Cheering Me On

After gaining so much weight with pregnancy I've felt like it hasn't come off quickly enough. I am in my pre-pregnancy clothes, but still have some extra weight.

As a task/goal oriented person I decided to train for another half marathon after having the baby. I bought new running shoes and trained for the race that was in March. It felt good to get moving again.

Then I "over did" it or something like that and had to go to PT three times a week and not run for almost 10 weeks. I sold my bib and watched the race on the sidelines (literally since the race ran by my office). I was disappointed and the weight loss slowed down, but was still making progress. Just not fast enough for ME.

Since moving I've been cooking, eating well, buying organic and fresh stuff and loving it. 


I've been running three times a week. There is a great trail a half mile from where we live so it's great incentive to get up before the sun (especially since the sun is waking up later and later...) and watch the sun rise, take in the scenery, smell the countryside and let my soul breath a little bit.

After two weeks of not eating that great, but still running, I needed to get in gear so I ordered some much needed new running shoes and broke them in today.

On my home stretch of the run I look up to see Andy in uniform holding Elijah at the curb. Elijah was clapping for me!

I am a blessed woman. I love my husband. And my kid. Now I want to run a marathon--well, I think I'm over that but I am interested in a triathalon...

Who do you have cheering you on?

Blessed.

I am blessed. Plain and simple.

I make Elijah's baby food and I made up a good batch tonight and for the realization that I had enough counter space to do what needed to be done hit me. I am blessed.

This afternoon I got to have lunch at a restaurant in town with Andy, Elijah, and Andy's parents. The ability to go out to lunch and do it with family and people that I love and who love me is a blessing.

Worship this morning with our congregation was beautiful. We are doing a series right now on what it means to be the church and today's topic was love. We have a family with a little boy struggling with some serious health issues and we were able to pray for them. Another lady shared a "love testimony" about how God has changed her heart about someone. God is moving. We are blessed.

Last night we got to be in the hospital with a family we love as their loved one passed away. Just to be there with them in that time and to love them is a privilege. We are blessed.

Going to the farmer's market, running on the Greenway trails here, driving kids to camp, having people to love and care for....I am blessed.

Sometimes I needed to be reminded of how much I truly have and need to not take if for granted. I am grateful and needed the reminder. After a few months of struggling internally I am ready to move on and grasp the good things that God has in store for me, for my marriage, and for my calling.

I am blessed. So are you. Do you need to be reminded?

Murfreesboro honeymoon love

Moving here has been like a breath of fresh air for me. There are so many blessings and it's only been ONE week!

God is faithful in spite of what we may deserve at times. I am so grateful.

We have people to love. Praying for each of them individually yesterday was a moving experience for all of us. Worshiping together as a family and with our new corps family was amazing. I can't wait for next Sunday...now, what to preach?

Our employees are professional and competent. They do their jobs and they do them well. We are following great leadership and it is evident. The employees are fully vested in the true mission of the Army.

At our welcome lunch last Wednesday afternoon we spent a considerable amount of time of fellowship dreaming around the table for what they vision the Army to be in Murfreesboro. It was a beautiful time of sharing--now to see it all happen!

We get to sit around the tables and eat dinner with the men and families who call our building home for now. Our soldiers eat dinner with the shelter residents every week because they WANT to and see the shelter as a part of the Army, not just something we should be doing. Awesome.

Having a picnic lunch, visiting the farmers market, picking up kids for VBS, teaching Sunday school, vacuuming the chapel, looking for a location to open a family store, praying with a woman with stage IV cancer, talking with someone about grace and another chance in life, and having lunch at the oldest hole in the wall place in town with our advisory board chair=life as a corps officer. WE LOVE IT. You can't put a price tag on it.

There is a lot to be done and we feel the awesome responsibility that comes with representing Christ and the Army to a quarter of a million people, but we are up for the adventure. We have a lot of work to do, but we are ready to go!

Hebrew 13:20-21
Now may the God of peace—
    who brought up from the dead our Lord Jesus,
the great Shepherd of the sheep,
    and ratified an eternal covenant with his blood—
²¹ may he equip you with all you need
    for doing his will.
May he produce in you,
    through the power of Jesus Christ,
every good thing that is pleasing to him.
    All glory to him forever and ever! Amen.



Tonight, while I cooked dinner, Elijah jumped around in his exersaucer in the kitchen with me. We have a kitchen. It's not in Atlanta. :-)

Ode to Ikea

I picked up Shytacia from Warner Robins the other day to come and hang with us our last week in Atlanta. On the drive up to Atlanta I asked what she wanted to do this week besides what we already had planned.

