Crazy Kids

I love watching kids dance. It's the best! I've had a fun time dancing and singing with the kids at Bible School this week. :)

I also love hearing kids sing :)

Recite

and play instruments :)

Fellowship

There is something about fellowship that refreshes the soul. James and I have recently started attending a Bible Study together every week. We both look forward to the fellowship and study of God's word that takes place here. The talking, laughter, guitar playing, and singing speak deeply to me. One of the most beautiful things I have ever experienced is a room full of people worshiping the Lord together and praying together. Prayer is powerful and God uses it for sure! I wouldn't doubt that James and I are now a part of this group as a result of someone's prayer. We have only been going for four weeks and it already feels like home to me. I think James would agree.

Things That Make Me Smile

Friends!

I love talking to my Colorado Friends on the phone. They are simply the best. Unfortunately, we're all so busy we hardly get to talk much. I usually call and leave messages and wait a few days or weeks for a reply. But, Krissy called me today!!!! And then I called Rachelle and we talked for a while. :)

It's kind of the same way with God. Sometimes I'm so busy with life I forget to talk to him. While I wait around to hear from my Colorado friends, he waits around to hear from me. And when I do finally talk with God I'm happy I did.

Tiny Little Ant

I spent a lot of time staring out the plane window on my way to Texas this past weekend. The things I saw on the ground below began to look smaller and much less significant as we moved farther up into the air. The cars on the road appeared to be little specks. The people couldn't even be seen. Seeing things from this perspective helped me realize how selfish and self-centered I can be. I'm really just a tiny speck in the scheme of things, but yet I can be so me centered. There are so many people around me and there is so much more to life than my small existence. To God we must all seem like specks. And even though I'm just a speck God still loves me.

"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son,that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." John 3:16

Love

"Owe nothing to anyone- except for your obligation to love one another. If you love your neighbor, you will fulfill the requirements of God's law. For the commandments say, you must not commit adultery. You must not murder. You must not steal. You must not covet. These-and other such commandments-are summed up in this one commandment: Love your neighbor as yourself." Romans 13: 8-9

Love. What is love? Love is a word that I use and hear other people use many times in a day. People use love to describe things that they enjoy. "I love this book!" "I love that movie!" "I love hiking!" People say "I love you" to one another. But, what does love really mean? The Bible tells us that love is from God. 1 John 4:8 says "Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love." Genesis 1:27 says that we were created in God's image. Because of this, God has given us the capacity to love.

The Bible describes two different types of love. These two different terms are used in the original Greek translation of the Bible to show the difference between God's love and our conditional human love.

Agape Love

• God's love for us
• asks nothing in return
• self-sacrificial
• keeps giving
• has no conditions
• requires God in our lives

"This is real love-Not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his son as a sacrifice to take away our sins." 1 John 4:10

"But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." Romans 5:8

Phileo Love

• brotherly love
• based on conditions
• based on feelings

In Matthew 22:37 Jesus says that the two greatest commandments are to "love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and to love your neighbor as yourself."

I believe love is shown through action and not just said in words. "My dear children, let us not love in word or tongue, but in action and in truth (1 John 3:18)." I can say I love someone 1,000 times but until I show the person by the things I do, I have no love. The amazing thing about God's love (agape) is that it has no conditions. God made the ultimate sacrifice for our lives while we were still sinners. If God's love were merely words it would mean far less.

There are certain people that I have a difficult time loving. It is hard for me to love people who don't give the same in return. It is hard to love people I find annoying. It is hard to love judgmental, selfish, arrogant, people. However, the Bible does not call us to love the easy-to-love people. The Bible calls us to love all people. "

But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you (Matthew 5:44)." We are even called to love those who hate us. This seems an impossible task. How am I to love the people I don't get along with? God is my only answer. God equals love. If God equals love, He is what I need to even be able to begin loving others.

1 Corinthians 13:1-13 is a great passage on love. It is a description of agape love.

"If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing. Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love."

Agape Love is: patient, kind, unselfish, truthful, hopeful, protects

Agape Love is not: jealous, rude, boastful, arrogant, selfish, angry

Lord, help me to love with an agape love.

Blessings

Bible

Love

Eternity

Savior

Salvation

I love you

Nature

Grace

Sushi

My life is full of Blessings! :)

Favorites

1. Hiking with good friends!
2. Sitting on top of a mountain and looking out
3. Naps
4. Jimmy Johns Subs
5. Sunshine
6. Barbecues
7. Spiderman

It has been a great Monday!

Nerd Fest

James is a nerd!

He loves these pictures and pretty much anything relating to Star Wars.

http://www.geekologie.com/2010/06/fancy_your_pants_are_star_wars.php

www.bite.ca/bitedaily/2010/06/disneystar-wars-mash-up/

Simply Summer

I am so thankful it's summertime! I started off the summer with a few goals.

1. Go hiking at least once a week

2. Go camping 3 or more times this summer.

3. Spend daily time with God.

4. Prayer

5. Take a trip to Colorado

6. Take a trip to Seattle

7. daily exercise

Let me just say, this summer is going by way too fast!!!! I am finding some of these goals easier to keep than the rest. I made my trip to Colorado and it was fabulous. My friend Stina competed in the Miss Colorado Pageant for her last time, and she was beautiful. I definitely didn't exercise everyday in Colorado, but Krissy and I did take care of the weeks hike.

The exercise goal is one of the ones I REALLY need to work on. It's just so hard to stay motivated! As for the hiking, I think I can accomplish this one. :) Camping on the other hand...... I'm not too sure. James bought me an awesome tent for Christmas that I have yet to use. The weather was so wet the last few months that there really wasn't an opportunity to go camping. I'm hoping we will be able to go camping up at Bear Lake sometime in the next few weeks. Then I'll only need to squeeze in 2 more trips. It's possible.

Seattle is another one I know I'll accomplish. My family and I are going in August

to visit family. I am super excited to be somewhere besides Utah! There will be 7 of us flying on a plane together. It should be quite the adventure.

Goals 3 and 4 are lifelong goals. I always strive to spend daily time with God and part of that is through prayer. It's so so so easy to get wrapped up in everything else around me and leave these things out of my day. I wasn't doing too well with this goal at the beginning of summer. But, lately I've been better. I couldn't sleep last night so I found myself in the living room reading the Bible out loud. I read about the temptation of Jesus, the Sermon on the Mount, marriage, and a handful of other things in the book of Matthew. Matthew 6:26 always stands out to me. "Look at the birds. They don't plant or harvest or store food in barns, for your heavenly Father feeds them. And aren't you far more valuable to him than they are?"

I also read a bit from Romans chapter 12. "Bless those who persecute you. Don't curse them; Pray that God will bless them. Dear friends, never take revenge. Leave that to the righteous anger of God. For the scriptures say,

I will take revenge; I will pay them back, says the Lord.

Instead,

If your enemies are hungry, feed them. If they are thirsty, give them something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals of shame on their heads."

I find it easy to love people who love me back, but difficult to love those who don't seem to love me. This verse helps me see how much God truly loves us. He left the perfection of Heaven to surround himself with people he knew wouldn't love him. In fact, many people hated him! They hated him so much that they flogged and crucified him. And Jesus was without sin! If Jesus was hated we can expect to be hated. When Jesus was dying he asked God to forgive the people involved in the crucifixion. It baffles my mind because I Know those would not have been my thoughts. Lord, help me to love those who don't love me in return. I can't do it on my own.

Oh Summer, how I love thee!