Vacation - Part 3 - Night Life!

Oh my how things have changed.  With two kiddos in tow, we opted to stay in much more than we went out while on vacation.  We really only ventured out for a "night on the town" once since our friends treated us to dinner at their house one night and on the other we just snacked until we were full. But our big night out was oh so much fun and started with a seafood dinner of course, where we gorged ourselves on the best shrimp we've ever eaten, crab legs, oysters (well, Josh... not me), and conch fritters.  Jake and Lilly opted for battered chicken fingers and "fry-fries."  I don't know what it is, but there is something about having dinner in a tiki-hut type place with the sea air blowing in that is just perfect to me.  I could've sat there all night if it hadn't been for two restless little ones (who were actually angels the whole time we were there).

Daddy and Lilly got a great "date night" picture together, but in true Jake form, this is the best we got of our mommy-son time:

Our main event for the night was the Carolina boardwalk!  I don't think I've ever been to a beach with an actual carnival set up on a good ol'-fashioned boardwalk along the ocean.  It was picturesque and perfect, plus the weather was cool and breezy.

The kids loved looking at all of the lights... there was so much to see!  Jake just kept saying "fireworks" which has been his favorite word since he discovered their wonder on the fourth of July. 

As for the rides, we had no idea what to expect out of our little Jake.  He has never done any sort of kiddie-ride, so we knew he would either love it or completely freak out.  Jake spotted the dinosaurs that went round and round and up and down and decided that this would be his first adventure. We could not go with him on this one, so all I could see were visions of him getting scared, having a meltdown, and jumping out of the flying car... typical, rational mom-thoughts I'm sure.  Instead, before we could even hand the ride attendant the ticket, he had already walked through the gate and climbed up into one, looking at us like "let's go already!"  Once buckled in, he just sat there and rode on it like he had done it a million times before.  He was pretty serious on the ride, too, but would sometimes say "I really high!" when he whizzed by.  It was one of the scariest / proudest moments as a parent to date.

By the time we called it a night, Jake had ridden everything that he was tall enough for, including the kiddie roller coaster, which was bigger than most that I've seen.  I got to ride with him on that one and it   worked up some speed!  Our favorite, however was probably the big slide.  Notice in the video that after he rides with Daddy he just says "Whee!  It's fun!" but after he rides with me he says, "You okay?"  My little boy needed to check on his mama... he just melts my heart.

Know what else melts my heart?  Dressing Miss Lil in outfits to match her mama... yes, I went there.  I'll spare my children from doing it often, but on occasion and at this age I thought we looked adorable (if I do say so myself).

And no night out is complete without a stop for ice cream!  The Lil-bug loves it more than anyone I know and is the only baby I've ever seen eat an entire cone without spilling a drop.  

This was certainly one of the best nights we've had as a family, and certainly a great one as a parent.  Here's to great memories!

Vacation - Part 2 - Carolina Beach!

My family did not grow up going to the same summer spot every summer, at least when it did not involve visiting family.  But Josh's family went to the same beach almost every summer and they contain some of his fondest childhood memories.  While we are not "beach people" per se, we could not pass up the opportunity when Josh was asked to preach at a church on the coast of North Carolina.  To thank us, they put us up in a condo, overlooking the dunes and the water.  Ahhhhhhhhhh.  That is the life.

Vacation should be exactly what it was for us this year- just time spent together with absolutely no distractions.  We kept phone usage to a  minimum and did not even bring a computer.  The condo had a TV, but we hardly turned it on.  Mostly we just read books, played with the kids, and hung out pool and beach-side (but mostly pool since it was right outside our door).  We went down to the beach as soon as we arrived and while it took Jake some time to get used to the sand, Lil only wanted to do one thing:

Yep, she's my little bathing beauty... I think we'll get along fine.  Once she was up, she'd stick her hand in the sand and cry, I'd wipe it off, and she'd go right back and do it all again.  Over and over... so funny.  We thought she might like the little tide pools that formed, but even wet sand was not appealing to her.  She lasted long enough to get one picture... works for me:

Once Jake warmed up to the sand (and discovered buckets and shovels) he was a lot of fun!  He even let Daddy take him into the water for a minute, but I could tell he was pretty concerned.  I didn't mind since Carolina Beach has some of the worst rip tides in the area... I stayed on shore and pretended not to be nervous!

