It Was Me!

Since I never got to posting on Good Friday, I thought I would post tonight. This Easter season, I have been feeling so thankful. God's love for me is so amazing, and it is something I never deserved or will deserve. On Friday, we were driving through San Antonio, and came across a huge crowd in front of a church, there was a reenactment of the crucifixion going on, and what was neat, was they had it timed out perfectly how it was in the Bible. We were driving pretty quickly, so I barely got a picture. Here's what I did get of it.

When we got home that night, I made a list on Spotify of Easter songs and listened to them. It was relaxing, and made me think of all Jesus went through for ME! All I can do it thank Him and praise Him! Of course, I can follow and obey Him too:) Today, we went to Bastrop for church, and Craig Martin had both services. This morning we read out of Matthew 27 & 28. The verse that really struck me was verse 46. And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is to say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? We all recognize in this verse that even God, Jesus' father had forsaken him. I can't imagine if everyone, especially my own parents would forsake me. How lonely it must have felt and to be going through that pain at the same time! Then I realized, it was me. I was the one who caused that separation between Jesus and His heavenly father! How humbled I felt to realize, that it was me. I was the sin that separated God from His only begotten Son. How thankful I am too, though. I don't deserve to be forgiven, and I don't deserve eternal life, but it's an opportunity I am glad I didn't forsake. His love for me is so overwhelming, and amazing! I can't thank Him enough.

Jesus paid it all,
All to Him I owe.
Sin had left a crimson stain,
He washed it white as snow.

But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
Romans 5:8

In the beginning

Well, we arrived safely last night at around 10:30, but didn't get to our hotel at 11. We stayed at a Holiday Inn. It was pretty nice. I crashed pretty much when I hit my pillow, and didn't wake up once, so that was good. We woke up at around 8 and then got all packed up. The hotel didn't provide a continental breakfast, so we had to go out for breakfast. It was quite an ordeal. San Antonio is huge, and we are just some hooligans for the middle of Illinois, who aren't use to all the ramps and one-way streets. We ended up finding a really good restaurant called Jim's. I had a delicious Texas omelet. Then we went to the River walk, which is gorgeous. I'll post pictures of that later. We spent a little time there, but we are going back some other time this week. We arrived at our Bed and Breakfast at 2. Four words. I love it. It's old-fashioned. What's not to love? I have my own bedroom, and it has a door that opens into a wrap-around balcony. I love to sit on there and read my book. This is pretty much my dream house. So, I thought I would post a picture of it. Oh, and just to make you all a bit more jealous, it's in the 80s here:) Well, I hope you are all having a good week also.

The War Is On

Me vs. sickness. Currently, I am battling a bad head cold. Two weeks ago, everyone except Rhea and I got a pretty bad stomach flu. Mom got hit the worse, and was sick for about 4 days. It's pretty amazing how messy our house was during that time. Thankfully, I was on break, so I was able to help out a little. When I "help out" I just entertain Sophie:) I did actually make supper one night, which I hope was a help. I have been bragging about how I never got the stomach flu and then Saturday night I started feeling kind of icky. I woke up on Sunday, and decided that there was no way I was going to church. I'm glad I did. I went to school Monday and Tuesday. Tuesday night I noticed that my eye was getting red, so I showed Mom and she said it's probably pink eye so I needed to go to the doctor. This morning she called my doctor and the only time they had was at 9:50, but told me to get there as soon as I could so they could get me in earlier. So I went, and it wasn't pink eye. This is what I think my doctor told me it is. He said that I have a cold and that it moved to my sinuses. Something like that. So I guess that is what is wrong with my eyes. He prescribed an antibotic and eye drops and told me to take tylenol, decongestant, and eat cough drops. Oh, and drink coffee. I like that doctor:) Hot coffee that is, so that I can take in the steam to help with drainage. My head feels like it's going to explode or something. I can't even hear out of my ears. Claire also came down with it, although I don't think it is as bad as mine. I seem to have trouble with my sinuses and allergies. I'm not really exactly sure what the problem is. I am REALLY looking forward to the end of next week. Texas is sounding really nice:) Our family except Sophie is flying down next Thursday and will be there until Wednesday. We are staying at a Bed and Breakfast in San Antonio. We are going to Sea World one day, and there is a River Walk about 2 miles from where we are staying. We are also going to the Alamo and Fort Sam with Craig and Terri Martin's family. They are going down there to serve a rotation but also to visit their son Clint and his wife Jessica. My sisters are dreading going to the Alamo and Fort Sam. I'm kind of excited to go to Fort Sam, because both my Grandpas were stationed there when they were in the Army. I think both of Craig and Terri's fathers were also stationed there. I am really just looking forward to the warm weather. I am just not very fond of winter. I could do without it, but I shouldn't complain. Next week won't go by fast enough. I am excited for Tuesday, because one of my co-workers won this thing for a massage therapist to come in and also Avanti's for lunch, so I am coming into work after school to get a massage and maybe some lunch. I am pretty excited about that. There are lots of pluses to working at a bank, especially in Peoria. Well, I best get back to actually working. Hope you all are enjoying your first day of Spring today;) Haha. Have a great rest of your week!

