Christmas 2015

What a wonderful Christmas we have had! We enjoyed decorating our home right after Thanksgiving.

Claire made and decorated cookies with her little cousins.

Claire and I went to see Miracle on 34th Street and had a wonderful time together.

We made a quick trip to Asheville to Grove Park Inn. The National Gingerbread Competition was over, but we still got to see the amazing submissions.

We always sing Happy Birthday to Jesus and have a birthday cake.

Christmas Eve with my side of the family.

Our family sends balloons to my dad in heaven every Christmas Eve. This is our 6th Christmas without him, and it really never gets easier. Oh, what it must be like to celebrate Christmas with Jesus!

Our cookies and carrots for Santa and his reindeer.

The annual "waiting on the stairs" on Christmas morning.

Reading the Christmas story from the Bible

Our traditional Christmas morning breakfast

Celebrating with Brian's side of the family on Christmas afternoon

It's a "bowhawk"!

The day after Christmas, our little cousin Emma Jo came to play.

We made one last trip to Dollywood for the year!

We are so thankful that Jesus was born and then died (& rose again) for us! Our family had an absolutely fabulous Christmas. We are so blessed!

Love Does

Well, it's been a long time since I told you about the books I've been reading. There is a huge stack of books by my bed that I won't put away until I blog about them. I thought I would start with Love Does by Bob Goff. Have you read it???

Even though I read it last summer, it has really stuck with me.

Love Does really challenged me to stop planning, thinking, and talking about doing stuff, and just do something. It's no secret to people who know me well that I love to plan. I will plan anything...parties, lessons, vacations, etc. You name it, and I will plan it. Also, I tend to be a big dreamer. There are so many projects and ideas floating around in my head all the time. My biggest problem is that I find it hard to get past the dream and start doing. When I arrive in heaven, I don't want to have to say, "Well, I had a lot of good ideas, but I didn't act on any of them." Instead, I want to make sure that I don't miss opportunities for myself and our family to serve others and share Jesus.

Here are a few quotes from the book that really stood out to me:

This one pretty much sums up the whole book:

"In the end, love doesn't just keep thinking about it or keep planning for it. Simply put: love does." (p. xiv)

"I think of church as a vibrant community of people consisting of two or more of varied backgrounds gathering around Jesus. Sometimes they are at a place that might have a steeple or auditorium seating. But it's just as likely that church happens elsewhere, like coffee shops or on the edge of a glacier or in the bush in Uganda. All of these places work just fine, I suppose. When it's a matter of the heart, the place doesn't matter. For me, it's Jesus plus nothing-not even a building." (p. 14)

I couldn't agree more with the quote above. It's Jesus plus nothing. Period. It is so frustrating to me when we as humans get all torn up over the color of the carpet in the church or some other unimportant issue. It's all about Jesus. Not carpet. Or anything else for that matter.

"I used to be afraid of failing at something that really mattered to me, but now I'm more afraid of succeeding at things that don't matter." (p. 25)

That one hit me really hard. A year later, I'm still thinking about it and asking Jesus to help me focus on what truly matters for eternity. Those things that have eternal significance.

"God is always trying to save lives, and it seems like He usually uses the least likely people to do it. So the next time God asks you to do something that is completely inexplicable, something you're sure is a prank because it requires a decision or courage that's way over your pay grade, something that might even save lives, say yes." (p. 66)

This idea is really tough for me. I so want to be willing, but I wouldn't necessarily use the words brave and courageous to describe myself. In fact, I often find myself completely tangled up in fear. I don't want that fear to control my obedience to Christ. It's hard.

"I think God's hope and plan for us is pretty simple to figure out. For those who resonate with formulas, here it is: add your whole life, your loves, your passions, and your interests together with what God said He wants us to be about, and that's your answer." (p. 143)

Oh wow! I struggle with this so much. It seems I'm constantly trying to make sure I know and am completely following God's will for my life. I've been reading a lot about this from other sources too. What seems to keep coming up is that since God created us, He is the one who planted those desires, dreams, and talents inside us. Of course, we need to make sure we are using them in ways that line up with the Bible. It just feels super freeing to me to know that the ideas in my head aren't a surprise to God. They are there for a purpose, and I just need to make sure to use them for His glory.

