I’m getting Lost in Lost!

The Writer’s Strike is over … but we tv bound Americans are still suffering the consequences. New shows don’t air again until April, if they air at all this year. But Jamie and I have found a loop-hole … the internet! We canceled our cable because we discovered that pretty much any show we want to watch can be seen online the next day. Well, we have caught up with all the shows we were watching (Prison Break, Terminator, Pushing Daises, etc) … and have moved on to archived shows we never watched before. I fought it for a long time, but we finally started with Season One of Lost. … sigh.

So we have seen 3 episodes so far (what is the deal with the polar bear?? no, don’t tell me). And its funny because I’ve seen commercials for the current seasons, so I know that the older guy survives through until recently, so no surprise there … but its bugging me that Jack the doctor doesn’t care to know why Kate was in handcuffs. Just because you don’t want to know, doesn’t mean the rest of the world doesn’t want to know. Please tell me that we eventually find out what she did, but don’t tell me what it was! And is it bad of me to hope that the mean Asian husband dies soon, as well as the snotty little blonde girl in the bathing suit? I was kinda hoping that she would get picked off the group when they were hiking to the top of the mountain with the tranceiever … but then again her French did come in handy … but still.

Anyway, that’s enough about that. Until 24 comes back on, we have a new obsession to occupy our time.

Raising Eve

I’m teaching a Connect Group right now for high school & college girls based on the book Captivating by Stasi Elderidge. It is an amazing book. If you are a female, you should read it. If you are a guy but have a female in your life (or ever hope to), you should read it. The basic message of the book is that God created women to be unique and spectacular, but because of our fallen nature, we can really mess up and lose touch with the true heart that God created us with. When God created Adam and Eve, he split his heart into two. He gave one half of his heart, his personality to Adam, and the complimentary part to Eve. Eve was created with the Desire to be Romanced, the Desire to Have in Irreplaceable Role In A Great Adventure, and to Unveil Beauty. Those things in our hearts fuel every thing we do, every thought we have, and every action we take. When you look at the story of Creation, you can see that God’s creative genius didn’t end with Adam, but with Eve. From the simplicity of Light and Dark, to the complexity of all the creatures on earth, God’s creation was growing in intricacy and detail, in a great crescendo that came to its culmination with EVE. She is the crown of creation, the true masterpiece of the Creator. So why then do so many women struggle with relationships that are destructive and unfulilling, lives that are weary not from adventure but from mundane daily tasks, and constantly question whether or not they even have any beauty? That’s when you have to look at the story of Eve’s fall. Read in Genesis about this, and you’ll see that she began to doubt God’s heart for her, his true intention and purpose for her. She decided that since God was obviously holding out on her, she had to take it into her own hands! Then she violated her own nature by inviting Adam to his death, rather than inviting him to Life. Then you have to understand the curse that she suffered because of her disobedience. When you look at it, all her sufferings were relational, which shows why we struggle so much with relational issues now. So, because of her disobedience, Eve was left asking one central question, a question that plagues all her daughters to this day … “Am I Lovely?” Am I worth your time? Am I valuable enough to pursue? Am I beautiful enough to capture and hold your affection? You can see little girls ask this question long before they can even comprehend what they are asking. You can see it in the little girl in the ballet tu-tu spinning, the little girl dressed in her mommy’s shoes prancing in front of a mirror, in the little girl standing on the coffee table belting out the newest song she just learned for any ears that may be inclined to listen. She longs to know that she is Captivating. When we get an answer to our question, we decide our view of the world. If we recieve the answer of “no, you aren’t lovely”, then we begin to change the way we present ourselves in order to get a better answer next time. Some of the worst wounds a little girl can recieve are from her parents. If her father is absent (physically or emotionally), then she decides that she was not enough to keep him interested in her. If her mother is too critical, demanding, or trying to live her life through her daughter, then the little girl draws conclusions that she herself is not worth much.

