Blessed be your name, Jesus!

ugh, my poor blog has been so neglected! Oh well, it's been BUSY! Our life is not even the same as it was a week ago, I'm not even sure that this blog has enough space to write down all the things going on and the prayers being answered. Over the past month or so God has laid some serios things on my heart to pray for and I have and I see him working and answering those prayers in mighty ways.

As I'm sure many of you know, we have been wanting to take our window business full time for awhile. As of lately we have been praying about it and talking to Pastor Charlie and getting prayer to be in Lord's will in doing so. This would be a HUGE step of faith. I had a lot of fears and really no reason for them. God is God and he is in control. Josh spoke with Pastor Charlie on Thursday at lunch and then after Josh left I starting dusting shelves and rearranging books. I took a stack of books and put them on the shelf and made sure they were tidy and pretty and I noticed before I placed them, one of the books was 'The Prayer of Jabez.' I knew the book had something to do with a small prayer asking for blessign and I thought to myself "I should read that", but I just went on with what I was doing. I placed the books, grabbed a dusty silk plant and took it outside to dust. When I came back in 30 seconds later, I went back to organizing the shelf and where I had stuck the group of books previously, The Prayer of Jabez was pulled ALL the way out. Whoa. Weird. I JUST PUT THOSE BOOKS THERE AND THEY WERE PERFECT!! I sat and read it and the prayer is this:

"Jabez cried out to the God of Israel, “Oh, that you would bless me and enlarge my territory! Let your hand be with me, and keep me from harm so that I will be free from pain.” And God granted his request."

That pretty much sums up our cry to the Lord. So we continued to pray. On Friday, we had Bible Study (keep in mind that before thursday, there were many other things pointing to this being a good decsion for us, as well, but the direction became much more clear as of last week) Louise's message was so good, as always, but one thing I heard was her say, "As Christians we are not meant lived these contained, secure lives." I iprayed with Rachelle and then went home to talk to Josh more and we prayed some more and then he spoke to Pastor Charlie for more prayer and wisdom and then he put in his one week notice. PUT IN HIS ONE WEEK NOTICE!!! EEEEEKKKKK!!!! And the fear disipated. It's gone, I'm stoked and God had just laid blessing after blessing on us, IMMEDIATELY after we took that step of faith. We got a ne customer who was amazing and shared our info with many friends and we've already received phone calls from her referrals. A 4th Chick-Fil-A CALLED US!! CALLED US!! And boom! 4th Chick-fil-a! We are doing another significant quote on large commercial area tonight. Sunday we sold 'Bondage' (the ranger). Thak you, LORD! Josh's female boss who is known for tearing people down called him into her office yesterday and wanted to know why he was leaving. Of course Josh was braced for the worst when he walked in, but she did nothing but praise him for the work he's done there and asked him to quote the building and their personal residence!! WHAT?!?! WHAT?!?! PEOPLE, this is nothing short of an act of God. None of this. This is all God. God could slam all these doors shut as fast as he opened them. Josh and I are striving to be obedient and be good stewards of what he gives us. It's all his anyway. None of it's ours. None of it. He gives and he takes away and I will say "Blessed be your name". God is on the throne in good times and in bad. And we have had some valleys.

GET READY TO SWITCH GEARS.

Speaking of valleys, we have some dear friends in the valley right now. We have had 2 people close to our family be diagnosed with cancer in the last week. and another who relapsed about 3 months ago. And I want you to know friends, that you are on my heart 24/7. We are grieving with you and praying for you and your loved ones. The Bible says, "And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them." Romans 8:28. It's hard to conceive how any of this can work out to be good, but God is faithful, he is on the throne, he is in control and his plan will prevail. Death was conquered at the cross and we have the hope of eternity. No cancer is going to take away eternity with our Savior. He loves you and he has his arms around you and he is weeping with you because this was neverpart of the original plan. He will NEVER let you go. I have never been more heavenly minded in my LIFE and pain and sufferin falls on the believing and the unbelieving, Paul says we have can have an "inexpressible and glorious joy" in our time of suffering. Rejoice bc "I am certain that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns." Hang in there, friends, brothers and sisters in Christ. GOD HAS A PLAN. He is faithful. I love you and so many others love you. We are hitting our knees and praying for you!

