One Year Later

Well, it's been a while. In the past year, I graduated from college, got married, traveled to Hawaii and everywhere else from Chattanooga to Hot Springs to Cincinnati. We baptized 30 people in one month at my home church, where we are still experiencing revival. Still, I feel like the best is yet to come. My husband and I just came through our first Christmas together, we split our time between seven places in three days (not including home). As I lay here in my bed tonight, with my husband sleeping next to me, I am overwhelmed by how blessed I am. The experiences I have had this year are some that many people do not get in their entire lives, and I owe it all to Jesus.

If asked what the greatest lesson I have learned all year would be, I would have to answer that I have realized, now more than ever, that I am nothing without Jesus. I am not a good wife. I am not a good daughter. I am not a good church member, piano player, or singer without Jesus. I am completely at his mercy for the strength I receive every day.

I didn't get a job after I graduated, yet God provides.

Joseph and I can't seem to find a house, yet there is a roof over our heads.

I have been sick in my body, God healed me.

I went from living in a home of six people, to a home of two, but I am not lonely.

Every need that I have has been supplied. If I died today, my life would have been full and purposeful. However, I do not think Heaven is ready for me yet, God has shown me that there is much more to do. I knew 2013 would be a year of great change, and it certainly was. I think 2014 will be the year that we straighten things up. That we prepare our homes and our hearts for the return of Jesus. It's time to tighten the reigns, to get things in order, and to get ready for what God is going to do.

The (Almost) End

Well, here we are folks. It's the end of another semester here on the Hill at Western. Actually, it's my last semester here on the Hill at Western. No, I do not graduate until May, but starting in January, I will be student teaching in a school a little closer to home, and I will be living at home! No more little bathrooms or heaters that blow cold air. 

But it's bittersweet.

I'm going to miss living with my sister Rebekah. I'm going to miss having Chic-fil-a at my fingertips, and I'm going to miss having class with my friends who encourage me and complain about assignments with me. But man oh man, I'm gonna love eating real vegetables every now and then and having my wardrobe all in one closet and getting to see my mama and daddy everyday. Plus, how nice will it be to live 30 minutes away from Joseph rather than an hour and 15? 

Recently I attended a show at the planetarium here at school about doomsday. During this show I learned that the Mayans never said the world would end on December 20, 2012. That is simply where they're calendar ended. Their calendar operated like the odometer on our cars, when the numbers all maxed out, they just started over again. It was just a cycle. 

I think God created us to live our lives in cycles. Every few years one thing ends, but something new always begins. You may have heard the saying, "When God closes one door, he opens another." Well its true! When I graduated high school, it was a major transition. It was kind of sad, but I couldn't be sad for long because I was going to college! Now here I am, four years later, in the same position. It's happening again. I am coming to a close on one chapter of my life, and it's kind of sad except that I'm getting married! I can't be sad when I'm looking forward to getting married! I know it doesn't happen like that for everyone, but I believe God intends for us to move on from the old and embark on new adventures, that's just the way he designed it! And I think that is so cool!

So every time we think it's the end, it's really just the beginning.

50 Things I am Thankful for

1. The precious love of Jesus
2. My fiance
3. A good family
4. A place to sleep
5. My black boots
6. An education
7. A great church family
8. Wonderful parents
9. Three awesome sisters
10. Days without homework
11. My laptop
12. My job
13. Elementary schools
14. McDonalds
15. A safe community
16. Sunglasses
17. Godly Grandparents
18. Scarves
19. My one and only niece
20. My future home
21. Chick fil a
22. Camp Mulberry
23. New Episodes of Duck Dynasty
24. Christmas
25. My cell phone
26. Stores that sell things for $1
27. Food in the refridgerator
28. Music
29. Ink Pens
30. My truck
31. Scholarships
32. Chapstick
33. Books
34. Paper Towels
35. Blankets
36. E-mail
37. Sweater Dresses
38. Online storage
39. The Bible
40. Answered prayers
41. Good in-laws
42. UPS tracking
43. Paperclips
44. Coca Cola!
45. My parents' jobs
46. My cousins
47. The interstate
48. The Ocean
49. Facebook
50. Leggings

What do I do with what God has given me?

