Saying Thanks

I may have mentioned Andy Stanley from Northpoint Community Church before, and i still listen to his podcasts all the time and his messages online. He's a wonderful speaker and is so awesome at life application sermons. This last one I listened to he gave us homework. The homework was to write a thank you note to the person who helped us ask Jesus to become our personal Savior so that we may be saved and have eternal life in heaven.

Being raised in a Christian home I had to really think about this because for as long as I can remember I've always known there was God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit. However, when did I truly ask Them into my heart?

Pastor Sam Hamstra Jr. is who I need to thank. He was the pastor at our church when I was a teen. Those years I spent in youth group were awesome! Until now, that was the time in my life when I felt closest to God, that's when I accepted Jesus as my personal Savior. Sadly, for me anyways, Sam left and moved onto another church and our new pastor just wasn't as excited for the youth as Sam was. Life went on and most of it without much God in my daily life. I managed to find the church he's now pastor of online. I'm hoping to be able to connect with him and send him my Thank You Note soon.

I also, feel I should thank my sister Rachael for taking me to that first Joyce Meyer convention, because that's where my love for the Lord was renewed. We're headed to our 3rd convention together in a month or so and I'm so excited for it!

So, you can take this post and read it and take it for what it's worth, or you too can take the time to sit down and write a Thank You Note to the person that guided you to asking Jesus to be your Savior. I'm hoping you'll take that time.

God's Plan

Things are changing at Lakeland Community Church, and although change can sometimes be a difficult thing, it's also a necessary thing in order to grow. About a month ago, Pastor David Howie and his wife Phyllis informed us that David would be retiring from the ministry and taking a position as a Pastors Coach in Greenlake Wis. It of course is bittersweet, on one hand we are sad that they were leaving us. We have grown to love them and enjoy spending time with them and will miss them dearly. On the other hand, we know that God would never have called David and Phyllis to move on to something new, if He didn't have great things in store for both the Howies, and for Lakeland Community Church! I am so excited to see what He has in store for us!!! God is alive and strong and at work in our church and I know that He will continue to work through our congregation. He has already handpicked our newest pastor who will help us to grow in numbers and in faith. I can't wait to meet him!!!

My Creed

For this class I'm taking at church with our Pastor, we had to write our personal creed, what we believe in, what our values are, whats important to us. I just thought I'd share it here. enjoy, and of course feedback is always welcome!

I believe that I am not in charge of my life, God is. I believe that the right way to live is by trusting in Him to guide me in the right path, in His path. I believe that I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me, and that with God, all things are possible. I believe in raising my children to love Jesus and to know that God is always watching, and that He is always with them. I believe in sharing my faith with others, to bring others to know the love of Jesus Christ. I believe in spending time each day with God, reading, praying and praising Him. I know that in order to continue spiritual growth I need to make this a priority.

I value family; my family is my security, my safe place, my place of comfort, my place of joy and laughter. I know that in good times and in bad that they love me and I them. I know that family needs good communication to function properly. I believe in listening to my children, and talking to them with respect. I believe that parents should stand united as a team in front of their children at all times. I believe in setting boundaries and sticking to them. I believe that parents and children can also have a friendship within those boundaries. I believe that you should not only teach your children to love one another but also to love themselves. Praise and compliments may not be enough, you must tell them to love themselves.

I value my wedding vows, I believe that husbands and wives need to respect each other, listen, encourage and affirm one another always. I believe in never going to bed angry and always kissing each other before being apart. I believe that the intimate aspect of marriage is vital to the emotional and mental part of it. I believe that it is important to be one another’s best friend and not to keep secrets from one another. I know that communication is key and cannot be overlooked. I believe in holding hands in public and saying “I love you” often.

I believe in surrounding myself with people who help my being. Good community is crucial for a positive well being. Community that builds you up, brings you joy, shares in laughter and has empathy for one another. I believe in community that consists of other believers. Believers that can fellowship and grow and learn from one another often.

I value creativity and self expression. These two things help me to be who I am, they feed my soul and they bring me peace and harmony. I believe that there are no mistakes in art, only ideas that belong on a different canvas. I believe you are never too old to paint with your fingers and make a mess. I believe in living colorfully by living the life of an artist both in the studio and out.

