Rest

Last weekend I participated in a ladies conference titled "Busyness is So Not a Spiritual Gift". The speaker, Lisa Harper, was one of the best women speakers I've ever heard. She was passionate, hilarious, and knew the things she spoke about and presented her talk in an honest, heart-felt way. She spoke more on the necessity of rest than actually busyness, which surprised me. She defined spiritual rest as when the roots of one's heart are sunk deep into the soil of God's sovereign mercy. She said that there are four different kinds of rest mentioned within the bible. They are: Creation Rest, Eternal Rest, Canaan Rest, and Sabbath Rest. I loved the way Harper blended modern day references with biblical passages. She had a way of making things clear and understandable in today's world through comical thoughts and figurative language. When talking about Creation Rest, she said, "After God created the world, he rested. He did not go right in to fix another problem... like helping men understand women." I wasn't able to jot down other things like that, but she was excellent at making things relevant in society today. She also said that we have the image of God in us and are wired for rest, too. We must also look for God's thumb print in people. She spoke on the importance to carve out time to rest and be alone with God. She explained that this does not mean doing your weekly bible study for class or grabbing your prayer list. This means being completely alone with God and meditating on his word through reading, praying, and listening to what God has to say to you when you are still. She encouraged us to divert daily (15-30 minutes), withdraw weekly (2-4 hours), and abandon annually (one full day alone). The divert daily and abandon annually seem to be doable to me; however, the withdraw weekly for 2-4 hours... to be completely alone and focused on God will be more challenging for me. I'm not sure I will keep up with this recommendation completely, but I do plan to devote more time to meditate on His word and allot time to pray without distractions. She encouraged us to write it down and dedicate a specific time in our planner... otherwise we won't do it. So, I have written down specific times I plan to work on spiritually resting.

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Lately Zac and I have started to watch the TV show Breaking Bad on Netflix. This is IMDB's description of the show: "Informed he has terminal cancer, an underachieving chemistry genius turned high school chemistry teacher turns to using his expertise in chemistry to provide a legacy for his family... by producing the world's highest quality crystal meth." The show is so much more than that. I've learned a lot about what all goes into actually making drugs and selling them... not to mention all the drama and potential danger (and stupidity) druggies deal with on a daily basis. It's extremely sad. I honestly think I'm learning so much more about why drugs are so awful and horrible by watching the show. Last night one of the episodes we watched almost brought me to tears. I won't go into a lot of plot detail, but it basically showed the household of an extremely drug addict couple who sadly brought a little boy into the picture. Clearly, the little boy had not had a bath in weeks and was NEVER talked to or even acknowledged, let alone fed. The child appeared to be about four years old and did not seem to really know how to respond to someone talking to him. He was even drawn into communication by playing peek-a-boo, a game much too young for a boy his age. It seriously broke my heart. It made me realize just how bad some children have it. The little boy even turned the TV to some infomercial channel as if he was watching cartoons. It made me think about the kids I will one day have in my classroom. Will any of them come from households like that? Yes. They probably will... and I just pray I will be able to help them to the best of my ability.

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Winston turns one on the 20th and the girls turned four on the 15th. I can't believe we have had Mocha and Coffee for almost four years!

Here's some pictures of them as puppies.

Mocha

Mocha

Sleeping sisters

Coffee

Mocha

I think this is Mocha... she was the more photogenic puppy.

Mocha

Coffee and I

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Last Friday, I picked up a Boston Creme Pie as a surprise for my mom. It has always been her favorite... and I'm not good at making it. So, I had The Cake Place make it for me. She was extremely surprised and loved it. I will say that it was delicious and my one dessert for this month.

Much love,
EM