The Big 3-0

I'll be turning 30 in 5 months and 24 days and I'm about to go crazy. I mean, I have seriously got the count down going now that I'm less than 6 months away. And, let me tell you it's about to kill me. I've created my own little before I turn 30 list. I'll give you a few examples of my list:

1-Get in Shape (I'm doing good with this one. As of today I've lost 29.2lbs) YAY ME!
2-Play a sport (working on that one too, I'm playing soccer, which I LOVE)
3-Take a dance class
4-Speak at a women's retreat (doing this in November)
5-Be a better wife and mother

And, the list goes on. Trust me.

For some reason, this is really a big deal to me and to be real honest I just do not want to be known as THIRTY! It seems so final, meaning that I will at that point be officially considered, "OLDER", maybe everyone else won't think that but I know there will be some. When you think of someone in their thirties you think of someone that has it together, is settled, mature, successful, etc. etc. etc. I just don't see myself there yet. And, yes, even though it's silly and crazy and just probably plain stupid I hate knowing I won't be the cute twenty something year old anymore. (I know you probaly can't stop laughing now, but it's true)

My twenties have been a mixture of the good, the bad and the down right UGLY! I have had some of the highest highs I've ever experienced in my life; like becoming a wife and a mom, these two things are the greatest things in the world and I would not trade them for ANYTHING. I love my husband and my son so much and can't ever imagine being without them. But, then on the other hand I've experienced some of the lowest of lows and have been so hurt and confused and wish to never go back there again, like my parents divorce, dealing with the death of our baby girl Renee Grace, moving away from family to to go Seminary. It's been a rough ride, BUT (don't you just love the word BUT) BUT, through it all by God's amazing grace I can say I made it and for that I am very thankful. The one thing I don't think I'll ever understand is how people go through the most difficult situations without Jesus. Without Him there is no hope and assurance that things will get better.

I am honored to serve a God that rejoices over my highs and carries me through my lows. To Him be the glory! I MADE IT and I'm still alive and kicking by His grace.

Thank you, Jesus!

Funny, yet SWEET Joshua

My sweet little Joshua is growing up so fast and recently has just been saying things that make me and Rodney die laughing! We were driving to church yesterday and I saw a dance studio and was telling Rodney how I'd like to maybe join a dance class and Joshua of course heard our conversation and just said, "Mommy, you would fall on your head." WHAT IN THE WORLD!!! I was like well, thanks a lot Joshua! I'm glad you've got so much confidence in me. IT WAS SO FUNNY though, and the three of us laughed about that all the way to church.

Then, after my fall down the stairs a couple of weeks ago which Joshua saw happen he decided that when I walking down some stairs here at the school the other day that he would run up to me, grab my hand and say as loud as he could "Mommy, don't fall now. You'll get hurt again."

In Sunday School yesterday, Joshua learned about Jonah and the Whale. But, from the time he heard the story to the time we got in the car he had changed some things up a bit. We asked him what he learned about in Sunday School and here is what he said, "Jesus got in the water and couldn't walk, and then a big shamu ate him. He got hurt and shamu spit him out." (and, of course he had to show us how shamu spit Jesus out - that was the most fun part for him)We finally convinced him that it wasn't Jesus that got swallowed by the big whale, but that is was Jonah. It took a lot of convincing though. :) We've got ourselves a very head strong little boy! :)

Needless to say, our little Joshua has picked up on the sarcasm and humorous side of our family! :) I'm sure I'll have lots more to share in the near future!

But, such a sweet thing that Rodney has been teaching Joshua to do has just melted my heart in a million pieces. Rodney has been teaching Joshua to open doors for me. So, all day yesterday any time we were going to get in the car Joshua would run up to the car and open my door, I would get in, and he would then tell me to put my seatbelt on and then he would close my door for me. When we would stop to get out somewhere he would tell me to stay in my seat and he would come around and open my door for me. SOOOOO SWEET! He's growing up into a sweet little man! Of course there was that one time yesterday that Joshua got a little over excited and after he had opened the door for me, he gave me a split second and decided it was time to close the door. I barely made it in the car without getting my leg crushed in the door. Got to watch that little man!! :)

Fun Saturday Morning

Joshua had fun playing outside with his friend Pepper this morning. Now, we have just finished lunch and Joshua is getting ready for a nap, Rodney is getting ready to do homework and I'm heading out to the gym.

Happy Saturday Everybody!

B-TEAM ROCKS

We got the lovely privilege of wearing the ORANGE vest last night in the game, so anyone with an orange vest you see is on the awesome B TEAM!

Soccer

I'm hoping to have some pictures up from the soccer game tomorrow, but until then I'll just have to tell you about it. I had an ABSOLUTE BLAST playing tonight! It was so much fun. Our team lost, but we didn't lose by as much as we thought we would. The final score was 0-4. And, I think for a bunch of people that haven't played before that's AWESOME! I can't wait to play again next week! Joshua was so cute during the game, because anytime I was out on the field I could hear him screaming, GO MOMMY (CUTE CUTE CUTE!!!!) Joshua was sitting with his friend Pepper and Rodney and I could hear him screaming "GO COURTNEY." that child is sooo stinkin funny! I preferred hearing GO MOMMY.. but hearing him say GO COURTNEY was cute too! :)

Well, there's a quick summary. I'll definitely have to tell you all more later! But, for now I'M TIRED and going to BED! :)

GO B-TEAM

I figured I had better give ya'll a before shot of me in my soccer gear, because God's knows it ain't going to look like this after tonight! (haha)


GO B-TEAM!!!