I believe in not taking life to seriously, that you should have fun with each other and you should laugh often. I believe that a good sense of humor is one of the best personality traits a person can have. I believe that laughter is the best medicine and that it helps ease the stress of the day.
I believe in simplicity, that life should not be a constant check list of things to do. I believe in the power of the word “no”. You cannot be all things to all people. I believe that in order to keep peace in your family, to have time for spiritual growth, for community and fellowship, creativity and self expression, you must learn to say no to things that clutter your life. I believe in prayer and deliberation before saying yes to anything that would take my time away from these things. I believe am not in charge of my life, God is.

The Passion of Christ.

For every Christian Easter is the most wonderful day of the year!! The day that we celebrate our Lord and Saviour rising from the dead so that we may have eternal life in Heaven with Him.

To help us better remember just how glorious this day truly is, Jerry and I and the kids watched The Passion of Christ. This is not a movie that I enjoy, or even look forward to watching. I do feel however, that it is something that every Christian should watch, at least once a year at this time. I feel we need to understand and be reminded just exactly what we are celebrating on Easter. Jesus bore so much pain and suffering for us, I know I for one and so unworthy of it all. I am grateful that my children have what very well may be a clearer picture of what our Saviour truly went though. Certainly much more clear than the picture I had painted in my head from the stories I learned in Sunday School. Never in my wildest imagination did Jesus bleed much more than a trickle down his face from the crown of thorns, and there wasn't much more than welts on his back from the whip. Oh how naive I was, as I know were many others. To know that my children will have a better understanding of exactly how much suffering Jesus went through for us, suffering He could have ended with just a single word. I hope that by watching this movie that His sacrifice is much more meaningful and real for them.

Praise God for that blessed 3rd day!! Praise God that our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ is alive and well and sitting at the right hand of God the Father waiting for the day that we will join him in Paradise!! I for one, cannot wait for that day!!!

Bike Ride With God

I was doing my bible study homework and came across a quote that struck me as "highlighter worthy". I don't know about you, but most of my books have lots of pretty colors in them. This is what it said: "sometimes we don't mind something (someplace) new, we just don't like the vehicle that God's using to drive us there in" . That is so very true! Quite often God takes us where we want to be, but he takes us there in a jalopy when we're dressed in our finest clothes. Or maybe he takes us there in a lightening fast convertible with the top down, when we've just got our hair done and all we want to do is roll up the windows and take it slow. The important part is that regardless of what he takes us there in, that we always let Him drive, cause only He knows how to get where we're going. After sharing this with a friend of mine, she shared this awesome poem with me. So I thought I should pass it along to you. If you're familiar with it already, take the time to reread it, for me, it's something I need to be constantly reminded of.

Bike Ride With God

When I first met Christ it seemed as though life was rather like a bike ride,

but it was a tandem bike, and I noticed that Christ was in the back helping me pedal. I don't know just when it was that He suggested we change places, but life has not been the same since. When I had control, I knew the way, it was rather boring, but predictable...It was the shortest distance between two points. But when He took the lead, He knew delightful long cuts, Up mountains, and through rocky places, at breakneck speeds, it was all I could do to hang on! Even though it looked like madness, He said, "Pedal" I worried and was anxious and asked,"Where are you taking me?" He laughed and didn't answer, and I started to learn to trust. I forgot my boring life and entered into the adventure and when I'd say, "I'm scared," He'd lean back and touch my hand. He took me to people with gifts that I needed. Gifts of healing, acceptance, and joy. He said, "Give the gifts away; they're extra baggage, too much weight." So I did, I gave them to the people we met, and I found that in giving I received, and still our burden was light. I did not trust Him, at first, in control of my life. I thought He'd wreck it; but He knows bike secrets, knows how to make it bend to take sharp corners, knows how to jump to clear high rocks, knows how to fly to shorten scary passages. And I am learning to shut up and pedal in the strangest places, and I'm beginning to enjoy the view and the cool breeze on my face with my delightful constant companion, Jesus Christ. And when I'm sure I just can't do anymore, He just smiles and says..."Pedal."

God at work

For many years the relationship I had with my mom was a bit tumultuous, and somewhat strained. I have to tell you though, since God has really started working in her life she and I have become closer. She's a joy to be around and to talk to. I love watching her excitement for Christ grow. I so completely see that fire for the Lord just growing in her and she hungers for what He has to offer. She's blessed with the gift of hospitality, a trait she most certainly didn't pass on to me. So when she gets God led ideas they usually are in the realm of hospitality. I love watching her be excited about doing things for others in ways that I would never dream to do. In my opinion the giving of self in that respect is such a wonderful, humbling gift because our time is so important and valued and most of us complain we don't have nearly enough of it. She, however, gets so much joy from spending her time doing things, baking or cooking for others. Isn't it awesome how God made each one of us so different to fulfill His purpose.

