Blissfully Happy... it's been a while

I took this picture a week or so ago while I was still in the book room.  I had taken a bite of my apple and to my surprise the inside was molded and abslutely repulsive.  Rewind to 5 minutes previous, I pulled my apple out of my bag and glanced at it - I hate apples, I don't like how the apple skin gets in between your teeth or the texture of the apple is sometimes mushy (you know the almost bad apples - the ones I always get).  So as I pulled my apple out I took a small and cautious bite. However, it was surprisingly amazing.  It was crunnchy, delicious, and super sweet.  I was shocked.  So the next bite was huge!  I mean I opened up WIDE, and those of you who know me - know that my mouth is pretty big, so I got a chunk outta this thing.  I don't usually look at my food especially when I am doing something else, you know multitasking!, haha but this time I did... Oh my gosh!  I literally threw up!  I was disgusted by what I saw.  By what had just taken occupance in my mouth!  I ran to the bathroom and washed my mouth out with soap.  I know you can already see the analogy... So let's dive in:

Galations 5:19-21
Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

How many times have we fallen to these works of the flesh?  How many times have we been the "christian" on the outside, yet on the inside we are no different then the athiest or the sinner who constantly lives in sin and denies God.  Everytime we sin, we forsake the Lord, and fall AWAY from Him.  Galations says if we do these things we will NOT inherit the Kingdom of God.  How serious is this!  It's serious.  Just like I spit out that apple and sprinted to the bathroom - that's how we should react to sin.  Satan will try and mask it, he will try and make the sin look so pretty...

Let's take drinking for instance.  How pretty and appealing does alcohol look?  I mean seriuosly - the girls that drink in the commercials are soo pretty.  I want to look just like them - so how can I look like them?  Put a bud in my hand, I will be cool then.  Are you kidding me?  Not Cool!  Above in the verse:  Drunkenness is a SIN - however, Satan makes it look so cool and appealing. 

Whenever we are attacked by the devil to sin and tempted to do something that does not bear fruit - we should spit it out and sprint to Jesus and ask him to cleanse us.  But is that what we do? 

Matthew 18:20

Are grapes gathered from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? So, every HEALTHY tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit. A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. ...

This is serious.  If we do not bear good fruit we will be thrown away - just like I threw that apple away.  It was repulsive.  No repulsive thing will make it into the Kingdom of Heaven.  I pray for you today that just like I realized this truth - that you realize it as well.  Be encouraged!  Just because we bear bad fruit everyday - we sin.  We are human, sin will happen.  We pray to God that he will help us not be tempted - but it's going to happen.  But that is why Jesus died for us.  He went through a painful death so that we could be accepted into the Kingdom of Heaven even though we bear bad fruit.  Thank God today for the price he made.  He gives new life to our bad branches - he makes them healthy and fruit bearing. 

BE FRUIT BEARING TODAY!!!


MY TRIP TO HOUSTON!!

Last week I drove to Houston to spend the night and quality time with my "Big Sis" Laura.  She is such an inspiration and I love her so much!!  We are so similar in so many different ways.  I probably kept her up way to late chit chatting, but she just has so much wisdom to impart into my life. 

Her knowledge is vast and deep and her love for the Lord is evident - her marriage is inspiring and the way she loves her kids and others is contagious.  I want to learn from her!  So I drove the 2.5 hours south east and made it in time for dinner.  Her daughters Hannah and Meagan are precious!!  At the dinner table Hannah insisted that I pray - so of course I did.  No big deal!  She was just so cute I couldn't refuse! 

She was also dressed in her pretty princess outfit and gave me like 10 hugs before she could go to bed!  I love that little girl. 

The nextday we went to Sprinkles - and I follow them on Twitter... And I have always gotten their tweets that say "first 50 people to whisper... get a free cupcake"  So at lunch I looked it up and sure enough they had tweeted if you whisper "all roads lead to Sprinkles" you get a free Hazelnut Vanilla Cupcake! It worked! i got a free cupcakes!

WOOOO.  I love sprinkles and CUPCAKES!!!

Sweet Meagan (left) and Hannah (right)

I can't wait until the next time I can see them!!

Thought I would introduce you to the wonderful outside seating at Common Grounds.  This morning it was a great 64 degrees!  It was beautiful!  God's earth is amazing!

I think the different seating is unique and makes common grounds a homey place.  Some place that I can really enjoy my coffee and feel like I am at home! 

I like all of the windows on the wall!  If you want a shabby chic look - this is definitely a cool idea!

I also think the tree through the middle of the outside area is a nice touch!  Makes it feel like we are in a tree house!

Took the liberty of sort of decorating my office last week - so now it feels a little more homey!  I like it I like it alot!  Hope you enjoy!

