Filling My Oil

I am finally able to stop and write about the Ladies Retreat that I went on last weekend with the church. OMG it was AWESOME! It was called "Arise and Come Away"! Our speaker was Dara Aldy, from House of Prayer in Hattiesburg, she was GREAT!

It is absolutely amazing how God works through us and in us! This weekend was a time for us ladies to be able to completely focus on God, and our relationships with him! The whole retreat was about The First Commandment:

"You are to love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your sould, and with all your mind. This is the first and great commandment" Matthew 22:37-38.

I learned that God wants me to love him first and foremost above anything else. He wants my heart, my love and my affection! He is a very jealous god and wants ALL of my heart!! Dara talked about how if I wanted to change my heart, I needed to first love him! I are to seek him everyday in everything that I do! He is of the utmost importance! No one can't truly experience love until you have given your heart completely to God and love him first!

"We love Him because he first loved us" John 4:19

Christ is our Bridegroom, and as the Bride we are to eagerly await his arrival!

There are many people, me included, that are like Martha in Luke. We are all wanting to be appreciated and to have someone to always help us. We are always looking for words of praise. Martha was too worried about pleasing everyone else and was irritated because her sister, Mary, wasn't helping her. Mary was sitting at the feet of the Lord listening to his words. God wants us to spend more time at his feet listening to his word, than worried about everything else that is going on in our lives!

"Then the kingdom of heaven shall be likened to ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom." Matthew 25:1

I have to make sure that I always have oil in my lamp and to make sure that I put the oil before the lamp. What it is saying is that the lamps are ministries that I do for the lord. The oil is my love for God! I can't use my lamp if I don't have oil to fill it. The 5 foolish virgins were more worried about their ministries than they are their love for God. The 5 wise made sure to take care of their oil first, then their lamps. I can relate to that a lot. I had always had the mindset that the more that you give, give, give, serve, serve, serve, and do,do, do that the closer you are to God because are you serving him. Don't get me wrong, God loves when you do things that are pleasing to him, but the truth of the matter is, the one that that God wants the MOST is your love, he wants ALL of your heart!! God wants me to have an intimate relationship with him! In maintaining my oil, I need to make sure that I am purposeful, that I learn to say "NO" and I am determined for the long haul. My intimacy with my Lord isn't going to happen overnight, in a few months or even in a year. I have to remind myself to look at the long-term goal-years down the road!
Intimacy is NOT transferable. As in the parable, the foolish virgins asked the wise virgins to share their oil so that they would be ready for the bridegroom. They told them No and for them to go find it themselves and buy it.

Something else that Dara said that meant a lot to me was " What comes to mind when we think about God is most important about us". It affects everything -- our marriage, our relationships with our kids and friends!

We are each God's Favorite! Isn't that amazing and awesome to know!! We are the apple of his eye, Praise God! He delights in his. Micah 7:18 says "He delights in unchanging love". There is a difference between being spiritually immature and being rebellious! Praise God for that because I am very immature in my spirituality but through God I am growing everyday!

Our obedience begins when we set our heart to obey him!

I could go on, but I will stop for now! If anyone of you (what few readers I have) would like to hear more about it, I'd be glad to share with you!

I will continue to love him with all my heart, mind and soul and to make him my #1 in everything I do!!!

Proverbs 31 Ministry

While reading their website today, I came across 2 verses that really hit home with me. I struggle with this a lot and am working on it through Gods grace!

"A fool gives full vent to his anger, but a wise man keeps himself under control." Proverbs 29:11

and

"A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger." Proverbs 15:1

Such a great amazing prayer!

On my way to work this morning, I was listening to K-Love, which I do all the time. And they were talking to Josh Wilson. He sang one of his songs, which I have heard many times on K-Love! But today it hit me harder than ever before, and I started thinking about the words of the song! This is a song that is such a great prayer song and it is SO true! I wanted to share with everyone!

SAVIOR, PLEASE

Savior, please take my hand
I work so hard, I live so fast
This life begins, and then it ends
And I do the best that I can, but I don't know how long I'll last


I try to be so tough
But I'm just not strong enough
I can't do this alone, God I need You to hold on to me
I try to be good enough
But I'm nothing without Your love
Savior, please keep saving me

Savior, please help me stand
I fall so hard, I fade so fast
Will You begin right where I end
And be the God of all I am because You're all I have

Hallelujah
Everything You are to me
Is everything I'll ever need
And I am learning to believe
That I don't have to prove a thing
'Cause You're the one who's saving me

May God Bless each and every one of you!

Snow Day - February 12, 2010

***Forewarning***
This might be a picture overload :)

Well, I'm not sure I agree with all these people talking about global warming, seriously? This is the 3rd snow in MS this winter! That is unheard of! But either way, we are LOVING it! As you can tell by all the pictures!!!

First time out side this morning

The boys "soaking" up the snow :)

Front of the house, so pretty

Col Reb all covered in snow

The firetruck got overtaken by snow :)

About 4-4/12 inches

SO PRETTY

No he is pouting or anything, he was running, you just can't
tell by this pic!

