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