How anyone can assume that the sun just 'automatically' knows when to rise and when to set boggles my mind.
How anyone can assume that the sea just 'automatically' knows where to start and where to end baffles me.
And for those who have yet to to believe that there is a God - even after witnessing an extraordinary site such as a simple but yet stunning sunset like this - leaves me speechless - and wanting to share my faith even that much more - every second of every day. It leaves me yearning to share how much God has done in my life and how much he has done for those around me. It leaves me wanting to plant that many more seeds whenever and wherever I can. It leaves me wanting to be more Christlike in all that I do. In every breath that I take.
I sat on this sunset cruise last weekend just in awe of God's miraculous gifts to us. Some of you even saw me facebook about it and twitter my thoughts during the actual event. I've seen sunsets before but this particular one left me with a feeling of wanting to help change the world. Wanting to take on the world more less. It left me with the notion that I haven't even begun to scratch the surface of doing enough while on this earth. I walked away with a new sense of inspiration and an even deeper love for the Lord. I'll be 34 years old in a month and a half and feel as though I need to get busy. Busy being the change I wish to see in the world. I climbed off that boat last Friday evening and felt refreshed, renewed, rejuvenated, and restored. But on the other hand, I realized I had a long way to go before ever becoming minutely close to fulfilling God's plan for my life. It's time to get moving and kick it into high gear. I'm ready for him to use me in all the ways he feels necessary.
It's amazing what a little BIG sunset will do for your life goals and for your soul in general. God has magnificent ways of speaking to our heart if we are willing to stop and listen. I know I've been guilty of not slowing down enough to listen in the past year especially. How bout' you guys? Are you listening? To learn the answer to that question, pull up a lawn chair in front of the next sunset. That big round ball of luscious golden glory isn't just there rising and setting for us to ignore. The sun has a purpose. We have a purpose. The question is...what will we do with that purpose while blessed with our time here on this earth? Celebrating the simple yet intensely significant things in life today....
In his grip, Angie
PS...To see fingerprint Friday entries as well as iphoto Friday images, go HERE and HERE! Two wonderful blog friends with two great photo posts each Friday.
We put our ol' Apple TV to good use last weekend and purchased the movie Fireproof. I had heard the hoop-lah about it but Brent and I hadn't had the chance to see it as of yet. It was great to finally sit down and watch it together. Brennen even got in on the fun and joined us as well. I found several "teaching moments" with him throughout the show that left an open door to discuss "grown up" topics with him. Things that I felt like he should know as a young man and how those things would pertain to his future. One of those teaching moments was this segment I've included below. Make sure to turn off my blog music first before pushing play on this video.
This is such an ah-ha moment for anyone struggling in life. Not just in their marriage but in everyday life. How can we continue to spit in God's face day in and day out but yet wonder in the next breath, why our life has gone to such hell in a handbasket? We are all guilty of it. We've all been there. I don't want to roll out my blinged out zebra print pulpit (as I would envision it would be if I was ever a pastor) Ha ha - and lay down my prechings for the day. I am a sinner like the rest of the world. However, I've come to realize that I cannot get through life without my super, awesome, big, big God. Mine and Brent's marriage alone has had a couple of turbulent times in its 15 years. Marriage is never easy - ever. I don't care who you are. Marriage takes work. Hard - never ending - undying WORK! As young girls wishing for the moment of our lives when we finally make that walk down the aisle hand in hand with our handsome young prince, no one ever sits us down and says...Marriage will be hell at times. Marriage will suck at times. There will be times when you will want to give up. There will be times when you will detest and literally hate one another. There will be times when you will plot to smother him in his sleep with your own pillow when he leaves the toilet paper empty on the holder (remember that? If you are a long time blog follower you will.), etc. etc. etc. No one tells us that marriage will be the hardest job in our lives and that we will have to fight and fight some more with every second of every day to keep that marriage well, attended to, comfortable, safe, and so on. We just marry and have the false belief that life will be our fairy tale from there on out.
Thankfully, my & Brent's marriage has always had God in it. At certain times, God has been way more prominent in our marriage. Other times, he hasn't. It is in those moments when we failed to make God a priority that our marriage ultimately paid the price. As we look back in hindsight, we can see a pattern. No God = turbulence in the marriage. As we have grown older, we realize that a marriage takes three. Brent, me, and God. It's not a 2 person partnership, it is a three person team.
