{WITH A} grain.of.salt

in the break room while warming up my lunch today, a coworker (who says his dad is a Apo preacher) mentioned to me that an anonymous person was talking to him about how they saw me in our gym on a treadmill in a skirt and that they had never seen that before.

he in turn explained scripture and biblical modesty and the "extreme" idea of keeping your body for your husband's viewing only. so this other guy was wowed and said that it makes him wanna marry someone like that. awwww!

i love my skirts..... you should too. *wink*

fun times! i mentioned before that i was going to have friends over on dec. 24th.... and i did! what fun it was! my weird, harebrained idea for the party? pizza party!! i get tired of the standard party routine so i wanted to change it up a bit.

the breakfast club: jared, lyda, jen, troy, janelle, michelle, toby da dog

yay!! ok, so on jan. 1st & 2nd, i went to winter heritage youth conference in fort worth.... great conference! conference experiences are always kinda overwhelming for me but it's always fun to go. i took very few pics... like, 4! and i'm posting 3!

@ the lock in: elissa, janelle, jen, (and my dear outta-town buddies) roshonda and jenni... i miss yousss!!!

back @ the radisson... some guys performed "the retard show" (their words, not mine, lol!)

hmm, that hotel was very tolerant.... and they're very talented....before they collapsed

ok, one more batch of pics, i promise.... then i'll shut up and leave you alone. last weekend was a singing pastor extravanganza! pastor pixler of fort worth and my pastor's (pastor pace of dallas) group were both invited to sing at a church. concert was greatness..... very encouraging. the spirit of God was moving and there was an altar call.... it was all good.





if elissa and i are at the guys' concert, then we run their merchandise table. well, i got to run bro. pixler's table and at the end of the night, he thanks me, asks me if i have any of his albums (i have 1), and grabs 3 cd's and hands them to me! i've always loved loved his song "trusting in him" and it so aptly applies to my life right now! 2nd verse says:

I know the wisdom of God,
He can see tomorrow,
And he knows every turn
And curve in the road that I follow,
He knows what it takes
To help me make it through
And He’ll give me what I need
I’ve gotta keep trusting in Him
To take me where He wants me to be

yeah, that song has been on repeat in my car to say the least. oh! and bro. marty ballestero has been preaching at the pixler's so he came along to the concert. hilarious! he kept us in stitches before and after the concert! so yeah, it was very awesome to be under the same roof with three of my favorito preachers!

*really long vent/rambling session ahead*
i don’t make new year’s resolutions for the same reason that i don’t go on diets: i tend to start at the beginning with good intentions and then gradually become lazier and lazier about it all without fail.

so, maybe i’m calling this whole thing a “non-resolution” for some sort of delusional, reverse psychology. if that’s the reason, then so be it.

here’s the deal…. i’ve become sick of me. so tired of living for me. no, this isn’t some sort of new phenomenon but i can honestly say that i have never been this sick of me before. if you know me well, you’d know that i am a planner to the core. a friend needs to know what is the exact date for an event 6 months down the road? just text jen! she’ll have it in her ever present calendar! i’m also a chart person, a spreadsheet person, a list person, etc. plans, plans, plans.

so what’s a planner to do when her own plans don’t always pan out?

i’ve always wished life were like the first day of a college course, meaning that it came with a syllabus…. “ok, be ready on november 22^nd since there’ll be a huge test on that day. also, on august 16^th, you’ll get some bad news that’ll hit you hard. really hard.” God’s probably saying, “aww, that’s no fun! you need to just trust Me.” how ironic that proverbs 3:5,6 is my favorite scripture.

who are you living for? what is your whole reason for being here?

so this year, i’m giving up. focusing on my ambitions has not gotten me anywhere so that’s out of the question. living by the seat of my pants [ er.… i mean, skirt :) ] and floating aimlessly through life won’t cut it either. i want a “purpose driven life”, if you will. and i don’t think i need to read the book to get this. through the preaching of my pastor and from others, i see a great need to become more useful for the kingdom of God. would i have won “outreach queen of the year”, if there were such a prize? ummmm, no. i’ve gotten better but i am certainly not the witness that i should be by now.

lyrics from brandon heath’s “give me your eyes”…. the whole cd is awesome