My Week

As many of you know, I graduated last Friday night. The weeks prior to the actual celebration were quite busy, and I’m not even sure where I should begin. All my family was involved and so were many of my friends. Actually most of the people invited came, so my church was quite full (around 100 people). But it was a wonderful night and I would gladly do it all again…except that it isn’t necessary. Many of my friends got to meet my other friends, so it a way it was a “reunion”. It was for me especially: I saw a lot of the people who have had a large influence on my life all in one place. It was wonderful.

On Wednesday (18^th) Elizabeth, Daragh, and Mrs. Drummond arrived at our house around 6pm. We helped them unpack and after things settled down a little Liz, Sarah, and I tried to listen to the Bible study with other friends. Hannah and Daragh began cooking dinner in the kitchen. Overall I don’t think I remember much of the Bible study, but I do know that we were probably a great distraction to those who were actually trying to listen. :P But after the actual Bible study we “hung out” and just talked and laughed together. 

We found out that Daragh LOVES taking pictures so everything we did was photographed pretty much: food, laughing, making faces, animals, etc. After dinner Liz and I opened our grad presents from each other’s families and then Liz and I hid in the loft (ok, we didn’t really hide, but we do hang out there a lot) and I practiced my grad speech on her.

Thursday was my 18^th birthday. I first opened my presents with my family quite early in the morning. Soon after breakfast we all traveled to my church (an hour away) along with a few others to help set up everything and decorate the tables. I took my two collage boards and we managed to successfully hang them from the ceiling. We also rearranged the sanctuary somewhat and shoved everything unnecessary into the teen Sunday school room. Then when we got home some CPers had a birthday call for me and read their messages (which were all collected and posted on G+) to me. SO special. :) At the end of the day Liz and I once again retired to the loft to practice my speech. Hannah and Daragh were often frequent observers as well. So I had lots of good criticism for my writing/speaking. :D

Friday morning I opened some grad presents and edited and practiced my speech some more. Daragh and Mrs. Drummond left to visit some friends and then met up again with us at church that night. THIS was like THE best day ever. One hour before I had to leave for church…I got this card in the mail. From the McKees and from lots of my CP! friends. That hour was the hour where I could just start getting tense about everything or I could relax and decide to have fun. After reading through the card from all my friends, getting uptight about things just didn’t happen. I knew there were others praying for me and wishing they could be here, too.  The friends I have made through CP are so amazing, and I don’t know how I could ever repay their loyalty to me. One hour later I (and my family and Liz) left for church to attend my long-awaited grad ceremony. It was so special and I had a LOT of fun. I wasn’t nervous when I was giving my speech (it was actually really fun) and the games afterwards were great. I’m actually in the process of uploading them to YouTube so I will post links if that works. The amount of gifts I received was overwhelming. I am so thankful to be surrounded by Christian friends; they are worth more than any treasure the world could offer. After the ceremony, everybody ate food and fellowshipped together. It was a late night home and I was up until 1:40am. But it was a wonderful ending to a wonderful day. Sometime these kinds of days show you a little bit of heaven on earth. ;)

On Saturday morning, Daragh gave me her birthday present: a photo shoot of Liz and me in our grad dresses. It was lots of fun to find different places around the yard for pictures. I think it turned out pretty well. Later my sisters, mom, and I went to the beach with some friends (who had come to the island for my graduation). There were eight girls (not counting the three moms) in total and one little boy. One event was really funny. At the end of the visit at the beach a lady (who was leaving the same time we were) came up to all of us and tried to match all the kids with the moms! She did a great job, except she didn’t match some of us quite correctly. It was a great day at the beach…although we did have to say goodbye to the Drummond family in the morning.

Sunday was a wonderful day also. We took Liz to church with us (as she had stayed on the island) and then spent the afternoon at some church friends’ house. We took our puppies for a walk and let them wade/gallop through 6 inch mud. They were two dirty dogs at the end of the walk. Good thing hoses and sinks were invented. Church in the evening was also a blessed time as we gathered together, worshiped God, and fellowshipped with one another.

Today, Monday, I have been writing a lot and not doing any studying. It is my last week of no “official” school as I start college studying next month. I am looking forward to it all, but I am enjoying the break I have right now, too.

Getting back into Western Civilization 1 will be a challenge, I’m thinking, but I hope it will go well.  I also received a birthday card in the mail from a very sweet 12 year old. That made me smile lots. :D This week will be somewhat relaxed although I have several things I want to complete—much of it including writing.

God bless you all as you serve Him each and every day this week (and forever afterwards, of course).

In Him,

Kaleigh 

Happy Birthday, Kaleigh

I have known Kaleigh for not quite a year yet, but there are still many things that I can tell you about her.  She’s a young, godly Christian woman who has a passion to bring glory to Christ. She has a strong desire to bless and encourage others around her, even if she may be feeling down herself.  I can also tell you the things that she is not, too.  She is not selfish. She is not boastful and does not lord her talents above her peers.  No, she is not the kind of girl that gives her loyalty when it “feels” right.  She’s the kind of girl after God’s own heart.

I guess the best way to describe Kaleigh would be to take a quick peek at the Proverbs 31 woman:

Work and resourcefulness:

Proverbs 31:13 “She seeks wool and flax, And willingly works with her hands”.

Proverbs 31:15 “She also rises while it is yet night, And provides food for her household, And a portion for her maidservants.”

