Being a Joyful Daughter

There is a difference between being a loving daughter and being a joyful daughter. You can love your mom, dad, and siblings, but are you joyful being with them? Usually, due to the fact that we have spent all of our lives with the people who make up our families, and due to the fact that we've seen all their down falls and short comings, we tend to dislike being with them. Instead of taking joy in the people the Lord has given us as our family, and appreciating the protection of our parents, and the friendship of our siblings, we tend to do all we can to be away from them. Preferring instead, to be with the friends we have outside our families. To be off doing what we want to do. "Living our own life" so to speak. Sisters, this is not what God had planned when He gave us our families. Our families should be the ones we go to in our joy and in our sadness, in our frustration and in our contentment. But we have lost the desire to share with our parents and our siblings because, "my parents don't understand me. They're so strict! They don't care how I feel. They never let me do anything." or "my sisters/brothers are SO irritating! I can't stand being with them all day!".

After we've spent our whole life with our family, we start to see only the ways in which they fall short. We cease to notice all the wonderful gifts and sacrifices your parents make for us. We brush our brothers and sisters aside when they want to be with us or play with us because "I have other things I want to do with my time. Quit being a pest. Stop following me around."

Now, quite naturally, we don't want anything to happen to any of the members of our family. We comfort and help them when they're sick or hurt. We would be devastated to loose any of them. You probably love each member of your family with your whole heart. So, if we love them, why don't we take joy in spending time with them?

We need to turn our hearts back to our families. Not just loving them, but taking joy in beiong with them, loving them for who they are, and loving to be with them. I'm not saying to stop spending time with your friends out side your family. I'm saying, make your family your best friends. Take joy in being with them. Be a joyful daughter as well as a loving daughter!

Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity! ~Psalm 133:1

Random Tid-Bits

Exciting events

First of all I've joined a choir! I love singing so I'm having a great time. I know a few of the people there and so I don't feel uncomfortable, we all just have a great time! We're working on three songs and another will be added next week. It's so funny, all the different genres; we have Southern Gospel, Mexican, Hymn, and our song we'll be starting next week is in Hebrew! My favorite one right now is our Mexican one. It's called Chili Con Carne. Here it is so you can hear it. We're having a blast singing it!



My whole family does choir so we are there from 9:20a.m. till 8:30p.m. with a half hour break for lunch at 12:30p.m. and a break between 3:00p.m. till 6:30p.m. during which we go to my Aunt Carie's house to visit and she makes dinner for us. My cousin Cali also comes over to her house to visit with us while we're there. It's great fun!

Our other exciting event was that we got to go skiing with some friends on Monday! I haven't been skiing in three or four years but awesomely, I hadn't forgotten how! I helped my two youngest sisters learn to ski for the first half of the day, and the second half of the day I was able to take a bunch of runs with my sister Heidi, and a bunch of our friends! We went to Badger Pass, and while I really enjoyed it, I'm more of a Sierra Summit snob. I'd love to go to Sierra again sometime. It's just so much bigger, at forty ski runs, as opposed to Badgers ten runs. But I have to say I did have lots of fun! though I must admit, I was sore on Tuesday (which is choir day and we were there all day so today I feel like a vegetable)

Books

Well I just finished a series called the Singing River Series by Gilbert Morris. It was a great book series and I enjoyed it a lot. Now I'm reading a great big, fat book called Christ in the Camp by J. William Jones. I haven't gotten very far but what I've read is good. It's about the American Civil War, and army chaplains who brought the gospel to many of the soldiers of both Northern and Southern camps. I'm guessing it should be a great book.

Music

Well I have been listening to a lot of stuff lately but I'd like to share the lyrics to a couple songs that have spoken to my heart.

