My thoughts on the subject

I figured since I was asking everyone to leave their thoughts on the subject, I would as well.

"God whispers in our pleasures, but shouts in our pain."

Uncle Jeff used this saying when he was talking to us about things we have learned while overseas. When we are happy and have no stress ("our pleasures"), then God whispers, meaning it's hard to hear Him because we are not focused on Him, so we rarely learn anything during that time. I mean, why would we? We are happy and all is going well, so why try to learn anything (so we think)? We forget to rely on Him.

However, in our pain, God shouts at us, meaning it can be so easy to hear Him if we just take our hand off over our ears and listen. Usually, this is the time that we finally turn to God and ask those hard questions, when we learn those hard truths, when we grow in our faith. No one truly grows in their faith until they have a reason to, until there is no other way out of the situation than to have trust and faith in God and His plans for us. It's hard, not any fun whatsoever, but can be so worth it in the end.

Just wanted to share my thoughts! Thanks for reading!

Thought for the Day

We ate dinner last night with some of my mom's side of the family (we are vacationing at the lakehouse in AR this week). It was really enjoyable. Went to a nice mexican place, then went to Braum's for ice cream. There, my uncle was talking to us just about some of our experiences overseas and things we have learned. One thing he said really stuck with me:

"God whispers in our pleasures, but He shouts in our pain."

I started thinking about that on the way back to the lakehouse yesterday. I started thinking about how often God shouts to us to teach us during our times of pain and suffering, but how often we cover our ears to this. Maybe because we don't feel that we should be "teachable" while we are in pain. Maybe other reasons. What are your thoughts on this statement and perhaps about the idea that we "cover our ears" during this time? Just curious your thoughts!

Finally!

I'll begin by saying I apologize if I offended anyone with my last blog. It's completely just my opinion, whether it's right or wrong. So, anyways, to my blog!

Well, I hope it's a "finally" -- I've never experienced it before so I am guessing :) I've been feeling that "bubbles" feeling in my stomach today. I wasn't hungry, so it wasn't my stomach growling, so I'm guessing it's little "Tristan" moving around! It was really subtle, so I sat there a while thinking "did I really feel something?". Then, I could have sworn it felt like he completely turned over, although again...it was very light. But, I'm sticking with my gut feeling and gonna say today was my first day to feel him move! I think I expected it to be more of a "wow" moment, but I think that when it happens, it's more of a "oh, so that's what it feels like...if that was it...". I am excited though that I am feeling him, which mean that I'll be feeling him more and more as time goes by!

My Soapbox

So, this is a chance for me to be on my soapbox about something that has really started to bother me lately. It started with two things I saw today. 1) A church bulletin sign that read "A golfer can't do anything about his lie, but politicians...WELL!". 2) On the news this morning, I saw that Pres. George H. Bush was a guest speaker at A&M and had invited Pres. Obama also to speak -- only to have students protest against this and bring in more protesters from the outside -- there were so many there! I find all this ridiculous. What has happened to our country? What has happened to the unity of our country, the support of our authority, the respect of the offices that govern us? WE, THE PEOPLE, voted him into office. Don't get me wrong -- if I had been able to vote this past election (and I wasn't able to unless I wanted to take a 3 hour bus ride to the capital), I would have voted for McCain. But I realize that McCain is not our president, and our president for at least the next 3 years is Obama. He is the head of our country and is looked upon as the head of the world! How can he run our country, keep this country together, help the world, if his own people don't support him? As my husband says "If you are not going to respect the president, then at least respect the office!".

Here was another thing that got to me. I saw on the news several weeks ago about people throwing fits about a school assignment giving to students that made them write letters to Obama on how they could support him. Ok, please no one throw things at me when I say this but...GOOD FOR THEM! Whether we respect Obama or not, we HAVE to teach our children to respect those put in authority about us! What are we teaching them if all they hear is negative comments about the president? They don't know anything about what he stands for -- they just know he is president and if we don't teach them to support those put in authority above us, then what are we doing to our kids?!

In Matthew 22, the pharisees asked Jesus if it was right to pay taxes to Caesar or not. Jesus asked them "Whose inscription is on the coin?" They answered "Caesar's". Then, Jesus replied "Give to God what is God's and give to Caesar what is Caesar's!"

I found this at http://www.ucg.org/issues/gn19/respect_wrestling.htm.

Regardless of the outcome of the crisis of the presidency, Christians are obliged to obey God by respecting government authority—the law and national and local leaders. Two of the apostles made this point in their letters.

"Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities," wrote the apostle Paul. "For there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God" (Romans 13:1). This includes the payment of taxes and other obligations (verses 2-7). Remember that the Roman government of the time had its own problems with corruption and abuse of power. But such behavior does not give people an excuse to disobey the law or disrespect the authority of their leaders.

