It's A Beautiful Day

The sun is shining today, making it an absolutely beautiful day compared to the weather here the past 2 and a half weeks. It makes me happy, as does my one class I have today being cancelled. Another thing that makes me happy are birthdays. Mine is tomorrow. I'll be 22. Just typing that number gives me a weird feeling, but in a good way. These past few days, I've been taking a look back on my life. I've been looking at the way past events and experiences have shaped me into the person I am today. It's weird, really. There are many people who, when asked the question "If you could go back and change anything about your life, what would you change?", they would start naming off things. But there are those who, when asked that same question, will look the person in the eye and say "Not one thing." I'd like to believe that I am one of those people. If someone had asked me that question 3 years ago, I would have named off everything I could think of that I would change, but now I realize that past events have made me the woman I am today. I know 22 is not old, though according to the 9th grade girls I teach, I should be getting married by now. :-) I can't help but smile and laugh at that. For so long I've wanted just that, but lately I've been enjoying my life as a single woman. I know the right person will come along eventually, so I'm not really that worried about it as I have been in the past.

But back to why birthdays are something that make me happy. I truly believe that birthdays are wonderful things. My family has always made a big deal about birthdays, which is why I like to make big deals out of them, as well. It is a day to celebrate the life of the birthday person, whom ever it may be. Many people view it as "just another day", but it really is another day that you are alive and can live your life abundantly with the people you love.

I have discovered online sample sales. I'm doomed. Well, not quite. I just bought my first sample sale item. A pair of $45 designer aviators for $10. I'm pretty sure that was totally worth it. Online sample sales serve the same purpose as sample sales in places such as New York City, but can reach a wide variety of people. Many websites are "Members Only", but you can still sign up and have your name put on a waiting list. When a spot opens up, your name is put on the Invite List. It usually doesn't take very long. For most of the websites I signed up with, it only took up to two days to get my name on the list. Many of the websites also offer incentives for members, things like $10 credits for every person you invite who signs up. I'm posting a link to one of the websites I really like. It's called Gomatta Girls. This link is my invitation to those of you who read my blog and those of you who just happen to come upon my blog. Take a look through it, if you like what you see, then buy something if you want to, or just sign up to recieve their daily deals. Invite other people, so that you, too, can get a $10 credit for each person you invite. :-) http://www.gomattagirls.com/invite/77779198

Saturdays In August

There's this little cafe, The Little Building Cafe to be exact, within walking distance from my apartment. I've always passed by it when driving, and my first thoughts are always "I should stop by there sometime." Last Saturday I did just that. I left the Farmer's Market, my camera in hand, and strolled on down to Little Building Cafe. From the first look of the outside, the color of the building draws you in.

See what I mean? It just calls you in saying "Come in. Have a cup of coffee, and sit down for a while." I went in and ordered a cappucino. When they asked me the infamous question "For here or to go?" My automatic response was "For here, of course." They lady working was so friendly. I found a table and sat down. When I'm in new places I like to sit back and take in my surroundings. One of my many favorite things about this cafe was the light fixture (chandelier maybe?) that was at the front.

Unique, right? This cafe had such character, from the light fixtures to the tables. Not to mention the intersting display of art on the walls. I'll have to find a picture of the said art. The art consisted of 2 different chair halves put together to create a whole chair. I'm not sure what the artist calls these wonderful and unique masterpieces, but for the sake of this blog, I'll call it "chair art". The chair art is really ingenious. There were so many things I loved about this cafe. Take the tables for example.

So colorful, modern, with a twist of unique! I want to have one in my small apartment! The side I was sitting on was a long bench that extended down the back wall. Very crafty.  On the back wall were unique decorations such as the clothesline with clothes pins attached.

I really loved the creativity of these decorations. I'm not sure that I would have thought to use clothes pins as part of the decor in my cafe (if I had one). Beautiful work.

So there you have it. I have fallen in love with this cafe and all the charm that it holds. There will be future posts where I will share what's going on in my world of photography.

Worship...

I'm a thinker. It's what I do. I'm always thinking about something. I either over analyze or under analyze and anything in between. In the past few weeks, I've been thinking more in depth when it comes to my faith and what God has shown me (it's quite a bit to be honest, but it's so wonderful to see what He is revealing to me). I feel this closeness that has been absent for a little while, and it's such a wonderful thing to be. I really think this blogging thing is helping me grow because I'm able to see how God is working in my life. The new school year has brought many new things. We have 2 new preachers at the church and they are simply wonderful. I do miss Jason and Stacey being there. (Even though she's my aunt and I get to see her on a pretty regular basis.) I'm in a new apartment by myself (love it!) and we are getting 2 new additions (my uncle and aunt are expecting twins!) to my already wonderful family. God is so wonderful and good. He times things just perfectly. So with all of these things, I am, of course, thinking...as mentioned above.

Over the past couple of days, I've been pondering on what it truly means to worship, and when we worship, are we doing so with our WHOLE heart? Although worship is not ever limited to just singing, and can be in any form and fashion as long as you are glorifying the name of God, the singing part is what I'm going to share tonight.

I'm always thinking about some thing or another, but worship and praise are always on my mind. I was at the Wesley Tuesday night and we sang one of my favorite hymns, Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing. During the song, I had a friend turn to me and ask me what the line "Here I raise my Ebenezer" meant. I couldn't answer him, and it made us both wonder if anyone else knew what it meant. Another question that arose in the song is the meaning of the word "fetter".

Now, before I elaborate on what either of these actually mean, I want to first make my point. Sometimes I feel as if we sing worship songs just to sing them. We don't actually take the time to take the words in and reflect on their meaning as we are singing them. I'm totally guilty of it, as we all might be at some point in our worship experiences. To me, it is so important to not only truly mean the words we sing, but actually KNOW their meaning, which brings me to the Ebenezer line of Come Thou Fount. Up until last evening, I had no idea what the word meant, though I had thought about what it from time to time. Once I had finished my research that took all of about 10 minutes, much thanks to Google, I found the answer to what I was looking for. Now I'm not going to go into all the detail that this site went into, but I will enlighten my wonderful readers with bits and pieces of what I found. The passage is 1 Samuel and it says this "Samuel took a large stone and placed it between the towns of Mizpah and Jeshanah. He named it Ebenezer—"the stone of help"—for he said, "Up to this point the Lord has helped us!" —1 Samuel 7:12, NLT. The explanation of the Ebenezer stone is that it represents a fresh beginning and it reminded the people of God's help and his everlasting mercy. It reminds them of their faithfulness to God.

Tonight we had our weekly praise band practice. At the end, my friend and I were walking to his car and I mentioned the above to him. He made a good point that the songs that we use in our worship at our church always have meaning. The songs should be engaging. They should be meditated on and thought about. For me, when I'm practicing or when I'm actually leading worship, the songs I sing have to mean something. The words have to be there and I have to focus on them, and if I have no idea of the meaning of specific words, how can I truly worship? I think things like this in songs need to be discussed, as in why this is in there or what it really means in the song. This gives the congregation some insight to why the song was chosen or why it is a worship song.

There's really no huge explanation to the word "fetter", except that it is a physical restraint used to keep prisoners from running away.
"Let Thy goodness, like a fetter,
Bind my wandering heart to Thee"
The word "fetter" in this context is not necessarily a literal binding, but a spiritual one. Many times we wander away from God, wanting to do things on our own and this line is us saying "Keep me close, because I don't want to wander from You, though I know I will."

I'm signing off for the night. I'm very tired, so much of this entire post might be redundant, and for that I am sorry. Go in peace, worship freely, love each other unconditionally.

LK