Thursday, February 26, 2009

Lesson from a bird

As my last post stated, I recently went and got myself a parakeet from Pets Mart. If I was home enough, lived in an adequate living space, and had the money, I would by all means have myself a little farm. I love animals! So I went a got myself a little yellow bird (my favorite color) to help and indulge myself, yet in a semi-seemingly conservative way. The lady at Pets Mart told me that these birds were fairly young and not tame yet so I would have to tame him/her. So I have been working on trying to earn Woodstock's (his/her name) for almost 2 weeks now. Woodstock is easing up to me but he still hasn't fully decided to trust me yet. I have to wrestle him out of his cage every day just to try and have him sit on my finger. At first it was not a pretty sight as I spent most of the time just chasing him more than anything. But the past few days (as the pictures from the previous post show) he is finally sitting on my finger and shoulder and will stay put, so long as I don't move. Once he's out of the cage, he calms down a bit, but it is still a struggle to get him out. Well a few nights ago I was wrestling him to try and get him out of his cage so he could chill with me for a bit and we were having a particularly difficult struggle. I found myself saying to him, "Listen, Woodstock, why don't you just trust me? Would you really rather just sit in this cage all day? If you would only trust me, I would let you out to enjoy so much more and I would protect you. I just want to love you. Why are you being so difficult?" And then it was if God was sitting right there in the room with me and I heard Him say, so clearly in my Spirit..."Hmmm....that's funny, baby girl. I say the same thing to you. Why don't you just let me take you out of that little cage you have built around your heart and trust me that I only want to love you, protect you, and let you see just a little bit more life than you even imagined existed." I was speechless. I sat there for a moment and at first was motionless, and then I laughed. So true. For the most part, most of us find it fairly easy to accept Christ as our Savior. But to trust Him completely as our Lord, well thats another story. "Don't move us, God. I'm fine just right here." To which He sweetly replies, "But there is so much more ground for you to see and cover, my child." I struggle alongside High school kids daily in my ministry who fight this battle. And yet I am not all that different myself. Sure, I have taken many strides in my walk with Christ. And I will trust Him enough to sit on His finger for a bit every day. But will I let Him open my cage, take me outside, and trust that I can fly all around and yet know I am under His watchful eye? You see, it seems so simple for me when I'm trying to explain this to my bird (no, I don't talk to myself....He talks back in his own way! :)) But when I take a look at my own life, I realize that I still find myself sitting in my cage rather than on my Lord's shoulder from time to time. And all it's doing is confining me. This Lenten season may we be reminded of why He came. He came for you and for me and all b/c He is simply madly in love with us! Know whose you are...you are His...and He is good! Gotta go to a meeting.....

Friday, February 20, 2009

Please meet...

Woodstock...the new addition to this Peanuts family of mine... :) Will blog later...



Thursday, February 12, 2009

To Amanda on her 23rd Birthday!!!


This one's for you, Tim! :) Happy Birthday!!! I know it is not until Sunday but I wanted to write now while I had a chance. I want you to know how blessed I am that I know you. You are a perfect example of why I do YL. To walk the hard road with you and then watch you "get it" has filled my heart with joy! I feel as Jesus did when He said, "I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in truth." Truth. That word is penetrating into your life and I have watched it transform you. You are different. I believe that He is piercing your ears towards His truth and giving you an instructed tongue to know the Word which sustains the weary. As you fall more in love with Him, more love is flowing out of you and into others. You will never be the same. I love sharing Tuesday night prayer times and Bible studies with you. I love that I have a friend with which I can talk about the deep things of God with. I love watching you love other YL kids and catching the vision. I love that you are a light into the dark world of those around you. I love that you pursue Him all on your own (although you do need community!) :) I love that you're becoming less stubborn. :) I love that you are fun. I love that you are scattered...at times I love that. :) I love that I can be sarcastic with you. I love that others are beginning to see the Amanda I knew God had created to be so long ago. I love that even with out make-up you are still beautiful! I love that you are finally beginning to trust me. :) I love you, my sweet friend! I know that this will be a lot for you to take in, but receive it and all it's sappiness. :) And lastly, I will expect to be seeing you this weekend.... :) Now behold and enjoy a rarity for Amanda...cleaning...and in a dress. You truly are different from Jesus! Ha! Classic...I love it! It's your Birthday weekend, girl! Enjoy it princess! (in Austin!) :)

Happy Valentine's Day!





Happy Heart Day friends!!!! I will be heading to pedernales falls in Austin this weekend for Valentine's. Ryan and I wanted to go but in order to keep it pure and fun, we decided to invite our friends as well. :) So a group of us are leaving on friday and returning on Sunday for a weekend of fun-filled camping. I'm excited and hope that we are all delighted by the beauty and joy of Jesus! I am not one to over do Valentine's Day. In the past it has been highly over-rated to me, rather I had a man to share it with or not. But this year I am viewing it a bit different. As happy as I am to share this with Ryan, the best part to me is that the more I grow in my faith, the more I realize the simplicity of the Gospel message, which is, "to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself. All of the other laws depend on this." Why can't we just do that? I believe if we did that everything else would just simply fall right into place. But we look to so many other things to fill us with love. And at the end of the day, we find ourselves still empty and wondering who exactly will meet our needs. So it's a never ending cycle of defeat. My prayer for you is that this year you will fall in love with Jesus, realizing that you only love Him b/c He first loved you. Realize that He is our portion and we are His. And then may your cup that is full of His love simply overflow into the lives of those you come in contact with. A never failing love. That is real love. God is love! All other love is just plan selfish. He is more than enough! So from my babies to you, Happy Valentine's Day! Enjoy it with Jesus! And spread the wealth with the poor in spirit around you. And I will too....

Tuesday, February 3, 2009

Pups Update

Yesterday I took Linus to get neutered and Lucy to get spayed (both fixed) and some complications arose. Needless to say I am at home nursing two very sick dogs back to health. Linus is thankfully on the mend, but Lucy is not doing as great. She had some complications. So I decided to post some pics just to show how drastic they are doing. The first 3 pics are of Linus before the surgery (he is a ham!) :) The fourth pic down is of Lucy trying to get on mama's lap before the surgery. The rest are of after the surgery, You can see how bad little Lucy is. She looks stoned. It is so sad. But the last 3 pics are of today and they are doing a bit better. Praise Jesus! Yes, my dogs and YL kids are my children for now. :) Enjoy the exploitation....and feel free to pray for poor little Lucy!