A Day of Rest

12.13.2009

"Six days shall you work..." and boy was God good to command us to rest on the seventh! I worked full time Monday through Friday and then got another full day of overtime yesterday. Good, hard work. My days have been full, the week has flown by, and Christmas break doesn't really seem like break. But God provided this job for me, I'm making good money for someone my age with no experience, and it's full time. Praise God for that! It's been rough working with these guys - I'm way out of my box with this job - but amazingly enough it's not as bad as my last job. The humor is crass and the language is bad, but not as bad as at my last job.

Enough about the job...God has been good, I'm being uplifted and encouraged at church today, and I'm going to hang out with some awesome friends this afternoon. I'm looking forward to dancing with my sister Tuesday night, Navy beat Army for the eighth consecutive time yesterday, I got some sweet music. I'm happy.

God bless you all!

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"In the darkness and the light/In the wrong and in the right/I will praise your name..." - Andrew Di Iulio

Just another update...

12.09.2009

The past few days have gone by in a blur...it made me stop and think -
for a moment - about how fast life will fly when I'm actually working
full time all the time, rather than just for a month. Only two more
days until the weekend, and the first 3 have gone by in a flash. It
seems like just yesterday was Sunday.

Anyway...life is full and fast but good. It was a blessing to get this
job, I needed a job that paid more than minimum wage and that would
give me full time hours, and that's what I got. So that's good. I'm
still praying about exactly what major I will switch to, but my
parent's and I are both sure that I will be switching. Right now my
parents think that I should major in both Journalism and English (go
back to school for another year) and I agree with them. The only thing
that we are still praying and deciding about is which major I should
get first...quite a quandary, right? I feel I should do Journalism and
then English, they feel I should do English first. However it works
out, I'm excited to be going back to school in January.

Another thing that I am praying about is going to the IHOP One Thing
Conference. I'd love to go, but God is gonna have to provide the funds/
transport etc for me to go. If He wants me there, He will do it. I'd
just appreciate prayer from y'all about that...thanks.

My dance partner Stephanie is going to the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota on
Sunday, and we are not sure how long she will be there. Lord willing
less than a week. She could use a lot of prayer. Her attacks haven't
been as sever as when we were dancing, but it does seem that whenever
she swing dances with me she has an attack...I've had to really take
it easy when I'm swinging and spinning her around. On that note, I
love to dance but when I'm worried about her it does make it hard to
have fun ;) So prayer for an extra measure of grace for me would be
awesome. She's like my sister, and it's hard when someone you love is
in a lot of pain, ya know?

My love to all of you, I'm praying for you all!

Disappearing from Facebook...and why.

12.07.2009

This post is in response to so many of my friends asking me why I deleted my Facebook account. To be clear, I don't think that Facebook is bad, evil, or entirely boring or a complete waste of time. Why did I then delete my account?

  • I prayed about it and it was what God wanted me to do.
  • While it was great to be able to connect to so many people, I feel that I was not able to invest quality time in people's lives - it's the difference between a group music lesson and a private lesson, or a group dance class and a private session.
  • After weighing the costs and benefits, the costs weighed more. It took up too much of my time for me to be able to justify it anymore. Yes, I could have spent less time, but from my point of view, now I'm not spending any time on Facebook!
  • The friends and family that I want to stay connected with or that want to stay in touch with me can still do so - by email, by IM, or by phone. I txt and have data on my phone, so I'm on my Yahoo! (thecityboy319) pretty much 24/7. I'm also on Twitter - and I'd love it if you followed me! I also have a new blog, just for pictures.
  • Now that I'm at college, I've realized that God has a plan not just for my life as a whole, but for each and every minute of every day. After prayer, and after having others pray with and for me, I decided to delete my Facebook account. I'm not disappearing. I'm gonna stay right here, blogging. I'm on Twitter. And you know what I've realized? Sometimes a good old-fashioned phone call is better than a hundred wall posts ;).
Those are my main reasons why, if you have a particular bone to pick, question to ask, or just wanna rant because I'm not on anymore - click away at that comment button. I'll answer you unless I think you're being a jerk about it...lol j/k. I'll answer unless you're just ranting and raving at me :).

Love y'all.

An answer to prayer.

