Thursday, June 2, 2011

Jogging with the Lord...

"I keep my eyes always on the LORD.
   With him at my right hand, I will not be shaken.
  Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices;
   my body also will rest secure,
because you will not abandon me to the realm of the dead,
   nor will you let your faithful one see decay.
You make known to me the path of life;
   you will fill me with joy in your presence,
   with eternal pleasures at your right hand." Psalms 16: 7-9

I have made it my goal to start jogging and getting back into shape while I am in Houston this summer! I have only been at this new task for all of three days, and I am already feeling Satan pulling at my edges! He is doing this through lack of motivation and planting excuses in my head!! My original plan was to get up every morning around 6:30 and go for a jog to start my day off....well for those of you that know me, you know this plan never came to fruition! I can't seem to force myself out of bed when I have another hour to sleep before I have to get up for work! So, I decided to compromise with myself... .around 7:30 PM the humidity isn't so bad, so it is bearable to get out and go running. The only con to this is sometimes my schedule does not place me at home around 7:30ish. Anyways, this time I have alone with the Lord has really proven to be a solid, peaceful time! As I was studying the other day before my jog, I came across Psalm 16 (the passage above). "With him at my right hand, I will not be shaken", my new motto. As most of you know, Holly is SEVERELY out of shape!! So there has come many times when I have been jogging that Satan starts feeding me these lies: "Oh you've run long enough", "It's starting to get dark", "Your heart is literally about to beat out of your chest, STOP!", or "uh..yea...you're legs are seriously about to splat into a puddle of jello!". I have found, however, reciting this scripture and demanding Satan leave this sacred time I have with the Lord has been truly reviving! I find myself talking to the Lord....OUTLOUD! I know these TX people are thinking, "Where do these crazy people come from?!" I caught myself the other day saying, "Lord...you see that STOP sign up there?..ok, I'm not stopping for a rest till WE get there....so you better be picking up your pace, because I'm slowing down!"...hahaha..don't you know how much the Lord is entertained by our stupid complaints!! He quickly reassured me,
"With me at your right hand, you will not be shaken!"

I am so thankful to serve a faithful God, and God that takes time out of running this crazy world to go on a jog with me!....ah..I think I am in love:)

P.S. things are great here in Houston! I will try and update on what is going on here sometime next week...not much is happening right now while the kids are taking finals and finishing up school!
Love you all!

Sunday, May 29, 2011

I'm HERE!!!!

Well hello there from Houston, TX!!! That's right, I pulled in to Houston Friday night around 5:15!
My sweet friend Ellen took off work to help me drive the long drive! Thankfully, our trip was for the most part uneventful! The only glitch we had was my GPS dying!! But, thanks to my wonderful sense of direction (for those of you that actually KNOW me, you are rolling the floor laughing at this point!) we made it safely to Houston! We pulled in around 5:15, jogged in the house, quickly said hello to Margie, and got started unloading. I would like to say that we had the car unloaded within five minutes, and I was completely unpacked and settled in within 20 minutes!! Impressive right?! We quickly threw on a dress, and somewhat pulled ourselves together and headed out to Westbury Christian Schools graduation! Graduation started at 7:00, so we needed to be there by 6:30 and I live 20 minutes away from the church (I'll let you do the math!). This was a very fun night! I was able to surprise several of the kids that night!
Then on Saturday, Ellen and I spent the morning together. We ran to David's Bridal to try on some bridesmaids dresses, and then went and had lunch before I took her to the airport. I then attended on my students graduation parties! It was a crawfish broil! It was a very interesting experience!!
I am wrapping up my first Sunday here! I attended another graduation party tonight where we played water balloon volleyball! As you can tell, I have been very busy!! But I am loving every minute of it!!
Tomorrow we are all going to play paintball!! This should be another interesting experience!
Ok, sorry this was so long!! Just wanted to kind of update everyone on what I have been up to my first couple of days here!! I love you all and I will leave you with a few pictures!
Me and Ellen at WCS graduation  

Cody teaching me how to eat crawfish!
Me and some of my girls after water balloon volleyball!