Delight Yourself...

...in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart, Psalm 37:4. This verse has shown up in my life many times. A few years ago Jacki preached her very first sermon and it was on this verse. It was an AWESOME sermon! The biggest thing I remember from her sermon was her challenge that if we concentrate on delighting in the Lord then he will mold our desires for ourselves to match his greater desires for our lives. Then this spring in youth group I challenged our mid-high students to memorize this scripture and darned if a handful of them did! Way to go mid-highers!! Then last night at our session meeting we were doing our study on the book "Seizing your divine moment" by Erwin McManus. Chapter Two had a lot of Psalm 37:4 in it. My example was my involvement in Youth Ministry. I only said yes to volunteering in Youth Ministry at my church because I felt I was obligated to do so. I had committed to being an elder for the Christian Ed. team at church and it was my job to volunteer with the youth. I could've sworn up one side and down the other that it was definitely not the desire of my heart to work in youth ministry. But now I LOVE LOVE LOVE working with the youth of my church...God has transformed my heart!...I love it when he does that. This morning I was on my new front deck reading Youth Worker Journal magazine and got even more excited about all the stuff there is to learn about in youth ministry. It is the desire of my heart and I am delighting in it!:-)

I do...

Tonight we went to a wedding of a good friend of Sean's. Some of our summers have been full of weddings and some are on the light side. This was the first of two we are headed to before school starts up again. Sean and Jason worked together in Sunnyside and now are still good friends thanks to a little game called World of Warcraft. Sean stood up for Jason as one of his groomsmen. Many things occur to me during wedding season. In this case one of those things is how handsome my husband looks all dressed up in a tux. Another thing that occurs to me is that no matter how many years go by after our own wedding and no matter how much I know I can't go backwards I still like to critique other people's weddings. Sean has taken to asking me as soon as we get into the car what I thought of each part of the ceremony. He loves to hash over things with me. And I like to see the things that people choose that I would have loved to copy or things that don't really appeal to me. The variety is vast! Lastly, the biggest thing that occurs to me during a wedding is how much of a reminder it is for us and our marriage. During our ceremony our minister talked a great deal about the committment that marriage is. Love is not all it takes to make a marriage successful. When I don't wash the dishes one night or when Sean doesn't turn on the entry way light it is not love that makes our marriage work through those disagreements...it is the fact that we've chosen to commit to each other. Love is there and it is great and it is the biggest part of our relationship. But, God designed it with committment in mind as well. So as I sit through someone else's wedding what a gift it is to witness the beginning of their life together but also what a gift it is to look back at the almost seven years we've been man and wife to see how God has honored that committment.

How long...

How long does it take for one person to write a second blog? Apparently it takes 16 months. I just got back from CKU Anaheim and among many things I learned that weekend one of the biggest things is that there is no time like the present to document the present...the time is now. I have a scrapbook layout that's been brewing in my head and right now the title swimming around that concoction is "Later"...that seems to be the word of the year for me. Who am I kidding? That seems to be the word of the decade! It is the answer to almost every question in my life. When will I clean out my car?...later. When will I begin walking again?...later. When will I print those pictures for the church bulletin board?...later. When will I concentrate on having a family?...later. When will I correct those papers?...later. When will I finish that layout...or even that album?...later. When will I start drinking water more than coke?...later. When will I really use my blog?...later?...maybe now.