Prodigal Like Me
~ Jonny Diaz

Joshua blow your trumpets towards the walls around my heart
And you better bring your army come and tear my world apart
Moses help me wander from the desert that I’ve found
Cause it feels like forever since my knees have touched the ground

I never thought I would be this way
To let what we were begin to fade
I never thought I could say goodbye to all we had
I never thought I would come to be
Alone with all my apathy
I never thought You could still love a prodigal like me

David grab a stone and sling it toward my giant pride
Debra call the troops cause I’m ready for a fight
Peter there’s a roaster did you once again deny
Or am I the guilty one who can’t look Him in the eye

(…Prodigal like) me with so much sin and shame
In need of such amazing grace
But still I find I turn away from You

Waiting Room
~Jonny diaz

Here in this waiting room yearning for You to say go
And though I’m convinced that a yes would be best
This time You’re telling me no

It’s not that I don’t have an answer
It’s just not the one that I’d like
But through this time Lord I must keep in mind
You’re always wiser than I

You have a much better purpose
And You have a far greater plan
And You have a bigger perspective
Cause You hold this world in your hands

The things that I seek are from You
Like the strong healing touch of your hand
But when You say no help me trust even though
There’s a reason I can’t understand

When that miracle comes cause Your answer is yes
I will praise you for all of my days
But when Your wisdom declares that a no is best
I will praise You just the same

Jonny Diaz and Chris and Conrad

We were really blessed to get to go to an awesome Jonny Diaz/Chris and Conrad concert last night! Mom and I and Heidi and Tabby went and my Aunt Carie came with us! It was fantastic! I had an awesome time!

First, we went to my aunts house and she made dinner for us. Then we all headed over together. It was at Northside Church in Clovis. We got there really early and had to stand in line for about 45 minutes. We were blessed to get there early though because the line wrapped all the way around the church!

First we listened to Brian Weaver, who was a newer artist. He was kinda the warm up. He sang some really good songs. The one I really liked was called Running. It talked about how were constantly trying to make ourselves look good and we're running from who God made us. Brian told us how he only writes songs that talk about something he's experienced or been through. I really appreciate song writers like that because you know that they know exactly what they're talking about. He came up on stage during an intermission after he sang and showed us a video about Compassion International. Then the ushers came out and Brian told everyone that if they wanted to sponsor a child, then we should raise our hand and the ushers would give us a packet for a child. This is where he said that he didn't want to promote something if he wasn't going to do it, so he said he actually just started sponsoring a child a few days earlier. Our family felt like that was something the Lord would have us do, so we raised our hand. Our little girl is six years old and her birthday is the same as mine! I'm so glad that the Lord is allowing us to take part in this!

After the first intermission, Chris and Conrad came out. They were the loud and active part of the concert. You could really feel the Lord moving in and through them to the people there. Their great love for the Lord was evident in their lyrics and music. They've quickly become one of my favorite artist.

And last but definitely not least, Jonny Diaz. His Song More Beautiful you has really encouraged many girls, me included. He has written a lot of wonderful songs that really speak to your heart and talks about being who God made you, how God still loves us no matter how apathetic we've grown, about how when we ask God things, a lot of the time He gives us our least favorite answer. . . wait. But that we need to trust Him and be patient to wait on Him. He writes some deep songs.

It's really hard to find artists who, both write good lyrics and sing well. But we were able to get both last night at the concert!

After the concert, we stood in a long line to get autographs. Mom and Aunt Carie didn't want to stand in such a long line so they decided to go to Starbucks to get a coffee. On there way out of the church they walked up to the table and asked Jonny, Chris and Conrad if they wanted a Starbucks coffee. The guys were shocked! They loved it! They all ordered, Jonny got a Vanilla Bean Frappaccino, Chris got a White Mocha and Conrad wanted a Blue Monster so they ran to the store and got him one of those. Mom got us three girls a hot chocolate. Then when we got to the table Chris said "Oh, these are the people who got us a Starbucks!" and Conrad said, with a big grin on his face, "Not me. This is what I got!" and he pulled out his Blue Monster. They then proceed to sign all our cd's and we all chatted for a while :) I think that it's important to realize that, even though these artists are famous, a lot of people know about them, and it's really neat to meet them and talk to them, they're still normal people and I know they appreciated it that we treated them like such.

A happy row of people
(Me, Tabby, Heidi, Aunt Carie, Mom took the picture)

Excitedly waiting
(Me, Tabby, Heidi)

Brian Weaver

Chris and Conrad

Chris

Conrad

Jonny Diaz

Heidi, Jonny, Me

Tabby and Jonny

Chris, Heidi, Tabby, Me, Conrad

I got one of these guitar pick necklaces. Jonny's wife makes them!

