What do we do without a leader???

Today I work, I only had 2 kids left by 4 and so we went to the duck pond. We spent about 45 min watching the mother duck and her ducklings and anxiously waiting to see the school of fish that lives in the pond. About 30 min into it, the mother jumped out of the pond and walked in the grass. The moment she jumped out, the 8 ducklings chirped constantly for their mom. They even tried to jump out with her. They followed her around as she walked on the outside, but they were completely lost with out their leader Even though she was out of the pond, every time she quacked, the ducklings knew just where she was. It reminded me of one of Jesus' parables:


"3 The watchman opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. 4 When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice. 5 But they will never follow a stranger; in fact, they will run away from him because they do not recognize a stranger’s voice.”
John 10:3-5

Go here and read the rest of the story. My question--can you recognize your Father's voice? Have you ever been lost and then you hear His voice? Any cool stories you have hearing Him?

Be Still My Soul

I'm reading this book called Be Still My Soul, by Elisabeth Elliot, and I wanted to share a part about prayer...

"I realized that the Bible itself is full of written prayers, including the one Jesus taught His disciples when they asked for a model of prayer. "Our Father who art in heaven...(Matthew 6:9-13) The older I get, the more I use that prayer and the more I realize that virtually everything that really matters is contained in that one prayer. I am not praying to get an answer to every question or a solution to every problem, but rather to put my whole live and all the lives of those whom I love in the light of heaven."


How has your prayer life changed as you've grown older? What are your favorites ways to pray? Do you have any prayers you pray every day?

Memories

So I don't have anything really great to say, but I want to hear stories....so what are some of your favorite stories of me??? I'll post back what my favorite stories of you are :)

OKC---

This was my first weekend at OKC!! I'm exhausted (Sundays are so much longer...) but I had so much fun! I got to be in rooms that I haven't been in before and every time, God sent me someone I knew, or at least someone who was personable (you'd have thought we'd known each other for years...). It was different not knowing anyone and starting from scratch. I had no credentials. Left and right people asked and told me what to do, and I just bit my tongue and learned. Thanks for all your prayers. It's gonna be great, just pray I make new friends easily. :)


***Side note...only 3 more weeks until graduation! I can't wait! I'm headed to Edmond now for Konnect!

Lesson 1....

Get all your strength from God...He'll supply all you'll ever need.

Here's something that amazed me about my experience in Chihuahua: 1) I didn't eat half as much as I usually (I can only remember being hungry once...on the way home--Domino's night) 2) I slept very little, I mean like 3-4 hours a night (not once did I feel worn out from exhaustion) 3) I did some major work out and managed to always make it up the mountain (in my own time...another lesson, so stay tuned).

The whole week I pulled so much strength from my Jesus. When I painted all day without rest, He guided my brush. When I spoke after having no sleep, He guided my words. When I ate enough food to be polite, but not enough to fill my tummy, He gave me the Bread of Life. When I felt I couldn't walk any longer DOWN the mountain, He sent me a friend to walk with. When I needed a day of silence, He spent the whole day at my side, just listening, but never speaking. When I doubted I could make it UP the mountain, He sent me a helping hand. When the journey seemed like forever, He sent me a guide. When the blister grew on my foot, He gave me a friend who let me borrow their socks. When I knew I couldn't walk anymore on my knee, He brought someone to carry me. When I was in pain, He sent a friend I could lean on. When I needed some encouragement, He sent me a beautiful sunset. When I felt lonely, He blessed me with a sunrise. When I needed some real food, He blessed me with potatoes and ketchup. When I needed affirmation I was doing a good job, He spoke through everyone around me.

Get all your strength from Him, He's all you'll ever need.

Nothing left...

"Here’s a story that started on Christmas
When a baby was born in the night
And those who came far, who followed the star
Were seeing a heavenly sight ...
a heavenly sight.

Well the years hurried by, and the boy, now a man
Could make the blind see with a touch of his hand
He was born to be King -- he was Rabbi and Priest
But the best that he had, he gave to the least ...
He gave to the least.

He was born and he died, almost 2,000 years ago
He laughed and he cried, he felt all the fears we know
But what does it matter? A story so strange ...
Even if it is true, what does it change?
What does it change?

Well he spoke like a prophet -- like no one they’d heard
This simple young carpenter -- crowds hung on every word
He hated injustice -- He taught what is right
He said “I’m the way, and the truth, and the light.”

