Throughout my life there are obviously many things I have prayed for. Things I've seen God answer clearly; like when I prayed for what seemed like almost 10 years that I would just have an understanding of why my dad was not willing to go to church or have a relationship with God, and so around age 17 or so we finally got to talk about it. Not only that, but the secret prayer of mine that God would reconcile my father to Himself was answered just a year or so ago. 

Today was the second week we've tried grabbing food to go after service, and bringing it back to church to enjoy eating together--rather than taking up an entire restaurant with people complaining about where we're eating and us being a nuisance.

And it worked. We grabbed Subway and Sonic along with Rachel and Sarah, and came back to church to enjoy eating with everyone. Pretty quickly everyone began playing Redneck Life, which is still proving to be the most hilarious game.

Since it managed to last about 3 hours, due to the redneck lingo and story telling going on by the players, we had to carry it outside so the church could use the room we were in.

Which meant everyone had to "HOLD IT" when the wind picked up, but it didn't mean a few Check N Scams didn't have to be chased down in the parking lot.

Managed to not get Caroline who is next to Joel... :(

Caroline came out victorious, but not nearly as victorious as Amber did last time. Amber's win will go down in history.

Afterwards, Stephen, Matt and I went to Kmart and Goodwill. I found some baskets I'd seen at another Goodwill a while ago and missed, and Matt found a $10 Jos A Bank suit. It was a win. But I'm still thinking about a couple of other finds I found....

$20 floor lamp.. needs new shade though.

$75 leather seat... uh yeah.

Unfortunately today I did not see Jenn like planned. So instead the day consisted of a lot of cleaning. A lot. Not sure that was a trade off I wanted.

So thankfully though, the Christmas tree is gone, the floors are clean, the laundry is done, the laundry is put away, the dishes are done, the bed has clean sheets, my jewelry got organized, Christmas is put away, and I'm just going to be etc. on here cause I feel like there are things I'm missing.

But I did watch a lot of Supernatural in between. Even rented a movie later tonight, Sully, as well as getting Rush's take out and a coffee from Starbucks. #TreatYourself

Got a call from Lydia and Stephanie that they were bored. So they came over, but I may have just made them more bored. Or at least ridiculously tired. 

Fridays. You are so good to me.

Subway with my parents after sleeping in a bit.

2 hours later, I stopped by Goodwill (no luck) and World Market (lots of luck).

Bought earrings and a necklace at World Market.

Muted gold earrings.

Hubby came home. We went to McAllisters. 

Today was one filled with a bit of anxiety. No matter how hard I try, my fear of speaking in front of people always seems to win out. Even though, after every time I finish, I feel good. I feel accomplished. Even in the midst of speaking, I can feel in that moment, "This isn't as bad as I thought. Actually it's going pretty well." Nonetheless my fear wins out prior to me speaking. Every. Time.

So I'd told Daniel Atkins a couple days ago that I was willing to give a testimony of something God has recently taught me in my life, or my testimony of salvation during our Thursday night Worship Service. Mainly because while my fear was winning, I knew God could still be desiring me to step up and have courage in this moment. So I told Daniel I'd pray about it. I did as soon as I told him that. Then I asked what would it be that God would have me share that he's taught me recently.

And the words poured out of me so quickly. Before I knew it I'd written two pages on the verse 2 Corinthians 12:9.

This verse has become my life verse.

When I was a kid it was a verse I learned in Bible Drill. Is that just a Southern Baptist thing? You have to memorize scripture, references, and books of the Bible, and find them all in 10 seconds or less. This was a verse I had to memorize. When I was a kid though, it didn't make a whole lot of sense. Probably due to the fact we learned everything in KJV, and it's a bunch of large words no kid really understands.

But later on, about the time Unleashed began at Oakwood, this verse began to stand out to me again. In fact during my new hire interview at WMU (where I currently work) to introduce me to our SC churches, I mentioned it was my favorite verse. Since then it keeps just finding it's way into my life. But instead of something I've felt like I've embodied, it's almost been this challenge from God.

•she gave herself grace, because she knew He was strong in her weakness• So thankful that He can use me and my many weaknesses for His glory! Giving myself a little grace today. You should give yourself some too. 🌿 . . {#TheAdoptShoppestickers are available in my website shoppe} 💛

A photo posted by The Adopt Shoppe 💛 {Kate} (@theadoptshoppe) on Jan 25, 2017 at 6:37am PST

Including finding it on this sticker from one of my favorite little shops on Instagram, and of course I bought myself one. But I treasure it so much, I can't figure out where to stick it. It's a $1 sticker. I need to get over myself.

But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.

Where I'd failed to embody this verse was in the "boasting in my weaknesses". Not just any weakness, but the ones where God filled in the gaps. The one where His grace was sufficient. Instead, I've lived behind this mask of perfection. I don't remember putting it on intentionally, but I realized I've been wearing it for a long time when a few months ago a friend said, "you just always seem like you have it together."  Uh no.

A few months later, I realized that mask was still on when we had a room full of people share the things God had helped them overcome one night at Unleashed. My pride was winning and I couldn't dare speak the awful things I'd done--even if God had released me from them.

So this was my moment. My moment to boast. God has pulled me out of an addiction to pornography, for almost half my life, and given me the strength where I have none. The times I'd tried to fix this, and rely on my own strength, I failed. I failed miserably. God had pulled me out of this once before, but I became prideful and sinful, and all those desires and addictions came back stronger.

