July already?

I can hardly believe it is July already! This summer is FLYing by! Here are a few pics from our fun time so far:

Library Storytime Yoga:


The sprinkler has been very popular with the girls this summer:



Gracie got to go to 1st grade church camp this summer...her first time to spend the night there. She had so much fun, and I did too going as a sponsor. It's fun to see your child learning about Jesus in the same place you did, sleeping on the same bunks you did, running around with her friends like you did.... One thing I did notice was that those bunks were not nearly as comfortable as I remember them being when I was in jr.high/high school. :)

This was Gracie on the very top bunk that she chose:


Craft time:


Gracie with her best bud:


Our "family group":


The Water Slide:


Gracie getting ready for the zip line...I was so proud of how brave she was! She was all smiles!


Ready to go!


Climbing up the ladder:


There she goes!


I haven't uploaded pics from our week in Branson or from the 4th of July yet...another day.

On the baby front, things are going well. Feeling much better most of the time...whoo-hoo! We are finding out Monday if we are having a boy or a girl. I can't hardly wait until then! My belly is definetly starting to look pregnant and some of my shorts won't button anymore! I can't believe I am already 18 weeks...this is going very fast!

I am also working my way through Romans with Beth Moore's help. I have her study guide and am listening to her messages go through Romans bit by bit. It has been very interesting...Romans (in fact, everything written by Paul) has always been a little difficult for me to read at times..I usually have to read passages several times to figure it out so this study has been very helpful to me! I have gone through the whole first chapter and have already learned so much!
A few things that I have highlighted and underlined:

- 1:12- "that is, that you and I may be mutually encouraged by each other's faith."
I love this because obviously Paul was a great encouragement to the Christian church in Rome, but THEY encouraged HIS faith as well. I love that. He took encouragement from seeing them grow, seeing them clothe themselves with Christ, from their prayers for him. Every part of the body of Christ can be and should be an encouragement in the faith of our fellow believers...in how we live out our faith, how we encourage one another with truth in times of tribulation, even in our participation in our local body of believers.

- 1:18-32- This was a powerful passage! Part of it's focus in centered on exchange... how people (and ultimately, the culture) exchange the glory of God for idols: for everyone worships SOMEthing...either God or idols. This can be seen all over our culture today.
The second exchange was for the truth of God for lies...again, it's all over our culture. We are slowly but surely, as a culture, letting go of the truth of God and accepting more and more the lies of Satan. In our culture we hear that much of the Bible is outdated...however, as Beth Moore says, "Time does not diminish truth."
The third exchange was people exchanging natural relations for unnatural relations.
And, obviously this is prevalent in our society as well.

The sobering results come in the last part of this chunk of verses:
v. 28: "Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he GAVE them over (Greek word: paredokeni---means to ABANDON) to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done."
That is very sobering indeed...likened to being in a boat in a swift current, being held close to the shore by someone, and that someone just deciding to drop the rope.

v. 32: "Although they know God's righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things BUT ALSO APPROVE OF THOSE WHO PRACTICE THEM." Ouch...the church (as a whole) seems to struggle being pulled to 2 extremes: 1) We become self-righteous judges of "people who practice them", condemning them with hate...which drives them further from Christ. OR 2) We accept the world's view of tolerance that to be tolerant we have to say that everything is acceptable and ok.
How in the world should the church....should I...balance that out so that I am not "approving of those who practice them," but also not becoming a self-righteous judge? I think my new prayer of the day needs to be, "Help me Lord to hold my tongue when it will not bring you glory and show others of your unfathomable love....help me to speak up when by not doing so I am approving of sin!"