Hannah prayed for a child; it was the greatest desire of her heart. After years without bearing children and constant taunting from a woman who could bear her husband sons, Hannah was desperate. The enduring love of her husband was not enough. Her deepest desire could not be quenched by any love other than the love of a child. When Hannah went to the Temple to pray, she prayed so long and so hard for a child that the priest, Eli, thought she was drunk, he even asked her to leave, but Hannah knew though Eli may not understand, though her husband may not understand, God had heard her prayer. Before Hannah would return to the temple the next year, she would bear a son, his name would be Samuel. 

However, there was a catch. Hannah, in her desperate, drunken prayer had promised God that if He would give her a son, she would give the son back to Him, and the next year, when the time came to make her annual trip to the Temple, Hannah took Samuel and left him there. The only thing we ever hear about Hannah after that point is that she got to see her son once a year and brought him new clothes each time.

What was it about having a son that Hannah was so desperate for, if she knew she would not keep him? Hannah's desire was for a child that she would only see once a year! Why? Wouldn't having a son and never seeing him be just as bad as never having a son? How did Hannah feel when God gave her a son and she remembered her promise to give him away? Was she heart broken? Was she mad? Did she think God would hold her to her word? Did she beg God to be able to keep her son? Or did she have peace and willingly take him to the Temple and leave him?

I think Hannah knew something that I, at times, do not want to know. Hannah knew that anything God gives us is for His glory, and His glory alone. We can hold onto it, and let it become something that God never intended for it to be, or we can take what God has given us and give it back to Him and give our gift the opportunity to become exactly what God intended it to be. Something great, like Samuel. Hannah could have kept Samuel at home, but he may have turned out to be a bratty kid and a foul sheep farmer, but she gave him to God and he became a great prophet for God. 

Hannah didn't want a son so that she could feel love. She wanted a son so that she could love him. 

and the best way to love the gift that God had given her was to give him back to God. As a mother, she had done the best possible thing she could have done for her child. I want to take the gifts that God has given me and give them back to him, because keeping them would be selfish and keeping them would ruin them. 

One of my favorite verses in the Bible is this one, "Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart." Psalm 37:4 and so many times we want the desires of our heart and not to delight ourselves in the Lord, or we forget that is part of the deal. I had the revelation though, that when we delight ourselves in the Lord, His desires become our desires. But it is so easy to receive and forget that it's His desire. That He has plans for our desires. 

 

Sharpen the Saw

I promise this isn't a school post, but it's got some school background so stick with me! Schools all over the U.S. have adopted the Leader in Me program, which is based on Sean Covey's book Seven Habits of Happy Kids. Sean's book is based on his dad, Steven Covey's book, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. They are the same habits, but one in adult language and one in kid language. 

Okay, here we go:

These are the seven habits:

1. Be Proactive

2. Begin with the End in Mind

3. Put first things first

4. Think Win-Win

5.Seek first to understand, then to be understood

6. Synergize

7. Sharpen the Saw

I LOVE these habits. I think I usually do pretty good about being proactive, trying to understand others, and most of the rest of them. However, as my class went over the last habit, "Sharpen the Saw," on Monday, I realized I have a problem. Habit 7 is the habit of self-renewal. The students had three questions to answer: 

1. What are some things you like to do to sharpen the saw?

Okay, that's easy. I want to answer these questions here for myself. I like to sing, play piano, write, and paint (or make crafts... whatever). I also like to read and cook. I'm starting to sew, not very good yet. I also like to spend quality time with all my people. Okay. That's enough.

2. What is something new you would like to try?

OH. MY. WORD. This is where I had a problem. This is where I need serious help. I cannot think of a single thing I would like to try. Is that bad? All the kids were saying, "I'd like to try playing golf" or "I'd like to play an instrument." And I couldn't think of a single thing I would like to try. Okay. I hate sports, don't want to try any of those. I have pretty much tried all the food I care to try, I know how to play piano. I've tried to play other instruments... It's probably not going to happen. What else is there? I know there are the big things: Ride in a hot air balloon, Hike to a waterfall, and Skydive (I don't want to skydive), but I'm talking about trying something in my everyday life. I'm coming up with nothing. How am I supposed to sharpen my saw without trying new things?

Oh, here's one. Could getting married count as trying something new? Hahaha I don't think so because it's not really something you try, it's something you do. Period.

Anyways. Someone, help me. 

