Praise His Name!

I don't know what it looks like where you live, but, today when I woke up and put on that 1st pot of coffee THIS was happening out my kitchen door...little, teeny, flurries! {piling up}

Needless to say I was instantly giddy and wanted to flip the Christmas Carols on and get right to work finishing up this house. We have our staff dinner/ Christmas party tonight and one of Ava's favorite babysitters is coming, so it should be a great night to be had by all. :) Ave's helped me get started today by grinding my coffee beans - her favorite chore.

Can you believe this precious child will be 2 this month!? {gulp} I can't.

This weekend was our churches Rejoice event and WOW was it a good one this year. God is doing so many things in the lives of our church women - I wish I had time to share every story I heard or saw that night. I was moved to tears more then once and God just broke my heart in new ways that I was calloused or hard to. It's beautiful to me how after such an exhausting week God can refresh my soul with good company, His word and a beautiful setting. The tables looked awesome and I think mine even turned out halfway okay... I decided to go super simple and stick with glittery silvers and golds. And, it turned out just fine. And, I already have some ideas for next year :) Another bonus: I was able to meet and get to know three new ladies from church that I had never really gotten to talk to. One is due the day after me - so I loved finding that common bond.

Speaking of pregnancy: Things are going just fine. We are in week 16 and I feel great. I'm tired all the time, but, that seems normal. We have our next appointment this week & I'm antsy to hear that heartbeat again. We haven't taken any "baby bump" pics which is sad - considering with Ava we snapped one every weekend. Oh the difference between 1 and 2. :/ But I did start to "Show" more this week which is exciting. :)

Lastly, has the Lord ever layed a passage of scripture on your heart over and over? Recently this is what has been playing through my mind/heart at the most "random" of times...

"I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called, with all lowliness and gentleness, with longsuffering, bearing with one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace." Eph. 4:1-3

I'm finding, especially around this time of the year - that unity doesn't always necessarily come easy. That it's my job, my HIGH CALLING to work for it - to live out all of the descriptions above and fight for it. God keeps bringing it to mind over and over. Especially the lowliness, gentleness, longsuffering and bearing with one another parts... words that so often DON'T describe me - that I do so yearn to be. What a challenge. So...

When someone hurts my feelings or says an unkind word... I can be gentle.
When my husband is criticized or wounded... I can show patience and longsuffering.
When there is strife or discord or just hard ministry nights... we can endeavor and fight for unity.

Praise His name! And, we don't fight alone!

I'm attaching a video of a song that was sung this weekend at Rejoice titled, "Emmanuel (Hallowed Manger Ground)" by Chris Tomlin. If you've never heard it or had time to really drink in the words... hopefully you can take a few minutes and enjoy it here. I'm so encouraged that our Savior God came to us in humility... and taught us how to live and love.