We did have one not-so-successful beach day when Jake just wasn't having it.  The little dude thought that we were going to the pool and LOST HIS MIND when we went to the beach instead.  He had a true terrible-two's temper tantrum complete with throwing himself on the ground and rolling around, which resulted in him being more upset and shouting, "I'm dirty!  I'm dirty!" over and over again.  I probably could have helped, but I was having a hard time not laughing.  I took pictures instead... way to be supportive, right??!!

We tried to spend an entire day out there (even purchasing a small baby pool for Lil at the advice of several bloggers with young children) and the day ended up to be too windy.  Our umbrellas and tent blew over repeatedly, the lifeguards called all swimmers out of the water, and Lil decided that the baby pool was not a good option for her and stayed on the blanket, continuing to do her hand in the sand-cry-wipe it off cycle instead.  It was, however, a great day for flying a kite.

Much to the joy of our children, we ended up right back here:

So this year my kids certainly preferred the pool and that was A-okay with me.  I'm just as happy lounging poolside as I am beachside, and we could hear the surf from our balcony so I spent plenty of time out there, especially when I drank my morning coffee.  Jake even came around and wore his water wings, which was a fight that lasted days.  I so wish I had a video camera... the kid thinks he can swim and acted like we were torturing him when we tried to make him wear them.  We let him go under once when he was "swimming without them" and he came up wide-eyed and panicked before raising both arms in the air and yelling "I did it!  I swim!"  Oh boy.  Mr. Independent does not want help from anyone. He is going to do mighty big things some day with that attitude!  We enjoyed our uninterrupted time with them so much.  We did manage a family picture on the beach, too, where both kids are looking at least in the direction of the camera.  I'll call that a win!

I'm still in post-vacation mourning mode, so these daily posts are therapeutic for me and will help me remember the little antecdotes and share them with Jake and Lil someday.  I so very much love this little foursome of mine and have to thank God daily for a gift this big and special.

Next up?  The night-life in Carolina Beach!  Well, night-life with a toddler and a 9-month-old anyway... which is the night-life I prefer!

`

Vacation - Part 1

Guess who's back???  And guess who is not happy about it?  Yes it's true, I have the post-vacation blues.  We had such a great time away and literally lived in a bubble for a week- no TV, no phones (for the most part), no laptops, no schedule... it was just us... and it was bliss.  And since I took no less than 200 pictures, I'm going to have to do my recap over the course of the whole week.  And you're going to want to check everyday because the pictures of my tiny beach bums are well worth seeing.  But our trip  didn't start at the beach as we had an overnight pit-stop to visit Josh's family on the way.  The kids could not have been better on the drive and when we got there, they were ready to run around and blow off some steam.  Luckily cousin Skye was there ready to play, too, so we had an impromptu photo session, dressed in matching outfits of course!

The closest we came to the 3 of them looking at the camera

Best Friends... isn't my niece the cutest little thing??

Sharing secrets already

Make no mistake... this one is a DIVA in the making!  Such a precious princess.

Skye absolutely LOVED Jake and basically chased him around the house constantly.  We couldn't tell if he was afraid of her or just annoyed, but it was entertaining nonetheless.  We stopped through on our way back home, too, and saw even more family- Grandmom and Grandy again, Jake and Lilly's Great MawMaw and Pop, Uncle Sam, Uncle Ben, and Aunt Ginny.

