Monday, April 23, 2012

Always

Yesterday Jason and I went to Passion City Church.
Kristian Stanfill led worship and sang the song "Always".


"Oh my God
He will not delay 
my refuge and strength always
I will not fear
His promise is true
my God will come through always
Always"

We can choose to put our hope and trust in anything.
But as long as we are trusting in our friends, family, selves, money, etc 
to always come through for us, we will be very disappointed.
God is the ONLY one who will ALWAYS come through.
No matter what.

Psalm 46:1 (NLT)
"God is our refuge and strength, always ready to help in times of trouble."
emphasis mine

Psalm 121:1-2 (NLT)
"I look up to the mountains - does my help come from there?
My help comes from the LORD, who made heaven and earth!"

Friday, April 20, 2012

Broken Hearts

I am doing the Bible Study Breaking Free by Beth Moore.
I read something today that I feel led to share.

This study is based around Isaiah 61:1-4.
"The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me because the Lord has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives, and release from darkness for the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn, and provide for those who grieve in Zion- to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair.They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the Lord for the display of his splendor. They will rebuild the ancient ruins and restore the places long devastated; they will renew the ruined cities that have been devastated for generations." (NIV)

Today the focus was on the second part of verse 1: 
"He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted".

We have all experienced a broken heart at some point in our lives. 
The question is how do we handle it and deal with it.

The following is an excerpt from Breaking Free:
"Life's way of reacting to a crushed heart is to wrap tough sinews of flesh around it and tempt us to promise we'll never let ourselves get hurt again. That's not God's way. Remember, self-made fortresses built to protect our hearts not only keep love from going out but they keep love from coming in. We risk becoming captives in our own protective fortresses. Only God can put the pieces of our hearts back together again, close up all the wounds, and bind them with a porous bandage that protects from infection ... but keeps the heart free to inhale and exhale love."

Let that sink in for a minute, or read it again if you need to.
How many times when my heart has been broken have I thought to myself:
 "I won't let that happen again"? 
Or at the very least had the attitude that I would protect myself better the next time.
But, that is NOT God's way!
God doesn't want me to trapped in my fortress of protection.
He wants me to be free to experience His love and the love of others and pour love out.
God is the only one who can heal our broken hearts. 
No amount of self protection can put all the pieces back together.
Today, I choose to expose my broken heart to God, so that He can put it back together the way that He sees fit. If not, how can I ever be free to be fully effective for Him and His kingdom?
Today, I choose to longer be imprisoned by my self protection.
I pray that you will allow God to heal your broken heart too.

Wednesday, April 18, 2012

Wednesday Loves

I'm linking up with Jamie today for What I'm Loving Wednesday!


This Wednesday I am loving:

1. That it's my week off. I love weeks off!

2. That I got to have a yummy Cracker Barrel breakfast with a sweet, sweet friend today!
 I'm glad we were able to catch up.

3. That Jason came home today!! :)
I'm excited to spend some time with him the next couple of days.

Representing the Vols.
4. That my brother and his fiancĂ© are coming home this weekend. 
I can't wait to spend time with them. 
My mom and I are throwing a bridal shower for MC on Saturday!

Sweet engagement photo.
5. That our apartment is so clean! 
You can read about my spring cleaning here. 
Now I have to try my best to keep it clean.

6. New nail polish!
I treated myself to 2 new colors yesterday after all the cleaning.

7. That in less than a month we are headed to Jamaica for our one year anniversary!
I can hardly believe it's almost been a year since we got married.
I am excited to celebrate with our Jamaica trip and some yummy cake from Elaine at Sweet Stuff Cakes.

Last year in St. Lucia on our honeymoon!
8. The Jesus Calling devotional.
It is amazing.

I hope everyone is having a wonderful week!

Tuesday, April 17, 2012

Spring Cleaning

It's my week off, and Jason is out of town working, so I decided to do some Spring Cleaning today! Jason might not even recognize the place when he gets back!

My goal was to get rid of the clutter and get everything dusted and vacuumed. I realized in the process that I haven't taken very many pictures of our place. Someday I think I will want to have pictures of it, so I figured what better time to take pictures than when it's clean!

I started in the living room.
I got rid of all the clutter and found a place to store everything.
Then I dusted- all the bookshelves, end tables, and baseboards.
Next I vacuumed the floor, couches, and chair.

Bookshelves
Couches
Our favorite chair! 
I moved into the "dining room" next. 
Here I washed the table and wiped down all the chairs.
Then I dusted the blinds and window sills and vacuumed.