Peter gave his readers the same instruction: "Therefore submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake, whether to the king as supreme, or to governors ..." (1 Peter 2:13-14). We are also to "honor the king" or chief ruler (verse 17). Paul echoes Peter's instruction to Titus: "Remind them to be subject to rulers and authorities, to obey, to be ready to every good work, to speak evil of no one ..." (Titus 3:1-2). Elsewhere Paul exhorts us pray "for kings and all who are in authority" (1 Timothy 2:1-2).

All this does not mean that we are to disobey God in situations where the law of man may conflict with the law of God (Acts 4:18-20; 5:40), but even then Christians are to continue to respect government authority—even when those in positions of authority have abused their offices. GN

-- John Ross Schroeder

My final thought is this: The president is not disunifying the country -- the people of this country are by cursing, bad-mouthing, refusing to support the president. Other countries look at our country, the blessed country of the world, and can't understand why we "hate" our leaders so much when WE are the ones that elected him. Many countries don't have free election, and they are left with dictators and people over them that cause their country grief and turmoil, and often times death for thousands to millions of people.

No, America is not perfect, it definitely has it problems, but how is a president supposed to do anything about it without support of his country? No matter how bad things are here, we are still an incredibly blessed nation. I lived in a country for 1 1/2 years where the citizens couldn't leave their country for any reason unless they worked for the government. It's a bad world out there, so be grateful and supportive of the country and leaders you have!

Thank you. And remember, this is just my opinion...and I'm pregnant...so hormones may rage a little...

It's a baby BOY!

So, we finally know and let everyone else know -- we are having a boy! We went to the doctor today and saw everything -- fingers, toes, heart, stomach, brain, everything! Everything looks great, which makes us much happier! Anyways, short blog, but just wanted to inform you all! Maybe when I am actually in a place that I can fax pictures, I'll post a picture. Someday.

First day back to school

So, I just got too bored. I needed something to do. So, after getting permission from my "already job", I got a job (again) at Clarkston, where I used to work before we went overseas. I am working part-time, no benefits (since I already have a "job"), but it gives me something to focus on at the same time as working with who I enjoy most -- deaf children. Now, just like any children, they drive you crazy at times, but I really miss working with them. I'll be tutoring 2nd-5th grade in math and science (oh boy, science...never have taught that before!) four days a week. I'll have all my previous students...they are just now a little older :) They seem happy to see me -- they keep telling me they remember me (it's only been less than 2 years - I hope they haven't forgotten me!). It's neat to see how they have progressed. One of my previous students, who was in K when I taught him and now in 3rd and who we will call "F" for those who know, has progressed so much. It makes me so happy to see that -- he is just such a precious student. I remember teaching him the coins and telling him that the presidents on the coins are no longer alive. Well, every time I pulled out a coin after that, the first thing F would ask is "He dea?!" (never could get that last d out :).

Anyways, skipping my 2nd day of class (making it up on Friday instead) to do something really exciting! I'm going to the doctor to see if I'm having a boy or girl! 9:00 am -- I'm ready! Either way, we will be really excited. Then, we can throw out one of the gender's names and focus on whatever gender it is!

We'll let you know :)

Faith

Faith -- it sounds so easy to have. I mean, we talk about, learn about, and teach about it all the time, but if we are honest, it is one of the hardest things to have in our lives. For some reason, while we lived overseas, faith wasn't something I struggled with, or at least not to a large degree. Now, don't get me wrong. It's not that I had this great faith...it just wasn't something I really dealt with, needing lots of faith, not seeing an outcome, being confused and weary. I probably should have struggled more with it, I probably should have shed more tears over our situation there and the people we were working with, I probably should have felt much more than I did. Well, it's catching up with me now. Since we have been married, we never went through a time that we didn't know what the next month held, where we would live month to month, what kind of work we would have next month... I thought coming back to the States would be a breath of fresh air, would be a time of relaxation, would be a time to gather our thoughts about the future. But, I've discovered that this time, however long it might be, is a time for me to grow in faith. I've been shown that faith isn't easy, not when you are actually finally put in a place that faith is all you have to keep you going, to keep you hopeful of the future. I've never needed faith more, and although it is not always fun "growing in faith", it is absolutely a necessary part of life. I thought I had faith before, but what I had was a "logical" and "practical" faith, which isn't true faith at all. I need to learn to have that faith of a child, to go back to the time that I never worried about where my next meal would come from or about if my parents had enough money, because I knew that my parents would always take care of me. Well, I have an eternal Father who also promises to take care of me, and I know he is fully capable of keeping that promise. Faith -- it's definitely not easy, but it's definitely worth whatever it takes to get it.