Five twee-zay!

Last night I had so much fun! I went to Winter Jam with two friends and had a blast. I really love how they can mix complete entertainment and fun, with deep reverence and worship and come out with the right balance.

Tony Nolan did such a great job with the message portion of the evening, the performers were all really great (Newsboys were stinkin' FANTASTIC), KJ-52 was an awesome hype man, and the speakers were deafening. I love loud music, but I always leave concerts feeling like I'm yelling and everything I'm listening to is under water.
I rather enjoyed Kutless's version of It Is Well, also liked the new people I'd never heard before, and feel in LOVE with Jason Castro...or was it just his dreads? Hmm...well either way he was great.

Which brings me to my next point...I'm thinking about doing dreads this summer. Before you start into how dirty they are or how gross your hair has to be to do them...PLEASE KNOW WHAT YOU'RE TALKING ABOUT. That's simply inaccurate. Anyway, I was hoping for a little feed back about thoughts on this. Also and feed back from people that either have them or have had them and can share pros/cons would be great!

So back to Winter Jam...I met KJ-52 after the concert and bought a CD/tee combo, so I had him sign the CD. I got a pic too, but it wasn't on my camera, so I'll have to add it once I get a copy. It was great though. I wish he'd have been one of the main acts, but alas...twas not so. Anyhow, it all made for an enjoyable evening.

What have YOU done lately?

Blue in the face...

Sometimes I just sit back and ask myself why? Why do I bother? Why do I care? Why do I try? Why should it matter? Why did I think it'd be different? Why does this always happen? Why do I get involved? Why me? ...the list of "why"s is seemingly endless.

Tonight I've pondered most of the above, yet I'm still sitting here with no answers. The fact of the matter is, I may never have answers to those questions. That's not important though.
Yeah, right now I want them. Right now it's important. But in the end it's not usually the why that matters, it's the who...or rather Who matters. If I weren't dwelling on me, my problems, my family's problems, my friend's problems...if I were concentrating on the right Person, then most of this would seem so small. I'd be able to gain the right perspective on things, to leave my worries in more capable hands.

This is so hard for me to do...I all too often forget that it's not really about me and my concerns, that there's a much broader picture and I need to ask for the eyes to see it.

God,
      I ask for you to ease my troubled mind, and to help me lean completely on you and not on my own understanding. My finite mind gets so easily hurt and confuse, worried and upset...but you care about me deeply and I ask for you to give me the ability to look beyond my own life and to see Your greater goals and purposes. Teach me through life's experiences I pray. I want to be more like You. I love You.
Amen.

Put on a little moisturizer...

This morning my sister and I hosted another one of our Saturday breakfast/devotional gatherings. Nichole had decided to try something new for breakfast, so of course I staggered out of my bedroom to begin my morning in a mild haze of smoke...she'd already burnt something. See Nichole has this theory, if you're in a hurry when cooking...put it on high. *sigh* Thankfully it was just a trial run she'd been doing on some stove top hash-browns with sketchy directions, so nothing was lost and it all actually turned out to be quite delicious. The end result was actually breakfast pizza, but all the various ingredients had to have a little prep work done before the final oven baking ensued. (I'm excited! There's leftovers!)

Amanda was the first to show up, followed shortly by Sonia, then finally RaeLynn and Christianna joined us. Once the gang was all there we enjoyed a little chit-chat with our breakfast, then began with praises and prayer requests. If you should happen to need things to pray about, apparently most of us are focused on finishing out the semester without failing anything, simply getting through it, and hopefully caring a little more about what we've got to do than we did today. Oh the prayers for passion about something that you're just burnt out on! Sometimes it's just sooo hard to care. Thankfully God understands this.

Anyway, once we finished with this part of our morning it was time for the devotional. I had asked Amanda to share with us this morning and she had graciously complied with my request. Being the teacherly-minded person she is, she came prepared with a lesson plan complete with a visual to represent each point. The whole thing was super cute and she just did a fantastic job putting it together. The lesson was entitled Beautiful Woman In Christ (by Julia Bettencourt). I won't try to give you the whole thing, but the idea behind it was a comparison of beauty products for the physical body and the same idea behind those products for the spiritual body.
For example: Amanda had foundation with a label that read, "Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee." (Psa 119:11) Then the application she put on it was, we need to start with a good foundation and what is better than the Word of God? If we have the Word of God in our hearts the rest of our spiritual make-up can be easily applied.

I really thought the whole thing came together quite nicely and I loved the idea behind it. It was a great reminder that sometimes we get so caught up in the physical appearance, but there are just as many ways we need to take care of our spiritual selves and these are far more important to God. I hope these will serve as a reminder to myself and the girls that have heard it, and that we can share the ideas behind it with other ladies in our lives. We all impact someone, let's work to use this impact to share God's beauty and desire for our own spiritual beauty!

I didn't know if anyone that read this would want to see the whole lesson, but here's the link to the website: Beautiful Woman In Christ (by Julia Bettencourt)

Jus somethin' ta think about...

-- Sent from my Palm Pixi

The winds of change...

or rather "The breezes of revision" maybe? Needless to say, I feel a draft. Today it's rather chilly, but I'm hoping for warmer climes as the month progresses.

There are only so many weeks of this semester left...and it's starting to really sink in that this (if managed correctly), is my last semester of college. Now granted there's always possibilities of grad school, etc etc...but at this point in life I have no plans for such things, so this is it...the whole enchilada, the big finale, the kit and caboodle, or the final farewell perhaps...eh, that last one seems a little "deathy" for this. Anyway, the point is, my world is fixing to change and need to have some adjustments. I'm not entirely positive what all that will entail just yet, but at the moment I'm finding it both exciting and terrifying. I've known this day would come for quite a while now, but it's just that it's here...only weeks away. Now what? I feel like my subliminal self often stands in the corner just scratching her head at my lack of plans at this point.
 It's an odd sensation for me to not know what I want to do or where I want to be...I've had all that figured out since I was nine years old, but lately it just feels like it's all abandoned me and left me waiting. I keep hoping for a painting to start moving, my twin to die, or one of my visits to the train museum to bring to light the location of that blasted Platform 9¾! *sigh* But sadly none of this has transpired as of yet...besides if I did happen to stumble into the right wardrobe I'd be so frustrated when I stumbled back out only to be faced with the same questions I left waiting...

Death of a hobby

So I've been thinking. I don't like that blogging seems to have gone by the wayside. Well at least in my life it has...so I'm hoping for a comeback. Mostly for my own narcissistic reasons, but I'm ok with that. *shrug*

Life these days is mundane to say the least. Albeit my mind has had several rampant, repetitious trains of thought lately. These usually pertain to the questions of my future and what lies beyond this murky haze of a present. Sadly there has been no direct response to the questions I've asked the universe, but I'm still hoping for my illusive 42. I do know however that whatever answers the universe may conjure up will be of little value to me in the end, and I also know where I ought to be directing said questions in the first place. So do not fret, dear reader...I am in the progress of addressing this misdirection in my life. Feel free to invest in this endeavor however you so choose...

To any whom so desire, I'd love for you to comment about whatever may (or may not) be happening in your life.

-TKB