God. Life. Weddings

Oswald Chambers.....you kick my butt when I need it. Seriously. Today's reading...so good. It was about joy. God's joy. Some notable quotes, ones that make you stop feeling sorry for yourself and get you to start living for Him.  

"The first thing that will hinder this joy is the captious irritation of thinking out circumstances. The cares of this world, said Jesus, will choke God's word." "Stop being self-conscious, stop being a sanctified prig, and live the life hid with Christ. The life that is rightly related to God is as natural as breathing wherever it goes."

Oh Oswald...thank you for reminding me of how much I need Jesus.

In other news, I went running again tonight. It was ridiculous. My legs hurt so much. But....I did run longer than last night without stopping, so that's progress.

In wedding news, I have something pretty to share with you all. Flowers go straight to my heart. Really. I don't ever want to arrange them into these delectable designs, but I do enjoy looking at them and wouldn't mind receiving some :)

This bouqet is gorge...

A

Aaaaannnndd.....blue glass is divine 

Oh, and this skirt. I'm pretty sure this bride is totally rockin it. The confidence that women have when they know they're man loves them is precious...

Being eclectic, being me

I'm an eclectic person. I don't like consistency because consistency is boring to me. Sean Dougherty told me my iTunes library was awesome. When I asked him why, he said because it's so different; that there is such a variety of music. I guess that's true. And as I thought about it further, I realized that nothing about me is black or white. While this makes decision making considerably more difficult, I think it provides for more of an opportunity to see things from a different light. I mean, if someone were to put my ipod on shuffle and leave it alone for a while, one would hear many different things. You could go from Michael Jackson, to Norah Jones, to Green Day in a span of 10 minutes. It's always different; like me.

You know those personality tests you always took when you were in middle school? The ones that you would put on your livejournal (yea, that's right, I had a livejournal). It seems like every one of those tests always had something like "Are you a happy person?" or "What's your favorite color?" I could never answer those questions truthfully because things always changed. I dunno, I'm a generally happy person, but there are those days. And as for the favorite color question, well that's just dumb because there are so many wonderful colors out there, how can you pick just one? That's how I look at life. How can I be in a career that does the same things every day when there are so many wonderful opportunities where you can learn something new from people you've never met before? This is why I'm not cut out for retail. God bless those who are in retail full time, because they have a special calling on their life. To me, retail is the same thing every day, and if I had to do the same thing every day for the rest of my life, I probably wouldn't have a soul in all honesty. It's one of the reasons I've picked wedding planning. Aside from it being wonderful, it's also never the same. No two weddings are the same, no two people, no two mother's of the brides. Every one is different and every one has the ability to teach you something if you're just willing to watch for it. Each day, God has something different to teach me; but if I close my ears to what He has to say, and just keep doing my thing, then how can I know Him? "Be still and know that I am God." One of my favorite verses. Be still and listen, watch, hear. Listen for the chance to learn something new; use every opportunity you have to hear others, hear their stories, and learn from them.

Worship Team

I wrote this Sunday evening. It's taken me this long to try and get pictures uploaded to it...

I'm sitting in my bed at the end of a sunday, and still I feel the same way towards them as I have for the past 3 years. Sundays are the longest day of the week. When I'm about to go to bed, it seems odd to think that hours ago I was at church. Every week, same thought. My knee hurts a lot, not really sure why. Not too long ago, it was hurtin real bad randomly and i'm not sure I've ever fully recovered. Good day today, good day. I got an email from Kacey, asking me to take some worship team pictures. This seemed odd to me, seeing as Kacey is an amazing photographer, but none the less, I absolutely said yes because it's always a good thing to take pictures of good looking people (especially when they're playing instruments). I find out later from her that these pictures are needed by Pastor Clay. Apparently he wanted some new pictures to decorate the office with. Great....no pressure at all....needless to say, I almost wish that Kacey was the one taking all the pictures, so that I won't feel like a dummy if he doesn't like them. Sorry Kace. :/ Here are a few that I like.

Flirting?

