Eating supper by (oil) lamplight and reading by flashlight, courtesy of a 2 hour power outage last night. Call me crazy, but I enjoyed it. It seemed like a return to the "old ways." The family all gathered in one room, but employed in their singular occupations. Sure, The Little Bro was studying on a laptop, but the concept was the same!

The New Kid comes up to me before youth group last night.
"Amethyst*, what's a ministry?"
So I explained it.
"Do you understand now?" I said.
"Yeah," he nodded. "I like your shirt."

What? Haha. Okay then. Gotta love youth group.

Bright and white
Against the blackness
Morning by name
Evening by sight
He fights to remain
This crusader of light
Through the passage of time
A moon's journey goes on...

Golden face
Warmed by invisible rays
Midnight seems
a distant memory
Black becomes beauty
Dark finds its way to mystery
The moon is cradled
By azure blue...

Bronzed face
In a teary daybreak haze
The moon is a man
Overcome by sadness
Sinking down to kiss the mountains
Bittersweet farewell, as
Moonset greets the sunrise.




There was a glorious moonset this morning, and I was privileged to watch its wonders unfold on my commute. I almost feel bad for the rest of the people who miss these beauties so early in the day. Almost.

"Which of you, having a slave plowing or tending sheep, will say to him when he has come in from the field, `Come immediately and sit down to eat'? "But will he not say to him, `Prepare something for me to eat, and properly clothe yourself and serve me while I eat and drink; and afterward you may eat and drink'? "He does not thank the slave because he did the things which were commanded, does he? "So you too, when you do all the things which are commanded you, say, `We are unworthy slaves; we have done only that which we ought to have done.' "
Luke 17:7-10

Everybody likes encouragement sometimes. And it's good---to a point. But there's so many things that we should be doing just because Christ told us to. We are slaves. We obey. That's who we are and what we do. It's normal. It's expected.

So if I read the Word, and pray, and speak truth, and obey, and help another, and be kind, and smile, and do a million other things that Christ would do... don't glorify me, please. Look at Christ. He's the Master--the One who told me what to do in the first place.

I'm just a soldier
I'm just a servant
I'm just a slave to do Your will
You're the Commander
You are the Master
You are the perfect Lord of Lords

What have I to say but "here I am?"
Let me be the clay inside Your hands!

Lord of Heaven
I bow my knee
You're the King over all
You're the King over me.

By the grace of God, nobody got hurt today... well, unless you count a couple scrapes and bruises from climbing rocks on steep trails and diving during Ultimate Frisbee onto sand. And because of that, I count it as a successful day! The youth group (and me, of course) went to a state park full of waterfalls, but to see those waterfalls requires hiking treacherously steep and slippery trails. Mmmhmm. It was great fun though! I was privileged to see the "real" hair of all youth, courtesy of creek water and lots of humidity! The PB&J lunch was fanta-bulous, even if I did get really sticky. Introduced the concept of "wading" to some people. Dropped my shoe in the water. Made fun of the "not-so-grand" canyon. Gave a zillion verbal safety warnings to anyone and everyone. Lifted an eyebrow or two at the Boy Scouts. Smiled at an adorable little tyke (twice) and his impossibly small suspenders. Accidentally ate a piece of gravel. Composed some glorious pictures of the sinking sun.

The Crazy Kid's wisdom:
"We should just tick-bomb the whole world."
"I guess I just don't enjoy nature that much--I'm too busy making sure I don't fall to my death." (or something like that)
Then he used my camera tripod as an imaginary machine gun. It wasn't "wisdom", but it sure was funny!

The Enthusiastic Girl starts telling a story, and it's long. The listeners' interest starts to wane. "Excuse me! I'm talking!!" *she waves a hand in other person's face and continues to talk for five more minutes..... And stops suddenly. "What was I talking about again?"

The Little Bro and The Country Boy scrounge up a rusty fishing hook, some sinkers and a tangled bundle of fishing line. After a few minutes, they're fishing. What ingenuity. Not much is biting, but the concept of standing on a boulder beside mirrored waters, with friends lounging beside, talking and laughing. It's just the epitome of relaxation. One itty-bitty fish did get the hook. And we got ridiculously big smiles for that one.

But not nearly as big as the high-pitched screams and riotous laughter that came from that boulder when The Sparkly Girl and The Chatty Girl caught a fish. From the amount of pure joy emanating from that spot, you would've thought they caught a whale!! He was... very small. And he had no lip by the time he was released back into the wild. Poor thing.

And someone's lemonade that spilled a record THREE TIMES during dinner! Once was interesting, second time was funny, but the third---I laughed so hard that my stomach hurt. Of course, the evil ketchup bottle that caused the last two spills made everything seem funnier! :)

The day was filled with moments of joy and times of just breathing the air. No youth roadtrip is complete without serious conversations... And this roadtrip was no exception. We talked about life, and music, and marriage, and standards, and relationships and pleasing the Lord. And I was reminded of what I am waiting for: God's design in my life.

