Is God in control?

So before I explain why my title is in the form of a question...Stop and think about your life....Are you allowing God to be in control or did you tell him to be a "backseat driver?"

So there I was sitting and reading a book while Jabin took a nap...My phone rang and it was Brit (totally not unusual since we are eachother's Friday night date). We had left our plans semi in limbo (go to the football game or to the movie we both wanted to see) We were leaning towards the movie and I was so excited. We were gonna get something to eat and then watch "Flightplan." But she really wanted to go to the game (lowell's) So we changed plans, yeah I was a little bummed but it's such a beautiful night going to the game would be fun. But I went to Rockford's game. I called up Casey to see if he wanted to come, and he was up for watching some football. The game was alright, I'm so sick of blow-outs. We won. But I had such a good time with Casey. He was such a huge encouragement. I got to talk to him and find out more about how he treats people and what a godly guy he is. (I'm very excited that Jodi found such a great guy!). So to make a long story short I told him about how I had felt God leading my steps to be in full time ministry but that I've been so scared to do it alone. I would love to go overseas..but only with someone else. It's you know my "but" to God. And he just facilitated me helped me take in what I was saying (pretty much facilitating myself) but it was so good to talk about it again. I know I'm somewhat afraid of being alone but he allowed God to work in my life and really challenged me. It made me stop and think a ton. So without giving you the whole conversation I will restate my question...Is God in control of your life, or do you have "buts" before God? I know I do and I admit I need a lot of prayer in this area of my life. But I would like to try an encourage you all to allow God to lead your life, not having to lay everything out before...that's part of our faith in Him. Please pray for me and know I'm praying for all of you my friends!

Weddings and engagements...

Well I thought this was the summer of weddings...but I think I might be wrong...there have been even more weddings planned for next year. This week I first had a random phone call from a girl I went to highschool with and she asked me if I would sing in her wedding. Crazy. I then found out that my friends Gabe and Beka (A huge congrats again guys) are engaged and are planning a spring wedding. Susan and Paul got married friday night. Then I came home from the wedding only to have my Best friend from high school call and tell me she's now engaged and getting married in the spring. She has asked me to be her maid of honor. WOW. That's so cool. I feel so honored that she would ask me. Thanks Tridda!!! And I guess on top of that I am editing my brother and sister-in-laws wedding video. How fun.

Oh and this is by far the most exciting thing that happened to me this week...I bought two tickets to see Pistons vs. Heat. CENTER COURT but oh it gets even better....10 rows from the players bench!!! Yeah Baby. So I'm heading to the palace once again. Oct 22 with Hebe Gebe and Nov. 5 with mom. Oh the fun times.

Pastor's message

So I've still been thinking about Pastor's message on Sunday entitled Burden or Blessing. It was such a good sermon for me to hear. I me really how often do we stop and think about why "difficulties" come into our lives? James 1:2-4, "Consider it pure JOY whenever you face trials of many kinds for you know the testing of your faith develops patience, and patience must finish it's work so that you will be mature" (that's my paraphrased version) And in, I believe, 1 Cor. says that the Lord give us comfort when we go through difficult times so that we might help comfort others when they go through similar difficulties. Ok so when was the last time you (and I) thought about difficulties that way...."I know God will give me the strength to get through this...I am to be joyful for the maturity this is bring to my spiritual walk....I am thankful God will us me as a blessing to someone else's life to help them get through....(fill in the blank). I have to say I am so guilty of think....why is this is my life...God don't I serve you, I try to walk according to the bible....Etc. Shame on ME! I have asked God to forgive me for thinking so much like the world and falling short of glorifying Him. I say this to encourage you, whatever it might be you are going through thank God for it and us it to HIS glory. This is been such a constant reminder...Sunday's sermon, talking to Lorrie throughout this week, Mr. Shear reminding us a choir tonight and it was left as an away message on a friend (who is at school at BBC) of mine's IM. So is this something God is trying to teach me...I would sure think so. I hope you find this a good reminder to you. COUNT IT ALL JOY!!! Preserver in trials.....PRAISE GOD!!!!

*sigh* of relief

Well this is fun, I just wrote a post and went to spell check it...well it totally erased it all. So we'll try again.

Friday I got out of work early I love those days! Brit and I then went and painted my mom's new office. We came home and cleaned up then went out to dinner at Applebee's and managed to stay there for a good three hours. Such fun! Jim was our server so we got to chat a little bit. Brit ended up spending the night and then we both had class Sat. So we got up semi early. I had an eye appointment before school so I headed to that. Yes I get glasses in a week. I can't wait to be able to see again. I love having glasses!
Saturday night I was able to finish setting up our basement. It is now all set for an additional "tv" room. We've even got a little carpet down there. Not ideal but it sure works out great. It gives me room to spread out too. My family isn't really using it much yet so it's more my personal space. I sure can't complain. Just give me a blanket and a cup of coffee and I'm good to go.
Sunday after church Brit and I decided to be very dilligent in our homework by heading out to Grand Haven for five hours. It was a perfect beach day. Then I got to come home and watch some football. Football season has to be my favorite! Jen thanks for getting me set up with fantasy. I love it it's keeping me so much more involved in the games. SO FUN! And I'm doing very well in my fantasy team. YES!

I decied to drop my spanish class after you know one week of classes. But it is such a huge relief. I not only have more free time but I get to do choir at church now too. I'll pick up the spanish class next semester. It'll be with a much better professor whom I admire a lot. My other classes are pretty good. I love my history class! I'm learning a lot about the history of the Middle East, and they are using the bible as a reference. They said it has a lot of great historical events. My website class is just getting underway so I'll keep you informed on that one. My photoshop class has a lot to be desired, but the good thing is that I can work on that on my computer too so I'll get ahead during the week and be able to leave when it comes to lab time.