3. What is something you could do better?

So simple: manage my time better. Obviously. I'm blogging while I should be doing homework.

A Lot to Learn

I have been very blessed in my time as a pre-service teacher to do my field work in what have to be some of the greatest schools ever... or have I? In just two hours on a Thursday morning, I was reminded of what a good school really is. Previously, and now as well in Block II, I have been placed in schools where the students come from well-off families, whose parents work in places like law-firms and doctor's offices (and their not the secretaries... or the janitors). I was impressed when the parents were all at the morning assemblies to take pictures of their kids every day and I was impressed when every student in a kindergarten classroom could read, and some of them were on their first chapter books. I don't want to belittle those kinds of schools at all, but when parental involvement is so strong, it makes things A LOT easier. 

I say all this to say, those schools are tremendous, and the students are brilliant, but they have a lot to learn. Let me explain. I am in two schools this semester, and they are as different from one another as dark is from light. The first school is brand new. I am in a fifth grade classroom and the students use big words that I didn't know until high school. They are amazing. They don't make a peep while the teacher is talking and they say "yes ma'am" and "no sir." My first day blew me away. However, something else that struck me on the first day. This brand new school also has a brand new playground donated by the PTO. It's one of the nicest playgrounds I've ever seen; I know the parents donated thousands of dollars so that their students would have somewhere to have recess when school began, but on the day I was there, the students sat on the sidewalks and played with their iPhones and Nintendo DS instead of the playground. I was almost angry. Mostly because when I was in school, our playground consisted of two seesaws, a few swings, and a basketball court. We played with pine cones and jump ropes. I couldn't help but think that these students, as smart as they are, still have a lot to learn. 

The school I was in on Thursday morning was a completely different story. The students were rambunctious, I didn't see any parents, and in the first grade class I observed, the three kids that were supposed to read to me, couldn't read. In my classroom, there were only four white kids. FOUR! The school was so diverse it was unbelievable. Many of the kids couldn't speak English that well, English is their second language. For the first time in my field experience, I really felt needed. It was so refreshing. I can't help but think that we all have a lot to learn when it comes to determining what makes a great school.

I am NOT a goat farmer

Over the weekend, my family got two goats. According to my dad, that means we are now goat farmers.

On Saturday, my sisters, my mom and I went to visit mine and Joseph's brand new niece (she is perfect). My dad stayed home to work on the electric fence where we keep the goats, so I should have seen this coming. Joseph and I went to an antique store and mama and the girls headed on home. On my way home, I received a quite urgent phone call that I needed to pick up two goat collars and some goat feed... apparently something had been going on at home. While I was out, this is what I missed (as told according to my mom):

My dad went with my two youngest sisters to pick up the goats that we had been preparing for. Apparently, we weren't quite ready for the goats, but you know, we got them anyways. So Christina held a goat and Jessica held a goat (they brought them home in the van). When they got back to the house, daddy put the goats in the electric fence, and they ran right out. Who cares if you get electrocuted?! It's freedom! So there goes my dad, running after the goats, sweat dripping off of his nose. Rebekah runs after the goats, not really intending to catch one. Christina runs after the goats, probably intending to catch one, but not quite sure how. Jessica... runs and screams when she gets near a goat... but she wasn't scared ;) Mama stood on the porch.

When Joseph and I got to the house with the collars, my dad had tied the goats to a tree with a rope. Literally as soon as I got out of the truck one of the goats jumped straight up in the air and passed out. Why? Who knows? It's a dumb goat. We (okay, not me) finally got the goats settled in and went in for the night. We sat around the table with Grandmama and Grandad and talked about their goat stories, we discussed goat names. We acted like goat farmers. All the goat farmers got their showers and all that good stuff, until my dad went to check on the animals only to find they had escaped once again. Jessica ran into the house, "the goats got out!" she said. We all kept talking, then it hit us. We sat in silence. Joseph laughed. Then we all got up like we were going to do something about it. Okay, they did do something about it. Mama and I sat on the porch. It was ridiculous.

When I got in the van to go to church on Sunday I got goat hair all over me. I am not a goat farmer.

Daddy said on Monday that he posted on facebook that I was a goat farmer. I am not a goat farmer.

Here I am, blogging about goats. Maybe I am a goat farmer.