Sunday morning bro. Bruce preached this message:

17. I urge you, brothers, to watch out for those who cause divisions and put obstacles in your way that are contrary to the teaching you have learned. Keep away from them. 18. For such people are not serving our Lord Christ, but their own appetites. By smooth talk and flattery they deceive the minds of naive people. 19. Everyone has heard about your obedience, so I am full of joy over you; but I want you to be wise about what is good, and innocent about what is evil. 20. The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus be with you.

Romans 16:17-20

Keep away from them. Avoid them. Don’t go near them. That kind of stings, doesn’t it? What if those people are our spouses? Our best friends? Our co-workers? Or sisters? Or cousins? Or any other family member? It hurts. So how do we deal with them? How do we co-exist with people who don’t serve our Lord? We must prepare ourselves and stand guard for our hearts and minds against these that we’ve noted in our hearts to be hurtful to our Christian life. Paul URGES us. It’s urgent that we do this. He doesn’t just say “Oh, be careful if you think about it.” He URGES us to separate ourselves from them. Stay away!

[P.S. I don’t take this to mean we should completely separate ourselves from these. Yes, we should surround ourselves with those of like-mind but we should also love on the lost and hurting. Love our enemies. The ones who hurt us. The ones who talk about us behind our backs and break our hearts. The ones who lie to us and shield our eyes from the truth. The ones who annoy us and frustrate us (even in the church!). We should love them.

Believe me, I’m preachin’ to myself here. There are plenty of people I could count off that I’d rather not spend my time with. But they are apart of the same body of Christ that I’m apart of. Makes it a lil’ tougher, doesn’t it?]

Ever seen/heard this demonstration?
Take two people and a chair.  One stands in the chair the other on the ground. The one in the chair represents a Christian, the other a non-Christian. The two together represent a relationship. The one in the chair tries his/her hardest to pull the other up, but fails. The one on the ground easily yanks the other down.

Moral of the story, it’s easier to fall than to pull your partner in that relationship onto that chair with you. Be conscious of them and know your limits.

I’m positive I knew this in my younger days. If I’d have been more aware of it I may not have dated some of the boys (yes, boys. Not men) I dated. I grew up in church. I made friends in church. All of the guys I dated attended my home church on a regular basis. (Well, as long as we were dating they did.) Most of them, with the exception of two, were bad for my health. Mentally and physically. I didn’t avoid them. I wasn’t constantly aware of them to stay away and watch out for them. Plenty of people URGED me to walk away. But I couldn’t. Not that I didn’t want to, because I did, I just couldn’t. Now, I look down at my left hand and know that the one I’m going to marry will never be bad for my health. I’ll never be urged to walk away from him nor him from me.

But Paul promises this; those who persecute you and put those obstacles in your way WILL be crushed under your feet. Hallelujah!

I know this post might seem a little scattered, but I had a lot I wanted to say. Hopefully it all made sense. 🙂

It’s 1 AM and I’m awake! I took Excedrin… Great for headaches, awful for sleep. So, since I haven’t blogged in a long while here ya go. 🙂

Let me just say, I am so glad that Jason and I set our wedding date for November. I don’t know if it’s me getting older or the fact that we had winter until April this year, but I have zero tolerance for this heat. Working in the library I’m between tall bookshelves 70% of my workday. If the air is on it’s set at about 80 in parts of the building. Needless to say, I’m not quite as fresh when I leave as when I came in. I hate feeling that way. I want to be cool, even cold! Freezing is fine with me! I’ve mentioned before how I just can’t get out of winter mode. On our honeymoon we’re going skiing and I guess that fact that wedding plans are always on my mind, I still think it’s going to magically be cold outside when I walk out there. I’m buying sweaters and long sleeve t’s and scarves and jeans! (all for the honeymoon, mind you.) I can’t shake this. When Jason and I hit the town this afternoon, I was miserable. The short walk into the store made each of us sweat. The cold A/C in every building made us sigh with relief as it washed over us only to know we’d eventually have to walk back out into the heat.

For those of you who don’t have air conditioning, I feel for you. I feel your misery and pain. Thankfully, ours only went out at the beginning of summer and we were able to have it fixed before the giant heat wave rolled through demolishing every ice-cube in its path.

Any of you feelin’ my pain? Stay cool!

