Sad News

Roy Tyndall, who I asked you to pray for, passed away Thursday night during his triple bypass surgery.  Now I ask that we continue lifting up prayers for his family.  They are so sweet and really hurting right now.

Time for bed while it's still relatively early, thank to the end of daylight savings time...which means it's going to start getting dark at about 5 p.m.

Good night!

Moose Sightings!

My Anchorage moose sightings are now up to 3! And 2 were yesterday! I saw a female that had just crossed the road last night on my way to church...again really close to my car! Then on the way home from Tim's house, a BULL moose was standing on the side of the road, my side again. Amazing!! I don't know if I'll get used to this. Seeing deer is one thing, but moose (meese? mooses?) are so much bigger and actually kind of scarier, but awesome at the same time!

On a serious note, I would like to ask for prayers for a man named Roy whose family used to go to church with my family. He is having a second bypass surgery this afternoon and is really sick. He has a family history of heart problems and has suffered many heart attacks, and now has pneumonia, congestive heart failure, liver and kidney problems, anemia and only 20% of his heart is working. This is a very sweet family who has been through A LOT over the years and they need prayers for strength and peace and please pray for God to heal Roy.

I mentioned last post about the book my home Bible study group is reading, called "The Prodigal God" by Timothy Keller. It is very good! It is about the parable of the prodigal son, but with a new perspective that I had never thought of before. We usually focus on the part of the story of the younger son who asks for his part of his father's inheritance, squanders it, lives foolishly, then comes to his senses and comes back home not believing he is worthy to be a son but just a servant, but the father gladly welcomes him back. The father gives him nice things and throws a feast for him. The story is usually used to show that God loves us and no matter how far we run away from Him, if we decide to come back, He will welcome us with open arms. That is very true and is one point to the story. However, the other part, "Act 2", as this author puts it, is about the older brother.
The older brother complains to the father that he has never disobeyed his father and yet his brother is getting this wonderful treatment, and taking from the older brother's inheritance. (The younger brother had already taken his part, so what was left was the older brother's, and now the father is taking from that and giving it to the younger brother). Remember that Jesus was telling this parable to pharisees. This author suggests that the point of the story was to focus on both brothers...both were lost...both were living to control the father and get what they wanted...one did it by being very, very bad and the other did it by being very, very good. But BOTH didn't love the father, but wanted His stuff. The "tax collectors and sinners" that Jesus was criticized for hanging out with were the "younger brothers" and the pharisees, who knew the law and tried to keep it perfectly, were the "older brothers". It's also interesting that Jesus leaves the story open ended. What happened to the older brother? What did he decide?
This is pretty scary stuff when you really think about it and think about your own life. (At least it is for me). "Younger brothers" are easy to spot: they go off on their own, live their own way, and do whatever they want and it's easy to see that they are lost. However, "older brothers" do everything right, they have very strong morals, and seem like they are doing ok, but they don't have that relationship, that love for God. They are good because they think that's how everyone should be and that is how you get heaven. We usually divide the world into these two categories, or at least into different levels of each extreme. Jesus, however, in this parable was saying he doesn't see us like that. He sees us as all lost, and he reaches out to everyone. Remember in the story, the father (who represents God) invited both brothers to the feast (heaven). When the younger brother came home, the father brought him in and when the older brother didn't want to go, the father went to him asked him to come. God wants all to be saved, and just because I am good, and go to church, am nice to people, and even do what God wants, doesn't mean I deserve good things from God, or even deserve heaven. I am lost unless I have a personal relationship with God (the agape and the phileo love Jesus talked about in John).
Until I started reading this book I didn't realize what I was doing. I had to take a hard look at why I live the way I do. Is it because I love God and realize without Him I would be nothing, or is it because I know that's what I'm supposed to do to get to heaven? It really makes you keep your motivation in check. It's easy for me to think about losing my dad, or not getting the answers to my prayers that I want, or going through hard times and wanting to say to God, "This isn't fair, I'm not a bad person, I do my best as a Christian, why can't something good happen??" That is trying to control God, something I didn't realize before. I may have never actually said those words to God, but I sometimes find myself feeling angry towards Him, wondering why He isn't being "fair" to me or my family.
I think it's all about maturing. As children, we were taught by our Christian parents and Bible class teachers the things we should do and how we should act as Christians, but as you get older, the relationship part needs to come, which no one can really teach you. It comes from reading God's word and praying to Him and keeping up the communication. That's how you build a relationship with anyone...spend time with them.
It's dangerous being the younger brother and believing you don't need God and you can just live however you want, but it's just as dangerous (if not more) being the older brother and thinking you can earn your way and that you deserve to be blessed because you are "good" and still not getting the "heart" part. My prayer for myself is that I will not just do things to check them off a list, but that I will realize that I am totally lost without God's grace, and there is nothing I can DO to earn that, and that God loves me whether I am a perfect Christian or not. I need to simply appreciate what God has done for me and in turn I will want to serve Him and do things for His glory and that is what He wants. He wants your heart!

