Wanna Good Laugh?

I know that my blog topics here lately have been pretty heavy. For some reason that just seems to be my train of thought the past few days. I have this big revelation, and feel the need to share.
For those of you who are up for a guaranteed good laugh, and want to meet someone that I can guarantee will be like no one else you've ever met in your life...my sister Stacee has started her own blog!!!!

If you remember this post Stacee is the complete and total personification of a blond joke a completely unique character.

So go read, laugh, and enjoy!

Also, she's a little new to the bloggy world so go show her some love!

CLICK HERE TO GO READ STACEE'S BLOG!

Grace

"What is grace? In the New Testament grace means God’s love in action towards men who merited the opposite of love. Grace means God moving heaven and earth to save sinners who could not lift a finger to save themselves. Grace means God sending His only Son to descend into hell on the cross so that we guilty ones might be reconciled to God and received into heaven. ‘(God) hath made him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.’[2 Cor. 5:21]"
--JI Packer

I have been reading the blog "Grace Is For Sinners" by Serena Woods. If you have never been there please go look at this girl's site! She is one of the most beautiful writers/person that I have ever seen. Her heart is amazing! Anyways, she wrote something this week that has really conflicted me.

I wont go into detail of what she writes, I think it best for you to go to her site and see for yourself what a beautiful person she is. The cliff notes version (or at least what I took from it) is that you can't accept the grace of God without being graceful with others as well.

So why does that conflict me?

The Bible says:
Bear with each other, and forgive whatever grievances you have against each other. Forgive as the LORD forgave you. --Colossians 3:13

I'll be the first to admit that I have a hard time with this. I am one of the worst grudge holders you will ever know. Forgiveness is not something that comes easy for me. I hold things in, stew over them, ponder over them, and just never let them go.

Take for this for instance. For years now, for reasons I will not say on here for the entire interweb to know, I have had this immense "dislike" for my friend Brandi's husband. (We'll call him "J") It's nothing that he has ever done to me personally. I just could not stand him as a person. I can't even take the time to tell you how strong these feelings were.

But then I found this:

But if you do not forgive, neither will your Father who is in Heaven forgive your sins
Mark 11:26

So, what did I get out of all this? That I am a sinner just as much as J is a sinner. Our personalities are polar opposites, and our sins may be different, but in God's eyes a sin is a sin no matter how big or small.

So why is it I can expect God to forgive me, and not offer forgiveness, and love myself?

Well I can't. That's the point. God demands his followers to show mercy, compassion, and love. That is something I need to learn to do. And I feel God pulling me to start with J. Isn't it funny that sometimes God pulls you to do the one thing you never want to do?

Now, I'm not saying that me and J are now Best Friends Forever, and will live happily ever after. What I am saying is that I feel like I owe it to my savior to make a conscious effort to forgive.

Can you think of a better way to show another person God's love?

About Me

Every time I go to a interview for a new job there is always a question that I dread. I hate it, in fact. Just because I never know what to say to it.

"Tell me a little bit about yourself"

I hate that question. As far as questions go, I have found that one to be quite hateful. I just set there with that deer-in-the-headlights-look. I fumble around bubbling out some incoherent babble that they already knew from my application, and quickly change the subject.

But I have received a few e-mails, and Twitter messages that said that I needed to fill out the "About Me" section of the blog. Just in case you haven't paid attention up to this point I have avoided that part of my profile because I hate that question. (Its up top on the left for those of you who haven't noticed it before) Come to find out, (so the message said) that a lot of people decide to read your blog or not just by the "About Me" section of your profile.

Silly me I thought it was about the writing!

Shows you how much I know.

Any who, so I've thought about it, and thought I'd share with you some things about me.

First and foremost, above all else, I am a sinner. I feel the need to remind my self of that every day. Let me say that again, I am a sinner, saved by Grace. The grace of a Father that loved me enough to come to earth, and die on a cross, so that my sins can not keep me out of Heaven.

