Pumpkin Carving & Six Flags

I went home again this weekend (imagine that!). I was so excited to bring a jar of pickles home for everyone to try and WOULD YOU BELIEVE that I left them in the refrigerator… I was so upset! So now I have three jars of pickles here… haha, I’m going to have to find someone to help me out so I don’t eat them all myself!

On Saturday morning mom and I went to Sherman to do some shopping. We both left saying, “I don’t want to spend any money,” so I’m not really sure why we went in the first place. Haha! We didn’t spend very much though so we did ok. We just spent a few hours around Sherman then went to eat at Panera together. When we finished shopping mom dropped me off at some friend’s house in Sherman to meet up with Matt. He and Dave (the drummer in his band) were practicing some and recording a few songs at Dave’s house. We hung out there for a while the matt and I drove to Gainesville. We ate, watched most of an A&M football game, then carved a pumpkin! As far as I can remember, I have never carved a pumpkin! We didn’t have “pumpkin carving tools” so we used dad’s pocket knife! We thought and thought about what we could carve, and just couldn’t decide. So after looking at many faces, and scary pictures, and intricate and detailed designs… we finally decided on…


TEXAS! Haha, we thought it was pretty fun! :) Here are some more pictures from my first pumpkin carving experience!

Yummy... haha!

This is my "angry face" after Matt smeared pumpkin guts all over my face...

Cleaning out our pumpkin...

It was pretty disgusting, really...

All cleaned out!

The planning stage...

He is so focused... haha!

Matt working on cutting out the design...

The final product...

Our silly picture...

All done!

On Sunday Matt and I went to church at Sonrise. We got to visit with a few people there then we left shortly after church was over. We went through Sonic then got on the road on the way to… SIX FLAGS! Matt’s band had been asked to play there a while back, then something fell through and the people changed their minds. They were pretty disappointed about it. However, someone called them on Friday or Saturday and wanted them to come play after all! It was “World Youth Day” and there were a lot of Catholic youth groups there. Because it was such late notice, two of the four band members weren’t able to come, so Matt and David did an acoustic show. They just played with Matt’s guitar and David’s djembe drum. I got to go and sing harmonies on two songs. When we got there, we pulled up at the employee entrance and had to show our IDs. The woman told Matt to drive around to a gate and pick up the phone and tell them who he was and that he was cleared to go to the Music Mill. We pulled around and there was a scary looking gate and a black phone on a pole outside. Matt picked it up and told them his name and the gate opened. We pulled in and it looked trashy and SCARY! Haha! There were random things lying around everywhere and a torn up greenhouse…? We pulled around and parked right next to/underneath the Texas Giant. So as weird as it was back there, we were RIGHT BY the park! It was really pretty nice! We didn’t have to mess with the huge parking lots, or the traffic coming in and out! It was very nice. We got all of the “band gear” and headed into the park to go to where they were playing. We found the place and hung out there for a little while until it was their turn to play. They played for about thirty minutes. They did a really good job and put on a very good show! Unfortunately, there weren’t very many people there at the time. The people who WERE there seemed to really enjoy it though. When they were finished they stood around and talked to some of the people there for a little while then we headed back to the cars to put up their stuff. Here are some pictures of them playing...

Once we got everything put away we went back in to ride some rides! There were long lines so we only had time to ride two rides, but they were my two favorites! The first one we rode was the TITAN! Matt knew where the camera was on that ride, so when we were almost there he said “HERE COMES THE CAMERA!” so we both made goofy faces! As soon as we got off we ran down to the booth to see our pictures. They were pretty ridiculous, haha! It was funny though! After the Titan we walked across the park to BATMAN! That one is my favorite ride. We waited a little longer and rode on the FRONT ROW! It was real fun. The park closed at 7:00pm so after Batman we went ahead and left. We didn’t run into any traffic leaving since we came in the employee entrance! Dave, Matt and I went and ate in Dallas then Matt and I headed back to Gainesville. It was pretty late when we got back so I decided to go ahead and stay the night in Gainesville instead of driving back to Edmond. Since I was staying another night, Matt decided he would do the same. :)

Well now that we are done with football, we start volleyball! I got put on A team even though I really feel like I should be on B team. I am OK at volleyball, but I’m definitely not great! I guess we’ll see how it goes! B team has a game tonight – I’m not sure if I am playing in it or not. I will keep y’all updated on how that goes!