Have a wonderful, blessed day!!

New Perspective

Since the church Tim works at doesn't have Wednesday night services, we go to Anchorage church of Christ, and the class we're attending this quarter is on the teachings of Jesus. Last night was about love. Of course we talked about agape and phileo love and the difference between the two. Agape is the godly, self-sacrificing, servant love that isn't an emotional feeling, but a choice to act in the best interest of the person. Phileo is the emotional, brotherly, friendly love someone feels when they are emotionally connected to someone; it's not self-sacrificing and based more on feeling than a choice. This was not new information, but we started looking at different verses and at which word was used, and one verse that uses agape is John 3:16 when it says that God loved the world that He gave His son. So, God agapes the world. Then we looked at John 16:27 which is Jesus speaking to his disciples and he says, "No, the Father himself loves you because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God," and I thought, "Whoa, so this says if we don't love God, He doesn't love us, but we just read that God loves the whole world and of course God loves everyone no matter what, so what can this mean?" And then the teacher said the word used in this verse is phileo, the emotional bond love.  So then it all made sense in a way I never thought about it before.  God agapes everyone.  He has sacrificed for everyone, and loves us in the way that He wants the best for us.  However, he only has the emotional, phileo love, the bond where he loves us like a brother or best friend if we love him like that.  If we want God to love us like a close brother, we have to love Him like that.  We can't just say that we believe in God and He's great and I love Him because He loved me.  We actually have to believe that and have a relationship with Him.  We also are called to agape God.  How can we be sacrificing to God?  Doesn't he have everything? Jesus tells us that we show our love for God by obeying His commands (John 14:15). And we are to offer our bodies as living sacrifices, Romans 12:1.  We need to feel connected to God in an emotional way, but we also need to be willing to obey His commands and sacrifice what we want for what God wants of us.

This is pretty basic stuff that Christians know, and I knew it, but like many things, I realized that many times I get stuck in being more worried about doing the right thing and being the "good person" that I forget to nurture the emotional bond I should have with God.  For our home Bible study, we are reading a book called, "The Prodigal God" about the parable of the prodigal son, and it has given me a new perspective on that parable.  I don't have time to write about that now, but I will in the near future.

Right now I have to continue getting ready for work!  Happy Friday!!!!

Last night on the way home from Tim's place, I saw a moose in the median of the highway, about to come into my lane!  I swerved into the other lane because I didn't want her (I'm assuming it was a "her" because it didn't have any antlers) to charge my car.  Luckily it was uneventful, but pretty freaky seeing that huge animal so close!

Tim and I bought our wedding rings on Saturday!  He got a titanium band and I got an enhancer.  I will put pictures up once I have it.  Tim has his, but we put mine on layaway until November 7, when we can get it on sale.  We are both very happy with our rings. :-)

I'm really looking forward to going home for Thanksgiving and spending time with everyone, and also doing wedding stuff.  Most of what's left to do needs to be done at home, like getting the unity candle, centerpiece decorations, and other decorations, addressing invitations, and such.  Hopefully my dress will be in by December and when I go home again for Christmas, I can have one more fitting and get the alterations done by March.  

I've been watching Glenn Beck on Fox News and it is very interesting.  Did you know that Obama has surrounded himself with people on his administration who admire and have as role models people who are communists and marxists?  The more I hear about the President and who he has hired to advise him and help run the country, the more respect I lose for him and am afraid of where our country is headed.  I know God is in ultimate control so it's nothing I lose sleep over, but I'm praying that we get a new, better person in office in the next election.

Time to go be productive...TTFN!

Happy Hump Day!

Only 2 and a half more days until Tim comes home!  Yay!  I miss him and am ready for him to be back!  Although, I have already finished my classwork for this week, and will start on next week's assignments tomorrow, so that is really good!  I looked at the dates for my winter quarter class, and it starts in mid-January and ends March 19th, which means I will have assignments during my honeymoon!  Hopefully I will be able to get the work done ahead of time, or else I'll be working on it in Mexico!  Actually, now that I'm thinking about it, I will have to respond to answers for that week's discussion, so I will definitely have to work on it in Mexico...bummer! Maybe I can explain the situation to my professor and he/she will let me off the hook for that week...I don't know.