Grandmom

Great MawMaw

Auntie Ginny and Skye-Baby

Uncle Ben

Uncle Sam - I promise that Lilly actually likes him unlike what the picture shows!

It was an all-too short visit, but I'm glad that it was somewhat on the way and we could see everyone, even if it was brief.  Seeing those three kiddos together made it so worth it and I know that it will just get more and more fun as the kids get older.  We have two weddings coming up in this bunch, so I'm sure more visits are to come!

Check back tomorrow for beach and pool pics!

Reflections - Gut Check!

Sooo... our weekly reflections post was a challenge to update others on how you're doing in your daily walk with God.  Yikes.  Last Thursday when that challenge was posted I thought, "oh this is so great!  THIS is what's going to keep me on track!"  And I have to admit... it did for a few days.  For about four days I made sure to do my daily devotional right when I woke up and it was wonderful.  I really felt like it started my day off on the right foot and put my mind and heart in the right condition to really make the most of the day I had been given.  And then like anything else... I fell right back into my "busy" routine.  Because of my growing to-do list, my daily quiet time kept getting further and further down on the list of priorities until it eventually just did not happen.  And so this morning, I hang my head in embarrassment as I come here to reveal that I still have a long way to go to be the Christian that God wants me to be.  More importantly though, I still have a long way to go to be the Christian that I know I can be!  My heart desires it more than anything and it's the discipline that I struggle with.  Schedules, routines, regimens, etc. have never been my strong suit, which is strange because I am the daughter of a retired Army colonel!  My schedule is different just about every day... I don't even get up at the same time everyday but just prefer to wake when I hear the little ones.  I typically go downstairs, feed and play with them while having my morning coffee and watching some sort of morning show and then get them dressed for their various activities that day.  I sometimes have to take a break from this to check my work emails and respond to anything that needs immediate action, depending on what time the day started.  From there, it's all a blur.  I work, do laundry, clean house, run the kids from here to there, shower (most days... and usually not until around lunch time), grab a snack or two (but rarely a full meal in the middle of the day), and sometimes run a quick errand.  So you see?  God gets lost in the midst of this "important" stuff.  Aside from spending quality time with my kids and doing my job well, the rest is seriously just junk that gets in the way.  It can wait, can't it?

So what's the point?  What can we do to see past the junk and get to the bread of life everyday?  Well, I've been thinking a lot about it... what wisdom can I offer when I don't even have it right myself?  And here's what I've come up with:

Fasting is a Biblical principle and something we see throughout history, mainly when a person wants to have a big transformation in their lives.  About twice a year, I do some sort of fast, one being giving up television completely, which reminds me of how unimportant "my shows" are.  The other has to do with some sort of food, which is more along the lines of what you find in the Bible.  The idea is to give up something that has a stronghold on you- that thing that gets in the way of your relationship with Christ.  The cool thing with anything having to do with food is that your hunger pains are physical reminders to pray or seek God... so that relationship grows.  While I am not suggesting that we all start fasting (although if you've never done something like it and want to grow your faith, I do recommend one), my new "hunger pang" is going to be chores... hang with me for a second.  Every night after I put the kids to bed, I run around like a crazy person putting all of the toys away and straightening the house.  I love to go to bed with a clean kitchen and feel like I sleep better.  So my commitment instead is going to be that before I can get to that, I need to sit down and have my personal time with our heavenly Father.  If He truly is more important than my messy house like I say He is, then any time I want to tackle a household chore, He needs to come first, whether that's taking my daily time with Him or saying a prayer, or just giving Him a few minutes of praise for all He has given me.  In the evenings, I do realize that I might come to a point where I'll spend my time and be too tired to clean up (gasp!) but you know what?  That mess will be there in the morning to tackle and kids are just going to pull it all out again anyway.  And I'm generally so tired at the end of a long day, that I doubt the mess is REALLY going to mess up my sleep.  In fact, I think I may rest easier knowing that my spirit has been fed.  I do realize that all of this adds up to discipline, which I self-admittedly am not good at, but rather than being a scheduled thing, it's more of a "hunger pang" thing, so I'm hoping that does me some good.  And for additional accountability, I'll give a weekly update on how that's going.  Deal?

