vow3. Hebrews 11:6

Hebrews 11:6

And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.

Hebrews is a personal favorite of mine; I don’t doubt that it is many peoples favorite. It is filled to the brim with encouragement, promises, and examples; encouragement for good times and bad times, promises that trials and tribulations will come to us, examples of people who suffered and conquered difficult seasons. God’s faithfulness to us is written and seen in between every single line of this book.

One particular chapter that I am stuck on right now is Hebrews 11, Faith in Action:

1 Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. 2 This is what the ancients were commended for.

3 By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible.

4 By faith Abel brought God a better offering than Cain did. By faith he was commended as righteous, when God spoke well of his offerings. And by faith Abel still speaks, even though he is dead.

5 By faith Enoch was taken from this life, so that he did not experience death: “He could not be found, because God had taken him away.” For before he was taken, he was commended as one who pleased God. 6 And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.

7 By faith Noah, when warned about things not yet seen, in holy fear built an ark to save his family. By his faith he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness that is in keeping with faith.

8 By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going. 9 By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. 10 For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God. 11 And by faith even Sarah, who was past childbearing age, was enabled to bear children because she considered him faithful who had made the promise. 12 And so from this one man, and he as good as dead, came descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as countless as the sand on the seashore.

13 All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance, admitting that they were foreigners and strangers on earth. 14 People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. 15 If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. 16 Instead, they were longing for a better country—a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.

17 By faith Abraham, when God tested him, offered Isaac as a sacrifice. He who had embraced the promises was about to sacrifice his one and only son, 18 even though God had said to him, “It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned.” 19 Abraham reasoned that God could even raise the dead, and so in a manner of speaking he did receive Isaac back from death.

20 By faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau in regard to their future.

21 By faith Jacob, when he was dying, blessed each of Joseph’s sons, and worshiped as he leaned on the top of his staff.

22 By faith Joseph, when his end was near, spoke about the exodus of the Israelites from Egypt and gave instructions concerning the burial of his bones.

23 By faith Moses’ parents hid him for three months after he was born, because they saw he was no ordinary child, and they were not afraid of the king’s edict.

24 By faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be known as the son of Pharaoh’s daughter. 25 He chose to be mistreated along with the people of God rather than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin. 26 He regarded disgrace for the sake of Christ as of greater value than the treasures of Egypt, because he was looking ahead to his reward. 27 By faith he left Egypt, not fearing the king’s anger; he persevered because he saw him who is invisible. 28 By faith he kept the Passover and the application of blood, so that the destroyer of the firstborn would not touch the firstborn of Israel.

29 By faith the people passed through the Red Sea as on dry land; but when the Egyptians tried to do so, they were drowned.

30 By faith the walls of Jericho fell, after the army had marched around them for seven days.

31 By faith the prostitute Rahab, because she welcomed the spies, was not killed with those who were disobedient.

32 And what more shall I say? I do not have time to tell about Gideon, Barak, Samson and Jephthah, about David and Samuel and the prophets, 33 who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, and gained what was promised; who shut the mouths of lions, 34 quenched the fury of the flames, and escaped the edge of the sword; whose weakness was turned to strength; and who became powerful in battle and routed foreign armies. 35 Women received back their dead, raised to life again. There were others who were tortured, refusing to be released so that they might gain an even better resurrection. 36 Some faced jeers and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. 37 They were put to death by stoning; they were sawed in two; they were killed by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated— 38 the world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains, living in caves and in holes in the ground.

39 These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised, 40 since God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect.

I think my favorite verses in this chapters are verses 32-38. It’s as if God is saying, ‘Do you really not get it? Do I really need to go down my resume for you?’ If we are faithful to Him, He can and will do anything to put you right where He wants you, right where you need to be. He’s done it before, He can do it again.

No where does it say that this is easy but that’s the point. If it were easy to have faith, we would never turn to God for help or strength. And He wants us to come to Him; He delights in helping us, surprising us even.

vow.2 1 Corinthians 10:13

1 Corinthians 10:13

NO temptation has overtaken me [you] except what is common to man. And You, O God, are faithful; You will not let me be tempted beyond what I am able, but with the temptation You will also provide a way out, so that I may be able to endure it.

