happy times :)

I heard about a survey of people who were really sad or depressed. Although TV, food and alcohol seemed to help some people a little, guess what lifted peoples' spirits the most? Looking at their own family picture albums of all the fun things they had done together. :) Cool huh?

new series at wrc

Brian is starting a new series on relationships Sunday at West Ridge. It is called the Naked Truth.
We are deeply burdened for marriages, and have never before seen such devastation in families.
This is not only true for West Ridge; but all over our country there is a sweeping epidemic of relationship
problems, many of them leading to affairs. It is our hope that families can become healthy in 2010!
You can view the series each week at westridge.com.

great verse

my mom emailed me this verse. i love it:

"..pray hard and long. pray for your brothers and sisters. keep your eyes open.
keep each others' spirits up so that no one falls behind."
ephesians 6:18 (the message)

coin jar

Recently, I got a glass jar and made a little sign and wrote "Melting Pot" on it. I thought it would be fun to save our change and go as a family to the Melting Pot restaurant. It is a fondue experience, a little pricey, but would make for a good family memory. So we filled the jar up two times and went! Now we are filling up the jar for our next cool restaurant :)

happy new year!

2010. Will you call it two thousand ten or twenty ten? I'm thinking twenty ten.

Hope it's a good one for you!

a little Christmas vacation honesty

We have had a very relaxing Christmas here at the Bloye house! Family, fireplace, gifts, movies, food and more food, staying in our PJ's till late afternoon! It's been great. Now I have to be honest about something. With all of the holiday festivities, I have totally skipped my God time here for a little while, and let me tell you what I have noticed about myself. When I do not spend time with God I realize that often I become overly sensitive and critical. I sometimes lack understanding in conversations with other people and find myself becoming defensive and frustrated about little things.

I read something today that left an impression on me. "When we operate in the flesh, three things are always true: 1. We will always lack the power of the Spirit, and we'll suffer from fatigue. 2. We will always lack the vision of the Spirit so we'll suffer from frustration. 3. We will always lack the sustaining ministry of the Spirit so we'll suffer from failure."

You may think that you are just fine without plugging into God's Word and that you will read God's Word when you have a huge need or tragedy in life. I am learning that when I don't "plug into God," it is like I am wearing a big sign that says, "I am trying to operate in my own power!" It becomes obvious to other people. Quite honestly, it is embarrassing. I NEED the Bible and prayer in my life so I do not do something extremely stupid! So I want to enter into 2010 with lots of fun and excitement, fireworks, parties and food, new resolutions AND being plugged into God!

brown sugar principle

Zach helped me make cookies last night, which was sortof cool since he is a middle school boy. I don't usually have a lot of cookie-making help :) We were measuring and reading directions, as I found a great opportunity to teach a principle that my Mom taught me in the kitchen.

You know how to measure brown sugar, don't you? You have to pack it down so you can get as much as possible in the measuring cup. Zach and I talked about God's promise to give back to us if we are givers. God says in His Word that if we give, He will give back to us pressed down and overflowing! That's more than just a cup full. That's as much as you can possibly get in the measuring cup--and more! I love how God teaches us things by using examples that we can relate to. Hopefully, I can remind Zach about the brown sugar principle and how we cannot out-give God!