The greatest mystery, Christ in me the hope of GLORY

A good name is better than fine perfume,

and the day of death better than the day of birth

It is better to go to a house of mourning

than to go to a house of feasting,

for death is the destiny of every man;

the living should take this to heart.

Ecclesiastes 7:1 - 2

The potential of experiencing the mourning of losing a loved one shakes my heart to its foundation. Am I founded on the hope of tomorrow or on Christ in me, the hope of glory? Truly, it is better to go to the house of mourning.

I love my husband!

This is a tribute to my husband Levi. He is the most humble, generous, caring, compassionate, forgiving, patient, adventure crazy, athletic and amazing man I know. I love you Levi!!

The Weight of Waiting

I found this today and I needed it, hope it blesses y'all too.

 

Advent is one of my favorite seasons though it involves one of my least favorite activities: waiting. Though I'm not especially fond of waiting in a long line at the grocery store or waiting for a traffic light to turn green, this is another kind of waiting. This is waiting on the Lord.

I have dreams, plans, desires that I long to see come to fruition. These are good dreams--plans, I pray, that would give glory to God and stir the affections of the saints toward Him. I'm not alone in this. At the moment, I know of two families in particular who are waiting for some very good things. One waits to see if the Lord would be gracious in continuing to grow a precious child in her womb. Another waits to see if He will grant healing and restoration in their daughter's body. The one word in those sentences on which its content hangs is this: waits.

Beyond a shadow of a doubt, I know the Lord could speak one word in the smallest moment and all would be restored--the little life would grow, the broken body would be healed, and my plans would materialize. He is able. But, as of this morning, He hasn't chosen to reveal His will in these matters yet. Both families (and myself) are waiting. This I do know: God has revealed His will for right now. His will for them and for me is to wait.

There is weight in waiting. It is a gravity that pulls us toward Him. Very few things offer relief or respite but the presence of God and the healing balm of His word.

This weight is a heaviness that presses us down, sometimes on our faces. Many times in my waiting the Lord has shown me that I desire the thing on which I wait more than I desire Him. The realization of my idolatry and the unrelenting kindness of God even in the midst of it leads me to confession and repentance.

This weight refuses to let us go about our day without it reminding us of its presence. In my experience with waiting, I find others' fulfillment of what I'm longing for highlighted. Rarely do I glance through a Twitter timeline without seeing even a hint of this. "Everyone" seems to be not waiting.

For those who wait on the Lord, though, it is not a weight leading to despair but instead a weight that invites us to know hope.

Remember my affliction and my wanderings,

the wormwood and the gall!

My soul continually remembers it

and is bowed down within me.

But this I call to mind,

and therefore I have hope:

The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases;

his mercies never come to an end;

they are new every morning;

great is your faithfulness.

"The Lord is my portion," says my soul,

"therefore I will hope in him."

The Lord is good to those who wait for him.

It is good that one should wait quietly

for the salvation of the Lord.

Lamentations 3:19 - 26

By the inspiration of the Holy Spirit from the mouth of Simeon, a man well-acquainted with waiting, as he holds the infant Jesus...

Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace,

according to your word;

for my eyes have seen your salvation

that you have prepared in the presence of all peoples,

a light of revelation to the Gentiles,

and for glory to your people Israel.

Luke 2:29 - 32

This is the hope: the salvation of the Lord has come and will come again to make all things right. It has come in the form of Jesus. Because He has come, all things will be used for our good whether our waiting ends as we've hoped or not. In our waiting and in its end, we get Him.

Power in the Holy Spirit

I sent this out to a lot of friends yesterday and wanted to post it on here too

I loved this passage today. Looking for my greater purpose today.

The Spirit of the LORD God is upon me,
because the LORD has anointed me
to bring good news to the poor;
He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
to proclaim freedom to the captives,
and the opening of the prison to those who are bound.
Isaiah 61:1

Andrew Shearman: "I want to live the kind of life so that when my eyes snap open in the morning, the demons say, 'Oh no, he's awake again. That's not braggadocio; I want to be a threat to hell."

Happy late Halloween!

Ruth and I dressed up as cowgirls at our office for Halloween. It was a great day!!

Everything is made beautiful in its time

{Ecclesiastes 3:1-11}

There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven: 

a time to be born and a time to die,

a time to plant and a time to uproot,

a time to kill and a time to heal,

a time to tear down and a time to build,

a time to weep and a time to laugh,

a time to mourn and a time to dance,

a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,

a time to embrace and a time to refrain,

a time to search and a time to give up,

a time to keep and a time to throw away,

a time to tear and a time to mend,

a time to be silent and a time to speak,

a time to love and a time to hate,

a time for war and a time for peace. 

What does a worker gain from his toil? I have seen the burden God has laid on men. He has made everything beautiful in its time. 

I have been toying with all kinds of ideas lately with my faith versus the faith that I grew up with. My church was extremely conservative and never mentioned walking with God by listening to the Holy Spirit. And actually learning to hear God through your prayers and thoughts. It has been a weird transition for me to be a part of a church that is so wrapped up in God and praising him with everything they have, that they don't even notice how you are praising him. No judgement is made, you are just accepted with your own personal worship styles. No one is congratulating you on your faith or making awkward comments that they are "proud of you for your faith," or anything else to take away from the fact that all of the attention should be on GOD, and not on me. That discussions about church, faith, and Jesus should be centered around him, and not me. I was talking to my sister a while ago and we were both talking about how we have developed "church complexes" that make us uncomfortable talking to people we are close to about our faith because we don't want to be glorified for our comments. We want an honest discussion, but somehow it gets turned back around to us, and in turn makes us not want to talk to anyone about our faith.