The prospects of raising a daughter are becoming more and more daunting as this pregnancy goes along. Women are such emotional creatures, by design. It is our greatest strength … and our greatest weakness. I want Charlotte to live up to her name, “Warrior Princess”. I want her to be strong, fierce, fighting for what is right and good, but at the same time gentle, caring, compassionate, and loving. God created women to be all of those things, because He Himself embodies those qualities too. I want her to be unique and special, but not in a weird unpopular kind of way (does that even make sense?). I want her to be one of those girls in high school that everyone wants to be and be friends with. But how do I instill that in her? I guess the best way to do that is to embrace and nourish those things that God has placed in her heart. She is a unique being, totally separate and different than any other human on earth. So what has God placed in her heart? What is her calling? Where does she fit in His great plan? I guess that is one of the cool things about being a mom… I get to watch first hand as her personality blooms and God begins to reveal His call on her life. What a responsibility! I need His help more than ever as I face this new calling on MY life! As scary as it can be … I’m so excited.

(Angel of Mine by Willow Tree)

1,051,200 minutes and counting…

Yesterday was me and Jamie’s 2nd wedding anniversary, that equals two years, or 24 months, or 104 weeks, or 730 days, or 17,520 hours, or 1,051,200 minutes. When you break it down like that it doesn’t seem like a long time, and in the grand scheme of eternity, I guess it isn’t a long time. But when you are living it, it seems both like forever and just a second.

The wedding day is a blur, but most people say it is. There are a few highlights that I remember from before and during the ceremony, but for the most part it happened without me really realizing it. We had decided before we got married that we wanted to wait 2 years before having children, but that seemed like an eternity to me. But here we are, celebrating our second anniversary and our first child will be born in just a few months. Wow, life is going by fast!

In two years, we got married, bought a house, got 2 dogs, started working in full time ministry, and are now having a baby … woah. I can’t wait to see what the next 70+ years are going to hold…

It was about time!!

aww…

My favorite Bridal Shot

New York City, Honeymoon Day One

Happy Easter!!

Happy Easter everyone!  This Easter season our Pastor has been doing an awesome series on Heaven, you should check out the downloads on www.lwfc.org …. it isn’t the clouds and harps you’re expecting!  Tonight Stage20 is having their Easter Egg-stravaganza (get it, get it?), it is going to be awesome.  Check out http://stage20.wordpress.com for pictures!  And the Bailey clan is coming up this afternoon from Jacksonville, so this should make for some good pics too!

I hope you all get to spend some time with family, no matter what form it comes in!  (and don’t eat too much chocolate … says i as i eat “bunny mix” peanut M&Ms!!… hey, its for the baby, okay?!)

A Bittersweet “View-Haloo”

Have you ever seen Mary Poppins? You know, the movie about the nanny played by Julie Andrews who you thought was so great as a kid but when you watch it now you realize that she was actually kind of a jerk? Oh and it has Dick Van Dyke in it acting like Dick Van Dyke. Anyway, there is a scene in that movie where they are in one of Burt’s chalk drawings and are riding carousel horses and end up in the middle of a fox hunt. There is a big fat British guy on a big fat British horse that says, “View Haloo”, and the horse answers, “Oh yes yes indeed, View Haloo”. I don’t know why, but me and my sister always thought that was hilarious. So it kind of became a bizarre inside joke that neither of us really understand…

Should a blog title really require that much explanation??

With that said, the reason it is bitter sweet is because my sister is moving in the morning. Erin is 7 years older than me and has never lived more than 20 minutes away from me my whole life… up until I was 9, we shared a room! She leaves in the morning for New York City. I’m super excited for her. This is a chance for her to get away (our family can be a little nutty) and make a new start. This is such a great adventure for her. She’s never been the adventurous type, she’s more likely to be found watching people than actually interacting with them, so for her to make the move to THE NORTH (we’re from Alabama…) this is a huge thing. (Though she admitted to me tonight that she wants me to come up there and take her on a tour of The City because she doesn’t want to tour it alone.)

