Anything but Ordinary

  Yesterday, one of my closest friends shared her testimony on her blog. If you'd like, you can read it here. As I read, I was heartbroken by the fact that we've been friends since middle school and I never once considered how differently we'd grown up. I grew up in a family where my grandparents, parents, and siblings all attended the same church every Sunday and Wednesday night. Where I accepted Christ as a child and was baptized. I can remember being a kid and my parents having other couples over for Bible studies, or sitting in my grandparents living room watching my Pawpaw study intently in King James Version Bible.

  As I sat reading her story, it hit me that I had been so caught up in being a "good" Christian, that I hadn't paid much attention to those around me, that I had just been lukewarm. And then, I reread it. The words stood out to me, like they should have been bold, italicized, underlined. She wrote, "because my testimony is short and simple". I was not reading something short and simple, I was reading something inspiring. Growing up in a Christian household, I felt as though I was the one who had a "short and simple" testimony. I never really struggled with my relationship with God until I had graduated high school. Even then, I have never experienced even half of what my sweet, enduring friend has gone through in her twenty-one years.

  Later on in the day, I was reading in a wonderful book called Glimpses of Grace by Gloria Furman. Side note: It's about treasuring the Gospel in our everyday, mundane life. Gloria uses examples from experiences with her husband and kids to really hit home the points she is making, which I love. She is a wonderful writer, and I highly recommend this quick read. Anyways, I came across this amazing little passage in the book about testimonies. Y'all, sometimes I am in awe of how the Holy Spirit uses things to show us about God and His glory. Our "short and simple" testimonies that we just think are no big deal, are actually a HUGE deal. Colossians 1:13-14 puts it like this: 

"For he has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins."

  In other words, there was a spiritual battle going on for your soul. A battle of which Christ has been victorious because He defeated death and you chose to follow him. I like how Gloria Furman describes it too.

"The Holy Spirit of God peeled the scales from your spiritually blind eyes, awakened your soul to the bright light of the gospel in the face of Jesus Christ, and breathed life into your lifeless soul."

  This simply amazes me. I cannot ever say it enough, especially when it's put that way. Not one of us has the same story of how they come to know Christ. No matter how simple our stories maybe, if we're 5 or 105 when we accept Christ, our testimonies are anything but ordinary. He works in all of our lives in different ways, molding us to become more like Him and to fulfill God's will for us. Nonetheless, when we come to know Him, the scales are peeled off, just like that described of Paul in Acts (if you haven't already look up Acts 9:18). Paul went on to do some amazing things to spread the Word, and we are called to do the same!

Why I celebrate America Everyday

   The 4th of July holiday weekend has come and gone. The decorations have been discounted and school supplies has taken its place on the shelves. Girls have put away their American flag shorts and taken off their blue and red nail polish; boys have put their 'Mericas chubbies away. We now wait another 364 days for another celebration of America's birthday.
   While some people wait for holidays and three day weekends for barbecues, endless instagram selfies, and some quote on Facebook/Twitter that talks about how great America is, there are some of us who wake up and celebrate the land of the free everyday.
   Each morning I wake up in my 2 bedroom, 1.5 bath town home with basement and bonus room on the largest military base in the free world. Come visit us in our home and you will find a vast majority of red, white, and blue. From the kitchen, to my red bathroom towels (plus navy & white shower curtain), and the handkerchief quilt on our bed, you can pretty much see my love of the US of A. And let's not even get started on the fact that half of my clothes are in red, white, or blue (the cowboy boots I got married in anyone?).
   My husband wakes up at 5:10, goes to PT, then comes home where he puts on his ACUs (complete with 1st Cav. patch and American flag), and goes back to the company where he spends his day working until 5pm Monday through Friday. Sometimes he is away for a week at a time, sometimes he will be gone for months, but I am so blessed to be married to a man who serves our country.
   A country in which I am free to serve a mighty God. A God who continually pursues His people even when we fall so far away from His Word that our nation was founded on. A country in which as a woman I am able to vote and was able to receive a free education. Where I was not refused the right to go to school because my parents could not afford it or because I was needed more at home. A country that fights to give other nations the same basic human rights we so often take for granted. Our Founding Fathers knew exactly what they were doing in 1776, when they chose to shake up the world in order to pursue happiness. Thirteen colonies took a huge risk, and over the next 6 (almost 7) years they would fight to defend their Declaration that took over a year to prepare for and write. The Declaration of Independence is one of the most reproduced and inspiring political documents in the world. How many of us have taken the time to read it besides the little excerpts we read in U.S History, Government, or American Literature class in high school/college? I would venture to say very few, even more so many of us probably don't even remember what we read. Soon after it was written, the Declaration of Independence was mass produced and spread throughout the colonies. People took the time to read it! Our ancestors took the time to read the many reasons why they left and separated from England, most would read it every 4th of July from then on. It is still the most inspiring and copied political document in the world. Fun Fact: Both Thomas Jefferson and John Adams died on the 50th anniversary of the 4th of July.
   Needless to say, we are beyond blessed to live in America and we take that for granted. Since 1870, when Congress made the 4th a national holiday and 1938 when again Congress made it paid holiday for federal employees, we have made the 4th a day of fireworks, picnics and Nathan's Hot Dog Eating contest (that started in 1916). We love parades, carnivals, and downtown celebrations. We get together with family and friends to celebrate the day that we told England we were better off on our own. Then we wait for the next three day weekend to barbecue, and wait until the next year to do it all again. I however, will choose to revere America everyday. I celebrate America everyday for my husband and all the many who serve/have served over the past 238 years to defend all that we have here, for all those who are currently deployed (R.E.D. Fridays anyone?), for our ancestors that took a risk coming to a new land, for our freedom we experience daily, and for the men who wrote an amazing document that shaped the course of history. I celebrate America.

