More Beth realizations!!! God is so good!

It's Tuesday so why not blog on the awesome realizations Beth Moore continues to move in me. God is awesome isn't He!!!! Oh He is.

So today we talked of friends and His spirit showing thru us since we weren't meant to blend in. I know many of you know that I have a son who has cystic fibrosis. He was diagnosed with this when he was 3 weeks old. I had so many people coming up to me wondering why I was so calm. I simply stated to them "what good would it do if I wasn't calm?" Nothing. Today Beth was talking about wanting to have the Lord's spirit shining out of us. And immediatly I thought of that moment in the Wendy's parking lot on 240 in OKC, when I found out about Stockton, I was very very calm. I immediatly remember feeling that it will be okay. He is in God's hands. I have to trust that there is a reason and to try to show how we can live to glorify God in this diagnosis. Don't get me wrong, I pray daily for his healing, but if that is not in God's will, I am willing to find out what he wants to do with this. Life isn't easy and it doesn't always revolve around what makes "us" happy. As Beth put it so well a couple weeks ago, "hearts easily buy into Satan's lies. Your heart often lies to you, just as my heart often lies to me. "Follow your heart" is the stuff of fairy tales and the stuff of many a nightmare." I believe that's alot of why some people don't become Christians or have a false understanding of it. God never said life would be full of rainbows and butterflies. People don't want to change or give up there desires.

(All verse's are out of the New Living Translation)

1 Corinthians 10:13 "The temptations in your life are no different from what others experience. And God is faithful. He will not allow the temptation to be more than you can stand. When you are tempted, he will show you a way out so that you can endure."

James 1:2-4 "Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy. 3 For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. 4 So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing."

James 1:13-14 "And remember, when you are being tempted, do not say, "God is tempting me." God is never tempted to do wrong, and He never tempts anyone else. 14 Temptation comes from our own desires, which entice us and drag us away.

I am not saying I submit to everything, it's a horrible daily struggle, and I fall often. But I know God is right there telling me to get up! I hope this helps someone in a struggle they may be facing. God is right there fighting for us:

Psalm 139:5 "You hem me in--behind and before; you have laid your hand upon me." As Beth put it so well: "He goes before us, follows behind us, and hems us safely inside the realm of His protection." WOW what an awesome image. He is right there! Ready and willing to fight for us!!!! He loves us so.

The other thing we talked about today was friendship. I've been struggling lately with friends. No one in particular just in general. I have had relationships in my life that have not stuck. I've had friends and family that have hurt me. The trust issue is very difficult for me. Beth talked today about "His willing friendship". No matter where we are in our lives or who happens to be in them at that moment we always have God right there willing to be our friend. In the big stuff and in the "small talk", the stuff that is so minor no one else but a true close friend would care about. We are so into having a physical body right there with you and not thinking of the spiritual one that is right there ALWAYS!!!! I love my friends more than they know. I try to be that person that is there always and I hope that they see that. There are different degrees of friends and we can't be bff's with everyone. But you know it's nice to know when you are feeling left out or forgotten by someone that God will never forget us. As Beth put it "that is why God created us: not because He needed us but because He wanted us. The act was based on the pleasure of His will. God doesn't just love us. He also likes us!!"

Forgiveness

I had an astounding realization today thanks to Beth Moore. It was talking about getting rid of the bitterness in your life and of course you can only do this thru Jesus. She said in order to heal from the bitterness you need to start with forgiving. Then she says: which you think "if I forgive it's saying it was all right and it's not all right." She then says: let God whisper in your ear what He whispered to her: "No, My child; forgiving will make you all right." WOW what a thought. To forgive is for us...not for the person who did the hurting. To be more Christlike means we are to forgive and to forgive everyone for everything. Not to say it was okay no big deal but to say hey I am now okay and you are giving all so that He can put His all in you. If we can't forgive how can He forgive us?

Matthew 6:14-15 "If you forgive those who sin against you, your heavenly Father will forgive you. 15 But if you refuse to forgive others, your Father will not forgive your sins."

Scary thought. I can't imagine the place that is there for those who don't have Jesus in their hearts and lives, nor do I want to imagine that place. For if we are wrong in what we believe what have we to lose, but those who don't believe have everything to lose!

Running update/challenge to partner(s)

So I was reading the other day about Jennifer Lopez competing in her first triathlon. I thought to myself...JLo did a triathlon...mmmm, I can do a triathlon, if she can. So I clicked on what her's consisted of and it said 1/2 mile swim, 18 mile bike ride, and a 4 mile run. Okay now, peice of cake! It took her 2 hrs and around 23 minutes I believe. If we can run a half marathon in 2 1/2 hrs who's saying we can't do that in that time as well. Where we would train for 1/2 mile swim sounds a little iffy but girls I so think this could be done. So I am challenging you two to think about this. Maybe next year or the next, but I would like to see us do this. You with me?



I am sooo excited about how our running is progressing. We've come back quickly from being off for so long. When we started we were averaging around 12 min miles. We are now averaging around 10.30 min miles. As Julie would say "WHAT'S UP!!!" We are feeling awesome with no injuries and we have one more week of our run/walk buildup before we are running the full mileage on our training schedule. We are still hoping the mojo from last year is there again. Keep cheering for us!!!!

Accountability.