In my home church, there was a girl whom I looked up to as a musician and artist. When she went off to college, she and a friend formed a singing/composing duo; their harmonies were so distinct and beautiful. I distinctly remember the night that they held a concert at our church. I was probably 13 years old and remember thinking 'If I could only want to practice my piano lessons as much as Amy does (we had the same precious teacher), I could be like her when I grow up!'

One of my most favorite songs from that night was a song in which the chorus was this verse. I have found myself many, many times throughout the years humming the chorus of that beautiful song. This is one of the many reasons that I LOVE music: putting a melody to a verse helps you to easily remember scripture. Even though I haven't actually heard that song in years, I have had that verse memorized since that night I sat on the edge of the pew as an awkward preteen, wanting to be just like the girls on stage. Sure I might have to sing it to you, but I can quote you that verse! Ha!

I once heard Shane Everett (of Shane & Shane) say this about their lyrics: 'We get all of our inspiration and good stuff from the Bible; the beauty of the Bible is you can take from it all of these great verses and never get in trouble for plagiarizing' How true! I just love that. God wants us to learn, meditate and share His Word; He basically asks us to plagiarize. Ha!

As I have been reading the Bible from cover to cover, I have been amazed at the number of verses of scripture that I knew as songs. I seriously had no idea how many praise and worship songs that I have grown up singing were taken straight from the Bible and put to melodies. Many times I found myself reading along and all the sudden ending a verse in song!

Bottom line: learning scripture to choruses is a simple, effective and beautiful way to memorize scripture :)

vow.1 Psalm 119:11

I just decided that I want to post a Verse of the Week every Monday for the year of 2011. One thing I learned while reading the Bible through the B90X program was the importance of surrounding yourself with scripture and keeping it in your heart. So here we go; I thought it would be best to start off with the following verse:

Psalm 119:11-

I have hidden your word in my heart
that I might not sin against you.

2011 goals

For last year's words belong to last year's language
And next year's words await another voice.
And to make an end is to make a beginning.
T.S. Eliot, "Little Gidding"

I cannot believe that we are 2/3 through January already!!!
I don't think I have ever put my goals into writing. So this year I am trying something new; I hope that by writing them down and making them public you can help hold me accountable. Some are generic, some specific, some cheesy, some easy and some that will be difficult. So, here goes:


1. increase my prayer life

2. invest in friends who care for me

3. put ideas into writing/drawing

4. improve portfolio

5. Read more; fiction and non-fiction

6. pictorial 52

7. stop and breathe; say 'No' sometimes

8. run a 5K (yikes!)

9. continue to lose weight; get in shape

10. Grow in God

snapshots of my life: dashing thru december

When I was little, I was Terrified of Santa Clause. Like, MAJOR TERRIFIED. MAY-JOR. I think it was probably all of the facial hair that caused me to turn bright red and scream at the top of my lungs for at least 15 minutes after the Jolly Ole Man was out of my sight. I have never liked facial hair; I’ve not liked it since the day I was born. My parents have video footage of me running away screaming from anyone (usually these anyone’s were men ha!) who had any form of facial hair. I’m sure it was one of those embarrassing things that parents’ have to deal with: ‘I’m so sorry, Sir, but would you mind re-seating us in a section with a waiter that doesn’t have a beard? She won’t be able to eat for your hair trimmings’ Ha! Can you imagine?!

Anyways, I found Santa Claus this year and ironically it was at Chick-Fil-A, the same place as 25 years ago! I didn’t scream this time but was thankful when it was all over and he had safely moved 10 feet away from me. And despite his full, white beard, this Santa was perfect for the job: a belly full of jelly, a bright red suit, and a jolly old laugh. But again, he had a BEARD!!!

I have always loved the hand bell choir. Since I can remember, my mom has had hand bell practice once a week. Shortly after I graduated last year I moved into an apartment close enough to my parents’ church that I was able to join the ‘big girl’ hand bell choir. These are my bells :) I typically have an array of about 7 bells set up to play in any given song and 6 more on stand-by. It’s challenging; that’s why I love it!


