Well, I leave tomorrow for training up north for a while, then it's off for the long haul after that. I still have to write a report and read a bunch of stuff before I go, so this post will be short =). I hope to update pretty often on what happens over the next few weeks, but I really don't know what my schedule will be like, so we'll just have to wait and see.
Follower
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My dad really impressed me the other day when I realized he flosses on a regular basis. He is the only person I know that does so. We all know we're supposed to, we all know it's as important as brushing, but my dad is the only person I know that actually does it. Does anybody else out there floss on a regular basis? As in daily?
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Zephaniah 3:17 (ESV version)
"The LORD your God is in your midst,
a mighty one who will save;
he will rejoice over you with gladness;
he will quiet you by his love;
he will exult over you with loud singing."
Wow.
God rejoices over us with gladness, not reluctantly or out of duty, but gladly! God rejoices over us gladly, and not reluctantly.
God quiets us by his love. He quiets our anxieties and our worries with his love.
God exults over us with LOUD singing! God does not hum softly or sing under his breath, but sings LOUDLY over all of us! (Note: The NIV does not have loudly, but it's not as literal as the ESV in its translations.)
So, God rejoices over each and every one of us (his children), loves us, and sings LOUDLY over us! God is for us.
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Hey all, some more good stuff came out of the past few days, so here's part two. I went running for a bit on my grandmother's property. She has 60-something acres of farm and woodland, so it made a nice setting. I'm not much of a runner (at ALL), so it stunk for the first 18 minutes of the 20 minutes I ran (with a couple of "breaks" to catch my breath). During the last 2 minutes, I think I found why people decide to run solely for the sake of running in the first place. I was listening to Anathallo's "To Gary and Marcus: The Sovereignty Of God Is Omnipresent" (indie bands always have the best song titles) while running along trees and birds and sun when all the sudden I get this sense like this might be what it's like to run into heaven. Horns were blazing, the sun was shining, and I had this sense of running through heaven on my way to my father who loves me more than I know. It's hard to describe, but everything just clicked for the last minute or two of that run. I guess it randomly hit me in that moment how much God loves his children, and how good it will be to see him. God loves us, and wants to spend time with us. It's easy (at least for me) to read my Bible and pray more out of duty than anything else some days. God doesn't want us to spend time with him because he's God and we're not and he told us to. God wants us to spend time with him because he wants to spend time with us! That's very good news, and very easy to forget sometimes. Well, I went running again today, and I wish I could say I had another cool epiphany, but I didn't. I ran for 15 minutes this time with less breaks and got back to the house all sweaty, but none the wiser. Well, another week at home, and then off to m boot camp
Follower
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Hey everybody, I thought I'd share some stuff from this past weekend. I went to my grandmother's out of state for the weekend, which was pretty cool. It was a little sad, though, because I couldn't help but think that it might be the last time I see her on earth. She's been old for a while now, and who knows how she'll be in a couple of years. Anyway, I saw some things in her I had never seen before. People have said about me that I have a servant's heart and a good work ethic, and I saw both of these very clearly in my grandmother this past weekend. While cooking dinner and setting the table, she told stories of how she has farmed for the past 40 something years, planting all sorts of vegetables in the dirt and then pulling them out again. Even at 77, she still keeps a better garden than those half her age (No offense to B.V. or M.H.). She told how years ago when she had a friend who was sick, she would go over and do her laundry, cook her food, and clean her house. To put her daughters (my mom and aunt) through college, she raised cattle, sold vegetables, and any other thing she could do, while her husband (my grandfather) worked as a postman. This and a bunch of other stories really showed me my grandmother's heart. God has really blessed me with someone like her in my family. She epitomizes hard work and servanthood, to her honor.
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Just a quick note, if you are fortunate enough to know me in the real world, please don't use any real names or places in your comments.
Thanks!
Follower
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Hey Blog Readers, I thought I'd give a quick update. I graduated from college last Saturday, and sadly but excitedly left my college town after four good years to head home. I'm now happily out of school, unemployed, and living with my parents. Not to worry, though, since this will only last a few weeks. At the end of this month I head to another state to get ready for the big trip. When I first got home a few days ago, I felt pretty weird. I'm used to being busy with school and teaching kids and playing music and a million other things, and now that I'm home, I really have no activities to be involved in or people to help. I felt like this time was mildly pointless, but I realized this is the last time I can be with my family for quite a long time. On top of that, I haven't spent much time with them over the past four years. So, the next few weeks will be spent reading up on my destination, being a brother to my younger sister, and hopefully learning a little guitar.
That's all for now...
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