All in God's Time

As much as I try to make this entry sound sophisticated and well written, I just can't contain my excitement enough to do so. You see, today, Josh has secured us a place of our own. After three and a half months, after sleeping in our van, in hotels, and on the floor of other peoples' homes, we finally will have a place to call ours. 

Don't get me wrong -- the adventure that we have been on has been an amazing one! God called us to go, and we obeyed. Because of that, we got to experience some things that we never would have been able to experience. I learned a lot about myself, and became closer with my family. And, because we decided to be obedient, we were led to this wonderful church family who has taken us in and loved us like one of their own.

I will admit, it was a stressful time looking for an apartment. It was difficult because most of the places want proof of at least a years worth of income, and we obviously don't have that. There was also the fact that Fairfield is much larger than Mt. Pleasant, making the application process more of a competition of sorts. 

And of course, our budget for rent limits us on where we can live... California living is much more expensive than Michigan living! Because of this, we have been doing a lot of prayer, asking God to lead us to the best place for us. We know that wherever we end up, we will be right where God wants us, and He will keep us safe. We will definitely not be in the rich areas of the city, but we won't be living in the ghetto, either. I know that God is pushing me out of my comfort zone daily, and this will be a way of pushing us to love the people around us (and probably learn Spanish as well... most of our neighbors are Spanish speaking, I believe) no matter what, and to be a light n the darkness. 

All this to say that we are SUPER excited to start this next chapter of our lives -- it will be challenging yet rewarding, because we know that we are following God to the best of our ability, and God will shine. His people will hear of Him, and that is something to be excited about :D

This is My Body

Health is all the rage right now, with our society getting more and more unhealthy. I see it all over my news  font-family: 'Brandon Text', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px;">feed: Invitations to become an independent product salesperson for all types of health lines that are popping up all across the nation. I find myself getting annoyed by the constant barrage of invitations, but I will admit that I do enjoy a good success story. I find it motivating and helpful in my own journey toward becoming as healthy as I can be.

Ragan Sutterfield's story is one of those inspiring stories. He was unhealthy and uncomfortable in his own body, so he decided to do something about it. He started eating right and exercising, and found his niche in running. He has run crazy long races -- 50K's! -- and also competed in the infamous Iron Man competition. In his book, he talks about how he started the journey to health, and also talks about the training process for the Iron Man. Throughout the book, he talks of the why of why we should be getting fit... His reasoning is to be the best we can be for Christ.

I will admit, he has put much thought into this idea. He goes into detail on things that I have never truly thought about, and really had me pondering my reasons on why I want to get healthy. It was a pretty good read, and I think that deep thinkers would really enjoy sinking their teeth into the ideas that Sutterfield puts forth.

I received this book for free from bloggingforbooks.com

You can learn more about the author and where to buy his book here

The Ups and Downs of Social Media

Whether we like it or not, social media is part of this new generation and society we live in. It exploded into being with websites like Classmates.com and sixdegrees.com, but got really popular with sites like Linkedn, Friendster, Myspace, and of course, Facebook. The goal with these sites was always the same: Get connected with people. That's what its always been about, whether its about reconnecting with people you once knew, or meeting entirely new people. 

These days (with Facebook being the queen of all social media), while the goal is still to be 'connected', it seems to do just the opposite. We see people on their phones, tablets, or computers just about anywhere: waiting in the doctor's office, in line at the grocery store, in church... everywhere. It can be so easy to get pulled into the online community where many people post all the good things about their lives (leading us to start hating our life or wishing it was more like what we see). We can spend all of our time on social media and miss the everyday things happening around us. Or, we can spend all of our time trying to take the 'perfect' picture to post to social media that we are completely missing the moment to cherish forever. 

I've definitely done my fair share of  'Facebook Bashing', mainly because I feel convicted about the time I spend on the site. These days, however, while I still need to make sure to live in the moment and not spend all of my extra time on it, I have come to be thankful for Facebook, and use it for the true reason it was created: to stay connected.

Living 2400 miles away from our family and friends has proven to be no easy task, and it has only been about two weeks since we have officially moved. Facebook helps us to be a part of their everyday lives and for them to be a part of ours. I love that! 

I also love the accountability Facebook can give me. I don't put up post-run photos of my nasty sweaty self because I think it looks nice, or because I want people to feel bad about themselves: I post them because by posting them, it holds me accountable. When I don't post them, my runner friends can go, "um, where is your nasty sweaty running shot? Go get your run in!" Or they can motivate me if I had a particularly rough workout. If anything, I am going to be able to look back at all of my nasty sweaty pictures of myself and know that I am making a change for the better in my life. 

I guess I have a love/hate relationship with Facebook. I will keep posting photos of my family, though, and not feel like I am OVER posting.. Because after all, if you are my friend on Facebook, I am assuming you are interested in what is going on with my life :) 

**I apologize if this is scattered and not well put together... I am trying to write it while feeding children and answering the daily 100,000 questions that my four year old asks :)