I delight

I am in Aspen. I have been having an amazing time. I have been doing just about everything I like to do, and almost nothing I don't like doing. 
I have been getting up early, I have been getting children out the door, I have been on a schedule. I have been surrounded with children at all times. I have been able to have control over a lot of things in my days. I have not been doing much school. I have been having little smiling faces around me all day. I have been carrying a baby on my hip half the day. I have been cleaning. I have been cooking. I have been helping other women that I look up to. I have had time with just adults, and adult conversation. I have been texting with friends. I have been eating wonderful food. 


All of the above give me wonderful Joy. Every single thing. I will admit some of the things, (like cleaning) I do occasionally get tired of, but not very often. Today, for the third morning in a row, I finished cleaning the kitchen, and got out the vacuum to clean the rug under the table. As I was starting to move all the chairs, this task, which I had honestly loved doing the last two mornings, started to seem tedious. And that started a train of thinking which has been running through my mind all day.... what is Joy? How do I have joy all the time?


Well first here is a couple quotes that I found, and really like:
Joy lies in the fight, in the attempt, in the suffering involved, not in the victory itself
Mahatma Gandhi

“Sometimes your joy is the source of your smile, but sometimes your smile can be the source of your joy.”

Thich Nhat Hanh  So. What is true Joy? how do I find it? Well, as I have been thinking about it all day, one main thought keeps coming back to me. Especially after vacuuming this morning. It is: This is Joy. Not that we are happy while doing things we delight in, but that we search for delight in everything. In every small task, in every hardship, and in the happy times. And that God, be our first, true, source of Joy. This is what I am striving for, and I can only accomplish with the grace of God. ~Rebekah

Patience, trust and learning.

One of the precious ones I babysit, fresh out of the camera.

Wow. It surly has been a long time. Very, very long time. But during all that time I have not written, i have been very busy.

I am currently sitting in the Chicago airport, waiting for my flight to Aspen. I am going to Aspen to nanny for one of the most precious families ever. (you have probably seen some pictures of their children on here.)

So many times this past week, God has been teaching me patience, and learning to lean on Him. Trust Him. Not myself. It has been hard at points, and yes i have broken down. But He helps me get myself right back up again. First example is Monday. I had been really looking forward all last week to going to a park with a family I babysit for. I had planned my whole week. Every bit of school needed to get done ect, around this day. Well She called that morning and caneled, becuase the babies were sick. Well then, I thought to myself. This is no reason to get upset. Just press, God has a perfect plan. As I start to rearrange my school stuff to fit my new sceduale, she calls again. Now I am going to go over, and just stay with the babies. Ok, I think again. Stay mellow. God helped me do this. I DID NOT do it on my own. Without the Lord I most likley would have been a bawling mess. But nope. God knew the plan. And my week turned out amazingly wonderful :) Next is yesterday (Saturday.) I was supposed to fly to Aspen. 5 mins before I walk out the door, I get a call. Flight canceled, and moved to Sunday (today.) Ok, stay calm. I was so about to cry. God please help me. I know this is YOUR plan, even if it's not mine. And He did. I had a wonderful afternoon, despite the airline calling again, and moving my flight to later today.

So, I have learned, espcially over the last week, that patience is certinally a virtue. And that trusting God is vital in order to no worry. And that learning, is a process, and includes experiance, and acutally failing sometimes, in order to learn everything.

I hope to write more while in Aspen!

Only by His grace,
~Rebekah

I heart faces-Halarious Outtakes

So I have had a crazy week, and can only post 2, but I hope these make you smile!

The top one is what happens when he yawns right in the middle of the picture :)

And this is what happens when you try to get a lovley photo of 4 kids on a slide, and the oldest decides to slide down really hard :)

I hope you enjoy these!

head over to iheartfaces to see more great outakes!

God's Circle

So I am finally getting to writing on my blog. Yes. I know. I have been very, very bad. But hey. At least I am doing it now, and I totally didn't desert it. In the many, many things God has been teaching me lately, one of them is to take life as it comes, enjoy the moments, and DO NOT stay in the future. You can not change anything about it. It is done for. It happened, and God had a plan for it. So accept it, learn from your mistakes, and forget.

