Today I had a fun day with the kids. The Lord blessed us with some amazing outdoor weather, it was great to be outside and soak up the sun, and breathe some fresh air. Owen really made me realize something today. It was pretty awesome. He is DEATHLY afraid of bugs and insects- especially bees, and today he saw quite a few of them and was extremely upset that they were buzzing around him. He came up to me and said, "Nie-Nie I am going to pray to God, to take the bees away." and off he went to the corner of the porch and sat down and prayed like I have never heard anyone pray before, he was praying so hard that God would take these bees away, and his hands were folded so tightly. It was the cutest thing. It got me thinking about how sincere Owen was about this prayer and he knew that this was a huge problem and knew immediately to take it to God in prayer. It got me to thinking how sincere are my prayers, Do I just flippantly throw prayers and not really mean them or think about them? Or do it cause I know I should or have to?? He was so earnest about this prayer. I want my prayers to be like that meaningful, focused, wholehearted, thankful. Thank you Owen for this little reminder. Happy Weekend Everyone.
I had an amazing weekend in the great state of Iowa. I do really enjoy Iowa a lot. I like the small town feel, the friendliness of everyone there, and the people there seem so much more relaxed than in bigger cities. The purpose of my trip to Iowa this time was to watch Georgie Filber get married to the beautiful Erica Mannetter. It was a beautiful ceremony; and a fun reception filled with lots of laughs and memories. It was also so awesome to see the Johnson family who I miss SO SO much. I don't realize how much I miss them and appreciate them till I leave. I love them a lot. I am so grateful and thankful that the Lord placed Andrew and later Ruby into my life to pour their lives into me, because they cared about where I was going spiritually and for sure Andrew wasn't afraid to tell me straight up the sin in my life, or what he thought, In his 7 years as my youth pastor he made me cry at least 8 times, all for various reasons. The very last time he made me cry was a good cry as we packed up their moving truck as they made their new journey to where the Lord was leading them, to Radcliffe, IA. As I was balling my eyes out on their front porch I finally realized what they meant to me, and realized where I may be without them. The Lord has truly blessed their ministry there. I loved my time with them, I will treasure it forever.
It was also so good to see Michelle and Michael Norby. I was in their wedding almost 3 years ago, I love Michelle and Mike, they make me laugh, Michelle is such a Godly women, that I looked up to for so many years,(and still do) and her love for the youth there is incredible. Mike is so good with the youth kids, what a fun youth pastor, almost as good as mine :). His love for the Lord is shown daily, and so is their love for each other. I love them. I hope that they have youth there that look back 5-6 years later and see what Godly and incredible people they are, and that they love and care for them a lot, and that the kids could never express how thankful they are for them, Just as I do about Andrew and Ruby. Happy Monday Everyone.
I have been studying the book of Revelation for my personal time with the Lord the last few weeks. I have never studied the book in depth before, Mostly because a lot of it is hard for me to understand, and still as I am going through it with the help of a John MacArthur study guide book, some of it I am still a bit confused on. Overall, I am thoroughly enjoying the study of this book. As I study the book, it just makes me more and more anxious for the Lord to come back. With all the events that are to take place which sound not to fun to me, I am just so ready for Him to come back. I used to not want Jesus to come back because I wanted a few things for MYSELF (notice the selfish thinking here) I wanted to married, know the names of my children, Go to a tropical island, see LA, Go on trips with the husband, you know the "normal" stuff of life I guess, but obviously over time I realized that Christ return will be so much greater than that, and to live a sinless life would be way more rad than going to lets say the Bahamas. Also studying through the book I find myself thanking and praising the Lord for His sovereignty, His control, and His power. Praise Him that He will return. I can't wait.
Last night was my Thursday night Bible Study, It was incredible, I saw some answered prayer last night, A prayer I prayed almost every night for the last 5 years. God is good. I praise Him. He is powerful. I am blessed. I am undeserving. I am grateful. I am so happy.
