Loving God, Loving each other, and Loving the world

A couple weeks ago, we started a new series where I go to church about our mission statement as a congregation. It's been an amazing study so far. We're talking about "Loving God (through Worship), loving each other (through small groups and spending time getting to know brothers and sisters at our congregation at a deeper level better), and loving the world (through mission and benevolence). Last week, we talked about making worship a priority. It was a great lesson, and I learned a lot. I was raised in the church, and going to worship was always a priority for me, so I understood a lot of what our minister was saying. This week we talked about praise. It was another great lesson. We sang some songs that we'd been learning the week before and it really helped put my mind (at least) where it needed to be. It helped remind me that I should always have an attitude of praise. As we talk about more subjects, I'll talk about them more in the blog and share what I learned.

For every season- turn, turn, turn

There is a series of movies that I absolutely love called the "Love Comes Softly" series. It's based on the books by Jannette Oke (I think that's the correct spelling). I'm in the middle of watching the first movie of the series right now and I've forgotten how much I love this movie in particular. This is the plot that's on the back of the box: "Based on the Janette Oke's best selling book series, and directed by Michael Landon, Jr., Love Comes Softly is an inspired storytelling for the whole family. Marty and Aaron Clardge (Katerine Heigl and Olver Macready) travel waest in search of a new opportunity. But when tragety strikes and Marty is suddenly widowed, the young woman must face the rugged terain, bleak weather, and live among strangers- alone. That is, until a handsome widower named Clark Davis (Dale Midkiff) suggets a platonic "marriage of convenience" until Marty can return home. As the months pass, though, Marty and Clark discover an unexpected new love where there was once only loss."

I love this movie partly because it's written by a 'christian' author and it's a good wholesome movie. I also love it because of the seasons and the time period it was written in. Maybe that's the whole history part of me. I don't know. It takes place during the time of Western expansion (kinda like Little House on the Prairie). I just love that time period, and I would go back to that time if I ever had the chance. I also love this movie in the series in particular because of the theme that runs through it. It's a beautiful theme (it's been made into songs and is quoted ALL the time), but also a ery sobering and almost scary theme if you really think about it. It can also be found in the book of Ecclesiastes. This is how it reads:

"For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven: a time to be born and a time to die; a time to plant and a time to pluck up what is planted; a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; a time to weep and a time to laugh; a time to mourn and a time to dance; a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; a time to seek, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away; a time to tear, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak; a time to love, and a time to hate, a time for war and a time for peace."

If you haven't figured that out, it's from Ecclesiastes 3:1-8. When I think about this, I see that we all have hope. I also see that even through the bad times, God works through them for a greater good/better outcome (eventhough He doesn't cause the bad things to happen). I love this movie and this scripture because it helps remind me that there is a time for everything. I think that's why I love spring and fall so much. It shows that there is a time for things to grow and bloom, but also there is a time to rebuid and for everything to recoup after the harvest. I just love it all!! That's just what's on my mind as of most lately.

So about camp

I know this is quite a few weeks late, but I just thought I'd share a little about my experience at camp this summer with my old youth group. It was an incredible year. We had eight baptisms (two of which were re-baptized), lots of growing was involved, lots of seeds were planted and lots of changing happened... Even on my part. One thing that I love about camp is the special time that the senior campers get to take advantage of at night. We have time in the schedule where we can get together and just sing praises to God while on the ball field on our property. One night at one of these ball field devos, we were given the opportunity to get together with about three or four other people and just talk and confess stuff that was going on in our world. I was lucky enough to participate in this. It helped me see what I really needed to change and I was able to get the guts to confess it to other people and to really admit to myself that I needed to change this part of my life. It has been very beneficial for me to have done this. The change has not yet been easy, but is getting easier with each passing day. Thank goodness. So pray for me. Yet again, we thought the girls would win the egg toss. It was SO close. It was down to one girls team and one boys team. But we lost, so the boys gave the girls an egg shampoo. I'll have more later. This is just what I had to say so far.