Christmas sketching

It has been quite a while since I have posted so I thought I would take a moment and do a little blog update from my phone.  And no, I don't have a fancy pants siri (or whatever you call it) iphone.  Although, I would not mind having one.  Santa?  But until then we will see if my current phone battery will last long enough to finish this post :-)

As Christmas comes, my inner elf goes crazy.  I thought I would share some of my Christmas sketching in my journal.

Yet I will praise Him

It's been a long while since I have posted (sorry about that).

What actually brings me back to this blog is just to get some things off my chest.  Because a blog really is an online journal right?

If you don't mind I am just going to cut to the chase and say what I came here to say - God is good.  No matter what may be going on in our life - He is good and that is that.  Nothing changes it.  He always has been - always will be - good.  I recently re-read one of my favorite books "Knowledge of the Holy" by A.W. Tozer.  In reading it I constantly find myself in awe of how incredibly amazing God is.  The part that impacted me the most this past time I read it is when Tozer talks about how God sees from the beginning of our life to the end in one glance - ONE glance.  He doesn't have to take time to think about it.  He doesn't need to reel through memories.  He sees it all in one glance.  And as if that is not enough, He sees in that one glance for every single human being - for every single creature on this earth.  Who am I to doubt the future, to fear what may come.  The almighty creator of the universe, the sovereign I AM has seen every single bit of it in ONE glance.  He is so worthy of honor, so worthy to be glorified, so worthy of my trust and praise and therefore I choose to give it to Him.

I was thinking a few weeks ago about how everything that God does is a reflection of His love.  God IS love and so everything that He does has to be a reflection of that love.  Even when it hurts, Gods actions are out of love.  It is only because He loves us too much to see us stay where we are.  His love showers us with blessing and His love beckons us into the refiners fire where we are purified.  God is a God of love and His most loving gift to us is His Son.  He gave His Son to come and die a brutal death so that we can spend eternity with Him.  I love my Savior oh so very much.  I can't ever doubt His love for me.  He has done entirely too much for me.  He is my absolute favorite.

I was reading a book recently that reminded me of so many times that God has spoken to me.  Whether it be through His word, a person, a dream, or His still small voice, my experience tells me that God is a personal God that speaks to His children (and I am a child of God).  No matter, what you believe about Him, you can't convince me that He does not exist, because I have heard Him.  I have experienced Him and there is absolutely nothing that can take that away from me.  I have seen Him use difficult situations to launch me into His destiny for me.  I have seen Him provide for me.  I have seen Him use me to touch others.  I have experienced Him using others to touch me.  I have an entire box FULL of journals that are FILLED with stories of His goodness and provision for me.  There are 20 journals actually - I just counted them.  In fact, here is a picture:

God is writing a story in my life - so far it is 20 volumes long :-)  It's my story and no one can tell me it's not real because I have lived it.

So, though life has been throwing some darts at me and I have found my faith taking a few hits, I have come to realize that there is absolutely no other option for me but to press into God - to choose to follow Him.  Without Him I am nothing.  I am finding that in the times when it is hard, I really just have to praise Him.  No matter what is going on, when I praise Him, it shifts things.  When I praise Him, my eyes turn off myself and onto my Father.  So I guess that this post is really just me making a declaration of praise to Him.  I needed a bit of a shift tonight, so I guess I welcome you into the shift.  Have you had a hard day, a hard week?  Are you caught at a crossroads not knowing where to go?  Has life been dealing you blows and you don't know how much more you can take?  Praise Him.  Because He is worthy of our praise.  He really truly is so very worthy of our praise.  He loves us so very much.  I happen to be His absolute favorite.  But guess what ... so do you :-)

Musical Monday - How the Lost Get Found

The other night I saw this video on my friend Jessica's blog.  I like it and thought that it was definitely worth sharing.



Road trip anyone?

Musical Monday - When I feel blue

Sometimes I feel sad.

Then my mind says, "I'm blue".

Then my inner musical sings, "I'm blue da ba dee da ba die da ba dee da ba die ..."

Then I feel a little more chipper because I have a catchy tune in my head.



That's all - just singing through the blue :-)

It's been awhile

I have not blogged in quite some time.  I don't really know what to say because it is currently almost midnight and I am tired.  BUT, I just saw the following and decided to share:

Source: spiritualinspiration.tumblr.com via Jenny on Pinterest

Yep, it's true :-)  Believe it.  Receive it.  Walk it out.

Ok, off to bed I go.  Goodnight :-)

Musical Monday

Very late Saturday night I was flipping through channels and came across Les Miserables - the 25th anniversary concert on TV.  Les Miserables is a favorite show of mine and it has been since high school.   It is actually the first musical that I ever went to (great seats too - front row).  

I was thrilled beyond belief to find it on TV and was very surprised to see Nick Jonas singing the role of Marius.  It was shock, but a good one.  The kid actually did very well.  

Unfortunately, by the time I tuned in there was about 15 minutes left of the show.  Fortunately, they were airing it again at 12:30, which unfortunately meant that I lost lots of sleep.  But oh was it worth it.  I sang my little heart out and boohooed and just loved every minute of this musical masterpiece.

Since I am going a "Musical Monday" post, I decided to share some songs from the concert:

In My Life / A Heart Full of Love (how's about that Nick Jonas - I'm impressed):

Bring Him Home:

Little side note - Watching the concert on TV led to me researching if show online, which led me to find out that Les Miserables is coming to Kennedy Center and Alfie Bow (the above singer) is playing the role of Val Jean.  I am still recouping from finding this out.  Of all the times to be a little cash poor.  I want to see that show so bad!!! 

On My Own - my all time favorite song from a musical:

Another side note - the role of Eponine has always been my dream role.  I realize that I may now be too old for it.  I guess that I will just have to settle for Fantine :-)

I hope you have enjoyed this share of videos.  Anyone else love Les Miserables as much as me?

Then and Now

OK, first of all I have to state that the state of laughter I am in during this post can't really be described.  Perhaps only I can appreciate it - but I hope that you can find some joy in it as well.

Today I decided to give myself a haircut.  Sometimes when I get freaked out about life, I do something drastic with my hair.  I will either cut it all off or dye it with a semi - permanent color.  Well, I currently don't have the funds for a haircut or the box of hair dye, so I took matters into my own hands and pulled out my handy dandy hair shears.

Over the past couple of weeks, I have been going back and forth about giving myself bangs and today I took the plunge.  My hand was literally shaking as I did it.  Eek!  I was so nervous.  I have not had bangs since high school!  But I did it, and you know what...

... hmmmmmm ...

... I kinda like it.

You know how I said I have not had bangs since high school.  Here is were we get to the part that is cracking me up right now:

So there is high school me and now me.  I would like to make a few comments:

1.  That high school photo is my Senior pic taken after my Junior year.  You know those pictures when you go into the studio and take lots of shots, one of which is putting the fancy feather shirt thing on.  This is the fancy feather shirt photo (I did not own a feather boa shirt).  Small note about my fancy feather shirt photo - Evidently the studio liked it because evidently they hung one in the studio.  I only found this out a few years after when someone that I worked with went to get their senior pics done and said that they saw my picture hanging in the studio.  Shouldn't I get some sort of royalties for that or something ... moving on.

2.  I promise promise promise to never ever part my hair like that ever ever again.

3.  I am so thankful for Angie Haley putting some tweezers to those Brooke Shields eyebrows of mine - ick!

4.  You know, I do think I am getting better with age and that makes me very very happy :-)  Feeling a bit like a bottle of fine wine or some wonderful aged cheese :-)