I'm at home after all....

So I am not volunteering at Extreme Home Makeovers tonight. And yes, I'm sad. Oh well. I'm excited it is done!

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Abbey - this is for you. You know. I know. It's okay. - Haha! I want you to know you CRACK ME UP!!! ( and Jason too!) we were just laughing out loud. And you have to know... the cooking and kids thing MUST be more genetic than either of us realized! (That was Jason's first comment about what we have in common!)

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A random quote from Eli last night:
"Mom - I think you do a good job in your work. I'm not saying you DO a good job, because really I don't know what you do and if your good. I'm just saying I THINK you do good, because I like you."
Gotta love that honesty.

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And for those doing the Beth Moore study - I just have to share this quote from day 3 that hit my heart so personally:
( Remember the scene at the beach when Jesus returns following the resurrection? I love the picture of John following along, and the whole discussion with Peter in which Jesus lays love as a foundation for any following Peter will do from this point forward...) She says:
"I am convinced that love is everything, but I wasn't the first one convinced. I simply follow in a long line of believers who failed their way into the discovery that love is the highest priority and motivating force in the entire life of faith."

That is so me. I am growing more and more passionate about what I used to consider weak, because it's power to change outweighs all other motivations. No wonder Jesus said all the law and prophets hung on that. We can think we get everything about truth, right vs. wrong, and be passionate about it all. But if we don't get love, we're just an annoying, and irrelevant sound "clanging" in the background of everyone's life. But when we "get" real love, and live with loving others as our highest priority, that can motivate change and cause others to respond to even the hardest truths because of the intrigue of real, genuine love.

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Speaking of love, Steve Saint, (End of The Spear) who I got to hear Wed. night, shared part of an interview he had with a USA today reporter. The reporter came because he had to see for himself that the story, and these men, were real. When he questioned Steve about his relationship with Mincaye, he seemed somewhat appalled at Steve's choice. He said he could understand eventually forgiving the man that killed his father. But welcoming him into his family and calling him "grandfather" ? That was "morbid", in his words. But to watch these men relate, you know that not only has forgiveness resolved the offenses between them, but genuine love defines their relationship with each other now. It is obvious in their every move.
Morbid? No. I can see how it is foreign to a world that doesn't live this way. But I think it is a powerful, faith filled story that parabolically reminds us that Christ loved us while we were yet enemies of His. If He could do it, I think it would be only natural that the more we follow Him, the more we find ourselves empowered to do the same.