What is this social activity called flirting? It's been so stinkin long since I have partaken in such a gesture, that I'm not even sure what to do anymore. I used to flirt in high school. Apparently I thought it was harmless. That was before I knew what it really did to a man. Oh how naive I was when I was in high school. I didn't care what was going on in the guy's mind; all I cared about was that it was fun, harmless, no big deal.
Well, I'm not in high school anymore. I'm not even in college anymore (by the way, that still freaks me out). But now that I'm at the age where it is OK to flirt a little bit or show my interest to a guy, I don't even know what to do. *sigh Been so long since I've been interested in someone, it's just bleh....
Be content.....Be content.....Be content....

Observational talk

• I love watching people save face. Fancy term I learned in sociology. Like when you're walking down the road, or more importantly, when you're walking down the breezeway of FAU and you realize that you're walking in the complete opposite direction of where you need to go. No one really stops and completely turns around and starts walking. No, we have to check our watch, maybe some piece of paper we have in our hand, or perhaps fake a phone call, just so that the people around us that are watching know that we aren't crazy and don't just stop walking and turn around for no reason. Try it some time....it's awkward. 
• I hate having the remote in a room full of people watching tv. It's that pressure of, how do I please everyone? I think that's when the channel goes to discovery channel or TLC. Because there you can find entertainment that is neutral. A good episode of dirty jobs is a place to start. I don't want to put on a show that I love, but then have that pressure of wondering if others like it too, and will they understand why this show is so awesome?
• Learning cursive is completely pointless. Also Algebra 2
• I have a hard time figuring out the line between "I'm bored" and "I'm hungry"
• How many times is it appropriate to say "what?" before you just not and smile when you can't hear what someone is saying?
• Jeans never get dirty, you can wear them forever
• I hate the heart dropping feeling of thinking you're gunna die after you tip your chair back a little too far
• When a tag for something says "Do not machine wash", that usually means I won't ever wash it
• How did we ever figure out to blow in the Nintendo cartridges as a kid? word of mouth? It's not like there was readily available internet where we could "google" it. I don't know about you, but when I had the 15 minutes of internet time in which no phone call could be received to the house because the internet was hooked up, you better believe I wasn't looking up "ways to make my video game work."
• There's usually a point in your work day when you establish whether or not you're going to be productive that day. 
• One of the things I hate is knowing that the next day, I have off work but my parents don't, only to wake up that morning to my dad out in the living room playing with his airplanes...
• I'm always slightly terrified when I exit out of Word and it asks me if I want to save any changes to my ten page research paper that I swear I did not make any changes to.

Camp-6th year

We just got back from middle school camp. This was my 6th year doing it. It's a little ridiculous. In some ways it was one of the more frustrating ones but overall, it really was one of the best years. God was completely in control, and this made everything go so much better. "my strength is made perfect in weakness" was my theme, and apparently was the theme of the worship team. There were so many times when I was weak and really not sure of what to do or how to get it done and God showed up. I feel like the reins were let go so much and we were really able to see the splendor of Jesus.

The enemy did try and attack, through not only the students but also in relationships between leaders. I realized just how much satan uses my insecurities to try and eliminate the joy I get from what I do. I feel like so much of the time, I was rebuking the enemy, refusing to let him have a foothold in camp. When I screw up with something, I let satan move in and influence my thoughts. I think it has something to do with one of my strengths being responsibility. When I have a responsibility, I do everything I can to make it run smoothly. However, I am human, and mess things up quite a bit, and when I do, I feel guilty, and have to make sure I fix the situation. I have a hard time taking compliments but I can take critiques all too easily.
To everyone to went to camp and helped, I am so thankful. You guys really were the best and are the ones who deserve the credit. Thank you, thank you, thank you. If I opened my mouth without realizing what was coming out of it, I'm sorry. I hope I encouraged more though.

If you read this Bobby, I am so proud of you. You had the leadership needed to take the worship team to that level of excellence and I can't help but smile when I see you lead worship.

I don't know what else to say except for thank you and that I had some of best fun I've had in years! Life is a highway, Faithfully, being "Boss", and traps will all stick in my mind forever. Love you all :)