April 29, 2012

• Random Update of the Month

   

  April has been a wonderful month! I’m at 227 pics so far and it just keeps getting more and more fun.  :)

   

  

  

  

  

  Cool stuff at weddings

   

  

  little boy icing-grin

   

  

  Beautiful little girls and yummy evening light

   

  

  My unbelievably handsome boyfriend

   

  I think I’ve read Job more often than any other book in the Bible. I’m not sure it’s exactly my favorite book but it comes really close. I love it deeply. It challenges me and confuses me and comforts me. There’s such a huge diversity of language in that book. The suffering, the pain that’s almost unbearable to even try to fathom; the friendly advice that is sometimes true and sometimes very obviously a misunderstanding (so like people who try to comfort us in our pain sometimes…they say all the wrong things but you have to forgive them because they mean well..or you try to tell yourself they do:P). Job is kind of sarcastic in one part and a chuckle bubbled out the first time I caught that verse. It was so surprising. For some reason, you just don’t expect sarcasm from someone as patient and saintly as Job. Just in case you don’t believe me, it’s in the beginning of chapter 12 and reads, “I’m sure you speak for all the experts, and when you die there’ll be no one left to tell us how to live.” In the KJV it says, “No doubt but ye are the people; and wisdom shall die with you.” Doesn’t it make you smile? Then there’s the conversations between God and Satan, and then at the end, when God speaks (or more like shouts) for 4 chapters straight, and that’s what jumped out at me this time.

   

  

  Huge moon

   

  

  butterflies same color as flowers

   

  

  twirling girls

   

  

  My awesome brothers

   

  

  weirdly shaped four-leaf clovers

   

  

  awesome snacks

   

  

  trying out new foods (especially when they turn out yummy)

   

  

  When butterflies randomly land on me!

   

   

  

  

  Us..<3

   

  

  winking girlies 

   

  

  my honor-student pin that I’m pretty proud of..:)

   

  

  them..

   

  You know how there’s so much about God speaking in a still small voice? He does. But it’s putting him in a box to say that he’s ALWAYS going to speak that way. He definitely didn’t with Job. Maybe it’s like C.S.Lewis says that God shouts to us in our pain. If anyone had a right to ask God “Why!?” it’s Job. He lost more than most of us have. It says clearly that he never sinned with his mouth through the entire ordeal and that would have been very difficult with friends preaching at you trying to get you to admit to sins you never committed because obviously, if you’ve lost so much and are so completely tormented, this MUST be a punishment for some horror you committed. Right? Not really. There could be a lesson in there somewhere.  

  Anyway, God spoke to Job out of a whirlwind. He’s extremely challenging. Some of the language sounds like God wants to fight. My heart starts beating faster as I read those chapters because it feels like God is reaching down and almost shaking me like he shook Job. He says, “Who is this that darkeneth counsel by words without knowledge? Gird up now thy loins like a man; for I will demand of thee, and answer thou me.” Doesn’t it sound like shouting? It’s super intense to me. He goes on, “Where was thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? Declare, if thou has understanding. Hast thou commanded the morning since thy days; and caused the day spring to know his place; that it might take hold of the ends of the earth, that the wicked might be shaken out of it?” And God goes on for a while, listing his mighty works. This starts in chapter 38 and goes on through 41 (with a little spot where Job talks in between there). If you want your mind blown on God’s awesomeness, go read it. 

   

   

  

  Grandpa and his grandchildren

   

  

  keeping those sunglasses on

   

  

  pretty drinks

   

  

  green grass and long evening shadows

   

   

  

  My first bouquet of daisies…they’re my favorite flower but even I must admit that they stink.

   

   

  

  reading the last chapter of this monstrocious book

   

  “Then Job answered the Lord, and said, Behold I am vile; what shall I answer thee? I will lay mine hand upon my mouth,” and later he says, “I know that thou canst do every thing, and that no thought can be with-holden from thee. Who is he that hideth counsel without knowledge? Therefore have I uttered that I understood not; things too wonderful for me, which I knew not. Hear I beseech thee, and I will speak: I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear; but now mine eye seeth thee: Wherefore I abhor myself and repent in dust and ashes.” Then God scolds Job’s friends and has them sacrifice an offering and Job prays for them and in the end, Job has twice as much as he had before he lost everything. 

  I think my favorite line in the above is how Job says (in my words) “What is there for me to say? I place my hand over my mouth.” There’s something so humble and beautiful about it. And how he despises himself and repents…because I suppose when you think about it, after you catch a glimpse of God’s majesty and power, what more is there to say or do? Seeing his greatness reveals how small and despicable we are. It also reveals the magnitude of his love for us. Job didn’t even have what we do in salvation through Jesus. A love so great…from One so…*searches for word*…it doesn’t make sense. What else do we do? But bow before him and surrender everything. And live a life of thanks.

   

   

  

  This adorable little girl

   

  

  cousins

   

   

  

  Easter Morning

   

  

  I became an organ/tissue donor this month

   

  

  the amazing parents

   

  

  Ryan keeping me silent company as I study outside..:)

   

  

  Fatima

   

  

  new dress for graduation

   

  

  weird grass that seems to glow 

   

  “Are you gifted, attractive, eloquent, brilliant, creative or clever? Are  your opportunities in life favorable because you were born in the right family or the right country? If you have any of these traits or good circumstances, you have only God to thank for them. Even your hard work can be traced to the personality He gave you and perhaps the upbringing he arranged for you. Indeed, the very notion that we are entitled to anything that comes from God’s hand is wrong.” -Richard Sterns

   

  

  wind in grass

   

  

  Dar’s “birthday cake”

   

  

  I’ve discovered a love for making cupcakes

   

  

  pizza/movie night with my guy

   

  

  tiny bunny that lives under our porch and comes out to munch on clover sometimes..

   

  -me

  • 4:38 pm
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