How He Loves Us!

One of my goals for the year is to spend more time praying and studying the Bible. Adam and I have been working through a Bible study book as well as a devotional. What a wonderful difference it is making in our lives already. It really amazes me how spending time with God daily changes your outlook… I am so thankful for the love and grace that God shows us each and every day.

I am listening to “How He Loves Us” by David Crowder as I write – it is an incredibly powerful song. It explains the passion that God has for us in such a beautiful way…

“How He Loves Us”
He is jealous for me,
Loves like a hurricane, I am a tree,
Bending beneath the weight of his wind and mercy.
When all of a sudden,
I am unaware of these afflictions eclipsed by glory,
And I realise just how beautiful You are,
And how great Your affections are for me.

And oh, how He loves us so,
Oh how He loves us,
How He loves us all

Yeah, He loves us,
Oh! how He loves us,
Oh! how He loves us,
Oh! how He loves.

We are His portion and He is our prize,
Drawn to redemption by the grace in His eyes,
If grace is an ocean, we’re all sinking.
And Heaven meets earth like an unforseen kiss,
And my heart turns violently inside of my chest,
I don’t have time to maintain these regrets,
When I think about, the way…

I am a rule breaker. That’s just how I roll.

So, this doesn’t exactly fit into the whole “Wordless Wednesday” thing – but you know what?  Everyone should be glad I am actually updating my blog!  Deal with it!

Is it obvious that I am a bit grumpy today?  I suppose I am a relatively transparent person so it wouldn’t take much to realize that I am grumpy.  It’s mainly because of the unbearable pain my wisdom tooth is inflicting on me.  One more month and those suckers are going to be history!  Take that wisdom teeth!  It is very wise of me to have them removed, don’t ya think?

I’ve been feeling melancholy recently and am trying not to project that onto those around me.  I seem to always get in a “funk” after Christmas is over.  I enjoy everything about Christmas and it is always so depressing when you have to undecorate your house until next Christmas rolls around.  I think that is why I avoid taking down the Christmas tree as long as possible.  Once the tree is down that means the holidays are officially over. 

This year I was VERY on top of things… No waiting until mid January to de-Christmas the Johnson house.  At 10 AM on New Years Day Lexi and I were busy packing up the wreaths and putting shiny little ornaments safely into thier boxes.  It actually felt good.  It seemed appropriate to pack up the decorations and start looking forward to the New Year.

I am typically not a fan of setting New Year’s resolutions.  I feel like it is just setting yourself up for failure.  How many people actually follow through with the resolutions they set?  I am going to use a completely false statistic I just created and say that 85% of people do not keep resolutions they set for themselves.  I was thinking about this whole resolution setting thing today… I think instead of setting a specific New Year’s resolution, people should resolve to create goals for themselves throughout the entire year.

I was talking with some ladies I work with over lunch today about this very thing.  When I was in college I used to carry a small notebook around with me.  I have an unhealthy need to always carry a notebook with me, but this notebook actually served a specific purpose.  The notebook was small and pink, with lots of pages and a purple pen attached to the rings…  and it was full of goals and things I wanted to accomplish in my life.  Some goals were small.  Some were very ambitions.  Some were silly and some were serious.  But they were all equally important.  As I would complete one, I would mark it off the list and add another at the end to replace it.  Years of my life were documented on those small pages – past, present and future.  Somewhere along the way I lost that little notebook and along with it my spontaneous mindset.  The book was gone… it seemed like many chapters of my life were gone as well.  I tried to remember some of what the notebook contained but there was little I could recall.  I still, to this day, don’t understand why losing that little book affected me the way it did.  Putting your goals in writing makes them more concrete… it gives you inspiration to accomplish them - until you lose your little pink notebook.

So here I am in the present…  the New Year… 2010.  I am going to start a new list this year – just as I had before – one which I will chronicle on my blog instead of in notebook.  Will my list look differently than the one I made 7 years ago?  I am certain.  Will I be able to think back on goals I have accomplished since then?  Perhaps.  Will giving myself a tangible list of things I would like to accomplish make me more likely to do so?  Absolutely. 

So as I sit and write,  I am going against my normal New Year routine and setting a resolution.  I am confident in saying that my resolution for 2010 is to make more resolutions.  To live joyously and without regret.  To follow the path that God is leading me down, even though I am not always sure what it looks like.  To seek God in all that I do, especially when times are difficult.  To take situations for what they are, not what I am afraid they will become.  To love.  To appreciate.  To grow.  To inspire.

What will you strive to achieve this year?

Wordless Wednesday

I am the worst blogger. Ever.

It seems like every time I write a blog I am discussing how infrequently I actually update this thing.  It seems like the one thing I would love to do (which is have some down time to write and relax, just incase you were wondering) is the one thing that I rarely have the time to do. 

