What's Your Favorite Quote?

My husband and I have been offered a very sweet deal. Rent at a crazy cheap price for the summer. I am thankful for generous friends who offer themselves, their contacts, and their resources. My friend just bought a house, and is allowing us to take over live in her basement for the summer.

 We find this bittersweet. Although this is a wise choice, I find myself getting sad. Sad to leave this beautiful place that is full of fond memories. This is our first "Real" place. We can't count the basement suite we lived in for 4 years. I refuse to count anything that has fungus literally growing through the carpet. This place is still classified as an apartment but it feels like a house.

 Our option is stay here and continue to sink, or move out and get back on our feet. Although this is a very wise choice, it is still a very difficult one to make. Even though I titled this blog before I started writing, I realize my writings have been good self-therapy for the past 2 minutes.

 My heart hurts. This is our home. I know "home is where the heart is" but this is where we literally grew up. We are in year 7 of our marriage, we are now parents... and we are broke. Bringing it back to the purpose of this... it is a wise choice.

 As we have been slowly going through our stuff (downsizing, procrastinating from packing) I came across a quote book I started a few years ago. In there I have lots of Bible verses and quotes that have made a great impact in my life. Some of these are from famous people, others are not. Some are lyrics to songs, or something I heard in a movie. I enjoy this little book because in it holds a great treasure of words. These words are so very encouraging to me.

 So, I ask you this: What is your favorite quote? Do you mind sharing them with me? If the comment section does not work, please send an email to warriorprincess306@gmail.com. If there are enough, I'll do a series. If not, I will do a post. They can be funny, deep, fluffy, etc. If you wish to share a story behind why this particular quote has such meaning to you, you can do a guest post on my blog.

 I found it very fitting to find this quote on a scrap piece of paper and be able to put it in my book today. As we are car-less and jobless, I found encouragement in it. "Today is the tomorrow you worried about, and everything is ok."  Such a great reminder!

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Blessed and Humbled

A year ago, I was dealing with a lot of bitterness toward the people in my life who said a lot of insensitive things to us while we were separated. I shake my head at the stupidity of people who just can't shut their mouths and listen. I know we are trained to speak in the silence because it makes it less awkward, and we as human beings don't like being awkward.

A year later, I have been overwhelmed with love and thankfulness toward the people in my life. Specifically, our small group.

On Valentine's Day, the day "set aside" to show our loved ones how we feel about them (I'll go off on that in another post) we had people from our small group spread a lot of love in our house. In a very humbling, and blessed experience, we were blessed with meals and groceries. "Bundles of love."

To our beautiful small group who is so good at caring for people, we thank you.

There is nothing else to say. I started to write more to justify all of it, but to put it simply... we were very humbled and so very blessed. We love you all! What incredible examples of how to act when others are hurting.

See Me For Who I Am

I am me.

I struggle with my weight (being on antidepressants sure does not help that.), I am incredibly shy when you meet me, but if you are patient and slowly get to know me, you will see that I don't shut up. I love to read. I am a fickle crafter. That means I will do one craft for a while, then move on to another craft, then move on... etc. I haven't touched some of my craft supplies in over a year. I love to play piano.

I love to connect with people on a deeper level. That sometimes intimidates people. I don't care about the surface stuff... I care about YOU. What's YOUR story? What made you who you are today? What are you learning? How are you and God doing?

I love sunshine, music, nature, giraffe's, fuzzy socks, and anything that is pink and orange together.

I love my son. I love my husband more than my son. I love my God more than my husband or my son.

I am me.

I am a sinner. Saved by grace. (Make sure you re-read that with a southern accent...) Emphasis on the saved by grace.

So WHY IS MY FAMILY MARKED?????

There are very few ways to truly anger/ offend me. One of these ways is to insult my family. As word slowly spreads through our church (why is it that people thrive off bad news but call it a "prayer request") one person who knows us well came up to me without my husband around and asked if he was losing his job due to sexual addiction.

This hurt me deeply.

You see, we were separated TWO YEARS AGO!!! Not only that, but my husband has BEEN CLEAN for two years.

This makes me so angry.

I used to work with kids with special needs. This was a very fulfilling job for me. A friend of mine was working on her inclusion certificate during this time. She learned that as a teacher, you need to see the child first, not the disability.

Oh how we can parallel this to our lives as well. We should see the person first, not their sin.

We are far from perfect, but we strive for godliness. Sometimes we don't succeed, but that's where the saved by grace comes into play. The next moment, we can pick ourselves up off the ground, and try again.

So, see us for who we are. People who love God. People who love each other, who are crazy in love with their kid and who desire to further the Kingdom. Period.

Faith Like A Child

As our life is taking interesting twists and turns and going from bad to worse (in some, NOT ALL areas) I have been amazed, challenged and learning oh so much from my little boy.

You see, this week, our country song has been completed. My husband lost his job. As we are in a place of discouragement, and we're completely drained of emotion, living off adrenaline and trying to smile in the midst of it all we are learning from our son.