This time, God prompted the heart of a coworker/friend, who challenged me to let God step in. While she gave me some tangible things to do to try and prevent myself from sinning, it gave me the space, the breathing room, I needed to let God step in and begin doing a work in me. I was able to come clean about this with friends and family. When I faced temptation, God gave me clear ways out. I just had to choose His way and not mine.

Just like Paul in that passage still has his thorn, I still have mine. It's still a big temptation. It's just that it seems to have gotten easier and easier to deal with the more I let God be my strength in those moments. When I allow his grace to cover this situation, and his power to rest on me.

Like Paul said, I would be a fool to brag of the other things in my life, but bragging about what God has accomplished in me is worthy of being bragged about.

And somehow, in my nervous state, God showed up and used my words his words to touch people. A lot of people just said how moving it was for me to share that, but specifically I had a friend who came and grabbed me to share how it felt like I was speaking specifically to them. That's God. God's story of how he can change not only me, but how he can change others.

So what things in your life may not paint the most pretty picture of you, but paints the most perfect picture of God? What things have you overcome with Jesus that could help someone else? Or what shortcomings, sins, weaknesses have you yet to give to God to allow his grace and glory to shine through?

God's grace is sufficient. You need nothing else.

This week has been tough for my other half. Like really tough. He's capable of so much, and so its very rare to see him feel down or defeated. While he's not defeated, he's licking some wounds, but I know he'll be back on top again in no time.

I hate to say this, because it's a moment where I feel like God is teaching me instead of him, and for Stephen to have to go through hardships for me makes my heart ache. More so I guess it's just God using our circumstances to teach me. But for a while now I've been beyond hesitant about Stephen to pursue his dreams of a used car dealership--in fact I've been scared.

I've wanted all our ducks lined in a row before we take the next step, when sometimes in reality I think God asks us to step before we've got it figured out, before we've got the courage to step out, and asks us instead to trust Him first.

I realized praying to God on my way home from work today, that God has let us fill up our storehouse. There's a reason for that. Since day one of us getting married it's been my intent to have 6 months of savings built up, in case we were to lose our job we'd be covered for a good long while.

He prepared us for a time like this before it was even a thought. Because I know, somewhere down the line whether it's now or later, we will have to use what we've stored up.

But now more than ever I want my husband happy. So whatever that takes, I think I'm finally ready for us to do that.

The rest of the day was spent cuddled up on the couch with Stephen, halfway between awake and asleep,and then an early night since Stephen has started going in at 5 am to catch up on things.

He's a workhorse.

EDIT: The BIGGEST thing I forgot to include about today, was the fact that my husband, literally after the worst day, came home and straightened up our bedroom because he knew it was overwhelming my little head. Is he not literally the best?

Well tonight I felt like a running advertisement for IF, but we've been trying to decide what would be a good fit for our next girls Bible study. The guys have been going strong dissecting and discussing a different verse each week. While they go in depth and learn lots, sometimes its really more about building their bonds with one another. I think our ladies really have been aching for more than just hang out time.

We did that a couple of years ago, and because I am just not made to be a leader, our time together was good, but we just never really were able to open up easily with one another, nor did everyone give input. When you've only got 3-4 people regularly showing up, it's tough when people don't speak. So instead it turned into hang out time, instead of Bible time.

About 6 months later we tried again with a book study, but doing book studies always costs money. So that was tough because we're then asking our college students to always fork over money every 6 weeks.

So again about 4 months after the fact we had another study that required purchasing a book. It was really good, but we just can't keep that up.

So here we go at trying to implement an IF:Table...


It's simple. Super simple. Just a few women gathering together over a meal, and discussing questions pertaining to God and His Word. It's intended for discussion, and hopefully between Amber and I (some of the biggest introverts) we can get this discussion rolling between us ladies. We've definitely all grown closer, so I'm hoping this is not too difficult for us to do.

It's free. It's engaging. It doesn't require everyone to have read or done a study ahead of time. There's no right or wrong in this setting.

And then around April we are going to try and use an IF:Equip study on how to study your Bible that centers on Philippians, and see if we can implement it into a group study instead.

But we've got a few months. So I'm hopeful we can make this work!

Plus after I came away from this past weekend, it just felt right to begin doing something simple. Nothing complicated or expensive, just back to the basics.

The rest of the night with Amber, we talked about house hunting, jobs, and even watched one of the speakers from IF: Gathering, Jill Briscoe. Her story was much longer than I remember, but I found myself once again getting sucked into her incredible story telling. Hopefully I didn't bore Amber to death, but we ended up having some good discussion on it and another Pastor's message clip that a friend had shared.

Before we knew it, it was 10 pm, and the storm had finally let up outside long enough for Amber to head to her car without getting wet.

I sat inside watching some of my Timeless episode, until the lights began to flicker and then pitch black darkness surrounded me. Very quickly I felt a little wet nose touching my feet, and then the warmth of Bear's body on top of my legs. Pretty sure I have no idea where any of our flashlights live, so I had to use my phone instead. And in the dark, Bear and I just sat there, him shivering and me telling him it would be okay. The flashes of light flooding into the den, and the rumbling of thunder not far behind.

Stephen and Matt made it home from guy's group in the dark, but not long after the power was back on.

If you're reading, would you pray for Stephen. It's been a rough time at work, and this man who excels at everything he puts his mind to has had it difficult for 6 months plus now. He's been handed a bad deck, and there is literally no way to win this game. But instead he's got all the officials telling him he's still got to win, they can't end this game with out a win.

Terrible analogy, but you get me. Just need prayers.