The last time I updated my blog was August.  Yep, that;s right.  AUGUST.  And honestly I really haven’t had the time to sit down and write since then.  Life has been hectic, but, then again, when is it not?

I have been making a mental priority list and knocked sending Christmas cards off of it completely.  Christmas cards always start out fun but by the end, they become a daunting task that I put off until the VERY last minute.  I decided that it was a low priority to send cards out this year… unfortunately my mom thinks I am horrible and has lectured me about it.  Doesn’t matter, though, we are still not going  to send Christmas cards this year – we are such rebels!

We are all finished up with our shopping for Lex, but we have a few family gifts we still need to buy.  I had full intentions of finishing our shopping this week, but it has been a bad week! 

We watched the Geminid meteor shower on Sunday night and I somehow poked myself in the eye with my fingernail… which makes watching meteors diffucult.  Monday morning I woke up with serious eyeball pain so I drug myself to the doctor and got some meds for it.  I went back to work on Tuesday and then a crown fell off one of my molars!  I spent this afternoon at the dentist getting my crown put back on.  Needless to say, I am ready for the weekend to be here!

I am really looking forward to the Christmas break.  We don’t have any big travel plans, which is unusual for us at any time of year.  I am praying for a quiet, wonderful and relaxing Christmas.  It is so easy to get caught up in the commercialism of the Christmas season - we want to work hard to keep the focus on why we are celebrating Christmas  -  the birth of Jesus!

As Tigger would say, TTFN!  Tata for now!

Where do we go from here?

It’s been a while since I have written.   It figures!    I am sure at some point when I first started this blog I mentioned how terrible I am at blogging regularly.  Adam and Lexi have been begging (to the point that some might call it pestering!) me to post a blog for quite some time now.  They both have really great blogs.

Adam updates his blog often – posting pictures he has taken along with some commentary.  He really is a talented photographer and I am always impressed with his work.  I am a VERY creative person and like to think I am artistic in many ways… but I can’t take a good picture no matter how hard I try!  So, needless to say great pictures always amaze me. 

We got Lexi a nice point and shoot camera for Christmas this past year and she has gone on lots of photo outings with her daddy.  She has a good eye for photo subjects and takes great pictures too, especially for a 9 year old!  She has started posting her pictures on her blog, as well.

As for me, I have no idea what to post.  I enjoy writing but there is something about sitting in front of a computer screen with an empty blog that gives me writer’s block.  I just have no idea what to say…

The past couple of months – gosh the past couple of years – have been really crazy for us.  This month has been especially taxing in so many ways.  I feel like so much is up in the air right now in our lives and it’s very hard to feel settled.  We are just praying that God gives us some clear guidance and shows us exactly where He wants us to be.

So, I suppose the biggest questions is…

Where do we go from here?

Oh dear…

I have baby fever!  Having a baby is all I can think about… hehe  Think my biological clock is ticking??  I am about to turn 28, you know.

Now, I just have to lose weight.  I want to be healthy and in shape before we actually have a baby!

Hmmmm, that’s all for now.

Bible Across America

Bible Across America visited our church this morning.  It is a really neat project that Zondervan is doing in celebration of the 30thanniversary of the NIV version of the Bible.  They are traveling to cities all over the United States and having people hand write the Bible verse by verse.  The final version is going to be displayed in the Smithsonian.  It will also be copied and made available for purchase.  Each person who transcribes a verse will be printed in the index of the handwritten Bible, with a note saying which verse they wrote. 

I was really excited to be able to participate in such a big and historical project that brought Christians together all over America.  I was even more excited for Lexi to have a chance to write one of the verses in her own handwriting… she thought it was a very neat thing to and I am sure as she grows in her faith she will appreciate the magnitude of it even more. 

I was also interviewed by The Statesman about why I was participating in the event… more on that later

I’ll close with the passage that we wrote…  Lexi wrote Isaiah 26:13 and I wrote Isaiah 26:14 – Adam decided to come back and do his verse, so it was later than ours… Isaiah 28:17.  Anyhow, here is Isaiah 26 in its entirety.

Isaiah 26

A Song of Praise

 ¹ In that day this song will be sung in the land of Judah:
       We have a strong city;
       God makes salvation
       its walls and ramparts.

 ² Open the gates
       that the righteous nation may enter,
       the nation that keeps faith.

 ³ You will keep in perfect peace
       him whose mind is steadfast,
       because he trusts in you.

 ⁴ Trust in the LORD forever,
       for the LORD, the LORD, is the Rock eternal.

 ⁵ He humbles those who dwell on high,
       he lays the lofty city low;
       he levels it to the ground
       and casts it down to the dust.

 ⁶ Feet trample it down—
       the feet of the oppressed,
       the footsteps of the poor.