Tell Someone

Does the thought of opening your mouth to speak about the Lord God Almighty outside of the safe walls of your church make your stomach do flip flops? You wouldn't be alone in that respect in the least. I think as Christians we have to ask God to help us overcome that fear so that we can tell the world about Him without hesitation or fear of persecution. We only have to look to the Bible to see great accounts of Christians with such great love for their Lord that they were willing to die rather than not speak His name. There are some really awesome opportunities out there to be had if only you'd ask God to give you the words. I'm very blessed because I have very little trepidation when it comes to talking to others about God. I am so excited when I find a way to work God into the every day conversation because I cannot wait to share what God has done for me. Very rarely do I get the tummy flip flops or the heart racing because of anxiety or fear. Mind you, I've been very blessed to not have come across anyone who has challenged me. When that happens I know that my God will give me the words I need at that moment.

On the subject of Evangelism, I want to share something amazing and so "of God" that happened to me this week. On Monday, my husband and I went out for lunch at a place here in town. Our waitress came to our table and began to tell us about the specials. In mid-sentence she stopped to tell me just how much she loved my necklace. It wasn't anything fancy, just a scrabble charm necklace I made with a silver cross on it. I thanked her and we went on about our business. We got home from lunch and I heard God say to me "why didn't you give it to her?". I thought well, why didn't you tell me to do that when I was there!?? LOL So I went about my afternoon, and later He said it again, "why didn't you give it to her?". So I put my shoes on and went back to the restaurant but by this time it was 4:00 and she was gone for the day. So I found out when she worked again and made a point to stop there on that day. When I got there it was lunch time but the place was pretty empty and she wasn't busy. When I spoke to her, I reminded her about us eating there on Monday and how she'd commented on my necklace. I told her that since then, I'd been told to give her my necklace. She just looked at me funny and said "why?". I said "when God tells you to do something, you just do it". She paused and then said to me, that she had just started going back to church the Sunday before. That she'd been praying to find the motivation to get back to church and had finally found it. She began to tear up and then hugged me. I was so filled with joy because I know that through God I was able to witness to her and may have helped her in a time when she maybe was having some doubt.

Our God is an awesome God and everyone needs to know Him. I wholeheartedly take on that responsibility of sharing Him every chance I get! I hope you do too!

No one told me to

Right now my 14 yr old daughter is struggling with self-esteem issues and it breaks my heart because she's such a beautiful person. It makes me sad that she doesn't see it herself.

Last night I was talking with her and asked her, "Why don't you like yourself?". She replied "because nobody ever told me I had to." Wow!!! Totally the kind of flippant answer Melissa would give, however, what an insightful answer as well.

We spend all kinds of time telling our children how proud we are of them, how beautiful/handsome they are. How smart and talented they are and what awesome people WE think they are. We also tell our children how important it is to be nice to others, to like others, to treat others well. Some how in all of this we just assume that by doing these things it will MAKE them like themselves. If I had to guess I'd say that Jerry and I are not alone in not thinking of needing to tell our children that they should to like themselves too.

I can't help but wonder if this pain she's going through right now may have been avoided if we had told her when she was little how important it is to like yourself. How you need to love yourself before you can properly love others. It's hard to say for sure, teen years are such a difficult season of life to go through.

Make sure you tell your children how important it is to like themselves. God planned them, He knew everything about them before they were even in their mothers womb. God doesn't make mistakes, and He made no mistake in making each and everyone of us just the way He needs us to be.

Prayer Life.

