Some updates......

We went to Katherine and Rick's Wedding in Chapel Hill.. these are Nate's high school friends.

My 30 birthday surprise party!! we went to Jim and Nicks, and then had a night of karaoke. Fun times.

We went to Boston, and Cape Cod to Celebrate our 5 year anniversary and Nate's graduation!!

Nate graduated in May 2010 with a Masters of Divinity!!!

Preacher Nate

yesterday was awesome! It was Nate's first sunday preaching. He did a fantastic job! He loves long titles (i had no idea) so this was the title to his sermon yesterday. " Consolation in Tribulation: The Sovereignty, Presence, and Goodness of God in Suffering" It came from Psalm 139. It is such a blessing to rest in the fact that God is in control and he is good!

I am so proud of my husband and truly am excited for many more days of his preaching to come.
Ps-- He wore carharts :) and said WHO is spelled with a capital H... he is too funny!

SURPRISE!!!!

THANK YOU!!!!

Yes- I was surprised for my 29th birthday. My wonderful husband Nate and My best friend Samantha totally tricked me. It was great. We had awesome food, games filled with lots of laughter, and the most preious notes from my friends, family and the youth group hung all around the room in the most bright fun colors (i love bright things). It is definitely a night I will never forget and I am grateful to all my friends! Thanks for making this year extra special.

FREE

Freebies-- you hear the word and immediately get excited. Well at least that is how I am. Here are some freebies I have recieved this week (they give them to you for your birthday). You can too- just sign up.

*Coldstone Creamery

*Sitcky Fingers
*Caribou Coffee

*Marble Slab
*Baskin Robbins
*Firehouse subs

*Red Robin Burgers

*Maggianos

*Qdoba

*Moe's

As I was thinking about these sweet treats I just received in my inbox, I realized.... there is an even better freebie. I was brought back to the sweet thoughts of God and how he sent Jesus to me - he gave himself to me, his love, his joy, his peace. Daily, and Forever. What comfort and thanksgiving fill my heart knowing I am HIS and He is mine. Today I pray I will constantly get excited for the freebies from my Heavenly Father just as I did from these birthday offers.

May you enjoy some treats for your day, and be blessed by HIS daily love and grace.

Summertime

Everytime I hear the word summertime I think of that song by DJ Jazzy Jeff and Fresh Prince. I love the summer and everything about it. Sunshine, cookouts, birthday parties, fireworks, vacations, and this year our youth mission trip.
Tomorrow we are actually having a silent auction to raise money towards our mission trip this summer. We are very excited about it. Come out if you can.
Enjoy the summer heat:)

Wait

Wait... we do we ever like that word. Waiting seems to be the hardest thing at times. From waiting to a stoplight, to waiting for a phone call, to waiting on a new day. I am faced daily with small to big things to wait on. Often, I see I don't respond with patience, but with frustration. I recognize the selfish nature in me to think everything is suppose to happen my way or for me. Once again, back to last week's sentence on realizing life is not about me... and doesn't center around me!! A truth that I must know not in my mind only but with the attitude and actions of my heart.

I am learning to be more silent, still, which is basically waiting. Oh how I fight that stillness to just wait. Wait on what? In my mind there is always something to do or something I want to do. So I have trouble waiting... even more importantly Waiting on the Lord. WOW... I have trouble waiting on the Almighty, All powerful, All Knowing God. That is humbling to acknowledge but ever so true in my life right now. Oh how I want to Know the Lord and know him as in to wait on him. I have been reflecting on this : Be STILL and KNOW that I AM GOD Psalm 46:10. How often I don't want to be still, (wait). However, I am robbing myself of knowing the Lord in this way.

I am beginning to see there is something about this stillness. I am left in awe of God. For HE is so HOLY, so GOOD, so AMAZING! It is then, he catches my gaze, and somehow, I want to wait. I see him, I feel him, I know him. That is all that matters, of course I will wait. I begin to see that the more I know him, the more I am ok to wait. And waiting is now not just an action, but an attitude of my heart in trusting him. I will end with this: Isaiah 40:31 NAS Yet those who wait for the LORD Will gain new strength;They will mount up with wings like eagles, They will run and not get tired, They will walk and not become weary.

A. W. Tozer

Lately,

I have been reading the Pursuit of God by A. W. Tozer. I read this in high school and loved it. As I have been going back through it, I have been challenged with my view of God. So often I fall into the trap of being the center of my world and life is all about me. Well clearly I know it is not, however what I know and how I act are not the same. I truly want to become so small and Christ to become so large in my life. I have been reflecting on this prayer at the end of Chapter 8 in Tozer's book:
O God, be Thou exalted over my possessions. Nothing of earth's treasures shall seem dear unto me if only Thou art glorified in my life. Be Thou exalted over my friendships. I am determined that Thou shalt be above all, though I must stand deserted and alone in the midst of the earth. Be Thou exalted above my comforts. Though it mean the loss of bodily comforts and the carrying of heavy crosses, I shall keep my vow made this day before Thee. Be Thou exalted over my reputation. Make me ambitious to please Thee even if as a result I must sink into obsurity and my name be forgotten as a dream. Rise, O Lord into Thy proper place of honor, above my ambitions, above my likes and dislikes, above my family, above myhealth and even life itself. Let me sink that Thou mayest rise above.