Ever feel like you’re moving a mile a minute but you’re not getting anywhere?

Since summer started I’ve had tons of free time and I’ve filled it with cleaning, exercising, laundry, Jason, road trips, wedding planning, and the couch. I’ve done a lot of moving during this time but I haven’t moved. Jason often makes the comment that if I don’t have something to look at, do, or think about I’ll just go to sleep. And that’s the truth. Every time we go on a date I’m awake as ever but as soon as you put me in that car and drive me home I lie my head against the seat and go to sleep.

I see things differently now. Becoming a wife has made me see this house as my house. I want to keep it clean, do my laundry, and take care of it. I never really take a moment for myself. If I know something has to be done it nags at me and itches until I get up and do it. Right now I have about 20 or more things on my to-do list. Some looming in the near future, others farther off. But none of them matter past November 20. It breaks my heart to see nothing eternal on that to-do list. No quiet time is scheduled, no verses I wanna read.

In this moment, I long so much to be married. It’s been a long nine months and we’ve still got five and a half to go. I want quiet. I want alone time and to be in that country rock house with cows and a bus barn in the backyard. But I can’t speed up time. I need to soak up THIS moment and revel in these months when I’m still apart of my family. It’s difficult, to say the least. But these aren’t bad times. There the good times. (that sounded cheesy, didn’t it?)

So, in my effort to produce a blog out of nothing, I think I did alright. Hopefully next time I’ll have something more profound. 🙂

(Yes, I’m still awake. Yikes!)

Ever had a revelation watching TLC? (A Baby Story doesn’t count!) What about Miami Ink? Yeah… that’s what I thought!

When one of my cop shows ended Miami Ink came on. I just kind of got stuck watching it. 😛 Anyway, one of the tattoo artists was explaining his “life philosophy”. Wanna guess what it was? The Golden Rule.. In that moment, I realized just how empty that life must be. Where’s the joy? Where’s the true love from a Heavenly Father? Where’s the fulfilled void? Where’s the mercy and healing and overwhelming forgiveness in a life like that? I saw a tiny glimpse of what that life must be like. You live the best you can-to your knowledge- you get married maybe, pop out a couple kids, then you die.

What do you live for when you have nothing to live for?

My heart breaks for those people! Those wandering souls searching for something to latch onto.. Where do they find comfort? I can’t imagine not having anyone to turn to after I’ve exhausted all of my earthly resources.

Maybe it’s because I was saved at an early age or was blessed to be raised in a Christian home. It’s hard for me to grasp that life. Really makes me think twice when I have an opportunity to minister to someone…

About a week ago our grandfather (pawpaw) had a heart attack. He had chest pain and numbness in his arm so our grandmother (mimi) took him to the hospital. They did a stress test. He failed. They knew there was some blockage but didn’t know how much. So, Thursday they scheduled a procedure to enter stints into his heart arteries. Worst case scenario they would have to do bypass surgery.

A wad of family members were waiting in the waiting room. When a very handsome surgeon walked in, he said, “Well, we’re all finished.” Swinging out a child’s chair he continued, “Bad news is, he’s going to need bypass surgery.” We all heaved a sigh. Mimi leaned back in her chair while her eyes closed and her hand flew up. He explained that he had tow arteries that were 90% blocked and another that was about 60% blocked off. What we all find strange is that he didn’t have any symptoms. No cholesterol issues, no blood pressure problems. The surgeon also said that if he had had a heart attack in another chamber of his heart, he wouldn’t have survived.

So, tell me. Did my God protect my grandfather from sudden death by allowing him the smallest of heart attacks? Did my God allow the skilled surgeons to safely find those blocked arteries? Did my God give my grandfather the strength to walk circles around all the nurses a few hours after that procedure? YES.

Now, unfortunately, my pawpaw is having quadruple bypass surgery at 7AM tomorrow morning. Will our God allow my sweet pawpaw to safely make it through this surgery? We’re praying and believing so.

So here’s my Public Service Announcement. No matter how healthy you think you are, you should always be sure to get checked for heart health. 🙂

PS. Please be praying for safety and a peace to be lain on our family tomorrow morning and for a swift recovery! If you know my pawpaw, he’s ready to get moving. (Having to lie down for 4 hours at a time is not him!)

Thanks, y’all 🙂

mel