Greetings brothers & sisters.

Greetings.

I'm a woman of many notes. Notes here...notes there...random notebooks everywhere! As I was paging through one of my notebooks this evening (to make my grocery list)..I stumbled upon notes I wrote from a sermon on Aug. 29th, 2010. It was one of our first Sundays at LCBC! Our series at the time was: "Jesus loves you, everyone else thinks you're a jerk." The message was entitled: Everyone hurts. I wrote down the main passage, which was James 1:2-4. I flipped open my trusty b-i-b-l-e, and I couldn't stop reading. I absolutely love the book of James! It all speaks so true to my life in every aspect. My task is to devour each section from here through the whole book of James. Join me on this learning journey...

James 1: (NCV)

How to Live as a Christian

¹ From James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ.

To all of God's people who are scattered everywhere in the world:

Greetings.

Faith and Wisdom

² My brothers and sisters, when you have many kinds of troubles, you should be full of joy, ³ because you know that these troubles test your faith, and this will give you patience.⁴ Let your patience show itself perfectly in what you do. Then you will be perfect and complete and will have everything you need. ⁵ But if any of you needs wisdom, you should ask God for it. He is generous to everyone and will give you wisdom without criticizing you. ⁶ But when you ask God, you must believe and not doubt. Anyone who doubts is like a wave in the sea, blown up and down by the wind.^7-8 Such doubters are thinking two different things at the same time, and they cannot decide about anything they do. They should not think they will receive anything from the Lord.

My take on James 1: 1-8...

First off..."Greetings" (such an underused word..i love it.) It is so hard to see joy in times of hardship, pain, anger, sadness, and all of the above. What is hard to understand in moments like these, are how we can/will grow. We have the potential to grow in so many ways and most importantly is our faith. Our patience goes hand in hand with our faith. side note: My Grandma always says, "When God was handing out patience, he (my Grandpa) was no where to be found." I'm pretty sure I've acquired that gene. It's hard to have patience in many aspects of our lives. Speaking for myself, I get so wrapped up in the now that I'd sometimes just rather do things myself without waiting or relying on God for direction/help. Then when that doesn't quite work out...I get a nonchalant tap on the shoulder from God. I realize I can't do life on my own. In this generation, we think its easier to just do things ourselves. So not true. When we need things such as advice, wisdom, direction we should lean to God first. My dear brothers and sisters, always be willing to listen and slow to speak. -James 1:19 He should be a priority not our second choice. He is there for us 24/7/365. He will not criticize like others in our lives I'm sure we all encountered. And when he leads you a direction, maybe you didn't think you could go...don't doubt. "The doubters should not think they will receive anything from the Lord." Embrace it, for it was from the Lord.

I've learned...We all will encounter difficulties. The true question is..how will we/I handle them? Remember, when we are faced with difficulties, we can only learn and grow from them. Put your trust in God first... not in yourself. Do not doubt where He takes you, because only He knows the true will for our lives.

have a lovely day!

☮& Love,

Shea

Busy bee's!

Hello strangers.

April & May were super busy months in this neck of the woods, so I definitely slacked in the blogging dept.

Quick recap: I threw Adam his first ever birthday party in May. It was a surprise at that, and boy was it hard to keep it that way! :) It was interesting getting him there, considering I got lost, and he was blindfolded about to get sick around every turn..but we made it. HE WAS SURPRISED. whew! Most of his friends & family came and made it fantastic!

Last Friday we went to dinner with the tennis coaches and their husbands to..Fogo De Chao. It is an all you can eat Brazilian Meat House. lol, we had a great time!

I'm in the process of teaching Adam to play tennis, too! He is rather frustrated..and says he hates tennis, but he's still out there practicing and only getting better. I'm excited for him, and he is improving daily which is awesome. Tennis starts in less than 3 months, I can hardly believe it!

This past Saturday was one of my good friends, Dani & her fiance, Pete's, wedding! Everything was beautiful! It was a pleasure to be there to celebrate with them. God will bless their lives in so many ways! And again, Adam and I worked it on the dance floor. ;)

Today:

I stared a two week detox. No dairy, no wheat, no peanuts, no corn, no grapes..etc. I'm been drinking water like its going out of style which has resulted in a full bladder (constantly). But thats good, right!? Also, I did my FIRST cross-fit workout. It was exciting! I had to jump rope for half the workout, and I thought it would be a piece of cake. I was mistaken. Jump-rope was sooo easy when I was a kid...things change. But, I'm really looking forward to getting in better shape, having better health, and just feeling great about myself. Here's to day #1 almost down. Wish me luck! :)

Birthday weekend recap!

