Home

Home. It's a strange concept to those of us who have moved around a little. It's an even stranger concept to us when we belong to Christ. It's like we're at home everywhere and no where, all at the same time.

My greatest feeling of my "earthly home" is with Logan. Whether I'm at the house I grew up at or our new house, I just can't feel the complete comfort of home without him. And at the same time, we can be at home in a very different place if we're together. It's a beautiful thing, really.

So now we own a house - I guess they call us "home-owners" now! But I don't think that you can really own a home - a home is created through your love and acceptance of people. We pray often that our house is a refuge to many, a home to all who come here. I feel like I might suffocate in a house if it's not filled with people on a normal basis! I never want my blessings to become my burdens. So please help us out with that! Come on over!

The church threw us a housewarming party yesterday, I have to say that we are really overwhelmed by the love that was poured out on us! We are so blessed by having so many awesome people in our lives!

Thanks to the Tomlins and their small group (9th and 10th graders) for our beautiful and just as yummy cake!

Some of the wonderful teens hanging out on the back porch! They informed us yesterday that we had a maximum of 3 years till we need to have a baby. I even found hidden notes around the house after they left! "3 years..." haha, it's nice to have some family planners around! Those decisions need to be made by somebody, right? :-)

We didn't get a whole lot of pictures, but this is a good one of the Belews! Such a great family!

Thanks so much to Sandy Campbell for putting the party together! She's always trying to find new ways to encourage! It's so great to have encouragers around often! Thanks for helping us "break in" the new house!

We are so excited about the plans God has for our home! Maybe someday it'll be filled with the laughter and pitter-patter of our own children - that's exciting! (I guess we have 3 years though!) But we hope that it's a place of joy, acceptance and family in Christ!

"Now it is God who made us for this very purpose and has given us the Spirit as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come. Therefore we are always confident and know that as long as we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord. We live by faith not by sight."
2 Corinthians 5:5-7

I am so excited for the day when we'll all be at home with the Lord! But in the mean time, let's make homes for people through our love - living by faith and not by sight!

encouragement

I've been in a funk the last couple of days and I just don't know why. But I know it's a spiritual longing that I don't yet understand. So I'm waiting, praying and reading the words of Christ. John 14-16 are some of the most incredible chapters in the Bible - Jesus' very personal and last words with his disciples before His death. So read them and be encouraged!

Outside of Jesus and the Bible, 2 of my Christian heros are Mother Teresa and Martin Luther King, Jr. I know they're very well known, but every time I read something they wrote or said, I can feel the presence of Christ flowing from them, even now. They lived out the call of Christ so completely. So I'll share a prayer from Mother Teresa - I hope it will encourage you like it does me.

"Dear Lord, Help me to spread your fragrance wherever I go. Flood my soul with your Spirit and Life. Penetrate and possess my whole being so utterly that all my life may only be a radiance of yours.

Shine through me, and be so in me that every soul I come in contact with may feel your presence in my soul. Let them look up and no longer see me, but only you, oh Lord! Stay with me, then I shall begin to shine as you do, so to shine as to be a light to others. The light, oh Lord, will be all from you; none of it will be mine; it will be you shining on others through me. Let me thus praise you in the way you love best, by shining on those around me.

Let me preach you without preaching, not by words but by example, by the catching force, the sympathetic influence of what I do, the evident fullness of the love my heart bears to you. Amen."

What I love about Mother Teresa is that her words are preceded and backed up by her life of love and sacrifice. May our faith always produce these things!

One more Mother Teresa quote to think about for now:

"You must allow Jesus to use you without consulting you first.
You belong to Him, you are His and only His."

Love!

permanant peace

It's kinda crazy. Being a somewhat recent (2007) college graduate, I'm still a little stuck in the mindset that everything I do is temporary. Let me explain - in college, I moved from Ohio to Nashville - for 4 years. I worked summer jobs - for the summer. I worked school-year jobs, for the school year. I went on mission trips - 2 weeks at a time. I moved in and moved out of my parents house, the dorms, my aunt and uncle's house, wherever. No decision I made seemed truly permanent, with the exception of marrying Logan (which I definitely view as permanant!)

So now we're coming up on our two-year anniversary of being youth ministers in Tuscaloosa. (DISCLAIMER: we are NOT thinking of leaving! Just getting adjusted!) We just bought our first house (after 2 apartments) - a huge commitment! We finally feel like we're getting our feet on the ground in so many ways. I love the realization that we get to spend more than 4 years in one place (Lord willing). I love knowing that God has put us somewhere to grow with people and plan for the long road. I was looking at some youth group pictures from two summers ago, and loved seeing how much the students have changed and grown! But sometimes I feel so restless. It's like I want to be in a million places, doing a million things all at once.

I know that the Spirit is trying to tell me something, but it's so hard to drown out the noise of life to listen. I want to hear His call. I want to be where the Spirit is, doing His work. I think this restlessness comes from just that - being too occupied to listen to God. If all of God's people would follow His command to take a Sabbath day of rest every week, how much more would He do through us?

"Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake. After the earthquake came a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. After the fire came a gentle whisper."
1 Kings 19:11-12

He's always speaking, yet I'm not always listening. Oh Lord, I'll listen...

to blog or not to blog...

So over the past several months, I have been debating - to blog or not to blog. I really enjoy reading the blogs of others, so much that it often keeps me from work I need to do. I just enjoy seeing into the hearts of people I love and adore. It's like a different perspective on their hearts and daily lives, like an open journal. But I also wonder if my life is really so interesting that people want to read about it often - or if I should even take the time out of the day to write it. I don't have children yet from whom I can post their silly quotes and adorable pictures. But on days like today - days when my mind is so full of thoughts that I can't get any work done; days when I have such a deep longing for something I can't put my finger on; days when I just need to voice the Spirit's nudgings - I think a blog might be a blessing.

I have one of those personalities that I just can't think about something and process it completely. I have this urgency to get it out - either talk about it (poor Logan...) or write about it. I'm an avid journaler, but maybe this can be a new kind of journal: less intimate than my prayer journal, yet can hopefully bless those who might read it as well.

So welcome to my blog - a messy rambling of the events of my life, nudgings of the Spirit and questions I can't answer!