Jason refinished our table
Next I cleaned the bathroom.
The only extra things I did were dusting the light fixture and cleaning the floor by hand (usually I use the Swiffer). I also wiped down all the cabinets. I just washed the rugs and shower curtain last time I cleaned the bathroom, so I didn't do it this time.


Then I moved on to the kitchen.
I washed the counter tops, wiped down all the cabinets, swept and swiffered the floor, and wiped down all the appliances. I still need to reorganize the pantry, but I figured I could tackle that another day.



Last I cleaned our bedroom.
I found a place for all the clutter and dusted everything!
Then I vacuumed.

We LOVE our bed. So comfy!

From now on I think I will dust more often. The baseboards were awful. 
I used an entire package of these Pledge dust wipes today!
I highly recommend them though!


This is what's left on my list to tackle:
1. Reorganize the pantry
2. Clean the inside of the dishwasher
3. Clean the inside of the washing machine.
4. Clean out and organize the closet.
If anyone has suggestions on how to clean the dishwasher or washing machine I would love to hear them!

While I cleaned, Daisy took some naps and perched on the couch to see out the window!


Love this sweet girl!
Jason and I are so blessed to have this apartment. I am thankful for our time here!

Joshua 24:15 (NIV)
"But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD."



Wednesday, April 11, 2012

Spring Break 2012

Last week we took a trip to the beach with some friends of ours for Spring Break.
I LOVE the beach, so I am glad last week was my off week so we could go!
We left as soon as I got home from work Monday morning.
We grabbed a Chick-fil-A breakfast and hit the road to Navarre Beach, Florida.
We got there just after lunch, so we were able to lay out some in the afternoon.

View from the balcony
We were only a little ways down from the pier
Beautiful clear water!
The first night we had dinner at one of our favorite restaurants in Destin, The Crab Trap.
We love the crab cakes, the shrimp, and the grouper! It was so yummy! 
One of the best things about the beach is eating seafood for dinner every night.


Can't go to the beach and skip Fudpucker's!
Tuesday was a cloudy/rainy day, so we decided to go to the outlet mall in Destin and to a movie.We saw The Hunger Games. It was pretty good. I haven't read the books though, and I think it might have made more sense if I had.

Wednesday morning the beach was cloudy, windy, and cold. We braved the chilly weather for a little bit to play bocche ball, but after a little while we headed back inside.

Jason braved the water!
Dark clouds
Jason and our friend, Rod, decided to play golf that afternoon. I went along for the ride because I was getting cabin fever in the condo.

Jason golfing

The course was in a subdivision, and a lot of the houses had these cages over their pools and patios to keep the golf balls out.

Beautiful Sunset
Thursday morning it was cloudy again, but the sun finally decided to come out on Thursday afternoon! We all headed down to the beach to get some sun!


Lots of waves because it was still windy
Thursday was our last night, so we walked the pier before dinner.

View from the Pier
Lots of people were fishing!
Us on the pier!
We headed back home on Friday morning. I'm glad we were able to go even if it was just for a few days! I am definitely looking forward to our trip to Destin with my parents in September.





Tuesday, April 10, 2012

March Photo A Day

Last week we left for the beach as soon as I got home from work Monday morning, so I never got a chance to post all my photos from the March Photo A Day Challenge!

Here is the list again:

1. Up 
2. Fruit 
3. My neighborhood 
 4. Bedside
5. A Smile: Daisy makes me smile! :) 
6. 5 PM: I spent it cleaning! Here's our nice clean bathroom. 
 7. Something I wore: Nana's butterfly ring
 8. Window
 9. Red: Love this magnet!
 10. Loud: Daddy's birthday celebration!
 11. Someone I talked to today: Jason!
 12. Fork: At Mimi's for Daddy's birthday dinner.
 13. A Sign: We got this for Daisy- She loves to walk!
 14. Clouds
 15. Car
 16. Sunglasses
 17. Green: For St. Patty's Day!
 18. A Corner of our home
 19. Funny: Daisy and her ball- she obsesses over it!
 20. Before and After: All the ingredients for muffins and the finished product!

 21. Delicious: Chips and Salsa! Yum!
 22. Kitchen Sink
 23. Moon: or lack thereof. No moon that night!
 24. An animal: Daisy Duke
 25. Breakfast: Waffle House
 26. Key
 27. My name
 28. Trash (I hated taking this picture by the way)
 29. Feet: I love my lamb slippers!
 30. Toy: Our toys are the computer and the XBox
31. Where I Relax: Our favorite chair!

I decided to take a break for April. I'm looking forward to sharing some of our pictures from the beach though!