I met with the assistant principal at school today to talk about my goals for this year, which are to learn more about Fetal Alcohol Syndrome, which the majority of our students have, and Autism.  I also mentioned wanting to go to the Level 1 area, which is across the hall from us, and the kids there have the more severe communication disorders, to become more familiar with them  and their routines in case I need to step in some day if one of the TA's is out.  And she said that with the new quarter beginning next week, Jamie, the teacher in that area will be starting on our side, Level 2, and I will be the only TA left there because they are moving the other three to different places in the school.  I knew the change was coming and I heard that there was going to be only one TA left in Level 2, and Denise had told me several weeks ago that they would never move me out of Level 2, so I was hoping she would keep her word, and she did!  She also said that I wouldn't have to go to Level 1 because I really would be needed in Level 2 full time to help with our kids.  That was good news to me because I prefer Level 2, and working with our kids, and although I would be willing to work in Level 1, I would MUCH rather stay where I am!  Friday is an inservice day so teachers can get grades in and I get to go to a training for first-year TA's.  It's an overview of Special Education so hopefully it will be informative.  At least it's an easy day without the kids!

Tim's mom and sister threw him a gift card shower on Sunday and I talked to them through Skype and "met" his family that was there, and we opened our gifts together that night, and got a lot of money in gift cards to Bed, Bath, and Beyond, plus some cash.  

Well, it's getting cold again, and it's been foggy the last couple of days.  No snow in the forecast anymore, but the temperatures are dropping into the 30's as the high.

Ok, time to eat dinner and then go to church!  (I never know how to end my blogs...I don't know if it's weird to say "Bye!" or "Have a good night" or what I should say.  Or should I have some sort of phrase I always use?  Any ideas would be much appreciated!)

While the cat's away, the mice will...work

Well, Tim went to Boston on Thursday and will be gone until next Saturday. It's not fun being away from him, but I have a lot to do so hopefully I'll get it done while he's away. I just finished the first week of my course in ethnic and cultural awareness and I'm already overwhelmed. This course has a much heavier workload than my last one and it's stressing me out. But since I have a lot of time to myself this week, I should get a lot done and maybe get a couple of weeks ahead. For those who don't know, since my courses are all online, the way they give you grades is by online discussions and papers. With this course I have two discussion questions to answer every week and have to respond to two people for each discussion. The initial posts are due by Thursday night (midnight central time, which is 9 pm for me), and the responses are due by Sunday night. The posts have to be at least 250 words and you have to support what you say with scholarly journal articles. That is the hardest part for me. Capella has an online library with a lot of databases to search, but it's difficult to figure out what terms to search for to get the kind of articles you need. That is what takes me the longest to do, because once I have what I need, the writing part flows pretty well. I also have one project for this class and different parts of it are due during certain weeks. The project is a 10-14 page paper addressing a problem of a certain cultural group of my choosing that I am not a part of. I am either going to do the Hispanic population or the elderly.
There's really nothing else exciting going on in my life. It hasn't snowed yet. It's just been rainy and the temperatures have pretty much been in the 40's and lower 50's during the day. So, since I have so much to do, I guess I better go do it! Have a lovely weekend!

Texas Our Texas

Well, I'm officially an Alaskan.  I have my Alaskan diver's license and I got my car registered and got my plates today.  It's kind of sad.  I've never been anything but a Texan, and had to surrender my Texas license to get my Alaskan one.  But I don't have to turn in my Texas plates, so I think I'm going to keep one and hang it on the wall. :-)  

So I decided to read through the book of Isaiah because I've never read the whole thing.  I decided to do that because the other day I read chapter 40, which has the popular verse 31, "Yet those who wait for the Lord will gain new strength; they will mount up with wings like eagles, they will run and not get tired, they will walk and not become weary" (NASB).  When I got to that verse, I was like, "Whoa, there's that verse!"  Of course I knew that verse, but don't remember ever reading it in context with the whole chapter.  The heading for the chapter in my Bible is "The Greatness of God" and is all about how cool God is, about how powerful and caring He is and it just gave more depth and meaning to verse 31.  It was just a cool moment and inspired me to read the whole book.

I finally got my video done.  I just have to watch it on the TV and make sure it works and that the captions I added can be read.  My computer let me add a chapters menu, like all DVD's have, to jump to different parts of the DVD, but when I try it on the TV, it won't let me select a chapter.  But that is not a battle I want to fight.