Prayer seems to be the reoccurring theme this past weekend. Not only was it brought up in Pastor's sermon on Sunday, but also in my devotional this morning. At church we watched a small video, called Coffee with Jesus. What a great video, and so describes how I pray sometimes. We come to Jesus with this long list of wants and needs, yet never take time to listen, or to just praise Him or thank Him. God wants us to have conversations, with him, not just give him this grocery list of things we'd like him to do for us. We need to talk to him like we'd talk to our best friend. Something Pastor said on Sunday that just seemed so beautiful to me, "Prayer is to the soul, what breathing is to life. Your soul needs to communicate with God in order to thrive and to grow. Just like your earthly friendships would wither and die if you never talked to one another, the same is true for your relationship with Christ. Your earthy friendships would never grow and mature if you always did all the talking, and never took time to listen, neither will your relationship with Christ grow if you don't take time to listen to what He has to say to you. I often think of how blessed the disciples and the people of that time were to be able to walk and talk on earth with Jesus. What an amazing experience that must have been. I'm in no hurry to leave this earth, but I look forward to the time when I can talk to Him face to face.

All About Me

Ok normally this isn't something I would put here, but there's no other way to say it. I'm taking this class at church that is lead by our pastor and it's wonderful!!! It's all about learning what my strengths and weaknesses are and how to hone them and use them in the best possible way. I have learned so much about myself in just the last 3 weeks, it's amazing. We've done several different personality/gift type tests and they've all told me things I already know about myself, but in such an in depth way that I'm beginning to better understand myself. I can recognize now that my struggle with self dicipline (and other things) isn't imagined, it's all part of how God designed me. Doesn't mean that I can use that as an excuse not to be, but it helps me to better accept that part of me and feel a little less guilty about my inability to do it easily.

Another fabulous thing that I'm learning in doing this, is what personality traits others have as well. By being able to recognize different personality traits in others I can use what I know of these different personalities to better understand how to communicate with them. This is especially useful if I have to deal with someone that I have a hard time with. Thankfully that doesn't happen all that often.

Learning all these things will help me to be a better servant of God. It will be helpful to me as a small group leader because I will be able to make better connections with people. It'll help me to learn what ways I am better suited for His service. I can't wait!! I'm so excited about it all, I've learned so much and I can't wait to learn more and put it all to good use.

Keeping the Fire

Lately I've been feeling that my Fire for the Lord is being challenged. I'm sure it's mostly in my head, but it's enough to give me pause. I've been this excited for God for the last 2 years and I only see it getting stronger as I learn more about Him. I've been more immersed in Him and His word and His presence now since joining my church. My hunger to know Him and have a deeper personal relationship with Him has only grown. How do I keep this fire burning strong? By surrounding myself with Him and His love. I start my day with worship music and prayer, I listen to worship music or christian podcasts through out the day. I read my bible, do my bible study homework and I interact with other Christians and share and witness when ever possible. I end my day in prayer and sometimes more worship music or podcasts or a devotional. I go to church every Sunday, bible study every Wednesday, Coffee Fellowship every Thursday. I started a personal growth with God type class with my pastor and 4 others tonight, and my husband and I have started going to a home group. We also help out with the youth group and vacation bible school. Seems like a lot I'm sure, but this is what is important in my life. This is what helps me keep my fire burning. I think that if being on fire for God is something you want with all your heart, soul, and mind, it's something that you will make every effort to do. Nothing brings me more joy than worshiping my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Everything I do is better because I have made Him a priority in my life.

Don't get me wrong, as I've posted here, there are times that I don't feel His presence like I want to, but those are the times that I have to pray and worship Him the most. I don't ever want this fire to go out, it's just too awesome!

Believe

My Father in Heaven,

You are so great and so mighty,

Your love, so pure and so true.

You are the Great Creator

My King and Father too.

You have put me here to worship

and to give You all the praise,

yet I know each day I fail you

as I live my worldly ways.

I come to You for forgiveness,

and some how you always do.

You are the Great Redeemer

whose love will see me through.

You give me all the strength I need,

to battle through every storm.

If I will come to You down on bended knee.

I give all my cares to You

for You can carry the heavy load.

You give me ever lasting peace,

what you ask from me,

is to Believe.

--Lisa Gifford

My Best Friend

Long before I began this close walk with my Lord, I knew that He was watching out for me and taking precious steps to mold me and shape me. I know He had this master plan for my life that I had no clue about. I won't get into all the details of how I fell in love with my husband, but I will tell you that at that time in my life, Jerry Gifford was not part of MY plan. Now however, I cannot even begin to imagine how my life would have turned out thus far if God hadn't put us on the same path to find one another. There is not a day that goes by that I don't thank God for this amazing man. In the craziness of daily life he, with the blessing of the Lord, is my one constant. When I need encouragement he gives it freely, when I need constructive criticism he gives it gently and lovingly. In all things he does, he helps me to become the best me that I can become. Each day I love him more than the day before and wonder how that is even possible. I truly believe that God has one person in mind for everyone, and I believe that Jerry is mine, God made him just for me. Thank you God!