Last night I had a hard time getting to sleep and my brain was going 90 miles an hour thinking about the day and all the things that went on. It was a busy day with church-- a great and challenging message followed by Sunday School, Lunch with my mom's family for my grandpa's birthday, a much needed afternoon jog in the amazing weather, a few minutes with some friends down the block, and then an unexpected crazy night of nursery. (Normally on a Sunday night we have between 5-8 kids, last night we had 37), That got me flustered, Unexpected things like that make me a bit stressed, we were scrabbling for workers, and when I get flustered I laugh. I laughed a lot last night. It all of course turned out fine. Anyways, as I was laying in bed thinking about the conversations that I had that day; I felt like every conversation I had yesterday was about me. I kept saying to myself, "Stephanie, why do you talk about yourself all the time, you dumbo.." I felt like in my conversations in SS and with fellow church members, were about me and my life; my time with the family I felt like was about me--My short time with my friends I talked about--well--me. And once finally settled in the evening nursery, my conversations with Kate, my nursery buddy we talked about...me. She just got back from a trip, Why didn't I ask her about it??? Dumb. I have been feeling guilty about this, I asked the Lord to forgive me and now I am gonna try to NOT talk about myself as much anymore, unless some asks. I truly do want to hear other people, and not listen to myself, I want to pray for them and love them. My prayer this week and every week Is that I would listen and love, and shut up.
So I decided to write a top 10 things I am thankful for. My pastor did it on his blog the last couple of days, and my brother has on his blog before so I thought this would be fun to do, and also praise and thank Him for how blessed I really I am. There are days when I am not thankful enough, I need to thank Him more often.
1. The book of Revelation and the John Mac Aurthur book that is helping me understand the book better. I am going through the book of Revelation for my personal time, and I am really enjoying it, theres some good stuff in there. I am just SO VERY thankful that the Lord is in control, I need not to fear. Praise the Lord He is coming back!!!
2. Leah Andersen.--That 20 month year old makes me laugh so hard. She sees me in the other room and yells "NIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE-NIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE" and then waves.
3. Sleep-Its no secret that I am huge sleeper. I am sorta on Spring Break this week, since the kids' mom is home, although I am still working at Mulligan's a couple days--I have been able to sleep in everyday this week. Its been AMAZING.
4.The Patek Apartment.-Tuesday night I got released from Mulligan's early due to the rain, so I went over the Phil and Laura's apartment, because I knew Tim was over there, and we all ate dinner together, had great conversation, and then Phil and Tim played Chess, Laura was house cleaning and I was watching American Idol, the funny part was Tim, Phil, and Laura were playing the roles of Simon, Randy and Kara by critiquing ALL the contestants, and making jokes, and I must admit it was pretty funny-meanwhile my mom was sending me texts because the Bergmans were over at my house and they were watching it too, and they were critiquing too. Although, it was not so funny when MY FAVORITE contestant was up, and they said he wasn't good. That was false. (that's a picture of him at the top)
5. Subway--I was craving Subway last night so I drove to get myself a sandwich, intending to eat only a six inch and save the other half for lunch today--Well, I didn't have it for lunch today. I ate and ENTIRE foot long sub myself. That has never happened. But it was so good.
6. Target. I don't need to say anything more. That place is a little piece of paradise to me.
7. New Shampoo.--Got some yesterday, it smells so good. I love being clean, and having good smelling hair.
8. The Sun--Haven't seen it in awhile, its great to see it today, I think I am gonna go outside later and enjoy it a little more.
9. Wicked.--I got the tickets to see the play Wicked in the mail a few weeks ago, I am excited to see it and spend time with my brothers.
10. The College Bible Study--Its Friday, that means college Bible Study meets tonight at Andy's , I love the Bible Study, there aren't many of us who attend, about 5 or 6. But its so encouraging to me. We get to spend about 45 min. in Gods Word, talking about it, encouraging one another in it, praying for each other, and then fellowshipping with each other. I love it.
Have a great weekend everyone, I hope you all find things to be thankful for too!!!
I am continuing my posts on my brothers, So I guess this would be my last post about them since I only have one more, my older brother Dan.