On that same note, I have been thinking a lot about the "circle of life." Now this may not be the circle of life you are thinking of. I am thinking of the one God desgined so amazingly, mainly the emotional circle of life. One of the main things I realized is that you ARE going to have hard times in life. That is garentted. There is no way to get around it. It is part of the "circle" God has designed so well. Now you may be like, exuse me? But think about it. Without any of those hard times, so many things would not have happened. There would be SO MANY lessons that had not been learned. And we would not appriceate the good times, if there were no bad. So, once we finally accept that there will be bad times, what do we do with this knowledge? Well, first of all, we thank Him for those bad times, espcially while we are in them. Now when I say bad times, what do I mean? I mean anything that is hard on you, spiritually, emotionally, or physically. I know all of us encouter things that are hard on us many times a day. So, that gives us many times a day when we can spesifically thank the Lord for His goodness, for giving us those bad times. Now, thanking Him is not the only purpose in those bad times. Learning is a big thing. If you never had the bad times, you wouldn't learn very much at all. While in the bad times, you need to look at them, (now as I keep saying you, I am mainly saying it as this is what I am STRIVING to do.)and say, God you have put me in this time for a reason, howevery much I may not like it, please help me to learn what you want me to get out if this. Other very important thing you get out of the bad times is depenance on God. What if we never had bad times? We would never need God's comfort, His love, His grace, His abundant mercy. Jesus would not have had to die if we didn't have bad times. But we do have them, and He did die. He died to set us free from the sin that was going to sperate us from that God we depend so much on.

Now tieing all of that in to what I said earlier, we will have good times too. We will have times when we feel like our God is amazing, and everything is good. And then we will go again into those bad times. And we will long for the good times. But we should appreciate just the amount of God has given us. And thank God, learn from and depend on God in each and every time in our life. And all we do, we should do, for the Glory of our amazing, everlasting God. This is God's circle of life :)


This is an absolutely amazing saying my friend made up, and I took the picture. I LOVe it!

I heart faces- hands on fun

This week over at I heart Faces, the theme is hands on fun. This is one of the precious kids I babysit. He is a huge ball of energy, yet he has a very sweet and gentle spirit.
The photo was the result of hours and hours of being stuck indoor because of the blizzard.
Blizzard + Cardboard tube + hyper boy + camera= Hours and hours of fun, and one great photo of our Hands on fun!



So head over to I heart faces and check out some more totally awesome photos of hands on fun!

Happy Valentine's day!

I never really enjoyed Valentine's day much, i mean all the cheap valentine's people exchange, the "romance" that everyone wants. It just does not appeal that much to me. But I will say, this Sunday, my pastor gave one of the best sermons. Even though it was focused towards marrige, it still very much applies to many of my relationships. So here are the main points I got:

In our hunger for personal happiness, we not only forget all God has done for us, but we forget that God is currently holding us in His hands, and molding us for His perfect purpose.

I find that sometimes, I get so self-absorbed in MY wants, and MY thoughts, that I don't even stop for one second to look at the bigger picture. Even though I can not always see the full image, I do know that God is in control, and that His plans are always best for me. This can be a hard thing to trust, because I am definitely type A, and I am just like any other person. I want what I want, and I want it the most. So, this week I am specifically praying this week, that God will lead my heart to not only trust His plans, but put other's want's first. And I do realize this may sound like something your taught in Sunday school, but it is something that I am sure I can be reminded of over, and over again :)

Next thing was:

No one person can meeet all the needs of your heart. God has reserved that pleasure for Himself.

This is something that I have been praying about latley. It is about balance in my life. He has given me my amazing friends and family, for many reasons. But at the same time, I need to make sure HE is the center of my thoughts, my mind, my life. Not anyone else :)

And last but certinly not least:

Instead of trying to change another person, try to change ourselves. Spesifaclly work on Loving like said in 1 Corthinans 13:

¹If I speak in the tongues^{a]" style="line-height: 0.5em; ">[a]} of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. ²If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. ³If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames,^{b]" style="line-height: 0.5em; ">[b]} but have not love, I gain nothing.

⁴Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. ⁵It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. ⁶Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. ⁷It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

⁸Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. ⁹For we know in part and we prophesy in part, ¹⁰but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears.¹¹When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. ¹²Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

¹³And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

So I hope this blesses you this week, and makes you think about what is really behind Valentine's day!

