What a Wonderful World (God made...)

So, as many of you may be singing the beautiful words "What a wonderful world..." by Louis Armstrong, my mind is going to what a wonderful world God made. Picture this. I'm sitting in my living room right now in my cozy little apartment with my amazing room mates. The smell of late night coffee and freshly baked chocolate chip cookies is just making me a very happy girl right now. If things couldn't get any better, we had our first real in depth cov (a.k.a. small group for phi lamb) tonight on the dock at boomer. Can anyone say perfect fall weather? I can say it two times. Perfect. Fall. Weather. I'm loving the cool air lately. We used a very small, yet effective, technique called "happies & crappies" to open up the night. The basic idea is that you share the highest point of your day/week and the lowest point as well. Can I please share with you my "happy"? Yes.

I'm so close to my family. They really are like my best friends. My dad got to come up for Phi Lamb dad's day a couple of weeks ago and, naturally, I had to show him a little bit more of how Stillwater has grown up since he was here in the stone age. I introduced him to Aspen coffee... If you are EVER in Stillwater, you must go. We continued to sit for the better part of an hour talking about family and love and such. (P.S. this is a strange topic for my dad and I to get on... we can hardly ever have a conversation that we aren't busting up laughing). Basically, we got talking about hardships that my family has had to endure and about how we have some bitterness towards the past. Ostin (my amazing boyfriend) had shared with me a couple of weeks prior to this conversation that I was being bitter and negative instead of looking at the amazing things that God could do... the amazing things that God has done... and the amazing things that God will do. Sometimes, we (me... I...) get so stuck in our bitter attitudes that we fail to see what everyone else is seeing, and even more importantly, what God is seeing.  When I shared this with my dad, God moved. Deeply.

Ultimately, my "happy" was the verse that my dad texted me (yes... he can text now) Sunday morning...
Here's the passage...

"Oh Lord, you know; remember me and visit me, and take vengeance for me on my persecutors. In your forbearance take me not away; know that for your sake I bear reproach. Your words were found, and I ate them, and your words became to me a joy and the delight of my heart, for I am called by your name, Oh Lord, God of Hosts. I did not sit in the company of revelers, nor did I rejoice; I sat alone, because your hand was upon me, for you had filled me with indignation. Why is my pain unceasing, my wound incurable, refusing to be healed? Will you be to me like a deceitful brook, like waters that fail? Therefore, thus says the Lord, "If you return, I will restore you, and you shall stand before me. If you utter what is precious, and not what is worthless, you shall be as my mouth. They shall turn to you, but you shall not turn to them. And I will make you to this people a fortified wall of bronze; they will fight against you, but they shall not prevail over you, for I am with you to save you and deliver you, declares the Lord. I will deliver you out of the hand of the wicked, and redeem you from the grasp of the ruthless."
Jeremiah 15:15-21

Perfect? Yes.

-Much Love-
Bethany

Surprise!

As you may have already noticed, my blog has been put through quite an intense makeover the last couple of days. I still plan to tweek the last few details, but so far, I'm loving the new look! Not that any of that was important, I just didn't want anyone to be confused. Moving on. I'm so excited for what God is doing in my life as of late. I feel that my whole walk has been brought to a place that can just take off! I want so bad to dig into the word and find the difficult things that God is trying to teach me. Also, I'm so excited for discipleship within Phi Lamb. Last night, I signed up to be discipled by and older member... This consists of probably numerous trips to the coffee shop and talking about the things of God together. I'm ready to see what she can teach me and how she will hold me accountable. Then, on the flip side of things.... I am eligible to be a "big" this year! Our new pledge class is HUGE and I'm so excited to see the littles that I get paired up with. Littles... if you are out there..... by some small chance reading this blog.... I just want you to know that I have been praying for you for quite some time now and I'm thrilled to be getting to meet you asap! I can't wait to pour into you like my big has poured into me over the last year. Can't wait! I should probably be getting back to studying now... Yuck. Have a wonderful day!

-Much Love-
Bethany

p.s. Pray for your room mates today! Whether that consists of a sister/brother, best friend, or spouse... These people have to put up with you! And on an even greater level, they care about you so much! Say a little prayer for 'em!

Love Bomb...

Hello everyone! Today is a wonderful day. The weather is just absolutely beautiful and it is now a three day weekend! WOOO HOOO! What a better way to add to the awesomeness of September 3rd than to drop a love bomb on someone! Here we go...

"Hey Team!

This week we are doing something just a tad different.

Typically we drop a Love Bomb on one person, but this week we are dropping a Love Bomb on the entire Chicago Fire Department.

Chris Wheatley, one of their firefighters, died in the line of duty on August 9th.

Nate and I would like for this Love Bomb mission to be two-fold:

1) To encourage, support and comfort the Chicago Fire Department as they've lost a brother in duty.

2) To thank the Chicago Fire Department for serving their community so faithfully.

You can leave a comment on the Chicago Fire Department's blog here: http://cfdblaze.com/2010/08/cffu-local-2-tom-ryan/"

You guys know what to do!!! Have a wonderful day.

-Much Love-

Bethany

Bubbles...

Yes, I do realize that I haven't quite been keeping up with the blogging lately. School is so extremely crazy right now! I'm loving every minute of it, but let me tell ya... Keeping up with classes, Phi Lamb, work, (and so on and so forth) leaves little time for blogging. So, I'll keep this short and sweet. Something made me smile first thing this morning on my way to school. I was listening to this amazing radio station and I found myself laughing all the way to campus! The DJ was talking about how he is obsessed with lists. So he signed up for the list o' the day via e-mail. The list he received today dealt with 10 ways to get happy fast. Number one on the list was to keep at least two bubble machines at your house at all times. I cracked up. Being a christian radio station, I was expecting like read your bible for three hours or something, but no (not that that wouldn't make you happy fast). So funny.

-Much Love-
Bethany