Baby Cherry
Aug/090
Today is the day. Well, hopefully. Lyndsey and Jeff are at the hospital anxiously awaiting their first child, Owen. New life is amazing. Its hopeful and exciting. Its unknown and mysterious, but full of thousands of opportunities. I pray that God has his mighty hand on Lyndsey as she brings this new life into the world. I’ll post a picture as soon as I can get my hands on one!
Yeast
Aug/090
Last night, Nik spoke about communion and the meaning behind yeast-less (is that a word?) bread. Funny, because this morning, in my own quiet time, I came across Matthew 16: 5-12. The section is titled The Yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees. Jesus is telling his disciples to guard themselves against the yeast of the Pharisees/Sadducees. At first they take this literally, until Jesus prompts them to think furthur. The yeast is symbolic of sin, wrong-doing or thinking and the evilness of these religious lawmakers. The Pharisees/Sadducees are consistently missing the mark of Jesus’ message and instead, are way too focused on the laws and rules of the day. Jesus says to the disciples once more, “But be on your guard against the yeast of the Pharisees/Sadducees.”
Who are the Pharisees/Sadducees in our lives right now? Who is only looking at the law and not living out the message of Jesus? What is the yeast in our world today? GUARD YOURSELF. Do not buy into the “religious lawmakers.” So often we only think of guarding ourselves from the “world.” But there are others, others that proclaim to be Christians and that teach the word. But are they really living out the message of Jesus? The message of grace, holiness, forgiveness and salvation? We must guard ourselves against the modern day Pharisees/Sadducees.
The only way to do this is by reading God’s word and spending time in prayer. When we are close to God, we are given a better sense of who people are and what is motivating them. When we know God’s word, we know if our preacher or our teacher or our friends are Pharisees/Sadducees or legit followers of our Christ.
Annoying Facebookers
Aug/091
Haha. This article is great. Someone posted it on facebook, of course. If your bored, check IT OUT.
Nicholas, Daniel & Esther
Aug/090
I love my husband. More every day. Seriously, we just have fun together. I laugh all the time and he is my absolute favorite. I am so blessed. As we approach our one year anniversary (that went fast!), I couldn’t be happier with our relationship. Knowing that we will continue to grow together and closer to each other. When we started dating three years ago, I was open to an adventure, but I don’t think I quite understood that this outcome could be possible. All that to say, he makes me happy.
Haha. His hair is super long in this picture 
We are anticipating our friends’ arrival today, Daniel & Esther Guy. Daniel is one of Nik’s closest friends. They grew up together in Daphne (think super skinny white guys playing hard core rock shows without shirts on. haha). I actually know Daniel & Esther separately, from when they went to school in Missouri. They were around in my youth group when I was in highschool. Could have never guessed that I’d marry their best friend and they would both be participants in our wedding (Esther is a killer cello & piano player. Like absolutely amazing). They have been serving at a church in the Phillipines for the last 2-3 years and have just come back to the states. They’ll be in Daphne for a couple of weeks before moving back to Springfield so Esther can pursue her Masters at MSU. All the more reason to visit Springfield!! It will be really nice to have them around over the next few weeks. I know Nik is grateful to be having Daniel so near. Its funny how God always provides just enough of what we need, just in time.
Cori. Cori. Cori.
Aug/090
My friend Cori has started an Etsy account for her art. I’m thinking of starting one for photography and post scenerary pictures and such. Just thinking about it. I think I need to to some more research on it. If you haven’t checked out Etsy.com you definitely should. It’s pretty cool.
Left Behind
Aug/091
Over most of my life, I’ve been the one to leave. I am not very often left behind. I’m usually the one going. This week, however, I got left. We had a pretty substanial group of guys leave for college this week. Most of these young men have been with Nik (in youth group) for the past 5 years. These are great kids and over the last 2 years I have grown to love them. And I already miss them. Haha. I am a sucker. I really had to swallow back some tears on Wednesday night as I said goodbye to the last of them. I’m just so used to them being around. Our youth group is making a major switch this fall. We’ve lost a group of senior guys and a big group of junior high girls are coming in. Its interesting to be on this side of things now. Youth ministry is so cyclical. Its constantly rebuilding itself with new faces and personalities. This last group definitely marks the end of an era for Nik. They were in 8th grade when Nik became their leader. As we drove away from them on Wednesday night, Nik said “there’s 5 years.” I have to say that Nik has done an amazing job with those boys. Sometimes we don’t always see the fruits of our labor, but I think Nik can look at them already and know that the time he gave and the effort he put into them was well worth it. 
I Love Blogging
Aug/091
I really do love blogging. I love writing, and I love reading other people’s blogs. I love keeping up with people and having my own little space to place all my little thoughts. I even love it more than facebook. I know this because today, just for a couple of hours, my blogsite was down and facebook just wasn’t cutting it. Haha. I am silly, I know.