Today I’m thankful for:
1. Being healthy enough to go running and a safe neighborhood to run in.
2. My Shark that makes mopping our floors a breeze.
3. A date night this weekend with my husband (great conversation, red wine, and yummy food):

4. Quite a few photography jobs in the next couple of months (including a wedding today!)
5. Beautiful Ohio.

*  *  *

“The truth was, despite my best efforts to appear normal and put together on the outside, I’d always felt more like one of the weird kids.  But at last, miraculously, I’d found the one man on earth who would actually love that about me.  I’d found the one man on earth who would appreciate my spots of imperfection… and who wouldn’t try to polish them all away.”
- – Ree Drummond.

*  *  *

I didn’t take many photos this weekend, except for these of Funnel, Jason (our friend), Michaela (my youngest sister-in-law) and me on the trampoline on Sunday afternoon:

I love this trampoline.  Back in the summer of 2005, when we were dating, Funnel and I used to take blankets and lay on the trampoline at night and watch the stars together. Those early memories of our dating days have a corresponding soundtrack in my mind.  And whenever I hear any of the songs from the mix CDs we made for each other, I get a lump in my throat and I’m not even really sure why.

Every dumb mistake,
every hurt that we’ve cause another person,
every selfish act,
every regret…

… was paid for by Jesus’ suffering and death on the cross.  Every one of us is very much loved, treasured and wanted by God. I’m looking forward to celebrating that this weekend.  Have a wonderful Easter!

Love,
Jen

“This is the Day which the Lord has made; Let us rejoice and be glad in it.”
- – Psalm 118:24

I was trying to make some resolutions today for the coming year, and everything I came up with seemed silly.  Then I was reading my journal from last year and I was surprised to see that my resolution for 2010 was to try to live out 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18: Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks; for this is the Will of God in Christ Jesus for you. Obviously, since I forgot about it, I didn’t do a very good job of implementing that into my life.

I’ve been feeling discouraged lately.  It’s been a difficult and confusing season of my life, and so I think my resolution for this year will be the same as last year’s.  It’ll help me keep myself centered on what is important.  There’s a lot to rejoice about, a lot to pray about and a lot to be thankful for.

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!”  - – 2 Corinthians 5:17

I’m so happy because of our wonderful family & friends, our church, my beloved Funnel, and most of all for God’s great Christmas gift to us – his ultimate sacrifice resulting in the forgiveness of my sins, a relationship with him and the promise of eternal life one day.  So thankful to be a different person than I used to be – a new creation.  I am a blessed girl this Christmas.

Happy Christmas to you all!

Love,
Jen

My life is that of absolute extravagance compared to the rest of the world.  It is a blessing, but it is a burden too.  I believe in my heart that one day, I will be held accountable if I go through my life, as I always have up until this point, with a blind eye to the rest of the world and that attitude I am so often guilty of: it’s not my problem.

No.  It is my problem.

“When someone strips a man of his clothes, we call him a thief. And one who might clothe the naked and does not—should not he be given the same name? The bread in your cupboard belongs to the hungry; the coat in your wardrobe belongs to the naked; the shoes you let rot belong to the barefoot; the money in your vaults belongs to the destitute.”
- – Basil (“the Great”) of Caesarea (329–379), Christian bishop and theologion.

I can’t even begin to comprehend the weight of the need in this world.  I can’t wrap my head around the number of people who are starving, needlessly dying, widowed, orphaned.   I just know it is so so big, and I feel so so small.

On my mind again today: how crazy it is that our world can contain so many joy and sadness all at the same time.

Sad news: my cousin Lauren’s 3-year-old son, Corey Cline passed away over the weekend after a freak accident. He was coming home from church with his 7-year-old-brother and older cousin, and their car went off the road and rolled over.  Everyone made it out okay, but while they were waiting for help, another car lost control and struck him. His fourth birthday would have been this weekend.

I was thinking about last spring when Steven Curtis Chapman’s daughter, Maria, died after being hit by a car.  It really affected me, and when I blogged about it, I never thought something like that would happen in my own family. 

Because of my faith in Christ, I believe that every day of Corey’s life was ordained. Even before he was born, God knew every moment of his life and knew which day on Earth would be his last.  Corey’s mission and purpose in this life, whatever it was, was accomplished and now he is face to face with our creator.

“The Lord is close to the brokenhearterd” … Psalm 34:18.

 Please pray for Corey’s family. 

We’re on to month two of 2009, and I am still feeling good about this year.  I hope saying that doesn’t jinx me, but I really feel hopeful about what’s to come.  Like we are (or maybe I am) am on the brink of something important.  Besides that, I’m making good on resolutions promises I have made to myself.  I feel like maybe I am doing the best that I have in a long time with my attitude about challenging things in my life.  I don’t worry as much.  I’m not as emotional as I usually am.  We’ve started going to a new church which I love, and I am whole-heartedly seeking God for the first time in a while.

Meanwhile, in the back of my head, I am keenly aware of what people I know and care about are going through.  In my small woman’s bible study alone, one woman has terminal cancer with just a few weeks to live and another’s baby has been diagnosed with a rare form of leukemia.  These two families have been weighing on my heart, and on my day-to-day moments and interactions with others.  I have started thinking about the people driving in the vehicles next to me on their way to work, or the old man standing in front of me in line at the post office.  I wonder what’s on their hearts, what losses they are dealing with, what life had dealt them, what is getting them through their day.  I tend to forget that while life goes marching on for me, I encounter strangers everyday bearing invisible pain and invisible burdens and they are wondering why it goes marching on when they are hurting so much. 

There is a lot to think about and pray about these days.

I hope you all had a lovely Valentine’s Day.  We had more of a Valentine’s weekend.  Thursday night we stayed over at Fort Rapids, a really fun indoor water park and I had the best time!  It was 82 degrees in there.. need I say more?  We got a romance package that included champagne & chocolate covered strawberries, room-service breakfast, a room with a jaccuzi tub, and two-day passes to the water park.  Funnel & I had so much fun goofing off, going down all the slides, playing basketball in the pools, chilling in the hot-tub, floating in the lazy river.  On actual Valentine’s Day, we got a heart-shaped pizza and watched Titanic. Sunday, I cooked a romantic dinner.  We kind of drew it out, but it was nice.  Valentine’s Day should come more often, maybe quarterly.

A few photos from Fort Rapids:

((champagne…yum.))

 
((our breakfast in bed. Mine is on the right.))

 
((our jacuzzi tub.))

 
((Funnel in a funnel. When will that ever happen again? this slide was so much fun!))

 
((the lazy river and the kid’s area.))

((you can’t see most of the water slides because they go outside the building.))

 
((me and the mister.))

Well, time to get some dinner started.  Auf Weidersehn!