I am also stubborn. I think I have touched on this a time or two in previous post, so I won't go into it here. But take it from me......Stubborn.

If I like you, I am a great friend. (so I think, but this is kinda one sided)

If I don't like you, well, forget it. I will probably never learn to like you, I want nothing to do with you, and I want you to go away.

I am the worst grudge holder in the world. Seriously, there was this guy in High School that Brandi dated that I despised. He was a bad guy. Come to find out 10 years later, I still despise him(if not more now). Pretty impressive, a girl can hold a grudge for a decade!

I am terrible with money. I spend it like it flows like water, and regret it later.

I am shy. I know that is kinda hard to believe. But if I don't know you, I have this terrible habit of thinking that you don't like me.

I love to read.

I love to watch TV. I have a few shows that I love to follow. Greys Anatomy, Desperate Housewives, White Collar, and True Blood are some of my favorites at the moment. My all time favorite TV show of all time the best of the best is Sex and the City. (Although now a days I watch a lot of Go! Diego, Go!)

I am blunt. I have what I like to call "verbal diarrhea" at times. For some reason when I am thinking something, or have an opinion about something there is no filter from my brain to my mouth. It just comes out and I can't help it.

I am protective. My family and my friends are my life. I am very protective of them (see above about holding grudges)

I used to be a Cosmetologist. I grew up wanting to be a hairdresser, I remember in Middle School wanting to do hair. I got my licence and worked in a Salon for 2 years, and hated it. It was just not what I thought it was going to be. So, at the ripe old age of 20 I done a total career change and decided to go into the medical field, and have never looked back.

So, that is all I can think of at the moment. To tell you the truth I'm feeling a little narcissistic at the moment, talking about myself so much. So, here's the deal. I want to know about you too! I am putting up a McLinky. You can either A) write a post on your own blog and link back to it here or B) if you don't have a blog-or don't want to do an entire post- leave me a few things about yourself in the comments. On Saturday if I have enough participate I will select a winner from random.org and some random person will win a prize. (I'll tell you what on Friday-be sure to check back)

Random Thoughts

It is my (one) of my New Years Resolution to post more. I want to keep in touch with my friends and family that live far away. When I started this blog, that was its only purpose. Then I met some great friends, some wonderful women, and even started to make a little bit of money on the side as well.

By the way, if you want to donate to the "Jennie's Poor Fund" feel free to click on the Ads on the right of your screen :)

(Since I can't seem to be able to count on my Best Friend to do this one simple task for me)

(Even though I do everything that she asked me to)

(AND if there was a way that I could help her make a few extra bucks I would totally do that for her without haste)

OK sorry about that I was just having to give SOMEONE a guilt trip.

Just kidding! Sort of.

Anywho, as I've mentioned to you in a previous post my life at the moment is blissfully uneventful at the moment, but I thought I would share some random things that was crossing my mind this morning.

1) We all have herd of the destruction in Haiti. $3 Million dollars has been raised to date for the Red Cross. All you have to do to donate is text "Haiti" to 90999 to donate $10 to the Red Cross.

2) I have officially started school back last week. All seems to be going pretty well. I am not all that fond of one of my teachers, but that's the only problem I've had so far. Please pray that I will make it through this time. Also, I have my first test on Wednesday so please pray that I can do well on that.

3) Zach is growing like crazy. He has gained 2 pounds since last November! Which is great because he was getting a little thin on me. He went from never wanting to eat, to never wanting to STOP eating. He can now count to 10, and say and sign his ABC's. (With a little help). He loves to read books (wonder where he got that?). I took him to the library for the first time last week, and you would have thought I took him to Disney World! He just kept saying "Look Mommy Books!" "Mommy lots of Books"

3) Avery is getting to be such a big boy as well! He and Zachary play so well together! They are a couple of wild men when they are together. He is also a big scary cat just like his Mama! I was told a story yesterday of how he watched Ice Age the other day, then kept his Mommy up all night because he was scared of the dinosaur! Stacee is the same way! I remember when we were younger I we shared a room. She kept me up all night for a week after watching Stephen King's IT. In her defense, that is a creepy movie.

