Thinking of you...

Tonight as I get ready to go to bed, I put up pictures of my friends that I miss dearly. I miss talking to you girls and want to sit down somewhere and talk. I love you and miss you so!! I don't have pictures of everyone, but all of you who are on the other side of the world, even though I am truly enjoying spending my holidays here with friends and family... I miss my family there!!!

32

as i snuggle into bed in my footie pjs, i can't help but think how tomorrow would have been P's 32nd birthday. tonight as JM and i talked, i was reminded of P's first birthday we celebrated together. it was his 26th. i got him two remote control cars. i'm a pretty competitive person, so i thought it would be fun for us to have so we could race each other after we got married (which was going to be two months later). that night was really funny because i challenged him to a race as soon as he opened it, but as we lined up the cars, we realized there were no batteries. so sad...

it's crazy how time just keeps going and somehow subconsciously my brain must have known the day was coming up even though i wasn't consciously thinking about it. so today... i was a little down and just felt like wandering around. i had to go and pick up my wallet that i had left at Target by accident then A and i just went around... we went shopping, went out to eat, went to the library, went to drop something off a friend's house, went grocery shopping... somewhere in all that, i did realize that my feelings were due to P's birthday and just feeling sad about it... called AH to talk.

i told A that we were going to make a cake for daddy's birthday and the first thing she said was, "so we could eat it." ha ha... yes and remember daddy. but yeah... i'm not sure if we'll make it out to memory park, but we'll definitely have cake... maybe we'll go out to eat lunch or dinner or both... i've got lots of stuff to do, but who knows if i'll just not care about all that and just want to bum...

P, not sure if you get to celebrate birthdays in heaven, but if you do, hope you have a good one. it'll be your third one up there, so not sure if you're 3 or 32... :) i love you and miss you tons. we're doing real good and know that you would be super proud of your girls... A and i both are so excited to see you. A is lately into saying how much more she loves you than me, so i bet that puts a smile on your face. have fun...

hate

i was reading from John 15 this morning. the first 17 verses are actually like my life verses now... just learning how to abide in Christ. in the latter verse of 5 it says, "apart from me you can do nothing." then He gives us a promise in verses 7 and 8. i really enjoy reading from God's word and learning what it means to be in Christ.

the remaining verses in that chapter and the first 4 of the next talk about what it is going to be like when we take this abiding thing seriously... we are going to be hated. sounds nice doesn't it. Jesus says because the world hated me, when you start acting like me, they are going to hate you too. doesn't sound so appealing huh?

i think of how much people hate followers of Christ... pro-abortionists, people who are against Christmas because it's religious, people who support homosexuals... it's kind of crazy... you learn all your life to stand up for what you believe in... and then you do... and people hate you. but all along Jesus knew this was going to happen and He warns us... if you read John 16:3 it says that they will do such things because they do not know Him. Hmmm... then what is our job... to tell them of Christ right?

i wish i could say that will solve the problem. the fact is the more we tell them of Christ, the more they are likely to hate us. interesting huh?

are we being hated? not that we should go around starting things to be hated, but i wonder... if we aren't being hated, are we doing our job? are we telling the message correctly?

Health

go green has been going on for a while. it actually is getting around the world... this time coming back here it's not just go green, but organic and hormones and shakes and all these health stuff. i think it's great actually... God gave us this earth, yes we should take care of it... God gave us this body, yes we should take care of it... but as i look at different people fussing over all this... i wonder... what if we started caring about our spiritual health just as much as we are caring about our physical health. people read book after book about what foods to eat, what exercise is good... but i wonder how much time are we spending in the word. people sit down and talk over and over about the benefits of this food and that food... yes this is important, but what about talking about our spiritual health?

i wish i cared about my spiritual health when i was younger. yes the Lord did end up taking a hold of my life in the end and i am so in love with Him, but i know it could have been done earlier the way He was calling out for me.

our physical health comes with our spiritual health. i was just praying today about how i want to be a healthy person, physically. i love God and the more and more i realize that i am a temple of God... i want to take care of this temple... and i think that's where our physical health really comes... when we realize what it is and love it the way the Lord does.

just a thought for today...