Celebration

Isabella after she succesfully climbed up and over me to get her pacifier.

So I'm watching Ladder 49 right now and my heart is just dropping. I decided to start my post because I can't handle really paying attention to what is going on. Wow... another good movie and one that you should watch to learn more about how people live their lives but one I wouldn't watch again.

Today was a special day at church because we celebrated our 1yr Anniversary as a branch church. To add to our celebration we had 3 baptisms. That's always such a blessing to watch people publicly commit their lives to the Lord. We had our lunch bunch at a Thai restaurant and it was great food and fun fellowship even though Isabella was a handful. She is really struggling with allergies and today was just too long of a day for her. Poor thing took a nap and once she woke up she wouldn't go to anyone but me and wouldn't let me put her down at all. So we decided to take a walk and by the time we came back it was dinner, bath and bed time. Poor thing... tomorrow will be a better day. How can it not be? Daddy's home.

The youth worship team asked me to play (piano) with them and I was thrilled. I haven't played since Christmas and I miss it so much. As I was walking home after practice I was amazed by the calmness of the harbour and the amount of families on the promenade. This scene made HK seem so peaceful and unhurried. Made me chuckle because once you take about 100ft inwards you see the gobs of people rushing from store to store.

So I'm reading this book (see previous post) and it's just great! I've already read bits and pieces but I'm going back to read from start to finish and there were a couple of statements that really caught my attention.

1. You will never be able to count all of God's thoughts toward you! You are loved beyond all knowing.
Wow... to know I'm loved that much, even through all the good and bad of me, is hard to comprehend. But it's so true. God loves us unconditionally and wants us to have a relationship with Him. This applies to you reading this right now... do you have a relationship with the one that loves you so?

2. Until you take responsibility for yourself, you cannot become all God hopes you will be.
Another wow... made me really think about if I take responsibility for who I am and what I do/say. Also made me think about if I don't take responsibility... why don't I. Do I not want to admit something? Am I not aware of another?

3. Making the choice to pursue maturity can fix a lot of what is broken in your life, even when you don't recognize your brokenness.
This statement stuck out because of the word 'choice'. I've been realizing more and more that life is about choices. I can chose to be happy, grumpy, follow God, rebel, etc. So now I can chose to be mature and by making this choice, I can grow and chisel away at the rough edges. You may say 'well duh' but sometimes it takes me awhile to put two and two together and this statement helped me do that. I want to be mature... a Big Girl as the book describes so now I need to be honest with myself on the little girl qualities that need to go.

I also realized one more thing today... I don't have that 'one' person (okay I have Mike but I mean a girl... sometimes I think you just need a girl for some things) who could come out and tell me 'you're wrong... are you sure about that... think about it this way...". Someone that I know would do it out of love and desire to help me grow. I realized how important that is because I'm sure there are times where I can't see the negative in my attitude/words/actions but others could see it and I don't want to be that kind of person. I want to be joyful, positive and always seeking to serve others. Hmmm... will have to pray about this but I do have someone in mind.

Well... those are my thoughts today. I find myself (since starting this blog and knowing that I'm going to post something each evening) looking for things to learn each day. What a great thing the blog has been for me! Who knew?

I'll leave you with this quote....

"While others may argue about whether the world ends with a bang or a whimper, I just want to make sure mine doesn't end with a whine." ~Barbara Gordon