~Have a good night~

Don't you just love the smell of freshly sharpened pencils?

Well I offically started school...yesterday, but had my first class tonight, Spanish. Wow my teacher is going to be a little demanding of my time. She flat out said she doesn't care if we are working our boss comes after her class. So basically I signed up for a four credit class but the acually time I have to put into it is going to be a great deal more. *sigh* I hope I'm ready for this. All the homework is already making my head hurt...and this is the first two days. Well, guys don't let me give up like to do every other time. I'm one semester away from graduating at cc....so make sure I stick with it. (so you know I already feel the pressure of homework and instead of working on it right now what am I doing....? oh writing a new post. haha isn't that a good use of my time? But I said I would keep up with it and so that's what I'm doing for all my adoring fans....all two of you that is. Hahaha)

Jabin and I went to the zoo with Marissa and Mckenna today. Oh it was so much fun. I got a really cute picture of them holding hands. They are just too stinkin cute!!! It totally wore Jabin out too...he slept for three hours. So I got to work out, shower, finish my book and do house work during that time. I acutally felt productive.

So can I just say that God sure is the God of all comfort. I had something I knew I had to give over to God but (me being the controling perfectionist that I am) was having a hard time letting go. So I spent a lot of time praying and reading my Bible over the weekend and holiday. (now I'm not going to be all charismatic (I don't think I spelled that right)) But seriously as I as praying it was like a huge weight was literally taken off my body. The Holy Spirit really did give me the comfort and peace I longed for and it has made things so much easier! God is good. All the time!!! I hope you all had a great night as well.

Selah

We had such a great Sunday! Great church service, good lunch, good fellowship and then....oh yeah we went to Grand Haven to watch the Selah concert. It was so good! They are great worship leaders and give the glory to God. It was wonderful to be at the waterfront stadium so we could enjoy a beautiful sunset. Yeah it was a great night!

Oh-ah-ta-goo-sahi-am

That title was for you nancy....hehe!

I was finally able to do some baking today. Sadly our oven has been broken for oh...about three months now and I haven't been able to bake anything since then. Well I went over to Jared and Kristen's today in order to make treats for sunday school tomrrow. It was fun I got a lot done...bannana bread, coffee cake and tons of cookies. Thanks Kristen for letting me us your kitchen. The boys were upstairs tearing out the drywall of their guest room. That was kind of exciting, a little scary at times because you would hear a loud bang and wonder if it was just the drywall of it Jared had just fallen down...which getting a mental picture is really quite funny. Ha ha!

I also got to read another book today while soaking up some good sun rays. And....believe it or not I organized and cleaned my room...yes it's acually clean...minus dusting and vacuuming because it's a little to late to run the vacuum and I don't want to dust until after I do that or else you just get more dust on them. So over all a productive day. I like days like that.

The A-team is on it's way to be up and running....how fun! I'm excited to get it going and have things done for the teens. I've got some great kids helping to head it up.

I didn't have any epiphanies today. But isn't God good to just give us that beautiful sunshine? I am sure glad I was able to be outside for a little while and enjoy it.

Here's Jabin. We were taking a walk in the wagon to the park. 

Give me time

Yeah so you'd think that after havin this site since oh...feb I'd have a few more postings....yeah so I said I'd be slow. *update* I love my job. Jabin is so much fun and he's just so cute. We had a fun morning with Marissa and McKenna. He just loves them so much, we went to the children's museum (always a good time). We also stopped at the library on the way back to his house and as we were looking for books he looked at me and goes...."um, becky....i love you." Oh melt my heart right there. I just love that boy.

I was also able to read the book I got at the library today. I've been doing a lot of reading lately. five books in the last five days....yeah I'm a nerd. I'm just getting ready to do a lot of reading once I go back to school. Oh and great news....no I didn't save a bunch of money on my car insurace by switching to Geico...I'm graduating from CC in the spring. Yes, yes I know thank you...after five years of school I am getting an associates. Kind of reminds me of tommy boy...."a lot of people go to school for eight years.....yeah they're called doctors"

Funny thing I saw today. Well I'm driving home from work and I wasn't in a hurry because it was a beautiful day and I was enjoying that fact that I don't have to work until Tuesday (Thank you God for the break). Well I was driving behind a particulary slow "older person" car. I start to get a little antsy so I try to take a closer look at the driver...as I'm looking I see this thing flying around in the car by their head. I'm wondering what's goin on..;So I go to pass them and yes....after a closer look I was able to see it wasn't anything really flying around in the car other than the massive "comb over" I started to laugh out loud when I saw this. Ok so maybe it was one of those things that you had to be there for. But I'm sure you can imagine it was funny.

The other person I noticed on my way home actually brought me to tears. It was just a tender/touching thing to see. A simple little thing I've proly seen several times. There was construction (surprise surprise) on the E. Beltline as I was going home and I happened to look around at one of the sites. I saw a middle aged man on a bike watching the builders. Ok so what's the big deal about that. Well the more I observerd him I came to the conclusion that he had some mental disabilities. But he was just enjoying the simple fact of watching the construction workers build. This just gripped my heart when I saw it. Wow how often do I rush by things and they go unnoticed??? When do I take time to stand back and enjoy the simple things (that are so irritating at times...construction) I had to say a simple prayer of thanks to God for all I take for granted. Even my health, my abilities to move without problems, having a car to drive, having...oh I just could go on and on. I do truly praise God for His hand in my life. Thank you God for all your blessings!

Thought I'd share that with you. Might not touch you the way it did me. But my way of encouragement, take time to talk to God and thank him for Who He is and how He's created each and every one of us.