Brittany posted her amazing thoughts on this topic over at her blog Daughter... Wife... Mom... Sis, and I have to tell you, it's pretty awesome.  She gives us glimpses into her journal and I think they will really bless you.  I'm thinking I need to start doing that to track my thoughts and progress like she does! And if you shared with us, please leave a comment!

As for next week, I'd hate to double up on a topic, but since we all just admitted that this is something we need to get better at, the challenge is to do another weekly update on your progress.  Maybe we'll make this some sort of 21 day thing, since that's how long it takes to make something a habit.  Put some of these new ideas and methods into place and see if that helps, and share with us on where you're at, what is working, and what is not working.  I also do not want to post a deeper topic than this because I'm not 100% sure that I'll be blogging this week as we leave for vacation tomorrow (wooo-hooooo!).  But I do promise to do my update when I get back if I don't get around to it this week.  Cool?

As always, thanks for reading and sharing and for the encouragement and accountability.  We rarely get comments on these things so I'm not sure if they bless you at all, but I can speak for Brittany when I say that we love coming together on Thursdays in this way.  She's in Colorado and I'm in Kentucky, but we're sisters in Christ and the distance doesn't matter.  Have a wonderful week of seeking, praying, and hopefully growing in Christ.

As for me?  This chick needs to get packed... sunshine and sand, here I come!

When Blogs Collide...

I'm beginning to realize that I blog in spurts.  You can probably gauge how busy our life is at the present moment by how frequently or infrequently I post.  To be honest, this past weekend was the first weekend in a loooooonnnnnnnggggg time that we had nothing going on.  And that's only because our original plans got canceled as Josh's half IronMan was downgraded to an Olympic-distance due to the heat.  [Speaking of the heat... WHEN is it going to end??  This summer has been downright ridiculous!]  Most of our busy has been due to races actually and between marathons, half marathons, 10K's, and triathlons we seem to be traveling all over the surrounding area every other weekend.  It feels good to be back to our old racing selves, fully enjoying the season.

But along with our travels, we often find ourselves in a town where we have old friends... and sometimes even friends that we've never even met!  The first came on a trip to Nashville back in May when Josh ran the Nashville Marathon.  Even though we were just there for one night, we still managed to meet up with one of my favorite gals, Kristen, who I follow over at Add-and-Land.  I had seen her last August, but hadn't seen her daughter since she was just weeks old (and she's now six!) and had never seen her son in person.  Jake and Landon were like two peas in a pod... it could not have made me happier!

Coming along as well was my blog-only friend, Jessica from The Parsonage Family.  This was the first time I've ever met someone whom I only "know" from the blog-world, and it was so amazing to see her and feel like we were old friends.  Her husband and sweet kiddos were there, too, and although they are adorable in pictures, I definitely think all kids are cuter in person.  She did a better recap of the trip that you can find here and here's a picture of (most of) our crew.  Notice which child is missing... Jake had decided to run around like a maniac at this point, which was okay considering that he had spent four hours in the car AND gotten car sick on the way there!  He's such a trooper.  In this picture though, the back of Landon's head could pass for Jake!

Jess and I hit it off so well in fact that we recently met up again for lunch when she was up visiting her parents.  I never would have imagined that an online friendship would be something that I would ever have, or that it would translate into real life so well.  She and I have a ton in common as we're both married to pastors, so that helps, too.

