He Loves Us

03.31.10

Music can move us in a way that reaches in and touches the innermost parts of our soul. Music can make us remember, can make us forget, and can make us think. Sometimes I will listen to music because I like the beat or the melody not paying any attention to the lyrics, and sometimes I will listen to the lyrics though it may be the worst composed song ever.

But when I listen to worship music I try to let it be a time of communion with God, allowing Him to speak to me and me desperately trying to tell Him how I feel. When our youth band sang the song "How He loves" for the first time I just listened and took in the beautiful images that came to my mind and tried to embrace God's love. I love love this song and wanted to share with you a piece of what I felt.

How He loves
by: David Crowder

He is jealous for me,
Loves like I hurricane I am a tree,
Bending beneath the weight of his wind and mercy
When all of a sudden,
I am unaware of these afflictions eclipsed by glory,
And I realize just how beautiful You are,
And how great Your affections are for me
And oh, how He loves us so,

Oh how He loves us,
How He loves us all
Yeah, He loves us,
Oh! how He loves us,
Oh! how He loves us,
Oh! how he loves.

We are His portion and He is our prize,
Drawn to redemption by the grace in His eyes,
If grace were an ocean, we're all sinking.
And Heaven meets earth like an unforeseen kiss,
And my heart turns violently inside of my chest,
I don't have time to maintain these regrets,
When I think about, the way...

He loves us!
Happy Wednesday! (ps. all photos were found on the web only one is mine, guess which one )

Competition

03.30.10

I have always been competitive. The type of competitive where I would end up throwing up I wanted to win a race so bad. The type of competitive where I would be one of the first at practice and last to leave. The type of competitive where I took a drawing class in college, for the first time ever, with people who were art majors, who had been drawing for years, and when my first drawing ever, didn't make the top two I spent hours, seriously hours, perfecting my next drawing so it would. The type of competitive that ends up getting a deck of cards thrown at me on my honeymoon. The type of competitive that pulls out my laptop, looks up, and quotes facts when arguing with my brother. It can get ugly (though I feel I have improved on the ugliness rearing its head) and yet competition drives me. It sparks a passion in me to push myself and extend my thinking, abilities, or to-do list.

I read Epiphanie bags was having a contest to win a Canon 5D Mark 11, oh my gosh, I love contests, and I want that camera, I could feel my competitive nature rising up, what do I have to do...rack up some points. I won't say everything I did to earn but lets just say out of a list of 12 things I completed 10 of them, even opening a twitter account to fulfill two of the tasks =). One of the things they asked was to make an Epiphanie card, which they put in their bag pockets and send to customers. Epiphanie cards are picture notecards that have quotes, thoughts, or epiphanies on them so I thought I would share what I came up with.

Another part of the contest was to take a funny photograph to show how much you love Epiphanie. So here it is...

Winning the contest is a long shot but you never know when you may be showered with a little luck and I had fun doing it so thank you Epiphanie!

Kisses

march 25. 2010

I woke up to little hands reaching up over the bed and when I turned over was met with giggles and a kiss and another kiss and another kiss!

It's going to be a good day!

Getting out of Funkytown

march 18. 2010

My alarm went off this morning, I wasn't ready to get out of bed. So, I hit snooze. One minute later I heard Corbyn cry...darn it, I'm not ready to get up buddy, don't you remember screaming for an hour and a half in the middle of the night. I lay there for a few minutes pleading with him, in my mind, from across the house, trying to will him back to sleep. Didn't work. So I got up. Saw his little face and smiled as he wrapped his little arms around my neck. Ok...ok getting out of bed is worth it for this.

However, my day continued on and I was in Funkytown. Everything was frustrating to me, stress felt heightened, I felt discontentment, and I was super annoyed at everything and anything. I felt like Alexander from The Terrible, Horrible, No Good Very Bad Day, I really don't like feeling this way!

I decided to step away from my computer and my desk, that looked like a tornado passed over it, and run some errands for work. I get into my car...its hot in the car, ugh I hate being hot. So I turned on the air. Too cold (those who know me know I am very temperature picky). So I rolled down the windows. Beautiful! Turned up the music, to a volume I don't believe I ever have before (my husband would have been proud). Wonderful! And decided to sing. Loud. Like really loud. I even pulled into the parking lot, where people were walking around, knowing my music was too loud and my singing was way too loud and didn't care. Awesome!

I thanked God for the beautiful sunshine and cool air, being able to feel it on my skin, for just feeling alive. I thanked Him for music. I thanked Him for emotions. And I thanked Him for the many, many blessings in my life!

It is a good day and I will continue to try and make it a good day!


ps. I saw two adults wearing denim overalls today, like the kind from 10 years ago, this was not ok. I hope overalls arn't trying to make a come back.