Deacon Ordination

My sweet husband is an ordained deacon of Mt. Paran Primitive Baptist Church. We had the ordination service on Saturday morning, and the Lord richly blessed the service, surrounding us with His spirit and family and friends. If you want to see pictures from the weekend, check out Sister Jennifer's blog here.

I am so proud of my husband. I am so thankful for him and his passion for the Lord's church. I always wanted to marry a man who was strong in the Christian faith, and Chris has proven to be a strong Christian leader in our home, and now he has the opportunity to serve the Lord's church.

We both ask for prayer as we enter service to our church. Our charge was to fight the good fight, to enter into battle for the Lord's church. Sometimes it is indeed a battle in this world, with so many distractions vying for our attention and distracting us from the race we are running. We are excited and thankful for this opportunity, anxious to serve our church any way we can.

Success!

I really need to learn to not whine on my blog. Seriously. So, I am taking an emotional 180 on this post to share my success in conquering the junk room! Of course, I could not battle it alone-- my sweet husband was by my side, sorting through all of his junk, moving furniture, helping me pick out organizational items.

I will finish cleaning our home today, and I will post pictures of our home-- finally, after one year of living here, it is organized and decorated and beautiful.

Huzzah! :)

If I could offer one piece of advice....

...Sunscreen would be it.

Naah. Not really, though it does help, apparently, especially if you are prone to skin cancer like my genes.

Seriously, my one piece of advice would be to NEVER, EVER, allow a room in your home to develop into a JUNK ROOM.

I'm about to hold a white flag in surrender up to it and tell it that it won. It got the best of me. It can go on being junky. I've been working on it all week. 3 garbage bags later, I want to cry because it is still a mess.

So be warned...

...Beware of the junk room.... oooOOOoooOOOoo....

Another typical conversation

I'm thinking that this will become a series on this little blog of ours. Chris and I have so many funny conversational moments that I need to record for future generations. Or just to make someone besides us giggle.

Anywho...

Tonight as we climbed in the car, a jam song came on the radio. The most memorable lyrics are, "Lean with it, rock with it." It kinda repeats it over and over and over...

Well, I was jammin' myself as Chris cranked the car up, then I heard the little hummm of the driver's seat as Chris was leaning the chair back. I began to eye him with curiosity because he had just sat there, so the seat was set for him to drive from.

Within seconds, the song ended, and the hum of the seat moving ended as well.

Chris was pretty upset, and he exclaimed, "Frick! I was just trying to lean with it!"




Okay. Maybe you had to be there. But I laughed about it for a solid five minutes.

And just now, another gem from Chris:
"You know, I should do more nonsensical 'yo' mamma' rants... like 'Your mom is a trapeziust' or 'Your mom likes Tobasco sauce!"


His sense of humor was one of the first things I loved about him, and I always knew I wanted to marry a man who could keep me laughing.

We are enjoying our lazy summer nights right now... the first pop-up storm of the summer is providing a soundtrack for me right now, and I LOVE it. I know, generally, that these storms have a lot of bark, but not so much bite, so I can enjoy these storms. The real things tend to frighten me.

Of course, last July, a pop-up storm rumbled through, and it had some bite. Chris and I were cooking dinner, and our power kept flickering on and off. I was real concerned about the power of the storm, and Chris just shrugged it off, saying that pop-up storms don't cause anything serious to happen.

Within five minutes of that jinx, Chris and I sat down to dinner, just to be startled by the weather alarm that Madison has to warn of severe weather. We had no idea why it sounded, but we sat in our little bathroom for a bit in case it meant something like a tornado.

The next week I glimpsed through a newspaper during my break at Chick-Fil-A, and a little article shared a fun story. A funnel cloud was spotted above the Buckhead (a super small down 15 minutes east of here) fire department, so they sounded an alarm.

Fun story, huh?

I think I have rambled enough.

Take care!

Summer Musings

Summer arrived on May 29, 2008 as I frantically packed anything I could get my hands on and rushed down to Florida to welcome my new niece, Grace Lillie. She was supposed to arrive on June 2, but it seems that babies tend to ignore their actual due dates. To see pictures of this sweet girl (and the sweet family) click here.

Lots of time on the road, especially yesterday and today, gives me time to think. I always back a Vera bag full of stuff to read and do, but generally I use time in the car to think or sleep. This morning as I trekked from Lincolnton back to Madison, I pondered many random thoughts.

One thought that kept coming back to me was about the number one question I get when I tell people that I am a Primitive Baptist. As a new believer still learning about the truths of the Primitive Baptist faith, I find myself struggling to tell others what we are really all about. I generally just stutter through what our services are like and contrast them to the services of other churches. Our preacher, however, challenged me at one time to not focus on what we do not do, but to instead focus on what we do. Focus on what we do have that makes us Primitive Baptists. So, I thought about in the car today what I have as a Primitive Baptist:


I have grief in the knowledge that I am a sinner, and that I am doomed to sin by my human nature.

I have joy in the knowledge that Jesus saved me from those sins. Jesus' blood was the sacrifice that washed away those sins, making me whole again. Jesus. Not me and my belief or actions. Not my minister. Not my youth minister. Not the gospel truth. Just Jesus and His loving sacrifice.

I have regret when I sin.

I have encouragement that there is absolutely nothing I can do to mess up the salvation my sweet Lord granted me from my sins.

I have a refuge in timely salvation. I have a church home where I can fellowship with those in similar belief in a simple service of acappella singing, prayer, and preaching. In this refuge, we worship the Lord in simplicity to focus the spotlight on Him and not others. This church home revamps me from a weary week out in a wicked world.

I have a promise of eternal salvation. I know that I will one day walk with my Savior in heaven.

I have relief to know that eternal salvation does not rely on one's church attendance, actions, or belief. It's all Jesus, remember. :)

I have a passion for Jesus. A passion for living as He commands. A passion to seek after what is pure and holy. A passion to serve His church.

I have an understanding about why bad things happen in this world (and it is NOT God's fault).

I have hope that more of God's children will come to enjoy the Lord's church.

I have a thankfulness for the light the Lord has blessed me with to hear and rejoice in the Gospel truth and the truth of His church.



I know I cannot line these up with scripture or doctrines just yet. I am still getting there. These were just some thoughts I feel that the Lord gave me while driving today... a whole jumble of ideas gathered through meager studying of the Bible and paying attention to sermons on Sunday.

I know these were a sense of encouragement to me today, and I hope that you find them to be the same for you, too.

God bless!