Holidays

Well I am late in writing to say Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. But it never hurts to say it late:) We had a busy holiday traveling to see My family in Hickory and Nate's family in Chapel Hill. It was great and relaxing!!! We love spending time with our families and are so thankful for them.
We celebrated New Years with friends at our house doing a Murder Mystery Dinner. It was a Western and Nate was a great Saloon owner. It was so much fun. If you have never participated in one of these it is definitely worth doing. I even made a cactus cake.
Soon after that I had surgery to remove my gallbladder. No fun... still recovering, but definitely doing better. It is strange to think I had an organ removed from my body. It amazes me how God created our bodies to cope with certain things.
Well I hope not to wait as long to write next time.

Endurance

It is great when there are days that are filled with laughter and joy. However, we all have those days that are not, that we really have to push to get through them. When faced with those days, I have been encouraged by the words in James.

1: 2-4 “Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. 4And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing”. NAS

It is amazing to think that our trials can be used by the Lord to draw us close to HIM, and to produce in us this kind of endurance making us complete. I have been reflecting on the endurance Jesus had to face-- the cross-- a trial I will never have to face because he did it for me. Yet, these trials I face produce that same endurance Jesus had. WOW.

“1Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. 2Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. 3Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart”. Hebrew 12:1-3 NIV

I pray today that at whatever crossroads you find yourself, you will have the strength to consider it JOY and know it is producing endurance in you.
(from my devotion at work I am writing)

Nate

Today I am writing about Nate. Here he is in the moment of teaching at youth. He is such a great leader and friend to us all. He loves sharing what he is learning and what God is showing him. He truly takes the servant leader approach in his lifestyle. He always wants to put others first and as he would say "Get in the ditch with them". One thing is for sure, if he knows you and loves you, he will fight for you with whatever obstacle is in the way.

Nate is also a fun loving crazy guy who loves to make people laugh... he will do some little crazy dance in the middle of a restaurant, or sing at the top of his lungs to get you going. Recently, we went to see my cousins, Adam and Paul, at a Gardner Webb football game. At the game Nate shouted loud enough he got picked to play deal or no deal. It was even more exciting when he got the entire stadium involved in yelling and helping him choose what chic-fila prize he wanted. It was so funny that I had friends I hadn't seen in years on the opposing team say they heard it and thought... that must be Joni's husband... and they had never met him before either. All this to say Nate is such a wonderful guy and today the whole world will know why :)

Don't waste your life

A few weekends ago, we went to see LeCrae, our favorite christian rapper, in Charlotte. It was awesome! He has a song "Don't waste your life", and it is definitely my favorite song. It was inspired by one of John Piper's books "Don't waste your life". I have been thinking about that alot lately. My focus, my priorities, my time. It's all about HIM and all for HIM. I don't wanna waste my life!
Go check out the song here: http://www.myspace.com/lecrae

Today is our 4 year anniversary. Lots has happened in the last 4 years. Not even a photobook or journal could tell all the stories. It is amazing to see how we have changed over the years and have grown more in our relationship with Jesus and each other. Everyday we learn something new about one another and our hopes and dreams. Our favorite memory so far from this year is our trip we just took to Roan Mountain, TN. It was a great time of reflection on our life in this small town and peaceful cabin. Our days were filled sitting on the deck while it rained and just laughing.

We started writing little devotionals at work and this is the one I shared.

“One thing I ask of the LORD, this is what I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD and to seek him in his temple” Psalm 27:4

Often, the Lord will invite me to stop and slow down in my day. (For me that is hard to do).
It is when I stop, I hear him say GAZE, and linger here in my beauty, in my presence. It is amazing how all my stress, all my disappointments, all my sin is changed, is gone when I dwell in HIS house, and HE is all that matters to me. Not the world or anything of it, just HIM.

I pray we have time to stop and gaze upon the beauty of the Lord today, and are changed by HIS presence.

Nate and I had a great Christmas break. First, we had a much needed vacation to Gatlinburg, TN. We made great memories and lots of laughs, and listened to some life changing sermons. Then we headed to Hickory to see my family and Chapel Hill to see Nate's family. Most importantly we celebrated the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ.

This is our new home we moved into in May 2007... We are very blessed God has given us a home. We love it. It is close to school for Nate, and work for me and Nate. Some of our closest friends live a street over, and we have many more friends in the neighborhood too. It has been fun having dinners and parties and watching fireworks from our back deck. Come visit us!