We have Pi banquet this weekend. We are going to the Horse Races! We apparently have a really nice suite that will fit the whole club. They are feeding us a really nice dinner there, and there are TVs all over the room where you can watch the races, and there is a balcony that goes outside to the track where you can watch as well. It sounds like it’s a pretty nice facility so hopefully it will be real fun! We are supposed to dress 1920’s – 1940’s. I have ABSOLUTELY no idea what I am going to wear. SO, if you have any suggestions (or better yet, clothes that fit that style) let me know ASAP! I need ideas, and quick! Matt is coming in on Friday and is going to go with me. I think it will be a lot of fun! :)

So now I have a really random story. I was talking to someone the other day about old movies and cartoons that we used to watch when we were younger. I mentioned a small part of a show that I used to love. It is really just one song from a show (or maybe a movie, I don’t remember). It was a cartoon with a white bear named Rupert. I don’t know if the show was just called “Rupert” or if there was more to it. I really don’t remember watching the show at all, but here is my memory of it. I was staying the night with our friends Greg and Monnie Ross. I don’t know how old I was, but I was pretty little! They rented this Rupert movie and I don’t remember a bit of it EXCEPT for the “frog song”. I liked the song so much that we kept rewinding it so I could watch it again. Because I liked it so much, Greg found a way to put the song on a tape for me! I remember going home and putting that tape in my tape player and listening to it over and over! I hadn’t thought about that song in years! So anyway, I looked it up today and I found the video clip of the “frog song”! It is by Paul McCartney and is technically called “We All Stand Together”. So anyway, check it out – its pretty funny!

Well that is all I know for now! I have tons of homework to do this week, so I better get back to that! (Real fun, I know!) Ok bye!

Third Place

Well we're finished with football season! We finished with third place! We won tonight in overtime against Lambda. I pulled a few flags, knocked down a few passes, had one interception and one punt return. It was COLD! My toes and my fingers are just now getting the feeling back in them! Anyway, we finished the season 5-5. It's not great, but I'll take it. ;)

Sometime, either tomorrow or Friday, we are having up to three girls staying in our apartment during World Missions Workshop which is being held on OC's campus. I think they will mainly only be in here when it is time to sleep, but I'm not really sure. Kirby is haleping out a lot with WMW this year so she knows more about it than I do. It should be fun to have some "guests" for a couple of days though.

I think I am going home again this weekend. I've been home a lot lately! I hate the drive back to OC but I like being at home. I am trying to convince mom that we should carve pumpkins! I think it would be fun. :) As far as I can remember, I've never done that before!

I'm watching the World Series right now... it is making me a little sad. I was really pulling for the Rockies but right now... well... they're down by about twelve runs... so it's not looking good. Maybe they'll make a comeback in the last inning. Maybe? :)

Ok well that is all I know for now!

Pi Sports

We had a flag football playoff game tonight. We lost 0-12. :( We will still play tomorrow for 3rd place and we SHOULD win. We have beat this team before and I think we have a pretty good chance of winning again. They are a tough team though and they play hard, so it should be a good game. The team tonight was pretty rough. I took a couple of elbows, one straight in the gut. It knocked the breath out of me and I HATE that feeling. It took me a few minutes to really catch up on my breathing! Haha! Kirby took a LOT of elbows tonight. I think she is pretty sore tonight. So anyway, we have one more football game for the season then we move on to volleyball! I have kind of taken over football as far as the Athletic Director responsibilities go, but I think Kassie is going to handle volleyball a little more. I will be happy to have a little bit of a break. I will still have to go to a lot of games and probably help coach a little bit, but at least there might not be QUITE AS MUCH responsibility as in football. OK that's all for now - just a quick sports update for everyone!

