Some trust in chariots and some in horses

“Psalm 20

For the director of music. A psalm of David.

  May the LORD answer you when you are in distress;
       may the name of the God of Jacob protect you.

  May he send you help from the sanctuary
       and grant you support from Zion.

  May he remember all your sacrifices
       and accept your burnt offerings.
       Selah

  May he give you the desire of your heart
       and make all your plans succeed.

  We will shout for joy when you are victorious
       and will lift up our banners in the name of our God.
       May the LORD grant all your requests.

  Now I know that the LORD saves his anointed;
       he answers him from his holy heaven
       with the saving power of his right hand.

  Some trust in chariots and some in horses,
       but we trust in the name of the LORD our God.

  They are brought to their knees and fall,
       but we rise up and stand firm.

  O LORD, save the king!
       Answer us when we call!”

Sometimes I actually think I have it hard. 

My mother texted me that she was praying Psalm 20 for us a couple weeks ago after she and I talked in great deal about what was going on in my life.

Not to say this is the easiest time in my life, but it IS blessed.  God has answered so many of Adam’s and my prayers that I am overwhelmed.  God has provided beyond what I could ever have expected.  Take the poor little Jeep that sits in our driveway, she only gets 18 miles to the gallon on the highway and a very shameful 14 miles to the gallon in the city.  She was what we had, so we dealt with it.  We had to register her as non-operated a couple of weeks ago, leaving us without a car.  In Seattle this would have been no big deal, but here in Elk Grove you aren’t going to go far without a car.  The Bus system here is to say the least lacking and costs almost twice as much as it does in Seattle.  Without a vehicle my step-son Brendan was going to have to change schools for the 3rd time in 2 years.  Adam has two classes that he MUST attend; there are no ways around it. SO, we started to buckle down and try to figure it out, but God already had a plan.  

WOW has God blessed us.

As of last Friday, the Reed family has been SO generous to lend us a car.  Then a family friend is selling her immaculately kept 2002 Ford Taurus with only 50,000 miles on it for a VERY reasonable price.  The Ford gets great gas mileage (ok, it’s not a Prius, but compared to the Jeep) and, even adding our small car payment, our budgeted monthly expenses will be dropping.

While Brendan is not attending the same school he was, so yes he did have to change schools in the midst of this, he is adjusting so well.  He is already making friends and loves his teacher.  He has been a REAL trooper through this.  I am SO proud of him.

Our plans are succeeding, because our plans are to trust in the almighty God and what HE has for us.  So I SHOUT for joy as we are victorious and I lift up banners in the name of our God. Yes, some trust in the Government or their own strength, we trust in the name of the Lord our God!

A little surprise

Adam came home yesterday from his Saturday class and told me, “I need you to get dressed in something very nice and be ready to go somewhere special by 6pm”

“Huh?” I was confused. We had already planned our day. My goals for the day were to put a second coat of paint in Aidan’s room and review our budget for the week.   What was he talking about?

Adam smiled a smile only Adam can give when he is excited about something and KNOWS he has baffled me.

So I continued painting in a baffled state, thank fully I was painting a white wall so there wasn’t much to mess up.  From time to time I’d wonder downstairs to where Adam was working on some things. 

“What should I wear?” – and Adam would give me a few ideas that he had seen in the closet.

“You got tickets for something, huh?” – and Adam would gently let me know it was a good thing and to not worry.

After I finished painting the bed room I began getting ready, I took a long bath and decided that I would really go all the way and go for an evening gown.

Still baffled, my husband began getting ready as I was finishing up.

“Is it an opera?” – and Adam smiled, “no, not an opera”

We took Aidan over to our incredible neighbors Amy and Matt who watched him for the evening and headed to down town Sacramento where it was revealed to me that Adam’s very generous friends Jen and Steve had two tickets for us to see the symphony.

It was an incredible evening!  It has been so long since I have been to the symphony, and I drank in every minute of it. I was so in awe of the beautiful music and the talents of the musicians

(OK, so this was a silly re-enactment of the receiving of the tickets, but you get the idea)

As I have been struggling this last week with not knowing what God has for Adam and I, I reflect on this weekend and think, MAN, I am so silly.  The way I act with God is how I acted with Adam.

“God, are we going to be ok?” – and God gently lets me know he has me in his hands. (Psalms 31:15; Psalm 138:8)

“God, how will we handle all of this?” – and God smiles, he lets me know he will care for us (Psalm 95:7)

Every time I get to where God is taking me, even though I am not sure where he is leading, he takes my breath away and I fall down on my knees in awe of him who has taken me there.  So I keep taking steps forward to see what surprises God has for us!

("My name is Weber, . . . . Adam Weber")

What we take in.

Almost every afternoon I get the same question, I have learned now what the real question is.

The afternoon ritual goes something like this:

Brendan: "May I have something to snack on?"

Me: "You can always have fruit. We have apples, oranges, and bananas.  Would you like one of those?"

Brendan: "Oh" (very long pause, long enough for me to get back to what I was doing and be in to it again.) "How about potato chips (or insert whatever junk food Adam purchased for the weeks treat)"

Me: "No, but you can have fruit"

Brendan: "Oh"

The real question was "can I eat junk?" 

