Well....

Christmas is over and it's back to work. I hope everyones Christmas was as blessed as mine! Chris and I got a chance to hang out with both of our families and it was amazing. My favorite part about Christmas is just relaxing and enjoying the people you love most. It meant a lot to Chris to be able to spend Christmas Day with his family because we don't get to see them as often as we would like. I really do cherish his family like my own, they really make me feel so welcome and comfortable. I was pleasantly surprised to hear that his Uncle Elwood reads this blog!! So I would just like to say hey Uncle Elwood!! I enjoyed seeing you on Christmas and I can't wait until this weekend to see yall again! And thanks again for the bag, I love it!!

So with Cooper being born so close to Christmas it really got me thinking about the birth of Jesus. I mean every Christmas I think about Him but something really came alive to me this year. I just can't even fathom being Mary, giving birth to Jesus and then having to give Him up. I can't imagine God being able to give his one and only Son to die for my sins! I don't even like seeing Cooper cry, I just can't even imagine the sacrifice..... it just makes me truly thankful for our awesome God.

Since I can only really think about Cooper and Christmas right now, I'm just going to post more pictures of my new little nephew!!!

You can call me

AUNT HEATHER!!! 8 pounds 7 ounces! 21 inches long. The name will most likely be Cooper Michael Myers!!

When life gets hard

"God is in the business of strategically positioning us in the right place at the right time. But the right place often seems like the wrong place, and the right time often seems like the wrong time."

This is from the book I am reading "In A Pit With A Lion On A Snowy Day" by Mark Batterson. Sometimes we get in these situations where we are like how did I get here and how in the world is this going to help me in anyway. We just don't understand how any good can come from it. But God does not make mistakes. I believe He doesn't waste anything. Every single thing that happens to us will be used in one way or another in the future. The hardest and most painful things I have gone through have made me who I am today and I am a better person for it. In some situations it was so hard and I didn't know how I would ever get through, life felt like it was over. If I would have only known that one day it would be used for good maybe I would have endured it better, maybe not though. When we go through rough times it seems all we can focus on is the bad. I don't think God wants us to feel sorry for ourselves though, I think He wants us to rejoice because we are in the process of being grown by GOD!!!! So right now I vow that the next time I am going through a really hard time I am going to come and read this blog =] I don't think we can hear this enough because we tend to forget when our emotions get the best of us.

Books

I just finished Velvet Elvis by Rob Bell and it was really good. I like his style of writing! Now I need another good book to read, any recommendation's?? I have always loved to read but lately Ive been loving it even more!!!

Philippians 3:16

"Only let us live up to what we have already attained."


We need to see people where they could be, not where they are. I have heard Clay say this multiple times but it really just hit me. When we become Christians we have Christ in us and we are a new creation. When God looks at us he sees Him. He doesn't classify us by our mistakes and failures. He knows who we really are. Who we really are is the person we become when we let Jesus in our heart. We will make mistakes along the way and the "old us" will try to get back in but that is just part of the process. That is what teaches us to be more like Christ. We can't let our mistakes make us who we are we just need to to move past them and strive towards living the way God sees us.

We have already attained our new lives now we just need to live up to them!!!!

++1 John 2:15-17++

"Do not love this world nor the things it offers you, for when you love the world, you do not have the love of the Father in you. For the world offers only a craving for physical pleasure, a craving for everything we see, and pride in our achievements and possessions. These are not from the Father, but are from this world. And this world is fading away, along with everything that people crave. But anyone who does what pleases God will live forever."


That is a verse that I read every day. I constantly remind myself of this. It is so easy to get sucked into the pressures of the world, to have the "you only live once" mentality. To do what feels good now. The world tells us so many lies. That we have to look a specific way, drink to have fun, have lots of money, not value marriage, etc. So many people give into these pressures because they care way too much about what people think of them and/or they are only looking to make themselves feel good. They are all lies though, they go against what the Bible says, they go against the Word of the only person we should be trying to impress. I will not give into these pressures because like the verse says the world is fading fast. The only person I want to impress is God. He was not selfish when He gave His only Son to die for my sins. He was not selfish when He gave me my life, so I will not be selfish by trying to just live for me and what makes me "feel good." I'm going to be spending a whole lot more time with Him than with this world. And I love Him a whole lot more. Lastly, unlike the world, He wants what's best for me now and forever.

Random Thoughts

*I'm going to miss my husband while he is in West Virginia but I'm very excited for some girl time with two of my close friends Rachel and Kimmie!!

*I'm excited for the party at Clay and Kim's house. I'm a little nervous to go without Chris though, I tend to be a little awkward (lol)

*I am looking forward to the Christmas parade tomorrow on Main Street. My mom and I plan on passing out the wish cards and bumper stickers while we are there, anyone want to help??

