Jesus paid it all

this song, this old hymn, has been on repeat in my car and my office over the last few weeks. when i stopped over the thanksgiving holiday to consider thanksgiving and what it means to be thankful i was overwhelmed by the one thing i don't think i will ever understand...the mercy, grace, and forgiveness of our God. it is overwhelming; i cannot begin to fathom what it means that He paid my debt...a debt i could not pay and did not deserve to have paid. praise Him. "oh praise the One who paid my debt and raised this life up from the dead!!"

quick update

just a quick update on life...it's good. :) how's that for brief? seriously, life is good. it's super busy right now but it is good.

thanksgiving this year was great...we (ALL of us) were at my parent's house on thursday. we ate WAY TOO MUCH, watched football and christmas movies. then, friday i shopped in the morning/afternoon and had dinner with joel's parents friday night.

saturday, joel and i made a trip to asheville to see the biltmore house and ya'll, let me tell you...it is amazing. i've been to biltmore several times but it's beautiful at christmas. because we were late getting there, (and saturdays are "timed entry days") our scheduled time to tour the house was 5 pm...which meant we got to enjoy the biltmore by candlelight but we weren't on the "official" candlelight tour (which costs more money). all in all, it was an amazing day. :)

at work we are smack in the middle of everything for the charlotte christmas experience. somehow, i am the person in charge of coordinating all the volunteers and right now, i will admit that i am a smidge overwhelmed. it's not that things aren't going well OR that i don't think things will all work out. i am confident that everything will be wonderful but i'm overwhelmed by my "to-do" lists and everything i need to accomplish in such a short amount of time. thank goodness for tums right now, though ;).

go dawgs!!

this g-dubb alum was shocked and amazed by gardner-webb's win over the university of kentucky last week. just goes to show you what a little preparation, desire, and motivation can do...uk was not expecting anything from the bulldogs and look what happened!!

go dawgs!

big stuff

God has been working and doing some amazing stuff in my ministry...He has really knocked my socks off several times in the last couple months. it amazes me how clear He can be when He is giving direction or guidance about situations or opportunities (seriously, He couldn't have been more clear if He'd posted a neon, flashing sign...thankfully, by His grace, i paid attention). it's amazing, overwhelming, exciting, scary, etc. all at one time. saturday at a children's ministry conference they asked us to look at 4 pictures (storm, roller coaster, wilting flower, an adult holding a child's hand) and identify which picture best represents our ministry at this point...immediately, i identified with the roller coaster. it's thrilling, adventurous, fast-paced, and sometimes a little scary but when you mix all of those emotions together, it's exhilarating. isn't that what this journey with Jesus is all about?
we're not exactly sure where the journey will take us but we do know that it will be an amazing adventure and an exciting ride :).

29

i can't believe that i am 366 days away from officially saying good bye to my twenties; i've really loved my twenties. i heard someone say once that you spend your twenties trying to figure out who you are and then you spend your thirties actually living it out. i'm not sure i necessarily agree with that statement, totally, but i can see it to a point; my twenties were full of transition...college graduation, move to texas, seminary, seminary graduation, first "real" job, etc. i am finally at a place in my life where i feel a smidge settled (unlike seminary where i moved almost EVERY semester...yes, that's right...almost every semester for 3 1/2 yrs).

so, i've decided that i'm going to hold on to 29 from here on out :) or at least until next year when i welcome in a new decade.

hey, hey

so, i just have to say that i'm loving the new look for the blog. i want to give a shout out to jennisa who did a great job creating the look.

on another note, i just have to say that i'm not sure i should be typing a blog right now as i am still suffering from the after effects of benadryll. i had some crazy allergic reaction yesterday to my mineral makeup (long story and it makes no sense, absolutely no sense...but that's typical for things that happen to me ;) so i had to give in and take the benadryll. i don't do well with any sort of pain medicine or anything and while benadryll isn't pain medicine, it knocks me out cold. so, i'm feeling a tad loopy this morning but the good news is that by noon, it should be all out of my system and i should feel like normal. so, i'm going to sign off now and will write more when i'm a bit more coherent ;).

happy november!!

okay, so i know i said that i was going to let the blog die but all of a sudden today i decided to post again. i know, i know...i'm such a fickle girl :). at least i can admit it and i'm okay with it.

i'm super excited that it's finally november for many reasons...i love the thanksgiving/christmas holiday season, november begins the birthday celebration extravaganza for my family, and last but not least, my birthday is in november. i'm not ashamed to admit that i love my birthday; i don't love it because of the gifts or anything, i just really love my day, that's all. (and for the record, i LOVE celebrating the birthdays of my family and friends...so, it's really not all about me. i just think it's fun to celebrate people.) you know, thinking about how much i love my birthday reminds me of something i did when i was a little girl. when i was 5 yrs old, i was in mrs. kay's sunday school class at church and apparently, one sunday in JULY i decided to lie and tell mrs. kay that it was my birthday all because i wanted the entire sunday school class to sing to me. the plan seemed foolproof to me until my mom came to pick me up and mrs. kay wished me a happy birthday and said she hoped i enjoyed my birthday cake. i still remember feeling sick to my stomach because i knew i had just been caught; needless to say, i spent that sunday afternoon in my room (and was forced to apologize to mrs. kay for lying to her...and IN CHURCH, no less. not that there's ever a good time or place to lie but seriously. i lied to my sunday school teacher in church and i was only 5 yrs old. i'm happy to report that i have since repented of my sins and no longer make it a habit of lying...especially in church to my sunday school teachers ;).

anyway, back to the happiness that is the month of november. my niece, anna, will celebrate her 7th birthday this weekend (her bday is the 5th) and my mom celebrates her birthday on the 7th. we love us some celebrations in my family, oh yes, we do. so, happy birthday to anna, mom, and to me. :)