So...on top of having teaching moments with Brennen during this movie, and loving that fact that I was watching Kirk Cameron on TV again just as I did back in the day when I was a young girl watching "Growing pains" I also found myself enjoying the fact that I was watching the movie with my best friend, my partner in crime, the love of my life, my air. We watched the movie side by side, gripping one anothers hands, just like young school kids in a theater all over again. After watching the show, I took a huge breath of fresh air and found myself once again thanking God for the husband that emails me emails from his office during the day just like he had a few days ago. It had words that read "Thank you for being my ROCK and keeping our life together. I would not live with out you! You mean something to me I can’t explain…Thank you." I found myself thanking God for the husband that does simple but oh so powerful things like he did this week when buying my favorite sugar cookies from the bakery at the grocery store and then leaving them on the kitchen counter for me to find the next morning - along with valentine heart candies that he had removed from the box and spelled out the words "I love you" with. I found myself thanking God for the husband that works his tail off day in and day out to provide for our family in the way in which he does. In the end, I was plain and simply put...just thanking God and just being thankful all the way around.
Although we couldn't totally relate to the storyline in the Fireproof movie because we had never been up against those type topics, the movie did make me grateful for those couple of turbulence in our marriage that ultimately helped propel us to today. We'll celebrate our 15 year anniversary on March 5th and as Brent always says..."That is world record time now days baby." Without those turbulence in our past, we wouldn't be where we are today. Without those turbulence, we wouldn't have been brought to our knees by God and taught to rely on him. If we hadn't reached out for God during those dark moments when on our knees, we probably wouldn't still be married today.
So, although the plot line of the movie differed substantially from topics that our own marriage had been through, we could definitely relate to the times when we had basically spit in God's face but yet sat wondering why our lives were in shambles. My friends and family will tell you that I like to call it "Gods baseball bat to the knees theory." Keep ignoring him - keep shunning him while thinking you don't need him (God), keep being embarrassed of him, etc. and then eventually...our big mighty and oh so powerful God will whip out a baseball bat and swing it just low enough to hit your legs in just the right way that it will knock them out from underneath you and bring you to your knees. Thus, bringing you closer to him. No, I do not believe for one second that God punishes us for our sins. However, I do believe that he will present us with consequences in some way, shape, or form for the dumb choices we make in life. Those consequences are teaching moments that he intends for us to learn from, give glory to him because of, and soften your heart while doing so. In return, you learn that you can't make it thru life without him. And we can't!
So watch Fireproof - with or without your spouse. Preferably with your significant other though. Either way, just watch it. It's a great movie - even though my man Kirk is a little rusty on the acting skills after being away from the camera all these years. :) We still love him though, don't we girls??? And in the meantime, I'm going to go put my blinged out zebra print pulpit back in storage for now and stop my preaching for the night. Thanks for coming to the service. Wink wink! ;)
I found Kelly's blog about a year ago maybe. What I loved about her the most was her faith. Today she is exercising that faith more than any other day in her life thus far. After years of infertility, Kelly and Scott Stamps alerted their blog readers back in May that they were pregnant with their first child. We all watched as she found out that she was having a girl. We watched and read about all of the baby showers they were so generously given. We've all enjoyed seeing Kelly & Scott prepare for their baby girl. She has posted nursery room photos, clothing pictures of outfits she has purchased, gifts they've been given for Harper and so on. It's been fun watching her prepare for her first little one.
Kelly was a week over due and went in to be induced early this past Friday morning. The blog world was on pins and needles as we waited and refreshed our pages 100 times in hopes of finally seeing pictures of precious Harper. All went well most of the day. We saw Kelly all dolled up - looking FAB for her delivery as her parents took photos of her sucking on Popsicles. All was well right up until the time of the birth. Kelly lost a lot of blood during the delivery and ultimately recovered. Thank goodness! However, baby Harper is struggling to survive. She was born with pneumonia and was given a very grim chance at survival Friday night. The doctors in Arkansas ended up airlifting her to a hospital in Tulsa, OK that could handle her illness. Kelly was separated from her child until last night. She was finally released from the hospital and able to drive with her parents to the hospital out of state where they've admitted Harper. Scott left Kelly Friday night and drove with his own parents to stay with Harper until Kelly could be released from the hospital and meet them in Tulsa. As you can imagine, this family is in turmoil. Satan has tried with all of his might to get a foot hold on this joyous occasion and none of us are going to stand for it.
