Its Monday

Here is Jack and I heading to church yesterday morning!

Well the end of our missions conference was yesterday... what a great weekend! I'll post quickly about the highlights. Saturday was a ladies lunch and we went for a wonderful buffet lunch. Aaron got to keep both kids - I can't remember the last time I went out for lunch... and without kids yet! Jack had to drink his first bottle, (of breastmilk) which he did very slowly and uncertainly (Aaron said it took him an hour to chew out a mouthful at a time!) The two missionaries' wives spoke about their experiences in Nicaragua and South Africa. It was so wonderful to hear what God was doing in the lives of others all over the world! It was also very interesting to hear about these women's experiences in these foreign countries and how God was working in their lives.

During the preaching a few key thoughts really struck me. What is our purpose on earth? Mark 16:15 says it pretty clearly "And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature." I've heard this verse plenty of times in my life and never has it struck me as it did this weekend... I've never read it and thought of it as being written for me. But why not? Who is it written to if not to me? Isn't the bible my instruction book for life? Its the Word of God. How much clearer does it get? Which leaves me wondering... am I making it known to everyone in my life what a huge change I've experienced or am I just carrying on with my life as I was before? As Christians we should love one another and if I truly loved everyone I wouldn't just sit quietly and let people go to hell! If I don't know if people are saved I should ask... that way I can let them know how to get to heaven. Am I really putting God first in my life? Or am I just going through the motions of life on earth with no thought of eternity? Which brings me to my next point. Here on earth everyone has put a huge emphasis on 'preparing for the future' and we are taught to save for college, houses, cars, retirement and all these things that are not going to be a concern in heaven. Why aren't we putting as much thought and effort into spiritual things? What about the real future? Life here on earth is just one grain of sand in the hourglass of time, but our life in heaven is FOREVER! I want to make sure that I'm living my life telling everyone about God and seeking his will in my life. I used to say "people should have balance in their lives. it can't just be all church and God" but really, why can't it? As long as we're following his will (which according to the bible includes working hard - 2 Th 3:10 "For even when we were with you, this we commanded you, that if any would not work, neither should he eat.") then why shouldn't the rest of our time be spent worshiping our Lord? Another thought was the idea that God's will for our lives is to let His light shine through us. We shouldn't enter into anything in life without being a light for Jesus! I believe that I am within God's will to stay home. God commands women to be "...keepers at home..." (Titus 2:5) The rest of that passage is also worthy of a good read on what God expects from us as women. I don't think there is anything wrong with saying it. God also has a laundry list of expectations that apply only to men, and a list that applies to both of us. But what I'm getting at is that even though I am at home I can still do the work of God by adhering to His expectations and telling anyone I come into contact with about the love of Jesus! The preacher was talking about men and how they shouldn't just enter a profession to make money but to use their profession as an opportunity to witness to others about God. You don't have to travel to the outermost parts of the world to be a missionary.

Well my kids are sleeping but my time is running out to fold some laundry and finish some dishes uninterrupted!

Busy week

There is a missions conference this weekend at our church and I'm very interested to see what it will be like. I've never experienced anything like this before. There will be a service every evening from thurs - sunday plus our regular Sunday morning service. There will also be a men's prayer breakfast and a ladies lunch on Saturday. It seems like a lot of church and in the past I would've thought WAY too much church but I am really looking forward to spending as much time as possible hearing about what God is doing in lives all over the world!

Aside from that on Thursday evening I have to go to church a little early to meet with our Pastor prior to getting baptized. He is going to make sure I understand why I am getting baptized and what church membership means. Apparently most people end up going for 1-3 meetings prior to being baptized. I know that I need to get baptized as a step of obedience to God. I'm interested to hear a bit more about our church's doctrine.

Today I have to take Jack for his 6 month immunization. I'm not at all looking forward to the needle but I am looking forward to having him weighed and measured! That is my favorite part about seeing the public health nurse. I'll be sure to blog the numbers when I have them.

Weekend in Winnipeg

We have a wonderful weekend away in Winnipeg! It was lots and lots of fun... we got to spend time with my family, my dad is recovering well from his knee replacement surgery, we went swimming and visited Vern and Chelsea's church! All in all we had a great time!

Danielle LOVES swimming. We put water wings on her and she actually let go of us and kicked herself along in the water! My little fish!

For those of you who are not yet tired of hearing about my glasses.... I got my new glasses in the mail on Friday! Here are the pictures I took of myself wearing them. I like the flower ones the best but Aaron says the shape of the blue ones really compliment the shape of my face (no really thats what he said!!! In those words exactly... I kinda stopped dead and looked at him. I never thought he knew how to say things like that. Then he told me that I had just gotten my compliment for the year hehehe... what a funny husband!)

Sleep!

