Splendid Snorkeling Voyage

This past weekend I was able to attend a sea turtle conference in the Florida Key (doesn't that sound like fun? Sea turtles are so cool!!!) One awesome thing about the trip was that we went snorkeling off of Key Largo on White Banks Reef. It was my first time and was sooooooooo much fun!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  

 I'm sure you can see my excited through the equipment. :)Though it turns out, I may not be the best snorkeler ever because I just really don't like to kick. Even when I swim normally, I use by arms and not by legs. I noticed I had the same habit sometimes during snorkeling. lol.
 
 We didn't see anything extra special like sharks, turtles,or sting rays. However, we did see lots of colorful fish and beautiful coral! The diversity of God's creature is amazing. While swimming I kept thinking what an awesome Father we have. Here are a few pictures so you can also marvel at God's amazing creation!

 

 So great story about that pink fish pictured above, it is a man-eating fish!...I barely escaped that beast with my life. It was so traumatizing that I saw my life flash before my eyes (Did you die? Yes, but I lived)...Ok, so maybe it wasn't quite that dramatic. The true story is I saw the fish and wanted to get a picture so I dove down to get a little close. It then proceeded to swim directly at me with it's mouth WIDE open. Apparently, I was too scary cause it turned away a couple feet from me. :)

Anyways, it was truly a fantastical experience and I'm so glad I had the chance to go. The rest of the weekend was spent seeing sea turtles at the Turtle Hospital, learning all about sea turtles, catching up with friends, and eating seafood.:)

"That's All Folks!"
 

Delighting in His Law

The other day I was reading Psalm 119 about how David loved the law of the Lord and longed to follow his commands. This led me to Psalm 1 where I got stuck on verse 2, "But his delight is on the law of the Lord and on His law he will meditate day and night." Now I've probably read this verse a hundred time, but this time all I could think was: what is the law of the Lord and why did David love it so much? And then it came to me, the law of the Lord is to love the Lord our God with all your heart, strength, mind, and soul (Deuteronomy 6:5). 

So what is the verse saying? We are to delight in loving the Father. It should not be a chore or a burden, but loving the Lord our God should be a delight in our life. We are to spend our days thinking about how much we love Him. Day and night, night and day, He should be in our thoughts. It's just like when you start to fall in love with someone and all you do is think about them. What are they doing? When can I see them again? Would they like this? What are their thoughts on this topic/item? That is how it should be in loving the Lord. 

And as we start to open up to delighting in Him and loving Him fully our hearts open up delighting in the second part of His law, "Love your neighbor as yourself" (Mathew 22:39). We are also suppose to delight in loving those around us. For we cannot just stop at the first part because to fully love the Father you must love His people. We can't learn to love God if we hate our brother.If anyone says, "I love God," yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen (1 John 4:20).

Father, today I open my heart to delight in Your law. May our hearts, minds, souls, and strengths be filled with love for you. And Father help us to love our brothers just as you love them.

"That's All Folks!"

No Greater Love

"Greater lover has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends." - John 15:13

 

 Thank you for your sacrifice. 

"That's All Folks!"
 

He is the Sustainer

"Cast your cares on the Lord
      and He will sustain you;
      He will never let the righteous fall."
                    -Psalm 56:22

What does it mean when it says the Lord will sustain you? 

The definition of sustain is: 
1) to support, hold, or bear up from below; bear weight of, as a structure. The Father holds you up in everything that you are going through. As you walk with Him, he will bear all the weight of the load that you carry.

2) to endure without giving way or yielding. He will be with you ALWAYS! His love will NEVER give way.

3) to keep (a person, the mind, the spirit, etc) from giving way as under trial or affliction. During whatever trials and afflictions that you may be going through, He will keep you, your mind, your spirit, from giving way. Trust in Him. Believe in His Word.

4) to supply with food, drink, and other necessities of life. Trust the Lord in ALL that you do and walk by faith with Him because He will supply for all your needs. You no longer have to worry about what to eat or drink, what you will wear, how to pay the bills etc. (Matthew 6:31-33), just focus on Him and keep proclaiming, "Thy Kingdom come! Thy Will be done on earth as it is in heaven!" (Matthew 6:10).

5) to provide for by furnishing means or funds. Again, He will provide all the furnishing and funds that you need. There is no more need to focus the circumstances, issues, problems around you. Lift your eyes to the Father.

This is what the Father has been making real to me: I am to walk everyday by faith, believing that the Words He has spoken over my life are real and valid and I am going to walk in those promises. This isn't some easy thing. Like everyone else I struggle with this, looking at the problems and needs around me and trying to figure out all the answers. I question. What will my next job be? Will I have the right place to live? Can I afford it? How do I pay the bills? Who? What? When? Where? Why? I doubt. Will it really happen? Am I doing what I'm suppose to?  But I always come back to one thing: Father I love You and I know You love me. I trust that you will lead and guide my steps in a better way than I could ever imagine, so I will rest in Your presence

This walk is a walk by faith. If we trust in God's unfailing love (Psalm 52:8), we don't need to focus on our problems because we trust the Father to take care of every need. 

I'll leave you with one simple challenge, one that I repeat to myself over and over again: DARE TO BELIEVE GOD!

"That's All Folks!"

Psalm 130

"Out of the depths I cry to you, Lord; 
     Lord, hear my voice.
Let your ears be attentive
    to my cry for mercy.

 If you, Lord, kept a record of sins,
    Lord, who could stand?
 But with you there is forgiveness,
    so that we can, with reverence, serve you.

 I wait for the Lord, my whole being waits,
    and in his word I put my hope. 

 I wait for the Lord
    more than watchmen wait for the morning,
    more than watchmen wait for the morning.

 Israel, put your hope in the Lord,
    for with the Lord is unfailing love
    and with him is full redemption. 

 He himself will redeem Israel
    from all their sins."

"That's All Folks!"

Jeremiah 31:3

"Long ago the Lord said to Israel: 'I have loved you, my people, with an everlasting love. With unfailing love I have drawn you to myself.'"

 

"That's All Folks!"

This day calls for....

It is the perfect day to curl up with a good book and a warm drink by a fireplace. Currently, it is rainy, windy, and cold outside right now. Not very appealing (I'm a veeerrryyy appeeeaaaling person- guess what movie?). The great thing is that I actually have today off, which mean I'm going to curl up on a couch watching football and F1 and ignore the crummy weather outside. :)

I've also decided to show some pictures from the beach I went to on Friday when it was sunny and nice out...



"That's All Folks!"

Happy Halloween!!!

In honor of it being Halloween, I figured I would post pictures of the pumpkin that I carved a couple weeks ago with friends from work. Sadly, the pumpkin has already died on me, so it won't be on the front steps for the trick-or-treaters to see. :(

Now that you've seen the pumpkin I have a very important question for you: what do you think I carved?

Answer: It is suppose to be a seal (specifically, a grey seal), but if you guessed ghost that's ok. It does kind of look like a ghost. I'll just classify my pumpkin as abstract art (i.e. it can be anything you want it to be). ;)


The F1 is on the back of the same pumpkin and is in honor of Formula 1 racing in case anybody was confused. And no, F1 is not like NASCAR, different types of vehicles AND they turn left and right. Shocking, right? (pun intended) In case anybody is wondering, the next F1 race is Sunday and takes place in Austin Texas.
GO HAMMIE!!!!!!


"That's All Folks"