Quietness

Nothing beats a Saturday afternoon when my precious little 2 year old is up in his room taking a nap and my handsome hubby is laying on the couch napping. All I can hear is the USC football game in the background, my dishwasher and my dryer. With everything taken care of I can take a couple of hours all to myself and simply do whatever I want. With the busyness of our life here lately this is definitely a luxury I don't get everyday.

Me and Rodney have been praying and both feel very confirmed in the area of our future. We have decided that Rodney should go to Seminary and pursue his counseling degree. He is so gifted in this area and there is no doubt that this is a huge gift God has blessed him with. We've been checking out all the seminaries and the only one that offers the kind of counseling program we are looking for is in Texas. So, yes we will more than likely be moving to Fort Worth, Texas in January. Rodney has turned in all his admission stuff so we're waiting to hear from the seminary for acceptance.

When thinking about this move of course I have some worries but more than all my worry I have an overwhelming excitement that is surpasses all my doubts. I am so excited about how God is going to use this time in our life. I know that God has something huge for us and in order to receive the ministry he's calling us to this has to be our next step. There is a chance I'll enroll in the Fall of 2008 to pursue my masters in women's ministry. But, I want to be able to get there and get everything settled and get Rodney started before I enroll.

In the midst of all the stresses and fears we've had over the past couple of months God is beginning to shine light on where we are suppose to be and little by little He is revealing His vision for our life. Please continue to pray for us. Pray that we will remained focused on Christ and allow Him to lead us.

My Passion

We watched a video at church sunday night about a girl named Kim Jones. Kim was killed by a gunman who entered her church during a see you at the pole celebration in 1999. Kim's story and her passion was so huge. Seeing how she truly served and loved the Lord stopped me dead in my tracks. Everytime you would see her in the video she had a huge smile on her face. You could tell she had the joy of the Lord all over her. She lived her life here on earth but so many of her friends said her heart was always in heaven. When speaking about her relationship with the Lord one of her friends said that Kim didn't pray just to get answers from God, she prayed simply because she wanted to be with Him and she didn't read her bible to gain more knowledge, she read it so she could be with Jesus, in His presence. They said any time a worship service was going on Kim was always there. She never missed an opportunity to worship and serve our awesome God.

While watching the video I could hear the Lord whispering to my heart, "that used to be you, Courtney." Wow! It really did. I can remember back to my high school days where all I wanted was to be at church or doing something to serve God. And, then when the Lord placed a call into ministry on my life I couldn't wait to get started. That passion carried me through so much and looking back I see how the joy of the Lord was all over me. I was the girl that everyone knew would be at church if something was going on.

I've come a long way since then. I'm not sure at what point it happened but slowly over the past couple of years my joy has begun to disappear. I've gone to church because I had to not because I was excited to go. It has felt more like a chore to me and that smile I used to always have is gone as well.

Watching this video on sunday has really stopped me and got me to thinking about my walk with Christ. I do love Him and I want to serve Him with my whole heart. That's truly what my life is all about. I've just got some things to work out and I've got some things I need to let go of with God's help. I've seen the need for this "cleaning out" in my life but now that God has totally confronted me with it I see that I truly do want to change and become my joyful self again and I want to let go of all those things that are holding me back. I know with the help of my Savior, my Father... my Daddy I can be revived and renewed into the person He has called me to be.

YEAH BABY

The painting is officially done!!! :)

We have finished painting all the rooms that needed it to get our house on the market. Rodney is calling our realtor tomorrow and hopefully... keep your fingers crossed... the house will be on the market by the end of the week. I've boxed up tons of stuff this weekend also. So, that's great. I can't believe we've got it all done. I'm so stinkin TIRED... but excited to be moving forward. My sister in law came over this weekend with her family and helped us so much. Oh my word, I'm so thankful for them. Now, I need to go to work tomorrow so I can rest. (LOL)

Keep praying for us though. Rodney has his resume out and is getting some responses so that's totally awesome. Just pray that we will really seek the face of God and allow him to lead us wherever He's calling. It's so easy to get wrapped up in the here and now and I don't want to miss God and His perfect will in this whole situation.

But, Elisabeth.... I'm keeping my fingers crossed.. ;) You know what I'm talking about. ;)

Nighty Night my precious friends. I'm BEAT and it's totally time for BED..