This Christmas Season was particularly busy in the hand bell world. We accompanied a home school choir’s Christmas concert, dawned our 1850s garb for a nearby Dickens’ Festival, set up to play in a local gazebo for yet another Christmas festival, and the list goes on. Throughout all of these events (since Thanksgiving, really) I struggled with inner ear problems that caused vertigo. Vertigo is not fun and, when coupled with petty coats and 40 lb hand bell cases, causes extreme dizziness and in my case, a fractured foot. Ha! And after yet another Saturday morning trip to the doctor this season I am thankful to have the vertigo cleared up.


This is not my baby, nor do I know who he belongs to but he was too cute not to share with you!



Like I said, I have many friends who are celebrating birthdays this month. (And as we are already 10 days into January I can tell you there will not be an end to this any time soon.) Stephanie is the baby of this particular ring of friends, turning the ripe old age of 19! We celebrated by getting the girls together and eating at Spaghetti Warehouse. One of her presents was this giant foam cowboy hat. I’m not sure that she has worn it since then!

My mom has always wanted a banister to decorate for Christmas; when they moved to their ‘Texas-style’ house, she finally got it. And guess what that means? Yep. I get to put it up and take it down every year! Each spindle gets it’s own piece of garland with layers of ribbons, lights, and bows. This year took me a record time of one whole week to decorate! It was very pretty, though! When it came time to take it all down and stow away, I asked my brother to help me. As I was telling him all the problems I ran into installing it (broken Christmas lights, missing bows, etc.) he said, ‘Why do ya’ll even bother putting all this stuff up if it just stresses you out?’ Ah. Such a boy :) I don’t know why we put it up, other than it looks pretty and girls like pretty things.



I got to participate in a Jingle Bell Run benefiting COPD. The mother of some friends of mine (twin sisters) has been battling COPD for a while now. I think we were all amazed at how many people participated for this great cause.






We all had jingle bells in our sign-in packets. Here they are attached to my tennis shoes :) We saw several Santa Claus’s, elves, Christmas presents and one chimney/mantle piece complete with lit candles and hung stockings.





I also started a new job during all of this. Why not spice things up a bit?! I got two bouquets of flowers on my last day at my old office. They were beautiful!



I got to be a part of our church’s Christmas show this year. It was amazing and quite possibly one of the best Christmas shows I have ever seen. Originally it was meant to be for children but after some very creative people got their hands on it, it developed into a magnificent and all age appropriate show. The nativity scene was one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen. While the nativity scene came to life on the stage and throughout the sanctuary, two aerial ballet artists from Cirque-de-Soleil gracefully dangled 40 feet in the air from white sheets. It was incredible. I wish I had a picture of it but even if I did it would not be able to fully convey the beauty of this moment. Below is a picture of most of the cast and crew during a dress rehearsal meeting. There were little angels, dancing Elves, inhabitants of Christmas Town and many, many more.



My friend Kyla got to bring her family and friends for one of the performances. I was so glad that she got to see it!


What were you doing on Christmas Eve? If you were in New York or any other neighboring New England states I can pretty much guarantee that you weren’t doing what my family members were doing. At one point during the day I looked out and saw this; my dad and brother mowing and cleaning up the yard. I don’t remember the exact temperature but I do remember that it was a beautiful day and judging by their clothes, it was probably somewhere in the 70s. I love the south :)



After our Christmas Eve service we gathered round to play a game or two of Rummi-kub. Rummi-kub is a combination of Rummy and Spades and involves a lot of thinking, planning and swapping. I usually do not win this game when playing with my family. Ha!


Our Christmas tree! This year, like several of our most recent Christmas’s, was spent with just the five of us at the house. It makes for a very quiet couple of days! Being the not-so-early risers that the majority of us are, we had a late breakfast at about 11:00 and exchanged gifts shortly there after. We always joke that our house is Santa’s last stop of the night. We have never gotten up at the crack of dawn unable to hide our excitement and anticipation on Christmas morning. I can remember only one Christmas when one of us woke up on our own for Christmas morning. We are all such sleepers! Christmas Day and Stocking Set-Up has always been easy on our parents. Unfortunately, this is about the only day of the year where this proves to be of any benefit.


Christmas Day was very cold here. The weather swings here are sometimes similar to that of a restaurant kitchen door. It comes and it goes, high to ow, rainy to drought, stormy to desolate. Anyways, the weather reached down to about 30 degrees Christmas night. I dragged my sister out for a walk in the neighborhood and although I generally am not a fan of the cold I was excited to get to use my New York hat that I bought in NYC two years ago when I was in Times Square for New Year’s!