You think the AGD blog has a following? You should see Kelly and Scott's blog following. Thankfully because of that following, there are thousands and thousands of prayers going up all across the country for Harper. It also helps that Kelly's Father, Harper's grandpa, is a minister in Arkansas. His entire congregation is praying incessantly as well. God is sooooooo good! We are awaiting word on what is happening now. Initially, Harper was being transferred to Tulsa to receive a heart and lung bypass. (ECMO) I'm unsure if they are still planning for that now because at one point they said it looked as though Harper was responding well to treatment without it. However, after reading Kelly's dads blog this morning, it appears that the doctors have said Harper's heart is still enlarged on one side and not putting out the blood flow that it should be. She is also still having difficulty breathing due to suffering the effects of the pneumonia.
Once again friends, we have a family that needs our prayers. DESPERATELY! You too can jump over to Kelly's blogand leave her a message letting her know that we are all praying for her. If you scroll down a bit, you can follow the story as the events unfolded this past Friday night. Kelly is an incredible Christian sista' and that sista' needs our uplifting and so does her newborn baby girl. Please - I ask again - stop what you are doing and pray for Scott, Kelly, and baby Harper.
PS...I thought today's song choice here on the blog (Addison Road - "Hope Now") was very fitting given Scott and Kelly's circumstance surrounding Harper. Crank up your volume and pray for this family. How many times have we felt we were in rising waters just begging for the shore? Everything rides on hope now. Everything rides on faith somehow. When the world has broken us down, his love sets us free! Amen sista's!
Today started out as a crappy day. A really crappy day. Kenidi had a scheduled neurology appointment downtown at 9:30am. Late yesterday evening, Brennen's school did a mass voicemail to all parents alerting them that their school would have a two hour delay this morning due to weather. My immediate thought was - "Oh terrific, now Brennen will have to miss part of the day because he'll be forced to attend the neurology appt. with us now instead of being at school like he normally would've been." I couldn't leave him home alone to catch the bus by himself. And even if I could have, I wouldn't have. Brent had a very important meeting that had been previously planned and COULD NOT be rescheduled. Thus why he couldn't stay home and help get him on the bus. I didn't mind Brennen coming along, in fact it was good time together. However his school has such a strict policy this year regarding absences that it makes me cringe when the kids have to miss school - even a minute of school. This day however, was clearly already out of my control. God had other plans. As usual!
So...we hit the door running and ultimately discovered what we already knew. Indiana drivers treat snow like its the earth caving in. They literally creep along and act like they've never seen the white fluffy stuff before. Granted, we all know I have a lead foot. However, I'm still cautious. I'm cautious at a normal rate of speed. These people afraid of the snow though, they drive me bonkers! Really...people...we've lived here forever. This is about the 1 millionth time you've had to drive in it. You should be plenty used to a car and how it handles on snow by this point. Either way, I found myself nagging inside my head and griping about how I was going to be made late to the doctor appt. if these pokers didn't pick up the pace. At one point, I looked down and saw that my car dash read -9. Yes Internet, -9. It eventually came down to -8 and held there so I snapped a picture with my Iphone of the moment. I don't remember ever seeing my vehicles read negative anything. This was a first for me. It's bitterly cold here in Indy and I can't remember feeling this chilly in a longggg time. Either way, I took the picture in an effort to show you guys. Why? I donno. Maybe cuz' I was being whiny and wanted to gripe some more. Yeah, that was it.
Fast forward a bit. Get to the parking garage at the hospital. Can't find a single parking spot in the whole entire 5 levels they have to offer. Every single spot is taken. We eventually end up on the roof top due to no other option. Walked two kids thru snow and ice while wearing heels on the exposed roof top to an elevator in -8 degree weather. No biggy. Just enough to make me catch myself griping some more. And trust me, I'm really negative and ticked off by this point. Bottom line, I'm no peach - lets just leave it at that. Far from it in fact. Fast forward a few more steps...God then grabs me by my shoulders, shakes me a bit, tells me to quit being the whiny, obnoxious little baby that I'm being, and to take a look around and find something to be thankful for RIGHT THIS MINUTE.
I step inside the hospital doors and have my ah ha moment for the day. Reality hits. I look around and look around some more. I've been to this hospital a hundred times over again since Kenidi's diagnosis. However, today was especially tough for me. There were tiny babies and children everywhere. Sick ones. Deathly ill children. Some dying of cancer. Some with multiple tubes and machines running out of their noses, out of their stomachs or abdomen area, etc. Some were lethargic and not even alert. Parents pushing wheel chairs or pulling them in hospital wagons. A few were behind walkers, barely getting to their destination. Each room I passed had a story. The lab had sounds of crying babies and kids as we passed it. They were there for more blood work-more tests-no doubt. This was life for them as they knew it. I.felt.ashamed.