"What I realized about my faith is that I was doing just that, collecting information and memorizing things about God. I collected pictures and gathered artifacts and bumper stickers about Christianity, and I talked about knowing Jesus like we were best friends, when actually, we really hardly knew each other at all. And I memorized Bible verses and the names of the books of the Bible in order and the sequence of a bunch of events as well as who was there. At some point I had to confess that I was stalking Jesus." (p.198)

Because I am a rule follower in life, I tend to make sure I'm doing all the "things" right. Checking off all the boxes and calling it done without experiencing true relationship with Jesus. This also reminds me of the book Not A Fan (it's really great too). I don't ever want to be a stalker or a fan.

I certainly don't have it all figured out, but this book really helped me realize some important stuff. Honestly, I could go on and on, but I've already made this post way too long. If you haven't read it, I highly recommend you do. It may just change your life!

(If you have read Love Does, I'd love to hear your thoughts!)

To All The Boys I've Loved Before

Do you remember that old song? The original song title said "Girls" instead of "Boys", but surely you can recall it, right? If you've never heard it or just need a little walk down memory lane, go ahead and click the link. Oh come on, you know you want to....I'll wait right here. I dare you!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rVq0ONrSH-Q

Since I was only a baby at nine years old when it was released and won it's awards, I may have taken it for granted all these years. Is it just me or is that Julio a little bit handsome? (Wink, wink)

For some reason this song from way back came to my mind the other day. It actually came out around the time that I was in an "extremely serious relationship" with my first boyfriend. Oh, he had the cutest buck-teeth and curly hair. Besides my Daddy and brothers, he was the first boy that I loved. Or so I thought. We met in Kindergarten and although I forget the details, we decided we would be boyfriend and girlfriend from that day forward. And so we were. For six years. I'm not even kidding. I have no idea what that even meant back then other than we told a few people here and there and were generally nice to each other in the housekeeping center. There was that one time that our families happened to be vacationing at the same time in Myrtle Beach. He invited me over for a day of playing on ocean rafts and eating out with his family that evening. The only real memory I have from that day is that his parents ordered us baby steaks when the rest of the family ordered big people steaks. We were completely offended as we were clearly not babies. After all, at this point in our relationship we were at least ten years old! Soon we went to middle school, and that old flame died.

It was soon replaced by a new middle school love. I was only in 6th grade when I became smitten with an upperclassman. That's right friends...he was a 7th grader. Blonde and freckle-faced, he let me know he liked me by pulling out my hair ribbon and running away to class with it. You can bet that I wore extra ribbons every day so he would always have one to steal. By the next year, I got to move to the same hall, and that's when the true romance began. He even brought me the cutest little Valentine bear. Folks, we were officially "going together". I'm not sure where we were going other than ballgames where he played and I cheered. Nonetheless, we were official. Until he broke up with me right before his prom to take another girl. I. Was. Heartbroken. He went on to high school, but he would still call me occasionally and come to the middle school games to flirt with me. Apparently, I'm a hard habit to break. Ha! Eventually, that love withered too.

All through high school, I had crushes on a few different boys. I seem to remember a "good ol' farm boy" on my bus who liked me, but I wasn't interested. I went on a few dates but didn't really have a serious boyfriend during that time. It was just as well I suppose since I was keeping myself busy with the one million clubs to which I belonged. Truth be told, I was President of most of them. I guess I wanted to be in charge way back then just like I do now. I'm bossy like that.

In college, there was this guy I knew from high school who I hung out with all the time. We always said we were just friends, but we never dated anybody else and pretty much spent all our time together. At some point, we acknowledged that yes, we were in fact dating. There was only one problem. He loved fish more than me. Remember that Brad Paisley song? I'm pretty sure it was written  about us. I didn't have to compete with any other girls. Just fish. And the fish always won. It didn't really matter anyway because we both knew we were better off friends anyway. He wished me well. I wished him and his fish well and closed that door.

While I'm sure I'm forgetting a few, the list of all the boys I've loved before isn't that long. I'm so thankful for that. While I waited for the one boy I'll love forever, Jesus protected my heart. He brought Brian into my life at just the right time. However, He taught me lots of lessons through all the boys I loved before. When somebody asks me how I knew Brian was the one, I usually explain how it just felt easy. I wasn't waiting at home while he was fishing. He wanted to be with me as much as I wanted to be with him. I wasn't second best. Ever. I could go on and on with reasons how I knew he was "the one", and a lot of those were based on lessons I learned through the years with those who were never supposed to be "the one".

Brian and I just celebrated our 15th anniversary on July 1. Those boys I thought I loved...they all turned out to be really great men. I'm still friends with most of them and enjoy seeing their families on facebook or around town. But for me, none of them even come close to the man I get to love forever. So I'm thankful for all those boys I THOUGHT I loved before. God used them to show me my one true love. Happy Anniversary Brian!

