Ouch...

aching backs...that's what 2 hours of yard work and and hour and a half in the smallest attic ever will give you!

My days are filled with "little" projects that keep me busy. It's good to work with my hands, raking last fall's leaves that have been keeping our spring flowers warm and cozy all winter. I love spring, don't you?! The imagery of new life and resurrection that come along with Easter. I was thinking a lot about that as I was raking, pretty aggressively. I was afraid I would damage the tender shoots but I knew that there wasn't much else to be done but to use some force to get rid of all the junk. Life imitates nature...another living parable.

I'm excited that for the first time since I was in high school, all of my books are in the same place at the same time! How could I keep such good friends in boxes, covered in dust for so long! I have a big sense of accomplishment having put together the bookshelf myself. Yeah, girlpower! I even used tools! :)

Has anyone seen The Guardian? I admit the previews left me kinda cold. It just looked like another macho action flick...but I have to tell you that I'm really impressed. Basic idea: it's about the Coast Guard. The motto of the Coast Guard is "So that others may live." Sound familiar? At the end there's a narrative about a "Fisher of Men" that saves people from boat wreckage. It got me thinking about the picture I had in my head from all those Sunday School lessons about Jesus asking those fishermen to join him and become fishers of men. My family's big into fishing...I know how sharp those hooks are. Ask my cat, who became an innocent victim of an unfortunate lure catastrophe (hehe, sorry!). Anyway, I always had this picture that Christians were walking around with fishing poles in their hands ready to cast out and snag unsuspecting heathens. Ouch!

This movie gave me another picture: we are all shipwrecked in a massive catastrophe called life. We're going to drown if we don't get some help. There is one who risked his life for us so that we may live.

How beautiful is that?

for my Mom

Shortly after arriving, my mom was permanently laid-off of her job. This is a mixed blessing because she was having to drive so long everyday to Nashville and back to Clarksville. The obvious downside is that she has no job. We've had some good catching up time with lots of furniture moving, trips to Kroger, finding the local library and celebrating my sister-in-law's birthday.

Mom could use your prayers for this uncertain time. Unemployment doesn't necessary give anyone a morale boost! I'm thankful that God brought me here just in time. We're trying to get healthy and whole together, and the mutual encouragement has been just the right thing for me and for her too. Pray that I will find the best way to love my Dad. It's a hard thing to do since he has become a complete stranger to me in the last 4 years.

Yes, indeed God does have a plan for us. A plan to prosper us and NOT to harm us. A plan of HOPE and future. He will not despise a humble heart poured out before him.

Continue to bend my will to Yours, Lord.

Amy Wingfield! Where are you?!

Amy Wingfield!!!
How do I get in touch with you? I've been thinking about you so much since Urbana! I jumped onto your Xanga for a quick catch-up and remembered how much I really liked you when I first met you! We're both INFPs!! That explains our soulful gazing into space and deep sighs during introspective thinking. :) Remember what I told you: I need people like you in my life!