Addition by Subtraction

(my fellow friends, you know who you are, I am sorry I stole your unknown  band name! :/ )

So, about a month or so ago our family gave up cable! Yep. I just said that. Here is proof....

Need I say more?

Yes.

After cable went, my Dad asked my brother and I if we would consider sponsoring a child through Compassion Inter*national. (I had literally been wanting to do this for months now so, I guess you could say, I was thrilled! :))

Well, after praying about it and looking at children, I made my decision. (that almost sounds wrong, doesn't it? Me and my stalker habits. Oops! I hope they aren't reading my blog! Yikes!)

Anyway, I am now sponsoring a girl from India about 10 days older than me. I will not release much info about her considering I don't know their media policy.



Click here if you are interested in sponsoring a child for $38.00 a month.

Happy Wednesday everybody!!

More Beach Pictures - Attempted Photo Shoot

Here are some pictures from when we did our mini photo shoot. Enjoy!

"Where did the water go?"

Beautiful.......

An Ocean's view.....

Thanks Mr. Todd for taking some of the pictures! (and to the random lady on the beach!)

Beach Trip 2010 with the McGuire Family

wow! that was a long title! haha :) 


So I disappeared at the end of last week to go to the Florida Coast which did not have oil. (at least when i was there. it could have changed. just sayin'. )


Anyway, I had a great time! Here are some pictures from the trip..... enjoy! 


We arrived early friday morning (12 am to be exact) so these pictures were taken later in the day. :)

The view from our room.

The pool!

Because we had not gone to the grocery store, Red Robin sounded pretty good to us. And it was! 

After lunch, we headed over to Wal*mart to get our exercise and came home with groceries that lasted us more than a week! :)

That night, after supper, Mr. McGuire, Anna, Sarah, and I headed out to crab hunt.

Unfortunately, our plans were cancelled because of the bad weather. :(

But, we did find out what this was...!!! 

Do you have a guess??

It was so cool even though we didn't see anything!!.....

Monday, we traveled about an hour to go shop at the famous outlet mall. I bought a cute skirt and shirt for a little over $30 combined! 

Then, we ate at a restaurant that served this.....

oh yeah....

I ate the. whole. thing. 

does it look good or what??

okay....so I didn't eat the. whole. thing. We all shared it! haha

The pie was so good! 

The waiter told us it was the only dessert they serve with a steak knife. haha

to be continued....check back for more pictures later! 

Guarding your Heart

Way back when, I asked if I could write a post for Love Unawakened and Jen said yes so.....here it is...


I came across a way to look at how to guard your heart.* Back in the Old Testament (OT), God's Temple was divided into sections of holiness. You had the "outer court", "the holy place", and the "Holy of Holies". This is a way to look at 'how to guard your heart'.

Lets start off with the "Holy of Holies". This is the area only open for God and your husband. No one else, not even your intimate friends! In her book Set-Apart Femininity, Leslie Ludy says this "The Holy of Holies include such sacred things as s*xual expression, s*xual touch, .....and the deepest most personal dimensions of the heart and mind........Giving away your physical purity is not just a matter of "crossing the line" but of sharing any part of your sexuality with someone outside of a marriage covenant." So, definitely this something that should not have to be discussed. Unfortunately, this is not so. (I must tell you though, that I am NOT condemning you! I merely want to share what is on my heart.)
 Just think about that for a minute. What does that really mean?? Well, it is not merely saying wait until marriage to have "it" but, to to guard your heart and mind from getting emotionally attached to a guy. Sharing your most intimate feelings with him and your physical being. I believe at one point in our lives we will be grateful for doing this.

Please girls, hear me!!! Guard this with your life!!!!!
If you have made mistakes and done this already, don't worry God will forgive you!!!

Now, "the holy place". This area only allows family and intimate friends. Again, Leslie Ludy says this "The holy place includes such sacred things as deeply personal expression (nons*xual), deeply personal touch (nons*xual), dimensions of the heart and mind containing highly sensitive and sacred matters (hurts, vulnerabilities, fears, weaknesses, dreams, desires, longings). She goes on to say that "The holy place should only be entered with an unrelated member of the opposite s*x when you are in a serious relationship, led by God, headed toward marriage." This basically explains itself. If you have any questions please leave a comment.

The last one is the "outer court". This is open to friends (guys and girls) and family. Leslie Ludy says this "....the sacred things in its domain still deserve a heightened level of guardedness and special protection. The outer court includes such things as friendly touch, words of specific encouragement, character endorsements, intercessory prayer, friendships with believers, the teaching and discussing of doctrine, and communion." This explains itself, again.......


This is just a thought as you go about the rest of your week! Please feel free to contact me on my blog!!



*Set - Apart Femininity by Leslie Ludy is a great read!! www.setapartgirl.com

Airplanes and Wishes

This is a music video made some people up in the NorthWest US. It is actually a cleaned up version of this song so I would not suggest downloading the "real" one. I found the video through this blog.

I think the piano is really pretty in this video!

I made it!

Well, the first week of CEF is done and I am sad! :( This is just the start of it though! Sorry I dont have any pictures to share with y'all. Unfortunately, lugging an extra bag around is not something I want to be doing! haha :)

My team had me + 2 other people - Anderson and Becky. Me and Anderson combined with two other people (Mary Esther and Taylor) as Becky and Josh (Mary Esther's and Taylor's teammate) had to stay behind to do some more training which they had missed. Whew! that was long!) Okay, now that I totally confused you....

 Our first club we had about 8 or 9 kids show up everyday and none of them came to Christ but I am sure we planted a seed! I enjoyed this one as the kids (mostly girls) were enthusiastic!!

Our second club, we had about 14 kids but they were very quiet. In that club, we had a couple of kids come back for assurance.

Overall, I think, we had a great start to the summer! I look forward to many more weeks with kids and how God will use me! Hopefully, I will be able to bring my camera to take some pictures!


*By the way, home clubs normally have already saved kids or church goers.

Be back next week or in a couple weeks for another update! :)

Thanks!

.Quietness.

Oftentimes, I believe, we get too caught up in the daily life to listen to what God is saying to us. I think, sometimes, we rush through our Bible reading and prayer to (need I say it) "check of the box".

 *gasp*

Do I need to say more?

yes.

If we take time to pray, read the Bible, spend time with God, then we will be able to live our day to the fullest. Take time right now to do just that. Maybe, God, (if your quiet enough), will speak to you.

btw, Josh over @ While I am Waiting,
has a blog post worth reading about being quiet.
Click here.


*Thanks y'all for being faithful readers/commenters/followers!! I have been absent due to a number of reasons. Please bear with me as I catch up on blogging! Thanks and have a wonderful week!!