Eternal Significance

It will probably be on my tombstone. The question I ask over and over again to family and friends and most importantly to myself. I'm pretty sure that people get tired of hearing me say it.

"Does it have eternal significance?"

So many times I find myself getting all up in a tizzy over something going on in life. It could be something small like traffic that slows me down. Maybe it's something that seems even a bit more important such as a large bill arriving in the mail or an unexpected job change or loss.

We know that Jesus cares about every tiny detail in our lives. Nothing is too minor for Him. In fact, he wants us to talk to Him about all of these things. He is our best friend after all...isn't that what best friends do?

Here is one of my favorite reminders from Scripture:
"Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God." Philippians 4:6

Did you notice it says "in every situation"? It doesn't say "when you get desperate" or "when the situation is important enough". No! It says "EVERY". That means that Jesus wants to hear about it all. The laundry. The dog. The burnt dinner. The exciting surprise. The test results. The birthday party. Everything.

Isn't it so wonderful to know that we don't have to figure out which life events or situations are big enough or important enough to talk to God about? They all are!

I do want to share everything with Jesus, but God has also given me a little litmus test to keep my own emotions in check moment by moment too. It's that original question up there. Does it have eternal significance?

When I feel my blood pressure rising or hear a report of bad news, I try to remember to ask myself, "Does it have eternal significance"? Often, the answer is no. I've only lived 39 years (I am clearly very young), but I've learned that most things that we get upset about are not eternally important. That doesn't necessarily mean that they aren't important at all. For example, choosing a school for your children is certainly an important decision that may affect their lives here on earth. But will it matter in eternity???

It helps me to keep things in perspective. What really matters on this earth is our relationship with Jesus and how we share His love and the message of salvation with others. And that's about it.

When I arrive in heaven, it won't matter one bit how much that broken washing machine cost. What's going to matter is my personal relationship with Jesus and the way He used me through relationships with other people.

So I'll keep praying and telling Jesus all about the seemingly big things AND the small ones, and I know He will keep reminding me what is eternally significant along the way.

Sixty

October 30, 1954. Sixty years ago today.

Paul Friday and Shirley Humphreys stood before family, friends, and our wonderful God to commit their lives to each other and to serving the Lord together for the rest of their lives. That was the beginning of a beautiful legacy. But a marriage like theirs doesn't just happen.

As everyone does, they had lots of ups and downs. Military service, building a home, death of parents and siblings, job changes, birth of three babies, six grandchildren, and now even two great-grandchildren. These things were all part of their story together. I'm sure there were many other small and big things during the years. Through it all, their love remained constant because of their commitment to each other and the Lord.

I am so thankful for their commitment. I had the privilege of being raised by parents who never discussed divorce. Never once did I worry that it was even an option. The security of that is priceless. Brian and I are committed that our children will never have that worry either.

As they stood up and said their vows sixty years ago, I can guarantee that they didn't have any idea what was in store for them throughout life. Together they walked through it all.

Even today, as my Daddy spends his 60th wedding anniversary in heaven and my mama spends it here on earth without him, their love is still strong. We are all eternally blessed by their legacy. I am forever thankful.

 

Easter Weekend

We had a great Easter weekend. On Thursday, my cousin Krista brought her kids to eat lunch with us at school since they are on on spring break. We only get to see them a few times a year, so it's always exciting when we do.

 These girls talk on face time several times a week. I wish they lived closer to each other like Krista and I did (next door)!

 Emma came over Thursday night to play for a long time. They had so much fun!

 Max loved Krista! He really doesn't know her very well, but he definitely liked her a lot.

 On Friday, we were out of school (yahoo!) so I shopped and ran errands. Then I went to my cousin Kayla's (Krista's sister)  baby shower.

 Saturday was a really pretty day. When we went to the grocery store, they had a few activities going on for kids. They each got to decorate a chocolate egg.

 We also saw the Easter bunny. As we were walking away, I heard Claire say, "That's not the real Easter bunny because everybody knows the Easter bunny wears a sweater".

 We went to Italian Village for dinner. Yum!

 Then we went to the park and played for a while.

 The Easter bunny did not disappoint (sweater or no sweater).

 Parker and Claire were very excited and of course ate candy for breakfast.

 They posed for the traditional Easter pictures that their mom forces upon them.

 Then we headed to church. We had such a wonderful church service! 

After church, we went to lunch at Grandma and Grandad's house.

 The afternoon was full of talking and playing.

We hope you had a very special Easter celebrating our risen Savior!