It. Is. Summer.

I am out of school. In 29 days I will be enjoying the view from our porch in St. John. In 39 days I will be in the mountains getting to know the coolest people ever (while thoroughly enjoying weather with 0% humidity) in Durango, Colorado. In 51 days I will be practicing my volleyball skills in Nashville with my team. In 66 days I will be getting my license.

I think I'm going to enjoy this summer.

It's Time To Wake Up!

I hate waking up in the morning. It just stinks. Especially when I know that I have to go to school. But even every other day, waking up is just a hard thing to do. It would be nice if we could sleep all day, but, no matter how much I want to sometimes, we can't. I have to wake up in order to actually get things done (bummer).

So why is it that the Americanized church chooses to sleep all the time? Aren't we the ones that are supposed to be spreading God's love? Yes, but how are we doing that if all we do is go to church on Sundays and continue to live lives separated from those who truly need us? Why do we choose to stay in our comfort zones when Jesus, the man we claim to love and follow, totally ignored comfort zones and went all out just because he loved us? Why are we sleeping through the groaning of those who are in need? We say, "I put some money in the offering plate" or "Oh I gave a poor person money today" or "I went on a week-long mission trip this summer." Good for us. All those things are great, but the way we are actually going to make a difference is by starting now, and not stopping; not just doing one good deed a week, but by living in such a way that people cannot miss the influence of Christ in our lives. And that is a very uncertain place to be, because we never know what God might ask us to do next. He might tell us to move to a foreign country, or spend time destroying our prejudices by spending time with some homeless folks downtown, or open our homes to a person or child in need (be careful- you might end up with nine children like my mom and dad). I'm saying most of this to myself. I'm too content with the safe and guarded life I have made for myself. I need to get out there.

Ephesians 5:14 says, "for it is light that makes everything visible. This is why it is said, "Wake up, O sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you."

It's not going to be easy to wake up, but God never said following Him would be easy. I think it's time to wake up and let Him shine on us and give Him all the glory.

Oh my.

Well, I haven't written in a while. As Mom said, it's because I'm trying to teach myself how to play the guitar. I almost started teaching myself last summer, but we never got around to getting the guitars fixed. But apparently I nagged Mom enough for us to actually take them the the guitar place this time, and I have started on this adventure. My fingers hurt really bad the first couple of days, but now I am proud to say that I have calluses on them now. I can play two songs that have four whole chords in them! Impressive, I know. Just kidding, but I think I am getting better. I found out it's kind of addicting to play, so I practiced playing and put off what little homework I had until about 9:30 every night this week. Oh well, school's almost over anyway.

Which brings me to another subject: SUMMER BREAK IS ALMOST HERE!!! I am so excited. I don't think I've ever been this ready for school to be out. I feel like I already have what they call "senioritis," and I'm only a sophomore. That's great. Anyway, we only have nine days of school left (that's only including the actual school days). It's almost time to break out the swimsuits and chunk the alarm clocks. But first I have to take exams. Darn it. I wish that the whole high school could get exempt in classes they had an A in and not just seniors.

Oh, so apparently the Pacific Ocean decided it got tired of being an ocean and wanted to become rain in Tennessee this past weekend. It was crazy. If the phrase "It's raining cats and dogs!" has ever been appropriate, it was this past weekend. A bunch of roads even caved in. But Mom already told you a little about that so yeah.

Oh, funny story about this past weekend though... Leah wanted to go outside at one point when it was raining really hard so she went up to Shelby and asked if she could go outside. Of course Shelby said "No Leah, it's too wet and rainy outside." Well Leah thought about that for a few seconds and then replied with "That's ok. I wipe it up with paper towel." She. Is. Adorable.

Alright, well I'm going to go now.

Every Good and Perfect Gift.......and re-gifting!

Hey, Kara has been busy, so I thought I would try to post a bit of my thoughts......but my mind comes up, blah, blah, blah right now. It hasn't been an exceptionally busy week, but it seems as though it has been. I guess starting with the floods this weekend-and therefore kids being inside alot, and Shelby's prom being postponed until Monday night-YES! a Monday night prom and all the beginning of the end of the school year stuff and making plans for vaction (yippee!), well it just seems to have been busy. I have never seen so much rain in such a short period of time, as we had this past weekend. I am constantly in awe and praise of how God spared us from any damage. Thank you, Father! and I am continually praying for friends, family and community that did receive damage. Please restore and recover them quickly, Lord! I want to share with you why Kara has been so busy...hope she doesn't mind....and she'll likely post about this current endeavor when she has a moment. Kara has wanted to learn to play guitar for over a year now. I offered to get her lessons, because the Lord knows that we hold NO musical talent in this family. That is truly like not even remotely a gift that I possess. But, no, Kara just wanted to pick up her brothers guitar (no he never learned to play, either) and she wanted to teach herself....so, she started a week ago, trying to teach herself to play-with a friend of hers trying to do the same. Now, I know that alot of people teach themselves to play guitar, but like seriously, you don't get it, this is like a miracle....we really could probably go back several generations before you could even find someone that could play or sing anything. So, I am hoping that maybe, just maybe, that line of giftedness-or should I say, of ungiftedness, will be broken. She can play several chords and sing and strum a few simple songs! Yay! I love music-she can sing and play all she wants here at home. And, if any of you have the gift of music and you believe in re-gifting.....pass it on to me! Oh, how I wish it worked that way. "Every good and perfect gift is from above...." James 1:17