Bondage to Freedom and back again

The word 'disappointed' hardly seems to capture how bummed I am, but I guess it will do. Bought a truck this weekend only to find out it needs quite a bit of work put into it. I was fine with spending some money, but I'm afraid it will just be the beginning of a money pit. We listed it back on Craigslist to hopefully be able to recover what we paid for it.

I feel almost petty that this is my biggest personal issue right now, but Josh and I have worked so hard to save money. I'm pretty sure the Lord is trying to teach me something in all of this mess. I was so excited to not have to share one car anymore. And now that just went 'kapoof!' for now. We'll see what happens...

Onto more important things. So many people need prayer right now. My heart is so grieved for families dealing with illness or death. We talk about suffering and pain and death all the time in church growing up, you know it's a part of life and it's gonna happen and you know it's gonna hurt and be sad, but when it strikes it hurts like you never even knew it existed. We wait and hope for blessings and for God to come through for us in prayer on the things we ask for, but then when suffering hits it's like being hit with a bus. And then the bus backs up and pounds you again.

Today I thought about when Lazarus was raised from the dead, but before Jesus raised him from the dead, the Bible says he wept. Why on earth would Jesus weep?? He knew he was bringing him back. I love that he does weep because that showed one of the most beautiful qualities about Christ which is empathy. He is weeping with us and hurting with us. You know why? It wasn't supposed to be this way. Nope, nope. BUT it is. we're rotten, awful sinners and that's just the way it is, but PRAISE THE LORD that we WERE created for something more and that Jesus died for us so one day we will be in heaven and NO. MORE. TEARS. PAIN. HURT. SUFFERING. No more shooting police officers and dying soldiers. No more cancer. No more divorce. No more surprise freak deaths. No more financial woes. No more child abductions, rape and abuse. I can't wait. I can't wait to be held safe and sound in the arms of My Savior. I am so grateful for what he did on the cross so we can have the promise of heaven with Him.

If you don't have that hope and haven't asked Christ to come into your life, Say a prayer asking him to. Confess your sins and ask him to come live in your heart and to transform your life. BEST decision you will EVER make!!

Go Me!

I was going back and forth between 2 potential blogs. Potential blog #1: (wait for it)"Why do people who are not Christians quote Jesus?" I find it very interesting. You certainly don't see me going around quoting Joesph Smith (no offense, mormon friends). But people like to quote Jesus to tell us how us Christians how we have our Christianity all wrong. Hello?? You don't believe in Jesus, you don't believe in his word and you certainly don't live by it and yet you attempt to use to back up your non-biblical beliefs? Fascinating. haha, ok, I'll stop because Potential blog #2 is Getting Organized and that's the one I settled on (pause for everyone's collective sigh of relief)

I'm REALLY sad I did not take a picture of my desk pre-organization, albeit embarrassing. I was tempted to mess it all back up again, add about 30 lbs of useless papers from the last 2 years to give you an idea cuz that would totally be productive, right? Nah, it wasn't that bad, but it was definitely unkempt. I still hadn't found a home for things since we moved. When I feel overwhelmed and disorganized it's impossible hard for me to function. So today we got it alll straightened out.


My favorite part about getting organized is stuff that I utilize to get organized. First of all the 2 baskets that you see, those were clearanced at Target for $6.48. I don't know if you can really tell by the pics, but these are great sized baskets. I was more than thrilled to get them at such an awesome price. I used one basket for Josh's stuff (quotes, business cards, etc.) and the other to hold some of my desk necessities. They fit Perfectly in the slots in the desk FTW. See the little tin in the 3rd picture? That is a tin from Brighton, I used it to store cords. The rubbermaid storage container is holding some our Disney pins that were floating in the drawer waiting to stab the next unsuspecting fingers. and I just used a ziploc to hold batteries, where as before they were floating in the bottom of a big plastic storage container that was holding other garbage. That storage container went on to do great work and its only job now is to hold our video camera, charger and extra discs. Work with what you got, ladies! Now as far as papers go, I pretty much have a spot for all of them, but they weren't getting placed there. {refer to first picture for a better idea,but its still hard to see} The big black and white filing box is our business filings, the black folder is our house hunt filings and the purple one is for personal filings. You can't see them but there are a couple of loose folders which hold papers which are items that need immediate attention such as a bill, a receipt to be filed, etc. So everyyyy piece of paper has a place. HALLELUJAH!