His friends soon believed that truly he was the one.
The Savior, Messiah, God’s one and only son.
But others, they doubted, they did not agree
So they took him, they tried him,
He died on a tree ...
He died on a tree.

God has made a way
for all who mourn and grieve
Death will never be the end
if you just believe.

There is nothing left to fear
nothing Heaven knows
For he died for us to give us life
and to give us hope He rose
He died for us to give us life
And to give us hope He rose."


This is from "An Easter Carol" produced by VeggieTales. We were watching it today at work and I had kinda tuned out the lyrics--after all I had already seen it so many times--but I just happened to tune in to

"There's nothing left to fear, nothing Heaven knows.
He died for us to give us life and to give us hope He rose."

As most of you know, I've really been battling some fears. For the first time in my life I can say I'm genuinely scared of change. But as I'm facing this huge change (graduating high school, friends going to college, going to a different campus...and the list goes on) I have to remember Jesus suffered the worst just for ME! No matter how many times I'm hurt, no matter how many times doors keep closing, no matter how many times people leave, I always have hope...my Jesus never leaves me, He never hurts me, and He will always open the RIGHT doors at the RIGHT time. (Go check out the video by clicking on "An Easter Carol" at the top...)

Journey back home!!!!

We woke up bright and early at 3:30 (well, not really bright, it was still dark...), loaded up the van, and fell asleep again. :) I slept for another 4 hours, until the sun came up, another beautiful sunrise!! Everyone woke up slowly and we crossed the border around 8:15. We were stopped by the military again, this time, however this time they made us all get out. Thankfully we were all awake when we crossed the border. :) When we were crossing the Rio Grande, we sang the National Anthem, and Mel recorded it. She still had her camera out when we got to the border patrol, and they "confiscated her camera and made us all get out of the van while they searched it. A van, with an x-ray inside of it, which was kinda cool to watch. After some rigorous searching, we were on the road again. We drove for another 3 hours without stopping, and Lori decided she couldn't wait any longer and we pulled over and she took her orange trowel and went on the side of the road!!! In TEXAS!!! We were in such a hurry to get home, we stopped at a gas station for lunch, grab our food real fast and jumped back in the van to continue our voyage home. We were all just giggling and laughing at all our funny moments and next thing you know, our conversation turns completely serious and we all opened up and had some incredible discussion about the trip and the things we learned, about our favorite parts and our least favorite parts. It's amazing what God can do in an instant. We started to get a little hungry, and almost simultaneously, we (the students) had this brilliant idea to buy the leaders dinner. We wanted everyone to be able to sit down and talk (we hadn't sat together as a group the whole week). After much debate, we stopped at an Arby's and somehow got our food correctly (there was some poor management...) and were able to just sit and talk. Lance opened up to us about how he felt the trip went and we told him exactly what we thought...WE LOVED IT!!!! About 30 min later we hopped in the van again, and headed home. Sarcastically I said, let's say our favorite thing about each other, well, Lori took it seriously and so for the rest of the drive home, we simply encouraged each other. Talk about cool. This pretty much blew Paco's mind...here we are, a bunch of teenagers and we're sitting in a van talking about Christ and each other so positively. He didn't stop going on about it! We made Chris (the leader) cry because of how much of a leader we all were at age 16, 17, 18. Mel couldn't stop complimenting us either! It was so cool, probably one of the coolest "drive-backs" I've ever had. I will never forget some of the things people said about me (it's crazy how you see yourself one way, and everyone else sees you differently). You were all such an encouragement to me, I hope I spoke half as much life into you as you did to me. Well, that's about it--we got home at midnight Sat (the next morning was Easter). I went with some people to IHOP (as always) and we sat and talked for some time. I think I finally made it home around 1, and took a much needed shower (I think it was 4 days...), and fell asleep around 2am and woke up bright and early at 7 for Easter Sunday!!

Thanks for sticking through this all and reading it! It's amazing all God did in me. I'll be posting what I learned from people and from My Jesus in the next few weeks!