Hey All.

So yesterday I turned 23......believe it! :) My boyfriend told me to make no plans for the whole weekend, so I was anxious what was in store. Saturday: our two good friends Laura & Bob joined us as we ventured down to Maryland. We walked through Fells Point, doing some window shopping and browsing some local stores. It was rather windy but worth it! Then we hopped in the car and headed to Canton! I love this little town, except for Saturday. It just so happened to be their "St. Pattys/Mardi Gras pub crawl day". Needless to say it was busy and one of my favorite restaurants ever...NACHO MAMAS where we had planned to eat dinner was booked solid. It was a little crazy, and a super long wait. So yet again, we hopped in the car and headed back to Fells. We decided on going to One Eyed Mikes for dinner. It was much less crazy, and we had a great time & goood food! After dinner, and being practically stuffed to the gills..we decided, "Why not get desert?" So we headed to the cheesecake factory in towson. The crowds seemed to be following us everywhere we were. But, I guess it was because it was a saturday night! Whew. We got home finally, and decided to part ways with our friends. We arrived back to Adam's homestead

Sunday FUNDAY Birthday:

Adam surprised me with a "90 minute hot stone massage" down in Timonium, MD! It was needless to say...AMAZING. After that, he took me to a place where you paint your own pottery. I was pretty out of it from the massage session, so we opted not to paint anything. But, we are definitely going back! :) We decided to get some lunch..so we stopped at Cornerstables in MD. They are famous for their ribs, which we couldn't figure out why...they weren't anything to rave about. After lunch we headed back to Adam's house to where we lounged around and watched a movie...and ate leftover cheesecake. It was a great day, BUT it wasn't over. That night, we ordered some pizzas, and he came back home with balloons, a sweet..yet hilarious card, uno, & JENGA! We had a blast, and it was overall one of the best birthday weekends to date! I'm a pretty lucky gal! :)

Pray like Jesus

Happy Thursday! :)

So last night, I joined Weight Watchers! Interesting, huh? I'm so stoked to get on the right track to being healthy! Also, I feel as if I will have a better overall mindset and outlook on life! It is quite a process to get everything in order, but I'm so excited to start following the WW plan!

Day 2..of grabbing the reins! :) This morning, I read an article on how to pray like Jesus. Check it out--> http://www.theresurgence.com/2009/11/03/pray-like-jesus I love to learn more and more about Jesus! Sometimes in this world we can feel insignificant. But EVERY SINGLE ONE OF US IS IMPORTANT. We can't forget that. I know some things in my life lately have made me feel like I'm not worth it or important. And taking a step back from the situation I can grasp: that is rubbish! Do not let someone make you feel like you don't matter...because you absolutely do! In moments where I feel that way...its the perfect opportunity to cry to God & to lean on Him. This is one of the main reasons He created us. He longs for a loving, honest, fatherly relationship with us. And I know in my heart I long for Him as well. God is always listening. He hears our prayers, just as he heard Jesus. Whether your problem is big or small, he is there to listen to it all. And He loves us more than we could ever imagine! How amazing. :)

"Casting the whole of your care [all your anxieties, all your worries, all your concerns, once and for all] on Him, for He cares for you affectionately and cares about you watchfully." 1 Peter 5:7

well hey there, strangers!

Why hello there!

It's been over a year since my last post. I want to get into writing on here more often. I definitely think blogging is a great way to communicate to yourself and to others around you. Here goes nothing... Life's been a little hectic lately to say the least. I've definitely pushed some things to the back burner....nonchalantly. God just so happened to be one of them. I always seem to busy or caught up in my day to day tasks. As a result, I have been neglecting God, and my relationship with Him. I often wonder why things seem to be going wrong more than they go right. I've come to the conclusion its because God isn't my main priority. So from here on out, I'm devoting my life to Him. Life isn't easy, thats a fact. I'm just thankful that I have a savior who I know will be there for me...through the good times and bad. I just pray that I can open my heart up to God, and be honest with myself. It is going to take commitment on my part, but I'm ready to take the reins back and devote it ALL to Him. I hope this is motivation, so maybe you can devote more of an effort and time as well..."Let go and let God!" :)