Owning someone's heart

I'm reading Faithful God by Sinclair Ferguson. It's an exposition of the book of Ruth and boy is it convicting!!! A lot of the book focuses on how Christ-like Boaz was. Sinclair quotes Temple Gairdner, a missionary to Egypt, as an insight into Boaz's spirit--this is blow-your-head-off-good stuff. Gairdner wrote this on his wedding day:
That I may come near to her, draw me nearer to Thee than to her; 
that I may know her, make me to know Thee more than her;
that I may love her with the perfect love of a perfectly whole heart,
cause me to love Thee more than her and most of all.
Amen. Amen. 


He also penned these words earlier in his life in a journal:
Prayed definitely that I may be a man and have a heart one day pure and noble enough to be owned by and to own a woman's heart. 


My Heavens!!! The paragraph above is what I've been praying for my relationship with my future husband except said in a much more eloquent manner. The journal entry is just what I pray my husband is praying right now.
For myself, I'm praying that I may have a heart one day pure and meek enough to be owned by and to own a man's heart.

The Trip

Beginning of the first trail--Lebanon, NH

Mama

Mr. Spider

Daddy and I . . . don't you just love the reflective ankle bands. . . my pants caught in the gears

So Northeastern

"Granite Alley"

Cows, farmhouse, barn, and parents

Train station turned community storage room

The 'rents in the Nitro we affectionately called "Squarebob Spongepants"

2nd trail--St. Albans, VT

Mapping it out

WET! And at mile 12.5--I had on 4 layers and we'd biked over an hour (C.O.L.D.)

Daddy and I in front of "Corn Alley"

Comfort Inn in Barre, VT

These poor people thought it was summer so they dressed their bears for the beach--little do they know that 60 degrees doesn't count for summer at all!!!

Cabot Cheese--Cabot, VT

Goodrich Maple Farm--Cabot, VT

All those "scars" are from tapping the tree for sap--the one Dad is pointing to was probably created around 1850

Pemigewasset River in Fraconia Notch State Park in NH--First time we saw the sun!!!

The Flume at Franconia Notch--BEAUTIFUL!!

Me in front of Mt. Liberty, Mt. Flume, and Mt. Osseo (L to R)

 TO BE CONTINUED. . . 

The Birth of a Wedding Program

Did I tell you that I am making the program for my sister's wedding?? I am, and I still don't know how I landed this little monster of a task!

Tonight, my mom and I must have emailed it back and forth at least 10 times: I would do something, she would approve or disapprove, and it would be emailed back. We have so many different versions we are now saving them with an explanation of the corrections, the date AND the time listed in the file name. Oh Heavens, help me!!!

Besides checking on spelling of two middle names and the minister giving us a scripture reference to put in, I think the program is pretty much ready to send to the printer--HALLELUJAH!! Who knows how many hours I have spent on this puppy so far!

Here's a sketch of the chapel that will be included in the program:

What a joy to watch my sister get married in this place!!!!

A quick update

Friends,
I have to go to bed because 9:05 is fast-approaching, and with it HLTH 490. BUT, guess what I did today?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!

1) SUBMITTED MY PA SCHOOL APP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
2) APPLIED FOR GRADUATION FROM CLEMSON!!!!!!!

Notice I'm way more excited about the first!
I wasn't going to share my app completion with y'all because I am super-scared I won't get in BUT in the interest of full disclosure should any PA hopefuls run across this blog, and because I told y'all I was working on it, I did share this news. PLUS, I could just scream if from the mountaintops!
I feel like it's a huge step in life--first grad school application! CRAZY!! I'll keep y'all updated but I'm not hoping to hear anything before early November. MUSC doesn't do interviews until November and they continue through December.
I'm excited! I'm ready to take the next path the Lord has for me!! Pray for me that I wouldn't rest in my version of the Lord's plans for me, but that I would rest in Him alone!!!!!!

There's a New Man in my Life!!

While in Vermont I fell in love. My new love is tall, dark, and handsome. He is solid and sweet. Pretty much all the things I look for in a man. I could just eat him up!!! Meet Lenny. 

My hunk of burnin' love is a mere 1,700 lbs and solid to core (with milk chocolate)!

Now that you are all updated on my love life. I will catch you up on my travels later!!

Leavin' on a jet plane. . .

Bye Bye Blogging Buddies!!!
Talk to you next week when my calves are super-toned and my belly is full of lobster!!!

Sorry to waste your time.

Sorry for those of you who watched that physical activity video. . . it was a school project. I had uploaded the wrong type of file to our submission site for the class. So after trying 4 different file converters, I had to upload it somewhere and youtube wouldn't do it and neither would FB so the blog was the next option. And I sent my professor the link to my blog. . . embarassing. But it got the job done. SO I hope you didn't waste 5 minutes of your life watching that, and I'm sorry if you did!

Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow!

Tomorrow is the last time I will be in Charleston before my sister's wedding! (SCARY!) We're meeting with the caterer (and she said to come hungry. . . um, that's exciting), the flower supplier to put in the order for all our flowers, and, the most exciting part, THE HAIRDRESSER!!! woo hoo! I just love getting my hair done for special occasions and it's even more fun when you've never been to the person before so they have to do a dry-run and then you get to walk around all day with "special hair." I mean, it's the little things in life. . . 