The Body of Christ and the Responsibility of Healing

This morning in church, I was thinking about the body of Christ. I don’t exactly know what prompted my thoughts on this topic, most likely the Spirit, but I have thought a lot about it today, and feel that the Spirit has just opened my mind to things that my mortal man could never have thought on my own. The minister said something about the body of Christ, although I don’t remember any part of what he said, but it got me thinking about healing in the body of Christ. Now, it will probably be pretty obvious that I know nothing about human anatomy or any anatomy for that matter. This is my take on human anatomy though. So we hear all the time how we need to work together as a body of believers and so on. It gets kind of repetitive and we become so use to it, that we forget the depth and meaning of it. Princeville has had some hurtings lately, a death and such like. We need healing. Now say you get a cut on your knee. If it’s not very deep, we may not put anything on it. I guess this would be like if someone was struggling, a lot of us wouldn’t notice. Now if the cut was a bit deeper, we would have to put a bandage on it. The bandage can’t put it’s self on the knee, so another part or parts of the body has to help put it on. This is where we as believers come into place. We can see or know if someone is hurting, and we can provide comfort, encouragement, but more importantly prayers. That won’t completely heal the wound though. A bandage is something so stop the bleeding. To completely heal, the internal organs or whatever it is that heals the body has to work. Now I would apply the inside of our body to the Spirit. He is the Great Physician, and can heal all our wounds no matter the size. We all have the Spirit within us that prompts us to do or say certain things. That is what joins us together as a body. The Spirit is the most vital part of the body of Christ, because if we are all following his leadings, we can properly function, but if we aren’t, we tend to slip and get scrapes and scratches. The Spirit will prompt us to help but a bandage on the scraped knee, but he ultimately does the healing from inside. If a part of the body gets broken, it doesn’t keep using that part. It uses the rest of the body to lean on until healed. We need to be that crutch, no matter how much or how less we get leaned on. If it just means praying for someone, so be it. If it means reaching out, and listening to someone pour out their heart to you, then so be it. We need to always be ready to heal, because we never know when a part of the body trips and gets hurt. I feel as if there is so much more to say, but I want to leave you with a few verses. Only one of the verse has the word “heal” in it, but I feel as though we can apply the other verse to responsibilities in the body of Christ.

To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven: a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted; a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; a time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away; a time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak; a time of war, and a time of peace. Ecclesiastes 3:1-8

