A courageous fisherman

Simon Peter was a simple fisherman. He probably had that hard working, weathered skin look about him from hours on the water trying to earn money to live. He was just a common man living day to day.

There was a particular night that he was out and did not catch a thing. Think about it, he spent the whole night trying to catch one fish, and it never happened. After a very disappointing night at work, Simon portages his boat, takes out his nets, and leaves his boat to clean the nets.

He comes back to find Jesus in his boat; the man that healed his mother-in-law, healed the sick and made the blind see. I wonder what was going through Simon's head. After Jesus asked Simon to push the boat out from the shore, Jesus starts teaching crowds of people that have gathered to hear His truth. After who knows how long of sitting in the boat listening to Jesus teach, Jesus tells Simon to take the boat to deeper water and let down his nets. What?! Simon just spent hours trying to do this and now Jesus wants him to do it again and in the middle of the day to boot? Hmmmm.

What would I do at this point? Simon looks at Jesus and clarifies to Him that they had fished all night and had not caught a thing. What he says next took a lot of courage. He told Jesus, "But because you say so, I will let down the nets." (Luke 5:1-5)

Is that how we, that know Christ, respond when He tells us to do things that we think don't make sense?

Think about it...

A common man had such great courage to obey Christ when it seemed a little crazy.

The rest of the story:

Simon Peter did what Christ said, cast out his nets and caught so much fish, it filled his boat and his partners boat until they were sinking. (That's a lot of fish!) "When the men brought their boats to the shore, they left everything and followed Jesus." (Luke 5:6-11)

Where did Jubal go?

We have started a little tradition with Jubal and his hair. During the winter, we let his hair grow out. (I have to say, it's really cute and God has blessed him beautiful hair like his daddy.) Then when the weather starts getting warmer, I cut it pretty short. This year he was asking me to cut his hair. I guess he kind of got tired of it getting in his face. So here are the results. Enjoy!

BEFORE (little mullet boy ;)

AFTER

Spring time!!

It's that time of year where our little family starts preparing for our garden. I really look forward to planning and planting it and I am excited about it. Stephen has always hand picked our plot to save some cashola but this year we decided to rent a tiller. It was well worth it too. Stephen did a wonderful job and the garden looks great. Planting time will happen in a week or two. I will keep you posted on the progress as the season goes on. Happy planting to all of you gardeners out there.

A day in the mountains

Yesterday we had a fun opportunity to go to Little Switzerland, NC and visit some friends, the Keeleys, for the day. It was absolutely beautiful. A bike ride for Stephen and Mike (our friend) was in store as well as Jubal and I SAGing (Supply and Gear) for the adventurous cyclists. Destination: Carvers Gap. It was great being outside in the beautiful weather, enjoying what God created and seeing my hot husband in spandex ;). Jubal had a blast cheering the cyclists on. After the ride we went back to the Keeleys beautiful home and hung out for the evening, enjoying fajitas, cookies, and good 'ol laid back fellowship.

Let's dye some eggs!

I never thought about dying eggs naturally until this year. My friend Julie did it and I thought it was so cool. (You can read about it on her blog listed on the sites I enjoy). I also got a little email newsletter on it so I thought I would pass the info along. What a fun and messy idea! Kids would love it! You can read all about it at the following website:

http://www.thegreenguide.com/doc/113/eastereggs/2

Mountain of fun

Stephen ordered a truckload of dirt to help level out our back yard and to use for his pump track. Jubal got to see the truck dump it and he was so cute. He just stood there in amazement. After the truck left, Jubal jumped on the mountain of dirt and played for a while. He has loved playing on it and it has entertained him for hours. Now the mountain is gone but we made some fun memories of plain 'ol fun (and lots of dirty pants and socks...hee hee).

God's Love

I believe in God. I believe that He loves me so much for who I am. There is nothing I can do or not do to make Him love me any more or less. Believing in this has brought me a lot of freedom and love for Him and others. Even though His love and power has transformed me, I still struggle so much with my sin nature. One person, among many, in the Bible that brings so much encouragement to me is Paul. He was such a man of God and devoted His life to sharing God's love to people that needed Jesus. He even considered it joy to be persecuted for Christ. Yet, he struggled with sin. He hated it so much but he still had moments where he gave in to the human nature. Even though that is no excuse for me to sin, it still gives me comfort that the men and women in Scripture I admire so much, struggled with it. God loves me no matter what. There is nothing that can seperate me from His love. The Bible is so full of hope and promises of that fact. So while I still struggle with sin, I rest and celebrate in knowing that sin has not conquered me. Jesus conquered it on the cross and freed me from it. I am made holy and I don't have to be stuck in my human nature. I can live in Christ and live in the joy that He gives through His forgiveness and love.

It's been a while

I can't believe how time flies when your having fun. It's been a while since I posted last so I thought I would drop in and say hello to my friendly readers. I don't have much to say....gasp!... so have a great weekend.