Somewhere Out There

This video made me happy so I thought I’d share it with everyone. I used to LOVE this movie and this was my FAVORITE song… :) Enjoy!

Lights out!

I was only back at OC for about three days before I went back home. Haha, its not that I am homesick or absolutely sick of school… I just didn’t have anything else to do! That boy might have had something to do with it as well. :) I happened to know that he was going to be in the area this weekend so that could’ve swayed my decision.

So anyway, I got home on Friday evening and got there just in time to go to Gainesville Seafoodville with my parents. It was only my second or third time to eat there and I don’t think my parents have been there very often either but it was VERY good! Mom and I got two different kinds of shrimp then shared. When I started getting full I would just kind of look into my basket at the shrimp and try to decide if I could really stand to eat another one. I had a real big fat one sitting on the side that was really tempting me. It looked sooo good, but I was sooo full. I kept looking at it and thinking about it but each time I gave up and looked away. Well we were just sitting around talking and in the middle of someone’s conversation I decided that I DID, after all, want to eat that shrimp. In my mind I was on a mission. I had fought with the idea for too long and it was time to dive right in and EAT THE LAST BIG, FAT, JUICY SHRIMP! I turned around and reached down to grab it and there was nothing there but my lonely fries. I first gave the basket a confused look as if IT had stolen my shrimp but soon realized that the basket was not to blame… MOM! I looked at her and said, “Did you take that shrimp?” She just looked at me like a deer caught in the headlights and, pushing the food to the sides of her mouth, was able to mumble, “What shrimp?” SHE ATE MY SHRIMP! Haha, it was actually more funny than tragic, regardless of how I made it sound. That story really wasn’t worth a paragraph this long. I could’ve simply said, “Mom stole my last shrimp that I really wanted. I was sad,” and it probably would’ve been just as entertaining and still gotten the point across… oh well.

On Saturday I just sat around for most of the day. The Aggies played Nebraska but it wasn’t on TV so I had to find it on a radio station online. It was frustrating at times not being able to actually SEE what happened. I hate when there is some kind of close call or questionable call and I can’t see it to make my own judgment! A&M won though, so I was happy. :)

After the game I headed to Sherman to watch Matt’s band compete in a Battle of the Bands. They played VERY well but in the end didn’t get the spot that they wanted. The competition and the judges were kind of biased to heavier rock bands. The radio station that hosted the competition is a Christian rock station and most of their music is pretty hardcore. The guys did a great job though and still got a lot of compliments from people there. So whereas they were disappointed in the results, I think they realized that they still did an awesome job. After that we all went out to eat in Sherman then Matt and I headed back to Gainesville for the night.

This morning Matt and I drove BACK to Sherman and went to church at Park Avenue, where we interned this summer. It was great getting to see everyone again and kind of reminisce on this summer. When we were leaving Matt stopped and started to say something to me then just started laughing. He said he couldn’t find his sunglasses and started to say, “I think I left my sunglasses in the office.” Haha, too bad we don’t have an office anymore! It made me kind of sad that I’m not getting to do that anymore. It was an awesome experience though and its one I’ll never forget! I grew to love so many people there and I know they will always make me feel welcome there when I come to visit. Matt and I both enjoyed being back at Park Avenue for a little while. Hopefully it won’t be TOO long before we get to go back and visit again.

After church we went and ate and did a few things around Sherman then went BACK to Gainesville. This afternoon we basically just sat around and watched football and rested. We were pretty lazy, really. Once the Cowboys game was over we packed up our stuff and hit the road. Matt was driving back to Athens and I was headed back to OC. I was feeling sorry for Matt because he usually has an extra hour to drive than I do, but he got back before I did! I got caught in traffic due to a wreck AND construction and it took me longer than it did Matt. It was a VERY long and boring trip back to OC. At one point I only covered about four miles in thirty minutes… that’s how fun it was.

Anyway, I am back at OC now and I’m ready to start another week of classes. Well… I don’t know if I am “ready” necessarily, but its here… so I have to embrace it. Haha :) NOW I am going to bed! I can hardly keep my eyes open! Sooo, as we did it when I was little...