THEN... on our way back from Georgia a few weekends ago, I asked Josh if we could possibly make a quick pit stop in Knoxville to visit Channa from My Boys.  Channa and I met late in college, but really reconnected (online of course) when we were both pregnant for the first time at the same time.  Her boy was due in February and Jake in March and we both used blogs to journal the experience and probably became each other's most avid readers at that time.  Then we both had kiddo #2 and have felt like we've known each other's kids all their lives.  I can't even explain it.  We've been trying to get together for YEARS and a quick lunch at Chick-Fil-A finally worked out.  Seeing our kids play together was like a dream come true:

I know I've mentioned before that occasionally I toy with the idea of giving up the blog, but then I think about these friendship and how real and rich they are due to this little outlet.  It's so strange and I never would have expected this, but I absolutely love it!  I follow many others and read quite a few that I don't actually follow, too, and hope that this can happen more in the future.  And if you're ever passing through Eastern Kentucky and would like our blogs to collide, I'd love for that to happen, too!

Reflections - Just Do It!

Happy 5th of July!  Having a holiday mid-week really through a wrench in my organizational skills, but it was a nice day off nonetheless... more to come on that... along with a catch up on what we've been up to and where we've been for the past two weeks.  Summertime does not mean slower-time for this family- we're running just as fast as always!  But let's get down to it, shall we?

This week's topic was based on a message that my husband preached last week from the book of James.  If you did not get a chance to check it out, you can view it online here, and the week 2 message is up now, too, if you are at all interested.  There was so much good "meat" in this message, so I thought it would be best to just hone in on a couple major points so that I don't write a blog post that would take you two hours to read.

The first, is applications.  So you claim to be a Christian, eh?  Did you know that Christian basically means "little-Christ"?  So if I asked you what you were doing on a day-to-day basis to be like Christ and show His love to others, would you be able to give me several examples?  What about reading the Bible?  Are you actively in the Word?  Are you tithing?  Are you praying?  ... Let me say this before I go any further: these questions are just as much for me as for anyone else.  Although I am married to a pastor, I can put all kinds of "priorities" in my life above these that I just listed.  It pains me to type these words, but I have to admit that I do not read my Bible everyday.  Eek!  And you know what?  There are days that I get in bed and realize that I did not speak to God all day!  And then I look back at my day and you know what I see?  That the "priorities" I put in front of those things were running around like a crazy person picking up groceries, cleaning up toys, doing laundry, and doing the everyday mundane things that are inevitably going to need to get done again tomorrow.  Cleaning up after two kids is like shoveling snow in a blizzard... so why should I focus so much of my attention on that when the creator of the universe is patiently waiting on me to come to Him?  I think I forget what a privilege that is.  I mean, think about it: the most powerful force in the entire universe wants my company?  He wants to bless me?  And He wants to do it even though I don't love Him and serve Him perfectly?  If the President of the United States or maybe even a famous actor, sports player, or public figure wanted my company, wouldn't I drop just about everything to see that it happened?  Wouldn't I let the laundry sit for another hour or two or the house go messy for a day so that I could work that out?  And yet, someone FAR more powerful and important than all of those things beckons me to Him everyday and I brush Him off sometimes.  "Give me five more minutes, God," or "Let me finish these dishes, God" or "I'm not ready to get up, God... You made me and understand that I need my sleep rather than getting up to spend some time with You" always get in the way.  Sound familiar?

And then there's the other issue of reading that book of His.  In order to be like Christ (so a Christian in other words), don't we have to know what He said and did while He was here?  And isn't that all written down for us?  I know as well as anyone that the Bible is an intimidating book.  It's big, and it doesn't use the same flow of language that we use in everyday conversation.  But as Josh points out in this message, there are so many different version and translations of the Bible, so you can always try a different one if the one you have isn't working.  I feel silly in saying that until about five years ago, I did not know that there was anything other than the King James Version!  No wonder I was confused!  So if you take nothing else from his message this week, I at least hope you walk away knowing that there are resources out there to help you understand what it is that He is trying to say to You.  We speak to Him through prayer... He speaks through us in His word.  How can we live it if we don't read it?

