Being a Living Sacrifice

Romans 12:1-2
Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will. NIV

So this one hit home this morning. Last week I watched a video of Priscilla Shirer. She talked about offering herself each day, before she got out of bed, as a living sacrifice to God. That sounded great. And this morning I happened to be lying in bed awake for awhile before I had to get up. I was praying and I told God I wanted to offer myself as a sacrifice to Him for however He could use me today. Then it hit me.

Oh no. That means He might tell me me to _______________. Weeelll, actually, according to His word, He's already told me to ______________. Oh, shoot. I'm stuck. Can't go back now that I've acknowledged it.

sacrifice: destruction or surrender of something for the sake of something else

So... the destruction of my pride for the sake of God's glory.
The destruction of my self for the sake of God's glory.
The destruction of my desires for the sake of God's glory.
The destruction of my defensiveness for the sake of God's glory.
The destruction of my guardedness for the sake of God's glory.
The destruction of my plan for the sake of God's glory.

Nowhere in here does it speak of protecting myself, ensuring it's gonna work out without pain, ensuring I can save face, or guaranteeing reciprocation.

Nowhere does it say I'll be loved if I love, be served if I serve, be trusted if I trust, be accepted if I accept, be safe if I allow safety, be understood if I try to understand, be forgiven if I forgive.

Do I want to forgive if I'm not forgiven? No. Do I want to love if I won't be loved? Um, no. Do I want to accept if I'm not accepted? No way! Do I want to understand if I'm not understood? No.

But God did.

And I'm supposed to offer myself to Him, to do whatever He pleases with me. I don't know how to do this, but God does. And He'll help me, because He requires it of me.

Swallowing Pride

Swallowing pride is hard.
Especially when it's not my idea,
and I don't know that it will work for my benefit.

But Someone is kind of telling me to.
So I fight even harder.

I suppose if it was my idea,
I'd be prideful about that.

Operation Christmas Child Shoeboxes

It's that time again! Each year Samaritan's Purse organizes Operation Christmas Child. It is an operation to get a Christmas gift coupled with the gospel into the hands of needy children throughout the world. Because the boxes are due November 19, I thought I'd share a couple of resources in case you needed to get prepared early.

Boxes for Katje is a great book about sending gifts overseas to provide for one another! It is based on a true story that occurred in 1945. There is a free unit study available if you'd like to spend an entire week on it!

And here are two pages that are great for your child to fill out/color and share some information with the receiving child! Scroll down to see the coloring pages, then click on them to open the pdf. It really helps personalize the whole deal when you get to put them in the shoe box. Some people have gotten letters in return! There is also a video here that shows the kids receiving their shoe boxes.

If you'd like to participate, but you're church isn't involved, here is all you need to know!

September Camping

Our September was so busy, I am way behind on a few things I've wanted to share! We went camping with our good friends one weekend, now I don't even remember when. And we just went to a local campground so we could be at church on Sunday morning. Our friends have a camper, so we did have the luxury of our own potty, shower, microwave and frig (essential with my kids allergies). But we chose to sleep in our tent for the kids' sake. We camped last year in Destin for a week, but that was in the camper so it didn't really feel like camping.



My kids both had their first S'mores! They also enjoyed roasting their own hot dogs for dinner.


Mattie's had EnjoyLife Chocolate Chips (dairy free for her), a regular marshmallow and New Morning Grahams.


Jacob's had New Morning Grahams, the EnjoyLife Chocolate Chips and Ricemellow Cream (corn and egg free marshmallow fluff like stuff).


They loved sleeping in the tent! They both slept very well after the initial excitement of the first bedtime.


These guys were visitors we saw more than once! Our campsite was huge and we ended up getting to camp in the woods about 100 feet off the road. We saw raccoons too!


Swinging with Daddy at the playground!


Not sure what she's so deep in thought about, but she sure is cute! She spent all weekend covered in dirt... about which she was very happy.

Natural Tunnel State Park

Almost two weeks ago we went here with a friend of mine. She's been wanting us to meet here for a couple of months and we've just had a hard time getting together. We started our day off at 8:00 AM and didn't get home until after 9:30 that night!

Natural Tunnel State Park
This park has an old steam engine and train tracks, so you know with my crowd it's a hit from the beginning!



We hiked on a nature trail down in a valley to see the tunnel.


This tunnel was formed 100% by water. Daniel Boone was the first white man to walk through it.


This tunnel was man made. It's about 100 feet from the other tunnel, so the trains go through both as they pass.


Abby, Mattie, Michael, Jacob, Destiny, and Elyssa
The kids were excited to sit on the tracks! Thankfully, they were appropriately nervous.

(I was in the gift shop by myself with the kids for a few minutes and someone thought they were all mine!)


Jacob and Destiny were reading all about the history of the tunnel and the Norfolk Southern train tracks.

The View from the Bottom
Isn't God amazing?



To You I lift up my eyes, O You who are enthroned in the heavens! Psalm 123:1



We Saw a Train Come Through!
There is no schedule, so this was just a treat!





Foliage
I could go spend a week here just me and my camera. (And Dad, you'd be in absolute heaven. Wanna meet us there next weekend for family pictures??) The photography opportunities are absolutely unlimited. After a while, leaves are just leaves in pictures, but I don't think I can tire of being surrounded by them during the fall.





The View from the Top
Lover's Leap is what they call the top of this mountain. Lovers from two different Indian tribes used to fall in love, but knew they were not allowed to intermarry. So they'd jump off the top of the mountain in hopes that they'd be united in the afterlife. A bit dramatic, I'd say!




View from Lover's Leap

Natural Tunnel from the trail up to Lover's Leap

The Appalachian Homestead
At the bottom is a preserved Appalachian homestead. We just finished studying Appalachia, and both kids were sick so we didn't get to do our scheduled field trip. This was perfect! It's just a one room house so we played some games to help the kids see what life would really be like with 10 people living in this tiny little house.



And how it would feel in January having spaces in between the panels of the door, floors and walls.

I believe this goes down as my favorite field trip ever. We're going this weekend I hope, and taking Robert with us this time!