I was ashamed of myself for allowing the enemy to convince me that my day sucked thus far. I was ashamed that I allowed Satan to take such control over my life in the hours leading up to my walking thru that hospital door that for a split second, I thought I had it sssoooooooooooo bad! I was ashamed that I was too lazy to walk thru the cold with two kids without the griping transpiring in my head. I was ashamed that I rushed people along in my mind that I felt were driving too slow as I attempted to get to my destination. I did this in my healthy vehicle, with my healthy legs and healthy mind, with my 'almost' totally healthy children. Yes, Kenidi has a diagnosis. Two of them actually. Epilepsy and hypotonia. Therefore, she isn't as totally healthy as Brennen so to speak. However, we don't have life near as bad as some of those families who walk the halls of Riley hospital on a daily basis. I.was.ashamed.
God shook me and shook me good today. My shoulders and upper body are still rearing from the shaking I received this morning. When we left the appointment, it was a few minutes after 12 noon. We walked outside the elevator doors to the 6th floor rooftop of the parking garage and wouldn't you know it...the sun was shining. Yes, it was still -8 outside but the sun was shining Internet. I had a renewed attitude. God has a grand way of making that happen when he wants it to - and when we are willing to admit and take ownership for the fact that we are babies and should be ashamed of our pathetic cries due to how much we take life for granted. I was a big baby this morning. A 33 year old big baby. I cried over weather, I cried over too slow of drivers, I cried over the fact that I couldn't get a close parking spot in the garage and instead ended up outside on the rooftop, etc. I cried like a baby over things I could ultimately control with the help of a good attitude while hundreds of others cried inside a hospital over things they COULDN'T control. Cancer ridden children, babies with heart defects, children born without limbs who can't walk, trauma injuries that left their kids lifeless, and so on. Those are things worthy of crying and whining. Those are things that constitute the title of a "bad day."
So...it's 3:35pm on this Thursday afternoon and I have a different attitude than I did this morning. I'm ashamed that it took me having to feel "ashamed" in order to bring me to this 'ah ha' moment. Shame, shame, on me. I got over my bad self, got over my gripe with the snow and ice as well as the slow drivers, and now I'm home, relishing in my two "almost" perfectly healthy children.
The even more dramatic part to this attitude adjustment??...take a peek at the photo above one more time. When I got home and uploaded it to my computer, I discovered something odd but sooooooo God. Yes, it's a God thang'! The picture I took started out to be a negative prelude to the story about the numbers that read -8 on my dash. However, when I got home and uploaded the shot to my computer, that was the last thing I noticed in the image. What was the picture about now? Go ahead...take a look again. I NOW see an image caught in time that reflects the bright rays of the sun shining (which I never noticed until walking out on that roof top after our hospital appt.) as well as an image of my turn signal flashing left at just the right millisecond to make it look as though its pointing to the sun and its glory filled rays. If I didn't know better, I would've thought that the turn signal arrow was a photoshopped in arrow that was deliberately pointing to those rays. However, truth is, it wasn't photoshopped in. I look at that shot now and think..."look what you missed while griping about your silly woes this morning. You missed the gorgeous sunshine and all of its gorgeous-ness." This in turn, is typically something I never miss - the sun I mean. I always notice the sun. ALWAYS. Today I didn't though - until God shook me by my shoulders and told me to look around and find something to be thankful for RIGHT THIS MINUTE! Not only am I thankful for my two "almost" perfectly healthy children but I'm thankful for a God that keeps on loving me even in those moments when I neglect him and all his glory. I'm thankful for a God that continues to keep on taking me back after I slack off and don't give the relationship what I should. I'm thankful for a God that never turns to me and finally says..."We are so broke upAngie!"
We serve an awesome God. A big, big, God. Big enough to still put me over his knee and spank me when necessary. I've got the bruises to prove it. ;)
Have a great evening everyone. I know I will. And as I always say...Keep smiling and keep your face toward the sunshine. If you don't see any sunshine...make some!
First off, scroll down and pause my music play list before pushing the play arrow on this movie.
Secondly, this was sent to me by my sweet, blogger, friend and customer, Cortney today. Thanks Cortney! It rocked me to the core so I thought I'd share it with you all too. For those questioning, for those wondering, for those unsure...this short video is a great word picture for all of us. I hope it changes the course of your day today and forever. If after watching this, you don't want to be a better person, then - well - I just don't know.
The bridge, this thing called life...how far would you go?
