We love music around here. We have it on most of the time. Our kids already have favorite songs. We. Love. It. The Lord has let our paths cross with some amazing musicians over the years. Most of them are in the hip-hop genre, but this one....not so much hip-hop. But, OH so good!
Meet our friend Frank Hurd. He is a singer song writer who writes some amazing ballads and has written a couple of the most worshipful songs I've heard in a while! At our recent national (5,000 students) Campus Outreach conference he won a "CO's Got Talent" by a landslide. So. Stinkin. Talented. And he loves the Lord. He has an EP coming out this spring so keep you ears open!!
Here is one of my favorite Frank Hurd covers..."To Make You Feel My Love". You're Welcome :)
There is something about knowing a season, a time, a place is coming to an end that makes you appreciate it more. The past week I have cleaned (and cleaned and straightened and cleaned) this sweet little bungalow so that it will be in "show condition". As I've swept from room to room, I have become more and more aware of how much I will miss living here. Its not that I haven't appreciated it for the past year and a half. I have, a lot. But when you are faced with an end, that appreciation seems to become more intense. I will miss the big rooms, the picture window we play in every day. I will miss the sun rising in the dining room, and sitting with E on her bed watching it set and discovering all the colors it makes. I will miss students randomly stopping by, and waving at my girls going to class out the big window. I will miss my uh-mazing kitchen.
I am sad to leave this place. This city, this life, but more so, this home. We have made so many memories here. And we've only been here a short while. But, in my sadness, I am thankful. I am thankful that I know the Lord will give us another place that will become "home" and that it will be perfect in its own way. Im thankful for a new season of life and new memories to be made. But most of all, I am thankful for the reminder that this world is not our home. It is a passing, fleeting season. One God has been gracious enough to make enjoyable for us. But we were made for a different world, a heavenly one. We are here to know Christ and make Him known, and then we will leave. It will be over, and we will go, in joy, to our real heavenly, perfect, with-Christ home. And it will be glorious. Far better than any home we attempt to make here. "This is just a stop on the way to where we're goin."
The first time I heard this song I wept....like a baby (and just did again!). Its a good reminder (and MAN....can this girl sing! What a display of the Lord's creativity!).
My hubby officially has his own blog (mostly because this one was too "frou-frou"). :) So I'm claiming this one and may make some edits accordingly :)
His first post is one that has been brewing for a while. He has great insight to some cultural blind spots in the area of entertainment. Hop on over and take a look. (He's awesome)
We spent this last week in Chattanooga TN with 5,000 Campus Outreach students and staff! Some of the best preachers in the country were there. It. was. amazing. It was time well spent for us, ministering to college students (with no babies!) and enjoying the city. We are really tired(physically), but refreshed (spiritually) as well. And SO VERY glad to be home!
2011 was a year of refining for us. The Lord's commitment was evident. Many life circumstances were difficult and unexpected, but the Lord used them to make us more like Him. And so, it was very very good. 2012 will have its' difficulty for sure, but we are excited for a fresh start. This year will be different than any other. In ways we know and in ways we don't know just yet. The Lord has been up to a lot in and among us.
If you are on Facebook you may have noticed some chatter about some "news" for us. Though I still can't share ALL the details, I can let you in on a major part of it. As of tonight around midnight, our house goes live online, for sale! This is long in the making for us. We have known it was going to happen since last summer, but the reality is setting in. We are excited and anxious and hopeful for all this means!
The full news about whats up will be posted later this week. ;)
May the Lord be made great in 2012. In transition, in moving, in parenting, and in a new normal. Happy New Year!
