What I've been thinking about

"You make known to me"

God speaks to us. 

He shows & reveals

He wants us to know Him.

God knows, we don't.

We need God to reveal it to us.

I need to be listening.

I need to be ready.

I need to be seeking.

"The path of life"

God has to show us this path.

There is a right way.

There are many paths.

One that leads to life.

It's a journey. 

It requires following. 

"In your presence"

We have access to God. 

We can experience God.

We can stand before Him.

We can know we are near to Him.

We can be close to Him.

"There is fullness of joy"

Complete joy.

Don't need to search for joy anywhere else.

All the joy we need or want is in His presence.

An abundance of joy.

"At your right hand"

This is a part of God. 

He provides it.

 Coming from Him.

Close to Him.

"Are pleasures forever more"

Continual enjoyment.

Constantly available.

Never ending delight.

Eternal enjoyment is found in God.

"You make known to me the path of life; in your presence is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore." - Psalm 16:11

A few of my favorites

Happy Monday!  Dan and I had such a great weekend.  We grilled out with friends, watched the Mavs crush Lebron (yay!) ran the Northshore Half Marathon on Sunday morning, and I got to go to the beach to celebrate my friend, Caroline's, birthday!  It was such a great combination of relaxing and fun.  I'll post some pictures later this week.

In the meantime, these are some fun things I have seen around the blog world/ web :)

I could definitely go on a vacation in this house.

These cookies look SO good! And easy to make.  Great combo.  You can find the recipe here

I love this rolled up jean look.  I'm thinking about trying it to spice up my wardrobe without having to buy new jeans. via

I thought this was a great idea- I always forget about that eyeshadow in the bottom of my make up bag. via.

I love this music in this blue frame. via

She makes me want to have long hair :)  You can see the tutorial here.

 

Choosing to SEE

A week ago I said in this post I was excited to tell you about a book I was reading.  Well, I finished it and am so thankful I read it.

The summer of 2008 I was at home in Hudson, having just graduated college and anxiously awaiting the month of July to get married and move to Chicago.  It was an ordinary summer day.  I was in our family room reading next to my mom who was watching the news, when she suddenly gasped and pointed to the small letters scrolling across the bottom of the screen.  It was one of those moments that you remember so clearly and is forever engraved in your memory.  It read "Steven Curtis Chapman's adopted daughter was hit and killed by their son."  That was it.  The pit that forms in your stomach after news like that is just unforgettable.

I later saw pictures of Will, their son who hit Maria, at the funeral with his sister's pink blanket draped around his shoulders.  I immediately thought of the huge task that his parents had, grieving over their daughter while still loving their son and protecting him from the immense guilt he felt.

My mom picked out this book for me last Christmas called "Choosing to SEE" by Mary Beth Chapman.  While Mary Beth opened up about the tragedy of losing her daughter, (and let me tell you it was heart wrenching.  I don't cry too often but I definitely could not hold back the tears while reading most of this book) she also opened up about meeting Steven and their life struggling as a young married couple.

Although this book wasn't like some of the others I have read where you are underlying phrase after phrase of biblical insight, I learned a lot about a mom who sought to trust God through every tough situation life presented her.  Mary Beth wrote from her heart about her life: the hard times, the hilarious times (and she definitely had some funny stories that I had to read out loud to Dan), and the times of relying on God through the craziness of their life.  It was refreshing to read this book and I am thankful that she chose to be vulnerable and share with me and her other readers such personal stories.

As I think about my future with Dan and all that awaits us, I can only pray that I will rely on God through every situation that life presents us like Mary Beth did.

The Ordinary Pastor Series

I know I often tend to talk about CJ Mahaney a lot, but I subscribe to his blog and I am always encouraged by what he has to say.  I can truly say that when I see "C.J. Mahaney's view from the cheap seats & other stuff" pop up in my inbox, I definitely get excited.  Below is a quote from his post today.

I found it encouraging not just for the "ordinary pastor" that he is writing to, but for the ordinary mom, ordinary student, ordinary friend... the list could go on and on.  I found this to be such a sweet excerpt from a son's perspective of how he remembered his dad.  I would be more than thankful to be remembered in such a way.

