Give It Your All!

Since 6:30 in the morning is too early for some people to focus, I did my devotions when I got home from school this afternoon :) For some unknown reason I pulled out the book by Elizabeth George titled A Young Woman's Call To Prayer and started reading it. (She is an amazing author by the way and if you haven't read her books there's always a first time!) While I was reading, it suddenly hit me that God wants me to give Him everything I've got. I mean it's not hard to give talents, belongings, and even time, but what about my reputation and pride. He wants that too! Jesus was shamed, mocked, and rejected just for me so why shouldn't I be willing to look a little stupid for the glory of His Name? Every Christian says they want God in the center of their lives but if we think about other things 3/4's of the time, sleep through our devotions, and just do enough "good stuff" to get by I don't think we understand the deep, never-ending type of commitment that God wants from us. I'm not professing to have all the answers because I don't. But I want to challenge you to aim high. (You'll never get to heaven if you don't aim for it :) Follow Jesus with everything you've got and hold nothing back. Give it your all friend!! A crown is waiting just for you :)

"I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness."  2 Timothy 4:7

Sickness = Craziness

For over a week now our entire family (except for Mom) has been taking their turns on the couch with some weird kind of flu bug. Me (Corrine) and Jessica were laying there feeling sorry for ourselves and wishing we were anywhere else when she looks at me with a silly grin on her face and says. "Being sick makes you feel stupid!" Well said Jessica...

#1. It drains all your strength away
#2. You get depressed (especially when it's sunny outside like this week)
#3. You get to see every single side of your family (good and bad)

The experience wasn't in vain though and I found out I'm truly grateful for Advil. It works! The first few days we were humping along with trusty, old,  Tylenol until Dad decided to try Advil. (My Dad's like that, always trying to find a new and faster way to do things :) So cheers to Advil! We got hooked and from now on I'm sure our entire family will be taking those little redish pills for any ailment we might have :) Another thing we're all thankful for is health and good voices. During our time of sickness a few of us were quite unfortunate and lost our voices. Singing "For Health and Strength and Daily Food" at the dinner table is very difficult when half of the family keeps flatting! I don't think we've ever went off key that often or that severely in our singing history! So if you're healthy.... Be Ye Thankful!!! And.... if you're sick, take Advil :)

3 things to do when you're feeling sick and crazy:

1. READ STORIES TO TWO YEAR-OLDS
It's a lot of fun reading those books again that you used to read when you were that little. I know it's a long time ago but try to remember :)

2. MAKE APPLE PIES  
So I told you being sick makes you do crazy things... Well this one supports that statement exactly! One morning me and Alyssa are sitting at the breakfast table having a sisterly chat (since we didn't feel like doing anything else and we were sick :) and I look over and see a big pile of apples sitting in front of her. I asked her what she was doing with them and she sadly replied that she wasn't sure yet! Peeling a whole pile of apples for absolutely no reason isn't something people do every day is it? Don't worry I'm not condemning you if that's one of your regular hobbies :) Anyway Alyssa decided that she would make an apple pie with her pealed heap. This idea was all well and good until she couldn't find eggs in the fridge. Since she didn't feel like trooping out to the barn to get eggs, the half finished pie (pictured above) sat on the counter for almost two hours until thankfully Mom walked past and was nice enough to get eggs and finish it. Thank God for mothers!



3.TAKE ADVIL!
I know this sounds like an advertisement but it's just some friendly advice to spare you from your next headache! (Remember it does work :) But just to keep from working for the Advil company I'll tell you one BAD thing about Advil. It tastes horrible. I think they sould have this label added to their boxes. WARNING: If swallowed slowly or allowed to melt in saliva, this tablet will attack your taste buds!

Now if you're feeling sick after reading all this, Take heart! The flu season is nearly past and spring (or summer) is here (to stay hopefully)!