Day 6

The next morning, I woke up to the sun and hurried down to the lake to watch the sunrise. It was quite cold, but totally worth it. The lake was covered in fog, and as the sun inched up over the mountains, the fog followed it and there were even some small "tornadoes." The sun came up and brightened the water quite a bit. I hurried back to camp and Lance prepared coffee cake for breakfast. It was AMAZING!! We finally got moving around, packed up again and started to head out. Before we left one of our leaders Chris did something that I thought was pretty cool. He took each of us students and told us something he had noticed about each of us that had inspired or encouraged him. I bet you'll never guess what mine was...that's right, my smile, along with perseverance. He said he could always count on seeing my smile and that my smile gave everyone the energy to keep moving. (I thought it was pretty cool anyway). We loaded up and start the drive to the hot springs. I think the drive was only about 30 min, but the rest of the way to the hot springs was grueling. As we pulled into the park, the guy who took our money told us it was only a 3 kilometer walk, however, it turned out to be about a 7.5 kilometer hike into the canyon (keep in mind, we were in our shorts, a swimsuit, flip flops, and a t-shirt). Then when we got to the hot springs, they were PACKED and were just little pools, not really hot springs, but we swam anyway. Everyone else there was more or less drunk or were at least on their way to getting drunk. But we stayed and swam for a little while, but lunch time came, and we were ready to hike back up. It took me and Mel an hour to hike back up (I had a growing blister, and my knee was throbbing, as was Mel's, so we took it slow). We got to a stopping place where everyone was waiting on us and I drank 2 full bottles of water. The leader Chris ran to the top and drove the van down to get us. We drove to Divisadero (the touristy spot of the cannon) and shopped and looked at a great deal of the canyon. After about 2 hours, we loaded the van and headed back to the orphanage to sleep for the night before we headed back to America. This was a 6 hour drive and by the time we got back to Chihuahua we were starving, so we pulled in some money and ordered 6 boxes of Domino's pizza!!! For 8 of us to eat!! And all but one box was eaten. We stayed up a lot of the night talking and laughing and made it to bed around 2:30 only to be woken up at 5 to start our journey home.

We've got one more, the journey home...look for it on Thursday!!

Day 5

We started to drive to Creol, which is a four hour drive. We went on the side-of-the-mountain road again, but I was laying down, so I didn't stress so much. :) A lot of us slept on the way to Creol since we had gotten little sleep the night before. The map we were using to get to Creol was 30 years old, so where we were going was a little sketchy. We had to stop and ask for directions and after about 30 min of driving around Creol, we found our destination. It was a lake (I'm not sure of the name of it). The first entrance we went in was full of people. Apparently the Mexican fair was going on, so after we couldn't find anywhere to camp, we left and went further down the lake. About 20 min later, we found a nice quiet spot where no one was and set up camp. Hannah, Lori, and I went to the lake and Caroline eventually came too. The four of us sat around and talked (we hadn't spent a whole lot of time together) for about an hour while admiring the lake and birds. Eventually we had to go back to the campsite for dinner. Lance and Mel made us meatloaf, green beans, and potatoes. It was DELICIOUS and I'm not much of a meatloaf fan. For desert we had peach cobbler, which was also DELICIOUS, at least the part I ate. After dinner, Caroline, Hannah, Lori, Chris, and I went back to the lake to watch the sunset. It lit up the lake in beautiful shades of red and orange. It was almost as pretty as an Oklahoma sunset in the summer. :) We came back up and had some hot chocolate and some "'shrooms" (or marshmellows as most of us call them), and told funny stories. We discussed some leadership stuff from Habitudes and after the fire died, we went to bed.

I'm almost finished, we've got one more day, plus the journey home. Thanks for reading. I know this is taking a long time.

The Stand

If you didn't read about Day 4 of Mexico, don't forget to read it. I had to blog twice, this just couldn't wait. I ran across this song today and it just stuck with me, so I thought I'd share it, along with a little bit of my heart.

"I'll stand, arms high and heart abandoned
In awe of the One who gave it all.
I'll stand my soul Lord to You surrendered
All I am is Yours."
---The Stand by Michael W. Smith

How many times do we forget that we must be surrendered to His call 100% in order to find fulfillment? I know I forget a lot. From the time I was 13 I knew God was calling me to ministry through LifeChurch. I've been waiting for a job for what seems like forever and just when it opened, my mentor suggested I continue growing and start serving at another campus. Let me just tell you all, I've NEVER attended another church and even when I go to another campus it's with all my friends and family. But after this suggestion from my mentor I was reminded all we can ever do is surrender our lives to His plan. We never know what He might be calling us to next. I believe whole-heartedly I am called to ministry, but like I always say, just wait for the right timing, because there's not timing like His timing. All we can ever be is His and just let Him have control. All this to say, I'm leaving my home campus of Edmond to venture out and start serving at OKC. I'm excited, but nervous. But I'm choosing to believe God has an even greater plan for me, and I'm excited to see it! So don't forget: we are surrendered to His call and it is the best!!!