Anyway, this is the look I'm going for! I wanted mostly down but out of my face, and I wanted something that could look windblown but not get completely destroyed since the reception promises to be windy. Plus, it will be nice to not fight the curls. . . just let 'em go!! 

And, these are the dresses that we will be wearing! Ours are "vintage bronze" and we will remove that flowery, hanging thing and place a green sash of the same fabric over the cumerbund sort-of area.

. . . AND THEY HAVE POCKETS!!!!!

If God Already Knows, Why Pray?

This is the excerpt from If God Already Knows, Why Pray? that I mentioned in my last post. I just love the way Doug Kelly writes it, so I thought I'd give y'all the story straight from the horse's mouth! This is from the introduction to the book:

      Prayer changes the world: it makes good thins happen because it gets God's will done and thus brings down His best blessings. This is the message of the Old and New Testaments, as well as the experiences of God's people throughout the ages. The God of the Scriptures has great blessings stored up for His people, but He has so planned it that those blessings can only be released by the prayers of His people. 
      The power of prayer to change things by bringing into one's life good things (which are later seen to have been part of the eternal plan of God) is illustrated in a rather unusual romance. In 1970 an American postgraduate student from the southern states was captivated by the beauty, intelligence, and faith of an English girl who was studying, as he was, at the University of Edinburgh. 
      Instead of asking the attractive girl out on dates, the rather quiet Southern boy started praying hard that the Lord would prepare the girl to marry him! He prayed constantly for two years, at times beginning to wonder if he were trying to force the Lord into something that perhaps only he, rather than the Lord, wanted. And all during this time the girl showed few, if any, signs of interest--or even disinterest! Yet the lad prayed on, and one day popped the question, which to his delight was answered with a definite yes. 
      But had he actually forced the Lord's hand? As the years passed and children were born and the parents engaged in Christian ministry, there was more and more evidence--in small as well as large ways--that they were truly meant for each other; that they made a team intellectually, spiritually, culturally, as well as physically and family-wise. Only God could have brought them together.
      Therefore, the student's two years of constant praying, instead of getting God to do something He was hesitant to do, actually released the blessings of a partnership the Lord had planned from eternity. God made the plan and then used the prayers to bring His plan into happy execution. 

What a testimony. . . and that's just part of the Introduction! Read the book--it's convicting and encouraging. Your view of your prayer life will be changed.

The Power of Prayer

We had a pastor-friend stay with us over the weekend. He has written several books and is a brilliant, kind, loving man. In one of his books (If God Already Knows, Why Pray?), he describes the way he and his wife met and fell in love and it is such a powerful example of prayer moving mountains!
For one of his many degrees he attended the University of Edinborough in Scotland. At the beginning of his time there he was drawn to a woman who was superb in every way, but he was so sure that she would turn down a boy from Dillon, SC that he didn't ever talk to her. So, for two years, he watched her and prayed that the Lord would make her his one day. After two years, he approached her one day and popped the question, I'm talking "Will you Marry Me?"--out of the blue!!! And she said YES! It doesn't go into all the details in the book but I'm sure the Lord did some serious work in her heart! Now, decades later, they are very much in love, traveling the world, and doing great things for the kingdom!
Y'all, prayer is powerful!! The Lord is showing me the powers of the prayers of his people. We have a burden to pray for the nation, for our communities, for revival, for friends and family, for our future, for an increase in the knowledge of Him, and for so many other things!! My mom once told me that our prayers are like water behind a dam, and the "water" continues to build up behind the dam until it eventually breaks, pouring out the Lord's blessings on us. Perhaps, it takes two years for that dam to break, maybe only a week or two, and possibly, we don't perceive that dam breaking on our heads. But the Lord has promised that our prayers are heard and he will answer in accordance with His will and good purposes. Hallelujah! What a Savior!
Hope that you have a fabulous Sabbath tomorrow! Oh, and you should check out Doug Kelly's books, especially If God Already Knows, Why Pray?


Here are some great excerpts from the book:
pg 26--"At last, here is the answer to the question: what is God like? This is what the triune God is like: life, light, and love. That is the secret to this universe and the key to understanding everything that exists."
pg 63--"In the prayers of His people, as everywhere else, our God has the initiative. This is very encouraging if we grasp what it means! Effective prayers start in Heaven and are sent down to us by God Himself."

JSYK. . .

. . . 141 days until I graduate from Clemson!! WHAT?!?!? Time has flown!


I promise I won't update this countdown again until there are less than 100 days left. After that, I make no promises! : D

Legit.

I'm a legit phlebotomist now! Albeit, one without a job. . .  But, legit nonetheless!!

I applied to 2 more jobs today, so we'll see how those go! Exciting stuff!

As soon as the wedding's over. . .

. . . I'm making this little slice of heaven! For now, I'm going to pound the pavement. . .

PS: Happy August! It came so fast!