In His favor is life.

That's from our weekly memory verses--isn't that a wonderful statement?!

"Sing unto the Lord, O ye saints of his, and give thanks at the remembrance of his holiness. For his anger endureth but a moment, in his favor is life; weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning." --Psalm 30:4, 5.

We have some dear friends, a 94 year-old widow and her daughter, who still memorize scripture, and practice something like 45 verses before they go to bed each night! She is sharp! And they love the Lord--they are such a joy! And they're hospitable. Precious.

We memorize phone numbers, account numbers, words to popular songs--so we CAN memorize if we want to (with very few exceptions). May I encourage you to memorize scripture? And meditate on it and apply it. How we all need this!

Tomorrow is the Lord's Supper. How much I am learning about this special blessed time! I'm finishing up an excellent biography on Jonathan Edwards, and his church just kicked him out over this very issue. Amazing! It is SO important!

I'm off to play with my printer, to see if I can figure out why it's eating my paper. I hope to get the bulletin done for tomorrow--there wasn't one last week, which made me sad.

THIRTEEN more days of football. 'Nuf said.

I'm trying to perfect Risses cashew butter cups. They need some work. I need them to solidify more. But hey, they're tasty. Cashew butter is delicioso!

What's new with you?

Love to all!

Great Resource!

Like the new look? Go to the box at the top left and find a new background for your blog for free. And there's not a bunch of raunchy ads on it. Enjoy!

Happy Monday!

And how was YOUR Lord's Day? Mine was superb. To hear Sunday's sermons, especially Sunday night's on the woman who was forgiven much, click here: http://www.sermonaudio.com/aashepard. Get ready for a blessing!

A few little snips of news:

I paid $2.89 for gas in Brownwood on Friday! How sweet was that! Gas went down FORTY CENTS in one day in Winters. Amazing!

My living room is currently decorated with an extra sofa standing on its arm right when you open the front door. Thankfully it's getting a new home SOON, I hope! It's a real conversation starter.

I made homemade egg rolls for the coaches (6) and their families on Thursday, all by myself. Almost 50 of them. And on time. That was fun, and they got rave reviews. The guys are great, and they're good to Greg, for which I am thankful.

Listening to "Beulah Land" by Squire Parson. Been a long time. Memories! O Patrick, where art thou?

My sweet neighbor wants me to share scripture with her, so I'm going over this morning. I want to tell her about Brother Audey's sermon last night, but I might have to bring tissues. Forgiven. What a CLEAN word. I so want to show my love to my Savior by my works and my life. He is SO worthy!

Guess what, brethren? It's Columbus Day (sorry, Prediger)! An interesting question to ask is: Where would we live today if Columbus hadn't discovered America? That cracks me up!

AB's coming by on Thursday, headed to Abilene. And I might just tag along. She's a dear, fun sister!

And I tried on her pointy, pointy shoes yesterday, and they fit, and she gave them to me because they don't fit her right. I don't see myself as a pointy-shoed type of girl (raise your hand and shout Amen, someone!). We'll see. I've surprised myself a lot lately. If you would've told me even 6 months ago that I'd be a vegetarian, I would've laughed you to scorn. Here I am, 6 months later, a raw foodie. I skipped a whole phase. (But I'm NOT a vegetarian, sorry. Meat is just so tasty. I have it on occasion at others' homes.) (Obviously not 100% raw. Raw chicken is disgusting.)

The preaching has been outstanding. I am so thankful for such a pastor as God has sent us. (Maybe this'll get a comment out of him. "Blood out of a turnip" comes to mind.) I've just resigned myself to the fact that my life will be meddled into (in the bestest , most profitable kind of way) as long as we're there. SOMEBODY's not going to let me stay in my comfortable little spot, content where I am spiritually. He's so good for me, and for our church. I thank God for our prediger.

And his wife is such a joy! You know what they did, much to my embarrassment? They brought me a FRAPPUCCINO to church, and gave it to me right before the evening service. So I brought it in, which got me quite the wide-mouthed stare from JB (who was wondering where HIS was). I tried not to schluck it loudly during the preaching, but my pastor told me I could bring it inside and drink it during the meeting. And I am submissive, if anything. Awkward, but delicious. Thanks, CS!