Lord, have Your way in me.

"Why haven't you blogged lately?" The Mom asked me last night.

Good question. Maybe because I have too much to blog about and I'm so obsessed about "matching" (yes, you can laugh now) that I only want one subject per post. Maybe because I've used my usual blogging time to research the family vacation to Maine. Maybe I'm concerned about being "self-absorbed" in blogging.

"The Word has to cut us, before it can heal us."
These were my words to the youth on Wednesday night after a particularly tough sermon on hypocrisy or dead religion or as The Lil Bro said so well, "Are you really what you think you are?" What is a hypocrite? A pretender. The scary part about pretending about spiritual things is that you can be fully convinced of your own righteousness (as the Pharisees were), and the rude awakening comes at the end of time. And there's no time left to turn around. Only being cast out into the outer darkness, and weeping and knashing of teeth.

Deliver us from this self-deception of false religion, oh Lord!

It is raining. Hahaha. Now I don't have to wash my car! :)

"...Bring me anything that brings You glory,
And I know there'll be days,
When this life brings me pain.
But if that's what it takes to praise You,
Jesus, bring the rain."
-MercyMe

These lyrics have been running through my mind lately. As humans, we naturally desire a nice life. Something comfortable and pleasant. But that's not always the design of God. He's far more concerned about our holiness than our happiness. I want to be more concerned about glorifying Christ in every situation than how I feel in this life.

Practical applications lately have been the long day working for The Dad's new business (ouch!), doing housework late into the night because The Mom is away caring for The Sis & The Little Lady Baby, smiling in the face of undeserved criticism at work, the daily challenges of being responsible for many young people's spiritual growth and my own internal struggle to seek & surrender to the will of God.

Pain. Yeah, it happens. But it's my job to make sure The Glory of God is seen, rather than me.

That's my new favorite word. If only I had more opportunities to use it in conversation! :)

The last week has been interesting. Last Friday & Saturday, The Mom and I put up insulation in the apartment. Yes, by ourselves. We did an entire wall, the loft and the cathedral ceiling. Yeah, you should be impressed. We were born in the wrong time period-we should've been pioneer women! One of the greatest things I've learned from my mom is that (almost) anything is possible. Throughout my life I would say, "Mom, are we doing this?" And she'd answer in what has become my sis & I's motto, "It can't be that hard." And honestly, the insulation wasn't that hard. We looked like bugs because of the safety goggles and masks. And my face still burned because I *stupidly* used my shirt to wipe away the sweat. :)

Yesterday, I almost ran over a chicken on my way home from work. The day before that, it was three dairy cows. Technically though, I don't really live in the country. I live on a mountaintop! But I drive through the country to get home.... the dustiness of the dirt road that goes up the mountain has made my car so dirty that even I considered writing "WASH ME" on the back of it! And the drive-through bank teller has commented about it! I guess I could wash it, but it would only get dirty again driving home. Instead, I'll just pray for rain (to keep the dust down). Cuz mud is so much better. :)

On Labor Day, we labored. How typical. We cleaned and organized our shed(s). This isn't your normal 10x10 garden shed. Oh no! This is a behemoth of a shed! Like the *Goliath* of sheds! And we don't call it a barn because we already have one of those. This shed is a long low building that is a combination woodshop/gym/motorcycle storage/automotive shop and a million other miscellaneous things. It also used to be The Lil Bro's place to store trapping supplies and preserve animal skins, but he took over a small shed and it has become "The Trapping Shed." Come and be educated about the ways of the wilderness. :) The greatest part about cleaning the sheds was the mice. One particular time, there were four mice running around. The Lil Bro was shooting blowdarts at one, The Dog was playing with another, I was smashing another with a broom and The Mom was jumping up and down and screaming cause she stepped on one. Not much bothers her, but mice just freak her out!. Of course, this made The Lil Bro and I just double over in laughter!! Ah yes, mice are fun!

And now... *drumroll* the best news of the week!! On Wednesday morning at 4:54 am, I became an auntie again! I have a new lil baby niece!! She's wonderful and tiny and adorable, and I still haven't seen her with her eyes open. Maybe tonight! :) I'm totally ecstatic about her very beautiful name, but I won't post it on here because that would break my self-imposed blogging "code." Hehe. This will make stories about The (Original) Niece a little more difficult. I'm gonna have to think about new names for them! :)

Another amazing thing... on Wednesday night, after severe lack of sleep and physical sickness, I preached in the power of the Holy Spirit. I know without a doubt that the grace of God empowered me to do what I couldn't have done by myself! To God be the glory!!!