F...P...U

Well, HH and I have sucked it up and signed on for Financial Peace University. We have put on our big girl and big boy draw'rs and got down to business.
Translation...we have been to one class.
We, like most other couples, are money personality opposites. HH is a spender. I am a saver. Well, that might not be a fair assessment since I have a difficult time saving a brownie 'til tomorrow, but when it comes to money I am more saver-ish.
After the first class, I wish I had been a lot more saver-ish. How one class can make you feel like such an idiot in one moment and give you hope in the next is beyond me. Youth is so wasted on the young. I told HH after the meeting that the MCs were taking this class when they turned 18, if not sooner.
Our first assignment is in progress. Notice I am blogging about this on Friday because one of our assignments is to sit down and do a quickie budget this weekend. I am afraid if I wait until Sunday night to share, well, it might not be so pretty.
The first meeting was a mixture of feelings.
Mad at myself for not being smarter.
Relieved I can stop being foolish.
Fearful of the steps laid out before us.
Excited to be going down that path.
Aware that the short term work will most likely be difficult and uphill.
Hopeful, knowing the end result is so worth it.
So, we start walking.
I am sure we will grow weary some days.
I am confident other days we will celebrate victories, small as they are.
The goal is not to get rich quick.
The goal is to serve the One Master well. To be a good steward of His provision. Be able to bless others in need. Be able to provide for the boys and the generations to come.

Lucky for you, you get to come along.

For the good, the bad and the ugly.

And you will love us through it, right?

Right?

You will choose to:)

MY DIRT

One of our commissions before we left the SSMTC in Houston weekend before last....has it been that long....oh mercy......was to get a sample of dirt and bring it home with us. It symbolized the ground we were taking back from the enemy, ground he had stolen from us or we had simply let go. Sister and I chose a spot near the parking garage and scooped up our dirt. It was good, wet dirt, saturated from the sprinklers, much like our spirits had been saturated with the word of God that weekend.

My dirt sat by my computer for about a week. When I moved it to another location, I heard it rattling around in my cup. It was dry, and I knew how it felt.

It had only been a week.

How could it have been dry?

Now although I teach science, contrary to what my kiddos would tell you, it is not rocket science.

It was dry because it had not been watered.

Not even a drizzle.

It sat on my desk, out of the elements, and had simply dried out.

The moisture from Houston gone.

I didn't add any to it.

It wasn't exposed to anything that would let it get water.

Nope, just plain ol'dried out dirt.

Aren't we so much the same?

We can sit under the greatest teaching, hear the best sermon from our pastor, or straight up get a word from God in our own study time, and our spirits are saturated with Christ.

We are on fire and WE ARE GOING TO MAKE SOME CHANGES!

Then a day goes by, and we didn't get back in the Word.

Then another day goes by and we didn't have time to stop and pray.

Pretty soon it has been a week and we feel dry.

We feel like we are starting to crumble.

We just sort of rattle around in our "boxes".

Unlike my dirt, dear friends, we have choice.

We don't have to be "placed" under the water of God's word;we can go there ourselves.

We can let the presence and the power of Christ saturate our lives, soaking deep into our hearts and minds.

Making us into something able to be molded and not just crumbly.

From Sunday to Sunday, most of us in this country have the opportunity to open up our Bibles and read.

We have the opportunity to sit before the feet of Christ and hear what He has to say.

We have the opportunity.

We also have the choice.

You and I have a choice.

Today, let us choose Jesus.

Posted by the chic who needed to hear this probably more than anyone else:)

MY SSMTC RECAP

I feel it is required.

I feel obligated.

But it is difficult to put into words.

How do you explain to your husband how meeting with 1200+ other women you only know from this side of the screen is incredibly emotional?

How do you express to someone why you are moved to tears when you worship with ladies you have never ever met in your entire life?

Ladies you only recognize because of their little picture thingy?

How can I tell you how awestruck sister and I were at the hand of God on our very interactions with these women?

How can I convey the great emotion I felt leaving the "sisters" Saturday after lunch, when we had just met them Friday night?

How 1200+ women sit with Bibles open, laughing and crying at the same time, hungry for a word from not only their teacher but their God?

It is so hard to explain how 1200+ women, with a few men thrown in for good measure (and good worship!), can sit and listen to the same teaching and each feel as if the lesson was designed just for them by the Lord God Almighty.