I can't have an office without MICKEY!! haha and a SCENTSY! which I brough Simply Irresistible on Friday and everybody made fun of me saying it smelt like a baby's diaper - so today I brough Skinny Dippin' and they love it. However, Bart said it smelt like Chocolate -the woman don't agree. 

Dad came in for the BAYLOR/TCU game on Friday - and if you didn't see it... we knocked off No. 14!  WOOO Go BEARS!

We went and ate dinner first at Ninfa's (poor service and disappointing Mexcian food :( oh well!)

Great seats!!!!  WE had a blast!  There is the stadium!  Very underwhelming picture but it is a huge stadium!

That is the Baylor Line.  The Freshman girls get yellow jersey's that say Baylor Line on the front and their nickname on the back!  They get to make the tunnel that the guys run out of. President Judge Starr said that it was the biggest Baylor Line ever!! how cool!

Me and Dad at the game! We had such a good time! :) and of course the military men for my little sister!!! Thought that would make her day

Hope you had a great Labor Day Weekend!  My class got cancelled... so maybe you will see a pinterest or Youtube post later today!  I don't have to tutor until 11.  What to do what to do!

Enjoy and Be Charmed today!

Abby

P.S. Thanks for the prayers - obviously you can tell that I love Baylor and the Lord is blessing me here for my patience and perserverance.  Now if Taylor could only be closer - my life would be complete.  But he is being the best and most encouraging BOYFRIEND ever!  I am so thankful for him.  I am just going to brag for just a moment.  ( I am only saying this because I want you to know how great guys can be and that you should NEVER settle for less - I am so thankful and blessed to have such a strong leader and man of God in my life - be encouraged by this!) 

"I mess up but I love you.  Forgive when we mess up encourage when we fall congratulate in the good and follow the Lord!  I love you!"

How encouraging is that text!  I get those all of the time :)  I am the luckiest girl in the world!!

I am blissfully happy.

Prayer

I have really been convicted lately about prayer.  When I say I am praying for you - it shouldn't be just a shout up to God whenever I think about it.  It should be a consistent effort to pray for your needs and requests.  You know how every once and a while you will get stuck on a word.   Well the word that I have been stuck  on is Active.  My God is an Active God.  You hear of God being a gracious and loving God - but how many times do we actually stop and think about how active God is in our life.  I am amazed at the things God does in my life on a daily basis.  He never sits back and says oh you prayed for that 2 weeks ago I think I will help you with that later... he is constantly there for us!  He is Always with us - always around and always wanting us to ask for his help! Because it is when we allow him to work through us that he is glorified - no, he does not need us to be glorified- just take the sunset or the sunrise.. God does it all by himself.   But when we allow him to work through us and let HIM show us how ACTIVE he is in our life - I tell you what - EXPECT to see great things!

So the other day I was eating lunch with my friend Kelsey.  Kelsey is about to leave for India on a 3 year commitment to missions.  WOW! God blesses some people with a heart for missions in other countries and I am blessed by them.  Kelsey and I were sitting at lunch and I had been challenged earlier that day to let God work in our lunch time together.  As we were eating and talking about life and catching up (we had not seen each other since high school) - I asked her if there was anything I could pray about for her.  She really needs more support and more monetary funds for her journey to India.  She is looking for about $300 more a month for 36 months.  So if you can help - please let me know, if you can't - please pray for her and her journey and that God provides which we know he will!    I asked if I could pray over our lunch and for our situations in life and she agreed, so I began to pray and I mean wow - i felt the holy spirit around us.  He was with us there at lunch.  It was an incredible feeling.  It was so incredible that a girl at the table next to us commented on our prayer and asked us about what we were doing.  It was an awesome time to share what God was doing in our life.  To see God glorified and HIS NAME BE MADE KNOWN - through a casual lunch is so encouraging to who God is.  Be challenged to continue to pray for your friends and loved ones as the journey into new phases of life.

I wanted to share one more thing I thought was cool before I start talking about my life.  Because it is all about me right?  NOT!  that was so a joke and I hope you know that - honestly.  

Okay great movie:  Evan Almighty !  Bad theology - yes, Depicts the Bible correctly - no!  Great movie lines - OF COURSE!

So being with Taylor has really gotten me to notice and remember and quote movie lines.  Its crazy has someone can have such an incredible impact on your life.  Each and everyone of us has at least one person in which we influence on a daily basis - remember that!  People are watching you and a lot of them look up to you!

OKay - back to the point... A _D_D!  

In this movie Morgan Freeman says:

"Let me ask you something.  If someone prays for patience, do you think God gives them patience, or does he give them the opportunity to be patient?  If he prayed for courage, does God give him courage, or does he give him the opportunities to be courageous?  If someone prayed for the family to be closer, do you think God zaps them with warm fuzzy feelings, or does he give them opportunities to love each other?"