 ⁷ The path of the righteous is level;
       O upright One, you make the way of the righteous smooth.

 ⁸ Yes, LORD, walking in the way of your laws, ^[a]
       we wait for you;
       your name and renown
       are the desire of our hearts.

 ⁹ My soul yearns for you in the night;
       in the morning my spirit longs for you.
       When your judgments come upon the earth,
       the people of the world learn righteousness.

 ¹⁰ Though grace is shown to the wicked,
       they do not learn righteousness;
       even in a land of uprightness they go on doing evil
       and regard not the majesty of the LORD.

 ¹¹ O LORD, your hand is lifted high,
       but they do not see it.
       Let them see your zeal for your people and be put to shame;
       let the fire reserved for your enemies consume them.

 ¹² LORD, you establish peace for us;
       all that we have accomplished you have done for us.

 ¹³ O LORD, our God, other lords besides you have ruled over us,
       but your name alone do we honor.

 ¹⁴ They are now dead, they live no more;
       those departed spirits do not rise.
       You punished them and brought them to ruin;
       you wiped out all memory of them.

 ¹⁵ You have enlarged the nation, O LORD;
       you have enlarged the nation.
       You have gained glory for yourself;
       you have extended all the borders of the land.

 ¹⁶ LORD, they came to you in their distress;
       when you disciplined them,
       they could barely whisper a prayer. ^[b]

 ¹⁷As a woman withchild and about to give birth
       writhes and cries out in her pain,
       so were we in your presence, O LORD.

 ¹⁸ We were with child, we writhed in pain,
       but we gave birth to wind.
       We have not brought salvation to the earth;
       we have not given birth to people of the world.

 ¹⁹ But your dead will live;
       their bodies will rise.
       You who dwell in the dust,
       wake up and shout for joy.
       Your dew is like the dew of the morning;
       the earth will give birth to her dead.

 ²⁰ Go, my people, enter your rooms
       and shut the doors behind you;
       hide yourselves for a little while
       until his wrath has passed by.

 ²¹ See, the LORD is coming out of his dwelling
       to punish the people of the earth for their sins.
       The earth will disclose the blood shed upon her;
       she will conceal her slain no longer.

Wordless Wednesday

How does it feel?

Today was a historical one, that is for sure.

I started the day with mixed feelings and am ending the day the same way. 

I do not agree with President Obama’s politics.  I am very much a political conservative… but I do respect him.  I am proud, not only for him, but for the African Americans in our country and for everything the inauguration today signified.  Our country has come such a long way since its birth 232 years ago and I am proud that our first African American President was sworn in today.

I spent quite a bit of time today reflecting on President George W. Bush and the 8 years he was in office.  What a difficult two terms he served…  No matter how one feels about President Bush, there is no denying that.  I cannot even begin to imagine his feelings when our country was attacked by terrorists only 21 months after he took office.  Thinking back on September 11th, 2001 still brings tears to my eyes.  I remember exactly where I was… exactly what I was doing… who I was with… the emotions I felt… the overwhelming fear and the unbelievable sadness.  And I was so far away.  Watching the events unfold on my television screen… I felt helpless.  The world stopped that day – all eyes focused on us – some mourning, some gaining a sick pleasure from our pain. 

President Bush spoke words of hope and determination laced with sadness and sincere compassion that day:

Good evening. Today, our fellow citizens, our way of life, our very freedom came under attack in a series of deliberate and deadly terrorist acts. The victims were in airplanes, or in their offices; secretaries, businessmen and women, military and federal workers; moms and dads, friends and neighbors. Thousands of lives were suddenly ended by evil, despicable acts of terror. 
The pictures of airplanes flying into buildings, fires burning, huge structures collapsing, have filled us with disbelief, terrible sadness, and a quiet, unyielding anger. These acts of mass murder were intended to frighten our nation into chaos and retreat. But they have failed; our country is strong. 
A great people has been moved to defend a great nation. Terrorist attacks can shake the foundations of our biggest buildings, but they cannot touch the foundation of America. These acts shattered steel, but they cannot dent the steel of American resolve.

I remember how that day felt.  Do you? 

How would you have responded?  What actions would you have taken?

I cannot say that I know what I would have done in President Bush’s position. 

And that was just the first of many trials. 

Terror threats.

Multiple catastrophic hurricanes.

Economic crisis.

… War.

All while under the critical eye of the citizens in the country he devoted himself to.

I admire President Bush.  He stood firm in his beliefs and, in my humble opinion, did what he thought was best for the country he loves.

Whether you agree with his decisions, policies, beliefs…

Respect the man who was the 43rd President of our country. 

http://www.time.com/time/photoessays/2009/photographing_bush/?xid=rss-topstories

Just as I will respect our new leader.

Wordless Wednesday