In my life I have been forced to ask the question.

"God what do you do when you have given me everything I have asked for?"

As a young girl growing up I just wanted a happy family. A wonderful hubby that would love me take care of me. I wanted to be a mom and stay at home with my babies. I wanted parents that served the Lord with a passionate heart. I look over each Sunday morning and cry each time as I see them hands raised praising Jesus. As I got older I developed a passion to preach the Gospel of Jesus. My husband and I took over a youth group of literally on a good night 2 kids and now in that youth group we have 100+. I live in a wonderful home. All my needs are met. So what do you do when God gives you everything?

This is such a good picture to show where I am standing right now in my life...

Looking out at vast amounts of uncharted waters not knowing what is to come yet at the same time knowing that the possibilities are just like the sky is endless...It is time to take the next step...Steps that will lead to new places and new things.

God is always calling us deeper. Always wanting to stretch us into new uncharted areas of our faith.

Luke 5:4-6

When He had stopped speaking, He said to Simon, “Launch out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.” But Simon answered and said to Him, “Master, we have toiled all night and caught nothing; nevertheless at Your word I will let down the net.” And when they had done this, they caught a great number of fish, and their net was breaking.

Simon here had to make a decision to be happy with what he had or to go out to the place where Jesus was taking him.

Jesus is always calling us to go out to deeper waters. He desires us to ask and believe for things that are bigger than we are. Jesus wants nothing more then for you to step out into a place where when He moves you will know it was Him, because you were so over your head there is no way you could take credit.

Notice here Jesus said that they would get "a catch". Then when you read on they caught a great number of fish and their net was breaking. Jesus had promised them they would catch some. As Bryan says Jesus' "some" is more than you can handle!!

So here I am. Standing looking over vast opportunities. Not knowing what may be out there. I know God is about big things and that He who began a good work in me will be faithful to complete it...

So I leave with this as where to go from here:

Luke 1:38

Then Mary said, “Behold the maidservant of the Lord! Let it be to me according to your word.”

Summer how I have missed you!

It has been a summer full of days spent at the swimming pool till our cheeks turn red. Lots of splashing and laughing. Mornings spent in pj's till 11 o'clock. Having brownies every now and then for breakfast.

A trip to Sea World that the kids loved. Feeding dolphins, watching seals, & amazed at killer whales. It was a fun trip all the way around. One week of no work just loving on the greatest accomplishments we have had in our life.....Our sweet babies.
(our son hates pictures thus the sad face in the above picture)

(this one I did a sneak attack for a picture so I got a smile)
Movies that makes us all laugh and giggle. Especially the way we looked with those glasses on!

Funny how you forget how much you love summer until it comes and then you remember how wonderful it is to have fun with your babies and not have to try and balance school, ministry and home life. June is coming to a close soon and July will be full of conferences and youth camp. July life will quickly go from slow and peaceful back to busy and a different kind of wonderful. For right now I am thinking of how wonderful it is not to have something going on everyday. How great it is to just have time to breath. Most of all how thankful I am for the two babies we have in our life....

Barbie Dreamhouse

Every girl no matter what age you are can say that at some point you dreamed of having a Barbie dream house. A wonderful home that Barbie can have everything she needs.

I always wanted one as a child. My parents unfortunately didn't have the money to buy such an expensive item for my birthday. My grandpa built a wooden shelves that held dolls with different small compartments. I would stack books and other random objects to make these wood shelves a "home" for my Barbie.

My daughter just turned 5 and has decided that she LOVES all things Barbie which is the best news under the sun for me. I am so excited to play dolls with her. Something that is so coming of age to dress and primp your Barbies just says you are no longer little but that you are more mature (this coming from a 26yr old mom that is giddy over her daughter liking Barbie so much). One thing that Brailey Kay wanted for her birthday was a Barbie dream house.

We were able to get it for her thanks to her amazing grandparents that jumped on the opportunity of having the hands down hit gift of the party.

As we assembled it I began to think of the hours spent playing with those wooden shelves when I was younger. I began to remember how I would wish I had a Barbie dream house.... There I am 26yrs. old sitting on the living room floor.

I began to think of all that God has done in my life in the last 10 years. Barbie's dream house comes with all things wonderful....

Beautiful furniture, chandeliers, bubble bath, fully stocked kitchen, bedding, and a cute closet. I remember thinking as a child if I had a place of my own stocked with all those beautiful things how it would make life great.

Barbie's Dream house is just an empty shell. The beauty is all in there. It is waiting for the dolls that it was created for to come and play inside.

Made me think of life. I have everything I have always wanted. Not because I live in a nice home with nice cars and a great closet full of wonderful clothes (and shoes). But the wonderful thing about my home is the people in it. My amazing husband and beautiful children. They are what makes my home into a dream home. It's the laughs we share, the cuddle time spent on a Saturday morning, dinners with family that we love around the dinning room table, and the hallway filled with the sound of running feet in a game of chase....That is what makes my home a dream home.

I looked around and thought about the wooden shelves and how many amazing memories I have of playing with my dolls in those old shelves. Sure I always wanted the fancy home, but the memories made with my brother and sister weren't based on what that home looked like. It was based off of the laughter and the love we shared as we played. It was still fun even though it wasn't the marketed DREAM HOME by Barbie. It was our dream home and we loved it. I wish I still had those shelves....

Do you see your life as your dream home? Or do you see it just as wooden shelves?

Maybe the dream home you have been asking for is what you already have...you just are looking at it in the wrong light.

Then life happens.....

How much of our life do we spend trying to make things happen? I think that most of our life we try to chase down opportunities and open doors. We try to make a connection with someone who will help us out.... We try to impress people and make them like us when they could care less about who and what we are. Yet we spend all our time and resources trying to prove our self to them.... We spend countless hours trying to think of how there is some way to make something happen.... Why do we spend our life trying to make life happen?

I was reading the Bible the other day (good idea huh? Ha!) in the book of Ruth. In Ruth Chapter 2 verse 3 it is says this:

Then she left, and went and gleaned in the field after the reapers. And she happened to come to the part of the field belonging to Boaz, who was of the family of Elimelech.

So here in the story Ruth and Naomi are at the end of there rope they have no money resources and what is even more sad no hope from all that has gone on in their life. So Ruth sets out just to try and get enough to survive from what falls from the people reaping in the fields....when she happens on the field of Boaz. Her whole life changed from this happening.

You see all the time you spend in trying to make things happen will never come up with anything then one day God will line things up to happen and all of a sudden everything you want and dream about all begins to fall into line. So much time we waste in life worrying about what is going to happen to get us to our destiny when the God things in life happen.

Job put it best at the end of his life in Chapter 42:2

I know that You can do all things, and that no thought or purpose of Yours can be restrained or thwarted.

God's plans in your life will be brought to pass. You don't have to make them happen. Your job is to just be faithful, and keep growing in the things of God. Luke 16:10 says if you are faithful in little you will be faithful in much. God is looking at what you are doing in your small situation to determine what BIG things are to come.

Ruth was faithful. She was dedicated to Naomi when she could have walked away. She kept on doing what she knew to do. That is why things begin to happen in her life.

What are you doing where you are?

Are you being faithful?

If the answer is yes....I have to tell you something.....Life is about to happen for you!