By the way, after the picture was taken, I totally realized that my shinguards should be under my soccer socks not on top of them. I just thought since they were so pretty that I didn't want to cover them up. (hahaha) Just goes to show you how good I'm going to be at this. :)

Soccer

I'm not sure if I've shared with my wonderful blog friends yet, that I am going to be playing soccer. Our games start this Thursday and I'm actually really, really excited about this. Now, you have to know that I have never played soccer. I don't have the first clue about the game, but my team has been getting together to practice so I am getting to where I at least understand it more. We are getting together to practice tonight so maybe after tonight I'll finally decide what position I want to play. SWBTS has intermural sports teams so me and some of the guys and gals I work with decided we would form a team. Some of us have played before and some have not. Me and the ones that have not played made sure our team understood that we are only playing for fun, and not to expect to win (although, deep down I'm very competitive that it's going to kill me not to win, so I'm going to try my hardest). I will make sure and have someone take pictures of me playing so that you can have a good laugh.... oh, I mean so that you can see how good I am!(haha)

I'm off to get more work done. It's a busy Monday!

Wedgwood Members

We joined Wedgwood Baptist Church today here in Fort Worth. We are without a doubt, 100% in love with this church. Everyone is so sweet and the Pastor is absolutely incredible. He has such a passion for what he does and genuinely loves the church and the people God has given him to minister to. We've connected with a great Sunday School class and are developing some really great friendships. Joshua loves the church as well. They have an outdoor and indoor playground so of course he's totally sold! ;) They really do have a great children's program and we're excited about watching Joshua grow in his relationship with Christ through the great programs they have.

Other than that, we've not done too much today. We tooks naps and went to church (the perfect Sunday)!

It's off to work tomorrow for another busy week. Talk to you soon!

Nice Rainy Saturday

We have enjoyed a very productive rainy Saturday. I've cleaned out our closets and gone through all the clothes we can't wear anymore. I'm going to donate them to "helping hands" a ministry here on campus for Seminary families. I've also done several loads of laundry, all the ironing and have actually put everything away. I also went through Joshua's toys and decided to give some of the ones away that he doesn't play with anymore. Christmas will be here before we know it, so I needed to make room for new stuff. I also rearranged my bedroom and Joshua's bedroom today. It looks a lot better and is just nice having a new set up. Now, after all that I'm finally sitting down to do nothing for the rest of the night (which doesn't have much left).

Most of the hurricane missed us. We've just been getting rain and a little wind all day. And, I have really enjoyed the rain. I love rainy days where you can just stay home and get things done and relax.

Well, I guess that's enough of my rambling. Talk to you all later!

2 more pictures

Pictures

One of the girls I work with here at SWBTS does photography on the side and agreed to take some pictures of me so that I could send them to the church I'll be speaking at in November. They turned out really good and I actually LIKE them a lot. So, I thought I'd share them with you all!

And, OH YES.. I totally recommend Barb to anyone that wants their pictures done! She's great! :)

Thank You

Thank ya'll so much for all your responses to the previous post!! I really appreciate your help! If you haven't had a chance to respond to the questions yet, please still feel free to do so!

Love ya'll!

I Need Your Help, Please

As I've mentioned earlier I'll be speaking at a women's retreat November 1st. And, I'd like to have your help on something. Here are a series of questions that I would like for you to respond to. This will help me gather some information for the 2 talks I'm putting together. You can leave your comments here on my blog but if you'd rather have privacy so no one else reads your answers you can email me at cwlivelaughlove@aol.com. Also, I will not be sharing your information with anyone, so please don't worry about that.

1. What is your biggest obstacle to fully accepting the love of Christ?

2. How much do you rely on your "feelings" to make decisions?

3. When you find yourself facing a difficult situation who or what do you turn to first?

Thank ya'll so much for helping me out with this. What I'm hoping to do with this information is to compile of list of the answers and evaluate our responses to see how simliar we respond to different situations. God created women in a very special way and I believe we all have more in common than we think.

Love ya'll!

Blog Construction

Yes, I'm doing more blog contrustion. So, hopefully I'll have it all pretty again soon!

2 busy days down

ok, 2 busy days down and 4 to go and amazingly enough, we're still alive. (haha)

I found out the official date for the women's retreat I'm speaking at today. It will be on November 1st. They wanted to have it on October 4th, but my mother in law is coming to visit us and I didn't want to give up my time with her since I don't get to see her that often. So, we settled on November 1st for me to go. A girl I work with at SWBTS does photography work and is going to take some pictures of me this week for a flier. I'll post the pictures and let you see how they turn out.