12.06.2009

Today, this morning to be precise, God answered one of my greatest prayers. Natalie was baptized this morning. I've needed assurance ever since March that the whole relationship and breakup was worth it in God's greater plan - I've wanted proof that indeed "all things work together for the good of those who love him and are the called according to his purpose." I have striven to live according to His purpose for me for the past 9 months, and her testimony this morning proved to me that yes, all things do indeed work for good, when God's will is followed and obeyed. Yeah, I feel like I've had to go through hell. But I know for fact that she is saved, and is striving to live her life for her Savior. And that is sweeter than living my life with her could ever have been, outside of the Lord's will for me, and for her. God is good.

More thoughts on yesterday :)

11.30.2009

It was a huge blessing to be able to go to my old church yesterday. I was greatly encouraged and uplifted by the worship. The message was solid and beneficial. I don't know if it's where God wants me to end up or not, but it definitely seems like a possibility. There are a couple of other churches that I may try to visit, or I may put the whole thing on hold until after college - it's up to God. I'm just following His leading one day at a time.

I've been praying about changing my major, and God seems to be pointing in that direction so far. I'm going to call some people later today or tomorrow, and get their advice and prayer support, and then keep praying for a week. I'll make a decision next week, and give the ol' school a call depending on what God leads.

Drove down to Louisville today to take my sisters to their harp testing, and I'm about to head back home. It's been a long day...prayer for my alertness and safety on the drive home would be awesome!

Love y'all.

More to come...

11.29.2009


This is my life. Pretty much all I need is right here, with me right now. iPod, MacBook, guitar, headphones, messenger bag, journal, Mountain Dew. Not in that order, but you get the idea.

My goal is to get back into mobile blogging. I used to post random stuff for no reason that was really lame. To repeat that is not part of my goal. I'm also trying to get away from Facebook, so I intend to post more often here.

Going back to my old church was good. I saw some old friends, recognized a lot of people, and was blessed and encouraged by the teaching. I want to go again next week, when the Sunday School is going again. Today as a fellowship day because of Thanksgiving.

All things considered, it's been a good day so far. I'm looking forward to hanging with some of my best friends for the rest of the day, probably play some guitar, maybe go to Starbucks. A good day.

All ye mah peoples - I love you. Have an awesome life and don't be stupid.

What's on my mind...

11.28.2009

There's an awful lot on my mind, it being Christmas break and all...it kinda sucks, actually. First off, coming home was great. It really was. It was spectacular that we were gonna have close to a hundred people over for Thanksgiving. But starting "break" by running errands, driving my siblings around, and cleaning the house was not what I had in mind. Be that as it may, God was able to use me in spite of myself and people had a wonderful time, including myself.

Over the past week, and tonight, God's put on my heart several things to pray about, and I would really appreciate prayer from all my friends as well. At school, I've been surrounded by Godly men and women, I've gone to an awesome church where God's word is taught in a way that I have to think through and digest and can grow from, and I have grown. I've been given not just meat, but awesome, expensive, top cut steak. Going back to my old church just isn't cutting it. It's like the difference between that steak and a cheeseburger. Sure, it's meat - but the quality and content just isn't the same. Over the past year I've become discontent at my church. I thought it was me, that I was missing something, that my heart was closed because of an issue in my life. I've found out that it's not me, it's my church, and it's not just me who's noticed, but several of my friends feel the same way.

All that to say, I'm praying about switching churches. Tomorrow I'm gonna go back to my old church and see where they are at. I'm gonna spend the day hanging out with my best friend and brother in Christ. We'll talk and pray together.

Tonight I started talking with my mom about a lot of things concerning school. I'll just mention a couple things here. First we talked about how I need a job, and about how my boss forgot to put me on the schedule next week. Oops. I could really use the money - I'm broke and have no clothes (seriously...only 3 pairs of pants total), but I know that God will give me all that I need and I am content with that. We talked about opportunities that I could take advantage of, including journalism opportunities - freelance writing etc. Which brought up another topic...why I want to be in Criminal Justice. And I don't know anymore.

I wanted to be in Law Enforcement. I don't remember why. I had reasons. I thought that was where God wanted me. Now I don't know. I'm praying for, and asking others to pray for me as well, wisdom as to whether I should switch my major. I could switch to Journalism and then a double in English, or in English and then a double in Journalism. Or whatever God wants. I just don't know anymore. I believe that God wants me to be on Staff at Verity after I graduate. I also believe that He wants me to be in ministry after I graduate, and while I'm in school. I know He has plans for me, but right now I don't know what to do.

Pray for me. Pray for my parents. We need wisdom, direction, and guidance. I have physical needs, things that I really do need. Pray for God's provision in whatever form it takes. But, most of all, pray that my heart would be pure before the Lord, that I would praise and worship Him always, and that I would be given blessings that I may bless others.


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