Non Manic-Monday

Hi. I woke up today with an urge to not get up, but then I remembered how I promised God I would start trying to study His Word in the mornings, as we are told to do hundreds of times in scripture, instead of Cara's naptime or inthe evening. Cara had woken up around 6:45 (early for her), so I got up, laid her back down with her baby and paci, and got back in bed, right as Eric was getting up and getting ready. I laid there for a few minutes pretending to go back to sleep, but I could already feel God pulling me towards Him. So I finally got up, thinking I'd have maybe 20 minutes to myself before Cara got up for good. Eric was done getting ready and I decided to first finish my last day of Stepping Up, the Beth Moore study I had done all summer. I just couldn't finish up the last 2 days, so instead of rushing through them, I decided to save them for when I have some good time with me and God. What an amazing study that was. The videos were sooooo good and the 15 Psalms of Ascent we studied changed my life. I now recognize that I am on pilgrimage to meet my Father when this life on earth is done. It's not about the destination (although heaven is a great place to aspire to), it's about the person, Jesus Christ. And my personal relationship with Him. So I did the last day, wrote my prayer for others, and felt great.

But I wanted to start something for myself too. We just concluded an 82 (!) week study on the book of John by our pastor in church. It was amazing to be able to focus so greatly on such a small piece of scripture each week. I truly love the way our pastor preaches. And, we studied the whole book of Matthew (which of course we cross referenced Mark and Luke) in my ABF last fall. Since we're studying through the entire Old Testament this year in ABF (we're in 2nd Samuel already), I decided to read through the book of Acts on my own. I only read the first chapter today, but by reading that, the intro, and now knowing more than I knew previously about the gospels, I garnered a lot of truth from it. I have some Acts verses memorized, but I like where I am now, truly learning about when/why each book was written, and by who (Luke). It makes the scriptures I memorized in Bible Drill as a child have more meaning. Eric and I also started a 'together' prayer journal to help us 'guard our marriage' more. Josh Allen taught on David and Bethsheba Sunday in our ABF, and we mostly talked about ways to ward off temptation in our lives as married young adults. And of course, the differences between men and women. Did you know that the normal divorce rate in this country is 50%. The divorce rate among Christian couples is 50-51% (higher than the national average), but the divorce rate among couples who pray DAILY together is only 1 in 16,000!!! That's amazing. AND I think it's because of the communication and committment you must have to make it something that is required every single day of your lives together. So, to make a REALLY long story a little shorter, Cara slept until 7:55 this morning. I have almost 45 minutes of quiet time this morning, and man it felt like it flew by! God is so good, and I wanted to share that with you all.

I truly believe because I started my day this way, instead of saving it for later in the day, Cara and I had an amazing morning! She was so sweet natured (which is normal, but even more so today), we prayed together when I got her up, I sang 'This is the Day" from Psalm 118:24, which she is starting to sing along with, and we worked on her 1st bible verse she's memorized (it's taken about 5-6 weeks for her to memorize it). "God is my shepherd." Psalm 23 (yes, it's a very easy version, but I'm proud of my girl!). We spent a relaxing morning at home, then went to the brand new Michaels' that opened up in Katy and walked around. She's so cute in her stroller, "may I have some fishies please mommy," when asking for some goldfish. Then we went home, made lunch and took Daddy his lunch at school since he had a little break. She LOVES going to daddy's school, but we pass the mall on the way, so she talks about going to play the whole time, until she realizes where we are ending up. :) We came home and she took a good nap.

We spent the evening in the heights saying goodbye to my cousin Mandie and her family. She just accepted an awesome new position in Tampa, FL, so she's moving (Thursday). So many friends and famiy are moving away lately. We just shipped our good friends the Lyons off to Denver, now the Wilsons are moving to Columbus, OH and the Whites are probably moving to the Netherlands at the end of the year!! Well, it's almost 9:30 and I'm exhausted. Swimming and gymnastics are pretty much over, no more staying up late for me! Love to all!