Obvious

J is for Jesus.

So, I had this really great plan to write my own thoughts for this one. I even started to write last week but couldn't seem to put into words exactly what I was feeling. Instead of being on the tip of my tongue, I guess my words were on the tips of my fingers. This past Tuesday, Jenn let me borrow a cd of Jeff Johnson. After listening to the first two songs, I was kinda hooked. Then came song number three. "Glorious Day". I had heard songs about Jesus and what He did for me before this one. Countless songs that touch my heart. But this one brought tears to my eyes. And Poplar Rd. without tears is dangerous enough! So I thought, instead of trying, inadequately, to figure out what I want to say, I'll just let the words of this song be enough.

"Glorious Day"

One day when Heaven was filled with His praises,

One day when sin was as black as could be,

Jesus came forth to be born of a virgin,

Dwelt among men, my Example is He!

Living, He loved me; dying, He saved me;

Buried, He carried my sins far away;

Rising, He justified freely forever;

One day He’s coming—O glorious day!

One day they led Him up Calvary’s mountain,

One day they nailed Him to die on the tree;

Suffering anguish, despised and rejected:

Bearing our sins, my Redeemer is He!

One day the grave could conceal Him no longer,

One day the stone rolled away from the door;

Then He arose, over death He had conquered;

Now is ascended, my Lord for evermore!

Living, He loved me; dying, He saved me;

Buried, He carried my sins far away;

He justified freely forever;

One day He’s coming—O glorious day!

One day the trumpet will sound for His coming,

One day the skies with His glories will shine;

Wonderful day, my beloved ones bringing;

Glorious Savior, this Jesus is mine!

Living, He loved me; dying, He saved me;

Buried, He carried my sins far away;

Rising, He justified freely forever;

One day He’s coming—O glorious day!

O glorious day! O glorious day!

Living, He loved me; dying, He saved me;

Buried, He carried my sins far away;

Rising, He justified freely forever;

One day He’s coming—O glorious day!

For Allison....

This is a picture of me with the green eyeshadow...you can sort of see the glitter too. I'm sorry you can't see all of the pigtails. They really completed the whole look. had purple and yello ribbons on them. GO WCU! I also had on a lot of lipstick...it was a big night...That;s my friend Ashleigh....in case you are not aware!

Stripped Away

Well, I hope you all enjoyed my answers to those questions. I think it would be fun to hear some of yours so if I randomly ask you what four people you would like to be on a deserted island with, just answer and then we could move on with our lives.

Anyway, this weekend wasn't just all fun and games. The theme of the week was "Stripped Away" and the main premise was "what happens when every thing's been stipped away?" We were in the book of Job which at first seemed really daunting. I mean, it's like 42 chapters long and it's basically monologue after monolgue. So needless to say, I was really curious as to how the large group services would go as well as the small group discussions.

The large group services were led by Keith Smith (music before hand by Addison Road which was awesome. I love "Hope Now"). Friday night was great. Keith spoke about how Job was a blameless and upright man. He was blessed, loved by God and loved his family. He had like thousands of sheep and oxen and a few hundred camels. He had seven sons and three daughters who seemed to get along well and had to have a bunch of friends. Job was doing pretty well. During all this time, God and Satan started to have a conversation and they began to discuss Job. Satan pretty much said "of course he loves you, he's got everything. What happens when it's all gone?" God then gives Satan permission to touch everything Job has, except his person. Well Satan just goes to town. In a matter of minutes he takes away all of Job's livestock and then he destroys all of Job's children.

After all of this destruction, the Bible says Job did a truly amazing thing. The Bible says that through all of this, Job did not sin. He went down on his knees and ripped his robe in two out of grief but did not sin. So Satan returns to God and says "well, of course he didn't sin. Imagine what he would do if I was allowed to touch him". So God gives Satan permission to touch Job. And Satan did. Satan puts sores all over Job's body. Sores so infected and so painful that Job went out to the city dump, basically, and took broken pieces of pottery and tried to scratch the sores off.

Keith ended there. He began to ask "when we are stripped of something, how do we react?" and "what's our response to God?". He then invited us to come forward and write on a strip of cloth something that we felt had been stripped from us. The night ended with Keith asking us to write down questions we would ask God if we had the chance. Questions that we struggle with and answers we would like to know.

It was a great first night. The discussion that followed at the house was pretty cool too. Each girl shared what they had written and that was awesome. It was neat to see that most of the time, we all react the same way. Wanting to know why, getting angry then sad then angry again.

By then it was midnight and time for lights out. The next day was sure to be busy. And it was...

Ice Breaker

Don't worry, I'm still working on J. I hope to have it done by the end of the week. I just wanted to take a few blog posts and tell you all about my experience at Elevation this past weekend. For those you don't know, this was my very first Elevation. We didn't have this when I was in the youth group at Mount Ararat and I had never really been involved with student ministry before so the opportunity never came up to help out. So going into this weekend, I was a little apprehensive to say the least. I was assigned 11th grade girls and that in itself was a little terrifying. Unlike my precious two year olds, or even those 6th graders, you can't really fake it with junior girls. You can't even distract them with a rousing rendition of "The Wheels on the Bus".

