Life lately via Instagram

Hello dearies,

(anybody catch the Once Upon a Time Reference??) Hope everyone is doing well!

A lot of fun things have transpired in the last few months and instagram always aids me in showing you. These go back to January (further proof that my blogging has suuuuucked as of late) but hey, living life is better than writing it, right? Be in the moment...that's my advice.

So here is our life through instagram as of late!

Januray 2013: we got a Keurig! I am the only one in our home that drinks coffee so it made no sense to make a pot and then have most of it go to waste. SO we gathered up our gift cards and spent a whopping $30 on this little beauty. Pretty cool, huh?

February: I made hot chocolate from scratch. This is not particularly monumental as this was a very rough trial making it, but my favorite movie HAPPENS to be Chocolat, so I felt I owed it to the film to give it a go.

In December (I knoooow, its late) we saw The Hobbit and I died. A-MAZING.

February: I co-hosted my first (and probably only) baby shower for my dear darling friend, Lindsey! She now has a bouncing baby born on March 10 :)

We recently discovered that we can have the comforts (besides warmth) or a fireplace without the hassle of cleaning one. If you have Netflix, search for Fireplace For Your Home. We now go to sleep to it.

Spring has sprung! And oh it feels good. The South always gets sun early.

Sister Sarah (Toby's sis) came to town in February. We had a good time watching SNL, The Office, Community and laughing until the wee hours of the night. Miss her already.

In my Literature for the Adolescent class we ready the new Young Adult novel Meant To Be (which is so cute and fun to read). Luckily, the author of said novel, Lauren Morrill, lives in Macon so we got to meet her.. Lovely lady and super inspiring.

Of course I had adventures with Tobes.

With all the craziness...we still found some time to relaaaaaax.

Finally got a new tea kettle. Love it. And also cleaned my kitchen,

 

That's all she wrote.

~B~

Out of the Frying-Pan and into the Fire

     Have you ever felt like you have just narrowly escaped a bad situation, only to enter an even more unpleasant one? If you are human, then you more than likely have and it is probably the most common situation we experience. Not because life is horrible and there is no hope, but because we live in a very old world that sin has aged even more so, and no amount of "going green" will save it, until Yeshua (Jesus) comes back. He said in His word that "in the world you will have trouble, but take heart! I have overcome the world." John 16:33 Well, that's good news right? YES! I am so thankful my Messiah took the punishment for me and gave me a way to get to the Father! But what happens when it feels like we've gotten out of the frying-pan and into the fire?

     Recently, I started reading the Hobbit, by J.R.R. Tolkien. It's an excellent book, and The L-RD really spoke to me through it. Bilbo, quite unexpectedly, has adventure and trouble thrust upon him by Gandalf and his band of dwarves and from about page 5 onward, you watch Bilbo and friends constantly go from the frying-pan to the fire a good many times. Each time Bilbo thinks he's done for, somehow, he is rescued or finds strength to rescue himself. But, it is always right when he feels he can't take it anymore. Like Bilbo, I have felt that in life sometimes I'm about to be done for. I'm not exactly being chased by goblins or wolves, but the trials of everyday life surmount so high sometimes, that I feel like I will either collapse or explode. It's not easy to trust what you can't see, and it's not easy to have faith when you feel like nothing will change. However, that's what makes faith what it is. It's to believe that, just like every time before, G-D will make a way out especially when you cannot see how. In these dark times when we struggle, flesh versus spirit, and cannot keep worry from clinging to our already bowed backs, it is G-D who runs in and defeats the enemy. He may not destroy what ails us, He may not take it away immediately, but, He will give us the grace to keep going and sharpen us through it, so that when the trial is over we are made stronger.

     Charles Spurgeon said something about faith that I'll never forget and will forever see when I think of it:
"So Faith rides forth on the black horse, conquering and to conquer, trampling down carnal reason and fleshly sense, and chanting notes of victory amid the thickest of the fray."

So when you are next feeling as if you have been tossed from one trial to another, remember that G-D will get you through and get you out, and faith is not just a passive thing, it is an action that you can fight the enemy with and never fail.


~Brooke~