Saturday, January 29, 2011

I love pictures.

Have you ever tried sitting down with a little kid and reading to them from a book...without pictures? How much luck did you have?? None. Their little minds don't quite understand....or they get distracted.....or they plainly aren't interested.....or they just can't even begin to follow what you're talking about. Add pictures to the book and voila! They see what the story is portraying! The pictures make the story come alive to them!


Have you noticed how many pictures God draws for us in the Bible to help us visualize the truths that He has for us?
-We are the sheep, He is the Shepherd.
-We each a part of a body, THE body of Christ. Some are the hands, others the eyes, ears, arms, etc. But they all must work together to make a complete body that functions correctly for Christ!
-He is the Vine, we are the branches.
-He is the Cornerstone and we are the bricks that make up His Temple.
-He is the Bread of life.
-He is our living Water.
-He is our Father, our Daddy. We are His children!!

The list could go on and on!

God's ways are so much higher than ours. His thoughts are so much deeper than we could ever imagine. So what did He do for us? He drew pictures in our Book! He brought His story, His truths to life so that our simple minds could begin to understand the unending beauty that is portrayed for us in His Word!!
What a good Father we have!

It's a small, dark world.

I had a fabulous shift at work today. It's always fun to work with people you enjoy! Since I started this job in November and then was gone for almost the whole month of December, I'm still getting acquainted with a lot of the girls I work with.
Today I was on shift with a girl named Paige. We had the opportunity to get to know one another a little bit in between customers and I was surprised to find out that, not only was she familiar with New Tribes, she also knew a lot of the same people I did! She is good friends with missionaries that work at the aviation base in Arizona where Drew and I are going to live after we get married. She even knew who his family was! It really is a small world!!
So, later on, I was visiting with some friends and I decided to tell them about all the connections I had discovered that day between my co-worker and myself. As I began to tell them about it, I said, "So there's this girl that I work with, and I've known she was a Christian for a long time just by the way she acts......." It wasn't until I finished my story that it dawned on me, it was no surprise at all to me when I discovered that Paige was a believer. She is sweet and caring, her conversation is always wholesome, she is an extremely hard and faithful worker...the list could go on and on. It really made me stop and think.....do I have a testimony like that? Do I conduct myself in a way that doesn't give anyone any doubt that I serve Christ? Even more importantly, do my life, conversation, or actions dishonor the name of Christ in any way before unbelievers?
I thank God that He set an example right in front of me of what it looks like to have a shining testimony in a dark world. I pray that I will continually have a testimony that brings Him nothing but the highest honor and glory! It may be a small world, but it's also a very dark world. Only God's truth can penetrate the darkness. My our lives be shining lights for Him!

So basically..............I'm engaged. :)