I am feeling the need to express a few things I learned today in Bible Study. I know that Beth may not of specifically hit this on the head in the session but I took this from one of the answers someone gave to a question on last weeks homework.



First off did you all know that Adam was suposed to guard the garden? God told him since he couldn't guard it, He would put His angels there to guard it. He said that the serpent never should have gotten to his wife. So wow...the serpent should have never been IN the garden. What a thought!!!



Okay my reason for writing, which may be sad to some, is not a funny subject. I feel the need to get rid of the negativity in my life. I have always been around people who are negative, from growing up, to my daily life. Even though I may not be able to change the people that I am around, I can however, with Jesus's help, not retain the negativity and push it off on others. I can try to be the positive one and maybe that will reflect on them. This is obviously not a guarantee that I will not slip, we are not perfect people, but we are to strive to be Christ like and negativity was not something He ever was. So here's where the accountability comes in. My partners in this, you two know who you are, please if you hear even the beginning of a negative statement coming from my lips, I beg you to bring it to my attention. I don't want to be like the people I know who are negative. I know how that negativity makes me feel, I don't want to make others feel that way. You know what I mean? This challenge is put out there to all who may have this problem. Wouldn't it be nice to squash something else of the devil? I sure think so!

First OU game experience.

We were so glad, well, let me rephrase that...I was so glad when Jackson and I were invited to the OU game this past weekend. I have never been to a football game other than high school and I've wanted to go to an OU game for a very long time!!! So needless to say, when we were asked, I rearranged our schedule for Saturday. It was also our 11th anniversary so for me it was an awesome present, and even though Jackson is an OSU fan he did enjoy himself quite abit and I heard he yelled for OU as much as all the other fans! :)

We had awesome seats and got to go to the food thing, not sure what it's called. It was soooo cool. Big building filled with free food of all kinds, what wasn't to like!

We had an awesome parking space, that I will have to say did take some sacrifice to get to. We pulled in the area that led to the parking garage but they couldn't find Julie's name on the list. So the man says no problem just get it fixed for the next game and went ahead and let us thru, after first putting an orange dot on her car. We thought nothing of this. Well we wind our way thru campus and then we get waved into a stopped lane that a dog is currently sniffing a vehicle already parked there. I look at Julie and she's about as shocked as I was. We drive up after the other car is free to go and the cop knocks on her window and tells us to crack our doors and don't pet the dog. Oh nice...we are now being bomb searched. This was a great addition to the experience as we are sitting in this car, she really needs to get her windows tinted (HA), as people are walking by just staring. However I would rather be searched then them overlook something. We are free to go after what seemed like an hour (it was only about a minute) and we arrive at the parking garage. We find a great park and go on in.

The game was a good game. Everyone warned Jackson and I about it taking along time to get out of there after but it only took about 10 minutes. It was fantastic. We ended the day with dinner at Abuelos which is always good. It was a good 11th anniversary!!

The number 11.

So in 2 days I will be married for 11 years. 11 years. I thought 10 was huge since it was double digits but 11 seems HUGE! I am so very blessed to have Jackson. He's a wonderful provider, hard worker, fabulous husband, and an awesome daddy. I look at other people's marriages and realize just how blessed I am. Some may have a fabulous husband but he's not such a good dad, or lazy or this list could go on. I, on the other hand, was blessed with a man who is great at everything he does; from his time in the military, to his family, to his job. I doubt Jackson will read this but if he did he'd be totally embarrassed. I, however, am not and am so proud to be his wife!



We got married young. I was 18 and he was 20. He was already enlisted in the Army and stationed at Ft Campbell, KY. My grandma drove me down there the day I turned 18, literally that day, in June of 97. We were married 3 months later by a justice of the peace. She was probably in her late 60's early 70's and offered to marry us in her home so we could have a better setting then the courthouse. She was so sweet. It cost less than $50 and took less than 5 minutes. I would have loved to had a big wedding, but looking back, I wouldn't change a thing.


A lot of stuff happens in 11 years. He served his 3 years in the Army and we moved back to Ponca March of 99, had Jake Sept 99, Stockton Feb 03. We've had our ups and downs, but who hasn't? It's been an awesome 11 years.



I looked up what the gift ideas were for 11 years and traditional is steel. Exactly what does that mean? Modern is jewelry (not a jewelry girl, he's probably thankful for that). And place was New York City. Now that'd be fun! :) Flowers associated with the 11th anniversary are morning glories. The Gemstone list shows Hematite and Turquoise. I went ahead and looked up ideas for steel, maybe some girls are okay with this but it sounds funny to me. Some gift ideas are cutlery, stainless steel toaster, and steel oriented gifts (said to search Amazon.com) so funny to me. I also looked up why they chose those gemstones and here's what it said.


{Turquoise: This stone stands for success in Love and is said to keep it's colour only when in sympathy with its wearer. Should the wearer change their affection the stone fades from blue to a greenish tint. Hematite is a type of Iron Ore. It is said to enhance personal magnetism, will and courage. Some people also believe it is beneficial for blood flow, stress and the nerves.}

I love the blood flow, stress and nerves part. What are they really trying to say? HA.

When we were first married and I was totally in love. I couldn't have imagined that 11 years from then I would be more in love. I am excited to see how big it grows 20 years from now.