Other than that, like I said earlier we're just busy and enjoying life! Joshua is cuter than ever and just a blast to hang out with. I love him so much. The older he gets he adds so much more joy to our lives. Although I miss him being a baby, I still love the stage we're in with him right now too. Each stage is so special!

Well, I'll talk to you all soon!

love ya

Busy Busy Week

I was putting my calendar together for the week and realized WOW, we're going to be busy. Here's a lookie at what we've got going on:

Monday Night: Rodney works until midnight; Mommy and Joshua are going to the pool and then Jessica and her kids are coming over

Tuesday Night: Courtney in class from 6:00pm to 9:00pm, Rodney and Joshua on their own (scary)

Wednesday Night: Church

Thursday Night: Courtney Metochai officers meeting until 8:30pm; then got to get home fast because at 8:30pm Pastor Al is coming to visit at our house (not sure how long that will take)

Friday Night: Trust me, something will come up! :)

Saturday Night: Rodney works 3-9pm, Courtney and Joshua fend for themselves (yes, that's scary too)

And of course during the day I'm at work, Rodney is in class and if he's not in class he's at work, and Joshua is at preschool. And, this little schedule we've got going on above, seems to be the schedule for this whole month. WOW.. life sure can get busy fast!

Ok, well sorry for my going on and on about our busyness. Just had to vent somewhere. (haha)

It's Saturday!

We've actually got a pretty busy day today. All of the counseling students from Southwestern were invited to go to a cook out at one of the counseling professors house today. So, we went and did that from 11:30-2:00 today. It was nice meeting some of Rodney's classmates and professors. Everyone was so sweet! Joshua didn't want to leave because they had a dog, a game room with an air hockey table and a fooseball (not sure if that's spelled right) table, and then outside they had a trampoline and a swimming pool. So, needless to say he was in heaven and hated it when it was time to go home. Right now we are home letting Joshua take a nap, and me and Rodney are doing homework, and then we are headed back out tonight at 5:30 to meet some friends for dinner.

In my homework today I'm reading from the book, "A Handbook for Ministers' Wives" by Mrs. Dorothy Patterson. (She is the wife of Dr. Paige Patterson, President at Southwestern Seminary, where Rodney goes to school and where I work.)I have not even got have way through the first chapter of this book and I'm already learning and absorbing so much through her words. Chapter One is titled, Position Demands Passion! Without even starting to read the chapter there is so much learn through those three words, Position Demands Passion! Without passion our positions, titles, callings are merely chores. That is not how I want my life to be defined. I want people to know that Courtney Williams has passion in being a wife, a mother and a minister of the word of God. As I've been preparing for the women's retreat I have the privilege of speaking at in October I've been searching and studying the Word of God and have found myself falling so deeply in love with the words of Christ. I have a passion for studying scripture and as I study it more and more it's like I can't get enough of it. I've asked the Lord to give me a prayer to pray for the precious women I'll be serving in October and today He directed me to Ephesians 3:14-21. As you read the prayer below that the apostle Paul prayed for the Ephesians know that it is my heart's desire that women all over this world would know the love of Christ and as I pray this for the women I'll be serving in October, I'm also praying it for you.

"For this reason, I kneel before the Father, from whom his whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name. I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and establised in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge - that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen!"

A Life of Service

I have to start out by saying that we serve an awesome, wonderful, loving Savior! In all my years as a Christ-follower I am still amazed at just how much he loves us and gives us the desires of our heart. Psalm 37:4 has been a theme verse in my life for quite some time and God has proved over and over to me that if our delight is in Him, that He will give us the desires of our heart. I've prayed over and over for the Lord to begin opening doors to a speaking ministry for me. I have a passion for telling others about Jesus. I want others to know what a real and vibrant relationship they can have with Jesus Christ. It is within our reach and God invites us in to an intimate relationship with Him. Well, God has heard my prayer and has opened up an incredible door for me. In October I'll be going to Lancaster, SC (my hometown) and speaking at a women's retreat at my aunt and uncle's church. I am so thrilled that my first time to be invited to speak is in my hometown and that my family gets to be there with me. That means the world to me! I'll have the opportunity to speak twice while I am there. I've been praying and seeking the face of God this weekend asking Him to give me the message that He wants spoken and He has laid on my heart a passage of scripture that is so inspiring and awesome. If there is one thing I totally have a passion for doing it's studying and learning all I can in scripture. My dream job would be having an 8-5 job studying scripture. I just absolutely love it! The Word of God is so rich and full of incredible life lessons. It's God's way of speaking to us. The Bible is so much more than a book. It's a living, breathing conversation God is having with His people. Hebrews 4:12 says that "the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart." That's why I'm so in love with the Word of God. It's alive and speaks directly to any situation I may ever face. And, I am so honored to be called by Christ to be a voice for Him and to minister to the hearts of these precious women I get to have the privilege of serving. I fully trust that God will continue to open doors up for me to speak and share the message of Christ with others. My heart's desire is that in everything I say and do that I will be a blessing and encouragement to the very heart of my Savior, Jesus Christ. It for Him that I do the things I do.