So, to start the first session off, they wanted us to do an ice breaker type activity. We were given a beach ball with questions all over it. We had to throw it at someone and which ever question their right thumb landed on, they had to answer. The questions were really cool and I really wanted to answer them all but I had to let everyone have a turn (you know how I can be about sharing). So, since this is my blog, I thought I would take a minute and answer some of the questions.....just think of it as getting to know Becky a little bit better :)

1. If you were given six months to live, what would be the first thing you would do? I would spend all my money. I want to go out broke. I think I would start off in Target and buy everything I always wanted to buy but don't really need. Then, I think I would head to Borders and go nuts. Of course , by then, there wouldn't be much left so I guess I would get ice cream at Maggies Moos for everyone I love.

2. If you could only leave your house for one day, where you would go? I think it would depend on the season. In the summer, I would go back to Isle of Palms, SC. In the spring, I would head up to Washington D.C.. In the fall, I would go to Boston and in the winter, I would go to Big Bear Mountain, CA.

3. If God were to describe your family, what one word would he use? Love.

4. If you were stranded on a deserted island, what four people would you want? My mom because she is really cool and I know she would figure out how to make something I would eat. President Bush because I figure if we were stranded, we'd have a lot of time and I could ask him questions and maybe he would tell me some classified stuff. My sister. You figure out which one and I'll give you a prize. And, Mary Higgens Clark and I would make her find paper and something to write with so she could write me stories.

5. If your house was on fire, what two things would grab? My brown box and my journal.

6. What's one you're good at but wish you weren't? Probaby thinking up worst case scenarios. I can make winning the lottery turn into somehting bad. It's a gift, I don't own it.

7. What specific sport describes Jesus' love? I have to say basketball because there are always rebounds.

8. What three words would your friends use to describe you? Nice, funny and a downer. Refer to question #6.

9. What breakfast food would eat for dinner and what dinner food would you eat for breakfast? French toast for dinner and mashed potatoes for breakfast. I actually had that meal for dinner once at West Chester. It was fabulous.

10. What is one question you would ask God if you got the chance? The ostrich. I mean where did that come from?

I hope you enjoyed these. Don't worry, this wasn't even half of them....

Welcome to Moes!!!

I love Moes. I love their menu (who doesn't like to order food by saying something that has no resemblence to the food they are going to eat?), I love their caffienated beverages (second only to that chicken place with the styrofoam cups) and I love their tacos. And after yesterday I have discovered something else I love about Moes- their commitment to the in-therapy OCD customer. Let me explain....

Yesterday after I left my session with...lets call her S.....I met up with my friend Molly for lunch at Moes. We had a very good time ( I ordered the overacheiver combo....excellent choice). We were there for about 1 1/2 hours and during that time I checked my phone's voicemail. I had a message from my mom which I immediately returned. I then placed my phone in my purse and continued to eat my chips and queso. When we left I headed across the street to Target. I had to get some things for the weekend and of course, look for the newest edition of People (which, unfortunately, hasn't come out yet. I really want to read about Jessica...). Once I got everything I needed and some things I didn't really need-a picture holder that looks like a turtle :), I paid and left.

On my way home, happily listening to Sugarland, I went to get my phone to call my mom once again. I reached into my purse and felt around for it. NOT THERE. Maybe it fell out on the seat? No, not there. On the floor maybe? Nah, not there. I arrived home, went inside to get the landline phone to call and see if I could hear where my cell phone was. Didn't hear anything. So it's not in my purse, car or Target bags. Great.

Well, I had to go over to the church to pick my mom up and while I was there I used her office phone to call Moes. Well, no one had turned in a blue slider phone with precious Jake's picture on the screen. BUT, the guy did take down my cell's phone number so he could call it and see if it was on the floor or under a booth and he said he would call me back if it was there. Well 10 minutes he still hadn't called so when my mom was done with after school, we drove to Moes. I went in to ask if it was there and they said no. So then we drove to Target and again, no phone. Ugh.

So as we are driving back home, my spirit broken and smile gone, my mom's phone rings. It's the church calling to say that Moes just called them and......THEY FOUND MY PHONE!!!!

I love Moes.

Wonderful Weekend

This past weekend, the five of us packed up my Mom's five passenger Jeep Liberty and we headed south. After making the required stop at Wawa (no trip can start without that), we set off for the great state of South Carolina. Our destination? Beaufort. Our purpose? To celebrate Jake. Only that precious child could get us to do that. Recall that it was the five of us in a five passenger vehicle.

It was a pretty uneventful trip, although I did get to try out some of the stuff I have learned in therapy with my dad. "Remember Daddy, you secured the overhead luggage bag tightly. And if it did fall off, people would honk at us". We arrived at Jake's house around 10 pm. Unfortunately, he was sound asleep so we had to wait until morning to give him kisses.

The next morning, after the kisses, we took Jake for a ride in his wagon. He sure loves that wagon. He is too cute sitting in it, laughing and looking around. That afternoon we started the birthday party. It was quite the celebration. Bubble machine and everything. We had such a good time. We ended the evening with a little Mary Poppins, which Jake loved. He just sat and watched it. Of course, the sugar coma might have had something to do with that.

It was such a fun weekend. It's so hard to believe that Jake is already one year old. He has been such a blessing to our family and in all honesty, the five of us would gladly pile into a five passenger car and drive even further than South Carolina for him.