Music

Thanks to Jenna Benna and her computer savvy, I can now share the song I was referring to in my last post! Enjoy!

What I Thought I Wanted

Have you ever heard a song twenty times and not have it register or hit home until the thirtieth? This happened to me the other day. I was mowing the lawn and listening to Sara Groves when this song came on. I wasn't thinking very grateful thoughts at the moment and wallowing in some of the answers God had given me to some of the requests I'd made of Him. I was singing along with the lyrics to this song- all of the words- and finally realized what I was singing. So there on the lawn mower, I started to cry. God forgive me! I pleaded and proceeded to cry and listen to that song twenty more times while I was mowing. (I can only imagine what the neighbors were thinking!!)

Maybe this song will hit home with some of you or minister to you in some way, if not, then maybe you can use it to minister to someone else. I can't manage to find the actual music for it anywhere, but enjoy the lyrics and then listen to it on itunes or somewhere else in cyberspace!

What I Thought I Wanted

Tuxedo in the closet, gold band in a box

Two days before the altar she went and called the whole thing off

What he thought he wanted, what he got instead 

Leaves him broken and grateful

I passed understanding a long, long time ago

And the simple home of systems and answers we all know

What I thought I wanted, what I got instead 

Leaves me broken and somehow peaceful

I keep wanting You to be fair

But that's not what You said

I want certain answers to these prayers

But that's not what You said

When I get to Heaven, I want to go find Job

I want to ask a few hard questions, I want to know what he knows

About what it is he wanted and what he got instead

How to be broken yet, faithful

I keep wanting you to be fair

But that's not what you said

I want certain answers to these prayers

But that's not what you said

Staring at the water, like Aesop's foolish dog

I can't help but reflect on what it was I almost lost

What it is I wanted, what I got instead

Leaves me broken and grateful

I keep wanting you to be fair

But that's not what you said

I want certain answers to these prayers

But that's not what you said

I wanna be broken, peaceful, thankful, faithful

Simple as those words may be, tied in together they stabbed my foolish heart. I know that there are times when I pray for things and I say, "If it's Your will, Lord" but what I really mean is "O please, o please, o please give me what I want!" I am learning to be thankful for God's gentle "no" because He holds the whole painting, while I can only see the bit of color in front of me.

Never leave the babysitter unattended....

The Johnsons Visit

At the beginning of the summer we enjoyed a short visit from Tonya, Angela and Jenna. 
As always, it was filled with fun, laughter and encouraging conversation. We took our usual trip to Freeport to do some shopping. We parked behind a small congregational church and were amused by this sign:

It occurs to me that there will never be any parking in this lot if they follow the rules of this sign!
We had a very nice time. Angela and I managed to sneak a birthday purchase for Tonya while she wasn't around- although we had a bit of a hard time doing it! We were like agents on a super secret birthday present mission!
We also went to the coast. We had a difficult time finding a place, though, as we went on the first nice day of the summer and Popham was packed. We finally found a patch of beach at Land's end and had a lovely time sunbathing, wading and watching Nettie go crazy!

TT enjoying her vacation! : )

Lovely Angela

I'm so thankful for them and I'm hoping that we'll have another visit very soon!

Grains from Grampa

I love my Grampa Chick. He's full of fun stories and wise words. It is such a blessing to be able to sit and listen to him talk about life past and present. The other day mom and I were doing the dishes and he came up to us with this little saying (which I think he made up himself!):

A man's work is from sun to sun, but a woman's work is never done.

I just thought I'd share that! Enjoy your day!

Thought Provoking

Last week my Bible case broke. Bummer. The good thing, though, is that I had to empty out all of its contents in order to throw it away. In doing so, I discovered some of my church notebooks containing sermon notes dated back to 2004! It was so cool. I got a bit lost in reading through them and I wanted to share a couple of quotes from some of Pat's sermons. I didn't reference them in the notes, so I'm not sure if they are original Pat Denny quotes or if they are the genius of others. Here they are:

We are no better than what the grace of God makes us.

Sin will take you farther than you want to go; keep you longer than you want to stay and cost you more than you want to pay.

Modesty is every man's battle, so it should be every woman's concern.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed those golden nuggets of wisdom from sermons past. We're headed up to my uncle's camp for the weekend to celebrate my Nana's birthday. Hope you enjoy your weekend!

Tales of the tuckered

Yes. The title says it all. I'm sitting here at a rather late time in the evening (or an extremely early time in the morning- you take your pick!) sipping on some chamomile tea and waiting for exhaustion to completely take over. There are a few things I've learned today: 1. Listen to your mom, even when she is being the Water Nazi,  2. Don't try to watch Jane Austen when you are packing and sick and 3. Ice cream and colds do not go together. Anyway, enough of my silly ramblings. 

In a recent sermon, my Pastor confessed that prior to children, he thought he was going to raise the perfect offspring. I laughed out loud when he admitted to this and thought to myself, no way! He didn't really expect that? I mean, there's no perfect person in existance ever, excepting Jesus. People don't really think they'll raise impecable children. Little did I know that I would make the same presumption! In May, a little bundle of joy came into my life- now before you get scared, I'll tell you that this bundle of joy came with fur and four legs. Yep, my little Nettie came to me as a complete suprise and without any preparation on my part. Immediately I set in my mind to be the perfect master and raise... well.... the perfect puppy. Haha! I assumed the same thing! These hopes and dreams were shattered not 24 hours into this adventure upon her first accident on the floor. It was like parenting a toddler! I am constantly wearied by training this cute creature, but at the same time I cannot fathom giving her up. She's taught me a great many things about myself- my sinfulness- than I ever would have found out on my own. But, that's another post for another time.
This summer has been filled with wonderful and fun things, like the baptism of three of my sisters in Christ. It is always so inspiring and strengthening to see a baptism and it makes me wonder what it was like when John the Baptist was making his debut. There is always that verse he spoke that comes to mind when at a baptism, which is completely appropriate for the occasion: speaking of Jesus he said, "He must increase, and I must decrease."
We had family camp as usual and it was a great time of refreshment, fellowship and extreme conviction (I could always dispense with that last one- just kidding!). 
I've spent time practicing my harp for a wedding, altering some dresses for another friend's wedding, 
babysitting my favorite quartet of boys and going to the beach with them and their super-cool mom!
I've loved getting to know my little nephew "Pip", who is growing cuter and cuter every day.
We were blessed to have a visit from the Johnsons and, as always, we had lots of great quality time together with lots of laughs and lots of good conversation.
I also had the privileged of helping out with SMASH's production of Love's Labour's Lost and enjoyed making new friends as they were a superb group of young adults.  

And now the chamomile has relaxed my muscles and my brain is turning to mush. My apologies for what is probably a boring blog post. I will try for a better one next time! Until then, drink your water and eat your veggies!!