Time to Confess- 11/21/2014

I confess: I agreed to host a LulaRoe party at my house. It's a super cute maxi skirt/leggings kind of party. I like the idea of the party, but I have anxiety over if no one shows up and the host wastes her time.

I confess: My friend lost her barely 18 year old daughter to suicide two weeks ago. Another child (a 10 year old) in a neighboring town hung himself this week. My heart is absolutely broken for these kids. WHY?! What is so bad in their little lives that they do this?

I confess: I feel like I am called to do something. But what? I am praying for God to open a door in the direction he wants me to go. Is it Youth Ministry again? I don't know... but we've got to do something in our community.

I confess: Our church is moving to a new building. A very cool new building with state of the art- everything. We've come a long ways from where we started in a little storage unit. God is doing big things in the city of Ogden, UT.

I confess: I cannot believe next week is Thanksgiving. I am not sure where this year has gone. I have definitely been blessed and am so thankful. Happy Thanksgiving!

Lovin' Influenster

A few years back, I heard about something called Influenster. It's a program that you sign up for, they send you quizzes, and if you match up you get to test out products. I've had things as little as a new flavor of gum to a box of MaryKay product to the new ZZZQuil plug in.

Often times when I try something new, I think "boy, who tested this? this is terrible" if I don't like it and I am thankful for the opportunity to be a tester for a variety of things so I can give my honest feedback on how things are.

Check it out: www.influenster.com. It doesn't take a lot of effort and you get to try out some really cool products!

#Influenster #InfluensterApp

Hello. I'm a Christian.

               

In my best Newsboys singing voice:
                                                   In this time of desperation

When all we know is doubt and fear
There is only one foundation
We believe, we believe
In this broken generation
When all is dark, You help us see
There is only one salvation
We believe, we believe

We believe in God the Father
We believe in Jesus Christ
We believe in the Holy Spirit
And He's given us new life
We believe in the crucifixion

We believe that He conquered death
We believe in the resurrection
And He's comin' back again, we believe

So, let our faith be more than anthems
Greater than the songs we sing
And in our weakness and temptations
We believe, we believe!

We believe in God the Father!
We believe in Jesus Christ!
We believe in the Holy Spirit!
And He's given us new life!
We believe in the crucifixion!
We believe that He conquered death!
We believe in the resurrection!
And He's comin' back again!

Let the lost be found and the dead be raised!
In the here and now, let love invade!
Let the church live loud our God we'll say
We believe, we believe!
And the gates of hell will not prevail!
For the power of God, has torn the veil!
Now we know Your love will never fail!
We believe, we believe!

We believe in God the Father
We believe in Jesus Christ
We believe in the Holy Spirit
And He's given us new life!
We believe in the crucifixion!
We believe that He conquered death!
We believe in the resurrection!
And He's comin' back,
He's comin' back again!
He's comin' back again!
We believe!
We believe

I believe every single word in this song... I can sing this song in worship feeling 110% convicted that Jesus came to earth, died a sinless death as hung on a cross, three days later rose from the grave... all because God loves me that much.

I grew up in religion. I grew up with the understanding that I would have to ask forgiveness in a dark little box with man on the other side of the grated wall. I am not sure what sins I had at that young age that I needed to have a panic attack about confessing. I wasn't sure why I needed to talk to a priest when I was already talking to God in my prayers. I wasn't sure how being sent back to a pew to say a few Hail Mary's was going to wipe the slate clean until the next time I was forced to go to confession again. I just knew I had to do that to be worthy of taking communion each week. All in the life of a Catholic student, I guess. 

Since those days, I have come into a real relationship (please note, I did not say religion) with Jesus Christ. I have invited Jesus into my heart to be my Lord and Savior. I know I am not perfect, that's why I need Him. I was not made to be perfect. I was made to love God and love others. My salvation is not based on how many prayers I say, how many good works I do. My salvation is based on my love of Jesus. 

Right now, in the Land of Mormons (Yes, I am from Utah. No, I am not Mormon. No, they don't have horns.) they just had their biannual church conference and there was a big to-do about Mormons being Christian and a new movie "Meet the Mormons" that is coming out. Although I have many friends and even family members who are LDS/Mormon, I do not believe their church teaches Christianity. I believe their church teaches religion. I believe they follow man made rules that their prophet calls them to believe. I do not believe that Jesus is the brother of Satan. I do not believe that we are going to be gods and have our own planet when we die. I do not believe that I need special permission to go into a building to do secret acts to earn my way to the highest level of heaven. I do not believe that I need to baptize dead relatives. I do not believe that we need any other set of instructions outside of the Holy Bible. 

I believe Mormons have good hearts and are good people. I am blessed to live in the community that I do because they are very caring people and good neighbors. I just pray that one day they will see the light of Christ and realize that salvation isn't as hard as they make it out to be. 

Utah has a lot of hopes of perfection... and that leads to a lot of antidepressants, plastic surgery, and suicide. My heart aches for these wonderful people and the brokenness I see that comes from their church. I pray that the light of Christ comes through my words and actions... that someone will come to know Jesus through that.

We believe in God the Father

We believe in Jesus Christ

We believe in the Holy Spirit

And He's given us new life!

We believe in the crucifixion!

We believe that He conquered death!

We believe in the resurrection!

And He's comin' back,

He's comin' back again!

He's comin' back again!

We believe!

