So this week has been crazy, but great! I have a few highlights for you.

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1. Probably the biggest news for this week: Canaan and I have the pleasure of going to HAWAII this weekend. [go ahead, let your squeals out]. We are so excited! Canaan was asked to perform his very first wedding. It is for our good friendsmegan mallette [Tennessee shout out] and aaron mohle. And since we are good friends, they are letting me tag along too! We will be there from tomorrow until Tuesday morning. So we will be with the couple and their families until Saturday evening, & then Canaan and I get to explore on our own until monday evening! For those of you who know about our honeymoon drama, this will be like a REAL second honeymoon for us. Aloha! Ready for some sun & sand. It’s been a while.

2.

   got this new nail polish: lucky lucky lavender. And I am loving it! It’s like a little happy on my nails everytime I look down. And gets me so excited for spring!

3. have ya’ll happened to buy any navel oranges lately? If not, you should. They are amazinggg. I can’t get enough, and I am not usually a huge orange person. Go getchasome!

4. i like the thought of buying some shamrocks for the spring. What a cool concept for st. patricks day? I will probably go get some after we get back from Hawaii. Let’s see if I can keep them alive! 

5. i have been doing a beth moore bible study with some of the church ladies at good ‘ol pwood, and have beenenthralled by it. It has been such a time of growth, retrospect, yearning for the Lord’s face/Word, and repentance. We are going through the book of Daniel. It is all about rising above the world of excess we live in. it talks about the Babylonian culture we live in today, where the theme of the great schemer is making life all about “me”. The book of Daniel shows us a life that was lived with integrity and ears that listened only to the Lord’s commands, nothing else. How I pray for ears like that. earsthat learn to listen. I think the Lord made us very specifically that when we are talking, we cannot listen at the same time. And when we are truly listening, we don’t even think about interrupting to speak. I pray to remember that. that the Lord gives us everything we need, and the rest is fluff. By me saying what I have is not enough is saying HE is not enough.

6.

6. this week is spring break for most people we know. My table group has been super light, so although I know the students are having a much-needed rest, I can’t wait for everyone to come back! Last week was mini-mester for some of the kids who go to PCA [Prestonwood Christian academy]. The stories brought back from cuba, the amazon,Africa, east dallas, and internships were amazing! It feels my heart so much to see these junior and senior high students breaking boundaries to share the name of Christ. I want them to remember this feeling of serving, how it is the most joy they will ever know, and hold fast to it, so they can bring it back to use in plano. It is much needed here as well. We are the opposite of some of the places these students visited. The people they saw clung to the hope of Christ because it is all they have. The people here have everything they could ever want and see no need to be saved. But both spectrums are desperately crying out for the only void-filler.

7. Speaking of international travel, my bestie angela is in Nicaragua this week with her youth group serving the people there. The Lord always does tiny, yet huge things for us sometimes. For example, angela has phone service there, and we have gotten to see how those people live andhow beautiful the scenery is with dirt homes in the foreground. I am thankful for a friend who has such faithfulness in her Savior. Praying heavily for her trip!

Ok- that’s it. Gotta save something for next week!

the best is yet to come.

well, good news folks. this girl is officially employed! hallelujah, praise the Lord.

i will start my new job a week from tomorrow as the administrative and executive assistant for H.I.S. bridge builders. so excited!! the Lord is moving in dallas in more ways than one. to be cheesy and quote high school musical, this is the start of something new. the Lord has given me the verses in jeremiah 17:7-8...

          “Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord,
           whose trust is the Lord.
           He is like a tree planted by water,
           that sends out its roots by the stream,
           and does not fear when heat comes,
           for its leaves remain green,
           and is not anxious in the year of drought,
           for it does not cease to bear fruit.”

also, this has been a season of learning so so much! this week commenced the new devotionals for table groups. this week focused on evangelism. the Lord always has a way of taking the confident proud me [thinking i know everything there is to know already about evangelism] and completely rocking my world! 
first of all, evangelism doesn't start on the street. it begins with believing what you will evangelize. we have to believe in what we are taking to the lost. we have to love and invest in the One we say we put our faith in. if we don't believe in the Father we worship, anyone we try to talk to will see that and not want what we say we are "all about". loving and investing looks like service to the church, discipleship, monetary offerings, a DAILY time with the Lord, worship, etc. 

"And the Spirit said to Philip, 'Go over and join this chariot.^' So Philip ran to him and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet and asked, 'Do you understand what you are reading?' And he said, 'How can I, unless someone guides me?' And he invited Philip to come up and sit with him."
acts 8:29-31

i encourage everyone to go back and read this whole story about philip. the story of such obedience and trust in the Lord. you see in the passages how keenly the relationship between philip and the Lord must have been for philip to hear the things the Spirit told him to do. oh Lord, i pray for such heartful obedience and such an apt sense of what your will is in my life and DO IT.

on that note, this was an exercise i did with my freshman girls this morning. i love this and encourage everyone in some quiet time this week to do this as well. in perspectives this week, we wrote down one word we want our year to be summarized as. my word this year will be eager. 
eager to be at the Lord's feet.
eager to listen.
eager to be a good steward with canaan and i's money & give generously.
eager to spend quality time with high school girls.
eager to work hard for the Lord's kingdom.
eager to stay in touch with friends.
eager to be a good friend.
eager to make new memories. 
eager to treat my body respectfully [eat healthier and exercise 3-4x a week].
eager to love. 

^"Nor was it to offer himself repeatedly, as the high priest enters the holy places every year with blood not his own, for then he would have had to suffer repeatedly since the foundation of the world. But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment, so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him."  
hebrews 9:25-28 

 

what will your word be? 

 




ps- check this out. so proud of my hometown!