I have been struggling with that a lot lately and have finally realized that perhaps Satan is using that to keep me quiet. Even though there are a few people that I don't want to discuss my faith with because it's awkward, doesn't mean I need to be quiet in general...or that I don't need to do it anyway. There is a time for everything, for silence and for sharing...for awkwardness and for joy. I am choosing joy, to share my Lord with those that I love and those that I don't know well. Hopefully it will be received well and even if the conversation turns back to me I will be able to handle it and not get angry.

Late pictures from our Hottest Half Marathon

Levi and I did the Hottest Half marathon and it was above 95 degrees the whole time! Woo and we finished!!

Neutral Room

I'm still in a decorating mood since we have new couches and a chaise coming to our house this weekend! Wahoo!! I'm feeling neutrals right now...with a hint of red and orangey-yellow.  Yes these are random, but I love them

We've sold all our living room furniture!

Woopy!! So now we're thinking more along the lines of a sectional and this....

Blogging for Miss L (because she's looking this up)

Hi Lauren!

Another picture!

Seaside Florida

My cousin Erin sent us pictures that her and Geoff took of me and Levi in Seaside Florida! Geoff inherited an old fashioned camera from his grandpa and took these pictures.

Calm Day Mood Room

If we had the money to switch decorations in our house...I would love this :) I love how our house is right now but this is a fun, different look. Maybe for another room someday? But honestly, if we had that kind of money I'd rather go travel! Or buy the house we live in right now and fix it up. Here's a list of the prices so y'all can see how ridiculous this would be.

Pompeiana Dresser: $40,920 by Fornasetti
Antler Pendant: $5,900 by 12x
360 Lounger: $700 by funkysofa.com
Winslow Computer Desk: $450 by Home Decorators Collection
Dhurrie Rug: $200 by Velocity
Panier Table: $130 by Y Lighting
Lipali Olive Oil Bottle: $80 by The Conran Shop
Elephant Watering Can: $8 from Amazon
Fur Cushion: $430 by Nendo for Capellini
Voileiri Tambour Drum: $600 by The Conran Shop

Invitations for Miss Lauren!

My cousin Erin got married this past December and I got to design her wedding breakfast invitation and her lingerie shower invitation. It was really fun! So...my sister Lauren is getting married and she asked if she could use some of the extra invitation ideas I had made for Erin for her wedding that's going to be in Florida in July. (SO excited about her wedding!) And I said yes, of course! All of the ones I had made for Erin are on my laptop in Austin so I thought I'd make some new ones for Lauren, and I thought I'd share. They're pretty fun! I did a bunch of different styles because I honestly have no idea what she'll want :)

The Hottest Half

Levi and I registered to run a half marathon together in August! WOOHOO! It's called the Hottest Half and it's in Dallas, Texas. Our friends Houston and Melanie Runyan are going to be running it with us too. It shouldn't be TOO hot since it starts at 7:30. Levi could run it right now without training, but I need my full three months haha. We went running this morning and it was really fun! Great together time, and ACU's track is awesome now with the lake and scripture rocks. Can't wait!

Convicting Poem

Disturb us, Lord, when
We are too pleased with ourselves,
When our dreams have come true
Because we dreamed too little,
When we arrived safely
Because we sailed too close to the shore.

Disturb us, Lord, when
with the abundance of things we possess
We have lost our thirst
For the waters of life;
Having fallen in love with life,
We have ceased to dream of eternity
And in our efforts to build a new earth,
We have allowed our vision
Of the new Heaven to dim.

Disturb us, Lord, to dare more boldly,
To venture on wilder seas
Where storms will show Your mastery;
Where losing sight of land,
We shall find the stars.

We ask you to push back
The horizons of our hopes;
And to push back the future
In strength, courage, hope, and love.

This we ask in the name of our Captain,
Who is Jesus Christ.

Sir Francis Drake

Hail storm in Abilene

Working at State Farm has been interesting the past week. We had huge fires in Possum Kingdom that have burned up over 150 houses so far including one of our insured's house that was worth $600,000. Crazy! Then on Sunday we had a huge hail storm and our office has been taking claims nonstop since then. We took about 260 claims yesterday and today is supposed to be just as crazy. Here's a picture of the smaller hail that we had in the middle of town. Abilene had grapefruit sized hail on the south side of town.

Luggage Tags

We got our FREE luggage tags in the mail. So sad...but I'm very excited about them. And I want to try them out on a trip...tomorrow?? Yes please.

I love Levi Bryce

"We are all a little weird and life's a little weird, and when we find someone whose weirdness is compatible with ours, we join up with them and fall into mutual weirdness and call it love." - Dr. Seuss

And yes...my mouth automatically opens when I jump :)

Camping in Fredericksburg!!

Levi, my sister and her boyfriend Lark and I all went camping in Fredericksburg this past weeked! It was SO fun! We first drove in to Pedernales Falls and went swimming, then went and explored Fredericksburg and ate at Mamacitas, then went to the KOA camping sites and camped out! The next morning we went to Enchanted Rock and hiked around, then stopped at little towns on the way back to Abilene. It was the PERFECT weekend! We used a lot of our camping stuff that we got for our wedding and it's crazy how much we have! We are so blessed.

Also...I put up a picture of Lark in a waterfall which the 3 L's will find really funny because Levi keep encouraging Lark to climb into the waterfall...then we realized it was covered in MILLIONS of little leeches. Literally. So i stuck in a picture of the leeches too. It took him a while to get them all off!