How much truth is in that statement.  As I prepare to leave for Baylor in Waco, TX tomorrow a lot of feelings are running through my mind.  I am anxious and scared of the road ahead of me, but I am also sad and heartbroken to leave the ones I love in Arkansas.  It will be hard, but through all of it do I mope and sit in despair or should I look at what God has in store for me.  I have prayed for people to be placed in my life so that I can impact them on a very intense level.  Is that going to happen with me sitting at home? Maybe, but maybe God is putting me in a position to do that in Waco.  Now yes I would love to impact from Little Rock, but obviously that isn't where God needs me.  I have also been praying for perseverance and strength in my relationships - well nothing says perseverance and strength like Long Distance.  This quote really made me look at what I had been praying for to see how God might be using me in Waco.  DO NOT GET ME WRONG _  I am completely sad and miserable and have been crying all night about this move - but deep down I have solace that God will provide and I have a loving family and a wonderful boyfriend supporting me with open arms when I come back (which will be soo soon!!) 

Have I told y'all about Taylor?  He is pretty much amazing.  We are going to eat with the Mafia today at lunch.  It's going to be soo fun!  If you don't know who the mafia is... it is the Gosser Klan!  THere are soo many of us and we call ourselves the mafia because everywhere we go - we see a family member.  So watch out - you cross me... i've got the mafia.  JUST kidding!  no but seriously we are everywhere!

My life in pictures!

Found this on my google reader thanks to kati baldwin! Inside this wax paper sack (white square on the back of heart) is bird seed for a wedding!  How cute!

Laura Leigh made this bug for a project at school out of paper mache - if you can't tell it is holding 10 cupcakes.  hmmm wonder where she got that idea!  she loves her big sister!! and i love her - wow! I am going to miss that little goober!

Friday was my last day of workout before leaving for Waco with my trainer Julie!  She knew I had been craving a lemon tangy cupcake since my diet - and so she brought me one from cupcakes on kavanaugh!!  How sweet is she.  Kind of defeats the purpose of workout - but I engulfed that sucker!  It was soo good.  And as you can see I am wearing a sweatshirt!  I have been soo cold despite to extreme heat we have been experiencing in Little Rock. 

Me and Laura Leigh decided to tie-dye yesterday before the rehearsal dinner with Taylor - this is how it's done ladies and gentleman:

1. Swirl your shirts - and rubberband them!

2. Put something on the ground!  and dye your shirts!  Do not forget to wet your shirts with water it soaks up the dye better.  

3.  Wrap in Seran Wrap for 6-8 hours or however long.  I am ADD so i left mine there for 2 days ha OOPS!  My shirts are the 3 on the stop and Laura Leigh's are on the bottom.

This is the kit from Walmart that we used it was $24.95 and included a ton of colors.  We dyed 6 shirts and we ran out of almost every color - so I would recommend this kit if you are doing a lot of shirts.

Then Laura Leigh made cupcakes they are called FunCakes - don't ask thats such a weird name.  But they were sooo good!

I am soooo soooo sooo proud of Taylor.  He officiated his first wedding tonight and let me tell you one thing - I am the most proud girlfriend in the whole world right now.  He did marvelous and was so eloquent and spoke very meaningfully to the new couple!  He spoke on the positions and duties of a husband and wife in a relationship and encouraged them both to carry out those jobs and not to forget them.  I think he is a keeper!  The wedding was fun I got to see a lot of his friends and meet the girlfriends which were so sweet and very talkative!  It was a very fun night!  oh and the food was great.. but I forgot to taste the wedding cake.  WHAT! i know I am soo silly!

May your prayers always be answered.  May your life always be full.  May your path always look inviting and may you always have great friends on the sidewalk of your journey!  But most of all, 

May you be charmed in the Bliss of the Lord - and may that be your daily strength.

Be Blessed.  Be Charmed.  Be Happy.

Abby

The Wait Is Over!!

Taylor and I finally took a picture together and how I'd love for this to be an entire blogpost about how cute and precious he is or how perfect we look together.. I'll refrain because it will probably sound like Delilah and I don't know about you but when I hear Delilah on the radio I want to gag. So I'll jut show you pictures! And if you want to comment.. Feel free!


Did I tell you that Taylor brought me to St Louis this weekend? We drove up after he got off work on Friday and brought my cousin Trey and his girlfriend Madison. They are juniors in college. It's so wonderful how Taylor was thinking about us and our witness and how we should NOT come alone to a city! Taylor is great and always takes the high road with me! Love it!

We got up today and went downstairs for hotel breakfast and it was $12 a pop so we went to McDonalds!!