"Goodnight, sleep tight! Don’t let the bedbugs bite; but if they do, take a shoe and knock ‘em till they’re black and blue! Lights out!"

"But he's GOING TO BE, right?"

I hate when I don’t give shorter, more frequent, blog posts then end up spending forever writing one looong blog post! Haha! Well, here I go anyway…

The first week of October was pretty crazy for me. I was just really loaded down with school stuff and activities and I was sure to let Matt know all about it, haha! I told Matt that he needed to come see me and he just kept saying things like, “You know I would if I could,” or “I have too much going on here right now.” Then on Tuesday we had a really hard softball practice after an already long day. I walked in to the apartment from softball practice and I was hot and sweaty and smelly and really just feeling pretty disgusting. When I came in Kirby and Jessica both looked at me kind of funny and laughed a little bit. I said, “What?” but neither one responded. I just brushed it off and went to my room exhausted. When I walked around the corner I could see that there was someone under my bed (keep in mind my bed is about five feet off the ground) but I didn’t know who it was. I slowed down a little but kept creeping around the corner. MATT WAS SITTING UNDER MY BED! I kept saying, “What are you doing here? What are you doing here?” Then I remembered how smelly I was so I said, “Aww… I smell really bad!” Haha! So AFTER I SHOWERED we got to spend a couple of days together. I also got the chance to experience something new while Matt was here. For the first time in my life, I ate at a Waffle House. I’ve driven past the Waffle House in Gainesville many times and I have never had any desire to eat there. I always assumed that they were dirty and smelly and full of smelly trucker men. Well they really are… but the waffles are AMAZING! I most likely won’t make a habit out of eating there, but it was pretty good! Anyway, I was glad that Matt was able to come up to visit. It was a very nice surprise. :)

Football! We are already more than half way through our intramural football season! Sorry I haven’t been keeping y’all updated. The truth is, you haven’t been missing out on too much! We haven’t had an awful season, really, but it hasn’t been that great either. We have playoffs pretty soon after we get back from Fall Break so I’ll keep y’all updated on our playoff status.

Softball… is over! The 28th and 29th of September we played Lubbock Christian University in Lubbock. We played double headers on Friday and Saturday. It was parent’s weekend and a home football game for Texas Tech so there weren’t any hotels that could fit our whole team. Therefore we had to drive to New Mexico to stay the night! It was a nice little “road trip” for the team. Although riding on the bus got old after a while, it was a pretty fun trip. AND, better yet, I had an awesome hit! I was really excited about it, haha! Here are a couple of pictures from the weekend. My big hit:

Hanging out in the dugout..


Those were our last games of the season! So for an ‘end of season party’ the coaches took us all out to eat at Olive Garden! They told us to get WHATEVER we wanted! I even got dessert! I was stuffed by the time we left, but it was still good (and FREE… for me, anyway!).

In my Principles of Electronic Business class we are making web pages for clients. I am in a group with two other people and we are creating a page for a woman that sells pickles. It sounds a little funny, but these are some pretty popular pickles around here! We have been working on it for a few weeks but last week one of the girls in my group brought a jar of “Jan’s Pickles”. They are Spicy Sweet Dill… or something like that. I think there is another word in there somewhere, but I don’t remember where! Anyway, I am not a huge fan of pickles. I don’t like them AT ALL on my hamburgers or anything like that. I can eat baby dill pickles IF I am in the mood for them. HOWEVER, these were the BEST pickles I have ever had in my life. They were soooo good! Once we get the website finished we should have it set up so you can order them online and have them shipped to you. When that happens I will post a link and everyone needs to order some! They are VERY good!

Ok I think I am about caught up to present time! I just got back to OC yesterday from Fall Break. So now I’ll explain what all I did during break!

I left OC on Thursday after our football game. We played the Freshmen and we WON! I had three interceptions and a touch down! I don’t usually have THAT good of a game, but I think I was ready to go home! I had my car all packed up and ready to hit the road. I think I played extra hard to try to hurry along the game and WIN! Haha! So anyway, I headed home late Thursday night and got in around 11ish that night.