Day 4

Our morning began bright and early with every intention of leaving Basaseachi Falls that day. However two people were sick and we ended up starting later than planned (they estimated it would take 4 hours to hike out...that's how big the canyon was...). So we decided as a group to stay a day and rest in the falls. Lance and Chris hiked to the top to get food for the day and breakfast for the next morning (thanks so much guys!!!!). We spend the day "rock hopping." Here are some pictures of the canyon that day. (and yes by "rock hopping" I mean we literally would jump from one rock to another). We ran from one side to the other and found this rock that stuck out and sat there for about 30 minutes just talking. I think with in about 2 hours we had hiked the same amount of feet running around as we would have hiking up the mountain. We found a few caves in the midst of all the rocks. And most of what we did this day was play and run. We all met up for lunch and wen to the pool at the bottom of the falls and had cheese and crackers. The water was freezing cold, so most of us didn't want to go swimming (two days earlier, snow was on the ground). After this I spent most of my day hanging out with the God who created all this and just couldn't stop praising and thanking Him for creating beautiful places so I can admire His creativity. Laurel and I took two naps on the rocks and found this little waterfall with it's own pool. Going down to it was pretty difficult, and getting back up was even more difficult, but we made it finally!! Everyone made it back to camp and Beth, Laurel, Paco and I went to filter water for dinner. And when we got back, we had yummy chili for dinner!! And we got to make s'mores!!! Talk about a great evening. We sat around and discussed more leadership issues and just spent some time talking about the day. I think we finally made it to bed at a normal time and Chris told us it wasn't supposed to be as cold that night as the night before.........but even the best can be wrong! The wind chill was in the single digits that night I believe. Around 2am the fly (or cover on the top of the tent that keeps bugs and wind out of the tent) was disconnected from its straps (that's how hard the wind was blowing) and blew off. So we had below freezing wind blowing through our tent, needless to say, I didn't sleep. When Lance woke up at 4 he saw our fly was off and came to fix it. So I got an hour of sleep. We all woke up at 5 and ate, packed and headed up the mountain at 7:30. We made it to the top around 11. It only took us 2.5 hours!! We unpacked our backpacks and cleaned up. Then we went to this homecooking place and had some DELICIOUS Mexican food and shopped around and at 1 we headed out for Creol. I'll finish that day tomorrow!! Here's one last picture of the Canyon...

Day 3

Again, I woke up with the sun at 6:22 and took a quick shower (there was finally water pressure, but no hot water...) and packed my bag. We left the orphanage around 9 or so to travel to the BEAUTIFUL Basaseachi Falls. It was a 4 hour drive and so most of us fell asleep for a little while, if not for all of it. The waterfall was (of course) in the mountains, so to get there we went on one of those "side of the mountain" curvy roads. Now, if you had any idea how nervous I am when other people drive me around, especially if you're within inches of sliding off the mountain, you can only imagine how tense I was. I tried not to watch, but then my "friend" kept telling me how close we were to the edge or how close we would be to another car, so I had to watch, because I don't trust this "friend." I finally got to a spot where I was comfortable in the seat (I needed to get some sleep) and right about the time I would have fallen asleep, this "friend" pretends to push me off the seat, but caught my hand at the last second. I was a little mad...but he decided to be kind for about an hour and I was almost asleep, yet again, and we hit ANOTHER bump in the road, and my eye hit my "friend's" shoulder (I'm really surprised I didn't get a black eye!!!) We finally made it safely to Basaseachi and we ran to quickly to see the waterfall.
We found some spots where we could camp in the basin, so we hustled back to the van to pack our backpacks to begin the hike to the basin. (Keep in mind, this is the 11th largest fall in the world...).

The hike down took about 45 minutes. I was exhausted by the end, but the journey gave me the chance to get to know Mel and grow my friendship with Laurel. We found a spot to set up 3 tents, but we needed 3 more spots. So Chris and Paco gave up their spot for Hannah and I. They slept right below us and the other adults found spots.