Then it started raining so we chilled in the hotel room for a while and finally left and went to the Galleria where we had Panda Express - I do not know what it is about mall foo courts but they rock! We saw several cubs fans and because Taylor is a Huge cubs fan he had to talk to them all!

When we came up here Dad was still trying to get us tickets.. Well we got them around 1:30! They were great seats behind 3 base line! however, it would have been nice if i would have known the game started at 3!  at 3:30 Taylor received a text from a buddy asking where we were sitting.. hey guess what!  we were still at the mall! So we rushed to the stadium (about 15 minutes) made some great friends at the parking lot and then ran inside!  Our seats, again, were wonderful and we had just the most wonderful time.





Here we are at the food court!  First official picture together!! Adorable!





In the suit store waiting on our boys - this is Madison and she is dating my cousin Trey! She was so much fun to hang out with this weekend!






This was Maurice and he helped Taylor pick out a suit for next weekend.  Okay let me let you in on a little something special in Taylor's life (besides me haha joke!)  Taylor is getting the honor to perform the wedding ceremony at one of his great college friend's wedding's next weekend.  How awesome is that.  So he had to get a suit - which is a great purchase for a 22 year old. He needed a suit.  Well, this suit was wonderful. and Looked very handsome on him.  I am getting to go to the wedding and I am wondering what I should wear - I will probably call my friend Amy, she is the best dressed... EVER!  I wish she lived with me!  She should most likely come over this week to check out my options.  I will give her a call.





Taylor in his suit!  Love it!  OKay - can i just state again if I haven't before how crazy I am about this boy and how excited I am to see him do his job.  He has been going over notes and praying about this sermon for a while and I am thrilled to see what God has in store for this couple - And I get to be there!  Have you ever been with your family, boyfriend, or friend and just been in utter joy that you were with them... that is called BLISS my friend! And I have a ton of it right now!  This boy makes me soo happy.  Oh, and I am excited to sit and watch him do a great job... can you be excited for that?  I am.





Here we are at the Cards Cubs game.. which the Cubs lost MISERABLY at.  However, the cubs came back today and won 6-3.  Touche Clark!  Taylor does not meet a stranger so everybody we saw ALL DAY that had a cubs shirt on, he had to talk to!  We got some crazy stories, but for the most part - I have learned that Americans are very friendly people and if you are being authentically genuine - they will be the same back to you and it will all work out!  Be inspired to be authentically genuine to a stranger tomorrow.. whether that be in the gym, at the store, or even driving - wave, say something nice, ask about something positive!  You will find bliss.





The gang at the game!  We had so much fun altogether and let me tell you something - madison can talk some smack!  The cubs were not playing veryw ell, the GM got kicked out, bad play at third, lowsy call at second - and they could not hit - 3 up 3 down every inning but the first.



After the game we went to Cheesecake Factory and there was an hour wait to get a beeper!  and then a 2 hour wait after that.  we said - no thanks!

and headed to red lobster -

Rules of the trade:

1.Get the Coconut Shrimp!
2. Get the Lobster Pizza
3.  DONT FORGET DESSERT _ CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIE AND ICECREAM!



No lie - it was gone in a blink of an eye - and it was GOOD!




Me and Taylor - Still with that silly hat on - At least I know he is faithful and loyal!!  :)






So Today - with everything going on... I have decided to sit in peace in the knowledge that God sees everything, he knows everything, and he holds me together!  He knows what is coming up and what shall pass!

Deuteronomy 32:3-4 I will proclaim the name of the LORD.  Oh, praise the greatness of our god!  He is the Rock, his works are perfect, and all His ways are just.  A faithful God who does no wrong, upright, and just he is!

I am sooo impatient!  I want the answers NOW!  However, I bet God is laughing.  He is probably saying oh my child - have you learned nothing.  How many of us wander in life and think why isn't this working out - why isn't everything happening like it should.  It's because we don't have the missing puzzle piece - JESUS.  It is so bard sometimes to see God's hand and his plan at work, but walking daily and praying daily for his hand and his help and guidance in faith knowing that HE HAS REASONS AND HIS PLAN IS PERFECT!

Psalm 33:11 - But the plans of the LORD stand firm forever, the purposes of his heart through all generations.

Yes sir, that is a true verse!~  As everything in life starts wokring out again, and everything begins to unfold - I always feel so silly - like Look at your perfect plan jesus!  Your wonderful timing - WOW!!   Every curve, every tear, every bump and bruise had a purpose - and that purpose gave me a divine conspiracy.  He formed me - he knew what would happen!

I hope you are encouraged to slow down and be patient!  God does have a plan - and if you are unsure what that is right now... GET EXCITED!! that just means the best part of the story is yet to come!!  YAY!

Have bliss in a charmed way!

Abby