Most people would say their favorite preacher would be somebody like John Piper, John MacArthur, Francis Chan, Spencer DeBurgh, or Wayne Beilgard, But mine is Dan Miller, maybe its because he is my brother or because I personally know this preacher, But nevertheless, He's my favorite. I love Dan, he makes me laugh a lot, mostly because of his funny little antics of his preaching/teaching style, and how he takes on some of the mannerisms of who he's been hanging around with, usually sounding like Andrew Johnson, or lately its been Wayne Beilgard, But in my opinion those are two of the greatest people to be imitating. There are a lot of things that I love about Dan, but I can't write them all out because you would be sitting here reading for the next few days, but just a few of the things that I love are- Dan's humility and his gratefulness. Dan always amazes me at how humble he is, knowing that its nothing of his doing or anyone else's but Christ's alone. Dan loves his fellow youth leaders- a lot, and never afraid to admit it, His love for the youth kids, his love for his friends- and willing to do anything for them-And just like Pete- He always is always busy with school, work, and other things but ALWAYS has time for the Lord above all else. I also love Dan's enthusiasm to grow in the Lord and wanting to be sharpened by other believers. I want to imitate that. Dan and Pete have grown so much as we have all gotten older, even though still to this day when we are 25-23-and 21, they make fun of me, weather its them setting the whole plate of rolls on my plate during holiday meals, because they know how much rolls are my favorite part of any huge meal, or them saying that my wedding reception is gonna contain corn dogs, popcorn, bozo and whatever else you see or get at the circus. I guess I will get that for the rest of my life, Its okay. I love them. Dan is a great youth pastor, and a great brother, and someday some girl is gonna be a REAL lucky lady......
I will continue my posts about my other brother, but since it is Easter tomorrow I thought I would share my favorite Easter song, We sing it all the time, but definitely singing this at Easter makes it even better. The words are incredible, Not many songs make me emotional, but this one gets me every time. Its truth. Happy Easter everyone. Lets remember what its about.
Oh to see the dawn of the darkest day
Christ on the road to Calvary
Tried my sinful men; Torn and beaten then
nailed to a cross of wood.
CHORUS:
This, the power of the cross
Christ became sin for us;
Took the blame, bore the wrath,
We stand forgiven at the cross.
Oh to see the pain
Written in Your face, Bearing the awesome
weight of sin. Ev'ry bitter thought, ev'ry evil deed
Crowning Your blood stained brow
Now the daylight flees; Now the ground beneath
quakes as its Maker bows His head.
Curtain torn in two, Dead are raised to life,
"Finished!" the vict'ry cry.
Oh to see my name, written in the wounds,
For through Your suffering I am free.
Death is crushed to death, Life is mine to live,
Won through Your selfless love.
Final CHORUS:
This, the p'wr of the cross
Son of God-Slain for us
What a love, What a cost,!
We stand forgiven at the cross.
I have decide to write my next two blog posts about two of my good friends,my two brothers. I have been so blessed to have two of the best brothers in the world. I know some of you may say your brothers are better, that is not true. My brothers could beat up your brothers (actually probably not:), but they are a true blessing from the Lord. I am so grateful for them. I am even more blessed that both of them love the Lord so much and what to glorify Him above all else. So I decided to write about my little brother Pete first.
Pete is my little brother, He's not so little anymore since he is way taller than me and stronger, but to me he will always be my little brother. Pete tends to amaze me sometimes. Pete is a busy man, he goes to school full time and works 30 hours a week plus is a youth leader and plays on the music team at church as well, and yet always finds time to be with the Lord, and grow in Him. Pete is also probably one of the funniest people I know. He does the best impressions of pretty much everyone I know. Pete and I have always had some good talks on our 20 min. drives out to church on Wednesday nights, thats my favorite time to spend with him.
I think Pete is one of the most unselfish people I know, Pete is always thinking of others before himself. For example at our youth group winter retreat in 2009, when Dan our brother had just gotten in a serious car accident and I was crying uncontrollably and wanting to go the hospital right away, and the other leaders were trying to find Pete to go see if he wanted to come too because there was an extra seat available, they found Pete sitting with his cabin of boys just praying with them, and they asked Pete if he wanted to go and what Pete said I will never forget, "I don't know if I should, I should stay here with my guys-to make sure they'll be okay." Gosh, I felt so selfish when I heard him say that, of course the other leaders said they would take care of them, and that it would be good if he went, so we went together. I love Pete. He challenges me daily even if at times he doesn't know it. I am glad the Lord gave me a little brother.