We then had about and hour of daylight left (or 30 min of daylight and 30 min of twilight) to collect firewood and get everything ready for the night. I went with Lance, Christopher, and Mel to purify water, which was an experience in itself. We got together that night and had some leadership discussion. Then right as it ended the moon rose and lit up the canyon. BEAUTIFUL!!! As the sun went down, the basin cooled to about 40 with wind chill around 35. COLD!!!!! We ended our "fellowshipping" and got some much needed shut eye.

Thanks for reading I know they're long, but our days were packed full!!!

Day 2

Day 2...this post shouldn't be as long, at least I don't plan on it being!

I woke up with the sunrise every morning at precisely 6:22 am (8:22 our time, so about normal for me). I got up, and started a book called Be Still My Soul. It's crazy how God places things in our life and just the right time. The chapter was about God giving you only what you can handle and to lean on Him for the rest; how we are created to be servants and obedient, even when we might not want to follow the leadership. PERFECT!! The sun came over the mountain right as I finished the chapter...again PERFECT!! I love watching sunrises almost as much as I love rain showers. :) By then it was about 7:30 and everyone had pretty much woken up. We had yummy pancakes for breakfast, and hit the rest of the painting hard (and when I mean hard, I mean we painted from 9:30 until 1:30...and finished EVERYTHING). I was put on the Mac-n-Cheese wall again since I was still covered in paint from the day before. Caroline joins me and decides to do the detailed work on the edges, so I grabbed the roller, and painted the Mac-n-Cheese walls AGAIN. We finished right about lunch time (cleaning up oil-based paint...not so much fun). Lance and Paco brought back so AMAZING mangoes, cantaloupe, and other fruit we loved. I ate a whole plate of cantaloupes BY MYSELF!!!! We all shoved down lunch, part from hunger and part from rush. After lunch we only had one wall left so most people took showers so we could leave as soon as the rest of us finished the wall. We primed an outside wall, took a break, and went after the Mac-n-Cheese orange. I had a little bit more painting to do on my walls that needed a ladder, so I left the Mac-n-Cheese for others and attacked my walls. :) Eventually everyone had showered, except for Chris and I (we couldn't stop painting...we attended high school together...). Once we finally finished, we decided to give in and shower, only to find Chihuahua turns off their water (for the ENTIRE city around 1...) so we didn't get to shower. Covered in paint, we changed clothes and put on our best attitude and piled in the van to do some sightseeing/shopping (with the 5 boys...thanks Chris for watching them). We saw a beautiful church and the governor's office building. We shopped in lotsa stores (I mainly stuck with the shoes) and I almost broke down and bought a pair of baby blue cowboy boots. Had my suitcase not been so packed I would have taken them in an instant. We headed back to the orphanage at 5:30, but at Lori's request took a detour to a mountain top so we could see the whole city!! Talk about beautiful. I didn't get any pics, but as soon as I get some, I'll post them. The wind was blowing so hard, we couldn't stay for very long. We ventured back to the orphanage for some dinner and prepared for the carnival! I think we (the ladies and Deutsch) were more excited. We had coloring, face painting, bracelet making, tattooing, and so much more. We all got rope bracelets that we can't take off without cutting. I had a blast! That ended around 11 when the boys all went to bed. But we (Chris, Lori, Caroline, Hannah, Laurel, and me) stayed up until about 2:30 LAUGHING!!! Tune in tomorrow for our hike down into Basaseachi Falls!!

I'm Back!!!

I made it home around 11 Saturday night from Mexico. I thought I'd go through each day and our journey as we grew in our service and leadership. Thanks for all your prayers, we could feel them. I'll try to add in some pics, but I don't have very many. Well here it goes...