Christmas

We had a wonderful Christmas! Nice and relaxed,dressing up, visiting with family, playing games. We watched Little Women on Christmas Eve. A Christmas tradition. Over all awe had absolutely brilliant fun!

A lovely, decorated lamp post we passed by on Christmas Eve. I had to stop and take a picture of it!

Christmas Eve

The Christmas gift we made for mom :)

Christmas breakfast, homemade cinnamon rolls!

The dinner dishes

The snack table! Yum!

Aunt Carie and me

Dinner time! (L-R, Mom, Tabitha, me, my grandma, Aunt Carie, Heidi, and Priscilla)

Sisters, preparing Glögg (a Swedish holiday drink)

Special Glögg cups

Glögg with almonds

Glögg and butter cookies! Yum!

This is what happened after I took a sip ;) Everyone knows which cup is mine ;)

Playing Catch Phrase

Dessert time!

An Afternoon Walk with my Little Sisters

My little sisters and I went for a wonderful afternoon walk up to see our neighbors' horses. It was a treat for the littles for doing a good job on their school. Here are some pictures of our walk. Hope you enjoy them.

Starting out

Autumn Beauty

"Do you have any apples? Or maybe a carrot?"

Kisses

I thought this one was kinda cool with the intense light

I was really happy with the way this one turned out! I love eyes

Jahza was really enjoying the visit with Priscilla

This is Butch

This is Big Boy

A road. . . to where?

Lovely Autumn colors

Happy Tabby

Three of our five cats. This one is Sammy.

Stilla

Sebastian

Goings on

In the last month I have been so very busy! Lots of different, exciting, interesting happenings.

Events
First of all, my aunt took my mom on a tour of Europe for three weeks. Meanwhile I took care of my three sisters, did schooling and all. It was a great learning experience, but I can assure you I missed my mom!

While mom was gone, we did some apple processing. We made some apple sauce, apple cider, and my sister even made an apple pie! I love the smell of the warm cinnamon we put in the cooking applesauce, and the hot cinnamon and cloves in the cider! It made it feel more like holiday season!

Another event, one that wasn't so pleasant, is the fact that, despite the precautions, sickness visited our house. I went down with it a couple days before mom came home, I got a flu :( Then, my mom went down the day after she got home, with something different than what I had, some kind of flu though. I was in bed for a week, during which my three sisters got sick with something different than what either mom or I got! I guess we figured if we were going to all get sick we may as well have a variety to make it interesting ;) Now we're all pretty much recovered, though we're all tired now.

Music

Recently I've started listening to a style of music that I've decided is my favorite, Celtic. My favorite two groups are Celtic Thunder and Celtic Women. Of the two, Celtic Thunder is my ultimate favorite. What particularly impresses me is the voice of the youngest member, Damian McGinty. His voice is so strong for one so young! In this video he is about 14/15.



Celtic Women is also very impressive. The women all have amazing talent, very strong, impressive voices! The violinist is amazing! Just amazing!



Books

I just finished a really wonderful book, The Robe by Lloyd C. Douglas. The setting is ancient Rome and Galilee during the latter part of the reign of Tiberius. It's about a young Roman Tribune. An extremely well written book and has an amazing story to tell! I was really moved by it and thoroughly enjoyed it. I would strongly recommend it!

Also, my little sister Tabitha, is reading a book on Martin Luther to me for a school project. Though it is a book written for a younger audience, I'm enjoying it and the illustrations are very well done.

Extras

Every year the excitement mounts in our home as the holidays come around! I'm playing Christmas songs on my violin and Tabitha is playing Christmas songs on the piano. I love the hot chocolate, cider, tea and coffee. Curling up by the fire with a good book is my idea of a very pleasant afternoon.

One Year

Today is the one year mark for my blogging adventure. I've really enjoyed puting down my thoughts and adventures and sharing events in my life! I look forward to continuing on in this second year of blogging, sharing thoughts, ideas, etc. with you all. The Lord has really done some awesome stuff in my life this last year, I can't wait to see what I can blog about next! Thank you all for reading! Please feel free to suggest ideas that you may have on how I can change things and make things better and more interesting in my blogging. I would be open to any ideas you have. Happy future reading!