Our beautiful son who even though is cutting 4 teeth at once still squeals and smiles in complete delight at life. Our beautiful son who is surrounded by chaos but is completely content and happy and secure. He is this way because he knows he has 2 parents who love him to pieces and who care for him.

Oh how I have learned much through this little boy. As my survival mode is wearing off and I am slowly facing reality I am trying to look at life through my son's eyes. He has nothing to worry about because he is able to trust that his needs are met. I worry because I struggle with trust... even though I am God's child, and He has ALWAYS taken care of our needs, we are once again faced with the unknown. It is much more easier to worry than it is to trust.

I think we can learn much from children who make it look so easy to trust and not worry.

The Why God/ Who God Mentality

When bad things happen, how often do we find ourselves asking the question "Why God???" I can think of many, many scenarios in my life, and the lives of friends and family where I have asked that question.

It is interesting how that simple question can change our attitudes. We start questioning our relationship with God, our purpose on this earth, etc. Bitterness can start growing in our heart pretty quickly when that simple question is asked.

Our purpose on this earth is not to have an easy life.

When the question simply changes from "Why God?" to "Who are You in this, God?" things start to get more clear. It might take a while to get an answer but trust me, it is worth the wait.

Our calling is very simple: Love God, and love others.

Without facing crap in our lives, there would be no compassion. How can we love others and show them Christ if we don't have compassion?

I've been through enough to see God's fingerprints on my life. Some things have been tough to get through, other things have been quite easy. These trials and blessings have made me who I am today.

Asking God who He is in situations reveal to me not only who He is, but what He desires me to be.

Stumbling and striding down this road, I am able to see snippets of who God is, and what He desires me to be. He wants me to learn lessons through the trials I face. He wants me to cling to Him an deepen my relationship with Him.

**It's funny... I originally wrote this post on January 28. I thought I had published it but realized today I didn't. I love when things are divinely appointed. Re-reading this post has challenged my thoughts for the events of the last weekish. My emotions have been on a roller coaster but when I ask who God is in this... He is here.

The Bad Country Song

"Ohhhhhh our computer crashed, our car died on the highway and we have no cash...la la la la la..."

I am not the biggest country music fan, but I think I just wrote a hit song ;)

On days like today, the sky is overcast and I am hit with an overwhelming sinking feeling.

I hate Februarys.

It seems like everything bad happens in February. No wonder they have a couple holidays in this month. Even though it is the shortest month, it feels so stinkin long and dark.

Moving on aside from my cynical tangent, today I have been struggling. I always wonder why it is so much easier to concentrate on the negative rather than the positive. For the past couple days there has been one line from a song by R-Swift called "Smile" that has been running through my head over and over... "When the money's all gone, and the bills aren't paid, don't you fret no don't you worry..."

Even as I type that, peace fills my soul.

I can't remember a time where we havn't struggled financially. In our early marriage years when we had 2 incomes, a lot of it came from lack of financial planning, and the ability to handle money well and just plain stupidity. Now... it is from lack of finances. Period. I get tired of the whole encouragement to budget, set money aside, etc etc because the fact is we don't have enough money to budget let alone set aside. We have this much money and THHHHHIIIIISSSSS MUUUUUUUCHHHHHH BIIIIIILLLLLLSSSSSSSS. Pretty much our finances are FUBAR. Now, before you all go and google what FUBAR means, let me just say it is a relatively derogatory way of saying we're screwed.

It's not that we're not trying. I have a home based business but with our main computer having crashed (aka all my stuff is on there) and having no car, it is hard to move forward with it. We are trying so hard, and yet we keep on failing.

Now, I know there are MUCH BIGGER problems in this world. Trust me, I am burdened for many friends and people I know who struggle with many many things. We can all look at others and think "well ya, they're struggling, but their issue is not as great as mine..." and yet, when we're in that issue, it is all we can think about. It is all consuming.

And then there is God. Our great BIG GINORMOUS God who reaches down and envelopes us with His overwhelming sense of love and peace and who says "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest..." (Matthew 11:28 NIV)

And then I sigh.

Our God is bigger. He is greater. He can handle all.

Amen... amen... amen.

The Great Adventure...

We are without a car.

Our car has been running on prayer for the past... long while. The prayers ran out so to speak.

We were on our way venturing forth to a city about 40 minutes away from where we live. We made it about half way, then our car died.

God answered prayer in different ways that day. I was wearing cute shoes but thought to bring my runners along "just in case" and we put an extra blanket on our son. It also wasn't a swear-your-face-off cold day like it can be here around this time of year. In fact, I think it was above zero.

God provided through friends who dropped everything to come rescue us and use their CAA to get our car towed back to our place.

We are now without a working car. We could take it to a shop but lack the funds to pay for it.

We are not worried.

It is an adventure.

A few weeks ago, we went without internet for a week. It was one of the most freeing experiences we have had. This too will be an interesting experience. Taking a bulky stroller up the steps onto a city bus was one of those interesting experiences.

We are fine.

We are trusting God. We are excited to learn what He wants to show us on this adventure.

But you gotta admit... it is kind of funny...