The drawer before was being taken over by pins, stationary and cords. UGH. Most useless drawer on the planet! So I emptied it, stuck a basket in there. I filled the basket with the stationary, checkbooks and a pencil box. There are few other miscellaneous things, but they allll have a place and thats alllll that matters. Those stickers are stamps that got put on an envelopes that never ended up getting mailed out so I peeled them back off the envelopes and kept them. Heck no, techno, am I throwing away .44¢ x 4. That's just wasteful. They'll get used. Eventually. div>

I was inspired by someone else so I hope I've passed along the inspiration. Christmas is EXACTLY 2 months away. Make room for all the new goodies!

Do you have $40? Join in Operation Christmas Child

Because if you do, you could make a child's Christmas on of the Best Ever!!



Operation Christmas Child. Basically, you fill up a shoebox (your own or one you can pick up from a church or other institutions)




When you pick up a box, they give you instructions on what to pack and what not to pack. You get to choose the gender and age group of the child you would like your box to go to.

We chose a girl age 2-4. I chose this because Haylie and Madison are 3 and 4 and they got to pick out a majority of what went into the box. They really got into it which really made my heart smile. They totally understand that this is going to be some little girl's Christmas gift who isn't as fortunate as they are and they can be a small blessing to her. The joy of giving is one that can hardly be matched and I hope my kids will all grow up to feel the same. I have always wanted to do the box, but we've never followed through on it, sadly. I think next year we'll have all 3 kids do a box for a child of their same gender and age.

One year I remember my dad packing a box and he spent about $80 and that amount always intimidated me from attempting to pack one. That was before the $1 section at Target. Hello, Bargains! We got mittens, socks, a notepad, markers, stickers, coloring book, etc. And no I don't feel guilty shopping in the deal section because I buy my own little girls stuff from that section ALL the time. Then they have a section of mini toys (aka PERFECT shoebox size) for $2.49. Again, stuff my kids ALWAYS want i.e. harmonica, oversized bouncy ball that lights up, paddle ball, etc. Then we headed to the hygeine section, more specifically, the trial size section and picked up all of our hygeine items that were all good quality for an awesome price. I also grabbed a little dress off the clearance rack.


Altogether, I spent less than $40 and my box is packed to the gills!




After you get it all packed you can throw in a letter and/or a pic of your family. If you put your address they may write back. They also ask that you throw in $7 for shipping if you can.

This is such a great opportunity for your whole family to get in on. For $40 you can turn a child's world upside down and you are also opening the door for the gospel to be shared with them!

FOR MORE INFORMATION GO TO THE WEBSITE

Worship: Sing and Give, at the same time if you want...why not?

I've had a blog brewing the past few days and now that I have quiet time and chance to sit down and write I'm hitting a wall. Oh well, here we go...

Chapter 6 of 'Crazy Love' was all about falling in love with our Savior. It's so easy to see God as this enormous being with just a bunch of rules and regulations, but even the rules and regulations are made out of his abundant love for us and setup to protect us from some obvious consequences and even some that are unforeseeable. I love the way Jason Gray describes how an ideal relationship with the Lord can be, "More like falling in love than something to believe in, more like losing my heart than giving my allegiance." Are you in Love with Jesus? Have you lost your heart? One of the best parts of Chapter 6 was that even the days we aren't feelin' it, we can pray and ask God to put that passion and love in our hearts. How awesome is that? What if you told your spouse, "Eh, I'm not really feeling very in love with you today." Most spouses are not gonna say, "Oh, honey, thats alright, how can I help you be more in love with me today?" Haha. I know I would be uber-offended. LOL But not God. His love is that unconditional and unfailing he is even there to help us love him more. Matthew 7:7 says "Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you."

