How is Your Spiritual Life Doing?

Let me start by saying I love our church.  It's small, but the people's hearts are BIG!  I love singing in the praise band, and our pastor has brought some challenging word to his sermons as well.  I've always been taught that preaching truth from the Bible is the most important part in choosing a church.  Sugar coating the truth won't do, blasphemy is an extreme no-no so if the truth (though hard to swallow at times) is not being preached at your church...RUN.  Find another place because a church not lead by a Bible believing and preaching pastor is no place a Christ follower should be.  OK...on to the real item of business.

This morning's sermon by Pastor Ken has made me think a lot about my actions lately (mainly my patience level with my preschoolers at work).  He started in Mark 8, talking about how Jesus asked his disciples who they thought he was.  Peter replied "You are the Christ," and Jesus told them not to tell anyone about him.  He was showing humility...

Then Ken went on to read through Jesus' proclamation of his death and resurrection...but he focused on the fact that Jesus had to suffer.  He a cross to carry...and he asked us if we could imagine ever carrying something that heavy know that we would die on it soon.  Have you ever carried a cross?  Jesus did...for all of us, he carried it to his death so that we could have life.  It reminded me of one of the passages in Philippians (which I used to have memorized, but have since forgotten...I need to get back at memorizing scripture!!) 

Paul says "Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider quality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant...he humbled himself and became obedient to death - even death on a cross!" Phil. 2:5-8

There is that word again: humble.  I used to think I was a pretty humble person, I like to serve others and I don't mind doing things and having them go unnoticed.  But Ken ended with a story that I will try my best to summarize.

There was a pastor who led a church and whenever anyone who asked him to pray for him/her, he/she would lose his/her faith.  This pastor soon became unpopular in the town where he pastored and stopped being a pastor.  One day he was walking along a road and met a man.  This man told the pastor he was a Christian in a business where he was required to be cut-throat and cold hearted.  The pastor asked if he could pray for the man, and the man said "Yes, of course!"  And after they were done praying, the man lost his faith.  He became even more cut-throat and cold hearted.  Several years passed and the man was walking down the street in the same town as before and ran into the pastor again.  The pastor knew the man had lost his faith, but the man came up to him and said "Thank you for praying for me!"  But the pastor replied "Why thank me, you lost your faith?"  The man answered "Yes, but that showed me that I needed to make changes in my life, that I needed my faith back and I grew closer to God."

Ken  then asked us what kind of person we would be if we were to be stripped of faith.  He reminded us that there shouldn't be a difference between our spiritual life and our other life.  If one proclaims to be a Christian...EVERYTHING is spiritual.  See what I mean about a challenging message?

So I'm going to be open and honest and say that some days, if my faith was gone I could be a pretty impatient and mean individual.  I don't like when the kids don't listen to me, so I try everything and usually resort to raising my voice.  I hate to admit it, but realizing it is the first step to change.  My words are often sarcastic and sometimes cruel, (little kids don't understand adult sarcasm at all!) and I desperately want to change that.  I have since graduating from high school, and I will say that I have improved only by the grace of God and the guiding of the Holy Spirit.  So my challenge for this week is this...When (because I know it will happen) the kids start getting on my nerves, I will stop and listen for His voice that says "Ashley, they don't know any better.  They are 3 years old and need you to teach them, not get angry with them.  Because anyone who welcomes a little child welcomes me..."  Mark 9:37 is my prayer for this week as well.

So how is your spiritual life doing?

Happenings as of Late

So the past month has been um...busy and I can’t believe it’s the end of October already.  I know I haven’t posted in awhile and that’s exactly why.  Here are some of things that happened in sequential order...

1. Streptococcus bacteria type A Round #1

I was diagnosed September 17 with strep the after working 8 hours with a sore throat and fever.  I went to the doctor, he looked at my throat, felt my tonsils and decided it was strep.  No culture, so strep test no nothing...10 minute appointment and I was outta there with a script for amoxicillin in hand.  I took the rest of the day off and half of the next day.  By the weekend, I was feeling much better, and I even sang at church on that Sunday. 