Since the "evil" step-mom entered the castle the rule is fruit is the only snack between meals.  This is because the first week Adam and I went grocery shopping I found out his idea of a balanced diet included meat, potatoes, water and the daily cup of pop (soda pop).  Fruit was an introduction to the home with my appearance; in fact I think the kids might think I invented fruit. It is important to have a balanced meal, not too much of any one thing.  There are consequences to not eating a balanced diet, such as fatigue and irritability. Most of us try to live this out in our day to day lives with our eating habits.  Do we do it with our spiritual lives as well though?  

Reality is I don't.  I am the meat kind of gal when it comes to my spiritual life.  I rarely have fruit and even less the social foods, like cheese and frequently add junk, like watching a TV show that may not be appropriate.  I love to study the bible (my meat); I crave learning more about Gods word.  This is great, and I am not saying it isn't important, however, it is just as important to spend time praising God, serving God, and sharpening ourselves with others in community.  Really, if you just spend time studying the bible, you've missed the point and your spiritual diet will be out of whak. You will have consequences, such as an unbalanced view of what God says or potentialy no regard for how great he is.  

The real question for me is, what am I going to do about my spiritual diet? My goal now, to bring my spiritual diet back in to balance and create better spiritual habits.

Kidd-less weekend

Starting on Friday afternoon Adam and I had a rare weekend of not having any kids home all weekend.  There was no way we weren't going to take advantage of the much needed R & R time together.  

Once a week Adam and I try to make sure we have a date, it doesn't have to cost anything, but it is time specifically for us to just spend together alone, and away from the house.  So Saturday we made our Date DAY!!!  (Ya ladies, I am one lucky gal).  Adam has learned to be very frugal in this time of neither of us having a job, as he found a coupon for breakfast for us to go to Home Town Buffet and spend $7.58 for the two of us to have all we could eat and drink!  It was good food, and neither of us had to do clean up!

Adam had also found out earlier in the week that all of Sacramento's museums would be free on Saturday, so we packed a pick-nick lunch and headed downtown.  It was a lot of fun; we took our time and enjoyed learning about the people of California, including Andrew Grove, who helped start Intel Corporation.  I now have a great deal of respect for this survivor of the Holocaust and the Hungarian Revolution. 

Adam and I also spent some time at the Capitol and in Capitol Park.  We reflected deeply as we viewed the Vietnam Memorial in capitol park and spent time reflecting on how blessed we are in our freedom and the cost that has been paid for it.  . . . . We also spent a few goofy minuets enjoying the uniqueness of living in California; I have never lived somewhere where Palm trees and Orange trees grow in city parks!  

Our evening was then a romantic movie out to see "The Blind Side".  This was a GREAT movie, it is one we will probably buy when it comes out on DVD, a MUST see.   (Thank you Nick and Kaleigh for your generosity of the movie tickets!)

This whole weekend really has been incredible little time of R and R as yesterday we went to church and then spent the Super bowl relaxing with our neighbors, who are special gifts from God to us!  Adam and I are now refreshed, and ready to face another month. 

You know, I am never quite sure why God has given me SO much, but I bask in his grace and gifts and pray that Adam and I are able to use these gifts God has blessed us with to bless others!


(P.S. Our total out of pocket expense for our date day was $12.08, including the cost of gas!)

Holy Holy Holy

Revelation 4:8-11
The four living creatures, each having six wings, were full of eyes around and within. And they do not rest day or night, saying:

"Holy, holy, holy,
Lord God Almighty,
Who was and is and is to come!"

Whenever the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to Him who sits on the throne, who lives forever and ever, the twenty-four elders fall down before Him who sits on the throne and worship Him who lives forever and ever, and cast their crowns before the throne, saying:


"You are worthy, O Lord,
To receive glory and honor and power;
For You created all things,
And by Your will they exist and were created."

I doubt there will be a lot of bible studies in Heaven. However, scripture is clear that there will be a great deal of worship. Why do we, mainly I, find it hard or sometimes just not important to worship God?

May God change me, make me, mold me, break me in to the woman he wants me to be, for he deserves my worship. He is Holy.

Spoiled

I adore my husband, and I really should as you don’t see men spoil their wives the way mine does.  Today was just about as perfect a day as there could be.   Adam let me sleep in until 9 am, where he got me up and going for a day of pampering.  – I must interject here too that I also have had some pretty incredible co-workers in my life, as today’s pampering was paid for by them.  – Adam took me in the pouring rain to get my hair done.  I spent from 11 am today until 2:30 being pampered and getting a whole new look, during this my husband ran errands and brought me lunch.   We came home had a wonderful spaghetti dinner and then went for a date at Boarders Book Store where we each went and found books that represented how we want to spend retirement and talked.

Here are a few pictures of our night and my new hair!

That’s right ladies, you all missed out, he is mine!

The other entertaining part of our evening worth mentioning was how Booger told on Brendan when we got home.  Yep, that’s right, Booger the dog.  When we got home we expected the normal excited Booger to come to the door, but no he stood at the landing in the stairs and then whined a little.  Then he went to Brendan’s room, where Brendan was wide awake after having played on the computer all night when he was supposed to be in bed

Our trusted dog Booger and us

The moral to today’s story, these testosterone filled beings I live with are pretty great, even if they do leave the toilet seat up.