Sin shrinks your life...

...to the size of YOUR life. YOUR kingdom. When people or situations or things or moments get in the way of YOUR kingdom, you get irritated, angry, frustrated and annoyed. Wife is five minutes late from the time she said she'd be home. You're annoyed. How dare she?!?! This is MY life she's interupting!! You wake up and discover someone's eaten the bagel you made the night before so that you could sleep in an extra 10 minutes because breakfast is taken care of. You're annoyed. How DARE (s)he?!?! Don't these people realize how much I depended on that bagel this morning?! In essense, Paul Trip said that when we seek our own kingdoms first, which we are so good at seeking and building and living, then of course our marriage's aren't going to be what we expected them to be. Who's kingdom are we to be seeking? God's.

Those are a couple of very brief's "take-away's" from the conference last weekend. It was such a good conference - we are so thankful that we went. And if anyone is interested in "going to the conference", we got the DVD set because it was just so good! We thought it'd be an excellent resource to have, since it also came with printable stuff for a small group study. Anyway - last weekend was a blessing. Next year he might be back in GR again for a War of Words conference. If so - count me in!

And believe it or not, I am officially 26. Didn't hit me on Monday, Tuesday, or Wednesday that my birthday was on Thursday. Well...maybe a little on Wednesday night. Oh...and briefly on Tuesday night...as I watched two little video's that Tim made for me to remind me that my birthday was coming up. Rather humorous video's, at that. But for not anticipating it with all my might, Thursday turned out to be a very good day. Thanks for all the calls and facebook messages and cards, everyone!! That was, of course, a contributing factor to the "niceness" of the day. :) But basically I did not but relax, play with Hadassah, read a book all morning. Then I swung by Misty's for coffee in the afternoon and when I got home, I discovered what Tim meant when he said that morning that "I've got dinner covered". Not only did he have dinner covered, but he has dinner covered for another couple nights yet! He got sweet, sweet John M. to cook supper for me. Despite saying he just needed dinner for two, we got dinner for at least 10 in seemed like! He must've been cooking all day! And all of it was sooooooo good. First Tim came out with (what I believe was) Minestrone soup, salad, and stuffed carrots. Yes, stuffed carrots, and I must ask John for the recipe because those were my favorite of the whole meal, I do believe!! And then Tim came out with chicken with walnuts on a 'bed' of rice with veggies, and a side dish of asparagus. I thought "Wow, this is delicious, I can't believe all this food!" But Tim wasn't done yet. He then proceeded to come out of the kitchen with a zuccinni side dish, a plate of salmon, very prettily laid out on a serving platter with sprigs of parsley, etc., and a huge plate of stuffed pork with potatoes, carrots and green beans all around it, with pinapple rings on top. Blown away. Couldn't believe it. I was stuffed. And yes, we still have tons of leftovers in the fridge. The birthday dinner that keeps on giving!! I even took a couple of pictures, but I'll have to post those later...when my computer comes home to me.

And to top it all off, my incredibly thoughtful and generous husband happened to find a pheNOMINAL deal on an upgrade for my design programs on my computer...but it hadn't arrived yet, so I got a picture of it in a bag full of chocolate. Oh, and flowers. Seriously, Tim spoils me so much. Gotta love him. :)

So yes, turning 26 was a good experience. Every day that led up to it proved that God's mercies are new every morning - and so, so good! The day of my birthday was a lovely celebration of God's provision, providence and protection. And each new day of this year I will ask Him to bless the tasks He's given me, that each may be done to glorify Him alone.

Keep an eye out for pictures - they'll get on here eventually. And thanks again for the birthday wishes!