oh, how i long for our sweet carl...

Lord willing, Scott and I will be moving sometime in May or June. Do we know where yet? nope!! I know this may be weird, but one of the things I would say we are both most excited about moving is to be able to finally get a puppy! We have decided we probably are going to get a golden. His name is Carl. We talk about him like we already have him. We are weird, I know. I can't wait to take him on walks, to snuggle with him, to play with him in the yard, to be mad at him when he chews my shoe up, to discipline him when he pees or poops on the carpet and to love him!! I'm waaaaayyyy more excited about that right now than having a baby....I'm not ready for that yet. No thank you...maybe in a few years. Golden Retriever's are great puppies and they grow up to be awesome and beautiful dogs. My mom has a golden named Patrick, and he is definitely one of my best friends. He's the coolest dog ever! I hope Carl will be able to live up to Patrick's standard. It won't be hard for Carl to be smarter than Patrick, because Pat is pretty dumb, but he still is amazing. Carl, mommy and daddy are coming for you soon!!!

Baby K weekend.

This past weekend, Scott, Leann, and I road tripped to Springfield, MO for Kate's baby shower. She 's due next month and it is extremely obvious. She's a tiny gal as it is, but she has a massive basketball looking belly. Adorable, of course. I think that's what every woman dreams to look like when they are preggo. Right now we call her baby, Baby K. Kate and Kevin don't want people to know his name yet. I have a feeling I won't be able to get out of the habit of just calling him Baby K the rest of his life. Sorry Kate! It was a beautiful weekend so we were able to take a lovely walk in park (I think it's a requirement to have a little dog if you live in Springfield, MO) and be outside quite a bit.

it was sunny and kevin is funny

look at that belly!!!

The shower was on Sunday and it was an eco-friendly shower. Kate is my hippy all-natural friend. In the invitation it said to be creative with wrapping the presents in an eco-friendly way, SO I did just that.

I went straight to my recycling bin (see, I try to be eco-friendly too) and grabbed a granola bar box, a lean cuisine box and some newspaper. I went outside and picked up leaves, sticks and maybe tore a few pine needle branches off of our bushes (maybe not the most environmental friendly thing to do...sorry kate). I taped a little bit of each on the presents. PERFECT! I will say, Leann made a joke to wrap a present in just leaves, so I somewhat stole that idea from her. She was creative too, but hers was a lot cuter. She bought a basket and clothes pinned several onsies together and put them in there. It was really cute...Leann's just cute like that though. Anyways, the baby shower was great and Kate and Kevin got lots of goodies for when Baby K arrives on April 11th (I think that's the correct date).
p.s. Scott had to come to the shower because we were leaving straight from there, and he was the only guy there besides Kevin (who is the baby daddy). He promised he would never go to one again (unless it was his own...hopefully) because "there was way too much estrogen and emotional women in the room."

embrace grace...divorce yourself from law

Today the sermon Pastor Steve gave at church was amazing and challenging all at once. We've been going through the book of Hebrews and the series is called Jesus Is Better.  Today was called Jesus Is Better: the better Moses. 

Though I've been a Christian since I was 10 years old, sometimes I still struggle with truly accepting and understanding God's grace. I still feel unworthy of accepting it. I have such a guilty conscious, so when I sin, and I know I've sinned, sometimes I feel as though I need to be more religious and make up for what I've done, rather than just repenting and accepting God's grace. I never want to feel as though I am taking advantage of His grace. There needs to always be a good balance of being broken because of your sin, but still accepting His grace. That's exactly what the sermon was about today.

Moses was sent to prepare the hearts of the Israelites before Jesus came. Hebrews 3:3 says, "For Jesus has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses- as much glory as the builder of a house has more honor than the house itself." WE are the house!  So when Moses was sent to bring the Israelites the Law (10 commandments), they were already building an idol!! So why would God send Moses to set up a Law (a religious system) when He knew it would rise against the gospel? He knew they were going to build that idol before he even presented them with a set of rules to live by. He did this so we would be humbled and so He could prepare our hearts to love Christ!  The Israelites made an idol before the ink on the contract wasn't even dry! They had absolutely NO hope of obeying. God knew their misbehavior was in their unhealthy hearts. The Mosaic Law showed them they are completely broken...just what we needed to be fully dependent on Christ.

The part that is easy to do with the Law is when we feel like we are doing awesome by keeping the Law, we judge others and want to close off the world to grace, which ultimately leads to self-righteousness.  We begin to act like we no longer NEED Christ and His GRACE!  This is what I was talking about when I stated above about being more religious rather than accepting God's grace. When we sin, we need to run to GRACE, NOT shame. We try to do more good deeds (whether we realize it or not) so we can earn our way back into a good relationship with God. If we had to work hard and do good deeds to rid ourselves of sin, we would never be accepted by Christ...life would be stressful and we would never feel able to fulfill our duty.  We sin way too much even for a lifetime to work our way into heaven. We need to ACCEPT God's grace and know the Law came to break us of self-sufficiency and pride! It's so much more freeing.

When our hearts are broken by grace and not self-effort, this is when God is able to work through us and allow us to grow closer to Him. We rely on Him and not ourselves. We compare ourselves to His standards and not to the world's.

Hebrews 8:10-12 says, "For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my laws into their minds, and write them on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people, And they shall not teach, each one his neighbor and each one his brother, saying, 'Know the Lord,' for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest. For I will be merciful toward their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more."

HE'S DONE IT FOR US!!! WE NO LONGER HAVE TO BE IN CHAINS...WE CAN LIVE IN FREEDOM BECAUSE OF CHRIST'S LOVE, OBEDIENCE, AND WILLINGNESS TO GO TO THE CROSS AND BEAR ALL OF OUR SINS FOR US!! HE DIDN'T HAVE TO DO THIS, BUT HE KNEW THERE WAS NO OTHER WAY FOR US TO BE ABLE TO SPEND ETERNITY WITH HIM WITHOUT THIS HAPPENING. A PERFECT BEING HUNG ON THE CROSS FOR IMPERFECT PEOPLE. AMAZING LOVE, HOW CAN THIS BE? This is how much our Heavenly Father loves us. Embrace grace; divorce yourself from the Law.

prayer for Seth and Jessie

Seth and Jessie Huber are two of our great friends. On Thursday morning, they leave to do missions in Haiti for a year!  They will be working with a ministry there (I can't remember the name...eek).  Jessie will be doing office work, tutoring, and working with the kids in the orphanage. Seth will be using his carpentry skills to build what they need...I'm pretty sure Jessie said they are going to build a school.  So you can tell I don't know a ton of details, but either do Seth and Jessie. They are so excited, but also don't really know what to expect.  That can be a bit scary, but they trust this is where God wants them. Please be praying for them while they are there. I think it is so amazing that they are taking their time to leave for a year to do work for the Lord.  I know Christ will use them immensely while they are there. We need to be praying for their safety, for the ministry, for the kids they will be investing into, and that the Gospel will be heard. We love you Seth and Jessie!!