As good as gold…actually better…

So I love my church, Living Hope. I love it because it is filled with members who just PASS out GOLD!!

Now before you people who call yourselves “poor” college students drop everything and make your way down highway 6 to think you are about to get some free money, let me tell you what I am talking about.

“How much better it is to get wisdom than gold! And to get understanding is to be chosen above silver.” –Proverbs 16:16

Wisdom is better than gold. Wow. Until this year I didn’t know about this amazing thing called wisdom. I knew that the Bible had wisdom, but I didn’t realize I was missing so much wisdom by not listening to people that had gone before me. I never knew what a rich blessing it was to sit down and listen to the ugly crap people have had to go through because they did not listen to the word of God, and have them look at you in the eye and say, “you don’t have to live in that crap, you don’t have to rebel.”

But until this semester all I wanted to do was rebel. Let me set you straight…I am not an outward rebel. I hate when people yell it me, I hate doing things that will disappoint other people, I hate the feeling of the moment you are caught doing something you shouldn’t. So I try to avoid that by just following the rules. You see I was a quiet rebel…that is why it was so hard for me to discover it!

But there are some areas…where I just didn’t want to take the gold from my elders. Dating, obeying and honoring my parents, gossip, confronting my fellow sisters in sin…I mean the list could go on. When people talked to me about these areas in my life I would spend half the time not listening and thinking of why whatever they were saying didn’t apply to me. But the beauty about my church is that God used bold people to just keep on talking even as I tried to shut them out.

“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; Fools despise wisdom and instruction.” -Proverbs 1:7

It is foolish to disregard the wisdom of others. FOOLISH! That is a powerful word. But God says that it is better than gold to get wisdom. I am thankful for the class Her Hand and for Heather and Jenn who started me on this process. I am thankful that Aaron posts videos online of people’s testimonies of our church so that as I am away from our body…I can still get this GOLD! I have never been so thankful for the internet!!

I can never repay Butch and Michelle, Eric and Wendy, Heather and Aaron, and Cindy and Ken for getting up in front of our church and telling of the Lord’s power and just handing out that gold to our body. A church that is built on confession and teaching truth is a church that I want to be a part of. Keep being awesome you Titus 2 men and women! You are a blessing!

Automatic Toilets and Preferred stalls...

I realize whoa...I haven't posted in a while and then BAM! TWO posts!

I know, its crazy, but I just had to write more.

So, I work 40 hours a week in a health insurance company. Praise God for this job. It is a blessing that He is providing me money that I can use to live in college station next semester and student teach. I am really excited!

So the thing about this job is that it doesn't require a lot of movement. I sit at a cubical for most of the day...except when I either really have to go to the bathroom or I just get so antsy that I go to the bathroom and try to squeeze any pee out of me that can make the bathroom trip valid.

So in a given day, I probably take 6 trips to the bathroom...that gives me a lot of time to think. You see these bathrooms have automatic toilets. This invention is just funny to me. Why did we decide this was a device we needed to automate. Why didn't we first automate a sandwich maker or a dog poo picker upper...those are two things I would like automated BEFORE I would like to have a toilet automatic.

These toilets just stress me out!! First of all, they either flush too much or not enough. I hate when you are wiping and the toilet flushes...and then flushes again...and you feel bad because we are just now getting out of a drought! What if my 6 bathroom visits push us back into a drought?!? I also think about the children in Ethiopia who don't have enough to drink, and I just wasted another 7 gallons with my automatic toilet! It's very depressing!

Then there is the problem of not flushing when you want them to. There is just something about my waste that I dont want other people looking at it. So I stand there and wave my hand over the little sensor...but nothing happens. So I have to leave my pee...it just stays there and hangs out. So maybe there are enough times that it doesnt flush and people come and plop down on the seat, pee, and then it doesnt flush for them either. I guess I got my 7 gallons back...