This happy little fellow is a well-rested baby! (and so is his mommy!) Since Jack came into our lives I have fought and fought to schedule him. I read several baby books on helping children sleep and how to schedule them and eventually gave up. I figured that he was miserable and I was miserable and so I would just let him be. Finally, we were happy albeit a little tired due to waking during the night but happy. He slowly started sleeping more and more on his own. I then tried to get him to skip feedings during the night... it worked a few times but eventually I just let him eat whenever he said he was hungry again. Recently I moved him into Danielle's room (long story involving ants) and started trying to schedule him again... finally success!!! He is taking a liking to the schedule I'm suggesting and now the last 2 nights in a row he has slept for 12 consecutive hours!!!! I guess it just comes back to the idea that all kids are different and we can't expect ours to do the same as someone else's.

Here's Danielle saying cheese. This is such a cute picture of her I thought I'd share it!

On to spiritual things. I had recently gone on a hunt in the bible for the truth about baptist "briders", the church of God and baptism. It was very confusing and like some suggested a little too much for me to handle at this point in my walk with God. (I suppose one could equate it to trying to make Jack run a marathon! LOL) In the end I concluded that I am attending this church in Brandon (happily) and so I will just have to see it their way. Besides, I will likely believe whatever Aaron tells me anyways. So, I'm thinking of asking to be baptized tonight after church. Other than that I'm reading my bible daily (even if its just the proverb for the day) and finding it very refreshing to be able to give things to God. Its nice to not have to fight through some of life's little battles on my own! Anyways, I'm amazed to have typed this much with a 6 month old on my lap but now he's done!

Yet another bump in the road to cheap glasses.

Ok, seriously! This is dumb. At least the goggles4u site has better customer service. The other frames I picked "were found to be defective during production". Which is a good sign that they were already processing my order but I had to pick yet another frame! Maybe there is a downfall to getting glasses so cheap! Here's my next frame choice.... lets see if I get these or not!

Pleasing man or God?

Galatians 1:10 "For do I now persuade men, or God? or do I seek to please men? for if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ."

Was reading my bible this morning and read this verse and it really spoke to me! I had been talking to a friend of mine the other day and they were talking about TV and asking me if I'd seen a particular show. I said no and then explained that I hadn't been watching much TV lately and in the same sentence I lied and said "I don't know why, just haven't been into watching TV". But I DO know why! Its because of God in my life showing me that there is nothing but filth on TV and that I can do better things with my time. I knew this and yet I made an excuse so that I wouldn't have to explain this to my friend. Then this morning God showed me this verse and so I will pray that God will help me to be a good servant and not seek to please man... or in my words "make people like me" I will make sure that my main concern is not worrying about whether ppl think I'm looney but instead will just try to concern myself with doing God's will.

Cheaper glasses yet!

These glasses were only $30.99 after shipping!!! Found them on www.goggles4u.com So now I'm getting these AND the black, white and silver flowery ones! I'll have two options and can match glasses to my outfits! Woo-hoo!

Glasses choices

So here are my two glasses choice as alternates to my really pretty ones (can't even show you a picture cause they're not on the website anymore and I didn't save a picture :( Anyways, I think I'm going to end up with the black and white ones cause the other ones are recently showing as sold out but the picture is still there so I'm holding out hope. I like the purple ones the best. The other ones I picked were the same shape but with a full frame and they were blue and black with pretty blue roses along the side part.

Aside from choosing glasses.... I'm having trouble with a passage in the bible. 1 Corinthians chapter 12. This seems to be a passage that speaks about the body of Christ. The problem I'm having. On one hand if I'm reading it as a general believer I would read this to mean that all saved people make up the body of Christ. Or if I read it as a passage written to a particular church I would have to interpret that God means that you must be a member of one of His churches to be a part of the body of Christ. I'm not sure how to take it. I'm going to pray about it and then try to find other passages that talk about the body of Christ.

Irritated.

Trying to figure out church doctrine and some other things.... very complex. Once I get it figured out I will write about it. Hate figuring things out. Just when I think I've got something decided someone will point out a different verse and flip flop me back and forth.

Very mad at glassescrafter.com!!!!! My friend and her husband both successfully ordered and received glasses from this site. Then Aaron ordered and received glasses from this site with no problems and now I have problems!!!! grrrrr. Very frustrated. I ordered my glasses just over 3 weeks ago now (they promise 7-10 business days). They've taken their money and now when I go to my account on their website there is no record of my order!!!! It shows Aaron's order but not mine! Now I'm playing games with their stupid customer service, all the while struggling with stupid pinned together broken glasses thinking I was being smart and saving money. Never ordering glasses online again, unless of course they fix the problem and provide appropriate compensation for pain and suffering :P Extra annoying is that I looked on their site to show someone the glasses I did order and they don't have that frame anymore!!!!!! So even if they fix this I probably will have to pick a different frame and I don't like any of them half as much as I liked the other frame I picked!!!!! Stupid online ordering... I'm dumb.