Tom Carson never rose very far in denominational structures, but hundreds of people in the Outaouais and beyond testify how much he loved them. He never wrote a book, but he loved the Book. He was never wealthy or powerful, but he kept growing as a Christian: yesterday’s grace was never enough. He was not a far-sighted visionary, but he looked forward to eternity. He was not a gifted administrator, but there is no text that says, “By this shall all men know that you are my disciples, if you are good administrators.” His journals have many, many entries bathed in tears of contrition, but his children and grandchildren remember his laughter. Only rarely did he break through his pattern of reserve and speak deeply and intimately with his children, but he modeled Christian virtues to them. He much preferred to avoid controversy than to stir things up, but his own commitments to historic confessionalism were unyielding, and in ethics he was a man of principle. His own ecclesiastical circles were rather small and narrow, but his reading was correspondingly large and expansive. He was not very good at putting people down, except on his prayer lists.

When he died, there were no crowds outside the hospital, no editorial comments in the papers, no announcements on television, no mention in Parliament, no attention paid by the nation. In his hospital room there was no one by his bedside. There was only the quiet hiss of oxygen, vainly venting because he had stopped breathing and would never need it again.

But on the other side all the trumpets sounded. Dad won entrance to the only throne room that matters, not because he was a good man or a great man—he was, after all, a most ordinary pastor—but because he was a forgiven man. And he heard the voice of him whom he longed to hear saying, “Well done, good and faithful servant; enter into the joy of your Lord."

More updates from Nashville

We took so many pictures it was difficult to sort through them all, but I tried to include a little bit of everything we did :)

The captions will tell the story.

This was the picture we were taking (I took pics from my phone in the previous post of Michael W. Smith.  I'm in the purple on the right & Dan's in the blue and white polo.. can you see us?!)

First stop: downtown Franklin, TN.  It was such a cute town.  I saw this fire station and had to take a quick picture of all their gear lined up.  Franklin is where a lot of country, Christian, and just in general stars live.  For instance, we saw Dave Ramsey's home- huge home- which he paid cash for.  Crazy.

Making Dan stand by the Franklin sign.

Making Dan show off his cool Michael W. Smith name tag

Next stop: Rocketown.  This is a place/ program Michael W. Smith founded for kids in the community.

They had this fun skate park inside

This was the dance studio.  Can you see us in the mirror?

Got to see Smitty perform!

The next day we had a morning session and then got to tour downtown Nashville.  Dan took this pic for his bro, Jeff.

Downtown!  It. was. so. hot.

We went to this really good BBQ place.  The restaurant was open upstairs!  Still didn't cool us down too much, though.

They created a replica of the Parthenon at this cute park near the city!  It was huge!

We had way too much fun taking pictures by these pillars.  Too many to put here lol

That night we went to Michael's farm!  Theses were to help cool us down lol

Waiting in line for the hot air balloon ride!  Note - we waited in line for close to 2 hours and after about 1.5 hours, the staff said they had to cut the line off because it was so hot they were using more propane gas than planned!  And, he looked right at me and said the line was cut off at me!  I felt SO bad for everyone behind us who waited in that line -dripping sweat- for the 1.5 hours... but I was definitely thankful we got to go!

We were the last ride of the night!

View of the tent from the balloon!

This is me absolutely terrified haha.  Dan told me I looked ridiculous in this picture so obviously I had to post it.  I thought my life was about to end any second.

Matthew West stopped by!  So sad this is blurry :/  In my previous post I showed you the stalkerish pictures I took of him.

Our Weekend in the South via my phone

We're home!  Since the NBA finals are on (Cavs for the Mavs, baby!) and we're going to head to bed soon, I'll post some pics from my phone for now.  We took SO many more on our camera, but I'll share those later :)  

Definitely thankful we went and for the Itins who let us take their spot :)  Hope you had a good wkd!

We made it to Louisville...

Almost there!!

Made it to Franklin, TN.  First stop: Mexican :)

Our first stop at the event was Rocketown- a skate park/ coffee shop/ dance studio & recording studio  Michael W. Smith founded in Nashville.  Can you spot him in this picture?! (everyone is taking pics of him)

They took a picture of all 700 of us

There he is! (pointing up)

Thunderbird he bought to auction off.  This pic is for my dad :)

Concert at Rocketown 

We went on a hot air balloon on Saturday night at Michael W. Smith's farm!! I was terrified.

View of the tent where we had amazing BBQ

View of the tent from up in the air!

This is a picture inside the balloon

Then he hit the gas!

View of Michael W. Smith's barn

Another view of the tent.

While we stood, sweating profusely I might add, in the 2 hour line to get on the hot air balloon in 100 degree humid weather.. Matthew West stopped by.  Here's my stalkerish pics of him.  He's in the black shirt.

He has an ADORABLE blond haired little girl!

This reason alone is why I would move to Nashville in a heart beat.