busy busy...

Hi everyone, I know, I know....I've been slacking on the postings recently. I just wanted to stop by for a second and let you know that I'm doing well and that things are pretty fantastic lately! Gracias a Dios!!! The Lord has definitely brought me through a lot and I can finally feel the sun on my face. I will post a longer one when I have more time. I love you all!!!!

Happy Happy Birthday!

Hello all my friends!!!!! I just wanted to take a few minutes and say that I had an AWESOME birthday. I was full of such joy yesterday. Seriously, it was awesome. The Lord has truly been blessing me recently...yeah, He's pretty cool and He definitely knows how to cause someone to have a happy birthday. I got a free birthday latte at my fave coffee shop yesterday, listened to like 7 different renditions of the Happy Birthday song on my voicemail, and then had dinner with two awesome peeps, one of them being just about one of my favorite people in the world...mexican food with my favorite mexican, can't get any better than that!!! Oh, and some of you (well, maybe just one or two of you, if you even read this) may know that I have a thing for beagles. Yep, sure do. I love them very much and the Lord let me see the BEST beagle yesterday and man was he wonderful. ;-) The Lord is so good, He really is. May I never cease to praise Him in all circumstances in my life. Hmmmm....I must say that for some reason it feels weird being 24...high? hmm...well, I have a brand new year ahead of me just waiting to be explored, and I'm excited for how much more of Himself the Lord is going to show me this year. Because, man, last year was FULL of lessons, so I'm assuming that this next year will be too. Low? I can no longer claim a Jimmy Eat World song as my theme song...sigh. As I was discussing with Keane last night (ok, don't know how to spell his name, sorry keane? kien? Kean?) I will just have to switch to the Switchfoot song 24, even though I'm not as much of a fan of that song as I am of the Jimmy Eat World one...it will do though...at least it reminds me of my super wonderful friend Nealey. Remember dancing to that song in our room NuNu? That was fun. :-) Ok, so off I go to read...yes yes, book nerd, established. Thank you so much to all of you for making my day yesterday so special. I love you all and you are in my prayers.

"Draw near to God and He will draw near to you" James 4:8

Warning: being a total girl in this one ;-)

