weekdate #001

weekly + update = weekdate!

I always have things happen throughout the week that I want to blog about, but they're just too little to make a post about.  So I've decided to start doing these "weekdates" every Monday, if possible, talking briefly about 10 things that happened over the week.  I think it'll be fun!

1. This week Rachel and I went to Garcia's for dinner after school.  ^ this is what I had ^.  It was so good!

2. Work has been really great these past few weeks.  We have new crew that are being trained, and it's more fun with new people.  I'm trying to be as welcoming as possible; I know how scary it is to be new!

3. I've been giving Titus (my beta fish) a hard time lately.   Whenever I feed him he gets really excited, so I decided to try and see if he would follow my finger around his bowl.  Well, he did, but I think he thinks I'm an enemy because he gets all puffed up and tries to make himself as big as possible.  It's pretty funny.  I tried to take a video of him doing it, but it's terrible quality.  Hope you can still see it okay!

4. I've been going on a lot more walks lately, and trying to jog some.  On Saturday I jogged farther than I ever have before!  I almost died, but I'm so proud that I could do it!

5. Easter yesterday was great.  We didn't have a sunrise service, but the regular service was great.  Afterwards we had our first Seder Supper (it's like the Passover meal) and then a big potluck.  It was so much fun!  Then we came home and almost all of us took naps before we did Easter baskets and had an Easter egg hunt for Chloe.

6. I took my 4th Spanish exam--my last one before the final--and did tons better than I expected.  I also got a math test back and did really great.

7. The weather's been iffy this past week.  On Sunday it was around 70 degrees, and then Monday night we got a foot of snow.  It was all melted by Tuesday afternoon, and since then it been a lot warmer, but still a bit chillier than it was before.

8. I've actually been making friends at school, which is a lot different from last semester when I would just talk to people once and then never speak to them again.  This semester is a lot better!

9. Only four more weeks of school!

10. I love clearance. :)

attributes of God - goodness

This month in "The Attributes of God" we were talking about the goodness of God.  I really enjoyed it.  God's goodness is one of those attributes I love thinking about, but just don't think about enough.

One of the quotes I like by Tozer is one where he defines the word "magnify".

   The psalmist said, "O magnify the LORD with me" (34:3).  "Magnify" may mean one of two things: "make it look bigger than it is," or "see it as big as it is."  The latter is what "magnify" means as the psalmist used it.
   If you want to examine a very small amount of matter, you put if under a microscope and magnify it to make it look bigger than it is.  But it is impossible to make God look bigger than He is.  When we say "magnify the Lord," we mean try to see God somewhere near as big as He is.  This is what I want to do.  This is what, by His help, I have dedicated myself to do.

Tozer also pointed out that God isn't ever "partway" anything.  He's always wholly good, wholly awesome, wholly loving, etc.  What an amazing thought!

In the chapter there was another quote I liked:

   The goodness of God is the only valid reason for existence, the only reason underlying all things.  Do you imagine that you deserve to be born, that you deserve to be alive?  The unbelieving poet Omar Khayyam said,

Into this universe and why
not knowing nor whence
like water willy-nilly flowing
and out of it like wind along the waste,
whither I know not,
willy-nilly blowing.

Tonight we were watching a bit of the old Moses movie, "The Ten Commandments".  As we were watching I got to thinking about God's goodness in the lives of Moses and his parents.  I can't imagine how Moses' mother must have felt as she set her baby boy adrift in the Nile in a basket, knowing the water was full of snakes and crocodiles and all other kinds of dangers, as well as boats and any number of other things that could have brought his young life to an end.  But she trusted in God, and how He showed His goodness through Moses' life!  I just thought it was really neat to think about.

...He made amends for us, "full, fair, and many," turning all our sin into endless worship.

Everyday's Thanksgiving, Part #36

I'm thankful for:

0701. new crew at work

0702. learning about God's goodness in the ladies' Bible study.  I'm going to try and do a post similar to this one about it.