Give God your paintbrush!

Andy Stanley has done it again! Every time I listen to one of his message series, he teaches me things and shows me areas of my life that I need to grow and improve. Being an artist, I was excited to hear his analogy was art related. Andy was talking about how hard it is for us to let God paint our lives for us. That it's so hard for us to just hand over the paintbrush and let him do the painting. He pointed out that when we go in for surgery, never do we tell the doctor that we'd like to hold the scalpel. Of course not!!! The doctor is much more capable at performing the surgery than we are and we never even question it. We put our faith in that doctor that he's going to do the right thing for us. When we have money to invest, most of us if we tried to make investments ourselves, with out any knowledge, would lose money. The outcome is much better when we trust our money to someone who knows what they're doing. We trust these mere humans whom God has given the wisdom to, to handle big things in our lives without much question. Yet when it comes to letting go and letting God, we have a really hard time relinquishing that paintbrush. To see evidence that God is a Master Painter we merely have to open our eyes and look around us. Not only is all of nature breath taking, but the blessings we've all been given while we're still holding onto that paintbrush are astounding. Can you even begin to imagine how amazing our lives would be if only we'd take our hand off, and let God have total control of it?

If you're interested in listening to Andy Stanley, you can in several different places. They post the weekly messages on the church website here, Northpoint is also now on YouTube, and if you have an IPod you can d/l podcasts off of Itunes.

A constant

I have been so busy lately I haven't had much time to blog. The really awesome thing about it though is alot of my busy-ness is doing things for God.

I'm leading a bible study, which is going so well and I'm so excited about it. I'm also trying to read the book "Simple Church" which is very interesting but I'm not finding the time to get it done. I've also just finished listening to The Shack on my IPod, I just love that book and ITunes had it for $5.95 so I bought it. I have several Andy Stanley Podcasts on my IPod I need to catch up on. I also go to a Thursday morning Women's Coffee Fellowship which is so fun. Not a structured study or anything but just connecting with other women from my church. I also help lead the youth group on Sunday evening which is beginning to grow on me a bit as that becomes more structured. Teenagers are such an adventure! I'm also working on the church website and trying to get those pages all set up and running. I'm also trying to make time to finish some of the scrabble charm necklaces that I'm going to sell for a fundraiser for the Youth Group. They want to go to a Youth Convention in Washington DC this summer. I'm also on my own time trying to study the book of James. That book has just really spoke to me and I'm truly enjoying it.

Even though I'm super busy, my busy-ness seems to revolve around God. I'm not having the bursting at the seams excitement all the time, but, I'm always thinking about God or talking to Him or reading His word. It's like I'm wrapped in a blanket of God and God's love, I always feel it, it's always there. I can't imagine spending my time or my days any other way than immersed in God and His love.

Not Exactly What I Meant

Yesterday was a very trying day for me. I'd finally had it with picking up after my kids and husband and all the things that I felt that I shouldn't have to do. I've talked till I was blue in the face about trying to get them to take responsibility for their own messes but it always seemed to fall on deaf ears. My frustration with this is, as you may or may not have read in previous posts on this blog, is that I struggle with the day to day household chores on a constant basis, I just don't like to do them. When I walk into a room and I have to clean up after everyone elses messes before I can even get down to the bones of cleaning, like dusting and vacuuming and such, it just deflates me and I end up just walking out of the room and become irritated! Yesterday I told my kids that I no longer would be doing this, that I wouldn't be doing for them, if they didn't feel they could do simple things for me as I asked them to. As you can imagine, that went over like a lead balloon. My wonderful husband pointed out that maybe I was sending the wrong message. The message that you shouldn't do things for others if they aren't going to reciprocate. He's right, that's not the kind of message I want to send to my kids. He also pointed out that by not doing the day to day things, I'm not really holding up my end either. So what has all this gotten me? I big old slap in the face with some reality. This is what God has been trying to tell me all along. It applies to so much more than just housekeeping, it applies to many other aspects of my life. There are things I don't like to do, yet am always looking for excuses or reasons to get out of doing them, and even better if I can blame some one else for my short comings. I love the way God works, makes you think you've got everything under control and you know exactly how to make everything work. Then just when you're at the top of your game he knocks you down a peg or two to remind just who really is in charge.

