Do I look like Ace Ventura???

So ever since Sean and I have been living here in Gulfport we have kind of become the unofficial animal haven. First of all we have never had less than two dogs, at times there have been as many as 6 dogs and two cats in the house. Yes, crazy, I know...but its a gift or a curse depending on the day. Anyway, not only do we bring animals into our home by our own choosing, they seem to flock here on their own. There was one time when we came home from being out for the day and let the dogs out of the back yard, well after a few minutes we realized something didn't seem right. There was an extra creature running around. It was a small chocolate lab that had dug under our fence to come hang out. Yeah, its sad that it took us a little while to realize we had an extra, but oh well. Well, this past friday we had just arrived home from our trek to Tn (mind you, it was about 9:30 pm) and Sean saves a little Boston Terrier from being run over in front of our house. Of course the dog has no tags and no owner in sight. So we canvas the neighborhood for about an hour and finally give up. We had the dog for the majority of the next day until his owner finally saw our sign. The next incident took place today during the hours of 9:00 am to 3:30 pm. All morning long I kept hearing this weird noise down stairs and I thought it was the dogs getting into something. Well, I eventually go downstairs and I am doing something when all of a sudden I hear something clawing around frantically in the flu of the chimney. So I am kinda creeped out by it...just a little. But I can't just let it stay in there and die, I don't want it to suffer, so I finally work up the nerve to open the flew. So I get a basket to place under the hole and a towel to throw on top of my catch. When I get the flew open soot comes out, and then shoots out this little bird, who jets to the window. Well, at this point my dogs are spastic and I am screaming cause a freaky bird thing just flew in front of my face. So I grabbed the towel and caught the bird. I cleaned it up some with a wet paper towel and put him in the basket to rest. At dusk I set him in the basket outside in front of the chimney. His parents knew he was there and they kept circling. But what intrigues me the most is that God guides animals in need to people who will help them. Isn't He a cool God? Very.

To be or not to be...busy

As I sit and process the last few weeks there is a theme that keeps popping up. Busyness. Since my husband returned from the war we have been going 90 to nothing. We have been apart of major productions at the church, lead the youth group, attended our own small group, played in softball games, learned some killer moves in dance class, made a whirlwind trip to Tn, loaded and unloaded tons of furniture, and re-arranged the house, among a myriad of other things. We are tired...very tired. But we are happy. But here's the thing. As I was sitting in church this past sunday God was pressing upon my heart (through the songs we sang and verses we read) that busyness is not the answer. I know most of you already know that, but how many of us actually practice it. How many of us are still and know that He is God. How many of us practice stillness? Women, how many of us strive to the the proverbs 31 woman? She seems pretty stressed out to me. Although I am far from it, I have a desire to learn how to be still before the Creator, my Father and sustainer. In one of my classes in college, my professor gave us the assignment of going someplace quiet and just sitting before the Lord. No talking, no singing, no reading, just being with God. Its amazing what you will hear if you just listen. I desire to be known as a peaceful person. Not someone who is constantly scurrying around like an ant without purpose. I want to be able to sit back and enjoy some Rocky Road with Jesus (if you haven't done Tommy Nelson's "A life well lived" I highly recommend it). Not that working for the Lord isn't awesome, I mean, I work for the church and I love it. But what I am saying is that so often I find myself going this way and that and really God is just saying "STOP, I want to spend time with you. I want to hang out and hear about your day." So this is what I am going to resolve to do this week. I want to do only what God wants me to do. Not what I think I should be doing for him, but only that in which He leads. I believe that not only will I get to slow down and enjoy life more, but I will be more productive because I won't have so many irons in the fire. It's gonna be great!

