I love how God has blessed us with seasons. I can't imagine how boring life would be without them. No matter how wonderful one season is, after a while no change seems to make life so stagnant.
I know not everyone has the same experiences as me, so to others maybe the approaching of certain seasons isn't really looked forward to. For me, when it's October and the weather is starting to get cool and pumpkins are appearing, it's so exciting. I love lighting candles, opening the house, making pumpkin recipes and anticipating the kid's excitement over Halloween in that season. And of course that's just the beginning of more autumn goodness because it's followed by Thanksgiving, time with family, the Macy's parade, black Friday adventures and anticipation of Christmas right around the corner. Then it's Christmas time with all of the holiday excitement that goes with that: Christmas movies and songs, more time with family, holiday parties, cookies and treats, a general feeling of cheer and excitement. I always get a little sad as Christmas comes to an end, but then I'm reminded that spring has it's own pleasant aspects. In spring, summer's in sight, the weather is getting more pleasant, the house is open again and all of the flowers start to bloom. People are outside, planting new plants, taking walks, enjoying the weather. And then there's summer. It's hot and humid, but there's fun with trips to the beach, and soaking up the sun outside. There's time off school, vacations...
But it's not just in the weather or holidays that there are seasons. God blesses us with so many seasons in our lives to enjoy. Childhood, adolescence, adulthood, being single, being married, being parents, being grandparents, being a student, having a career, being retired... There are so many seasons. I used to live so much of my life looking ahead to the next season, focused on reaching that season and how wonderful it would be when I got to that next season. I focused on it so much that I lost a lot of the enjoyment of the season I was in.
I still look forward to future seasons, I don't think there's anything wrong with a little anticipation. I think we were meant to dream and plan to an extent. But I'm so thankful that God is teaching me to enjoy the seasons I'm currently in, even while anticipating the coming seasons.
All this just to say, God's love is so amazing. I'm so thankful that He loves us and is willing to change us and that any change He asks us to make is not for His benefit, but for ours. I'm so thankful for the ways that He's already changed me and the joy it's brought, and that what He's done in me is only the beginning.

To be quite honest, something that used to plague me with worry was death. Even after I was saved and believed in God, I worried about dying because of the unknown. I believed in heaven and believed I would go there, but it still seemed so foreign and unknown. I would also every once in a while have "What if?" thoughts.
But by God's grace it doesn't plague me anymore. A lot has happened in the past two years, and due to God's grace and coming to a closer relationship with him, I don't worry about it anymore, which is a huge freedom for me.
That's not to say that the moment of death doesn't scare me at all. I think we're biologically engineered to feel fear in the face of death, otherwise we'd probably all be so reckless we wouldn't live to adulthood. I am afraid of the moment of dying and have no desire to die right now. But I don't worry about death. And the thought of the "unknown" doesn't scare me anymore. No more "What if's". I have confidence that when I die I will be going home, becoming who I was always meant to be in the presence of the God who loves me with such an overwhelming and beautiful love. I imagine at that moment that if I gave my life any thought I would have only wished that I had spent less time on this earth because it was time separated from there. The thought of that actually fills me with peace and anticipation.

I try not to worry about anything and to trust God with the things that do cause me to worry. One thing that I do worry about is losing friends and family who don't know God.

This year I don't plan on watching any of it, though I'll probably watch the commercials, or at least some of them, online at some point.

Usually within the first week of December. I'm hoping we get the tree up this coming weekend and also plan to put up the outdoor lights if I'm able too.
Our neighbors already have lights up! So exciting. :)

Home sick trying to take it easy. Last Sunday I went and saw Tyler Wigg Stevenson speak about nuclear nonproliferation. Honestly it's not something I ever really thought I'd support, I think because I always associated the idea with pacifism, and I'm not a pacifist. It's not about pacifism though, and it's not saying that war is always wrong, but it is about removing objects of terror. Anyway, people far more intelligent than me have written articles about it, and I'm still learning more.
If you're interested I'd check out http://www.fcnl.org/issues/item.php?item_id=2252&issue_id=54 and http://www.fcnl.org/issues/item.php?item_id=2252&issue_id=54

The article in this issue of Relevant, called An Inconvenient Boom is also really interesting (more interesting to me than the others) http://issuu.com/relevant/docs/septoct2008

http://www.sojo.net/index.cfm?action=magazine.article&issue=soj0911&article=hawks-against-the-bomb

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/22/opinion/22iht-edmatthews.html?_r=2&ref=global


Also check out Two Futures Project

Nope.

Even When by Seven Places
I was kind of surprised that that was the most played one, but it's a good song.

Probably God's love. I think everyone has heard "God loves you!" and it's really easy to go "Uh huh, sure" without really believing it. And when I became a Christian it was easy to think that I believed it, but when I really understood and took in just how much God loves us it really blew me away and changed me.
God loves you just as you are. That doesn't mean he agrees with everything we chose to do, but no matter what you've done or are still doing, He loves you more than anyone else ever has or will love you. His love isn't based on your goodness. He loves you, period. No matter what. He does. He really truly loves you, like a father and mother love their children, like a husband loves his bride, and when you experience that love it's so beautiful that it makes everything else that you thought was beautiful pale in comparison. It brings a peace and joy that is greater than anything else I've ever known. I don't talk about that much because I know people brush it off. They think "Oh, she's just religious" and I understand that feeling because when I was younger that's how I felt when I heard people talk about God like that, but I have to say God's love is so amazing and so beautiful that I hope everyone who reads this has or will experience it. He really loves you right now more than you can imagine.

Also, if anyone ever wants to talk to anyone about God I'm here. I'm not saying I'll have the best answer, and I'm not interested in debating, but I'm here if you ever feel you need to talk to someone.

I am loving Brooke Fraser's music. I was familiar with her song Shadowfeet, but hadn't heard any of her other songs. She's from New Zealand, and has toured there with John Mayer, but isn't that well known here. She also writes music for other artists and wrote a song that I love that Hillsong United preforms called Hosanna. I'm thinking of buying her new album Albertine on itunes with what's left of one of my giftcards. edit I bought it and it's soooo worth $9.99, lol.
( Here's the music video for one of my favorite songs by her(lj cut, not external link) )