Day One (including the journey to Chihuahua)--
We left Edmond around 2:30 on Saturday afternoon, loaded up a 13 passenger van and drove to the OKC Police Department to pick up, yes that's right...Paco, Paco, Paco Balderrama. Next we traveled to Moore High School to pick up Beth and Laurel up from a debate tournament. We FINALLY hit the road for Mexico around 4pm. Like always, the time you spend with each other in the van are the most memorable. :) We laughed and got to know each other and around 7:30 we started asking for dinner. At around 10:45 we made it to a Sonic and stopped to eat dinner. Twelve of us ordered from one machine. Talk about hectic, but somehow they brought out all our food correct, dare I say it, the FIRST TIME!!! Paco, Paco, Paco was worried about us running late, so we grabbed our food and ate on the road. Around midnight we had, for the most part, wound down and all, expect 4 attempted to sleep. That, however, wasn't successful, at least for me. If you've never experienced me tired, let's just say the angry side of Mandy comes out. :) (sorry Chris)...anyway, just as they started to get tired, we reached the border at 2am (Chihuahua time, it was 4am OKC time). I'm sure we were a sight to see, but thankfully the border patrol who helped us was kind enough to fill out the visas for those who couldn't see straight (Laurel...). We passed smoothly and piled in the van to finish the last 4 hours of our journey. After about 30 minutes of driving, we were stopped at a military check point...talk about scary. Two men search our van (thankfully all the other students aside from Chris and me were asleep) and waved us on. We can begin our journey again. :) I finally found a comfortable spot on the floor leaning against the wheel cover. I slept there peacefully for about 2.5 hrs, suddenly awakened by a loud thud of my back nailing the wheel cover. Paco had hit a speed bump and sent me flying through the air. I fell asleep again for about 30 min awakened yet again to a thud. Man, did that hurt, but this time it was my left shoulder that hit the wheel. I decided to give up sleeping at this point and found and empty seat, propped my legs up, and miraculously rested (no more sleep for Mandy). It's amazing how just resting can replenish you with energy!! We finally made it to the orphanage, at 6 am their time...but the orphanage didn't open until 8. So...we were rushed at every stop we made, no walking time, we shoved our food down our throats, so we could sit in the van another 2 hrs...yes I am bitter. :) lol The cook arrived at the orphanage at 7:30 so we unpacked and did our own thing until the boys (all 5: Marcos, Ivan, Joel, Brian, Andres) arrived at 11. (It's Sunday now...) We played with the boys and got to work after lunch. The girls started by sanding the downstairs of the boy dorms. Next we moved to the outside and primed the outside walls of both dorms, the kitchen, and porch like around (to be painted with mac-n-cheese orange the next day). Some went inside and painted the school room white (to be covered in pink the next day), and finally some started painting the stairway. We got so much done in just a few hours. Everyone cleaned up and we headed to get ice cream with the boys. On our way to the "hot spot for ice cream" in Chihuahua, I had a massive nose bleed--and I mean gushing for 5 minutes straight, so sadly I didn't get to experience the ice cream quite how I'd like, but it was still good ice cream. Next we walked to a park (by the way, it was dark and only 7:30) and played there for about 30 min. We made it back to the orphanage and had debriefing and hung out until about 1:30 am!

If you can believe it, the days get more and more intense as we go along...tune in tomorrow for Day 2!

Here's the nose bleed.... MAC~N~CHEESE!!!

Spring Break

Good morning everyone! Hope you are all having a great weekend! Today I leave for my trip to Chihuahua, Mexico! Please be praying for us while we are down there. We leave at 2pm today and will return Easter Sunday around 3am! Pray for our safety, unity, and clarity as we minister to the orphanage. See you all soon! Hope you have a great week full of God's blessings!

DEBATE!!

Ok, so here it goes. There's a new law (attempting to be passed, but will most likely fail) going through the Oklahoma legislature that will allow 18 year olds carry concealed weapons. This was sparked after the last two shooting that have occurred on college campuses. My government teacher brought this up in class today, and I'm just curious as to what you all think. I was all for it, but most of the people (all except two other people) were against it. What do you think??

Eighteen Years

Can you believe it?? I'm 18! I know it's hard to believe, but embrace it with me will ya? :) I can now vote, buy cigarettes, enlist, and gamble in the lottery, and stay out past midnight legally (of which privileges I will only be voting...). I am a legal adult~ I'm so excited to embrace another year of life! God has blessed me so much in the past, I can't wait to continue to grow more in love with Him. Thanks to everyone of you who make my life wonderful: all of you who teach and mentor me, those who walk beside me, and those who I can lead. You each bless me in a different way, and I couldn't be more thankful to have you all apart of my life! Here's to 18!!

(If you want to read my mom's recollection of today, 18 years ago--click here).

Babble on in Babylon

Brimming closets, shoe racks bulge,
one in every color, I’ll just indulge.
My wildest whim will oft be met,
bigger, faster, give me, get.
Travel on in Babylon.