4) Aubree is growing like a weed. She is now setting up on her own! She also talks (or well babbles) all the time. She is such a happy little baby that thinks her cousins are very funny. She fights sleep with every thing in her, and likes to eat. She is the chubbiest little baby that I have ever seen with cheeks that go on forever. She is beautiful just like her Mommy. My brother-in-law is still in Iraq. Please pray for his safety. He is doing fine, and gets to see the baby via web-cam when he is off. Please also pray for my sister's strength in raising a daughter alone for the next few months. She is doing a great job!

5) Brandi is moving back home!! I am so excited I could almost pee my pants! I am trying to look for her a house right now, which has proved to be harder than I thought it would. I have found two, that were just perfect but the people that owned the house didn't want to rent out to someone with 4 kids!!! Seriously, I didn't even know they could do that. So, were still looking.

So, that is all that I have at the moment. I think this has to be the quickest written post in history, because it's random and there is no pressure. I'm off to spend the day with my Mom, so I'm sure I will have a story to come out of that soon!

Talk to you later!

Worried

Well believe it or not I have come full circle. I have waited the long, long, 8 months and it is time to start school again. Whew!

This was the fastest 8 months of my life.

I knew it was temporary, I knew that I would have to go back, and I have to admit when August rolled around I knew that I was supposed to be graduated. Paycheck after paycheck I knew that I was supposed to be making more, that if it wasn't for that 0.5 a point (Hello, Bitter party of one?) that I would be done, and I wouldn't still be waiting another 8 months to start back where I left off.

So here I am, and although it shouldn't be a big deal, I know I should be excited that I am (again) almost done, I have to admit that the only feeling that I feel is....Worried.

I am worried that I will fail again. Simple as that.

One little sentence, 8 huge words.

Last night I was laying in bed thinking "how I am going to get through this?" The papers, the test, the clinicals, work, running a household, raising a small child, etc., etc. I tossed and I turned, and I felt this peace come over me.

I was reminded of two scriptures that seemed to fit my situation perfectly.

Don't worry about anything, but pray about everything.

With thankful hearts offer up your prayers, and request to God.

Then, because you belong to Jesus Christ, God will bless you with a peace that no one completely understands.

And this peace will control the way you think and feel.

Philippians 4:6-7 (CEV)

The Lord will fight for you, you need only to be still

Exodus 14:14 (NIV)

I just laid in the bed, and enjoyed a peace that I haven't felt in weeks. I am resting tonight at the feet of a Father that loves me, and knows whats best for me. I will take peace in whatever his decision is in my life.

Needless to say, I'm not worried anymore.

The Awe Factor Of God.

This fall I joined a book club created by Angie and her friend Jessica. The book they chose for the first book was Crazy Love by Frances Chan.

I can not even express in words what this book done to me. It takes you to places in your relationship that I for one didn't even know existed. I have not enjoyed a book this much in a long time. I also have not done a total inventory of my relationship with Christ like this book made me do in....Oh, EVER!

So, why am I tell you this?

Well, the book has a website (fancy, huh?) On that website is a video that I think everyone needs to watch. Its called "The Awe Factor of God" and it will move you. I have the bad habit of making the terrible mistake of "humanizing God" and thinking that he is small. I do this because I am human and God is more than our little human minds can understand. This video reminds you of how big our Lord is.

The video is short, just over 3 min, so it wont take to long. Please go watch it, and let me know what it says to you.

CLICK HERE TO WATCH THE VIDEO.

Angie, and Jessica are starting a new book with the book club, if you are interested in joining click the button at the top of this post and jump in. The fellowship they created is amazing, and you can meet some pretty amazing women as well.