We believe

I do believe... with my whole heart. God is so good! 

Confessing on a Friday 10/10/14

I Confess:
I love watching I Am Second videos. I love hearing people's stories and how their lives have changed, thanks to Jesus.

I Confess:
I was watching TV last night and I was horrified by the commercials that were on. Commercials that were promoting pornography and adultery.  My heart aches because I know the consequences of those things.

I Confess:
We are making progress at the house. Still have TONS of boxes in the garage, but we're getting there. I am going to celebrate when it's done!

I Confess:
I am ready for fall to be here (if I can find my boots!) but I am not looking forward to cold weather and illnesses. I've had a cold for the past 3 weeks and I am ready to be over it.

I Confess:
We are taking the kids to Frightmares at Lagoon on Sunday. I do not like haunted houses, but two of the four of us do, so me and Drew will go ride rides and let Ty and Bryan go get spooked :)

Friday Confessionals 10/03/2014

I Confess:
I am proud of my hubby and his hard work getting us moved into our new house. I HATE moving things and he took charge and got it taken care of.

I Confess:
I don't like all the boxes in the garage that we still need to go through, but it's not as overwhelming as if they were in the house.

I Confess:
I had a meltdown waiting for a train this morning... I am not sure where it came from, but I started bawling in my car. It had to do with my BFF that I recently reconnected with and how much I've missed over the past 18 years and what I don't feel like I know about him that I should. (Sorry for the 6am text asking your favorite music, Tony!)

I Confess:
Football is done for the season. Drew played great, we LOVED the coaches in our new town. We didn't make it to the playoffs, but to see the progress in my boy was good enough for me. 

Friday Confessions 09/19/2014

I confess: I went to a heartbreaking funeral this week. A friend of mine from church got wrapped up in some bad stuff and made some bad choices and his life was ended in a shootout with police. Never would I have guessed this kind of thing was going on in his life.

I confess: my 6 year anniversary is tomorrow. My uber-sweet hubby got me a new lens for my camera that he gave me last week so I could use it for Drew's football games. He also sent me flowers and a balloon to work. They smell soooo good!

I confess: we go to sign on our house today. There are just a few little things left to do (deadbolts, paint touch up, etc) this morning and then we close this afternoon. It turned out better than expected and I love it. Bryan walks around in awe because he never thought he'd have such a nice place. We are so blessed!

I confess: I am thankful for my parents for letting us stay with them the past 4 months. As much as my dad says he's glad we are moving out, I think he is really going to miss the kids.

I confess: I am also thankful for my dear friend Andi who watched our dogs the past 4 months. She is a total blessing to us. 

John 10:10?

Earlier last week, I reached out to a lady at church named Penny who is the sister of one of my friends. I hadn't seen my friend on Facebook recently so I was asking her sister if she was doing ok and if she needed anything from her recent ankle surgery.

Penny told me that her sister was doing well and asked how our house was coming a long. She asked me exactly where it is because they lived in the next town over from us and thought it was cool that we'd be "neighbors".

Saturday afternoon, I got a message on Facebook from Penny asking if I'd be at church the next day and if so, could we talk for a bit. Uh, sure. All these things were running through my head but I assumed it had to do with her sister.

I found her after first service and we took a seat at the back of the sanctuary. She told me that she hopes I don't think she is weird for what she was about to say... and what she was about to say completely took me off guard.

She said recently she's been thinking about if God really knows her and if she needs to choose Him or if He already knows and loves her. A song came on the radio and it said something about God knows her and loves her and she burst into tears. Saturday morning, she woke up and started her prayers and again asked God if He really knows her name... and started to say something about Saul (from the bible) and said something about "Kill, Steal, and Destroy" and when those words came out of her mouth, she felt like she was lifted out of her body (and she was awake during this time!) and felt herself flying in the sky over the freeway, over a store that's in between our house, and she knew she was going to my new house, although she'd never been there. She said she said "God, why am I going to Lisa's house?" as she saw two people at my house and she said clear as day, she heard Him say the word "Warn". She kept asking over and over "God, why do I need to warn Lisa? Is she in trouble? Is something going to happen?".

As she's telling me this, I am thinking what a weird dream she had... until she reminded me that it wasn't a dream, she was awake during this. The only reason her eyes were closed were because she was praying.

She said she doesn't have a spiritual gift... that she's really never had something happen like this and she needed to let me know to take extra precautions to be safe.

So ever since then, I have been asking God to reveal to me what that was all about. How the words "Kill, Steal, and Destroy" set off such a feeling and what I needed to be warned about... and who the two people at my house were. She said that she felt very strongly about telling me. I don't know what to think about this...


***Updated 09/17/2014***

I've been praying about this, trying not to freak out. I truly believe that God uses people to send messages. Sometimes we are too stubborn to listen for ourselves, I guess. The more I am praying, the more I feel like it's something other than a physical warning. I feel like maybe Satan is mad. Jesus is doing a lot of big things in my family and we are very blessed. To show our gratitude for all He has done, we wrote bible verses all over the framing before the sheet rock. Kind of a "Hands off, Jesus has this house" kind of realization. Yes, I am praying over my family even more than usual. Praying over my marriage that we are strong and only have eyes for each other. Praying over my children to be safe in all they do. There's a lot of bad stuff going on in the world and I know I can't change the most of it so I will just keep my eyes on Jesus and continue to praise Him for his goodness.