But really, toilet inventors...I didnt mind using my foot to push the handle and flush the toilet. I would welcome the chance to lift my leg a little (it would be the most exercise I would have all day!) to make my pee go down with just the right amount of water. I really wouldn't mind at all. I am thinking about writing the toilet makers of America and asking them if they wouldn't mind ending world hunger before making another object automatic that simply doesn't need to be.

Second public bathroom thought:Is it just me or does everyone have a preferred stall or urinal (for the boys) that they use? You see I always go into the second stall...unless I am in the SCC, then for some reason I use the first, I dont really know why I am different there, but I have just always had a weird affinity to the first stall in that bathroom.

Anyways, my preferred stall is the second. I had a theory that everyone used the first stall so the second would be more clean. I am not really sure if that is true...that is part of me wanting to take this poll. I really just love the second stall.

I go in it every one of my six trips to the bathroom daily. Even though this means I have to read the same paper that is on that stall every time.

I checked the other stalls, they have different papers...

but I wont ever get to read them because they aren't in the second stall...

All around the world, I am loyal to my second stall (besides the exception previously discussed) When I was in East Asia last summer, I went in the second stall.

(Picture of a China Toilet)

I don't know what it is...am I alone in my stall preference? Are there others of you out there with stall preferences? I really need to know...I hope I am not alone!

Well that is all...just something to think about the next time you use a public restroom!

This will be the summer of refinement…

First of all, I am sorry I have not posted in a while…I am a slacker, but I was having problems the last couple of days logging on…so that is my recent excuse…no former excuse here…

Task one: Unwholesome Talk

This will be a summer of purification. This will be a summer of refinement. Am I on a mission trip? No. Am I a stranger in an unknown land? No. Am I being pushed out of my comfort zone? No. I am home, living with my family and working 40 hours a week at a health insurance company. And yet I feel like it’s my biggest test yet.

“And I will bring the third part through the fire, Refine them as silver is refined. And test them as gold is tested. They will call on My name, and I will answer them: I will say ‘They are my people, and they will say, ‘The Lord is my God.” -Zechariah 13:9

For the last four years He has been sculpting me. He has been growing my faith. He has been bringing the dark lies that I believed to light. Last summer He asked me to go spread His gospel to a dark world, East Asia. This summer He asked me to walk through fire, daily, hourly, minutely (I am not real sure if that is a word!)

First thing I learned: my pride isn’t the only thing that is hindering my relationships. One of the most influential verses I learned last year was:

“Pride leads to arguments; those who take advise are wise.” –Proverbs 13:10

Last year, I was having a lot of arguments with my mom and then…He whips out proverbs to show me that is was because of MY pride…but that was last semester. So I come home this summer praying desperately for God to humble me…but He shows me its not just about my pride…

Go figure, my sin is way more complex! When I live in college station, surrounded by the friends I have chosen I feel like a kind, loving person. I am sarcastic about myself and others, but my friends love it…they laugh, I feel good about myself…and yet, it is unwholesome. But I never knew it was unwholesome until May 28th rolled around.

I was camping with my family and I said something about something we had looking like “white trash”. Go figure…that hurt my mom’s feelings. Why shouldn’t it? That is a mean thing to say. However, if I was with my friends they would have laughed it off, knowing that I loved them and I didn’t mean what I said. My mom didn’t laugh it off. She confronted me. As my mom is confronting me, my flesh wants to get upset and say, “geez it was just a joke.” But then the Holy Spirit starts His work in me, and speaks this verse over me,

“Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.”
-Ephesians 4:29

Before this moment, I thought my mouth was cleansed of unwholesome talk. I thought that was only concerning sexual and crude jokes…which He had done a lot of changing in me my freshmen year. I thought I was done. I thought I was purified in that area. He said no. He said, “Sara, I am no longer letting you get away with this. I have brought you home this summer to bring you into a very hot fire. I have many areas to show you where thus far your fire has only been lukewarm. Your friends are only a lukewarm fire in the area of unwholesome talk.”

So refinement area one: Unwholesome talk...there isn't a check mark next to this because He's not finished.