~Rebekah

I heart faces-Dancing

Now that my life is returning to "normal" again really wanted to start i heart faces back up. Well this week seemed like the perfect opurtunity, the theme is "dancing". The photo I chose to enter is one I took when I was just starting out it photography, even before I had my nice camera. But it has remained one of my favoirtes through the years!

Now head on over to I heart faces to see more wonderful "dancing" photos!

Hello again!

Some totally AWESOME TeenPacter's!

I know I have become a stranger, I am sorry! I hope to start writing more often... :)

But for now, here is an overview of the last couple of weeks:

Just having fun with my brother :)

Last Monday we were supposed to leave for Teenpact, but because of snow on the Saturday before, it got moved to Tues. Tues we leave for Teenpact, (In Richmond) And spend an absolutly amazing, life-changing week, worshiping God, learning about be an active leader, and spending time with some of the awesomest people I know! Friday, we race back inorder to get home before blizzard hits. Fri-Sat blizzard hits, everything is canceled, we get like 26 inches of snow. Monday no one goes to work, everything is canceled, we are stuck inside, and shoveling snow. Tuesday another storm hits that night, everything canceled, Wednesday storm with strong winds still going, finally slows down to almost halt, have gotten another 10 inches of snow! And so that has been my last couple of weeks. It is just lovely, it was nice to get a brake but I will be SOO glad when my social life starts back up again!

What at somepoint in my life, was our sidewalk :)

Can you see that little thing back there? Under all the white? That is our house :) Ok so I am exaggerating, but if you saw a picture of what it normally looks like, you would be shocked!!

~Rebekah

p.s. Check this out PLEASE! It is so very cool!

http://www.therebelution.com/books/starthere/book_bomb.php

This is my beautiful friend Rebekah, which I did a photo shoot for while she was here!

So. Yes. It has again been a very long time. And I apologize. The last almost 2 months have been crazy. So last Wednesday when life finally went back to "normal" it took me a while to get used to it. But I am back. I hope, I will keep blogging, because I love doing it!

So where on earth do I start? There is so much to say. God has shown me more then I could ever imagine over the last months. He has worked on my heart in ways I never thought possible. I fail. He forgives me. He shows me how to improve. And we do it all over again. But hey I think I know enough to say that is life!

My amazing friend Rebekah was here for two weeks. She rocks. I can not say enough good about her. We had soooo much fun! We explored the DC one day, went Ice Skating on the National mall. Walked DC in my high heals and 30 degree weather. Went shopping ALOT. Babysat together. Had my 16th birthday party, a sleep over with 14 girls, did a 16 day bible study together, went to co-op, went to church, went to small groups, went to Youth Group and just talked. :)

This week alone God has showed me more things then I could ever count. One thing is I need to depend on Him. On last Thursday night, I had a breakdown moment. I had had friends almost non-stop for the last month. They were all gone. No one could talk. I was lonely. I was crying out, I just wanted someone. But God was there, He heard me. He quietly whispered in my ear "Your life does not depend on man, It depends on ME alone. I am here for you. I am the ultimate friend. Just let me wrap my arms around you. Lean on me." It was quite the realization for me. Even though my friends are complete blessings from God, and He has placed each one in my life for a reason, I still need to depend on HIM first and always :)

Last friday I spent the whole day babysitting for some of my absolute favorite kids on the planet. A three year-old girl and one year-old boy. They are both totally precious. But very exhausting. I can not explain chasing two rambunctious kids through the house all day, (because it is too cold to go outside) Now don't get me wrong. It was a blast. It was so much fun! But by the end of the day I was pretty darn tired. And I will admit, that the thought came into my mind... "if this is what mother's do all day long every day for their lives, is this what I really want to do?" But with in 30 seconds the thought flooded from my head. The little girl came up, and with a huge smile on her face said "Bekah, I love you, very much." She gave me a big old hug and kiss. Then the little boy gave me a grin, one that lights up you whole life. Right then I knew. Motherhood is hard. I will not even begin to say I know how hard it is, because I don't even grasp it. But I do know it is hard. But, oh I know it is also SO worth it. Those little LIVES that you are raising, the precious miracles God has made. God has been confirming what I realized every day this week. In many different ways and forms. It is just so cool the way God has set this life up. He is pretty darn smart!!

So I think I need to go to bed now... but I hope that updated you a little bit!