So I’m excited for her. But I’m going to miss her. (trust me, she understands the monkey picture).

Happy New Year!

I just got an email from my brother. He is serving overseas in Afghanistan, and the whole country of Afghanistan is celebrating the New Year. Welcome to year 1387! Seriously. Apparently they follow the Muslim calendar which puts us in year 1387.

He and his buddies gave their new friends a great fireworks show … check it out!

Mandles … vital.

When I change careers in a few weeks, one of my new job responsibilities will be to keep the house clean. But I have to remember not to make it too girlie looking, or apparently too girlie smelling either. Just in case I do go a little overboard in my “learning curve”, the solution is at hand …

http://www.godtube.com/view_video.php?viewkey=54988d966e0e317d5553

steel-toe boots, please.

Pastor Steve is such a great pastor. He gives you “handles” to really understand things that you’d heard before but couldn’t quite grasp. I learn something new every weekend, but occasionally I learn something that while eye-opening and vital, kinda stings a little.

This past Sunday night, PS was talking about praying in the Spirit. I got baptized in the Holy Spirit when I was like 17/18. I remember that day so clearly, almost more clearly than when I got saved! It was during a Sunday morning church service and PS was teaching on something great (of course), then he asked if anyone needed to get saved for the first time, rededicate their life, or get baptized in the Holy Spirit, to come forward. Well, I had gotten saved, wasn’t running from God, had been water baptized, so I figured I’d go up for the Holy Spirit thing. Mike Noll took the whole group of us out into the back admin hallway, lined us up, explained what was about to happen, then went down the row and instructed and prayed for each person. I felt like such a goober standing there with all these people I didn’t know babbling like that. (Not to mention that I didn’t know Mike Noll at all, had only heard that he ran the ministry school and the Holy Spirit told him everything, so I was a little intimidated!!). So after Mike prayed with me and assured me that I “had it”, he moved on to the next person in line. So I still felt silly, but that night when I got home, I decided to try it again. I was all by myself, in my bedroom, and I no longer felt silly. I felt like I had never breathed before and was finally able to exhale! It just rushed out. It was awesome.

Fast forward to 2008. I have had my prayer language for 5-7 years. At first I did it alllllllll the time, for everything, about everything. It was such a relief to know that it didn’t matter that I didn’t know what to pray for, I could just pray in the Spirit, and it would all work out! But somewhere along the line, I crossed a very faint but very distinct line. We know that we have to have faith and know that God works things together for our good, but we cannot forget that the verses before that talk about praying in the Spirit. Pastor Steve said that the devil wants to keep you from getting your prayer language, and if you already have it he wants to keep you from using it. I realized I had been tricked! Recently I haven’t been praying in the Spirit as much as I should, but I was telling myself that it was because I had spoken in faith that the situation was “fixed in Jesus name” and I was standing in faith with that person so I didn’t have to pray anymore because it was “done”. What a dope! I seemed to have forgotten that my words have power, and though I had spoken in faith, more was needed. When you pray in the Spirit, you are praying OUTLOUD the perfect will of God, and the devil can’t mess with it. More words needed to be spoken over situations, but I had somehow convinced myself that I could “say the magic words” and it would work out. How silly. Well, I won’t be tricked anymore.

Another Boy!

Okay, here’s the geneology… My mom has an identical twin sister, Christine. Aunt Christine has 3 daughters, Ellen, Jill, and Kristen (my first cousins and genetically my half-sisters … figure that one out!). Ellen is married to Shane and just had their first baby, Cooper. Jill just married Drew and he is right now in boot camp for the Army. Kristen also just got married to Billy in November, and by Christmas found out she was pregnant. Well, she found out this past week that she, like her sister, is having a boy! So Cooper and Charlotte will have another cousin, and his name is Wilson.

Great Pictures

As you know, my cousin Ellen just had her first baby, Cooper.  Her husband is a great photographer and of course had all his equipment at the birth and he got some great pics.  Check them out…

Shane and Cooper

Ellen and Cooper

Just Cooper