She said she wanted to go to Ikea again.

The last time she was here I was buying things for the baby's nursery before he was born and we had dinner at Ikea and had fun walking through the showroom and goofing off. I had nearly forgotten about it. The more I thought about it the more it made sense to me.

I asked her what she liked about Ikea so much and she told me she liked the happy bedroom sets and home set-ups. How simple, yet beautiful.

She doesn't come from a nice home at all and I understand where she is coming from.

Today we went to Ikea for dinner and did our goofing off walk through and got to include Elijah this time. We daydreamed about all of the room set-ups and picked our favorites for us and for those we love most dearly.

It was a great time.

Thank you, LORD, for the ability to dream and have fun in the simplest of things.

For Thy Mission

Lyrics of songs have really been speaking to my heart lately. I guess I don't have the words to express but others do and I like to use them. I am looking forward to being someone's corps officer and loving on them in a few short weeks.

In chapel this morning we sang this song:

Thou hast called me from the byway
To proclaim thy wondrous love;
Thou hast placed me on the highway
That to all men I may prove
There is mission in my living,
There is meaning in my word;
Saviour, in my daily striving
May this message yet be heard.

For thy mission make me holy.
For thy glory make me thine,
Sanctify each moment fully,
Fill my life with love divine.

Have I lost the sense of mission
That inspired my early zeal,
When the first of thy commission
Did my dedication seal?
Let me hear thy tender pleading,
Let me see thy beckoning hand,
Let me feel thee gently leading
As I bow to thy command.

LORD, release that latent passion
Which in me has dormant lain;
Recreate a deep compassion
That will care and care again.
Needy souls are still my mission,
Sinners yet demand my love;
This must be my life's ambition,
This alone my heart shall move.

-Brindley Boon

How He Loves Song

He is jealous for me,
Loves like a hurricane, I am a tree,
Bending beneath the weight of his wind and mercy.
When all of a sudden,
I am unaware of these afflictions eclipsed by glory,
And I realize just how beautiful You are,
And how great Your affections are for me.

And oh, how He loves us so,
Oh how He loves us,
How He loves us all

We are His portion and He is our prize,
Drawn to redemption by the grace in His eyes,
If grace is an ocean, we're all sinking.
So Heaven meets earth like a unforseen kiss (sloppy wet kiss),
And my heart turns violently inside of my chest,
I don't have time to maintain these regrets,
When I think about, the way...

He loves us,
Whoa! how He loves us,
Whoa! how He loves us,
Oh how He loves.
Yeah, He loves us,
Whoa! how He loves us,
Whoa! how He loves us,
Whoa! how He loves.

Baby Bird

This past week I spent in Nashville at continuing education for all officers in their first five years.

On an afternoon break as I was coming up the steps I noticed a tiny, sick baby bird on the cement. I started to pass it by but then stopped and stooped down. I looked at it for awhile and then decided to pick it up.

I'm a city girl and I have no idea what to do with birds that are half dead so I wen to where all the other officers were congregated and found a boy officer that I knew to help me. He quickly shuffled me to another larger group of male officers.

One of those guys took the bird and as I found out a few minutes later had fun killing it.

I was mad until a wise friend told me that the mother of the bird either wanted it to die by kicking it out of its nest due to disease, or would have allowed it to die since it now had my (and several other) smells on it.

I didn't know that the bird would die. I was just trying to help.

Sometimes we try to help others along spiritually with good intentions but really we are killing them, too. I made a friend who I genuinely wanted to "help" spiritually but after a year I've learned that I wasn't the right person to help. Not sure if I misheard from the LORD or if my "I" got in the way of what the LORD was trying to do, but it's a good lesson for me all the while. Doesn't mean I or we shouldn't make an attempt, but we need to know what we are doing before we jump in with the best intentions in the world only to see them fail. It is absolutely imperative that we are aligned spiritually with what we are doing. We work with the souls of people. That's serious stuff.

Also, I found it telling that dozens of other officers walked right by the same baby bird and left him. And then when I took him for help I was shuffled from one group to another. Not sure if no one was willing to help or just couldn't. In the end the one guy did kill the bird, which at first I thought was cruel, but was it? At least he was willing to do something with the bird when so many others were not.

It was just a baby bird, but still. I'm an over thinker.

"His eye is on the sparrow, and I know he watches me...."