Holy Ground

I've recently heard over the years of Pastor's using shock value on a regular basis (i.e., using profanity, etc.) in order to make a point in a Sermon. I often wonder what God would think of this tactic. It's not that the pulpit alone is Holy Ground, but that no matter where we stand we are standing on Holy Ground. It's not that a Pastor standing on a pulpit saying those words alone makes it any worse than any other moment in a day or time. It's that anyone in a position of teaching should take that position so seriously that it wouldn't demean the high calling of being able teach God's people.

I think in this society it is far to easy to make a church "fit" the times. It is too easy to let the world around you affect you, in the way you act, the way you treat people, and in the way you speak. It's one thing to want to make a church more appealing to people who might normally be turned off to church, but at what price? So much that you sacrifice integrity of God's Word?

James 3:1-2 " ¹Not many of you should presume to be teachers, my brothers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly. ²We all stumble in many ways. If anyone is never at fault in what he says, he is a perfect man, able to keep his whole body in check."

James 3:5-6 "⁵Likewise the tongue is a small part of the body, but it makes great boasts. Consider what a great forest is set on fire by a small spark."

Ephesians 4:29 " ²⁹Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen."

In no way, shape, or form do I ever claim to be perfect! Like everyone else, I have flaws. I don't expect a pastor to be perfect because just like the rest of us they struggle with something just like we do. However, I could expect that maybe 1 time you would hear profanity in a sermon... but I do not expect this on a regular basis from any church. I heard an amazing sermon in 2005 given by Pastor Robert Elliot on John 14:12 and he was speaking in reference to this very matter and every time I hear another shock value sermon I go back to this... I transcribed it from his recorded sermon:

"He never misled, he never said anything that would give false hopes or draw a crowd and get people in around them and stir them up with no thought of the future, ah who cares if in ten years or twenty years their not here, as long as just now were getting a crowd. As long as just now were making people feel somethings happening. We'll say whatever it takes. Jesus never did that once, never once! "

I am sure I will get plenty of comments on this matter... always interested to hear other thoughts on the matter.

Disappointed

Doesn't even describe the word. Had a Dr's appointment on Wednesday and I had been a fair amount of research about having a VBAC (Vaginal Birth After Cesarean) and my doctor told me in previous appointments that I was a candidate but I should wait 2 years before thinking about another pregnancy... which we were going to do either way. Needless to say, she told me this last appointment that Community Hospitals no longer do these kinds of procedures anymore because they do not have the resources to handle a catastrophic event like rupturing, etc. She told me I would need to go through a University Hospital like Loma Linda. Unfortunately, my health insurance does not cover me to go to a hospital like that unless it was a dire emergency.

Basically, if I want anymore kids I would need to have another c-section which extremely bums me out. In addition to ALL of this the statistics I thought were a lot lower of my scar tissue rupturing if I were to go through a procedure like this... turns out 1 in 100 women something catastrophic happens when trying a VBAC procedure. SO.... I had these dreams when I first starting thinking about starting a family, and I always had the dream of delivering the baby and being able to have the baby on my chest right after delivery and now those dreams are shattered at this point. Disappointment sucks!!!!

Slacker

This is my title for the last week and for the next upcoming weeks. I have to admit, I am a complete slacker due to my lack of energy and sleep. I have been cooking grilled cheese, quesadillas, and eating cereal for dinner for the last week- simply because I DO NOT WANT TO COOK. I am on strike this week, lol. Sometimes I just get too over loaded trying to take care of well everything that I just need chill time and not to worry about so many other things that I could be doing. My mother in law (who usually watches Hezekiah) had surgery on Monday so I have been having to wake up at 5:45am every day this week to get him to daycare by 7:25am so I can get to work on time by 8am which makes both of us.... really grumpy. Prayers for both of us that hopefully we can get our normal schedules back soon.

In other news, looks like our house will be closing VERY soon! We had our FHA inspection this week, our realtor is amazing!! He already knew all of the things that FHA was going to catch like missing shower heads and got the air conditioning working and took care of them for us. He even got the inspector to count the nasty old floor tiles in the living room as flooring so we wouldn't have to replace those until we move it. Our loan needs a couple of items in order for us to get our loan docs. We could actually close as early as this month, but I am betting that we will close in May. It's exciting and very scary when you look at all the numbers, I keep telling myself "It's for 30 years."  Got some estimates on carpet so as soon as we get keys, we are picking up the paint and having a painting party to trash the existing flooring before we put in our nice clean carpets. With our tax credit, we are going to get some quotes on putting new windows and doors throughout the house, hopefully if we get the energystar windows we will get some of that money back as well too. Anyway, that's the going's on in the house world for now.

