1.29.07

Yesterday was Chad Tidd's birthday. Happy 29th birthday! Hope it was wonderful for you!!!

What a weekend! Let me start first by saying that, God is good, All the time. Maybe that seems like a ridiculous way to start an entry, but when life doesn’t go as planned, Praise God anyway. It works. For all the things I’ve learned in the last several months, it’s definitely been God’s faithful and sovereignty in life. God is constant. Always.

Friday night, I went to dinner with a few friends to a Cleveland specialty. Had an interesting discussion with one of the people there – almost a doctrinal debate, but not really. It’s okay for Christians to see things differently. I did get to see all of the new girls (they were trying to figure out how to raise money for this semester). I just love them! After dinner, we headed to my house to play a rousing game of Speed Scrabble. Now, I’m fairly dictionarily talented, but I thought I was playing horrible. A good hour and a half into the game, I realized that I had been scoring incorrectly. I placed last because I had only been adding the value once, instead of at every intersection. I can’t wait for a rematch to redeem myself.

Saturday morning, I ran a few errands around town – just trying to get things done that I don’t typically have time to do when I’m there. Unfortunately, every place that I needed to go was CLOSED. Oh well. My friend Ashley lives in Charlotte, but her parents live in Cleveland, so they had a baby shower for her. She’s having a little girl – Ella Grace – sometime in March. I had a great time seeing a few old friends and catching up.

I went to West Point Saturday night, in preparation of my best friend’s shower on Sunday. I didn’t get home until fairly late (my mom was aggravated), but I had a good time just driving and relaxing. I also had the chance and time to talk to a few people/catch up on a few conversations. It’s hard when you want to spend an hour talking to someone, but you get interrupted and only have five minutes. Totally defeats quality time. But, I finally got the chance and enjoyed it.

Sunday, was my best friend baby shower. She’s having a little boy and is due Feb 21. She went to the doctor on Friday, and she’s 2 ½ centimeters dialated and 70% ephased. She’ll be lucky to make it to Friday. (Also found out that my cousin had early labor pains and may have her baby two weeks before her due date as well.)

Spending time with Laura yesterday,… was beyond therapeutic. I have repeatedly blogged about how thankful I am for her friendship, and yesterday, when I unseemingly needed her the most, we were able to be together. God has blessed her with a good husband, and two beautiful children, with #3 ready to come out. Our lives are so different – but still alike. We share a lot of the same values. Our methodologies are just different. She’s an encourager, a confidante, the straightforward honest opinion that I always need, funny, sweet, talented, and inspiring. She, unlike almost anyone else, knows me for who I really am. And she loves me for me. I cannot thank God enough for blessing my life with her and her family. I posted the picture of she and I from yesterday. Albeit blurry, that’s the first time in probably two years where that’s MY smile. It’s genuine. No holds barred. I just love it!!!

** On a different note… just wanted to share this little “nugget”:
“Fear and hiding go together like adolescence and hormones. The very first recorded instance of fear reflects this: “Where were you, Adam?” “I heard you in the garden, And I was afraid, because I was naked, so I hid.” And we have been hiding ever since – behind smiles we don’t really feel, behind agreeable words we don’t really believe, mostly behind the things we truly feel and believe but refuse to say. I hate to say it, but sometimes – for altogether different reasons these days – I still play the quiet game. All too often I hold back from saying what I truly thing or feel because of fear. I am afraid of what someone might think of me; or I am afraid of the pain in the conflict that might emerge; or I am afraid that I will have to spend more energy cleaning up the relational mess that will emerge than I really want to spend. You play the quiet game when you pretend something does not bother you when it really does; or when you pretend to agree with someone when you really don’t; o r when you act as if you don’t care, but you really do. Fear always lies behind the quiet game.” (John Ortberg)

Revolutionizing my world to not hide behind the fear is not going to be easy or quick. I’m refusing to hide anymore. I’m getting out of the boat.