Turning 6 and Shark Fun!

I can hardly believe it.

It's been six years since my son was born!

Where did all the time go?

     My big guy put in the request for a "Jaws" birthday party early this year! His love of sharks knows no bounds. Every year I enjoy putting together the best party I can for my Bubby. My crafty-pinterest-mom card comes out to make a super cool stuff. So he got his Jaws birthday cake and shark filled room.
     Since going through Financial Peace University and being diligent to God the last several months my husband and I had the greatest pleasure of being able to take our son to the aquarium for his birthday. After his party we drove down to spend the next day at the Newport Aquarium! It was amazing!!! We all got to pet sharks and penguins! Connor was the brave man and pet a starfish! (I pet the horseshoe crab.) The aquarium is just epic! I highly recommend it to everyone.
     They have 14 large sharks that you can watch at different places in the aquarium. Plus, they have about 15 sharks in the pet-the-shark area which is incredibly cool! Connor's favorites were the Shark Rays and the white alligator. Then to end it all best for him they had a stuffed alligator snapper turtle in the gift shop that he got with his birthday money in memory of his turtle (Toothless) that passed away.

 

 

 

Books to Start 2017

     So in case you didn't know, I am an avid book reader! My book passion started from a very early age, but in fifth grade my love for reading went to another level. That summer I read 100 books for our local library's reading challenge. Ever since then I have read hundreds of more books. Last year wasn't my best year for reading though. Lots of stuff was happening and I just "couldn't get my head in the game." So my TBR (to-be-read) pile is pretty big right now. I have some books goaled to get read by April. I have high hopes with my intentionality this year that I can do it!

Here are the six books I would like to get through in the next two months; titles are links to Amazon.com.

Unoffendable, by: Brant Hansen
  
     I listened to Brant Hansen on Air1 radio during his three year career there. I knew I had to read his book: the idea that "righteous anger" is a myth. Learning to give yourself peace by choosing to not be offended. Sounds very needed in the world today.













Dealing with Diabetes Burnout, by: Ginger Vieira

     This, of course, is not for everyone, but I am very excited about reading this! Encouragement is a hard thing to get when you're a diabetic. Staying on top of everything while doing everything else is such a challenge!











 


Girls with Swords, by: Lisa Bevere

     I love Lisa Bevere! She is a phenomenal evangelist! I have two other of her books, and I have been excited and waiting to read this one! Women need to arm themselves with the word of god! Going to be a review done on this one!












Life Together, by: Dietrich Bonhoeffer

     I have not heard of Dietrich Bonhoeffer until recently, but this book was recommended to me and it sounded like an excellent try! Bonhoeffer lived in WWII and was a Pastor and conspirator against Hitler. This book is about the community of believers.













360° Preaching, by: Michael Quicke

     Title is pretty much self explanatory. This is for my personal development in preaching and exegesis. Several pastors in my CLI classes have recommended this to me, and I got it as a gift the end of last year. This talks a lot about approaching your sermon from all senses.












Emotionally Healthy Spirituality, by: Peter Scazzero

     So this as a recommendation from a Christian vlogger, and it looked good. Just the tagline of the book: "It's impossible to be spiritually mature, while remaining emotionally immature." Sounds like I may get prodded for some more growing!







 

Psalm 18 Heals

24) The Lord has rewarded me according to my righteousness, according to the cleanness of my hands in his sight.
25) To the faithful you show yourself faithful, to the blameless you show yourself blameless,
26) to the pure you show yourself pure, but to the devious you show yourself shrewd.
27) You save the humble but bring low those whose eyes are haughty.
28) You, Lord, keep my lamp burning; my God turns my darkness into light.
29) With your help I can advance against a troop; with my God I can scale a wall.
30) As for God, his way is perfect: The Lord's word is flawless; he shields all who take refuge in him.

                                    ~Psalm 18: 24-30  (NIV)


     Since October people in my life and family have definitely put me through the ringer. With the passing of our baby God pulled us in and it was amazing! The love and healing that God brought to mine and my husband's lives cannot be explained fully. Phoenix was a line in our lives: a spiritual, physical, mental, and emotional line in the sand. My husband and I decided what loosing our son would mean and how our lives would continue, and God has incredibly blessed our decision. People we never thought of showed their love in the most amazing and healthy ways to us.
     Decidedly with that though there is another side. People we assumed would understand and respect us have hurt us deeply. Selfish actions in the middle of us loosing our son are one of those things that have haunted my mind and heart for months.

Christ Follower
     The best visual I have for this is bats in a cave. If you just walk in to the pitch black cave without any light you won't disrupt the bats. If you turn on a flashlight in the middle of the cave though....you are going to have an ugly mess because of how bad you upset them.
     What I am still learning three months later is that my Phoenix wasn't just the amazing burst of light from God for my husband and I. He was the amazing burst of light from God in the middle of our environment! Like turning on a flashlight in a cave of bats, God's gift of Phoenix drew people closer to Him, and sadly drove others away.
     When people have problems with God they take their anger and pain out on those who follow God closely. With the overwhelming power and love of God that was present in all we went through I forgot it would upset the bats. I was a little naïve in thinking that our environment was a safe place. I thought people would stow away their pettiness and anger to be in the glory of what happened. I was very much mistaken, and hurt in the process.

"To the faithful you show yourself faithful, to the blameless you show yourself blameless, to the pure you show yourself pure, but to the devious you show yourself shrewd." 

Family Reformed
     Our definition of family has been reformed. Not even two weeks after Phoenix passed my husband and I were at home going through what everyone had done (and were still doing) since we found out the bad news about our son. Some people brought us tears of joy, and some brought us heartbreak and pain. Literally, we started writing a list of who we considered our new family and what qualities they brought to our lives. We have this list in our kitchen! I keep this list in my planner and Bible so I remind myself to pray for those who were with us. It was the most freeing thing I have done in such a long time. Now before you even assume it, not everyone in our new family is from our church or even a Christian.
     Those who loved us the most didn't necessarily even talk to us while we were in the hospital! What?! Not even knowing what we needed ourselves, it was the people who took the initiative to just bring us dinner, who sent us a message saying they're praying for us, mailing us cards, and randomly surprising us with something. The pure intention of loving us in the middle of it all, and not expecting anything from us truly changed our life.
     Just like Christ remaking his family, we remade ours!

"...my God turns my darkness into light."