2. Camping Out in the Cold

We went camping for our anniversary.  Yes, you read right...camping!  We went to Yankee Springs Recreation Area and had a blast.  It was cold, and the ground was hard to sleep on, but I enjoyed my first adult experience tent camping.  Fortunately we had amazingly nice/clean showers and restrooms to use though.  We also went fishing in a borrowed canoe, which was quite the experience given the wind we had to fight without an anchor.  We forgot a few things which we will remember next time, but overall it was a good time and we definitely want to go back in the future!

3. Streptococcus bacteria type A Round #2

Skip ahead 2.5 weeks from 9/17 and it’s back.  I came down with a sore throat on a Thursday, went to work the next day (again with a super sore throat) and sucked on cough drops all day.  I ended up doing salt gargles and the soreness went away on Saturday, but then came the fever and very painful body aches.  I thought taking some OTC (over-the-counter) would help, but oh how so very wrong was I.  I ended up in immediate care October 3^rd with a fever of 102 and rapid pulse.  The PA was AHMAZING!!  She was so kind and couldn’t believe I was actually there with a smile on my face...and yes I was smiling through the pain and chills/cold sweats.  She did a strep test (and we were there forever waiting for the results! Thanks hubby for staying with me even if you really wanted to be home watching your Lions) and it came back positive.  So another round of antibiotics were prescribed, this time something a little stronger such as Keflex/cephalexin.  Along with the strep, I also developed sinus and chest congestion and had a cough (which still remains a little today) that last for about a week after the antibiotics were done.  I am so glad I’m feeling better finally!

4.  Memorials and Family

The next weekend we had a memorial service for Steve’s uncle who passed away at the end of September.  It was a nice service complete with a 21 gun salute and taps.  I made it through the entire service with no tears, but when that song was played, I couldn’t help but let them fall.  Even though I didn’t know Rob very well, that song gets me every time.  It was nice to be able to see some of Steve’s family again.  We got to hang out with his cousins who live in Utah at the Air Zoo and it was a lot of fun.  I miss those guys and really wish they didn’t live so far away.

5. Football

So this past weekend was all about football...but only one of my teams won.  It was very disappointing.  The Buckeyes lost, the Broncos lost, the Wolverines even lost, and the Lions lost in a very nerve wrecking/heart wrenching game.  The only ones who won were the Spartans.  And well, we won our fantasy football game too which counts for something since our QB was Shaun Hill who got injured right before half-time.  And yes, you read right again, I am playing fantasy football.  My husband is the manager, but he always asks for my input regarding player/game decisions.  It’s kinda fun!

So that pretty much catches you up on the things going on in our life.  Except the final piece of news which Steve received about 1.5 weeks ago.  He got a possible ship date for basic training.  This is a whole other post, but I wanted to put it out there because it’s finally real.  We’re really doing this CG thing and I’m excited (and a little nervous).  The next step now is for him to go to the MEPS center to get sworn in to the CG in a kind of preliminary way.  This will happen mid-November to mid-December, which seems to be quickly approaching!!

  Happy Friday! God is good all the time!

Something New

I've been wanting to change my background/layout for sometime now and just couldn't figure out how to get html script from another website onto my blog.  But I figured it out and it didn't really take me all that long...hopefully this won't lead to me changing things all the time.  But until I find what I really like, it just might mean changes every few weeks or so.  Sorry!  I do hope you like the new background for now though.

Anyways, this is short and sweet because Amazing Race is on and I've already missed half of it, and this is one show hubby and I definitely make sure to watch on Sunday nights.  I do have a much needed post to write about exciting happenings in our lives, but it will have to wait for now... I'll keep you in suspense until about midweek when I might have time to sit down and actually write a post (the past month has been crazy busy with weekend plans, illness, work and more work).

May you see God's abundant blessings in your life today!