So, in summary of this fast paced December, I composed a song titled ‘Ellen’s 12 Days of Christmas’ and can be sung to the tune of ‘The 12 Days of Christmas’:

On the twelfth day of Christmas my true love sent to me
Twelve dozen snowflakes
Eleven hand bells ringing
Ten strands of twinkle lights
Nine scarves a’crocheted
Eight friends with birthdays
Seven pounds a’gained
Six Christmas parties
Five cars at home!
Four hand bell concerts
Three church performances
Two Christmas Hams and
A stomach bug that kept me home from all!

Merry Christmas 2010!!!

Merry Christmas! Our family photo for this year was taken 4 nights before Christmas. We were given our color assignments and told to meet down by the piano in 20 minutes. Miraculously, the 30 minute photo shoot was a success and no one stomped off because the final selection was not their best. Yours truly has never done this before :) I have always thought it would be fun to have another sibling or two, but come Christmas-card-picture-taking time I am thankful for our family of five!


Why does it seem that the ‘Most wonderful time of the year’ is always the most busiest, craziest, weight-gained time of the year?! With 4 parties a weekend, cookies & treats brought into work daily, and a fractured foot, this has been a fast-moving, blur kind of a holiday season. Every year the weeks between Thanksgiving and New Years go by faster and faster; I am thankful for the Christmas lights to light our paths! Ha! It is sad, though, that we spend this special time in such a tizzy; I don’t believe that this was ever God’s intention.

This year was different for me as I was trying to finish my B90X challenge. (Remaining B90X posts to come soon!) As it worked out, I made it into the Gospels in the midst of the hustle and bustle that December always brings. It was good for me to read the Christmas story multiple times this year.

The story of Jesus’ birth is exciting, miraculous, mysterious, and so many other things and every year I find a new truth or exciting piece of the story that rocks my world. This year said truth was every one’s obedience to God’s plan. No one could have even begun to understand or imagine what God had planned for this tiny baby, yet the major players (Mary and Joseph) never once protested-it’s not recorded that they did, anyway-and made the appropriate adjustments to their lives and routines to submit to God’s will.

I pray that God’s will be made so clear for me this year that I do not question Him either. I want to be like Mary, Mother of Jesus-confident in His will so that the only questions that I ask are ‘Am I still IN Your will? Doing what you have planned for me?’ instead of ‘Is this REALLY what You have planned for me? Why me? Why do You have me here?!’ I pray that His will will be made clear to you as well as we enter into a new year; a time for new beginnings and experiences.

I started a new job one week before Christmas day (why not throw something else into the crazy mix of things?!) At this job I am exposed to more people, many of whom do not know the Lord. Most of them fall into one of several groups: those who are searching for something, those who know but do not live for Him, and those who don’t know that they are even in need of a Savior. As we were preparing and anticipating the Christmas break, it broke my heart as I realized how many do not make Christ the center of Christmas. I pray that I can be an example of Christ to these people and that His Light is evident through me.

I hope that you and yours had a wonderful Christmas day with family and friends.

snapshots of my life: no-shave november

You must be my friend if.....you have a birthday between November 2 and December 20. Everyone I know has a birthday during this six week period of the year. Seriously! As if these two months weren’t filled up enough with holidays and celebrations. What were your Momma’s thinkin'?! Ha!


For Will’s birthday we went to a Mexican restaurant, Guadalajara...lots of chips, salsa and quesadillas to go around! I’m not sure what kind of birthday dessert he got but I am sure that I didn’t get any :( Happy Birthday, Will!

Leslie’s Birthday Party was low-key and very fun! A few people met and had dinner at a local restaurant that has a great outdoor atmosphere. Afterwards, several of us girls packed up our blankets and beverages for an outdoor movie at Discovery Green. I had never been there but decided that it is one of the coolest (and free!) things we have here in the city! Showing on the blow-up screen was Shall We Dance? Have you ever observed people after watching a dance movie? I think it is so funny to see everyone get up and dance out to the ending credits! (Myself included)

I was born to shop. And I LOVE pretty things. Unfortunately my shrinking wallet does not allow me to do much shopping right now but that still doesn’t stop me from window shopping. My ‘Want’ list has grown so much that, if Santa had a ‘Longest List’ Contest, it would be definitely be a contender.

