Dr. Mark the Vet

My brother-in-law Mark FINALLY graduated from vet school a couple weeks ago.  

After graduating he packed up his wife and kids and moved to Seymour,Wisconsin where he got his frist job.  Mark is very happy to live in Seymour the home of the hamburger. =)

Matt and I were unable to attent Marks graduation ceremony, but thankfully my mom took a video of Mark walking out of his graduation.  Good video skills mom! ;)

Congrats to you Mark, and also to you Ash for surviving while Mark was in school these past 3 years!!!

Thankful For My Moms

I know it is a good week past mother's day, but it is never too late to be thankful for the moms in my life.  I forget who I was talking to (it might of even been Matt) about how too often I pick apart my moms.  It is so easy for me to see the things in their mothering that I would love not to mimic instead of focusing on their strengths and qualities I would love to share with my children someday.  I realize that I need to be more of a validating daughter that encourages my moms in their role as a mom.

Mom Hoerr:  Thanks for loving me even during the times growing up that I wasn't a respectful daughter.  You have a gift of being a strong woman that is ready to help others when they are struggling.  I hope that this is a trait that I can grow in thanks to your example.  I'm thankful for the friendship God has given us!

Mom Kaeb:  Thank you for welcoming me into your family with open arms.  You have been a huge source in helping me adjust to Sabetha.  You have a gift as a mom of being self sacrificing and showing me what it is for a mom to put her children's needs before her own.  I'm thankful for the friendship God has given us! 

To all you moms that feel you don't own up to the worlds standards of being a mom please read this article.  It was an encouragement to me, and I'm not even a mom yet!  

Competitive Mothering

On a side note now:  We spent mother's day afternoon with Dan and Tami and kids at Indian Caves in Nebraska.  

Here we are enjoying the view.  Even though I wrote this post to say thanks to my moms I can't finish it without thanking God for my husband.  He is a rock in my life.

Alex the Graduate

Crazy to know that my younger sister Alex has graduated!  It seems like only yesterday this was us...........

Sometimes I really miss moments like this picture portrays.  Carefree, creative playtime together where our biggest problem was figuring out who was going to be the "big chief" and wear the hat or figuring out if the clover looking stuff we found was edible for little indians like ourselves.

It almost seemed surreal to watch Alex graduate from college with a bachelors in psychology and look so grown up and professional.  Whose knows which direction God will take her next, but I know that whatever/wherever it is He has got some great plans to use her heart for Himself.

Here is our weekend in pictures......

Vienna, catching a nap on the way to the graduation ceremony.

Reuben entertained us on the ride over.

Part of the group there to support Alex.

Enjoying Vienna and Reuben to the fullest!

Kourtney and Derek. Kourtney is one of my good friends from Quincy and probably Alex's best friend.  It was so fun to spend a little time with her while home. 

Matt looks good with a baby. ;)

Alex sporting her beautiful flowers from dad and mom.  

Lemon cake made by Ash

The girls of the family.  Love moments like this when we can all be together.

After the party.......this picture really cracks me up.  A big bunch of nappers!

Snuggling Vienna up!

Reuben + hair-clips = cuteness

While we were home we helped do some remodeling in the apartment my mom and sisters are moving into.

Before church the next day dad made Al get in her robe again for some pictures.

While he was at it I got him to snap one of Matt and me!

Alex, we are so proud of the hard work you put into school and so proud of your growth in Christ over the past few years.  We admire you! =)

Philippines

Manila, Philippines  

Matt and I had the opportunity to go on a short-term mission trip with our church to the Philippines.  We left on April 23rd and got home on the 28th.  We have been home for about 2 weeks now, and I'm still digesting the whole trip and the way God has moved our hearts through it.  I'm thankful for the team that we went with.  It always amazes me how a group of people that were acquaintances can grow such deep relationships through just spending a week together.  Definitely has something to do with the bond of Christ.

Matt and I have been on various mission trips, but both agree that this was the most relationship focused trip we have ever been on.  In our past experiences the main focus was usually different tasks that we tried to complete or make a dent in.  Not to say that those trips never emphasized building relationships with the people, but it never really seemed the main purpose of the trip.  This trip was very different in that aspect.  The purpose was to build relationships with the people, encourage them, and share God's Gospel with them, and as we did that work along side them in whatever they were doing.

Matt mainly spent time with a number of Philippine guys working on a farm that Northridge church bought the First Love church there in Tanza (suburb of Manila).  God really taught Matt through the time he spent with the Philippine guys the power of the Gospel.  Most of the guys he spent time with did not understand the Gospel and have a relationship with Christ.  He was really challenged through the trip to reach out and share God and His amazing plan for our lives.

Myself and the other girls saw the Gospel at work while we were there but in a different way.  Most of the women we interacted with were Christians, so we spent time listening to their struggles and stories and trying to encourage them, even though I'm pretty sure I left more encouraged then they did.  They were beautiful examples to me of serving/loving God in hard, unfathomable circumstances, and even though they didn't have much they were so giving.

Seeing them praise and worship on Sunday was probably a highlight for both of us.  Here is a little snippet of what we experienced.

Some of my favorite pictures from the trip. 

Jason and Matt had a little book club going on.  Matt was ahead of Jason by a chapter or so and decided to wait for him to catch-up so they could discuss it.  Pretty cute. =)

Meeting some of the people of the church.  They make even me look tall.  Jason=giant!

First Love Church

Jay and I with some of our special friends we made.

Matt with some of his worker buddies.

Matt, Charlie, and Steve got invited one afternoon to a birthday party. 

Jason in front of a Jeepney.  Their form of a taxi.