He summed it all up with this one verse found in James chapter 1 (imagine that!):

22 But don’t just listen to God’s word. You must do what it says. Otherwise, you are only fooling yourselves.23 For if you listen to the word and don’t obey, it is like glancing at your face in a mirror.24 You see yourself, walk away, and forget what you look like.

Josh puts it in language that we will definitely understand: "Don't just hear it, but DO it!" 

How often do we know what to do, but yet we go the other way?  And how often does that turn out the way we'd like it to?  Hardly ever.  So let's try it together... let's do the things that we already know, learn what we don't, and try them out, too.  Make TIME for God, for He is the giver of time... shouldn't He get some?  And put Him first, because He always puts you first.  Start making choices based on His word and see how your life begins to change.

As always, you can read Brittany's thoughts over on her blog here and leave your own thoughts as a comment.  Appropriately, Brittany picked next week's topic that falls right in line with this.  Coincidence?  I think not.  So here's the topic for next Thursday:

"I have been challenged to my core recently to really evaluate how good I am doing with "living it out" so I pose the question....how are you doing???  I'd like for us to focus on this for next week.  And share along the lines for some accountability what is working and what may not be working right now.  And I'd like for the MAIN IDEA to be that of "cooperation and discipline"...what do you think??"

So let's live it out together this week.  I'm particularly excited about sharing what works for you so that hopefully some of it can be applied to my own life.  And just like every Thursday, I look forward to meeting you all again here next week.

Reflections - Cornerstone

Happy Thursday!

Did you have a chance to listen to the song picked out for this week?  If not, it's Cornerstone by Hillsong and you can find it here... and even listen to it as you read this!  I admit, I had not heard it even though I love Hillsong, and it's actually a good fit for someone who grew up in a traditional church and is dipping their toes in the "contemporary" Christian music world.  I put quotations around contemporary, only because I personally do not really like the phrase.  Everything in this country, from technology to building structures to corporate infrastructure has always continued to grow and change and improve with the times.  When we have more resources available, why not use them, right?  But when the church puts a rock band on stage, we're viewed as "contemporary" and not just current with the times that we're living in... but I do get that some people are not as comfortable in that environment as they are in a more traditional setting, and that's okay by me.  We always say as long as you're in a church, we're happy... it doesn't have to be ours if that's not works for you in terms of worshipping God.  

WOW... what a tangent... sorry!  All I meant to say is that this song is basically a hymn with some drums, so yes, it's a good mix of the new and the old.  Cool?  Okay, moving on...

Instead of reflecting too deeply on the song this week, I thought about that word: Cornerstone.  I kind of knew what that was, but looked it up just to make sure I wasn't thinking of something else.  Webster's Dictionary defines it as this:

(1) - A stone forming a part of a corner or angle in a wall;  (2) a basic element: foundation

When I started this blog three years ago (already??), I never had any intention of doing any posts like this.  I'll get into a lot of this in a future post, but basically the original concept was to simply have a place to update our friends and family on how we were doing after moving across the country.  It was my outlet to write about our new home, new town, new friends, and our church planting experience, which I later found is almost impossible to put into words.  But after we got married and through the process of planting our first church, my faith and trust in God was put to the test... A LOT.  But you know what?  The more it was tested, the more it grew.  The more I doubted, the more I handed over to Him, and the more I felt His love.  I am a completely different person now than I was three years ago, and when you think about it, that's not a very long time in the grand scheme of things.  I had always known who God was, but I never really surrendered to Him, put my full faith in Him, or fully trusted Him.  It was so often my way or the highway, and my way always seemed to lead to trouble.  Hmmm... imagine that, right?  It wasn't until I decided to live by the principles set out in the Bible and follow the teachings of Jesus and read the letters from Paul that my life truly began to change, in all kinds of crazy good ways.  Sure, there are some tangible blessings: I have a great marriage (granted, that's all due to the two of us being committed to treat each other by what's outlined in the Bible), two beautiful children, a roof over our head, food in our refrigerator, money in our bank account (most of the time- ha!), and more friends than a person could ever want.  But the true blessings have been the intangible things... the knowledge that even on my worst day, things are going to be okay; the comfort in knowing that there is a God who loves me for ME, no matter how badly I mess up; the willingness to make the wrong things in my life right; the freedom of knowing that I don't have to be trapped by my past mistakes or be pinpointed as the person I used to be; and the peace in knowing that Jesus died for my sins so that one day I can have eternal life in heaven with Him and His people.  My life doesn't end here on this earth... I am just a visitor and my home is in heaven.