*Sunday is going to be exciting!! I can't wait for Clay to kick off the new series. www.mywish4christmas.com

*I am so proud of my husband for sticking to his new healthy program. I love seeing him so motivated and I pray that he can avoid temptation while he is on his trip.

*I am proud of myself too for actually exercising on a regular basis and sticking to healthy eating :)

*I got to hold Christy's baby on Wednesday!! He is about the cutest baby I have ever seen! He is so perfect! I couldn't stop staring at him. I can't wait to have a baby!

*IT'S FRIDAY!!!!

*A coworker sent this video to me and it touched me so much I wanted to share it. It's a little boy calling into a Christian radio station.

Grand Secret of Life

I am currently reading "The Be-With Factor" by Bo Bosher and Judson Poling from Willow Creek Community Church. The Be-With Factor is mentoring students by letting them be-with you. Jesus chose 12 to be-with him through every day life, not just to teach them how to be a Christ-follower but to show them how. We should choose a few students that we really pour time into. Not a community group but allowing a select few to join us in our everyday activities. The goal is to have them "follow us as we follow Jesus" (1 Cor. 11.1) This is how we can really change some lives. Anyway, I wanted to share an excerpt from the book.



"At first this image looks counter-intuitive. The mother puts on her own mask; only after hers is in place does she help her child. How selfish! You would think the child ought to be the priority-his needs ought to come first. Wouldn't that be the compassionate-even Christ-like-thing to do?
Turns out it isn't. Without oxygen, the adult is likely to risk both her own and her child's well being. So if you were in the emergency, the correct order of events is to get oxygen for yourself first, then help others. SELF-CARE SUPPORTS OTHER-CARE. That is the Grand Secret of Life."


I think everyone should see that!! It's so important that we take care of ourself, not for selfish reasons but to effectively help others.

Read the book. It's amazing.

Proverbs 16:3

Commit your actions to the Lord and your plans will succeed.

I want to be a healthy person. I want to be someone who takes cares of their body because it is a gift from God. I want to honor God with every part of my life and that includes my body. I abused my body in order to "look good" for too long. Now I am no longer focusing on how I look but how healthy I am. It's so hard sometimes but now I have my husband doing the same thing and that means the world to me. It took me a long time to develop the unhealthy lifestyle that I lived so I realize it will take a long time to develop a new healthy lifestyle. I don't want to be on a "diet" I want to make a life change and that will be a long process. In knowing that, I will not get discouraged I will persevere with the strength that God gives me.

Happy Birthday

Happy 24th Birthday to my amazing husband!!! I love you with all of my heart. I feel like the luckiest girl in the world to be married to you! You make my life beautiful :)

L-O-V-E

So many people think love is about them and how they feel. I often hear, and have even said, "Ive never felt like this before" or "Nobody else makes me feel this way". I have learned though that love is not that feeling you get in your tummy, thats lust mixed with hormones. Love is much deeper and harder than that. Love is choosing to be there for that person through everything and loving them the whole way through. God says love never fails, that means that no matter how hard things get, your love will not waver. In my opinion that shows that you really only have one true love. I'm not talking about friends and family right now, just spouses. Everyone talks about their "first love" which in most cases is not the person they married. I can honestly say that my husband Chris is my first love. Yes, I told other people I loved them because I "felt" like I did. But those guys are out of my life now and I certainly don't love them now so therefore I never loved them because love never fails. People fall in and out of love all the time, my prayer is that they find out what God really intended love and marriage to be. It's so beautiful, it can be hard but it's one of those things that the harder you work on it the more beautiful it is.

First blog

Ooo my first blog! I'm not really sure who will read this except for my husband :) Well it's Monday morning and I'm back at work after being in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico for a week. Nothing better then getting welcomed back by a big pile of work to catch up on! It's good to be busy though! Anyway, Cabo was amazing. Lead222 provided the trip for us. They are a network of student pastors and they absolutely amaze me. I met some incredible people that I hope to get to know better in the future! It was so nice to be around other women married to men in ministry, especially ones who have been at it much longer than me that can give me advice. Being in Mexico gave Chris and I a chance to refocus on God and each other. I can't even explain how awesome it was. I think the biggest thing I took from the trip was that I need to focus on NOW.... appreciating the beauty in the small things. It's easy to not even notice the amazing events going on around you because you are so wrapped up in planning for the future. I'm taking the advice of a wonderful woman I met last week and I'm going to keep a journal of every moment that really stands out to me. One of the first ones I wrote down was yesterday when I got to church the people who welcomed me back so warmly :) I was only gone a week but I was told how much I was missed and people genuinely wanting to know how the trip was! How beautiful is it to have friends like that. I could have missed how awesome that moment was if I had been focused on something else. Well I have to get back to the pile... God bless!