It Only Happens Once A Year

and no it's not Christmas. It's me posting pictures on Flicker. I just posted one today and that was my first one in over a year. Isn't that sad? Well, maybe not. I'm not the photographer in the family. I really like it though so check it out and tell me what you think.

We're Moving Again

It's been awhile since I've posted, but it's not because I've had nothing to post. I guess I just haven't been in the mood. Well, I'm in the mood (No, not that kind of mood, get your minds out of the gutter ;). No seriously, lots has been going on. We have been in the process of looking for a new apartment for awhile now as it has become obvious to us that the apartment we are in now doesn't work for us. We were blessed to have it for as long as we did, it was a sublet, and the guy we subletted from was only charging us half rent, but at the end of August the rent would go back to full price, so we decided to look for something else. We did basically all our looking in one day, looking at 8 apartments, and we found an apartment we really liked. It's in an older building, but the inside was completely rebuilt only 2 years ago, so the apartment is new, which is nice. Usually we go for the old apartments wth character, but the newness of this apartment is a large part of what drew us to it. I will post pictures once we move in, which is this weekend! Officially the move in date is September 1st, but the apartment is unoccupied right now so the guy said we could move in, (or our stuff at least), beginning this weekend which is great. We're really excited about the move for several reasons: We'll be closer to the church, so less commute, the living room is larger so we can entertain more people and fit the youth better on youth nights, it has an actual specified dinning area, so we can actually use our dinning table and have real dinner parties, it has more and bigger closets, and best of all, it has a dishwasher! Yay! We were really hoping to find a place that had a washer and dryer too, but that really ups the price so we decided we could live without that. What is also great about the apartment is that it is only $50 more a month then the price we would pay if we stayed where we presently are, and we like it sooooooooo much better. So that's a huge thing that's been going on.

But that's not all folks (Say in cheesy game show host voice). I preached this past weekend at church. I was nervous for several reasons: preaching itself is a bit nerve wracking because it is such a huge responsability, plus I was leading worship as well, (as usual), and I didn't want it to be Sarah overload. But the Lord was faithful and everything went really well. I even had people tell me that the message was just what they needed to hear, which is so encouraging.

I guess those are the big highlights. Packing begins again. Hopefully that goes smoothly. Well, it's late and I am going to bed. More things are swirling around in my head now that I could say but it's too late. I'm off. Maybe next time.

A Nice Break

We were going to go away this weekend to visit our dear, dear friends Michael and Rebeckah in Portland. Unfortunately it didn't work out for us to go (I've cried my tears, I'm over it now). Because I had already arranged for someone else from the church to lead worship I didn't change it. I didn't even put myself on as a singer. As a result I was able to be on the other side of the worship for a change and just take in the music rather than having to be aware of what was going on, how everything was going, what was coming next, etc. I have been feeling recently that I needed and wanted a time where I could just be in the body worshipping rather than leading the body in worship. I know I am still worshipping when I do that, but somehow it is different. So, I am glad I got that oppurtunity today.

Dad's message today really spoke to me as well. He talked about reaping what you sow. He really challanged me to rexamine my thoughts and actions, because as he noted, "Sow a thought, reap an action; sow an action reap a habit; sow a habit reap a character; sow a character reap a destiny". Who do I want to be? Do my thoughts and actions line up with that? Say I want to be a woman of God, (which I do), I can't expect to be that way if I am not sowing Godly things. Sowing in the Spirit as opposed to sowing in the Sinful Nature as he put it. It convicted me because I haven't been spending the time with the Lord that I need to recently, and I can't expect to grow to be more like him if I spend no time with him.

The message also challenged me on a not spiritual but still important level as well. It's back to being the kind of person I want to be. I know how I ideally want to be in my life, (active, oraganized, engaging my mind, and the list goes on), but right now I am not doing the things that would make me that way. Instead, I'm inactive, disoraganized, (although I am getting better with that), a mindless television watcher, and the list goes on. I guess what I'm trying to say is that from now on I want to be intentional in my thoughts and actions so that I will have good habits and a godly character here on earth before I reach my heavenly destiny.

Those are my thoughts for now.