0703. Sonic's Happy Hour special

0704. actually making friends in my classes this semester, especially my history class.  It's nice to actually talk to people from week to week, not just one time only!

0705. all the snow's melted!

0706. "Flower, Flower" by The Vespers.  I got a free download of this band's music this week, and I love it!  My favorite song by them is actually "Better Now", but I couldn't find a good video of it.

0707. getting a tip today at work from a kind lady I know from Bible club!

0708. building up my strength

0709. layering

0710. remembering art techniques from last semester, like atmospheric perspective.  It's where, as you look farther back into the picture or painting, it gets lighter and bluer.

0711. only a few more weeks of school, and then I'll be done with my first year of college!

0712. fish in a pond

0713. lightbulbs

0714. being able to read "Blue Like Jazz" by Donald Miller.  It's really interesting.

0715. getting off of work on time today

0716. my ever-faithful alarm clock.  I hate it sometimes, but it presses on. :)

0717. velvet boxes

0718. BACON!!!! :D

0719. bronze hoop earrings

0720. doing really well on my Spanish exam yesterday!

* pictures from weheartit.com

Everyday's Thanksgiving, Part #35

I'm thankful for:

0681. French vanilla creamer

0682. big, fluffy skirts

0683. reviews before Spanish tests

0684. "Good" by Matthew West and Leigh Nash from Music Inspired by the Story

0685. weird New Mexico weather--yesterday it was very nice and warm and springy; today it's snowing

0686. April Fools!

0687. going through old sermon notes for quotes that I forgot to write somewhere else

0688. warm baths

0689. friends getting engaged

0690. knitting (I can't knit personally, but I admire people who can) :)

0691. free music

0692. old love poems (I found this page in an old book ages ago and I just think it's really cool.)

0693. studying the Bible as a family in preparation for Easter

0694. as much as I enjoyed the sunrise service last year, I'm glad we're not having one this year

0695. summery dresses

0696. newborns

0697. little kids that are all rambunction (?) and energy

0698. hot pink

0699. brilliant ideas

0700 (!). The Hunger Games.  I know, I know, but I actually really liked the books, and the movie was great too.

His gracious presence

   *Not long ago a young woman at a retreat told a long tale of how she had come to know the Lord, had rebelled against Him and gone far afield, had been brought back, rebelled again, and then in mercy and grace the Lord had forgiven her, given her a Christian husband and happiness.  He was a highway patrolman, and one day, attending a traffic accident, he was struck by a passing car and critically injured.  Gwenn herself was in bed at the time, with a threatened miscarriage.  Three days later he died.  That same afternoon her father died, and in six more days she lost her baby.  She told her story quietly, without tears, although nearly everyone else was weeping.  She finished by saying that she found, by her husband’s deathbed, what she had sought for so long—the gracious presence of Christ Himself.

   In a letter to me she wrote:

    About a week after the retreat my phone rang.  It was the wife of the man who hit my husband.  She said she had to call because her sister-in-law had just called her, having come home from a Bible study where a woman shared some of what I said that morning at the retreat.  She literally pleaded with me, if ever the inclination were there, to somehow communicate to her husband the things I had said, because he is so guilt ridden and unable to forgive himself.  When I hung up the phone, I was shaking and ran in and fell beside my bed and cried my heart out, knowing, I guess, that such a thing can only be accomplished by God within me--for it's like being stretched far beyond who I am.  To hold onto my pain, despising its source, is far easier because it's far more natural.  But as a friend said, my forgiving him and expressing that forgiveness directly via a letter or visit could very possibly hold the key, the only key, that can release him from his prison. . . . And it just very well could be the one area I have not dealt with that could result in the completion of healing within me.  My friend pointed out that, as a child of God, I really have no choice.  The nagging question, "Why, God, is it required of me to forgive so much?" needs not be answered. . . . Praise God for His amazing grace that takes us where we never thought we could go!

 * excerpt taken from "Discipline: The Glad Surrender" by Elisabeth Elliot, pages 150-151