I love Music, especially worship music. It ministers to my heart so much. That is definitely a way I go to the Lord and spend time with him. I meditate on the words of the songs. So many songs are on my favorite list, but different songs minister to me at different times. Right now I am focused on just falling in love with the Lord and building that intimate relationship with him. Phil Wickham's song "Divine Romance" is the most beautiful love song. You can listen to it on my play list.

The fullness of Your grace is here with me

The richness of Your beauty’s all I see

The brightness of Your glory has arrived

In Your presence God, I’m completely satisfied

For You I sing I dance

Rejoice in this divine romance

Lift my heart and my hands

To show my love, to show my love

A deep deep flood, an Ocean flows from You

Of deep deep love, yeah it’s filling up the room

Your innocent blood, has washed my guilty life

The church is the bride of Christ and one day when it's all said and done and our "wedding day" comes, I hope this is the song of our "first dance" together. What a beautiful celebration, it will be. Think of all the amazing weddings money has bought on earth. Imagine what the Creator of all things has planned for us! The colors, the Angels, the saved souls, the WORSHIP! And most importantly, our Father on the throne. It's gonna be out of control! Can't wait!

God has been so incredibly faithful in recent weeks. In the Bible, God tells believers to test Him in one area and that is the area of giving. Malachi 3:10 says, '"Bring all the tithes into the storehouse so there will be enough food in my Temple. If you do," says the LORD of Heaven's Armies, "I will open the windows of heaven for you. I will pour out a blessing so great you won't have enough room to take it in! Try it! Put me to the test!"' Have you tried it? Have you taken that leap of faith in your walk? I can tell you God has blessed us with so much and it's not always monetary. Sometimes it's an answer to prayer, sometimes it's in restoration of relationships. To be honest, we should just do it cheerfully because everything belongs to the Lord anyway and he commands us to do it, but how awesome is it that he will bless us for it?! I know for many, including us for a long time, it seems impossible to give 10% and you won't be able to afford it. Friends, you CAN'T afford not to. It's a system that makes no earthly sense, but has priceless heavenly rewards. I have seen so many friends struggling financially and we have BEEN there, bought the t-shirt. Had our gas turned off, maxed out every single credit card we had, had a night we didn't know how Josh was going to make it home at 3 am bc we didnt have a penny to our names. We were 92k in debt. Almost $100,000 in debt at 21 and 24 years old! When we decided to get on the Dave Ramsey program we decided we would start to give to God, too. How? We was BROKE with a capital 'B'. So the first month of our new plan, we gave $25 a week and we were freaked out about that. The next month we bumped it to $50 a week and eventually worked our way up to 10%. In 2 1/2 years we cut our debt in half and saved a small chunk of money. God opened doors right and left for us and we've even been able to start a small business in one of the worst economic times our country has seen. God also brought much peace to our marriage and restored our relationship where it had been damaged and brought us closer than we had ever been. I earned a trip to Hawaii during this time, also, so Josh and I got the honeymoon that we never had, ALL expenses paid. I give ALL the credit to the Lord. Some days it still doesn't make sense to me, but the Lord's plans are the Lord's plans and we're along for the ride. Trust me, your flesh can work as hard as it wants, if it's not in the Lord's plans it aint gonna happen and even if God does allow you to wander down your own path it's nothing compared to the plans God has for your life when you desire to be in his will.

Funny, when I started this blog I had no intentions of sharing our little journey. Most people who know us, know it, but I just felt led to share it. I hope it encourages at least one person who hasn't taken that step of faith or is maybe struggling with their finances. God WANTS to bless you. Do you have kids? It gives me ridiculous amounts of joy to take my little girls shopping. They love pretty clothes and new accessories for their kitchen or a new game or new book. They LOVE it. They definitely get the shopping bug from me. Shocker, I know. God is the same way, he LOVES to bless us. Step out in faith, friends. You won't regret it. You CANNOT outgive God.

oh and BTW Giving is a form of worshipping the Lord. So this blog totally makes complete sense and flows! Have a phenom weekend, Lovies!

