Rebecca Black - Friday (OFFICIAL VIDEO)

Woke up with this song in my head. Geez...it's gonna be a l.o.n.g. day.

{The Character of Our Creator}

I am a slightly inconsistent person. What I mean by that is I start many things and finish only some. I don’t really like this about my personality and often attempt to better myself in this regard. The best example I can think of is a gift I began for a friend for Christmas of 2009 that I have yet to complete! Sheesh! One of my goals for the summer is to finish the bag (right, Honey!?).

Another area I am inconsistent in is my quiet time/Bible study. I never can find a study I enjoy doing on my own so end up playing Bible roulette with no consistent theme or study. It’s a little frustrating. Well, about a month ago I came across a devotional guide given to me in 2008 that I never began. I decided to give it a shot. While it’s only been three weeks, I’m still going strong…which is kinda a big deal for me. Week one began with the creation story and at first I almost skipped it, thinking I knew the story well enough and had nothing else to learn from it. But, I decided if I’m gonna begin a new study, I’m gonna do it right. I started in Genesis 1, but decided to do the scripture reading from my new ESV Bible instead of the NIV I’ve always used. Well, as usual, God used an old passage to speak truth to me in a new way. The verses read:

“To the woman he said,

 "I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing;
 in pain you shall bring forth children.
 Your desire shall be for your husband,
 and he shall rule over you." And to Adam he said,
 "Because you have listened to the voice of your wife
 and have eaten of the tree
 of which I commanded you, 'You shall not eat of it,'
 cursed is the ground because of you;
 in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life;
 thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you;
 and you shall eat the plants of the field.
 By the sweat of your face
 you shall eat bread,
 till you return to the ground,
 for out of it you were taken;
 for you are dust, and to dust you shall return." The man called his wife’s name Eve, because she was the mother of all living. And the LORD God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them.” Genesis 3:16-20 ESV

Adam and Eve did wrong. They sinned against God and were given consequences for their sin. What I never noticed before was the last verse I included, “And the LORD God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them.” He blessed them! In the midst of their sin, He didn’t withhold His provision and love. That’s not to say they did not experience the consequences of sin, but at the same moment they were allowed to experience His blessings. How completely opposite is this from the way we discipline?! In my experience “blessing” is definitely withheld if expected behavior is not achieved. Not that I think we should reward bad behavior. I do think, however, there is something to be learned about the character of our Creator in these verses. It has taken me weeks to put this in writing because I am still mulling over it in my head. One thing I have most definitely figured out is that He is good all the time. There will be consequences for my sin, but His love for me does not change. He does not punish me as the world punishes me. I do not have to be perfect to experience His blessings and presence in my life.

“The Lord is merciful and gracious,
 slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.
 He will not always chide, 
nor will he keep his anger forever.
 He does not deal with us according to our sins,
 nor repay us according to our iniquities.
 For as high as the heavens are above the earth,
 so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him;
 as far as the east is from the west,
 so far does he remove our transgressions from us.
 As a father shows compassion to his children, 
so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear him.
 For he knows our frame; 
he remembers that we are dust.” Psalm 103:8-14

{Happy Blogiversary}

It’s been one year since I started this blog. You can read my initial post and reasons for starting the blog if you click on the following link: http://a-life-with-purpose.blogspot.com/2010/05/im-blogger.html

It’s incredible to look back on the year and see all the wonderful and unexpected things that happened. I originally thought I would be graduating this month, but since I got the job at Cornerstone I had to change my class schedule and push back my graduation…something I was more than willing to do! Even though I have questioned that decision once or twice, I know God led me to Cornerstone. No matter what may or may not happen in the coming months regarding my student-teaching requirement I am confident in His plan for me. Other than that, I have found and joined a church, learned so much about myself, gotten to know the character of my Creator a little more, and learned to rely more fully on His perfect, yet perplexing, ways. Hopefully my 27^th year of life will be as challenging, fulfilling, and joyful as the last.

{New Design}

Yes, you’ve got the right blog, but as you can see it looks a little different. Hopefully this will be the last time in a long time I change my blog design. It’s kinda addicting though! I am not a computer aficionado AT ALL, but I love trying to figure out html coding in order to get a cuter, more personalized blog. I chose something pretty neutral in color so that maybe I won’t get sick of this design. PLUS, I love white, gray, beige, lace, and anything else “girly-romantic”. Anyway, my next goal is to figure out how to get a cute font for the word headings on my blog. Somehow I have to have another website ‘host’ the font and coding, blah, blah, blah. I don’t have the patience for that now, but hopefully soon it will have a font other than courier. I also went back to my old header wording. Tomorrow is my one-year blogiversary so I wanted to go back to the original title and subtitle. :) If you know how to do the font change I would love to hear from ya! Any advice would be helpful. Thanks!

{A Great Night}

No Monday Must-Have this week (or last for that matter), but I did promise a friend a special post. I mentioned that Friday night a friend of mine got married. Well, the wedding was beautiful. The decorations, the bride, the weather, the location…all wonderful! But, the most wonderful part of the evening was being able to reflect on God’s goodness. I was surrounded by the first group of friends I met after moving to Birmingham. They helped me get past a really hard time in my life and I grew so much in my faith with them and partly because of them. That group has changed and evolved so much over the last several years, but it’s still great when we can all gather together. Many of these people have gotten married and had children…it’s crazy to think how quickly God can work. Others, including myself, have found God’s calling for our professional lives and are truly enjoying a job that doesn’t feel like work. It brings me so much joy to see people I love happy. God is so good! Looking back over the last several years I am reminded again of His provision, grace, and faithfulness. We serve a mighty God, for whom nothing is impossible!!

Because of the LORD’s great love we are not consumed, 
for his compassions never fail. 
They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.

Lamentations 3:22, 23

Here is a picture taken at the wedding of two of my favorite dudes. This is for you, Josh… :)

{YES (wo)MAN}

This past week has been so incredible!! I’ve gotten to meet new people, catch up with friends I haven’t seen in a while, and actually enjoy some free time. Since I have been saying “no” for the past several months to everything asked of me, I decided to say “yes” for a week. I’ve never actually seen the entire film Yes Man, but the gist of the movie seems to be that he needs to start taking risks and saying yes when people ask him to do something. I never thought a Jim Carrey movie would inspire me in life…but maybe it did. I didn’t tell anyone I was doing this that way I couldn’t be taken advantage of, and luckily no one asked me to do anything outlandish. It was an incredibly fun week for the mere fact that UAB was not involved!! Here’s what I did (not including working and basic boring errand running and the like):

Monday: Had “family dinner” and conversation with friends and met lots of new folks as well.

Tuesday: Got to help provide and eat dinner at the YWCA, meet new people, and pray with a family I’d just met. A-mazing!

Wednesday: Went running for the first time in a long time at the T Shak, got free food, then had some overdue quality time with a friend.

Thursday: Went to hear Matt Wertz and Ben Rector at a local venue then went to Waffle House after. It was an awesome night of music, friends and laughing till my stomach was cramping. BTW…since when does Waffle House accept anything but cash?!?

Friday: I went to the wedding of one of the first friends I had in Birmingham. It was great to reconnect with friends I hadn’t seen in a while! More to come on this later…it gets it’s own posting.

I’m definitely gonna try to say “yes” a little more often! I may not have gotten much sleep, but I definitely had a blast. If you are like me and say “no” a little too much you should follow in Jim Carrey’s steps too. No doubt you will have more fun!!!