You must be the change you wish to see in the world.

I apologize for the late post this week. My parents were here for the weekend and I was busy spending time with them. We had a good time by the pool and at the DCI Southeastern Championship. We went to North Point on Sunday, and my mom loved it. We then spent some more time at the pool and then Dad&I changed my car's headlight and installed a digital thermometer for my A/C. So, overall, a good weekend.

Yesterday we looked at Mark 9:42-48. It was a pretty intense message, and a couple times I could only pray that my parents weren't turned off to NP because of it. Joel started with a reference to the movie 127 Hours. If you haven't seen it, Google it. I'm not sure I could handle explaining the movie, let alone watching it. But one of the quotes he pulled from the movie was "It's just an arm." After all, it is just an arm. You can live with out it. Sure, it will be challenging at first. It's essentially a new way of life, but a necessary step for you to take. Aren't there things you hold tight onto that cause you to stumble? I know there are for me. I do apologize, dear readers, but there are some things the interwebz don't need to know. I trust that there are things about you that you don't wish others to know, and so you understand my position. Maybe it's something that you are doing that is causing you to stumble. Something you look at, something you think about, whatever it is, it's causing you to stumble. 

If you knew years before the problem were to arise, wouldn't you cut whatever it is out of your life? A surprising quote from yesterday morning was "1 in 5 divorces cite Facebook as a cause to the beginning of an affair". If you knew that Facebook would ruin your marriage, wouldn't you deactivate your account? I know I would. No questions about it, I would say goodbye to Facebook. What we do today impacts where we end up tomorrow. I know it seems like a given, but it's still something to think about. Consider it as you go through your day. "If I do this/look at this/buy this, how will it impact my tomorrow?" There may not be an immediate effect on your life, but in time it may begin to affect your life in a way that you wish it wouldn't. 

There is more to this life than this life. Why would you trade anything for your eternity? I do wish that I could go back and change some things that I have done. But I can't. I can only go on with my life, and change what I am doing today and hope that it will have a positive effect on my future life. I pray that I can look back on my life now and say, "Good job, 2011 me. You made some good choices that year." 

I hope that you think about what is causing you to stumble and seriously consider cutting it out of your life. I am making steps towards my own goal, and I hope that you will be able to do the same. If you want to share your story with me, please message me or send me an email. I would be more than happy to listen and help if I can. If you'd rather not, that's okay too. If you would like me to pray for you, please don't hesitate to ask. This is a tough thing to go through (no matter what your stumbling block is) and I hope that you can trust that there is someone for you to talk to if you need to.

I have no idea how I will write next week's blog, we got a "don't bring your small children to next week's service" announcement. It's the last message in this series, and it's about marriage. I attended a service with my man at Connection Pointe, his home church, that was also about marriage. I admit that after that service I was kind of a mess. Luckily for me, he was there to lean on. I'm not sure how I will survive next week-since I have a feeling it will be similar.

Only 2 more Sundays left... Until next time, dear readers.