30 Days of Truth: Day 2 - Something I love about myself

I love that I'm forgiving. I can't say I've always been this way, it's not natural to be this way. The more appropriate thing to say is "I love that I have let God work in my heart so I can be forgiving towards others.' I really cant take credit for God's work. The more I learn and see how much God loves us and how far his grace extends, it blows me away. I constantly let God down, I give in to my sinful nature and take matter's into my own hands and He still forgives me, all the time, washes me white as snow. When I think about what my Savior went through on that cross (even tho I cant begin to conceive the complete horrendousness of it) it has really made me think, "If God, the Creator of all things, can forgive me time and time again even tho I am a no one, who am I not to extend that same grace and forgiveness towards some one else?" And it's not always easy, but it sure does give me peace and it is also a way we can be Christ-like and set apart. I just want to reiterate, on my own, I am not a natually forgiving, let's-sing-kumbaya person. God has really grabbed my heart in this area the past couple years and worked on me being forgiving. When you get into the practice of it, you realize that forgiving others benefits you more than the other person. It frees you and allows you to grow so close to the Lord. Whenever you think 'I can't do it, I can't forgive them.' Think of God allowing his Only son to be mocked, spit on, beaten, tortured, humiliated and ultimately nailed to a cross just to OFFER you the gift of salvation and forgiveness. It's wayyy easier to forgive when you put it in that perspective. God's love for us is something I will never completely be able to wrap my head around, but I don't have to. All I know is he created me to love Him and for Him to love me and I just want to focus on falling more and more in love with him and I don't want my petty unforgiveness to get in the middle of that!

Matthew 5:43-48 says:
43"You have heard that it was said, 'Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' 44But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. 46If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? 47And if you greet only your brothers, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? 48Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

Friday fun

Today (technically it was yesterday, but still feels like today because I have insomnia) was SO busy. I'm not used to crazyyy busy days like today. I was hustlin' and bustlin' from one place to the next. Bible Study was amazing! Words can't describe how much I love meeting with these ladies who are all so warm and welcoming. Today we talked about having an ear to hear when the Lord is speaking to us. So important that we're not just always blabbing, but we're listening and hearing what God is trying to communicate to us. It definitely ministered to my heart.

After, we had lunch with my dad then picked up Josh from work and then I came home to get crackin on dinner for Rae and Fam. I <3 that family. Continue to lift them up in prayer as decisions need to be made and comfort and peace need to flow abundantly.

When Josh came home at 3, we hopped in the mini (van, that is - mini sounds way cooler) and headed to Gma Rutherfords, dropped the kidlets off, then dropped the dinner off and headed to a Memorial for Kris Allen's Dad. Always puts things in perspective when some passes away so unexpectedly. I'm glad that we could go for the sole purpose that I got to give a huge hug to Gayla, Kris's mom. She is one of the sweetest ladies I've ever met. It was also a mini Crossroads reunion afterwards. Seems like we've been alternating weddings and funerals. So glad next up is a wedding.

We hurried back, grabbed the kids and headed home for baths and then we shortly took off again to go out tonight. Josh and I were skipping and high-fiving when we made Friday night plans and then we enjoyed a good laugh at how ridiculous and delirious we are! HA! I love that man! So we went to Chipotle, then to a mini-improv night at Crossroads. It was pretty fun, definitely not bad for free entertainment. We got to hang out with Jarrod, Kelly, Jonathan, Mark, Candice, Geoff, Brenda and Andrew. Most of us went to Denny's after and we had ourselves a fabulous little dessert and coffee! Got home a little after 12ish. Why I'm not dead on my feet, I have no idea. Today was a long time away from the pookies. I missed them, but they were in good hands =]

Feels great to get out and hang out with friends! Weekend is definitely off to a great start.