May I go first? Knew you’d not care,
for my time’s precious.
You’ve lots to spare.
I’ll slip in front and off I’ll go.
See, I’m quite fast and well,
you’re quite slow.
I and me fast friends, life-long.
Prattle on in Babylon.

Nip it here, just there a lift.
I just turned forty, it was a gift.
The eyes, the lips, the bosoms do,
sculptured, lasered, injected, too.
No wrinkles left, the tummy’s gone.
Journey on in Babylon.

Enough of me, how do you view me?
You get one, but give me three.
I couldn’t bare to just say no,
it’s my desire and rightly so.
Add another and on and on.
Shuffle on in Babylon.

No end in sight that I can see,
today is blocked by the mirror in front of me.
A wreck, a death, tsunami tide,
it mildly stirs me, I must confide.
TV claims tens of thousands gone.
Oh well, let’s see what else is on.
Numb to the stunning sight of each new dawn,
Sinking fast in Babylon.

Like a lobster in a pot
who begins to like the water hot,
I’ve been duped, been tricked, been had,
convinced that truth was somehow bad.
Evil, coddled and cooed and purred,
and beckoned me and called and lured.
Now in a place with the lights turned on,
I’m racing home from Babylon.
I’m racing home from Babylon.

This is from the Beth Moore "Daniel" series. We heard it on our video session last night. For those of you who haven't done this study (and don't know what Babylon was)--Babylon was a materialistic, self-absorbed city. Are you caught in the Babylonian world? This poem really got to me, and I can relate so well. :) What do you think?

Rest

"And I rest in the shelter of Your love
And I rest in the wonder of Your Grace
And I rest in the shelter of Your love
And I rest in the wonder of You

Embraced in the promise of You
Is rest for the weary soul
Releasing all that is mine
I reach for You"



Have you ever gone through a time in your life when you can't sleep at night, and it's not because of worry or stress? Well this past week (aside from Wednesday night) I haven't been able to fall asleep until 1a.m. or after. For all of you who understand my sleeping pattern I'm usually asleep by 11 at the latest. Well, I've been staying up late, exhausted, but not been able to fall asleep. Talk about frustrating. :) Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday--no sleep for the weary. Then as Robby and I were driving to school yesterday I heard the song "Rest" by Skillet. To rest in His wonder, His love, and His grace--THAT'S WHAT I NEEDED TO DO!!! So last night, I slept in Him and had one of the most refreshing rests I've had in a while. I'm choosing to believe my lack of sleep is in preparation for something...just don't know what yet.

What do you do when you can't sleep? Have you ever had a time when you couldn't sleep? In reflection was it in preparation?

Song Sense

Sanctus Real - We Need Each Other

From the album We Need Each Other

I think I caught a glimpse of a life without friends: bitter, empty, hollow, dark, and lonely
We never meant to hurt each other, so can we trust again?
And take it as a chance to keep on growing?

I don't know why it doesn't come easy, but I know that we could be happy
If we'd only learn to love

Chorus:
Oh, oh, we need each other, so what's the fighting for?
Oh, oh, we need each other, please don't close the door
Oh, oh, we need each other, through all the highs and lows
Oh, oh, we need each other, 'cause no one's meant to be alone

Life revolves around the need of having someone, causing every complicated feeling
Oh, and I don't want to lose you, so there is nothing wrong
With telling me what you need to keep our love strong
It's just a part of being a family, taking the good with the bad and the ugly If we could only learn to love
Oh, oh, we need each other, fathers and mothers
Oh, oh, we need each other, sisters and brothers
Oh, oh, we need each other, yeah, we need friends and lovers

I need you, you need me, 'cause that's the way it's meant to be

Friends...the people you can't imagine living without, and sometimes can't stand. Yet, it never fails that true friends stick with you in trials. I have a tight group of about 5 friends who stand next to me in everything, even if I don't feel their presence. I'm so thankful that God has blessed me with friends who strengthen me and protect me. I'm not one that typically reaches out for help and I like to keep to myself most of the time, but my best friends can read my expressions 100%! Has God blessed you with friends that you don't deserve? Many times I wonder how I ended up with such great people around me, and He blesses me with new friends every day. :) My parents say my life revolves around my friends, and I admit it...it's true, they're my best friends and apart of my family. But if you have friends like I do, you'd understand why I enjoy them. I pray that you all are blessed with friends like this, or will be at some point in your lifetime. Tell me about your friends. :)