Family Bonding

This past week, I refrained from blogging because my entire family was all home. When Tif is around, she stays up til like 4 and I never got the chance to blog. Not that I was entirely all that motivated. Steph and I were talking this morning after Tif left, about how the times we spend when it is just our family and us 3 girls just read together, stay up late talking about the stuff sisters talk about, and actually all live in the same house are very very precious. When I was praying last night, that thought hit me and I just thanked God that he gave us this time together. Who knows what this next year could bring. Only God. I'm not exactly thrilled to be going back to school in a couple weeks. Just for the studying factor. I can't wait to be with my roomies again! :D Welp, I don't really have a lot else to say, just that I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas and has a safe New Year!

Prayer

Tonight in Kiowa was the last night for the conference tapes. We listened to Bro. Lawrence Luthi speak on the subject of prayer. He brought out some very interesting points. (speaking of Bro. Lawrence, we need to keep him and his wife in our prayers because of her tumor.)

1) If prayer is not of the proper substance, it does not profit us.
2) Be constant and instant in prayer.
3) Prayer is how we communicate with our Father.
4) Are we willing to be at the front of the battle? We need to be prepared for that and to ask that God is the one preparing us.
5) The disciples asked Jesus to "teach" them to pray. We always need to ask for Him to teach us, but not literally teach. More like "Show me the words to pray."
6) God does not require "sermon-prayers". You are speaking to God, not using that oppurtunity to preach to your brothers and sisters.
7) When beseeching God, make sure it is not in selfish thoughts, but for the good of your brother.

I did not agree with some of the points he brought out, but he definitely made me think about my own thoughts on prayer. I enjoy being made to do my own thinking. If we all took what our ministers say to be the exact truth, we would all have the same thoughts and no one would be challenged to grow. Also, by searching His Word, we draw closer to Him and that's our whole goal in life. Serving God with our whole mind, soul, and body.

Jokes

Over my lifetime of 18 years, I have heard and retold many jokes. Even created a few myself. I love jokes. Since I can memorize these little things so well it is so easy for me to repeat them and take them on as my own jokes. My family gives me a hard time about how many times I repeat jokes...but it is all to different people so technically I am not being repetitive...I'm not being repetitive...never mind...
So Mom, Dad, and I were in the kitchen the other night and we weren't really doing anything so I got out our container of laffy taffy's and read every single joke on them. My IQ seriously dropped by half. WOW...that's all I can say. But yet I still laughed at them. When I was in HS, I had this teacher that had about the same humor as me, well kinda, but anyway he appreciated my jokes so I would tell him a joke a day and he was like my favorite teacher. He introduced me to my favorite movie of all time..."Osmosis Jones" Even if you know nothing about the human body it is still SOOOOO awesome....so many quotable lines and great hidden meanings. For example: Two cells which are cops are sitting in a car and one asks the other...
COP1: What are your plans for tonight?
COP2: O me and my girl...we're going down to the kidneys to see the stones.
HOW AWESOME IS THAT???? It's stuff like that through the entire movie! Anyway...I definitely recommend that one. So yeah...my bed looks like it's calling my name.
Last night is a not ever again repeat....4:30 all because of a stupid book...o well I slept in this morning...not like I had a lot to do. I'll leave you with a little comedy.

Romance Novels

I have come to the conclusion that romance novels are the biggest waste of time. You read and read while the whole time you know exactly how it is going to end and then when it DOES end, you have the feeling of disappointment that comes with have something turn out exactly as you predicted it would be. Ridiculous. Yet I still read them. Call me a romantic...you're right...but hey I'm female and I'm entitled...kinda. Anyway, so Steph got home today about 3:15 and so we chilled here and then mom came home with pizza (Gambino's which is the best in this world) Then dad and I went into my "grandparents" and we pseudo-watched the KU game. Mostly we just go for the social part with the attraction of watching my favorite team. But whatever works for ya. I enjoy talking to them both so much because they understand my sense of humor and can laugh with me and if not with me...then AT me. So we're all happy at the end of the night. :D Everyone in my family is now in bed...with good cause...so I shall join them. My new year resolution about bedtime should definitely be an interesting one.

