Embrace Yourself Today

Frustration to the up-most: What we have when we cannot control things in life. When I feel out of control I feel most helpless. I need control, it is my professed weakness. God deals with me constantly in this aspect of my life. This is my wilderness lesson that God repeats year after year in my life. He may spend the next 40 years beating me with this lesson, and I welcome it, because with each beating He opens my eyes. Unfortunately, I cannot understand why the lesson does not sink in so I can move onto a different lesson. Since arriving in Israel, as many of you know, life has presented us with MANY challenges. I guess I wasn't expecting these challenges. See, the year before my husband and I got married I prayed over every aspect of life by categories (as not to forget anything) every day of every week. Our first year of marriage was so smooth, Josh's basketball contract and everything that went with it was perfect! So I did the same knowing we had baby on the way...and I...

Well friends, yesterday was full of a lot of firsts! But let me begin with a story of irony (if you can call it that). My godson, Jeremiah, told me I'd be having the baby today...we kind of joked about it all day. Well he wasn't so far off, we indeed spent time in a hospital, and I did have a little scare that Rosie was going to come today. How did this all begin? It began with a bunch of 'firsts'. This afternoon I accompanied Josh to the car to collect receipts so I could itemize our taxes. He was getting ready to go to practice and I wanted fresh air. After I got the receipts, Josh went into grab his coat. Our neighbor dog was sitting by the car, so I joined him and "my cat" on the curb. I was petting him. After about 5-10 mins I decided to go back in and get back to work. Upon getting up from the curb the dog just latched onto my face. He didn't growl or warn me at all, he just lunged and bit. I knew not to pull away. When he let go I began to stand up ...

Many are aware of the story of how God brought His people out of Egypt and away from the persecution Pharaoh. It is a famous story of a down trodden people who were less than favored by the insidious ruler of Egypt. These people, the Israelites, were slaves. Their lives were hard and full of pain. However, they had God’s favor. Before God brought them to the Promise land they lived in a land ridden with blood, sweat, tears, brutality, and harshness. There was no hope for them in Egypt. Then God raised up a leader named Moses who would bring these chosen people into the land he promised Abraham; a land filled with richness, vastness and full of promise. From the moment the Lord brought them out Egypt, the children of Israel tested His patience by murmuring and complaining about the food (manna from Heaven) and constantly speaking unbelief in God's promise of the Promise Land. Numbers Chapter: 14 records the most impressive and important bit of lessoned learned when one is going th...

This past week we had the opportunity to celebrate Christmas and Hanukkah with one of Josh's managers. We had some great food, I picked up a recipe for amazing soup, and we ate lots! It was great to see the family side to Hanukkah. We were able to witness the signing that takes place before the lighting of the menorah and we watched them light the menorah. After that, we did some EATING! Below are pictures from our celebrations!