On Friday morning I SLEPT IN! It was so nice. I went to lunch with mom then made my rounds at the bank. It takes me a long time to visit everyone there! Part of it is that I like to talk a lot, but they talk a lot too in my defense, haha! It was nice to see everyone and get to catch up on everything. When I left the bank I was heading out to the hospital to visit a friend. On my way there Matt called to tell me that he was in traffic on his way to Gainesville. He told me that he was still in Lewisville. Then he asked what I was doing and when I told him I was leaving the bank and going to the hospital he said, “Well dang! I’m actually about to pull in to your driveway… I was going to surprise you.” Haha! He is just full of surprises. So I went back home and picked him up and we headed to the hospital just to find out that my friend had been released just a few minutes before we got there! Oh well… it’s the thought that counts, right? That evening I went and got my hair cut! I have been thinking about cutting it short again for a while now but with softball I just really didn’t want it falling in my face all the time. Since softball is over now, I decided to go ahead and cut it! Matt came with me and had a wonderful time hanging out at the beauty shop. I like it short, Matt likes it short, mom likes it short, dad… well… I think he accepts it. Haha! I think sometimes he thinks my hair should still be past my rear end. After that we went out to eat with the Austin family then went to the Gainesville High School football game. It was kind of sad. They actually DID win the game (I heard it was their first district win in two years!!!) but it was still disappointing. When I was in high school we had AWESOME football teams! We even won state my junior year! It’s just weird to go out there and not see the AWESOME GAINESVILLE LEOPARDS! Oh well.

Saturday morning we all got up and went to Depot Days. Mom, dad, Matt, and I walked around for a little while just looking around until Jason, Summer and Elijah got there. We went and did some fun things with Elijah. Elijah REALLY wanted to go see the puppies… he kept telling me. I didn’t really care much for the puppies but I went anyway. Just kidding! I was dying to go see the puppies. That is my favorite part of Depot Days (along with looking at the old cars!). They didn’t have as many dogs this year as they have in the past but it was still fun. After playing with the dogs Elijah went into a pen area that had bunnies and piglets! He thought it was so cool. He would walk over and touch a bunny and when it would jump he would jump back and just laugh. After playing with them for a while he got to ride a pony! (On a side note: I, too, wanted to ride the pony and pet the bunnies and pigs, but my parents wouldn’t pay for it. I’m sure this topic will come up again years from now in therapy… thanks mom and dad.) :) We hung out for a while longer at Depot Days, spent over 30 minutes waiting on our Sonic food, then went back to the house.

Later that afternoon went up to the church building to meet the rest of the guys in Matt’s band so they could start setting up. Once they got all set up they just practiced for a while until time for it to start. We had a pretty good turn out! With Sonrise being such a small church we weren’t really sure how many people would come, but I was very pleased with the turnout. We had about 10-15 people come from Park Avenue! It was GREAT to get to see some of the youth group kids and some of the adults that Matt and I spent all summer with. I absolutely loved working there this summer and getting to know and love so many people there so it was great to see some of them again. We also had a group from a church in Woodbine. One of my good friends from high school’s fiancé is the youth minister there so she invited them all. They stood on the first row and I think they really enjoyed it! Elijah also really enjoyed the show! He was SO HYPER! He was running around clapping and dancing and doing a weird “air guitar with one leg in the air” kind of move… I don’t know what it was, but all of the ladies were watching him! He came up to me once during the show SO excited and he said, “Laur Laur, he has a GUITAR!” Then he just grinned then ran off dancing again. He is so funny to watch and listen to… he says the funniest things. I even got to sing one song with the band. I sang harmonies on the song “Esperanza”. That is the song written about the orphanage that we went to this summer. I was VERY nervous but it turned out ok. When we finished the song Matt made a comment about me singing with them then said, "Isn't she pretty?" Haha, I think he scored some bonus points with that little comment. :) The band did a really good job and I think everyone really enjoyed it! They sold quite a bit of merchandise and signed a few autographs (which I still think is funny… I don’t know why!). It was a lot of fun!