not only needs

Everyone goes through Storms. Everyone...but everyone's storms are different. Some storms are worse than others, some storms blow over more quickly. But for the time that we are experiencing those storms we feel utterly out of control. Sometimes, we get angry, frustrated, depressed, and most of the time we wonder "why?" A lot of times we feel like God is causing us pain. Actually He doesn't cause the pain, but He greatly desires to use it. He wants to use it to get our attention and pull us back to Him. Recently I have been going through a storm. The past week has just been rough. So I was very frustrated and I was letting God know how frustrated I really was. I wanted Him to fix the situation and do my will. Anyway, so I was feeling sorry for myself and I was out running errands, so I decided to stop for lunch. I pulled into Chick-fil-a and placed my order for a chicken sandwich combo. I start around the corner and see a sign for their milk shakes. I LOVE milkshakes. And I think to myself, man, I have been craving one for weeks...I should have ordered one. So I get to the window and pay and the guy hands me my food and then proceeds to say "oh, we made an extra milkshake and its for you." I was floored. I pulled out of chick-fil-a in tears. God spoke to my heart in a time when I was in a small storm and said, "my darling, I want to care for not just your needs, but also your wants. I hear you my child and I love you. I know you, I know everything about you, from your favorite things to what hurts you the most. I am here even when you don't see how things are going to turn out. Trust me, my beautiful princess." Now some of you may be thinking, "you got all of that from a milk shake?" And the answer is sort of. See the thing is that I know my God. I know he loves me, even when I don't feel like He does. He wants to use my storm to pull me closer to Him. So the question we should ask is not "why is this happening" but "what". What is God going to do to redeem the situation. How is He going to make it beautiful. You see, thats what God is in the business of. He redeems things. Now that doesn't mean that we won't grieve, or hurt, but it will help us not to give the situation control. It will help you to remember that God is in control and that "I know that plans I have for you. Plans to prosper and not to harm you. Plans to give you a hope and future."

Dear Anonymous

A couple of days ago I made a post about my church's current sermon series. After that post I got an anonymous comment that only include and address to another blogger's site. The post that it led me to was from a man who says he is a Christian. The post was on, and I may be wrong, how sometimes Christianity or actually humans interpretation of the Bible can lead to spousal abuse. Now, don't get me wrong, I know that lots of people have taken the Bible and used it to support their own evil actions, but that was not what I was talking about. I was merely commenting on our culture and how it is going to take MEN standing up for their sister's in Christ and protecting them from the evils of the world. When I said that Adam's first sin was passivity I was not saying he should have been controlling Eve's every move, but that He didn't stand up and protect her from the enemy. Which is sadly still occurring today. But really, both people should be submissive to Christ first and all things will flow from that.

Ok, seriously??

I am currently watching nightline which is covering a story of people who are getting cryogenicly frozen. Really?? Are they kidding? Is this an April Fool's joke?? Do people really think that this can happen? Basically what happens is that the people die and then their blood is replaced with this stuff that protects the tissue and then they are placed head first into liquid nitrogen. Then they are loaded up 4 to a cylinder and stored until who knows when. Don't people realize that when you die, you are dead? This whole god-complex really vexes me. This is simply the largest, most expensive, pointless scam of all time. These people are all like the emperor and his new clothes.

Crosspoint's Bringing Sexy back

Yes, you heard me right. Crosspoint church is bringing sexy back...well not really, but we are currently in the middle of a series entitled Sexual Revolution. "Do ya want a revolution, whoop whoop??" I know I do. I am SOO tied of our over sexualized culture. Its everywhere you look. Its even peddled to our kids (i.e. Bratz, Barbie, any of the disney princesses). So many times I am shocked when driving down the road, there are even billboards for Air Conditioning companies that have a sexed up woman rubbing ice on herself. GROSS. But really, its not me that I am so concerned about, but for the youth that I work with and even the grown men that I know, including my husband. How are they supposed to keep their mind clean and focused on the Father when every two seconds they are bombarded with boobs in their face. No wonder they say that the average male thinks about sex every 10 seconds...they can't help it, its everywhere. But you know what is really upsetting, I can talk about this till I am blue in the face, but a woman is NOT going to be able to solve this problem. We can shout womens lib, and how we are humans not a piece of meat all we want...to society we are just white noise. This sex epidemic will not be put to rest until the men in our culture decide to get up and take a stand for purity and holiness. Thats where it starts. We women are only looking for approval and we get it anyway we can. Now, I am not trying to take the blame off women, cause lets just face it ladies, we can be pretty sinful ourselves, but what I am saying is that our first sin was not being sexy...thats inherently how God made us and He made men to be attracted to us...we can't help that. Our first sin was taking control, and man's was being passive. So men, stop being passive and stand up for your sisters, cause really thats what we are, your sisters. Start thinking of women like that and it will really change your mindset. That is unless you are into that sorta thing, and then you are just sick.

Also, you can get Crosspoint's message audio here: http://www.mycrosspoint.org/default.aspx?pid=38

Just some of my crew

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