What a Day!

Today has been quite the surprisingly great day! Until a few minutes ago, that is. More on that in a little bit.

My morning wasn't really all that special... I got up, had breakfast and got ready to go to church. I even wore some of my new clothes! It's nothing to wear shorts to church here, so I wore my lovely bermuda shorts and that purple top. Love! Anyway. I always expect church to be good. It's rare that I go to an "eh" service. Today was definitely on the uh.maz.ing. side. =)


The title of his sermon today was "It's Hammer Time!" All of you 80s folks, my pastor walked onstage to that song... You know the one. ;-) I was dying laughing. Our pastor is pretty awesome. Anyway, he preached on Judges 4. To give you the rundown of the story, it starts off with yet another war between the Israelites and another nation. The prophet in this story was a woman. *gasp* *shock* God used a woman?! {Sometimes I really wonder how our ancestors got the idea that women should be utterly silent and do nothing church-related. Moving on.} The prophet tells the military leader that he would win this battle, but the victory would be by the hands of another woman. *gasp* Long story short, they fight the battle and the leader of the other nation escapes, into the tent of a woman several miles away. The woman allows him in (big no-no because she was married), gives him milk to drink, covers him with a blanket and lets him sleep. But instead of keeping a man in her tent who shouldn't be there (and chances are she had no idea who he was or what he just escaped) she killed him in his sleep. With a stake and hammer. Right through his temple. 


The lesson of this story is: What do we let into our own tents? Our tents are our homes, our bodies, our minds, the way we see things, the computer, the TV, etc. Anything that shouldn't be here. If we start to let something - anything - that is the least bit compromising into our "tents" we begin to let it stay and get more comfortable. After a while, we don't even notice it. As he kept preaching, I realized that God was trying to get me to realize that I'd compromised my thinking. What I've been sharing with you about my "thought closet." I've been letting so many bad ideas, thoughts, words of others into my head over the years that I just stopped noticing it. Worse, I've taken over the job of beating myself up. As I sat there and realized he was talking to me...I realized He was talking to me. I realized (as the pastor was speaking) that God wanted me to get rid of this bad habit, once and for all. No more compromising, no more. I need to do exactly what that women in Judges did - kill it. And then I need to do a better job of protecting my tent from now on. {I urge you to listen to his message here if you get a chance. I'm sure it will bless you as much as it has me. It will be the first one on the list, dated April 10, as soon as they link it up.}


As the service ended, my pastor prayed... He prayed for the military - that we would enjoy our time together and that he would protect those serving abroad... It touched my heart so much. Then, he prayed for people wanting to have babies. I know his message was directed at those struggling with infertility, but I felt like he was praying for me too. I know I say that I have baby fever, but I think it's more than that. I desire to have a baby, to feel it move in my belly, to nurture it, to share that with my husband... I want that so much. And I know that God has put that desire in me. I seriously cried... But overall, I just felt so much peace and joy at the end of the service today. Man, did God ever do some work on me today! It was so stinkin' awesome!! 


This afternoon, I texted the fabulous Annie to see if she would like to come over for dinner and Army Wives. Best idea I've had in a while. She immediately agreed and I was excited! I rarely have company and I really like hanging out with her. =) And she lives close, so that's definitely a bonus! Did I mention her hubby is deployed too? I ran to the shopette for a pizza and she baked some chocolate chip cookies! Can you say "awesome?" We chatted, watched the - yet again - tearful Army Wives...and chatted some more. Oh, and Jasper bugged the heck out of her. Not only did he beg food, at one point he had all his toys on her lap!! Crazy puppy. Good thing she likes dogs!! Basically, we had a fabulous evening and ate some definitely unhealthy - but yummy! - food. =) Oh, and one of the birds that lives in the eaves near my front door kinda attacked her. I think we may have scared it out of its mind. The birds aren't used to me having people over...especially not after dark! Haha! =)


Ok, so the not-so happy thing... One of my favorite bloggers posted a very sad post tonight. It was written as a suicide note, but according to an anonymous commenter (who I think is an MP) she is actually okay. However, she is going through a really rough time in her life right now. She really needs our support. Please just check out her post and leave her some love so that she knows we're all here for her. She's currently in the hospital, hopefully getting the help she needs. But we need to let her know that we're here for her when she returns to the blogging world.