Day Three: Thinking about My Relationships

"You can thrive in your careers, acquire wealth and reputation, even experience tremendous impact in your ministry. But if your relationships are languishing, nothing else matter." -Tom Holladay

Did you know Jesus believes that Nothing is more important than relationships?

"From the beginning to end, nothing is more important than relationships. In the beginning, God created you for relationships. He made you to relate to him and to others. Miss out on relationships, and you're missing the core reason for which God put you on this planet. And in the end, nothing is more important, because nothing will last longer than relationships. Your relationships with God and others will last all the way into eternity ... A life without relationships may well be a simpler life, but it is also an empty life." - Tom Holladay.

"'The most important [commandment]', answered Jesus, 'is this: ...'Love the Lord your God with ALL your heart and with ALL your soul and with ALL your mind and with ALL your strength.' The second is this: 'Love your neighbor as yourself'" (Mark 12:29-31). The path to putting God first starts with the word all.

My church is doing a 40 day campaign on LOVE and the book we are reading through this journey is titled The Relationship Principles of Jesus by Tom Holladay, Teaching Pastor, at Saddleback Church. This devotional book is PROFOUND. It walks you day by day, step by step, through how to live out six foundational truths taught by Jesus. This book will truly help transform my (your) relationships! I strongly encourage everyone to look into reading this devotional with a friend, spouse, boyfriend, girlfriend, small group, etc. It's already changing my life and I'm only on day 3!

Red Envelope Day

Tuesday, March 31, be a part of a nationwide anit-abortion campaign. Address a RED envelope to: President Barack Obama, The White House, 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. N.W., Washington, D.C. 20500. On the back, write the following message: "This envelope represents one child who died because of an abortion. It is empty because the life that was taken is now unable to be a part of our world. Responsibility begins with conception." For more information on this campaign, go to www.redenvelopeday.com

Take Your Mark ... Get Ready ... Get Set ... GOO!

What a glorious day it was today at the 32nd Annual Gate River Run. Dustin and I woke up at 5:45 a.m. this morning and began getting ready. We were meeting his parents, and my mom at Dustin's parents house and left at 7 a.m. to pick up our niece, Reagan. It was EXTREMELY foggy this morning and we were pretty bummed. It's a good thing God knows what He's doing, we were actually very grateful for the fog. Not once did we feel hot. Once the cannon was shot, we were trying to shuffle our way in. It was SO CROWDED we started 8.5 minutes late. So we finished the race in 1 hour 52 minutes. During the peak of the race I was asking myself "why did I decide to do this?" I was really feeling the BURN on my legs and feet. I also didn't think the Hart Bridge was going to be all that bad ... holy moly was I in for a "treat". This was, physically, one of the HARDEST things I've ever accomplished. I plan on training A LOT more for next year's race.

Springing Forward to New Beginnings

House
Hi everyone! I hope you are enjoying your day. Well, last time I wrote you I announced that my wonderful husband and I were building a house. As expected, we've had some frustrating moments but we continue to pray them away and accept the things we have no control of. We knew it wasn't going to be the easiest process. Meanwhile, we met with the builder last week who showed us our house plans. We then went to the actual lot and he showed us where the house would sit.

We were supposed to break ground this week but our house would have been done way sooner than we needed it to be. So, with that being said, we found out that we would be breaking ground in early April and our closing date is now July 15.

While we wait, Dustin and I have been busy packing our apartment. We've packed the office (which took forever and it's one of the smallest areas of our apartment ... go figure?) We will be moving out of our apartment April 11 and we'll be moving in with his parents, who have been nice enough to let us stay at their house rent free, as we wait for our house to be built. What a praise! We'll be saving a lot of money thanks to their kindness and generosity. I'm also excited to live with them because they eat so healthy and I know that I'll finally loose those pesky pounds I've been trying to get rid of. :)

Upcoming Events
A week from this Saturday Dustin and I will be running the 32nd Annual Gate River Run together. For those of you who don't know what this race is here's a little blurb about it ... "Last year over 18,000 runners and walkers participated in one of the three featured events. The 15K is the main event with over 14,000 runners and walkers. The Gate River Run is the largest 15K in the United States and will once again served as the USA 15K Championship. The other featured events are the Florida Times-Union 5K for Charity and the adidas Junior River Run. Both of these events had over 2,000 participants last year." For the past two years I was running/walking the 5K. I'm so proud to be running the 15K with Dustin. This will be his 8th year running it. He is very excited to reach his 10th year, he wants to have a BIG party. If you'd like to read more about the race please go to Gate River Run .

Two weeks after that, we will be attending a wedding of one of my good friends (whom I've known since the 8th grade). I'm so excited for April and Robert. I can't believe how fast time goes by.

Please continue to pray for each other. We need to lock arms, especially in these hard economic times. It seems as though no one has job security these days. The only thing that will not change is our trust we have in the Lord. It's not always easy to think that way but we've been trying to more than ever. We keep reminding ourselves that God will always provide. "Commit your work to the Lord, and then your plans will succeed." Prv. 16:3

I'd love to hear how everyone is doing! Enjoy the rest of your day and weekend. :)

P.S. Several weeks ago Dustin and I bought a camera at Target, it was on a MAJOR sale, so I will be taking a lot of pictures of the building process.

Our First House

After a lot of praying and research we've decided to build a house on the Northside of Jacksonville. We are so happy. This past weekend we put up our "SOLD" sign on our lot. Yesterday we went to the design studio and picked out everything from our shingle, brick and stone color to the grout color! We are so excited for the upcoming months. Right now we are waiting on the permits which take about 30-45 days to get approved. We should be breaking ground in March and we should be moving in around mid to late July.


We are so excited!


Our backyard is all woods and to the right is a pond

We are so happy to be in a cul-de-sac ! Great for raising kids.

True Story ...

Happy New Year!! I can't believe it's already 2009, how exciting! Dustin and I were so blessed in 2008 and we pray that God may continue to bless us in 2009. There will be many changes within the next several months, God willing I will go full-time at my job, I'll be turning 25 (dear Lord) and Dustin will be 24 and we will be moving into a house, God willing. For the past couple of months Dustin and I have been researching and looking for houses. Our lease will be up on April 29th . We all know how fast time flies so it'll be here before we know it. We are so picky as to where we want to live because we feel as though there are so many important factors we must consider: neighborhood, future schools, location etc.

On a sad note, I LOST my camera ... yes, yes I did. True story. I'm SO sad. I went to grab it on the day of my graduation and couldn't find it. I was running late so I told myself I would look for it later and I have yet to find it! I'm so sad.

Have a great rest of the week!

Love,