his disciples come to him, everyone is looking for him. So what does he do? He tells them "Let's go somewhere else, so I can preach. After all, this is why I came". That's pretty deep! I mean, isn't that why we're all here? To worship God and lead other people to him? But how was Jesus able to consistently love other people? On page 28, Nancy tells us "Jesus knew that any power or ability He had to minister to others was due to the fact that He was "One with the Father". He knew it was essential for Him to stay connected to His Father, for that was His source of life, joy, power, peace, and fruitfulness. He knew He had to walk in union and communion with His Father if He was to know and do His Father's will. He had no other purpose for being on this earth than to do the wil of His Father. So He had no high priority than to abide in intimate, unbroken fellowship with His Father, so that He might fulfill His Father's will".

I know sometimes it's hard to remember and believe that we are only here to do God's will. We get so caught up with life, whether that be school, work, relationships, or the interenet. Those things are good, but they shouldn't get in the way of our relationship with God and fulfilling his will.

I would just encourage us all to realize that we can't know God's will for us, if we're not in fellowship with him. Let's follow Jesus' example and make time with God our priority!

Questions to consider
1. Think about your relationship with God. How is your relationship with God right now? Do you delight in his word and presence each day? Do you go robotically about your devotional life, not really getting anything out of it? Do you have no real relationship with God whatsoever?

2. What would you like for God to do in your life? How do you think you can build a stronger relationship with the Father?