Bursting with Excitement!!!

Have you ever been so filled with the Spirit and the joy and love of God that you just feel like there's no way you can contain it? That you just want to tell every person you see how awesome God is? I get this way often, so excited about God, so excited about what He's done for me, that He loves me and that He just makes my life so full. I see the way He's touched my family, the way He's put people in my life that "help my being". The opportunities to serve and share He's put in my path. I'm so excited about leading this upcoming bible study, about doing the church website. I'm so excited about how these things can help bring people closer to God, and how these things can help me learn more about God and His word.

At the leadership meeting we had at church on Monday night we discussed the process of how Lakeland Community Church strives to accomplish bringing our members, and new comers, to God and growing in their faith, by utilizing the 3 C's; Celebrate, Connect, and Commit.

Celebration is the act of worship, Sunday morning services, celebrating God's love and just how awesome He is. Learning what God has to tell us through the Bible. We discussed that some people skip this step once they've moved onto the others and I have such a hard time understanding how they could do that. To me, this is my favorite step, and one that leaves me feeling deprived if I have to miss it for one reason or another, which doesn't happen often. I've said it before, if Pastor Dave and the music ministry would Celebrate every day, I'd be there!

Connect is small groups, bible studies and home groups that help bring you closer in your walk with God, but also helps you connect to other people who want to do the same. Thus building your Faith Community, which only helps you grow as a Christian and makes you stronger. I love my Wednesday morning women's bible study. Even though we've been doing a book I'm not thrilled with, I go every week because I love the connection I have with the women that are there. I have learned so much from all of them and look forward to our Wednesday mornings.

Commit; commit to serve by giving your time and your tithe to the church. Committing to serve in anyway is a true reflection of God's love. Service can be anything from leading a small group to shoveling snow. As my husband recently discovered when asked to serve on the youth group team of leaders, that he was at church 3 times each week and all 3 times, he was receiving, he needed to serve, he needed to give back to our church, to help so others could receive. I truly feel that service is something that will just come naturally, if you faithfully continue to Celebrate and Connect. Tithing is also an important part of Committing, I know no one likes to talk about it, but you must remember that first and foremost, your money is not yours, it's Gods. Matthew 6:21 tells us "For where your treasure lies, your heart will be also". Which means if you feel that your greatest treasure is your new car, your boat, your latest gadget, that is where your heart also lies. This is a great spiritual way to look at things, however, if you just have a hard time getting your heart and head wrapped around it that way, look at it from a logical stand point. Do you like your church to be warm when you go in January? Cool when you go in August? Do you like light to follow along in your bible on Sunday mornings? Do you like having a roof over your head to worship in April when it's pouring outside? What do think your tithes pay for? They are what pay for the up keep, the staff, and the outreach of your church. If you don't tithe on a regular basis, these things can't happen.

To take the Commit one step further, service for God doesn't stop at the doors of the church, oh no, when you open the doors of the church and step out into the world, the service opportunities just multiply! Again, service doesn't have to be some thing large and complicated, opening a door for some one, kind words, encouraging others, paying for the latte for the person in the car behind you in the Starbucks drive thru, small things count too. However, if you're able to do large things and the opportunities arise, by all means, jump in with both feet and show the world how awesome our God is, simply by your actions.

I sometimes feel my enthusiasm bubbles over and out in such a way that it scares people, even some people from my church LOL , but how do you contain it when you're so filled with the Spirit and love for God? I just don't think it's possible!!

I challenge you to do a self check for 2009, are you doing the 3 C's? Are you Celebrating weekly? Are you Connecting with other Christians on a regular basis? Are you Committing to Serve in some way for the glory of God? If not, make some adjustments, only good things can come from it. God Bless!

Excited, Nervous, Anxious

For several months now I've been doing a Wednesday Morning Bible Study at my church with some wonderful women. Well that particular study has now come to a close and it's time to move on to our next study. We've chosen to do the Beth Moore Bible Study, Living Beyond Yourself; Exploring the Fruits of the Spirit. The reason I have all these mixed emotions about it is because I've been asked to lead it. I know that with God's help I will do just fine, however, the butterflies in the tummy I'm sure will be in full flight when it starts.

Part of my excitement is that my sisters and my mom are going to do this study with me. Yet another way my family is there for each other on this amazing faith walk we're on together.