Most Precious

 Being loved by God is the most incredible thing anyone will ever experience. His plan of salvation is the ultimate example of sacrificial love. The love of a Father toward His children. I can really tear up about the love of a father. It is the most precious thing to ever have on this earth. It is not just sons that need their fathers. Daughters need their fathers too. Experiencing the love of an earthly father is vital to one's self confidence, self worth, and overall well-being. If at any given time one feels that the love from one's father is less, your world can fall apart. When reassured of that love, kinship, and relationship, everything becomes brighter. It is then that you realize what is most precious.
 Last night I received from my dad the most beautiful, special gift I have ever been given. He had me sit on the couch and close my eyes. Something light was placed in my hand. I opened my eyes to see a card laying there and out of the corner of my eye a saw an elegant gift bag on the table. I opened the card and in my dad's firm, straight print he told me that ever since he had seen the movie Courageous he had wanted to give me a ring just like the dad in the movie did for his daughter. A ring of commitment that shows that he loves me and is responsible for me until the day he gives me away to someone else who loves and cherishes me and gives me a ring to replace the one he was giving me. Even now as I write this, I cannot help but cry. I was not so subtle as I read the card, however. I'll be honest and admit I was sobbing. When I ever so carefully reached through the tissue paper and got the box and opened it, there lay a lovely and elegant ring. The real deal. Sterling silver, diamonds, all sparkly and contrasting white and black. I was truly speechless. I still am. :) Haven't quite yet found just the right words to say thank you, yet I know he knows how much it means to me. Unfortunately, I had to part with it today for a short time while it is getting re-sized from a 7 to a 5 1/2. ( Yes, I have very small hands and fingers :P ) I am so, so glad that I was able to get a couple okay pictures of the ring itself before I had to give it up for a few days. :) So, without further ado, here is my love gift. :)

Keep Your Head Up

 Well! What do you know...I'm finally updating my blog. I have been so busy these days that my blog has not been more than just a passing thought. The most I have been doing is reading ( quickly ) the different blogs I follow. But besides that, I have been plain ol' uninspired. Bleh. How exciting is that. :P But...BUT...today...I feel inspired. :D
 As I have said, there has been a lot going on lately. I'm not only working full and almost full hours at the cafe, but I have been running errands to get in on some super deals at different stores and helping my pastor's family pack for moving and doing all the little daily things of life. That's just the physical side of things...you really don't want or need to hear all about the emotional and spiritual things I've been going through lately, do you? I hope not, haha. There has been a lot of good things happening, but even still, there is this little thing called the devil and he seems to have been making it his full-time job to harass me recently. Anyone else? Probably. Somehow he manages to harass all of God's children all the time and mostly all at once.
 So I suppose this might seem a little odd, but the other day while in the store I heard this song and it really lifted my spirits and gave me...hope. Not that I would recommend this song, as it isn't really a Christian song, but it was talking about how you need to just keep your head up even when there are problems all around you because this life is a journey. That is so true. It is VERY hard to keep a positive countenance when there are things you are struggling with, but doing so really makes it so much easier to get through whatever it is. A little bonus is that it also makes it much nicer for everyone around you too, hahaha.
 This morning I was thinking about all this and my thought process went even deeper than " just be happy because it helps ". Really, in all truth, we can be happy because we are the children of God. Because we are the children of God, we have all we will ever need to defeat the enemy if we will just open our eyes to that ability. Hold your head high because you are royal blood. Hold your head high because you are the child of the King of Kings, the Creator of EVERYTHING. That is MORE than enough reason to relax and take a breath. :) So keep your head up! :) ( oh, oh, oh, oh... )

Summer Goals Re-cap

 Remember this post about my goals for the summer and that fun little alphabet quiz? No? Hahaha, I'd forgot allllll about it until Karen ever so faithfully posted her summer re-cap. Ooops. Well, one thing I can say...I did a lot of things this summer that I didn't quite expect to do. Another thing I can say is...I totally failed my summer to-do list. :P I didn't finish any of my long-standing " currently reading " books. I barely scratched the surface of my " to read " list. I lost a few pounds, but not as much as I would have liked... ( stress eating is such a terrible thing ) And I actually added to my mending pile instead of reducing it. :( But in the light of starting a business, getting a job, having teeth out, going to Canada, and having family camp at my own church...I think I had more than enough to keep me busy this summer. :D I did complete my last year of the youth summer reading program, however! I didn't win a prize :( I still got to pick a book though ( I chose The False Prince -- eek! :D ) and I got a 8GB USB thingy for participating and reading a certain amount of hours.
 Fall hasn't quite made it's official calendar arrival, and the golden days of summer are going out with a bang of a heat wave, but life has slowed down a bit for me thus far and I am thankful. :) I'm loving my job, slowly but surely getting my room more organized, and looking forward to going back to Canada and also Washington in another month plus a couple weeks. :) I have also learned that goal posts are not my thing...it didn't help keep me accountable because I forgot about it! Hahaha.
 Farewell my few, but faithful ( or so I like to imagine ;) readers! Hopefully I will have something interesting to post about in the coming days. :D