~Rebekah

2010

It is already twenty-ten. So hard to belive. And I have no where near finished posting the best of 2009, so I will be posting more all through January!

I am very much looking forward to this year. I have many highlights coming, and lots to do. But as I sat and read everyone's post's about their new year's resolutions, I was thinking, what is mine? Well The sermon in Church today was perfect, so I am going to copy some of the pastor's and then include some of my own.

.STAND IN THE LORD... Whatever He chooses to bring my way in the next year.. I know HE will be my driver, the one that keeps me going through all the wonderful high's and harder low's.

. Choose Joy. Happiness, and joy are choices. Not feelings. Choices. Every morning, I want to get up and CHOOSE to be happy. Look at stuff on the bright side. Live for God, and Love for God, be Joyful for God.

.Focus on others. Though many people's resolutions are all on THEIR goals for the future, (and most of mine are too) I want a lot of the next year to be focused on others. Not myself. I want to help, care for, and LOVE others, just like God does for me everyday. Specific ways I can do this? Spend more time with family, reach out when babysitting, not be afraid to share God with others, and give more of my money, stuff and time to others.

Pray, don't worry. This is just something that is hard for me. I am very type A, so therefore I tend to worry about everything. All the plans, the exactness of everything. But this year I want to give those over to God, not only not worry about them, but let God lead me in the ways HE wants me to go. And Pray. Pray much more. Pray about the things I truly desire, pray for others, pray during the high's and low's. PRAY!

Forgive in relationships. This is something I never thought I had a problem with. But God has been showing me just in the last day, that even though I don't have a huge grudge in my heart, I still do have trouble forgiving, and this is something I definitely need to work on.

Ok so there were two more in the sermon, but I want to apply those very specifically in my own ways so I have saved them for last.

Be Gentle. This is something God has truly been convicting me in, VERY much. So over the next year I want to strive to be more gentle in my manner, words, voice and touch. I want to apply these VERY specifically to my life. In my manner, I want to act gently towards everyone, but start working very hard on it towards my family. This means, sharing everything, being willing to give up remotes, spots, chairs, places, time, fun, food, and sweets for my siblings or parents. Not to argue over any of the past listed things, and to be grateful for what I do get, and to be graceful in the way I do it. In my words, I want to work very hard on not using words that hurt others. This means specifically with my family, when someone makes me mad, to return with words filled with LOVE and GRACE. When I don't get what I want, to still use those words filled with LOVE and GRACE. Also to learn when to see the time to use no words at all, or to speak when it is very hard. In my voice, I want to mainly strive to keep it gentle at ALL times. Wether my siblings or parents have made me mad, or I just am not having a good day. To never let me anger get the better of me. Keep my voice calm and gentle, as if I were talking to a bear :) This is something that I think will be very hard for me to accomplish, and I only will with the grace and strength of God! And in my touch. To use it wisely. To use it more with my siblings in a gentle manner, but also NEVER use it when angry. To not hit, pinch, bite, or kick, even in teasing.

And the next was Be Self-controlled. I am going to apply this to my physical area of life. Mainly my fitness. I am going to strive to become more fit, and not only do it, but keep my body fit and healthy, and have fun while I am doing it. How am I going to do this specifically? Mainly by spending more time doing physical activities. Give up most of my TV time to go outside and play. Play with my brothers, hid'n'seek or tag, teach them games like ultimate frisbee, go on walks with kids, go on bike rides with my mother, sit and do school outside (in better weather.) Do anything possible to get my self outside and moving. And also to eat healthier. This does not mean I am going to not eat sweets, becuase at the moment, I think it is ok for me to. But this means to control the amount of food I eat, (even meals) to stop when my body is full, and not eat till it is hungry again. To eat an apple for snack instead of chips, and to choose a salad over chicken nuggets for lunch. To give my self small servings of dessert and enjoy the little bit I get.

And last but definitely not least to LOVE. To LOVE everyone. Not with the word love, but with the true LOVE the LOVE from the bible. I love this verse, but never really thought about how I can apply it to my life. How I can truly really LOVE everyone like the verse says.

⁴Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. ⁵It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. ⁶Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. ⁷It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

⁸Love never fails.

I pray that all of these, I will do with God by my side, and fully believing He can help me do anything.

~Rebekah