And another week is here

Where should I start? It's been a crazy week. Crazy is a nice way of putting it. I actually had kind of a bad week. Saturday was Shawn and Tanya's wedding. It was really nice. Of course our family sat in the second row. Doesn't everyone want a family of 8 in the second row of their wedding? Not sure how Sophie was able to behave that whole time. Sunday was pretty normal, I think. I'm having a hard time remembering back that far. Basically every day last week, our systems were down. It's a tradgedy I tell you. Having to write everying out and then you can't process it. If you balance, you do a little victory jig. Thursday was the worst day ever. I wasn't having a good day in the first place, and for the most part, I am pretty positive and have almost all good days. So it's probably just because I started the day off on the wrong foot. I went into work at 12. My boss told me not to get my drawer out, because the systems and getting another drawer involved isn't very smart. So basically I didn't do much of anything until 4 when the 3rd teller left. Then it was a mad house. Our system would come back up so we would rush and try to process some transactions. Then they would go down, and then come back up. It was crazy. Brianna texted me and asked if I wanted to go to Goodfield to pack for Mexico. So I decided to. There was probably less than 10 people that went. Afterwards, Ryan treated us to ice cream. I kind of like Ashley's choice of husband:) Friday was pretty normal. We didn't have anything on the calendar, so we had a "bonding" night. There were about 17 of us girls from Princeville that went to Schicks, and we decided not to play games or anything. Just talk spiritually and grow closer to each other and to Christ. We talked for at least 2 hours straight and then eventually some people left and we talked in smaller groups. It was really encouraging. We also had a praise singing around the piano. It was so beautiful. Saturday, Rhea and Claire had solo and ensemble at Knoxville High School. My mom went with them and after they were done, Claire, Mom, and Dad left for Latty, Ohio for a bible class invite. So we had the kids. Rhea really wasn't home much Saturday, so I babysat most of the day. We had Ashley's Sisters Supper on Saturday night, so a babysitter came, for which I was very thankful. Sunday I was really debating whether or not to go to Cissna Park for Pack the Pews. I decided against after I woke up at 6 a.m.:) My bed was feeling pretty good that early in the morning. After church, I put Sophie down for a nap and then Hannah, Libby, and Peyton Martin came over. They got all packed up and then headed to the Murphy Farm to go sledding. The Murphy Farm is owned by the Hoerr family. I stayed home, though not as willing as I should have been. I told Rhea to have everyone home by 5 for supper. So i kept busy by making 2 pans of Creamy Chicken Enchiladas, cutting fresh fruit, and making a pizza cookie. All the food was ready by 5, but apparently they were not. Rhea got stuck while trying to get out, which caused them to not get back until 6:30. The food was pretty much cold by then, but I did heat some of it back up. They scarfed it down like they hadn't eaten for days! I made too much, but I was planning on 3 extra, which decided last minute not to come. Mom, Dad, and Claire got home at around 10:30. I played Apples to Apples Junior with Tessa and Cassie before bed. Most of the time I had to read Tessa's cards to her and then she would pick one. I was the "judge" and the word was serious. I read Tessa's off to her and she was like, "oh, oh computer. It would be verrry serious if your computer didn't work." I got a kick out of that. She obviously is growing up in a very technological world. Monday I had class, and work. After work I did a little shopping and then met Amber and Jaylyn at Goodwill. They were buying clothes for the ICC mission trip to Alabama next week. I'm so bummed I can't go, but I am already taking off work for our family vacation at the end of March to Texas and then in July for about 10 days. We then all went to the home to sing. It was pretty slim between the residents and the singers. Afterwards we went to Sweet CeCe's. For those of you who don't know what Sweet CeCe's is, it is a frozen yogurt place. Really good:) We had quite the adventure getting there, because Jaylyn is kind of a fast driver. But, we got there safely. I had Mango Sorbet with fresh strawberries. Delicious:) Today I had class, but the rest of the day off. I just looove Tuesday afternoons. Cassie and Tessa had a snow day today, so they were home. The rest of this week is pretty normal, and I don't plan on doing anything out of the ordinary. I'm glad for that, since I kind of had a rough week last week. Next week is my spring break, so I'm pretty excited for that. I have to work most  days, although I get the mornings off. I'm excited to sleep in. We'll see if that happens. Usually what happens when I try to sleep in is that I wake up to Sophie in my face. To be completely honest, I don't really mind it:) She may or may not have me wrapped around her finger. You make the judgement:) She climbs all the way up to the top of my bunk bed and says "Hi NeNe." She is learning so much, and it is so fun watching her learn new things. I have people in church say that they heard she can count to 40. And yes, it's true. She's pretty smart. She can sing her ABC's and recognizes the letter "O". Whenever I am on my phone, she will sit there and say "I pusha O" and then pushes the O like 500 times. I think she must have learned it for a Vtech book we have. You can push the letters and it says what it is. She just cracks me up so much. Her newest obsession is Fancy Nancy. If you have never read a Fancy Nancy book, I'm sorry. Tessa loves them too, and we have checked every single Fancy Nancy book out at the Library at least 5 times. We recently checked one out that is new. Basically, Fancy Nancy is a little girl, who absolutely loves fancy things, but by fate she was born into a plain family. She loves french things, and long words. It's pretty funny, because she is so dramatic. It's no wonder my sisters love her! Anyways, Sophie always wants me to read Nancy Nancy as she calls her. But her favorite character is Fancy Nancy's little sister JoJo. I think she just likes saying the name, but she always points her out. Tonight I pulled Tessa's flower girl dress from my cousins wedding 4 years ago, and showed Sophie. She immediately said Nancy Nancy, and then wanted to try it on. She ran around the house with it on for awhile, and was so proud of it. I kept her Sunday morning in church, and I had packed a stuffed dog and cat in her bag. She would trade them with me, and then eventually she took both of them and made them kiss very loudly. I heard a few snickers, and was a bit embarrassed. She also is really showing off a lot now. Especially around Rhea and I's friends. She really like Lisa Martin. A few weeks ago, we had a Family Hymn Sing and Sophie was sitting with us and Lisa. Lisa kept pretending that she was holding an imaginary kitty and she would let Sophie hold it and pet it and then say put it away, and Sophie would pretend to put it in her pocket. That went on for awhile, and she still does it when you bring it up. Way to introduce imaginary friends Lisa! And to think I was embarrassed when she was born! Enough with bragging about Sophie though, there are other members of this family too if you were wondering. I have really learned to enjoy the blessing of family, and living at home. I have never thought that I would enjoy it as much as I do, but I love living at home! It's never boring here as you can imagine, and if I lived away from home, who would I play with?:) My mom and I were reminiscing of the "old days" at lunch today, and she told me that it took me a long time to grow up and not be a kid anymore. I may make wiser decisions today, but I realized that I am still a kid at heart and love to play with my younger sisters. I think it keeps me sane since I work with adults the whole day. Isn't it usually the other way around? Obviously, Child Development is the career for me:) Well, I best get going, and do something productive today. So thankful that this week started off right, and I hope all of your weeks are going well also.