Everything's Bigger in Texas

   YES, y'all are getting two post within a week of each other. I know I've posted like a billion pictures on Facebook lately, but we have done A LOT of sight-seeing and wandering here. I strongly believe that the reason they say "everything's bigger in Texas" is because the state itself is huge. Since we are in Central Texas, we're right smack in the middle of all the major cities, BUT that does't mean they are close by. Austin and Dallas are both at least two hours away, then San Antonio and Houston are a bit further. We went to SXSW in March, but since then we've found all kinds of neat stuff events that are out here.

    One weekend we went cliff jumping and swimming in the nearby lakes with some guys from Joel's company. We then learned of a neat/odd little event in the nearby town of Copperas Cove called RabbitFest. It was the first time Joel had been to a carnival and so we rode a lot of the crickety, look like they are going to break while on them carnival rides. It was so much fun, other than the fact that I had not been on any of those sorts of rides in ages and they are apparently not as fun as I remember. We came home that night feeling sick to our stomaches because we had spun way to fast on one of the rides, but it was completely worth all the fun we had. 

Joel at the lake.

Ferris wheel

   The next weekend was Memorial Day weekend. We had a four day, decided to look up somethings to do, and found RedFest, held at Circuit of the Americas in Austin. Jeff Foxworthy put on the entire event for the weekend, and gave out over 6,000 tickets to soldiers and their families. Thankfully, I was able to find who had extra tickets and we got in for free on Saturday & Sunday! There were so many great performances by wonderful artists. Saturday night we saw Kip Moore and (the other love of my life) Tim McGraw, then Sunday morning we got up early to see Phil Robertson of Duck Commander and his son Alan preach. Joel & I were as red as tomatoes from an hour of sitting in the sun that morning, so we went to the nearest tent to hear all the music before going back to amphitheater to hear Jeff Foxworthy and the Florida Georgia Line. 

Meeting Bruce from Swamp People

Suburnt afternoon. 

Waiting for FLGA Line.

   A few weeks later, some of Joel's family came to visit us for a few days. It was fun having a house full of people, and made me miss the hectic crazy family of mine back home. After all the girls left, Joel's brother Jon stayed over the weekend to spend time with him before he left for Hawaii. Joel left for the field and I drove Jon to the airport in Austin with both dogs. When Joel got back and had his next four day we took a trip to San Antonio. We kicked off the trip by going to SeaWorld. It was so very crowded, but we made the most of it and enjoyed it. Although, Joel kept referencing Blackfish and hoping the beluga whales would eat the trainers. Afterwards Joel wanted to see the Alamo, so we went to downtown. It was so pretty, but again crowded. Then, we walked across the street to the Ripley's Believe It or Not! and the wax museum, which were pretty neat. We decided to walk a couple of blocks down to the RiverWalk to get dinner after a long day of sight-seeing.  The atmosphere at the RiverWalk is amazing, pretty crowded, but gorgeous. I was really hoping to eat at Rainforest Cafe, but there was an hour and a half wait, so we put our names on the wait list, and then went down across the river to Hard Rock to get on the wait list there. We decided to see which one would have an opening first and waited it out. Which means we ended up at Hard Rock.

   Joel has been in the field for the last week and a half, so he will be home just in time for a four day weekend and my favorite holiday. We haven't really decided what adventure we'll going on, but it looks like we need to explore the major city of Dallas.