Wednesday, December 27, 2006

Our Family Christmas *2006*



I uploaded all of our pics to one album--just click on the picture then select the "slideshow" feature to go thru the entire thing! We hope you all had as wonderful a Christmas as we had!

Thursday, December 21, 2006

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a Good Night!

I usually don't like all the stuff that gets forwarded to me, like the jokes and all that, but I got this one sent to me today and I couldn't help but find it so true and comforting. It's an interview with Rick Warren, author of "A Purpose Driven Life". If you haven't read it yet, you should!! It's awesome!

I wish you all a safe and happy holiday wherever you may be!


Merry Christmas!

xoxo
Natalie

This is an incredible interview with Rick Warren, "Purpose Driven Life" author, and pastor of Saddleback Church in California.

His wife now has cancer, and he now has "wealth" from the book sales. In the interview by Paul Bradshaw with Rick Warren, Rick said: People ask me, What is the purpose of life? And I respond: In a nutshell, life is preparation for eternity. We were made to last forever, and God wants us to be with Him in Heaven.

One day my heart is going to stop, and that will be the end of my body--but not the end of me. I may live 60 to 100 years on earth, but I am going to spend trillions of years in eternity. This is the warm-up act-the dress rehearsal. God wants us to practice on earth what we will do forever in eternity. We were made by God and for God, and until you figure that out, life isn't going to make sense. Life is a series of problems: Either you are in one now, you're just coming out of one, or you're getting ready to go into another one. The reason for this is that God is more interested in your character than your comfort. God is more interested in making your life holy than He is in making your life happy. We can be reasonably happy here on earth, but that's not the goal of life. The goal is to grow in character, in Christ likeness.

This past year has been the greatest year of my life but also the toughest, with my wife, Kay, getting cancer. I used to think that life was hills and valleys-you go through a dark time, then you go to the mountaintop, back and forth. I don't believe that anymore.
Rather than life being hills and valleys, I believe that it's kind of like two rails on a railroad track, and at all times you have something good and something bad in your life. No matter how good things are in your life, there is always something bad that needs to be worked on. And no matter how bad things are in your life, there is always something good you can thank God for. You can focus on your purposes, or you can focus on your problems. We discovered quickly that in spite of the prayers of hundreds of thousands of people, God was not going to heal Kay or make it easy for her. It has been very difficult for her, and yet God has strengthened her character, given her a ministry of helping other people, given her a testimony, drawn her closer to Him and to people.

Rather than life being hills and valleys, I believe that it's kind of like two rails on a railroad track, and at all times you have something good and something bad in your life. No matter how good things are in your life, there is always something bad that needs to be worked on. And no matter how bad things are in your life, there is always something good you can thank God for.

You can focus on your purposes, or you can focus on your problems. If you focus on your problems, you're going into self-centeredness, which is my problem, my issues, my pain. But one of the easiest ways to get rid of pain is to get your focus off yourself and onto God and others.


You have to learn to deal with both the good and the bad of life. Actually, sometimes learning to deal with the good is harder. For instance, this past year, all of a sudden, when the book sold 15 million copies, it made me instantly very wealthy. It also brought a lot of notoriety that I had never had to deal with before.

I don't think God gives you money or notoriety for your own ego or for you to live a life of ease. So I began to ask God what He wanted me to do with this money, notoriety and influence. He gave me two different passages that helped me decide what to do, II Corinthians 9 and Psalm 72.

First, in spite of all the money coming in, we would not change our lifestyle one bit. We made no major purchases.

Second, about midway through last year, I stopped taking a salary from the church.

Third, we set up foundations to fund an initiative we call The Peace Plan to plant churches, equip leaders, assist the poor, care for the sick, and educate the next generation.

Fourth, I added up all that the church had paid me in the 24 years since I started the church, and I gave it all back. It was liberating to be able to serve God for free.

We need to ask ourselves: Am I going to live for possessions? Popularity? Am I going to be driven by pressures? Guilt? Bitterness? Materialism? Or am I going to be driven by God's purposes (for my life)?
When I get up in the morning, I sit on the side of my bed and say, God, if I don't get anything else done today, I want to know You more and love You better. God didn't put me on earth just to fulfill a to-do list. He's more interested in what I am than what I do. That's why we're called human beings, not human doings.

Happy moments, PRAISE GOD.
Difficult moments, SEEK GOD.
Quiet moments, WORSHIP GOD.
Painful moments, TRUST GOD.
Every moment, THANK GOD.

Monday, December 18, 2006

Friday, December 15, 2006

So, I have a hobby...

and that hobby is photo-editing! I'm not sure that's one of the options that surveys have like, sewing, cooking, art, reading...photo-editing! Nah! I think JR is somewhat relieved to find out that I do have another hobby besides what he thinks are my others, eating and sleeping. So, here's a little of my hobby-ing (it's my own made-up word, leave me alone).






Monday, December 04, 2006

Our Babies

I thought I'd post some pics that we've taken over the last couple of weeks because they are growing really fast! Mom feeds them too much!

This is Charlie sleeping on his daddy after he got home from work!

Sam loves to watch TV! Football is his favorite, because there's lots of movement!

This is a picture of the boys doing what they love to do most--fighting! It's funny how much their personalities are like their mom and dad! Charlie is the mama's boy who loves to cuddle up and sleep and is usually the initiator of the fights b/w him and Sam. Sam, the bigger one is most like his daddy--more independent, but when he's sweet he's reeeallly sweet. Ha!

I'm a bad mom b/c I have no clue who this is. Until we get colored collars, the main way we tell them apart is that Sam got into the fireplace and got soot all over his neck, so he's now left with a gray-ish tint to his neck. Can't see the neck here, therefore I have no idea which kitty this is!




Charlie loves his mommy!