what I love on Wednesday

Happy Wednesday!  I am LOVING this fall weather that we finally have this week.  Fall is my favorite season, and I love being able to wear long sleeves, or sweaters, without getting hot.  For now, it's fine, but once winter hits, I can no longer wear sweaters or even long sleeves, sometimes.  Places here turn the heat way up when it gets cold, and I end up being so hot that I get sick.  For now, I'm embracing the fact that I can wear such things.

Here are some other things I am loving on this beautiful [mid]week day.

My current nail color.  I love black in the fall and winter months, and was inspired by a friend at church last week to do the same.  I wear a lot of black, sometimes for my entire outfit on Sunday because of singing on the praise team [when we all have to either match or coordinate], so it's practical.  You can only get away with dark colors like this if your nails are shorter.  If they're too long, you'll end up looking like the wicked witch in The Wizard of Oz.

This color is a gel color, but it's Black Onyx by OPI.

Monday night, when we were all at home, was glorious.  I had plans that got canceled, and though there was something else I could have gone to at our church [a girls ministry leaders meeting], I skipped it and stayed home.  Our weekend was busy and all disjointed, so it was good to be home together for maybe the only night this week.  Such is our life right now, so I try to go with it.  This was the night I made one of their favorite meals and I prayed over the food, asking the Lord to multiply it.  After dinner while Todd was catching up to me on episodes of The Good Wife, I drank this coffee and started a new book.  It is never too early to wear Christmas pajama pants or drink from a Christmas mug.  I love this mug, because it reminds me of my sisters!  I bought it in Colorado, when we drove up the mountain to North Pole, back in July. 

This was an insert that was in our church bulletin this past Sunday, and I was immediately filled with gratitude of belonging to a body of believers such as the one I go to every single week.  I love our church family so very much, and our pastor is such a good shepherd of the flock that God has given him.  I love that they changed our annual Fall festival to the night before Halloween, so that we can be at home on Halloween night to make and build relationships in our neighborhoods within the community. 

I love that outward focus.  I love that events are created to reach out to the surrounding neighborhoods that are close by our church building, and I love that food is so often incorporated.  There is something so special about breaking bread together and sitting around a table, and quite honestly, it was an event like this that brought our family to where we now attend for services.  The motto of my friend Austin, who at that time was the children's pastor, was that if you could reach the kids, you could reach the entire family.  And it worked!  I say that like it was something Austin himself did, but that's not true.  God already had it in the works for my family to start attending here, but He definitely used Austin in His plan, along with a couple of really great friends.  I love how God works! 

Speaking of the Lord, check out this beautiful sunset He gave me to enjoy while I was driving to a meeting last night.

The meeting was at a huge church in Memphis, so I had about thirty minutes of driving and gazing at the gorgeous sky.  I love nights like this.  My friend Andrea and I were texting back and forth yesterday afternoon, about how magnificent God's creation is, and how He designed it to bring Him glory.  She sent me a picture of their camping trip from last weekend, and that was what got it started.  And the picture was so beautiful, that it brought tears to my eyes.  [If you know me AT ALL, you know that tears are practically ever present in my eyes.  Which is why I never wear mascara on my bottom eyelashes, because who wants to see black streaks on my face constantly?]  Anyway.  Those tears led to more, and also I was listening to the Travis Cottrell version of Holy Spirit [You Are Welcome Here] while getting dressed to go to Drew's senior year meeting, and all of a sudden, I had a situation on my hands and discovered that it is impossible to put on mascara while also crying.  For a few minutes, I couldn't stop the flow and had to just get it out, before I could finally finish my makeup. 

I blame it all on Andrea. 

And yes, I told her that.

The tears finally stopped, and you'll be glad to know that I never cried again about the fact that ANOTHER son of mine is graduating this year.

I came across this verse in Psalm that I love, that goes along with the picture above. 

All the earth will worship You and sing praise to You.  They will sing praise to Your name.

[Psalm 66:4] 

I don't know about you, and where you are in your walk with the Lord, but I cannot stop myself from always singing praise to Him.  I see Him everywhere.  In the sky, in nature that is all around me, I hear Him in music [not literally, but He definitely ministers to me through music], I feel Him close by during quiet and reverent nights when I am seeking His presence.  When we seek Him is where we find Him, and that can be anywhere.  If you have never actively sought out His presence, pray that He will help you to feel Him.  I always pray that before I go to worship Him during a church service on Sunday, or if I am in my kitchen spending time with Him.  I almost always use music as part of my quiet time.

If you have no idea what I am talking about, but that is something you want to experience, comment here or email me.  [allboys@gmail.com]  I certainly do not know the answer to everything, or even many things, but I know how to seek out the Lord.  I would be glad to help you do the same.

One side note: on Sunday night, we had a praise and worship night at a sister church in Memphis.  I prayed for us to experience His presence that night, as I know many of the choir and orchestra people that were also there did, and He showed up.  The bible says that where two or three are gathered in His name, that He is there also [Matthew 18:20], and there were way more than two or three of us.  I could feel His presence tangibly, and I was so caught up in the worship, that I totally forgot we were there to minister as a choir and orchestra.  Instead, He ministered to us, and then through us. 

I love nights like that.  Our worship pastor prayed that we would drive home spent, having emptied ourselves in worshiping Him, and I would say that is definitely what happened.  I came home exhausted and sore, which is crazy, because all I did was sing, but it's as if my whole body had gone through rigorous exercise.  I was still sore the next day. 

I'll end on that note, friends.  I could go on all day about this, about the goodness and kindness of the Lord, but I'll stop.  I pray your day is great.  Love to all. 

P.s.  I love these verses and want you to read them, and think on the act of worship, and challenge yourself the next time you worship Him.

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.

For everything was created by Him, in heaven and on earth, the visible and the invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities--all things have been created through Him and for Him.

He is before all things, and by Him all things hold together.  

He is also the head of the body, the church; He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that He might come to have first place in everything.

For God was pleased to have all His fullness dwell in Him, and through Him to reconcile everything to Himself by making peace through the blood of His cross--whether things on earth or things in heaven.  

Once you were alienated and hostile in your minds because of your evil actions.  

But now He has reconciled you by His physical body through His death, to present you holy, faultless, and blameless before Him--if indeed you remain grounded and steadfast in the faith and are not shifted away from the hope of the gospel that you heard.  

[Colossians 1:1-23]