And cool weather is coming! I LOVE FALL AND WINTER! I would say "I live for it," but that's not quite accurate. But I do love fall and winter. I even moved to a town called "Winters." Greg told me the band's theme is "Winter Wonderland," and they play it before each game. (Shows how many games I go to! Shameful for a coach's wife, eh.)

Notice how smoothly I segue from one subject to another? Like occasional boulders on the highway of life.

Good day, all! Off to wash my hair, check the mail, and see my neighbor. Love y'all!

Leave a comment and spread the love around.

PS Those Cozarts are awesome photographers. I am so proud of them. A Blanket girl, you know....

National Punctuation Day

Last month sometime was National Punctuation Day. I loved this! And here's my favorite quote from the web site, written about commas and periods being outside quotation marks (because there are geeks like me out in this world):

"Commas and periods are too little to go outside."

Sweet.

Wrapping It Up

Greetings! If you need a good convicting read, head to http://www.bought-with-a-price.blogspot.com. Sarah's got a great post there.

So, "Goodbye"?

I'm steeling my heart, purposing to be tough and not cry in front of him. After more hemming-and-hawing, he says, I think I love you. Wow. That was the LAST thing I expected to hear. I was floored. My mouth must've hung open. All I said was, Oh? Now, remember what I wrote about the next man who told me he loved me? I just closed my mouth and looked at him. Then he said, You WILL marry me, won't you? (I get tears in my eyes still as I type this!) That was all I needed to hear! And wow, did we cry! We just talked and talked, and knelt down and dedicated our lives to God together, and then I HAD to leave! I was amazed, dumbfounded, thrilled, honored, blessed. I did not deserve such a man. And God heard my requests, and heeded my tuggings on his robe!

The next day we went to our pastor and told him we wanted to get married. Now. He said, First you need counseling. He said, One month. We said, Two weeks. So it was about two weeks later that we got married.

And there was a battle within me, believe it or not. One the one hand, I loved this man. I wanted to spend the rest of my life with him, have his babies, serve him all my days. On the other hand, it had been me and the Lord for a year and a half; I was SO happy in my God--HE led me, HE taught me, I submitted wholly to HIM! And now I was going to marry a SINNER (like me!), and have HIM lead me (and what a lead THAT has been!) and teach me and I had to submit to HIM?

I KNEW that my relationship to God would change (it HAD to!), but I wasn't sure I wanted to lose what I had with my Lord. Plus I'd never seen it done right. I would rather be single my whole life than go through a divorce. Greg and I decided right away we would never use that "d" word! (And he did, once. A very sad time, but God got us through it.) So strong was this conflict that on the way up the aisle, I told the Lord, If I'm making a mistake (and believe me, I had fervently prayed about it!), I will turn around and walk out right now. I was terrified, yet so in love with this wonderful man. Plus I hadn't learned about the sovereignty of God at this time, so the whole submission thing was REALLY scary to me! Remember The Boss marries The Baby? Whee.

It was a wonderful wedding, my friends threw together so much out of their own homes and pockets to make it possible, and I was so thankful for everything.

I LOVE being married, I love being married to GREGORY, my best, truest friend in this world. I have been sad, mad, mostly glad, but NEVER bored! Marriage has taught me so much about Greg, God, and myself. Especially myself. Scary. But "God leads His dear children along," and so he did the Risses. He saves, keeps, defends, provides. And I thank Him for providing me such a blessing in my husband. I truly don't deserve him. But that's what GRACE is about, isn't it?

How weird!

PS The colors of my blog are almost the colors of Grace's bedroom! Fascinating....

Some More "Continued"

Hi there! Let's carry on, shall we? To catch up: Went to McKinney with Sarah and the children, saw Grace's new home--wowie! Five bedrooms, 2.5 baths, 2 story, 3000 square feet, right across the street from the school, on the corner. Sweet. AND it's brand spanking new. We stayed up from 9 PM to 3:45 AM painting Grace's bedroom. It looks SO nice--dark plum on one wall, and dark gray for the rest of the room. Who knew that was a beautiful combination?! AND I got to go to my favorite store in the world, *KEA. Got a dining room table that is the coolest, lamps, end tables, a kitchen cart, and some kitchen utensils. (You KNEW I'd get my apartment in here somehow, didn't you? You know who you are. And you are right.)

