blog. that word reminds me of b-l-y-t-h-e. (hehe, rth)
anywho! hello blog followers! all 3 of you! its great to be back in blog-land.
so when i started this blog, i wasn't very educated about blogs. i have now been enlightened by julie hayslip (facebook her, she's a wonderful human being) and i will begin to actually add structure to my blog. imagine that, me & structure, a happily married couple! ha!
so, i will start to label blog postings with [likely] one of the following topic headings: Jesus, HandPrints, PAL Mission, Life!, Adoption and Missions. these are areas of my life that i'm most passionate about and i feel i can blog on at least one of these topics, once per week. (phew, that's quite a commitment seeing as my current frequency is quarterly, at best) indeed there are other things i'm passionate about, but the aforementioned topic headings seem to have developed as long-term passions in my life, as opposed to passion-trends that i pick up and put back down. my current passion-trend is encouraging 20 and 30 - something women. we'll see what God chooses to do with that. perhaps it will emerge as a long-term passion. all this talk about passion makes me want a grande sweetened iced passion tea from starbux...
some basic info about my NEW topic headings:
Jesus: here it is, i'm gonna go all CMA on ya [www.cmalliance.org]... He's my savior, sanctifier, healer and coming king. my cat is snoring beside me as i type. she's not exactly tactful. so back to Jesus... now my cat is licking her... ugh. told you she's not tactful. attention span of a gnat - back to the blog! though the "savior...etc." is my denomination's 'tag line' or whatever, at some point i had to examine each title given to Jesus and see what they mean to me. over time i have learned to begin to embrace these names given to Jesus in my own life. i should stop now because each title could be a future blog post in and of itself. i will mention that sanctification is one of my favorite christian concepts.
may i focus for a moment on two key phrases i just typed: over time and begin to. my relationship w Jesus is just that, a relationship. it has ups and downs, ebs and flows, good and bad times, communication issues, jealousy, anger, emotions, love, patience, grace and forgiveness. over time my relationship w Jesus has grown and developed. i don't think i can speak of my relationship w JC without bringing the word commitment to the forefront. the word is essential for any relationship that we actually give a hoot about - especially a relationship w Jesus, whom we can't see or text.
may i focus for a moment on two key phrases i just typed: over time and begin to. my relationship w Jesus is just that, a relationship. it has ups and downs, ebs and flows, good and bad times, communication issues, jealousy, anger, emotions, love, patience, grace and forgiveness. over time my relationship w Jesus has grown and developed. i don't think i can speak of my relationship w JC without bringing the word commitment to the forefront. the word is essential for any relationship that we actually give a hoot about - especially a relationship w Jesus, whom we can't see or text.
HandPrints: is a sign language choir made up of adults with various [dis]abilities. so my buddy roxanne and i started this group about 2.5 years ago and i'm not gonna lie, i straight up love them! i think i did an earlier post on them, so read that for more info. HandPrints also has a facebook page. be our friend!
PAL Mission: is my current place of employment, but oh, so much more than that. i quit my job at DD about 6 months ago to follow God's clear calling to work at PAL. http://www.palmission.org/ and PAL also has a fb page. right now, my job is to work with 18 - 25 year olds that are certifiably homeless, no permanent address or place to call 'home.' from where i'm sitting in my house i glance up and see the words "home sweet home" stenciled on my wall. this job is humbling, frustrating, hilarious, unpredictable and totally rad all at the same time! now that i've been there a few months, i feel like i've gotten my feet wet a little and i'm starting to see why God has me there. cliff hanger!
Life!: not the youth group event... this section will likely be filled with just random stuff i see, hear or do. for example, i l o v e the fact that i know my pets love me. perhaps if you don't have pets, you'll think i'm a bit coo coo... but i was outside raking leaves yesterday in the front yard, about 10 feet from my front door. i turned around to see my 2 pets, that don't get along, both sitting at the front door, staring out at me raking leaves. it was hilarious!
sorry about the reflection. its a little tough to see my cat because of the glare. they indeed are the cuter 2/3 of the yates family.
Adoption: i feel called to adopt a baby some day. please pray for me about this. lots of issues surrounding adoption. more info to come on this topic so near to my heart.
Missions: we are all called to be missionaries. perhaps not to uganda or russia. i think all he wants us to do is start by sharing your story. the story of life He's given you. if you can't come up with something to share, perhaps your story sucks and you need to spend a little more time with Jesus. Julie Hayslip is saying "hell ya!" right about now... anyways... so missions is apart of my every day life. you'll read much about how Jesus speaks into my life, and i'll let you specifically make the connection of how it relates to living a missional lifestyle. a brief but proud moment happened recently. my older brother, yes, i have an older brother, sent me a message that said his daughter, my niece, recently got a new bike, in addition to the one she already had. soon after my family learned of a family in need and my niece suggested they help the poor people like aunt sara does. she wanted to give away the new barbie bike.pass your faith on to the next generation.
i'll be back next week. and i'll be praying for you in the meantime!
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