(yet another warning: I have a lot going on in my mind so I'll probably be all over the place in this email...that's ok, I know you understand me). Ok, so recently the topic of marriage has literally been THROWN in my face from every direction. Well, I'm a firm believer that not everything is a coincidence and that sometimes God can be super obvious in getting my attention...all I need to do is pay attention instead of saying things like, "eh, well, it's almost valentines day, so it makes sense it's on the minds of everyone around me, excuse, excuse, etc. etc...." Well, alright, going to pay attention. Seriously though, I can't turn on the TV without there being SOMETHING where a wedding is involved...celeb InStyle weddings, or how every one of my favorite TV shows has some wedding or proposal involved, oh and then a new friend just randomly recommends and buys me a book all about marriage, and then I go to church on Sunday and the sermon is about Jesus' first miracle where He turns water into wine at a wedding ceremony, and then I have my cousin getting married soon, and I'm a bridesmaid in one of my closest friend's weddings coming up in June...MY WORD....EVERY DIRECTION. LOL...it's actually kinda funny because those of you who know me, know that I've never been a girl that super fantasizes about weddings...actually, in the past, the thought of marriage shot a huge feeling of fear into my heart and left me crippled at the thought. Funny how things can change isn't it (Psalm 34:4...this is my verse for sure these days)? Well, I really feel like it's time to pay attention to what the Lord is teaching me. No, I'm NOT saying that I'll be marching down the aisle any time soon....what I'm saying is that I truly feel God is bringing me deeper into my relationship with Him. He wants me to see Him not only as His daughter, but as His bride (ok, I understand that may seem a little weird...father and husband...but let me explain). Well, I believe that in our relationship with the Lord ALL of our needs are met. Every single one. I also believe that God has created relationships on earth to be different and diverse pictures/applications of His love for us. He gives us friendships in order to give us hands on experience into the friendship part of our relationship He offers us in himself....the relationship of a father and child, and a mother and child show us yet another aspect of His love for us. The same goes for our relationships with authority over us....and a beautiful example (one of my favorites because of the level of intimacy) is the relationship between husband and wife. I feel that as we mature in our relationships with our Lord that we eventually embrace and experience all of these different types of love with God. It's all a process...a path to maturity. And it happens in so many different ways for different people. And humans are broken, especially when it comes to relationships with other people. For example, perhaps you didn't grow up with a father or mother....perhaps your spouse left you, or you didn't have any friends. ALL of these relationships make a difference in how we view our relationship with God. He has to heal us a lot in order for us to fully grasp the extent and depth of His love...and I don't think we EVER fully grasp it completely until we die and go be with Him. So anyways, I'm rambling. Basically, I can really feel the Lord teaching me about the most intimate form of His love...the love that is shown between husband and wife. Christ is described as the groom and the church (His people) as the bride many times in scripture, and it's pretty dang awesome if you ask me. Think about it.....the love a groom has for his bride...the moment she walks down the aisle and he sees her for the first time in her gown...looking the most beautiful she's looked...what is he thinking? It's safe to say he's pretty stoked....this is his bride...his beauty...his gift, and he loves her, and loves her intensely...he would do anything for her, he would die for her...she is his love, his life. This intensity and purity of love is what Jesus feels for us. When He looks at us He says, "YEEEESSS.....You are so beautiful....I would do anything for you! You are glorious, you are my treasure...my glorious bride!!!!" Ok ladies, I bet it's safe to say that's what you're hoping your husband says when he sees you walking down the aisle..well, that's because that desire is a part of us...God created us like that and He also wants to give you to a man that feels that. Don't EVER settle for someone who doesn't love you like that...who doesn't think you're the most beautiful and glorious gift he has ever been given and ever will be given on this planet. If a man you are with does not make you feel valued, forget that man. Anyways, I believe this picture of God's love for us, as His bride is the most important and the most lost (healthy marriages are hard to find these days...the enemy is on a mission to break down the most beautiful picture of God's love, which then hurts all others). I will argue that because of this, your relationship with your spouse is the MOST important relationship you will EVER have on this earth, yes more important than your relationship with your children (although, I am not saying that is not important...it is, but I still think your marriage relationship should be your priority...if your marriage is healthy, then your relationships with your children will be healthy as well...and it will also teach your children how to have a healthy relationship with their spouse....which then shapes a huge part of their perspective on how they view God...so yes, important). Wow, I'm totally going on and on.....so yeah, there's where I am right now in my relationship with God. A couple of months ago He reaffirmed His place as my wonderful compassionate father, and now He's showing me an even deeper and more intimate view of His love for me....the way a husband loves his bride...and I freaking love it and think it's beautiful. Praise God for He truly is amazing...how deep is His love for us....I love how every need that I will ever have is met in Him. May you all experience how deeply and truly He loves you and longs to be with you. He's calling to you maybe not super loudly, but He's there....telling you He loves you and wants to show you His love...He wants to show you how valuable you are to Him, how you are His treasure. You may know all this, but now is the time to experience it. As Jon Edwards says, "You know that honey is sweet, but have you tasted it's sweetness?!" May you taste the sweetness and depth that is His love for us. Thanks for listening to my rant. I love you all. :-)

Oh, and one more thing. Guys, I know it may be hard to picture yourself as a bride...but just think...don't you want to love your bride that way? Do you love her that way (if you're married). Now take that love you felt/will feel when you saw/see your bride walk down the aisle (wanting to protect her, give her everything, every need, every joy, value her, make her feel and know she's beautiful, even die for her if need be) and multiply that love by a giant number, and THAT is how much God loves you. Believe me, you may not be able to relate to being a bride, but you CAN relate to the intensity of that love.

"O taste and see that the Lord is good; How blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him!"
Psalm 34:8

becka, I thought you'd appreciate this posting more than most. I love you my dear sweet friend, and it is through you that I've learned a lot of what I was yapping about in this post. You are one of the most beautiful people I know...don't ever settle.