Self Portraits

I am been really trying to work on honing my skills with exposure and lighting, and trying to get used to my studio lighting set gives photography a whole different feel.  Taking photos with a flash and natural light seems so much easier than working with studio lights. How high you place them and at what angle you place them makes all the difference. I get a subscription to American Photography monthly and it has some really good tips, etc. One of the things they suggested was using Flickr and getting involved with groups through Flickr to get exposure and advice from other photographers... so that is what I am doing now. I decided to take advantage of my COOL Nikon remote and take some self portraits to try and get some practice in... I really need some "models" to help me with this! Anyway, here are the 3 shots that I liked the best... I seriously hate photos of myself being serious so I decided to challenge myself into taking a few serious photos.

Inspection- Check!

We had our inspection today on the house, we spent about 2 hours. The inspector we used was just amazing, he really took time with us to show us some things around the house. For the most part, the house is in great condition, and we don't have any major things that need to be addressed. Some of the items, we are going to mention and see if they will fix any of the items. We have a couple of items on our priority list to fix immediately which would be our front door, and a broken window in the living room.

Overall, we only had 1 area that needed to be addressed. The Air Conditioning, which turned on but didn't seem to be blowing the cold air. He said that we might just need to check some fuses or needs more freon. We need new outlets throughout the house since the house was built in 1960 and the addition to the house was done in 1969, most of the outlets are 2 prong so he suggested especially for the fridge that we get 3 prong outlets installed (minimal cost). The roof is in great condition, it has 2 layers already on it so we could go a long time and put one more layer on before we need to completely re-roof the house. He said for the age of the house he was really surprised at how good of a condition the plumbing, electrical, etc. are in. Most houses he's seen in this age of a house need a complete re-haul. Looks like we picked a good house so far. One thing we've really looked into is if we purchase windows that are Energy Star , we can get a 30% credit on those items up to $1500. You can check out which items qualify for the credit at: Energystar.gov

Now, it's actually time to get excited now that we know that the inspection is going to pass and now we just need to focus on getting all the paperwork finished and making a list of the must do's and prioritize them in order of importance because we will need to be careful about where our money is spent and make sure it is spent in the right places. Whoooo-hooooo, Praise the Lord for providing for us :)

Thankful

I am nothing but thankful today. Thankful in the many ways that so many people forget to be thankful for. It's always heart breaking to go through grief, but how in these days can we be anything but thankful for the spouses and children we are able to come home to every day after work. It's hard to explain in words how really and truly God has been working in my life not take anything for granted. How can I be anything but thankful and grateful for just waking up every morning. I don't know if I have been in some sort of fog with my spiritual life. So here I am waking up to a life that can be nothing but great. A husband, a child, and both of us being employed!

Being a wife, a mom, and an employee is so exhausting! Life is a constant juggling act, it is no picnic for sure some days when I come home to a temperamental toddler. But seriously, if that is the worst I have to worry about when I come home... I have no room to complain. Hezekiah is learning too fast for Andrew and I to keep up with him. The other day, Hezekiah was attempting to climb up to a kitchen chair and as I say Hezekiah get down- He scrambles even faster and climbs on top of the chair to climb on top of the table. Our child was trying to climb on the table, so why is it that toddler's constantly try and test your boundaries some days and then other days he listens so well? Having a toddler is a lot of work at this point, and I have no intention of wanting another child at this point until I can get him potty trained- forget it!

So that's it for now... I am a thankful mommy and wife.

Keeping busy

Needless to say we have been busy! Seems like my weekend just flew by and here we are again back at work and dealing with the day to day of the work week.  We've started taking some measurements on the house so we can get some quotes on carpet to get installed. We thought we had asbestos tiles throughout the house which was going to cost us money we didn't have to remove, but we had a flooring pro come in and confirm that we do not have asbestos tiles... thank goodness.

We had a termite inspection done, minor things that needed to be addressed on the patio and garage area. The seller took care of that for us, now we're onto the actual inspection and we are really hoping we do not have any major issues come up! If God's in this, I am sure everything will work out fine...nonetheless we are trying not get too excited just yet until the inspection. We started the escrow paperwork, and they took $2000 from us... not quite the biggest check I have written in my life but still hard to cough that up.

We are still planning on riding out our lease until July, we are planning on a 45 day escrow at this point which works out great for us since we're looking at Mid May or even June depending on when the asset managers FINALLY decide to actually start the escrow... so we're in escrow but kind of not. It's a very confusing process getting into escrow. We want them to take a little time on this, but not too much that we have to go over our lease. It's really kind of scary as we look through all of the numbers on the loan, and I have to just say "It's over 30 years!"

Other than the enormous amount of house stuff, our church is planning a hike to the Antelope Valley California Poppy Reserve, so we're taking Hezekiah with us and I am bringing my handy dandy camera to hopefully get some AMAZING shots of the different varieties of poppies. Then Sunday, getting together with family for Easter and enjoying some yummy food and going to show some of the family the house we are "buying".