December/January Recap

Just wanted to share a little December/January re-cap from our life! We celebrated one year of marriage on December 1st, so we cruised from Tampa to the Grand Cayman Islands and Cozumel, Mexico. We spent five nights on the Carnival Paradise and it was definitely an experience, to say the least! Kyle enjoyed Cozumel so much and we hated that we only had 8 hours on the island! We have pretty much came to the conclusion that we are more of the fly to a resort and stay a week type of people, but this trip was fun too and the memories were great! 

We got home from our trip and the next night we went to a "National Lampoons/Tacky Christmas" Church Christmas party at Rachel & Josh's, which was a complete blast! I am so thankful for all of the wonderful people we have met at Gilliam Springs this past year! God chose to bless us with many new friends in 2013. 

Although Kyle isn't a fan of pictures, he did decide to pose with me one night before we went to a Christmas play that our family was a part of. This was our second Christmas together. 

Anyone who knows me knows how much I love our dachshund Libby. So we thought it would be fun and crazy to have a blow-up weenie in our yard. Kyle was pretty proud of this one! 

And of course... Kyle is super excited about his two favorite things, Christmas shopping and pictures! 

I ended January by attending the Passion Conference in Atlanta with the college group and some of my girlfriends. To say it was amazing would be an understatement. We got to hear from Christine Cain, Francis Chan, Louie Giglio, and John Piper. My favorite part was Hillsong United, of course. I am so glad I got to spend a little more time with some of the Gilliam Springs girls and got to know them better! This was a highlight of 2014 for me already!

The best pictures are of this precious little baby boy who joined our family in January! John Barry Bailey is the sweet little son of James Paul and Emily, my cousins. This little bundle of joy has been much anticipated by many, so as you can tell, mom and I were thrilled to visit with Emily and my Aunt Jill and to meet him. 

We did our one year anniversary session with the amazing Kayla Cobb in January as well. The day did not start out as planned as the weather changed from a sunny sixty degrees to a windy fifty degrees within the hour of pictures. We did get a few great shots, and we got to bring Libby which was fun! I haven't got around to buying a  CD insert for my Macbook Air yet, so here is a little preview! Hoping that February turns out to be as great as the past couple of months. :)

Obedience Opens Doors...

When I wrote my first blog post yesterday, I had no idea that I would be writing another one today, but God has blessed me so much today that I cannot help but express my joy.

What I have been thinking about all day is how being obedient to God opens doors that you do not see coming. And when I write "do not see coming", I am talking about people/places/situations that you would have never thought would be impacted by one act of obedience from you to your Lord. Today I am thankful for the obedience of Pastor Kumar of Clarkston Georgia, who came to speak to our Sunday School class today for Engage Mission weekend.

I won't go into too much detail in respect for my husband's spiritual walk with Christ and the glory that has yet to unveil in his life, but I wanted to share how Pastor Kumar's obedience to God impacted a young married couple from Arab, Alabama today. Pastor Kumar shared from Luke 10 about how Jesus commands us to approach the field of missions with people that we are basically culturally different from. He explained how we have to adapt and give up our comfort zones in order to reach others. Which may be a message that we have heard before, but not in this aspect. He went on to encourage us not to keep our seats warm, but to glorify God in any way possible. 

This message helped my husband realize something that God has been wanting him to do in his life. Something specific that I have been praying to happen in his life for weeks now. To be completely honest, I was just thinking this week that my prayers were going nowhere. That maybe there just wasn't an answer from God for this particular situation. Just when I had almost given up hope, God intervened in the form of this guest speaker to answer my prayer and speak to my husband. 

Praise GOD almighty for his servants being obedient to Him! I hope this encourages you as it has encouraged to me be more obedient to our Heavenly Father, who will use us in ways we never knew. Happy Sunday!

"Do not worry about anything; instead pray, about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. Then you will experience God's peace, will exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hears and minds as you live in Christ Jesus." Philippians 4:6-7 

Ivory Bars

"May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing to you, O Lord, my rock and redeemer." Psalms 19:14

I once heard my pastor say that your tongue is held behind ivory bars and your ears are always open for a reason. I thought it was a pretty clever statement. Why is it so hard for us girls to keep our mouths shut? Or why is it so hard to listen and not speak? One thing I have learned in trying to do this as a Christian: it does not happen in a day. Or even in months, for that matter. It's a gradual process.

If you are anything like me, you can relate to my every day situations. I use my work environment as my example because well, sadly thats where most of us spend the majority of our time. I tend to be an outgoing person who can cut up with just about anyone. I try not to be the center of attention, but laughing and having fun with my co-workers is usually part of my daily agenda. Up until recently, I never thought twice about the conversations that I was having or my responses to certain situations. But once the Holy Spirit gets a hold of you, your thought process changes. Or at least mine did.

Do you work with someone who drives you absolutely crazy because they think they know more than everyone? And not just that, they are quick to point out faults in others and to boast about themselves? I think we can all secretly impart that we work with someone of that nature. These people are my tongue triggers. I hate to see them coming because I just know that Satan is going to crack the whip on my tongue and my mouth is going to salivate with negativity and gossip. A recent setting I found myself in consisted of my "tongue trigger" person completely trying to do my job for me because they felt like I did not perform adequately. Boy, did I just want to unleash and prove that I did not need this person to perform my job for me. And instead of listening to the gentle and coaxing Holy Spirit telling me to look the other way and go about my business, I did just that. I completely huffed and puffed, telling Miss Tongue Trigger that I had done what I thought needed to be done and that I did NOT need her to go behind me when it wasn't her place. Since we are all guilty of sin every day I will go a step further and confess that after this person left the room I could not STAND her. After I had said all of those things about this person, a verse came into my head.

"My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry." James 1:19

I have came to the conclusion last week that being a Christian is accompanied by suffering not only from persecution, but also from the constant conviction of the Spirit. I don't mean that as conviction being painful and hating it, but when His Spirit is constantly reminding me of how my actions aren't benefiting Christ's gain, I always feel bad. But on the bright side, it also encourages us to grow, do better next time, and remain positive. 

So have I changed completely in a few months? No, of course not, I have slipped a few times and wished that my ivory bars kept my tongue safe and sound, but for the most part, I am learning that Christ is most pleased with a gentle and humble servant. A short but meaningful prayer in my car every morning helps tremendously, and I am so thankful that my Heavenly Father knows what I can handle throughout my day. 

You should clothe yourselves instead with the beauty that comes from within, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quite spirit, which is precious to God." 1 Peter 3:4