20 Questions

Taking a break from writing my essay to play 20 questions. :-)

1. Show us the inside of something cute:

*I love the inside of this shop.

Red Velvet Art in Springfield, MO.

2. What's the last homecooking you had?

*Well, Megan made some yummy chicken roll ups on Sunday night. I wish I had a picture to show you all. It was delish!

3. What do you miss?

*Well, I definitely miss all these people...and then some:

4. What makes you laugh often?

*This handsome man right here:

5. What's your favorite word?

*VACATION! [ohhh yeah]

6. What are you trying to quit?

*Procrastinating. [whoops...fail]

7. What's your favorite commercial right now?

*It's kind of old, but I love this PUMA commericial:

PUMA from jimmysandoval on Vimeo.

8. Whose style do you dig?

*These lovely ladies:

*And of course, Jenny:

*And of course, Zooey:

9. Link to a great blog you've discovered lately:

*NancyRayPhoto

*CheapChicas

10. What's the last craft you made?

11. A photo of the last happy mail you got:

*I don't have a picture of it, but it's definitely the Delia's catalog I got today. Glory!

12. Something you've got lately:

*These lovely booties from Target.

13. What are you looking forward to?

*Sooo much... Our trip to Orlando at the end of October to see Lucci graduate... My parents coming to visit in November... Alex's mom visiting for Thanksgiving... Christmas vacation in Asheville... A trip out to Denver in January... And, someday, graduating from seminary! ;-)

14. Most recent snapshot of you:

15. Recent Favorite Movie:

*I guess it would have to be (500) Days of Summer.

It was a cute one.

16. Something you're working on right now:

*My ecclesiastical identity essay.

17. If a movie were made about you, who would play you?

*Hmm...I would say Zooey Deschanel...but let's face it, she's way too cool. ;-)

Any suggestions?? I'd want someone hispanic. :-P

18. What gives you goosebumps?

*the cold.

19. Share a new obsession:

*It's not new, but you all know I'm obsessed with owls...

20. What's the meaning of your life?

*To glorify Christ in all that I do.

I Corinthians 10:31

Pursuit of God

This weekend J.D. began a new sermon series called 'Presence.' (The podcast will probably be up soon)

Let me just say that it really hit home for me. The basic question that it all boiled down to was, "Does my response to God match His awesome immensity?" The truth is, God is to be sought more than anything else. Psalm 42:1 says, "As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God." That's intense.

J.D. ended the sermon with a prayer taken from A.W. Tozer's "The Pursuit of God."

I really want this prayer to be true in my life and marriage and family.

O God, I have tasted Thy goodness, and it has both satisfied me and made me thirsty for more... I am ashamed of my lack of desire. O God, I want to want Thee; I long to be filled with longing; I thirst to be made more thirsty still. Show me Thy glory, I pray Thee, so that I may know Thee indeed. Begin in mercy a new work of love within me. Give me grace to rise and follow Thee up from this misty lowland where I have wandered so long.

Prayer.

Prayer isn't exactly my strong suit.

I'm not sure why exactly.

Maybe it's because my memory isn't all that great. I don't want to be one of those people that says, "I'll pray for you," and doesn't do it. So what I've been doing is praying right there on the spot about whatever it was I said I would pray about. That way, I'm not a liar. I prayed for you, just like I said I would.

But is that enough?

Sure, I prayed. I said a few words one your behalf, just as you requested. And I meant it too. But then I don't even think about it again until the next time you bring it up, if you do.

That just doesn't feel right to me. I've met people who are just prayer warriors. They will pray everyday for specific requests and they will ask for updates on how you're doing. That's awesome. I respect that.

So I guess what I'm saying is, how can I pray for you?

I've recently started journaling through my quiet time and I wanted to add prayers to my journal so I can remember to pray for you. I don't want it to be a one-time deal.

So leave a comment, let me know. I want to pray for you.

planting, part 2

If you read my blog regularly (there's got to be at least one of you, right??) you may recall a post I wrote last March about church planting. (you can click those words for a refresher)

Well, I'm happy to say that things have been progressing in that area. We haven't made it widely known, but Alex and I are preparing to plant a church within the next two years.

We are very excited and very humbled to be a part of such a great opportunity. I can hardly believe that we are where we are. God works in amazing ways.

We have teamed up with a great group.

Bryan is an M.Div student at SEBTS. We met him on our mission trip to Mexico. He's a great guy with a heart for gospel-centered community.

Megan is his lovely wife. She's a nursing student with a heart of gold (and great style). She's passionate about discipleship and she's half-Peruvian! (let's hear it for the hispanics!)

Andy is also an M.Div student at SEBTS. He's a manly man and we are grateful for his servant's heart and sense of humor. Not to mention that awesome red beard.

That's our team so far. We've been attending events held by SendRDU, a ministry of our church, the Summit. They equip people to go out and plant churches both in the US and overseas. It's been exciting to get the ball rolling on this thing. We're in the early planning stages. Even though we're still two years away from planting, we have a lot of work to get done! So I'm asking you to be in prayer for us.

You may be asking where exactly we are going...well, we're going to Denver!

I know what you're thinking (especially you Miamians), why Denver??? That's a whole other blog post in itself. I'll be updating everyone periodically about our Denver church plant. And if you have an specific questions feel free to leave a comment.

Again, please be in prayer for us, for our team, for Denver, for guidance, for focus... We would really appreciate it. We love you guys! And we praise God for being an amazing, sovereign, mighty God. It's all because of Him.

Baptist History

Out of all the classes I signed up for this semester I was probably the least excited about Baptist History.

I mean...just listen to the name...Baptist History. It just screams boring. History's never really been my bag. Who cares about a bunch of old dead white guys?

I was wrong. I absolutely love this class. I find it extremely fascinating. I think I've narrowed it down to two main reasons why I enjoy it so much.

First of all, I did not grow up a Baptist. I grew up in the Roman Catholic Church. I'm no expert on the RCC, but I know a lot more about it than I do about Southern Baptists. I've been learning a lot about how the Baptists came to be and their ecclesiology (fancy seminary word, here's the wiki explanation). I love it. I feel like I can articulate better why I have chosen the Baptist denomination to fellowship with.

Second, my professor is the man. Honestly, Southeastern is full of great professors. I've enjoyed them all (for the most part) and feel so blessed to learn from these guys. That being said, Dr. Finn says stuff like, "He was their Sugar Daddy," and references songs like, "Don't Stop Believin'." Plus, he wore an authentic Southern seersucker suit on the first day of class. First time I had ever seen one of those in real life. His proud wife posted this picture on her blog.

I'm looking forward to the rest of this semester. Not just for this class...I'm genuinely loving all my classes (Counseling Parents & Children, Old Testament 1, and Counseling Practicum 1).

Happy Fall Semester to all.

Personal Development Goals

As part of my Counseling Practicum, I have to come up with three personal development goals for the semester.

So since I'm trying to be more transparent yadda yadda yadda, I thought I'd share my goals here.

1. Interpersonal Goal. I want to be more open and engaging with people around me. I want to develop closer, more meaningful relationships with my friends/acquaintances from school, church, and the D-Group I will help lead (more on that later).
2. Devotional Goal. I want to have a steady/daily quiet time. My goal is to wake up every morning at 7am to have a personal devotional time before getting my day started.
3. Individual goal. Stewardship of money. We have not made wise choices with the money God has blessed us with and our now in a bit of a financial dilemma. We want to cut our spending, set up a budget within our means, and be out of debt by the end of December 2009.

So those are my goals. Now that you know you can keep my accountable. ;-)