Here is a slideshow of the rest of our pictures:

Loving God Purely

This Momentary Marriage-The Story of Ian & Larissa

(Shared from the Desiring God Blog. To read the full blog post please visit this link: http://www.desiringgod.org/blog/posts/the-story-of-ian-larissa.) 

   

Here is an excerpt from the blog article that really cut right to my heart.

"Being satisfied in God (or anything) always seems easier when all is going well. But when things you love are being stripped out of your hands, then the test is real. If God remains precious in those moments, then his supreme worth shines more brightly. He is most glorified."

God has really been showing me how adulterous my heart is towards Him.  Reading this article and watching this video really made me ask the question to my heart, "How precious is God to me?  Is He precious to me because of what He does for me and what He gives me, or is He precious for who He is?"

Matt and I are reading a book titled The Explicit Gospel by Matt Chandler.  I am going to share a portion of the book that God has used to also cause me to examine my heart in my love for God.
  

        "We are a worshiping people.  Worship is an innate desire, an instinct and impulse wired into us by God Himself.  This is a gift from God.  But what happens when instead of using the gift of worship from God for God, we terminate our worship on the stuff God made?  What happens when we attempt to hijack God's story about Himself and rewrite it with ourselves at the center?

        This is insurrection.  It is infernal mutiny.  What happens when we argue with God about how God should govern, even daring to threaten that if He doesn't govern the way we want Him to, we won't believe in Him, won't follow Him, and will become His enemy?

        The Scriptures always paint the universe as a kind of interactive, living thing.  For instance, the book of Isaiah says the mountains and hills sing and the trees clap (55:12).  Luke 19:40 talks about stones crying out when we don't.  All creation groans (Rom. 8:22).  The Bible depicts creation as a sort of cosmic concert of interactive worship.  In Jeremiah 2, for example, we see that the creation responds in different ways to us in relation to how we relate to God.  When God's people embrace idolatry and "changed their glory for that which does not profit," the Lord commanded: "Be appalled, O heavens, at this; be shocked, be utterly desolate" (Jer. 2:11-12).

        Why?  The universe shudders in horror that we have this infinitely valuable, infinitely deep, infinitely rich, infinitely wise, infinitely loving God, and instead of pursuing Him with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength; instead of attributing to Him glory and honor and praise and power and wisdom and strength--we just try to take His toys and run.  It is still idolatry to want God for His benefits but not for Himself.  Why would the universe shudder in horror at this idea?  (In the original language, Hebrew, the essential idea is that they're literally terrified that God might snap and rip the universe to shreds.)  It shudders because the universe is the theater of God's glory and the Scriptures portray this theater as having the instinct itself that it is there to showcase worship.  When we, who have been placed as stewards over God's creation, go rogue and worship not the Creator but the creation, the theater is shaken by this blasphemous treason."

As I look at my life and see the biggest blessings that God has given me--salvation, my husband Matt, family, house, good job, abundance of money, the ability to go to the grocery store and buy whatever ingredients I want, resources to travel, and on and on and on......I really question my response to God if He had never given me any of those things.  How precious would He be to me then?  If He had not in His grace given me salvation would He be a mean God that doesn't deserve praise?  Absolutely not.  I do think that blessings God gives me can grow me in thankfulness and love towards Him, but more often then not I do base my love for God because of the things He does for me.  If He chose to take all those things away I'm scared to know where my love for Him would be.  I honestly think most of it would have gone away with all the "stuff".  

In Psalm 78:58-59 Asaph is talking about the Israelites when He writes, "For they provoked Him to anger with their high places; they moved Him to jealousy with their idols.  When God heard, He was full of wrath and He utterly rejected Israel."

I don't want that to be my life story, and I know because of God's grace and my salvation that it won't be. However, I am as a follower of Christ to grow in Christ-likeness which means learning to love God for who He is and not for the things He has given me.

T4G

I (Matt) was extremely blessed to be able to attend the Together for the Gospel (T4G) Conference in Louisville, KY with 7 other men from church.  It was an incredible experience and God taught me many things from the conference, but most importantly, as the theme of the conference went, I learned how often I "underestimate" the gospel of Jesus Christ.  In some areas it is how I live my life, where I don't fully surrender God's money and talents back to Him due to my "underestimating" the power of the gospel in my giving and serving.  Maybe it is the co-worker/friend who I am afraid to share the gospel with due to the fact that I have to see them every day and don't want to annoy them or make them uncomfortable (do I really even love them?).  Maybe it is in my prayer life, where I have given up praying for unbelieving friends due to "underestimating" the power of the best news ever known to man! Irregardless of which part of my life I am reflecting on, God showed me my immense lack of belief at times in the power of the cross throughout the week at T4G. I also had an amazing time getting to know men from church who sharpened and challenged me to a deeper walk with Christ, a greater love for Kait, and a greater desire to grow in Holiness.   

Chris Guyer and I with CJ Mahaney.  One of the speakers at the conference. 

One of my favorite parts of the conference was singing hymns of praise under the leading of Bob Kauflin (Sovereign Grace Music).  How sweet to hear 7000 men (with a few women sprinkled in) praising Jesus for the work that He has done for us, but most importantly, for the Glory of the Father!

To watch one or all of main sessions from the conference feel free to click on the following link: http://t4g.org/resources/video/

Of course, they were all spectacular, but my top 3 in order were:

1) David Platt

2) Kevin DeYoung

3) Ligon Duncan

A huge to thanks to my wonderful wife (Kait), Northridge Church, and to my employer (KSi) for this opportunity to spend three days under wonderful, spirit-powered teaching!