By far my favorite picture!

Not so great at this snowman thing.. Would have been better
if we had Daddy at home to help, but either way, the boys and I had
a GREAT time!

We got to go outside and play twice in it! It has stopped snowing now and melting :( so sad! I don't think I could live in this white stuff all the time, but man it is lots of F-U-N for us Southern Folks!! It is suppose to freeze tonight, so what is melted could mean an ugly mess tonight and tomorrow!

Happy Snow Day 2010

Our plans tonight are to go here....

for this:
Colton calls this place the Rodeo instead of the Coliseum. No matter what we tell him it is the Rodeo :) He knows that we always go here for the Rodeo so I guess that is why he calls it that. Pierce used to call the Rodeo the Radio :) They are so silly sometimes.

They don't know that we are going tonight... it is a surprise. We always have a great time when we go. I'll be sure to post pictures!

Is it really that time already?

Can you please tell me where time has gone. It seems like yesterday my baby looked like this sweet pic!
And now he looks like this!! Growing up WAY too fast!!!!
Ryan is off to register Pierce for Kindergarten today! Yes, Kindergarten! Where has the time gone?? I don't have babies anymore.. I have 2 big boys and the youngest starts big school in August!! So sad! But I can say at the same time, it will be exciting, I think. Of course it will be more trying since I'll have 2 that have homework, 2 that play sports, etc... But I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me!!

The next great artist!

I have been slacking on posting therefore I am behind on showing ya'll Colton's artwork from KidzArt! He is doing so great!! I am super proud of him!!

His Bird

Pear

Snowman

I hope that he keeps up the GREAT work.. and there is no telling where his talent might lead him!! I am proud of you Colton, Love Momma

Boys will be boys.. no matter the age!

Can you guess who is having more fun here? Told you I had 3 boys :)

Colton would rather Daddy play his DS and watch him than play it himself! It is so fun to watch them because Colton will get so tickled and laugh so hard that you can't help but laugh with/at him! :) He is a mess! Pierce actually will play his, and take breaks to check on how Daddy is doing!

Love my boys!!!!

Who Dat Fun!!

Well what a great game!! Ryan and I both have always been Saints fans! My daddy warped me at an early age :) ha ha!!! So of course we are doing the same to our boys. The only difference is.. They are die heart Rebels fans and die heart Saints fans!! We have the best of both worlds, College and NFL!!

Here are what the boys were doing during the game!! You know a 7 yr old and a 5 yr old CAN'T sit still for an entire football game.. HA who am I kidding, they can't sit still for a quarter of a football game! But it was a lot of fun watching them be silly and having a good time together!!!





Colton was under there! He was chasing Pierce - I guess acting like a monster!
By the way.. What a great game!! We were a little worried in the beginning but man did the Saints come out ready to win that game after half time!! Of course the commercials were good too! That is half of the fun of the Super Bowl.. watching the commercials!!

It was awesome watching History be made by the Saints winning their first Super Bowl, on the first try! And man, I know my Daddy is super happy!! He has been a loyal fan even when the saints were they were the worst football team known to man!! True Saints fan through and through!! Daddy, I am super excited that you got to see this!!!!

WHO DAT!!!!!

There is hope in the Lord...Jeremiah 31:17. When life gives you 100 reasons to cry-show the world you have 1000 reasons to smile!

I will stand firm!

Man, it has been a long time since I have posted but yet so much has been going on. The boys are good, just being wild boys. Ryan and I are doing good too, just working, house work, and chasing those wild boys.

We had slacked on going to church for a long time. No particular reason, well yes there was, LAZINESS!! Well right before Christmas we decided that we were tired of being lazy and we started back to church. And it has been GREAT ever since. I had many convictions on things that I have always pushed away under the carpet and I have learned many new things about myself and my faith! As parents, Ryan and I have committed to raising our boys in the way that our lord was have us to raise them! We pray that they will grow up to me Christ Seeking men!

We had a "date-night" a few weekends ago at the church and it was based on remembering to keep Christ first in your marriage and in your daily life! Major convinction!! I realized that I wasn't really living my daily life the way that I should. I was still living more for myself than I was Jesus Christ. As a christian you can't do that and grow in your faith with Jesus. So I surrendered to not living for myself anymore and living for my lord and savior. And that was the best feeling in the world! I am learning that it is never easy living your life as a Christian, but I refuse to bow down to the enemy! I will stand firm in my faith and I will stand firm for our Lord and Savior!

I have come to the realization that I haven't truly forgiven some things that I should. It was more of a I'll forgive but I'll never forget. As a christian you can't do that either. You have to love like Christ loves you and you have to forgive like Christ forgives us. Which means that you forgive and you never look back!! By all means, this is a lot easier said than done, but then again, its not always a walk in the park living for Christ and being a Christian.

We started going to Wednesday services, and man, how in the world did I ever live without that mid week worship? That is what gets me through the rest of my week now! It is such a blessing!

I am learning everyday, the closer that I get with Jesus, the more the enemy attacks me. Which isn't easy but again, I refuse to bow down and back off! I will Stand Firm!!