Here are some pictures from the night:

Elijah clapping and watching the band...

Me singing on stage...

The band seems do be doing pretty well right now. They are playing in a Battle of the Bands this weekend. If they place in the top 3 (out of 5 bands) they get to play at Shout Fest. Shout Fest is held in Sherman and will have a lot of big name Christian artists. It would be a pretty big deal if they got to play! We feel pretty confident that they will get to (or at least we hope so!). Then in February they are playing in Nashville! I don’t really understand what all that will entail but it should be fun! I will let y’all know more about what that is when I find out.

Jason preached the next morning at Sonrise and did a really good job. I love hearing him preach. Sometimes it’s kind of weird because I think, “That’s my brother… I didn’t know he could preach it!” :) He really does do a good job though. All during church Josiah, one of the younger kids at our church, kept following Matt around. We heard from Josiah’s dad that he was really excited about Matt’s band. All during the show Josiah was running around clapping and cheering. He cheered SO much that one of the band members gave him a free shirt and CD for being such a good fan. Josiah was running around wearing his shirt and holding up the CD yelling, “FREEEE! FREEEE!” Haha, he was real excited. So anyway, Josiah even came over to sit by Matt during church. Elijah came over and was sitting in Matt’s lap playing with him and Josiah leaned over to Matt and said, “So then… are you Elijah’s uncle?” Matt’s face was PRICELESS... and a little awkward!! Haha! I just looked at Matt waiting for his response. Matt said, “Well… no… not yet,” and Josiah said, “But he’s GOING TO BE, right?” By this point Matt and I were cracking up. When mom came and sat down I told her about it and she just said that she wished she could’ve seen Matt’s face.

After church, mom forced us to take a family picture. She yelled and screamed and forced us to the front of the church for a picture. Once we all stopped crying from her abuse, we were able to smile for a picture. :) I guess she wasn’t really THAT bad. We just always have to tease her because she is always making us take pictures. :) Anyway, here is the picture.

Matt and I took some pictures in the van on the way home from church:

We went home after church because mom and dad had cooked us a WONDERFUL meal. It was nice having the whole family there! We don’t have that very often. After we ate we sat around and talked, napped, played with Elijah, and watched football! We were very exciting. Even though just about everyone else in the room was sleeping as well, mom decided to try to take pictures of Matt and I sleeping. They turned out to be pretty goofy looking pictures. The first one, Matt heard the click of the camera and opened his eyes. His eyes weren’t completely open though when the picture snapped! Then in the second one Matt was faking sleep for mom but then I woke up! Haha!

As mom put it, Matt looks "drunk" in this picture. (sorry Matt!) :)

So after nap time Matt and I left to go to a Jeremy Camp concert in Decatur, TX. Here is Matt on the way there saying, "Yay! Jeremy Camp!" Haha!

We couldn't use the flash so my pictures didn't really turn out, but here is the one I got:

He did a really good job and we really enjoyed it! During the show Matt turned to me and said, “There is a girl back there and I KNOW she has been to one of our shows before!” I turned around to look and she was a girl that had been pulled up on stage to sing with the band the night before! We went and talked to her for a minute after the show. It was pretty funny that he recognized her!

Here is a video of a Jeremy Camp song in case you've never heard of him:

After the show we drove to Athens (where Matt’s family lives now) to spend a couple of days there. We really just hung out and took it easy while there. Matt and I cooked Taco Ring for his parents on Monday night. We watched some movies and hung out with his parents and really just took it easy! On Tuesday, on our way back to Gainesville, we stopped at his grandpa’s house to visit for a little while because I had never met him before.

We also took some pictures while I was there. We took a LOT but I’ll only post a few of them...

Of course, we had to take a goofy one:

I have a couple of new obsessions right now. One is apple juice. I'm not sure why, but I want it all the time lately. My other obsession right now is Ingrid Michaelson...

...you can listen to her music here if you want: www.myspace.com/ingridmichaelson

So anyway, I know this was a long blog post but I think I got y’all caught up! Sorry it’s been so long since I have posted. I will try to update more often so it will be easier on everyone! That’s all for now.

