Random & Sporadic

Warning: Many thoughts that don't connect.

1) I have 5 weddings to attend this year... wedding madness is in the air. Oh the sweet aroma. Stef and I reminisced today about how much we hated wedding planning and talking about all the "if's" of what we could do differently now. I'm hoping all my bride and grooms to be have an easier go at it then us :)

2) Two more friends have announced their pregnancy - and to my excitement, I was elated! I held my friend's newborn at the retreat and just loved it. And loved handing him back for a full night's sleep. God is good.

3) I got another email from a testimony listener today - it was incredibly thoughtful. I feel overwhelming encouragement. This makes my 9th email. I decided to create a gDoc to store all these emails and save them for future encouragement when I get down about my ministry.

4) While contemplating my testimony a couple weeks ago I stumbled across this quote from a friend (DM's) page and I'm still in awe by how it penetrates my soul:
"The most important things are the hardest things to say. They are the things you get ashamed of, because words diminish them-words shrink things that seemed limitless in your head to no more than living size when they're brought out. ……The most important things lie too close to wherever your secret heart is buried....... And you make revelations that cost you dearly only to have people look at you in a funny way, not understanding what you've said at all, or why you thought it was so important that you almost cried while you were saying it. That's the worst, I think. When the secret stays locked within not for want of a teller but for want of an understanding ear…."

5) Beth Moore says, "God hears the cry of the oppressed. He even hears the cries of those whose oppression is a result of sin and rebellion." My friend Jess said life is too short to feel sorry for yourself and that there's freedom in what God did. Indeed. I was really struck by the Heb word "aman" means to be firm, enduring, to trust. I asked myself how I had found Him to be faithful and trustworthy. His Word says He is, answers to prayer and that He tells me to trust Him when I'm struggling. Then I came across Hab 3:2: Lord, I have heard of your fame, I stand in awe of your deeds, O Lord. Renew them in our day, in our time make them known. (Which I think ties in nicely with my post from yesterday.)

6) There are only 6 weeks left in my semester - how did that happen? I need to write more!

7) I'm struggling with how to talk to a . . . person, acquaintance, casual friend. I'm feeling led to talk to him, but feeling he's totally uninteresting. And sense he feels the same way towards me. Maybe God will chose to use someone instead...