The reason my blog has weekly posts on a Christian topic now mixed in with the day-to-day stuff is because my life changed dramatically because of my relationship with God.  I knew who Jesus was, but didn't truly meet Him and get to know Him until I first started learning what He actually had to say, and secondly decided to let Him guide my thoughts and behaviors.  I am in such a better place than I have ever been and wish I would have figured this all out much sooner, but am thankful that I'm here now.  And I want others to have it... so I have no choice but to share.  A building cannot be sturdy without a cornerstone or a strong foundation as we learned above, and I, too, cannot be sturdy without Jesus in my life.  He is my foundation.  He is the root of all of my decisions and actions.  And He ensures that I don't crumble into rubble only to try and build myself up again without His help.  I've tried that path and although it works for awhile, it ultimately ends up giving you a lot of heartache.  My best day without Him isn't near as great as my worst day with Him.  And that, my friends, is news worth sharing.

My encouragement this week is to evaluate where you are at in your relationship with Christ and strive to make it better.  If you don't have one, I challenge you to learn more about Him... read His teachings, learn His story, and perhaps you'll fall in love the way I did.  If you do know about Him, work toward living BY his teachings, doing things HIS way, which again, might mean doing a little reading yourself to find out what all that entails.  Doing things this way makes life SO much easier.  And if you're not in a church, I challenge you to go out and find one... and one that connects with YOU.  Just because you grew up Catholic, Baptist, Methodist, etc. does not mean you have to continued down that path if you're just going through the motions on a Sunday morning and not getting anything out of it.  Those are all man-made religions, split only because of a few tiny differences in interpretation of something in the Bible.  When looking for a new home, look at it through the lens of how the people treated you and welcomed you in and how the message spoke to you.  You might know right away that it's not for you or you might be willing to give it a second shot just to see if that's the place.  And remember that it's not just important for you to go each Sunday just to "do" your obligatory one hour.  The reason it's so important is to surround yourself with others who are striving to live the way you want to live and trying to do life better.  We all mess up, and if we surround ourselves with people who have behavior patterns that we're trying to get away from, they are just going to pull us back down with them... the temptation is too strong and we are too weak.  But if we're surrounding ourselves with people who understand that we're not perfect and admit that they're not perfect and everyone is just trying to be better, well, chances are that path will be a little bit easier.  It's all about community... and it's all about living in the word.  Let God be the cornerstone of your life.  Try living His way for awhile.  Chances are, over time, you might find yourself blogging about things you used to roll your eyes at because you just can't keep it in.  In the end, I know where I'm going and I know who ultimately will be the judge, and my days won't end here.

Please jump on over to Brittany's blog and read what she has to say here, and if you shared something, please leave a comment so we can check out your post.  I will eventually start doing link-ups again, but right now it's a lot of work and we only have one or two linking up (if at all) so we'll just hold off on it.

For next week I'm going to put in a bit of a shameless plug and have us all watch a message by my personal favorite pastor, who I happen to be married to.  He delivered a slammin' message last weekend, which I think is worth sharing.  And for those of you readers who were actually there to hear it, perhaps you can share your reflections on it in my comments section next week.  Cool?  You can listen to it online here.

Alright... sorry this got up late this week, but better late than never, right?  Have a happy Thursday!