Mommy Time

I'm sitting in my living room relaxing and oh my word, it feels so awesome to just kick my feet up and do nothing. Joshua is playing with his "choo choo" and Rodney is on his way home from visiting some church members at the hospital. It's not very often I get a little quiet time like this. Since I get Fridays off at work my weekend gets to start early and they are always totally busy. So, I took advantage of a little down time today and took Joshua to Leapin Lizards. It's a really cool children's play place. They have all the big inflatable bouncers and just lots of cool stuff... all indoors. :) And, all the mommies get to just kick back on the comfy couches and watch the kids play. I don't get to go there much, but when I do it always reminds me of how much each of us mommies need each other. We need times to just sit and spill our guts about being mommies. Don't get me wrong. I totally love being a mommy and would not trade it for anything, but every once in a while it's nice to know other mommies struggle with the same things I do. :) Once you get to just pour everything out to someone else who really understands it helps relieve all we have bottled up and gives us the motivation to keep going.

Thanks Mommies!!!

LEGO straight to the eye

OOWWIEEE!!! Oh my word, I never knew my eye could hurt the way it has been the last 3 days. I went to put Joshua to bed Monday night and when I bent down to give him a goodnight kiss he reached up and was trying to hand me the lego he had in his hand and that thing went straight in my eye. Poor little Joshua felt awful for hurting mommy. I told him mommy was fine and just endured the pain long enough to get him in bed so he wouldn't worry about mommy and then I went to my room and cried and tried to get my left eye open. I ended up going to the eye doctor the next morning and they said the lego had actually cut my eye so they numbed it up for me and gave me some medicine to put on it. But, they pretty much said this is just one of those things that will be uncomfortable and hurt until it heals up. This is the first time I've actually been able to sit down at the computer and type. Before the light was way too bright for me to try and look at and my left eye was so blury I couldn't see a thing. And up until about 6pm tonight it felt like something was just stuck in my eye and I couldn't get it out. Thank goodness that pain has seemed to stop for now. We'll see how long that last when I have to put more drops in it before bed. My left eye is still still very blury. I'm pretty much typing with my left eye closed so if something sounds weird that's probably why. I go back to the doctor in the morning so they can take the contact lense patch out of my eye and hopefully that will take some of this bluriness away.

Mary Mary - Shackles (Praise You)

Prison Picnic

I had the opportunity to go to the Women's Prison here in Columbia this past Saturday. Where I work we do an annual picnic for the inmates. We take things like fried chicken, fresh veggies, and lots of desserts... stuff they don't get the priviledge of having on a consistent basis.

Oh, I have to tell you the very deepest part of my soul was touched and forever changed as I came in contact with each of these precious women. Yes, their stories are much different from mine just from the kind of things they have done but PRAISE GOD their future can be as secure as mine as the Lord of Lord's holds them in the palm of his hands. He has not turned his back on them and will never, ever give up on them. I went into the lock up area where they keep some of the ladies that they have had discipline issues with and they also keep new women that have just come into the system. The only way you can talk with them is through the door of their cell. We went from cell to cell talking and praying with each of the women there. Talking with them, and just seeing the pain in their eyes totally broke me. Many of them are so young and scared to death. Yes, they know why they are there and they know they've done wrong. But, you know one thing I learned is that even though they've done some horrible things... they are human and are truly hurting over their present circumstances. They want to be different. They want to change. However, our society is so harse to them and in no way takes the time to encourage them to be different and change. Our society automatically slaps a label on them and considers them lost causes for eternity. Oh, may the God of Gods change our hearts and attitudes towards them. May we look upon them with eyes of compassion and hope. I spoke with one lady who has 5 children and she told me, "there is no more hope for me, but just pray that my children will chose a different path than I did." It broke my heart to hear her speak with such hopelessness.

Let's lift these precious women up to God praying that each and every one of them will know they are not forgotten... but that they are LOVED and TREASURED above all else to the God of gods and the Lord of lords!!! PRAISE HIM!! I couldn't help but think of the song, "shackles" while I was writing this blog. Watch the video above and get up and do some of praise dancing of your own!!! YES LORD!!

Yes, I'm still Here

My post have been so on and off again. I feel like I just don't have any time to write anymore.

Joshua was sick this weekend, running a high fever and all so I was busy keeping him comfortable and hydrated while painting and packing. Sounds like fun, huh? Life is so busy right now and I am just ready to get out of this whirlwind and have some calm for a while.

Other than that, we are doing really good. Just doing a lot of praying and practicing our faith right now. :) But, God is good. He is really upholding us and keeping our spirits high during this difficult time. We have our moments when all the stress builds up and we just loose it, but it's really not that often... thank goodness. And, it's mostly me loosing it. :)

You know, this will probably sound silly but when I get stressed out to the max I just look at Joshua and see how he just takes one day at a time and just goes with the flow. I know why Jesus tells us to be like the children.

Thanks for all your prayers and encouragment. I love ya'll!!!