Back to Gregorio y Viviana.

[And I just noticed: Not only is IAN in VivIAN, but so is ANA (Anna)! How fun is that!]

(Am I easily distracted!)

So, it's almost time to go back to "bible" college. I'm getting sad, but making my peace with it. Greg and I were spending all our waking moments together, and loving every moment. But Greg never said anything, and certainly not the "L" word. So I'm sure not going to. On one of our outings, just the two of us, he decided to just pick a street and pass out tracts and witness to the folks. There was one house where the man was outside watering his lawn alone. Greg starts talking to him, and he tells us that he is married and committing adultery, and he does care what God thinks about it. I'm listening to Greg PLEAD with this man to trust Christ, and I'm thinking, God, I LOVE this man! I love his heart, his care for people, his zeal for God.

Since I had started spending time with Greg, I had a great tug-of-war going with God. One moment it would be like I was tugging on God's robe, saying, But, Father, LOOK at him! He would be PERFECT for me!, and the next moment saying, Just you and me, Lord. I don't need anyone but you, and I want to do your will and go where you want me to go. It was a fun time!

So, at this point, I knew I loved this man, but didn't know what God was going to do. So I kept praying and trusting (and playing tug-of-war).

[An "aside:" I don't believe people "fall in love." I don't believe in "I couldn't help it." Loving someone is a choice, and it is totally under your control who you choose to set your affections upon. And who you choose NOT to set your affections upon. You CAN help it, and, furthermore, God expects you to help it. The idea that the world has that you fell in love with someone whom it was sinful for you to "fall in love" with, and you couldn't help it, and here you are, and what could you do, after all? is a bunch of romantic, worldly, ungodly nonsense which removes all responsibility for your affections. "SET your affections on things above, not on things on the earth." The end.]

(So how do I REALLY feel about that?)

Greg asks me to pick him up after work (he had loaned me his truck, dear man), and we go take a ride to Nautilus Gym on the other side of town. This confuses me, as Greg is getting out of the Air Force on August 29th and going to school with me. (Does that date look familiar? hehe.) When I ask him what's going on, he says he feels he would be going to college with me BECAUSE of me, so he decided not to go. (What does THAT mean?) WELL. That leaves him staying here, and me going to Florida shortly. I experienced at that moment what our pastor at that time called "death of a vision." So much for me and Greg. So, while Greg's at the gym applying, I'm making my peace with God about it all, toughening up to say goodbye and it's been real and all that. Because it looks like it's not going to happen, and that's fine, because I have a God who will "never leave me nor forsake me," and HE loves me!

Ok. We continue to spend time together, though I'm backing off emotionally, as I don't want to get hurt. Plus there are LOTS of single godly girls at church, so forget it.

Now it's almost time for me to go back to Florida, and I start making plans to work with my junior high bible study, get a ride back, etc. And Greg starts acting weird, aloof. I figure it's getting time to say goodbye, so I prepare my heart. I keep asking him what's wrong, and the answer remains the same: nothing. Yeah, right.

After a few days of this, I'm ready to get this over with and move on, so I tell him we need to talk, and I invite myself to his apartment (which I had never done before, because I don't do alone with someone of the opposite s*x, and I figure nothing dramatically dangerous is going to happen). So I persist: what's wrong? I'm steeling myself for "Goodbye; it's been real."

Continued, hopefully soon.

[A funny story in here. This is the kind of man Greg was: We had dinner together with another physical training instructor (co-worker) and his wife. Greg wanted to cook. Now THIS is worth observing, wouldn't you be thinking? I sure was! We're having baked chicken, so Greg gets two whole chickens and slaps them on a cookie sheet. Neat! I know NOTHING about cooking (trust me!), but I DO think that maybe you should put something on the chickens before you slam them into the oven? I suggest butter. So he gets a stick of butter and SHOVES it INTO the chicken! If it would've still had its head on, it would've turned cross-eyed! I was hysterical! I very kindly said, while wiping the tears from my eyes, I think the butter goes on the OUTSIDE of the bird. So he took the stick of butter in his palm, squeezed, and out squoze the butter from between his fingers. And that's what he put on the chickens, and they were delicious. Go figure. I thought to myself, I think I would never be BORED with this man. And was THAT an understatement!]