Last Year

I always evaluate my year from September to September and I think it has something to do with it being school-time again, my birthday and anniversary are then, and fall gets crazy.

This time last year, I was a little nervous about the next year but knew that God would provide in many ways and He did.

1. Last September, Drew and I celebrated 2 years of marriage. I love love love my drewbie and I couldn't have gotten a better husband if I had tried! The Lord knew all our little idiosyncrasies and He made us to compliment each other. My favorite time is usually when we are able to study the Word in the mornings separately, but then at the end we just talk and talk about what we just read. I just found a prayer journal from the year we started dating (2005) and it was so sweet to have that to look back at and remember the sweet joys of dating.

2. Drew was an intern last year and we were sufficiently surviving on our incomes. It's really all about contentment in the end anyways whether you have $1 million or $100. God is continuing to teach me about that every month.

3. I got sick, alot..... and it wasn't fun. God is teaching me patience and dependence on Him as the new allergy season approaches this fall.

4. I really love my 2 jobs. I am so thankful to God that I get to work at a place that encourages me spiritually but I also get to love on and encourage my kiddos.

5. Drew, beginning in January, became full-time at our church! And then, what do you know, our car broke down completely. Again, our money is not ours, it is His. We can make plans to spend or save it this or that way but in the end we are just not really in control.

6. We babysat 3 times last year, each family had 3 kids. I learned a different dependence on my Savior in those times of trying to get people places and realizing trying to get 3 extra bodies out the door is more of a challenge than originally thought. A huge praise to God for allowing me to work through many of my insecurities in this area, so much so, that just last week when we babysat, I was so at peace.

7. Change is good. We are moving this week to another temporary place for a year. Again, God provided in a huge way to allow us a really cute place to stay for this year. Then we will evaluate and see if a house is the best next option for us this time next year.

8. This next one makes me tear up every time I think about it: my school debt was paid for by an incredible person(s). I will never forget that day when Drew called me and said, "You're never going to believe what I have to tell you." I cried and cried and cried. I STILL can't believe that the balance is ZERO. I go online every now and then to stare at the ZERO. Thank you, God, for that person's generous heart and their love for you to do this for us. What a huge and extremely tangible answer to my prayers for the past 5 years.

9. Training for this marathon is a great reminder to me of my walk with Christ. There are some weeks where we do less mileage and I think, "Oh, I don't really need to stretch for this run, I'll be fine. I don't need to do this because I did more last week." But those runs tend to be harder than the really long ones because I haven't surrendered myself to the Lord and the strength He is able to supply. Drew and I are running 18 tomorrow morning and already I'm a little weak in the knees just thinking about it, but I know God will supply the right amount of strength needed. I will still be exhausted at some points and may even need to walk but that is ok and I know His strength is still there with me.

10. I need His Word. I want the gospel to saturate my entire life, my speech, and my thoughts. This year, I feel like His Word has become more refreshing to me, my desire to study His Word is stronger, and I want to live it out. My God is good, He wants me to depend on Him instead of trying to be in control, and He is my Rock. I really can't do anything without Him and that seems to be a common thread that I have seen throughout last year.

This year, I have no idea what the Lord holds for me but I know He will be faithful to make me more like Him.

Wise Words

Here are a few quotes from Christianity for Modern Pagans- Pascal's Pensees edited, outlined, and explained by Peter Kreeft:
(some quotes you will need to read 3 or 4 times to understand it but trust me, you want to understand what they are saying, SO important...)


>In the past , the difficulty in accepting Christianity was its second point, salvation. Everyone in premodern societies knew sin was real, but many doubted salvation. Today it is the exact opposite: everybody is saved, but there is no sin to be saved from.


>Pride can never defeat pride; only humility can defeat pride.


>We are incapable of not desiring truth and happiness and incapable of either certainty or happiness.


>It is instructive to compare Job and Ecclesiastes. For this is the comparison between ancient and modern man. Ecclesiastes, like modern man, has everything, yet has nothing because it is only "vanity." Job, like ancient man, has nothing but has everything because he has God.


>The explanation is obvious: if you don't know the true God, you must sooner or later find some false god to worship. To be human is to worship. The alternative to theism is not atheism but idolatry.


>Man must not be allowed to believe that he is equal either to animals or angels, nor to be unaware of either, but he must know both......modern philosophy has lost its sane anthropology because it has lost its cosmology. Man does not know himself because he does not know his place in the cosmos; he confuses himself with angel or with animal.