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Wednesday, February 1, 2012

Pasta

The weekend of MLK, I had the privilege of going to the Smoky Mountain Bible Conference with my dear friends Mike and Katherine Motta and the sweet youth group at Shawmut FBC.  It was a great weekend of catching up with old friends* (Mike and Katherine) and making lots of new ones (everyone else).  All of the students just acted like I was their long lost buddy (or maybe it had something to do with ~12 hours on a 15-passenger van).  The weekend was filled with lots of fun memories -- such as waking up in the middle of the night screaming (still have no idea why), watching one of the girls ride a mechanical bull, Mike, Katherine, and I being told to go to bed because we were out past curfew (by a chaperone from another church), I could go on and on.  And lots of sweet ones too -- watching Christ work in the lives of the students and watching Mike lead.

I had to steal this picture from Katherine, but I have it printed out and taped on my wall as a constant reminder to pray for this wonderful group.


Okay now rewind to the night before we left.  Another sweet friend, Haley, and I were invited to the Motta's apartment for dinner.  Now, this was no ordinary dinner... this was homemade pasta as only a Motta can make.  I had these wonderful visions of carefully documenting the process, but since Mike insisted I get my hands dirty, I had to put down the camera after a short bit (because my hands were dirty -- tough logic, eh?).




the finished product... yummy
And just as a warning- the homemade noodles expand in your stomach... so don't eat too too much... cause you would definitely want to.


*  Mike and Katherine aren't old, I have just known them a long time.

Sunday, January 29, 2012

On Memorizing Scripture.

How can a young man keep his way pure?
By guarding it according to Your Word.
With my whole heart I seek You;
let me not wander from Your commandments!
I have stored up Your Word in my heart,
that I might not sin against You.
Psalm 11:9-11

All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work.
2 Timothy 3:16-17

If you don't already memorize Scripture, the verses above should reinforce the importance of this area in faith. I think that people often get too caught up in everyday life to take the time to reflect on and memorize the Word of God. I know that I am often guilty of this very problem and this issue has been on my heart for a while. We should not forget the memory verses we have learned, nor should we stop learning new passages. Can you imagine how happy God is when His children recite His words back to Him? 

I know that there are a lot of different methods to memorize Scripture…I have heard of people who write down the verses over and over, put memory verses on the mirror, have accountability partners to make sure each of them is memorizing…the list goes on and on. I am just going to share what works best for me, which is what I learned through my church in Auburn.

Obviously the first thing is to find a verse that I want to memorize. This is usually pretty easy. 
I write down the passage in my journal and on a notecard.

Then I write down the first letter of every word on the inside of my wrist. (This may sound weird, but it really helps when you forget the next word and need a hint. This is also is a great conversation starter and reminder to constantly be focused on Jesus throughout the day).
Remember the notecard? I then take that notecard and place it in the front of my box.

Here's how the box is organized:
The last four verses I've memorized go in the front. I review these four every day. After I know the verse completely and need to add another one to the front, I move the notecard that's been in the front the longest to one of the sections that are divided by days of the week.

The rotation goes on as I continue to memorize new verses and eventually I will add sections for days of the month and move the notecards from the days of the week to these sections where I will review them once a month.
Make sense?
Mmkay good.
I probably explained that way more complicated than it actually is. Like I said, I learned this last year and it has worked great for me and I encourage people to try it. You won't regret having God's Word treasured in your heart!

Thursday, January 26, 2012

Life lately.

1. Eating at my new favorite restaurant in Auburn. See Kelsey's post to learn more about this awesome place. Don't worry, Cracker Barrel, you'll always have a special place in my heart.
2. Wearing my new rain boots due to the repeated torrential downpours.
3. Driving to Birmingham on a school day to reach a verdict on when I will have to lose my wisdom (teeth).
4. Studying the Word of God with coffee in the mornings. Can life get any better?

Monday, January 23, 2012

SEEK


"The LORD is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him."
Lamentations 3:25

Wednesday, January 18, 2012

DIY photostrips

After reading this post on creating DIY photostrips out of instagram pictures, I decided to make my own. I used regular pictures along with the instagram ones. Instead of using Photoshop, I just used a Word document and scaled all the pictures to be 1.8" by 1.8" Then I made a folder to format my photo strips and just dragged them to the page!
 I saved myself some time by just printing the pictures from my own printer on glossy photo paper and cut them out. The edges may not be perfect, but it only took about 15 minutes total and I'm pretty happy with how they turned out!

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Pursuing God

If you haven't read The Pursuit of God by A.W. Tozer, I strongly recommend it. I read it over the break and will probably be reading it again soon. Tozer includes beautiful prayers at the end of every chapter and I thought I would share one of them that has been especially inspiring to me…
Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you.
James 4:8

Wednesday, January 11, 2012

"I Won't Give Up"

I'll make this short to balance out my last post.

Jason Mraz's new single.  "I Won't Give Up."  It's awesome.