Why would ladies travel from Hawaii and the UK for approximately six and a half hours of fellowship?

How do you explain all that?

This is how....

Jesus Christ.

Easiest recap of SSMT,

Jesus Christ showed up.

Enough said.

OVER ON DELIBERATELY DELIVERED...

FALTERING

WHAT ARE WE TO DO WITH TEBOW...

I finally got to watch the Year of the Quarterback special about Tim Tebow. I just loved how his mom and brother still call him Timmy.
Like most of you, I have been following the Tebow lovers and haters in the press. In doing so I have formed some opinions.
I do that.... have opinions.
Ask anyone who knows me, they will tell you.
If they don't, let me know and I'll tell you why I think that was.


Here they are in no particular order:

1. As Christians and fellow believers in Christ, we need to pray for him and his family. For protection. For wisdom. For discernment. For strength. For favor. For quiet times. For godly friends. For godly counsel.

2. As Christians, we need to make sure we don't put him on a pedestal he can't stand on. Which would be ANY pedestal. He is a human, flesh and blood, just like you and I. And I never have much luck standing on pedestals. Don't know anyone who has. We always seem to fall.

3. As Christians, we should be encouraged by Tebow's very public stance, which seems to be backed up by his private time with teammates. We should absolutely applaud his faith. I should let the MCs see a man living out his faith in a very public forum and remind them he has a private relationship with Christ that makes it possible.

4. Then, as Christians, we should be challenged in our very own walk. We should be asking ourselves if we are having that kind of impact where we are placed. Are we speaking Christ Jesus regardless? Are we proclaiming our faith when things look bad to the outside world as well as when they seem good? Are we living out our faith publicly and privately? Is Christ the most important relationship in our lives?

5.We need to hear what Tebow is saying and take him at his word. Jesus Christ is it. Christ is the end all of all. Jesus is what matters. Jesus is the only One who deserves and can handle the pedestal.


Well, there ya go.
My Tebow Top 5.
In all seriousness, let us cover our brother in prayer.
Let's cover his parents in prayer as they guide their son through this season of his life.
Let's make sure we are guarding the glory of the Lord (totally stole that from Beth Moore and the Passion session I saw today) and not putting it on anyone else.
We can choose to.

ONE CLICK AWAY...

One of my goals was to write more on here.

But last night my heart was moved to write over here.

Let this be the year Lord, let this be the year!

SWAPPING OUT THE Ps

Have you made any New Year's resolutions Chuck?

Peppermint Patty

Yes. You know how I always dread the whole year?

Well, this time I am only going to dread one day at a time.

Charlie Brown

Ever felt that way?
And it was an improvement?
I have to say this made me smile when I heard it during Happy New Year, Charlie Brown. Not because I thought it was funny or cute, but because I knew exactly what he meant.

Last week I took a break from the dark abyss known as social media, which for me means Facebook, in hopes of refocusing myself and my life BEFORE the new year started. As so many of us do, I thought about things I wanted to be more resolved about in 2012.
Weight. Money. Exercise. Bible study. Relationships. Balancing work and home.
I went through the usual list.
And I found myself discouraged before I even started. I found myself foreseeing when and how and why I would fail. Which made me not even want to start because if I couldn't do it perfect I didn't see any point in trying.
Perfection.
In Works.
It gets me often.
While playing out all the scenarios in my head over the last week, I did have a moment of revelation when I saw what I was doing to myself. How I was setting myself up for failure. Not just because I was striving for perfection but because I thought I could even attain it on my own.
I asked the Lord then to help me let go of the need for perfection in my works. That I would be able to fall on the grace I struggle so to accept when I get tripped up. That my only area of striving would be in knowing Him more and fulfilling His will for my life.
For that to happen, especially the first part, I am going to have to take it one day at a time.
One choice at a time.
One success and one stumble at a time.
My perfection is going to need to be replaced with patience.
Patience with myself.
Patience with the plan God has laid out for this year and the years to come.
I am going to have to heed the words found in the book of James and,
"let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing." (James 1:4).

So, on this first day of 2012, I have already stumbled. Perfection in the flesh has already escaped me these 24 hours.
But patience is proving a little more resolved.
And today....that's all I need it to be.