Proverbs 31:19 “She stretches out her hands to the distaff, And her hand holds the spindle.”

Proverbs 31:18 “She girds herself with strength, And strengthens her arms.”

Proverbs 31:22 “She makes tapestry for herself; Her clothing is fine linen and purple.”

Proverbs 31:31 “Give her of the fruit of her hands, And let her own works praise her in the gates.”

I have never known Kaleigh to avoid a chore or something that she’d rather forget doing until she absolutely has to.  Her willingness to work and give the glory of her completed task to the Lord is very commendable.

With Proverbs 31:13 and 22, we see that the woman mentioned, is very resourceful. Using her God-given abilities and wisdom to know how to do something, where to find the right materials to  complete the task, and what is going to make the finished project a success, is how she completes the work before her.   

In all the above verses, we can also observe that this Proverbs 31 woman is a hard worker and not afraid of getting her clothes dirty or calluses on her hands. In whatever she does, she does not grumble or complain that she might get pricked (as with a needle or pulling thorns out of the garden) or having dirt stained clothes.  She may not yet have a husband, but she works alongside of her parents and siblings.

Helpfulness:

In Proverbs 31:21 “She extends her hand to the poor, Yes, she reaches out her hands to the needy”.  

Sometimes finding the time to just sit down and talk with a hurting friend or asking a friend over for a meal can describe what the Proverbs 31 woman does.  We don’t always have to look far to see someone in need. Sometimes, they can be our own family members or neighbors.

Kaleigh has been that kind of friend to me. And she knows exactly when I need that “sisterly talk” and gives it to me. She’s lived out this part of the Proverbs 31 woman to its fullest and I can never thank her enough for being that wonderful encouragement to me.

In closing, I’d just like to end this blog post by wishing Kaleigh a “Happy Birthday”.


Sis, may your birthday be one filled with blessings and peace.  I know you have many more activities coming up with another graduation and a graduation party, but my prayer for you is that you will find time to just enjoy the day and rest on your eighteenth birthday. I’d like to leave you with this verse:

Numbers 6:24-26 “The LORD bless you and keep you; The LORD make His face shine upon you, And be gracious to you; The LORD lift up His countenance upon you, And give you peace.”

Love you, Kaleigh! <3

Blessings,
Anna

Our First Love

Revelation 2:4

“Thou hast left thy first love.”

We have left our first love? Yes, we have wandered far from it as a continent, a country, a home, an individual. We have forsaken it—“it” that should be our consuming passion—for the fleeting pleasures of this world.

So what is “it”?

I have read Revelations 2:4 many times, but I had never really stopped to think about it. The 1^st of the Ten Commandments is “Thou shalt have no other gods before me” (Ex.20:3). God the Father was to be the Israelites’ only God. Nothing else was to take His place in their emotions or actions. When Christ came to earth, He furthered this command:

  “Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment.” (Matt. 22.37-38)

The first commandment was to love God first above all else. Our first love. The love that was to consume our heart, take over our mind, and fill our heart. “It” is our first love. Our countries and homes have now replaced God with their other “loves”: money, friends, work, material gain, success, and just life in general.

Why should it be our first love? We should love God because “he first loved us.” His love was so great that He could send His most precious “possession”—His Son—to earth to be enslaved among His own people, to carry the awful load of sin, to endure separation from His Father, and to come in human form from a perfect Heaven to a darkening world. That is love.

We should love Him because He commanded it, and if we are true children of His we will want to love Him. That will become one of our desires and passions. When Christ’s love dwells in us we cannot help loving Him in return because His love is flawless. His perfection makes our imperfect love, perfect. He commands us to love Him, yet He provides a way for doing so, because we as sinners could not do it on our own.

To love God and others is to fulfill God’s law. “Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for whoever loves others has fulfilled the law. Love does no harm to a neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.” (Rom. 13: 8, 10) Fulfilling God’s law (loving God and fellow man) is something we should be doing until Jesus returns. Our love is to increase and abound as we live in this world, not die out as other more “important” things replace it. “And the Lord make you to increase and abound in love one toward another, and toward all men, even as we do toward you.” (1 Thess. 3:12) An increasing love is not going to decrease when other “treasures” of this world try to take priority.

It will be a struggle to continually “abound in love”, because in this culture God has been forgotten and replaced by all the busyness of life. But God has commanded us to increase in our first love and to make continual progress forward. “…and the love all of you have for one another is increasing.” (2 Thess.1:3) Because we are “confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.” (Phil.1:6) We have to be willing to change though. We can’t stay the same. Just because we have increased a little, doesn’t mean we’re finished. Increasing in love is a continual progress, and one that won’t be completed until we have reached heaven. (Phil.1:9-11)

So let us return to our first love. The love that bore our sins and took them as far as the east is from the west. The love that will hold us up when we fall. That love that always brings us back to the Shepherd’s arms. The love that says “I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee” (Heb.13:6) and “Faithful is he that calleth you, who also will do it.” (1 Thess.5:24) The love that will bring us to our knees to cry “Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty. Our first love.

By His grace…we have been saved

Rescued from the grave

And through his blood we have new life

May the passion of our first love

Bring us to our knees

We can know the heart of God

If we believe.

Oh, come, let us return to the Lord

Let our hearts yearn for the Lord

Only His love will save us

For though our lives are broken

He will mend and restore our hope again

Let us return to the Lord.