It's me, Charity

Whew! Look at me all caught up! Just in time for the New Year! When we last left off,  I was at the Farm with my nephews. Christmas Eve I got up bright and early again to get ready to head back to town to serve at my churches Christmas Eve Services. I was in charge of leading guest services for both services. I also had to run to both of our local police depts before church to drop off the cards my students had decorated for them and the treats i had made. That is possibly my favorite Christmas eve tradition! I love surprising them and how excited they get. Doing something nice for someone, when they don't expect it, is just really fun!  I made my deliveries and then arrived early at church. I waited by the fireplace chatting and got congratulated on my recent engagement by Pastor Dave. Except i'm not engaged. Or even dating. HA! We were both confused, but it became the joke of the evening. Bless his heart, he was excited for me. I would be too! HA HA HA! ...

 I am not a morning person. There are very few things I will get up early for. Friday morning I got up while it was still dark outside. My alarm went off at 6:45 am and let me tell you I have not seen that time for a very very long while! However, something really exciting was happening that morning! Sephora came to Tippecanoe Mall! THATS RIGHT FOLKS SEPHORA!!!!!!!! I love me some Sephora! Yes, it is expensive, but the quality is amazing, and in reality I spend less on Sephora products than trying to find something that works with my wacky skin at the drug store. I have been looking forward to this for weeks. I set my alarm early and ran out the door in a hurry! I got to the mall at 8:02 am. Sephora was opening at 10. I was not the first person there! I was about the 12'th person there and at first we were all smushed into this doorway which was really not comfortable at all. Thankfully the kind people at JcPenney let us inside the store so we could line up outside of Sephor...

 I have been looking forward to Saturday for quite some time! Because on Saturday, I was able to meet up with my friend Zoie, who I went to college with at PCC! We were both Music Majors and were in almost all of the same classes every single day! As you can imagine we were quite close, especially after we found out that we were both from Indiana! I hadn't seen her since her wedding despite us living a little over an hour away from eachother! Sad, I know! But Saturday she was in my town for an Anniversary party so we were able to meet up! I got to meet her little boy Kellam, and see her Hubby Mike!  They came over to my place and we talked and played with Kellam and looked at old pictures of our college days, reminiscing about the crazy things that went on at PCC! The look on Mikey's face during this was priceless! You don't understand it unless you have been there! Finally we realized we were STARVING and we headed out to eat some good ol Buck Creek Pizza! They ...

Well it's a New Year and I have been busy cleaning, organizing and decorating my living room! My Mom made the above Love sign. I think it's really cute! My SIL gave me the Peacock picture to match my curtains. As well as the super cool pillows! I'm currently on a pillow hunt to find two more for my big couch. I also got one of my lamps for Christmas!! I was sooo excited! Look how perfectly they match my curtains!! I'm hoping Gordman's has one more of them so I can have matching ones. Apparently these were a hot item in Iowa! This week i'm fully back into my normal teaching schedule. I'm also starting two new students this week bringing me up to 23 students total! Still have some open slots left that I'm hoping to fill. I'm so in awe of how God has provided! I can't believe I have 23 students! It's seriously the most fun I've ever had!  I was thinking today about how God has knit together this season of my life and everything about it. I ...

We're getting real down to the dirty insides today, I share this in hopes of encouraging others and hopefully opening up eyes as mine are beginning to open. I'm going to share what God is teaching me, in posts tagged with "He's still workin on me". My brother and I sang that song as children, and it's words are so true. God is still working on me, to make me the Woman he wants to be. By his Grace I will be made new. I have recently discovered I have a very big sin issue with other people's sins against me.  I had someone ask me this weekend, how I dealt with people who constantly seemed to "get away" with doing things that were wrong and hurting people. I thought I was giving an honest answer but looking back it was a pretty Susie Sunday School Pat Answer . The truth is I struggle with it. Sometimes it is easier than others. It seems to be the worst for me when the offender is someone who I have been close to or had a relationship with. I...

In the predawn hours of New Years Day 2004 I was faced with a choice. After spending New Year's Eve at a local bar with a friend, I came home and through the events that transpired, I saw clearly a vision of my future. What would happen to me if I continued on the path I had been taking. I had a choice to make and within a split second I knew what my answer was going to be. I grew up in a Christian home. I was saved at an early age. When I was 13/14 on my Birthday Sunday, Pastor Martin preached a sermon about those of us who had been saved at an early age and knowing if your salvation was real or not. I spent the rest of the day and my party tormented because I could not remember what was in my heart when I was younger. That night I gave my life to Christ and knew without a shadow of a doubt that I was his, and going to Heaven. In the years that followed I continued to be very active in church. I played the Piano and was in charge of Sunday night offertory, I was t...

I have a temper. And I just realized this last night.  After writing that I have been sitting here staring at my screen at a loss for words.  God has really been working in my heart lately to show me things that I need to change in order to grow closer to him. I feel like this has been something I've been struggling with for a long time. We all know about Twanda but yet here I am, still fighting this. My Pastor preached a sermon on 1-29-12 called "Lord, Love My enemies through Me" I highly recommend clicking on the link and listening to the sermon.  I'm going to copy some of his sermon text into this blog. Think of the impact on your obedient faith and commitment to love others that is felt when you intersect with an angry spouse, a rebellious child, a difficult neighbor, an uncaring family member or an obnoxious co-worker. You may not be beaten, bloodied or bound, but your independent preoccupation with your life and your self infatuation lead y...

So it's the end of January and I'm just now getting around to writing my recap of 2011.  Knowing me it will be May before this post gets published! When I think back on 2011 the word that stands out to me is GROWTH   2011 was not my favorite year by far, but I learned so much. I went thru many hard trials, but through it all God was with me and I learned how to stand thru those trials with him holding me up. I dealt with many health issues over the year. And I finally learned that it was OK to speak up about them. I have gotten used to my Chronic Illnesses and I don't feel like complaining about it all the time, so in my mind I just didn't talk about it.  But I found out when I was able to open up about it to my friends at church and I realized there was so much support and LOVE for me. That I wasn't bothering them by sharing my struggles, they wanted to walk thru it with me and love me and pray for me thru it all. And that has been HUGE. Knowing th...

Sanctification is the act or process of acquiring sanctity, of being made or becoming holy. To sanctify is literally "to set apart for special use or purpose," figuratively "to make holy or sacred," and etymologically from the Latin verb sanctificare which in turn is from sanctus "holy" and facere "to make." Wikipedia I have been ruminating on this post for several weeks now.  It's the culmination of some chats I've had with my friends, what I've been seeing on facebook for far too long now, and just general thoughts. It all came up for discussion when a somewhat famous Christian in the media got engaged recently. I looked at pictures of his fiance and was a bit flabbergasted at what I saw. She, as one commenter put it "had her bare bottom from here to Ohio for the world to see". Sadly, it was true. Google her name and pictures of her in lingerie and skimpy bikinis will pop up all across your computer ...