Summer Time

So I never thought I would be one of those people who was just "so busy", but holy cow! Summer is Crazy! Life is so good, kicked off the summer with the Shine Conference in Jacksonville, Fl. It was amazing, what a blessing to sit under some incredible women in leadership and hear their hearts. I am so excited about bringing that encouragement to lead back home to Mosaic.

Lots of fun with my boys, man I have a GREAT family!!!

Then last week we attended the Southern Baptist Convention. I was very excited to be able to experience how the convention worked. While it was no where near as fun as a jewelry convention ;) it was so neat to see so many people come together to try to work together to accomplish God's call. Beyond that I was able to spend a week away with my beautiful husband. Now that was fun! It is so easy to get distracted by life and forget just how amazing the people in our lives are. James Ross is passionate, hilarious and such a man of God. I am so blessed by his love and leadership and so privileged to work alongside of him.

Many more adventures to come...along with much more faithful blogging!!!

XOXO,

Christie

Easter Weekend

I don't know why but this is probably my favorite pic form this weekend. We had a jam packed, non stop weekend of fun. James' family came into town to celebrate with us. Saturday morning we decided to go to two Easter Egg Hunts. I learned that by Easter Egg hunt they really mean, rush to pick up as many eggs off the ground as possible. There is no actual hiding involved! Cameron had a great time, he is still proudly toting his Easter basket around the house full of eggs. We had an awesome time at the city hunt and I even found an opportunity to venture out of my Christian bubble on a long-term basis!!!

Sunday was AMAZING! I was trilled to see so many committed Mosaic partners filled with excitement and invested in making visitors have the best experience possible. Of course, there were many attacks- James spent the whole night awake coughing up a lung! The sound system had all the problems to be expected on a big day. The nursery had all sorts of craziness going on....BUT God was there! In the midst of all of the chaos God met us where we were and it was beautiful. The message on mercy was so challenging. How can I ever feel like someone doesn't deserve my mercy anymore, how foolish! God never ceases to give me mercy and I don't even think I give 7x's worth of mercy to others.

I hope that everyone had an awesome Easter full of God, love and fun! I'm excited for this rush of energy that is going to carry us into the summer and hopefully challenge us all to be active participants in our faith!

XOXO

Christie

Obedience

So this morning while we were getting ready all Cameron wanted to do was turn on the water in the bathtub. Now he knows that this is a major NO NO! He cutely looks at me with his hand on the faucet and I reply "Cameron I'm going to spank you". Now what happens? He reaches behind and spanks himself! We played out this scenario about 5 more times before we left. Ultimately he did decide not to turn on the water, I guess he had given himself enough "spankings" already.

But it made me start thinking...how many times do I weigh the consequences of my actions and still choose disobedience? Let me answer that, most days I do it many times! Obedience should be done for love, from a heart of gratitude...not just for the avoidance of consequences. Disobedience is never worth the consequences. It is a big red flag if you are willing to accept not only the consequence of disobeying but the knowledge that your heart is out of tune with God's.

And with that in mind, I'm going to start my cleaning!

XOXO,

Christie

A Day at the Park

Today we went to the park with a lot of our amazing friends. I cannot believe how blessed I am to have each of these ladies in my life...God is so good! I thought I'd share I few things I learned:
1. 6 wk old and 17 month old can be interesting...but I'm so glad they will have each other to play with unlike the kids who are talking to themselves.
2. The park makes me nervous...Cameron is going to get hurt and that's OK. This is going to be step one in accepting that I cannot control every move that he makes...but oh it is HARD!
3. Take snacks...my poor little chunky monkey had no cracker. Thankfully, there were snacks to be shared :) His face was priceless though!Finally, be excited! When was the last time you can remember being this joyful? Man, I want my life to exemplify this excitement in all that I do. I want to enjoy the ride and experience all of the fun that God is so graciously willing to share with me!I am so glad that Spring is here!!! I can't wait for all of the adventures to come!

XOXO,

Christie

So I just finished reading my husbands awesome blog, as well as a few others that I follow. Seriously they had 10 things about their life/joys that really cheered me up. What's wrong? Nothing! But I wanted to take a moment to dwell on the goodness of life. So here are 10 things that make me happy right now.

10. Giggling with girls at work about babies

9. Acting like a fool for my baby so that he will giggle at me

8. Gloria's bread

7. My sister and our lives changing together

6. I am deeply loved by my Mosaic family

5. God is stretching me farther than I am comfortable daily

4. That I am at the age where I will be attending 2 year old Birthday parties again

3. That everything is so green and it has been raining for 2 whole days

2. That I am married to the most hard headed, motivating, inspiring, grounded, hard working, loving, passionate, adorable & funny man in the world!

1. And that my Lord is captivated by simply me....Wow

So obviously I have some serious blogging issues. It's not just blogging I have a general inability to follow through in almost everything I do. Basically, I justify it as a fear of failure but who knows. Otherwise life is so good. The truth of drawing near to God and he will draw near to you has never been more true. I am changing my life (or allowing God to radically makeover who I have become). I am seeking the Lord daily, I am a vegetarian, I am trying to workout as a way of seeking physical discipline. I am changing the presence of my home, desiring that it is a place of rest and joy to our family and all those who enter. I am enjoying the blessing of who my husband is and how amazing my family is. I am so in love with my Mosaic family and am trying to open my heart and time to them more and more. I have never felt better. I cannot believe that God chooses to spend time remolding something that he has already had to invest so much time trying to refashion into the creation he designed. I say all this because I finally realized, it's never too late, God can always make a way. But it takes day by day effort to make change. No matter how small or seemingly insignificant. Do what God is asking and calling you to in your personal life and he will not disappoint!

3 years

So today marks 3 years of marriage, WOW!!! I cannot believe how much James and I have changed and how much has happened. Marriage is harder than I thought it would be, but more beautiful than I ever expected. I hope that I will be a better wife this year; that God will mold me into the wife that I dreamed of being and that James dreamed of having. The older I get the more incredible the Prov 31 example becomes, but I am going to try. I am living for today, what it has and what I can accomplish--and soaking in AND pouring out as much love as possible!