Relay for Life

As most of you know, I have had a very busy semester. Whereas I can remember every softball game, football game, and meeting I have failed to remember one very important thing. RELAY FOR LIFE! I completely forgot that I even signed up. So anyway, part of my job as a team member is to raise a certain amount of money. The money goes to the American Cancer Society – I don’t keep any of it. So basically, yes, I am asking for your money. Haha! I only have to raise $100 so if just a few people pitch in, that shouldn’t take long to gather the money. If you would like to help out my team, and ultimately the American Cancer Society, you can do one of two things.

1. Send or give your money to my mom (if you are in Gainesville)
2. Mail me the money at:
Lauren Cox
PO Box 11000 Student Box 848
OKC, OK 73136-1100

I would appreciate any help with this – especially since I am a little behind! Obviously any money over the $100 will still go toward Relay for Life, but if you want to email me first to see if I have reached my goal yet, I will be happy to let you know. Also feel free to email me if you have any questions about Relay for Life or would like to know more about where your money is going.

I am going to be walking for a few hours tonight and possibly staying up all night with my team members. My designated hours are from 7:00-8:00, 10:00-11:00, and 2:00-4:00am. I might try to take a nap pretty soon then stay out from 7:00pm until 4:00am. I am going to be tired either way, I think.

Anyway, that is all as far as Relay for Life goes. I have some new news from softball but I will post about that later. Keep checking in, I’m sure I’ll have it up in the next day or so.

Beyond the Noise

In reference to my previous post, I would also like for everyone to listen to the song "Word of God Speak" by MercyMe. I posted the lyrics below the video. Here is a link to the video in case mine doesn’t work: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Yx4eT7ZxZk



“Word of God Speak”

I'm finding myself at a loss for words
And the funny thing is it's okay
The last thing I need is to be heard
But to hear what You would say

[CHORUS]
Word of God speak
Would You pour down like rain
Washing my eyes to see
Your majesty
To be still and know
That You're in this place
Please let me stay and rest
In Your holiness
Word of God speak

I'm finding myself in the midst of You
Beyond the music, beyond the noise
All that I need is to be with You
And in the quiet hear Your voice

[REPEAT CHORUS 2x]

I'm finding myself at a loss for words
And the funny thing is it's okay

Just Listen

Lately I have found myself questioning a lot of things in my life. I am unsure of what I should be doing and if God is truly pleased with the way I am living my life. Therefore I have been trying to figure out what it is that is holding me back, what I need to change, what I need to do to live the life that God has planned for me.

Matt and I talked about this some today and he explained to me that this isn’t something that is going to come to me overnight, as much as I would like for that to be the case. We talked about how we have to just listen to God, even though that is tough to do sometimes. I find myself asking God to just tell me… to just let me know what I need to do. Then, after sincerely asking that question, I immediately turn around and jump back into my crazy, hectic life then wonder why He didn’t answer. I realized that I am not actually listening to God at all. For all I know, He is shouting to me exactly what I need to hear but I fail to listen to Him. I expect some kind of giant display across the sky that is going to tell me what to do, when in reality, I just need to be quiet.

“A powerful wind came and tore the mountain apart and shattered rocks, but the Lord was not in the wind. Then there was a mighty earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. Then there was a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. Then Elijah heard a gentle whisper and he went out to stand in the presence of the Lord.” 1 Kings 19:9-13

I wonder what would happen in our lives if we could all seriously lay aside all distractions and sit and listen to God?

I have decided that I am going to try my best to be quiet and try to hear what God wants to tell me. I know that he hears my prayers and hears the questions that I raise to Him and I believe that He has answers for me. I just have to learn to listen for His voice. I am going to try to remove as many distractions as I can. It is going to be tough and I will fail many times, I’m sure, but I’m going for it anyway.

I want y’all to watch this video. It is a short clip from a Nooma video called “Noise”. If the video on here doesn’t work, you can watch it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=caazHwVjd2k



Pretty powerful, isn't it?