Orange Juice & Cake

Today at church Dad gave the morning sermon. In the first part he made the analogy that humans are like orange juice. Sometimes we need to get shaken up to get the ingredients mixed up again and he further supported that theory by saying that if one of us were making a cake, we would not take the ingredients, dump them in the pan and stick it in the oven. We would mix everything up to make the finished product. I found these thoughts very intriguing. Sometimes in my walk I am content to just sit where I am at and God has to reach down and "shake me up" to get me back where I need to be. The 2nd reading Dad had was out of Hebrews 13. First verse started with "Let brotherly love continue." To me, that is an entire sermon in itself. How much more can we achieve than if we achieve the ability to love our brothers and sisters. But this chapter did not stop with just this verse, it is full of some amazing thoughts. If anyone ever reads this post, I would really really encourage you to read Hebrews 13. very thought provoking.
So besides his good sermon, I enjoyed being with "my kids" and just the Kiowa church in general. There is no way to even explain the blessings that I get by interacting with the members, young or old. I think there were about....o...8 men on the guys side today. It's sad to see it so small. It is so easy to become dependent upon ones young group, but sometimes a little one-on-one time with God is much more beneficial. In my opinion anyway. So enough of my sermon.
This afternoon was so much fun, I laughed so much with Mom and Dad that I had tears in my eyes. There are some things that only your family can appreciate with you. Tomorrow is going to be an interesting day. I hope to go for a walk in the freezing cold weather tomorrow sometime, so we'll see how that goes. Enough for tonight.

Hard Work

Today my Dad and I were hard at work. After getting up at 11:00, shocker there, literally. I have not slept that long in I don't know how long! Anyway...after getting up at 11, I showered, then mom made dinner and dad came home and after eating he asked if I wanted to come help him and I told him that my busy schedule might not allow it, but decided that I could maneuver it in. We were working on mom's Christmas surprise which just happens to be an 18 ft. star that is hooked onto our basketball goalpost. Pretty insanely cool. We had a lot of fun designing and making it out of scrap metal that we retrieved from a town called Sharon, KS. (10 minutes from us) Dad let me make up the demensions and so I decided that if we were to fulfill mom's wish of it being ginormous we should make each sides of the top part of the star about 3 1/2 ft and the base or bottom about 9 ft. Worked out very well, we used dad's equipment at his shed and it ended up taking us about 4 or 5 hours. So much fun though. You get to talk a lot with just 2 people working together for that long! One of the topics that Dad and I covered was about "Middle Ground". Not being too conservative and not being to liberal. Very interesting hearing his thoughts on this subject and seeing where he is coming from on it. It snowed today! I'm so stinkin pumped!!!! Not very much, but hey, I will take what I can get. Every time I think of all that I have been given by my awesome Father, I think of the song that goes
"God's been good to me O God's always been good!"
It's soo soo true. I can't even express how thankful I am for all He has done for me and is still doing! THank you Jesus!! WEll I think this is enough for one night. Church tomorrow, get to see the kids. SCORE! This pic is of what dad and I did. OUr finished product, well not completely finished since we have to add more lights to the center cross section.

Trying

This is now my 2nd attempt at a blog. We'll just see how long this one lasts. I am probably one of the most random people ever, so I don't even know. This pic was taken of me and Tif this weekend at Kiowa Caroling, sorry Steph I didn't get one of us! But I love you just as much anyway.
Today is my first day at home for the Christmas vacation. When I arrived home it was to the wonderful smell of chicken with some type of awesome sauce. Mom and Dad were experimenting with a Beer Butt Chicken. Very very good. The flavor was incredible and we polished off almost the entire thing. After eating and yacking for a bit, I was able to help Dad move his tractors down to Grandpa's farm and while I was driving behind him at 20 mph, I had just a TAD bit of time to think about a lot of different things. For instance, how awesome our God is that he made such a beautifully blue sky, brilliantly green wheat, very red dirt (since I'm in southern Kansas) and gave us all the senses to enjoy it to it's fullest. When Dad was putting anti-freeze in one of the tractors, I climbed up and sat on the hood while he was working and the smell of snow was so clear on the air that I just had a big grin on my face. I love being able to watch him work and talk to him about anything and everything. After I was "released" from my duties of helping the dad, I went home and got to help mom with the girly stuff. Baking. Fresh baked bread smells incredibly good! It is so great to be home! I can't even describe my emotions on the way down from Topeka this morning. Of course it was a little early so that could play a part, but from Anthony on, my heart was really light. One last thing before I stop rambling. I was doing my devotions tonight and I happen to be in 1 Corinthians 11. A topic that has been much on my mind is in this chapter. Head coverings. There are so many different interpretations of what they stand for. This is a topic that I am going to be researching and finding all I can about them, so that if the chance for me to be a witness arises, I can be armed with the sword of the spirit. If anyone ever reads this, I hope that you were not bored out of your mind. Sometimes the simple things in life are so much fun to talk about that I get a little carried away. Bye for now!