Quote of the day from my desk calendar:

Your deepest needs and longings will only be met in an intimate relationship with God.  No person will ever reach as deeply into you as God will.  No one can ever know you as well or love you as much.  That insatiable longing for more than you feel, the emptiness you want those closest to you to fill, is put there by God so that He can fill it. 

Like I was telling some friends of mine recently, God has completely spoiled me this last year with His love.  For the first time since my pre-puberty days, I feel completely confidant in who I am and where I am going in life.  And that is a miracle.  To God be the glory.

Jill pointed out that it says I have 5 comments on my last entry, but really I just have 3.  I smell something fishy!  Anyone want to confess deleting anything?  I won't bite, or make fun of you, or tell the world of your most darkest secrets.  Promise.  Or is Xanga just being funny?

I just checked my email today for the first time, and wow!  Everybody and their Grandmas emailed me today; all except my friends.  haha.  The good folks at Viagra even sent me a little something-something. 

Last night I ordered Marty Urwin's CD.   I've been voting for it on Tulsa Traxx since he mass emailed me asking for my vote. lol

About a year ago, or so, I signed up to receive People's Church emails just for the fun of it.  It's like a weird reminder of the life I kind of had with early Believers Church stuff.  Good ole' Ed Gungor.  They're having a Thursday night service this week, if anyone cares to know. haha

My uncle likes to send me weird forwards. 

I don't like my Xanga look.  I want to change it, but I don't know what to.  It seems like a waste though because I don't look at my site often; I just read the email digests. 

My good friend, Barbie, is moving this weekend close to Branson, MO.  I'll definately have to take some trips down south. =)

**side note*  aww, my alt key just came off. :(  -- thought I'd share *end side note**

"God doesn't need you -- He wants you."  Isn't that a cool thought?  It takes the presure of preforming some great task or deed for God.  It's not like saving the world is up to me/us.  We're just priveledged to get to join God.   I re-heard that quote on a Casting Crowns dvd last night. 

Speaking of doing something for God, Steven and Erik are in Africa right now.  Fun stuff! 

I love Casting Crown's song, "The Voice of Truth."  Everytime I hear it I want to punch the devil and say, oh yeah?  Take this: *pow*  I'm not buying your lies no more!

I was out late tonight with the ladies of my family.  The mom of my sister-in-law, Dana, had a ladies night in on her farm in Dunlap.  We had a bonfire, cooked hot dogs and hamburgers, sat around and talked.  Campfires are the best things in the world.  Seriously. 

Ooo, praise report time!  I've been sick this last week -- cold/fever stuff.  I also had a week-long substituting job planned out in a really good First Grade room, so I didn't want to stay home and rest and miss it.  By Wednesday I started to feel like I was going to lose my voice.  My lungs hurt, my voice was scratchy, and I couldn't talk loud without coughing and it hurting.  This happened to me last year at this *exact* time, middle/end of October.  Well, of course I didn't want laryngitis again.  It's no fun and takes forever to heal -- and you can't talk at ALL or else it just gets worse.  When I went to church on Wednesday night, it hurt to try to sing during worship, so I mostly just mouthed the words and worshiped inspite of myself.  Then Pastor had everyone come down to the altar to sing the last couple songs before the sermon, so I jumped at the chance.  I had the urge to want to go to the altar anyway...just, I don't know why.  But given the chance, I went!  And what do we start singing?  "I will not be silent anymore.  No, I will not be quite anymore... (from the song that starts with, "Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth") But before they got any further in the song, they moved on to a different song.  It was weird, they only sang those couple lines, "I will not be silent anymore.  No, I will not be quiet anymore..." two or three times, and that was it.  I just knew this was a God-thing, so I sang that with all my might, and I was healed!  No more laryngitis.  Isn't God good?!!  w00t!

Hi ya, Xanga people.  How are you all?

I don't really have anything to say, but I thought I'd update anyway.  I want to get in the habbit of updating.

Tonight I went to church and it was reeeally good.  We're starting a new series by John Bevere called, um, .... I forget!  I think it's "Under His Wings" or something like that.  It's going to be really good, so if you're in the Peoria area on Wednesday nights in the next 11 weeks, you should attend! 

Tonight I learned about submission.  Something to get excited about, eh?  He gave an example about how God told him to build a new youth group that he had just became the pastor of.  He followed the example of another church in a different state that used Friday night "parties" (ie small groups) to get kids involved which would then lead them into the Wednesday night youth group meetings.  It was a big huge process and took eight months to build leaders in his youth group to get ready for these "parties" in his new youth group.  Everyone was excited about it.  Then three weeks before their launch, the head pastor of the church told all the associates in a meeting that God told him that the church was not to have any home groups in their church, that that's not how God was leading their church. (I even think that's kind of weird, but hey, whatever)  John Bevere was shocked and then angry, to say the least.  But then God spoke to him and gave him the key to what this series is going to be about.  If we submit to those in authority, even when we disagree, God will bless us and will make our plans succeed. 

That sounds easy just reading it, but I *know* that it is hard to practice.  God has given me many opportunities to practice submission, and I haven't done such a great job.  I love being independent me!  I want my heart to practice submission.  It's easy to act one way, but another to know it in my thoughts.

I miss Believers Church people.  I don't know why tonight's video sermon made me miss BC, but it did.  I'm tempted to try to take a trip down to Oklahoma this month, as I don't have a whole lot going on job wise.  Jill, tell everyone I said "hi."  Just go to the nearest window and shout it out to the whole city.   haha.  Have I ever shown you pictures of that day we went to the castles of muskogee?  I know you're in several. he he he