Christmas Bells!

The words to this hymn have been running over and over in my head...this is so like my God!...He brings peace, yes, even in the midst of the storms of life. I will praise Him in them!

I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day

"I heard the bells on Christmas day
Their old familiar carols play,
And wild and sweet the words repeat
Of peace on earth, good will to men.

And thought how, as the day had come,
The belfries of all Christendom
Had rolled along the unbroken song
Of peace on earth, good will to men.

Till ringing, singing on its way
The world revolved from night to day,
A voice, a chime, a chant sublime
Of peace on earth, good will to men.

And in despair I bowed my head
“There is no peace on earth,” I said,
“For hate is strong and mocks the song
Of peace on earth, good will to men.”

Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:
“God is not dead, nor doth He sleep;
The wrong shall fail, the right prevail
With peace on earth, good will to men." 

                                               -Henry Longfellow

Took this pic at the farm...reminds me of how life feels at times (foggy, gloomy, caged...the list goes on), and yet our God is always there...especially when we can't see Him. His power is truly great in our weaknesses...I will glory in mine.

Faithful Friend

So its a season of goodbyes...of friends and family. When most everyone is leaving one thing keeps coming to mind - I have a Faithful Friend. He has promised to never leave or forsake me; that honestly is one of the most comforting things during this time. What makes it even greater is that He makes all these relationships so much more real and meaningful. The line from Psalm 23 "...my cup runneth over..." runs through my head when I think of this. My life, like a cup, is and can only be complete and fully satisfied when He fills me alone. The blessing of family and friends is the last part "runneth over"; those are the added blessings that He gives out of His mercy and goodness. They can never satisfy or fill me but they are the extra water spilling over the edge! Just as He's given those blessings, He also takes them away for a time...and yes, He lets them leave out of His same mercy and goodness.

And so now...one person that is leaving is Sam. He has been a faithful constant friend in my life, a great brother. Yes, we all have our ups and downs our struggles, but I have been amazed to stand back and see who God is making him to be. How He is using him in the lives of others and my own life continues to leave me...well, leave me smiling...as I say, "that's my brother".  

Deeper than the deepest...

 Once again its been forever since I've written. The crazy lack of schedule with tons of things has made life...very full, but good. Since last writing I've been to Houston for a weekend with Joshua, Colombia for two weeks, gone cliff jumping, and then camping for a weekend. In the middle of all that there has also been tons of sports and lots of volleyball. But I don't have much time to write again, I'm about to go to practice, so here's a thought for the day: One of the greatest things that has carried me through this time has been God's mercy. In-between the crazy fun activities of life, there are the regular daily struggles and testing of faith. The times when there seems to be no hope when faith is completely lacking. In the midst of it...He, our God and Savior, has remained the same. He is faithful, and His mercy has been there for each step of the way. I'm focusing on His mercy because I read this verse of the Hymn "All that thrills my soul" that goes like this, "...Mercy higher than the heaven, Deeper than the deepest sea!" On our camping trip one evening we went cliff jumping and no matter how far we plunged into the water...we always came back up and never hit bottom. I think I heard someone say it was 120 ft deep. Every time I jumped and would be completely swallowed up in that wonderful water thinking I was going so deep, I would always come up having been in only a fraction of the lake. All that to say...His mercy is that same way. It is deeper than the deepest sea. We can't over use it, there is always enough for us, it is new EVERY morning. And we come back up from being immersed in the blessedness of it, there's is peace knowing...there's more, much more of His mercy waiting to sustain us.

Now here's a very scetchy picture outline of some of the things that I've done since last writing...

The girls that went up on the Acuna Mexican trip

Our city league volleyball team being crazy...the Green Angels!

Sam and I flew up to close to Tyler, he even let me fly a bit. I got to see my little twin while we were there! I'll have to post a video soon...

Mallory and Brandon celebrated their graduations...

Us with relatives in Colombia

Celebrating on July 4th!

and lastly...camping!!

"...O Lord, You are beautiful..."

It's been too long since I've been on here. I'm hoping to write up a decent post of the recent happenings, but I'm trying to get to bed "early" so I'll just post this video and then will write again soon.

Do you see Him? Do you look for Him? And when you do...what do you do? just some challenging thoughts...ones that I'm going through again. Till later...

Yipes...

 It's been a month since I've been on here, and posted something. Time has flown by...I'm trying to get to bed early (the never working story of my life) so I'm going to keep this quick. These days I'm still at home getting ready to work with a Christian eye doctor (there's probably a fancy name for it, but I won't write it up). He' going to be training me and another person to be his scrub-in nurse and circulating nurse. Simply put we'll be assisting him in surgeries. It'll be a very neat learning experience and definitely the Lord has opened the doors for this. I would never in my wildest dreams...well, have ever "dreamed" that I'd be doing this. The Lord always does answer before we ask, we simply have to wait and learn to hear the answer. He's been so faithful! I must say that I've struggled with quite a few things recently. One of the main struggles that I've had has been with depression, but its amazing to see how He is using it to teach me so much more and draw me closer to Him. He wants me to realize that its okay to be weak (because I am and simply need to acknowledge it), because it is then that He's strong. Its also taught me to find my joy and satisfaction in Him alone; there truly is no one better. You know there's so much more that I've learned through this time that I could sit here and write all the little things that I've learned but it'd take forever. More importantly, He's not done. He's still working, and I praise Him! It's simply amazing, and I must say that looking back I wouldn't give up the time of struggling for anything in the world. Three verses stick out in my mind:

Ps 119:67 - Before I was afflicted I went astray: but now have I kept thy word.
Ps 119:71 - It is good for me that I have been afflicted; that I might
learn thy statutes.
Ps 119:75 - I know, O LORD, that thy judgments are right, and that
thou in faithfulness hast afflicted me.

Here are some pics from the past month...

Believe it or not, we love kids...I think it has to do with the fact that we don't have any younger siblings of our own.

We've been babysitting the cutest little baby in the mornings. Her name is Ada and she's very fun to have around. Talk about one happy baby!! Maybe that's what Jesus meant when He said "for such are the kingdom of heaven".

Learning how to do laundry while strengthening neck muscles...

Going for a walk, it was really cold that morning so we covered her all up because we were worried her little head would get cold...

Isn't she the cutest? Look at her looking at Bobo (Ellen)!

I got back this week from 10 days in Indy and Chicago. I went to a health conference and then spent time with friends that I haven't seen in a while.

Hiding from the camera and footprints in the snow...

Spending time in the car can do things to you...

I loved this lonely leaf picture...makes me just want to sit and daydream.

The culprits for my time there...Kendalyn, Aleita, and Sharon.

Poor girl got a busted lip when we played Ultimate Frisbee. Moral of the story, don't try to catch the frisbee with your mouth...that's what dogs do.

Sharon...what can I say, she's one strong little girl. She gave me a sound beating in wrestling the last night there, it was great fun. Wahoo!