Stillness and Simplicity

O Lord, my heart is not proud nor my eyes haughty; Nor do I involve myself in great matters, or in things too difficult for me. Surely I have composed and quieted my soul; like a weaned child rests against his mother, my soul is like a weaned child within me. O Israel, hope in the Lord from this time forth and forever.
Psalm 131

I love this Psalm. I love the quietness that I feel when I read it. Like the feeling you get when you've been through something really narly and intense and then it's over, and you can breathe again, and you can just rest and not try and figure anything out. Just rest in that perfect trust and complete vulnerability. Stop trying to figure things out and just be simple and vulnerable and rest. Trust in the One who is most trustworthy and loves you unconditionally. Things don't always have to be a big deal...sometimes the most simple answer is the right one. You are all in my prayers.

Beautiful Compassion

So, I've recently (as you can probably tell from my blogs) experienced just a bit (well, maybe quite a bit) of brokeness. I feel like the prodigal son (daughter) who has returned at last to her welcoming and compassionate father. Brokeness truly is beautiful...it's made beautiful by the beauty of the compassion that surrounds it. I am reading the book The Return of the Prodigal Son (FANTASTIC BOOK) by Nouwen, and in the book he has a description of Jesus Christ as a form of the prodigal son. It's beautiful, and as always, I'd like to share. Enjoy!

"He, who is born not from human stock, or human desire or human will, but from God himself everything that was under his footstool and he left with his inheritance, his title of Son, and the whole ransom price. He left for a far country....the faraway land...where he became as human beings are and emptied himself. His own people did not accept him and his first bed was a bed of straw! Like a root in arid ground, he grew up before us, he was despised, the lowest of men, before whom one covers his face. Very soon, he came to know exile, hostility, loneliness...After having given away everything in a life of bounty, his worth, his peace, his light, his truth, his life...all the treasures of knowledge and wisdom and the hidden mystery kept secret for endless ages; after having lost himself among the lost children of the house of Israel, spending his time with the sick, with the sinners, and even with the prostitutes to whom he promised entrance into the Kingdom of his Father; after having been treated as a glutton and a drunkard, as a friend of tax collectors and sinners, as a Samaritan, a possessed, a blasphemer; after having offered everything, even his body and his blood; after having felt deeply in himself sadness, anguish, and a troubled soul; after having gone to the bottom of despair, with which he voluntarily dressed himself as being abandoned by his Father far away from the source of living water, he cried out from the cross on which he was nailed: 'I am thirsty.' He was laid to rest in the dust and the shadow of death. And there, on the third day, he rose up from the depths of hell to where he had descended, burdened with the crimes of us all, he bore our sins, our sorrows he carried. Standing straight, he cried out: 'Yes, I am ascending to my Father, and your Father, to my God, and your God.' And he reascended to heaven. Then in the silence, looking at his Son and all his children, since his Son had become all in all, the Father said to his servants, 'Quick! Bring out the best robe and put it on him; put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet; let us eat and celebrate! Because my children who, as you know, were dead have returned to life; they were lost and have been found again! My prodigal Son has brought them all back.' They all began to have a feast dressed in their long robes, washed white in the blood of the Lamb."

What beautiful compassion.

Ephesians 1:13-23

In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation--having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is given as a pledge of our inheritance, with a view to the redemption of God's own possession, to the praise of His glory. For this reason I too, having heard of the faith in the Lord Jesus which exists among you and your love for all the saints, do not cease giving thanks for you, while making mention of you in my prayers; that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowlege of Him. I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you will know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe. These are in accordance with the working of the strength of His might which He brought about in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. An He put all things in subjection under His feet, and gave Him as head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.


I pray these words for you as well my family and friends....as Paul says, " that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowlege of Him. I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you will know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe."

I love you.

I have returned

So, I have recently returned to my tea tree oil practices...yes, that's right....it's about time I brought that strong (but clean) smell back into my life (I know my old roommates know what I'm talking about). Hmm...perhaps this is representative of the Lord bringing me back to the places I was supposed to be in the first place...OR perhaps I'm just reading into something so simple as face wash. Either way, welcome back tea tree!