I found this chair in World Market. I love that store :) I decided that when I move into my own place and if I have need for a new chair in my new place this will be the one! It goes with my current furniture theme and colors, textures and styles. A true winner!

Moving on to not so pretty things-may I welcome you into our home and introduce you to our kitchen floor!? A few weeks ago (during Will’s party, actually) my mom text me saying ‘Don’t try to walk through the kitchen in the dark when you get home tonight’ accompanied with a picture of what resembled our kitchen floor. Mom and Dad were home, thankfully, when the ceramic tiles started snapping and flying 3 feet into the air. Who knows what type of investigation we would have had had they not been there. The aftermath looked like what I would imagine your kitchen floor would look like if you took a jackhammer to it in search of Atlantis. Or buried treasure. Or a letter to Juliet. The possibilities are endless. Anyways, because we are amidst the holiday season and times are BuSY, the Tetris-like plywood cut-out will have to suffice until the new year! For those of you who obtain a more engineering brain my dad would be happy to discuss with you his theories and education opinion as to what really happened; the explanation involves various atmospheric pressures, compressions, and other variables. All of these words sound familiar and I would tell you what they mean but I don’t like to show-off :) Ha!



So, from the counter-level and up we had a Happy Turkey-(less) Thanksgiving! Every member of our family LOVES our Grandmother’s Chicken-and-Dressing so much that the turkey is often left uneaten. So this year my mom decided to forget the turkey all together by not even putting one on the menu! Instead, 2 pans of dressing joined us for dinner and let’s just stay they didn’t linger too long through the holidays.

Our spread probably looks pretty small compared to most peoples’. But we are a small family (all 5 of us were here!) and this was PLENTY for us to eat on for several days. Not surprisingly, the dressing was one of the first things to be finished off!

The whole family laughed at me (myself included) when we sat down at the table to eat and I told my brother and sister “It’s nice to have ya’ll home with us for the holidays” Ha! I said this with all sincerity, too. I have felt like the mini-mommy this year.


Sisters out for another friend’s birthday! A bunch of friends got together for yet another birthday party! It was fun to celebrate Simon’s, ahem, 21st birthday with him :) 2-stepping; not my forte!


My church has this fabulous event/outreach ministry during the Christmas Season called Angels of Light. It is an entire operation that takes many months to prepare for, the participation of every Sunday School class, and hundreds of volunteers. Every night for the week after Thanksgiving, about 1000 local people and families are bussed in from around the city for an evening of food, Gospel presentation, and people to love on them. Every family is handed a bag of groceries when they taken back to their homes and each child receives a wrapped Christmas present.

As you can imagine this takes months to prepare for: collection of food, clothes, wrapped children’s gifts, etc. Every Sunday School class is responsible for collecting and wrapping toys for specific a specific age and gender and 2 work days/nights. Our class had a work night doing grocery distribution. It was such a blessing. As our pastor said, we did not have the glamorous job of the operation, not even a visible one for that matter. But it counted just the same and I can imagine the parents’ faces when they were handed that bag of food as they stepped off the bus. For some reason I am tearing up right now just thinking about it. I am so blessed!

Being around all of these buses reminded several of us of the week(s) we spent this summer with 1000 high school kids!


This part of the operation looks much like what I would imagine Santa’s Prep-Room must look like. You can’t really tell by the picture, but there were 1000s of toys wrapped and stacked in all of the pews and more being wrapped at the work bench!


As always, it is so much more fun to work and serve alongside friends and brothers and sisters in Christ! I don’t remember it being as cold as we make it look, but living in south of I-10 we don’t get much use out of our long-sleeve winter-wear.


And for the record, I DID shave during the month of November. My blog title is dedicated to ‘male-parts’ cancer awareness. If you want more information on this subject, Google it :) While in undergrad, one of our campus organizations designed a T-shirt to raise awareness for No Shave November. I thought the design was super cute, ahem, manly, and simple (that is manly, right...simple?!). According to the scripture reference it’s Biblical, too!



Leviticus 19:27: “Do not cut the hair at the sides of your head or clip off the edges of your beard.”