Words of comfort and encouragement...

Matthew 11:28-30

"Come to me all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light."

Psalm 71:14-21

"But as for me, I will always have hope; I will praise You more and more. My mouth will tell of Your righteousness, of your salvation all day long, though I know not its measure. I will come and proclaim Your righteousness, Yours alone. Since my youth, O God, you have taught me, and to this day I declare Your marvelous deeds. Even when I am old and gray, do not forsake me, O God, till I declare Your power to the next generation, Your might to all who are to come. Your righteousness reaches to the skies, O God, You who have done great things. Who, O God, is like You? Though You have made me see troubles, many and bitter, You will restore my life again; from the depths of the earth You will again bring me up. You will increase my honor and comfort me once again."

Waiting for the winds to converge...

Jes and I have been reading, Jesus, the One and Only by Beth Moore in preparation for the Christmas season.

Earlier this week, I was struck by a comment she made.

"When the winds of heaven converge with the winds of earth, lightning is bound to strike."

Wow.

May we constantly seek for our winds, the activities of our lives, to converge with those of the Kingdom of God.

Thanksgiving Family Pictures

I have added my pictures from Thanks-

giving to my Flickr site.

Check them out.

Random Thoughts
Photography on Flickr.

This picture is on of my brother Patrick and his wife Jana. I thought it turned out nicely, after some Photoshop tweaking.

Kansas Thanksgiving

I spent Thanksgiving weekend with my family in Kansas. It was very bittersweet. It was the first holiday without my Grandpa, which was hard for all of us, but it was especially hard watching my Grandma as she continues to grieve and deal with the loss.

It was sweet, because my brother Patrick and his wife, Jana, announced to the family that they are pregnant. YAY!

Times like these really make you aware of the gift of life. It is so sweet and so short.

It's kind of strange to think about being an uncle. This little baby will be the first in the next generation of my family. A whole new dynamic is yet to be discovered.

Sadly, Jes and I weren't able to spend Thanksgiving together, but we're really excited because we are going to be able to spend a lot of time together during the next month. It's gonna be great!

I did get to spend time with Jes' family a few weekends ago. Her sister hosted a pre-Thanksgiving dinner so it was great spending that time with her parents, grandparents, sister, and brother-in-law.

I am so incredibly thankful for the acceptance and support that Jes and I have recieved from both of our families.

I want to send a "shout out" to my grandparents who finally got a computer that will allow them to check out my blog periodically.

Unity...It's a good thing!

Tonight I have worship band practice. It will be different from any practice we've had. Not only are all of my band members going to be back (the first time in 2 months!), but we will be meeting with the church choir and the sound team.

This past weekend, the Lord laid on the heart of one of our vocalists that there was a lack of unity between the different music ministries at our church, which in all honesty is a very true statement.

I have been very humbled this week as I have looked at myself and my attitude toward other people. I will be the first one to admit that I have made sarcastic comments or rolled my eyes about our choir on more than one occassion....this should not be!

Who am I to think that I am better than anyone else? Who am I to think that "my" ministry is more important that any other ministry? Who am I to take ownership of anything?

I am very excited about the meeting tonight, because I want to express my desire to honor and glorify God in unity. I am confident that the collective desire is to help lead the congregation into the presence of God, in a way that is the least distracting to anyone.

What an honor it is to be able to serve the Lord through music. I take it forgranted.

It is always so exciting when people come together in unity; when it is very obvious that the Holy Spirit is leading us. It is also very exciting to me that all of this didn't stem from a conflict. I think that conflict resolution is so amazing, but it's even better when we can put aside our differences and come together BEFORE there is a conflict.

I think God likes it when we are pro-active rather than just re-active!

Showing off her handiwork!

Showing off her handiwork!
Originally uploaded by random thoughts photography.

Last weekend was another great time with my girl. Jes came up to Richmond on Friday - when she got here, we immediately got ready to go out. I had planned to take her to a dinner-theater that is about an hour away. We went to see the musical "Cats".

For some reason, I've never really felt like I would see that show, but since it was playing, I thought it would be a fun date. It was. The show was good....not the best, but the music was good, and the cast could really dance. It was fun getting all dressed up and going out together. Hopefully we will get to do that more often.

We spent Saturday with my parents. My mom had been wanting to go to Williamsburg for a while to check out the new Yankee Candle factory. We drove down and spent a few hours just walking around. The store was pretty cool. They even had artificial snow falling in one area.

Sunday Jes played with me at church again. This Sunday 3 of my band members were out, so it was great having her help. She is so talented and I am so amazed by everything that she does. It's so exciting to me that we share the same passion for music and worship. We were both very blessed by the opportunity to lead worship together.

Sunday afternoon, we went to see The Prestige. Good movie. I recommend it!

We came home and made dinner in my parents' newly remodeled kitchen. We made shrimp fajitas and Jes made a delicious berry pie for dessert.

We always have such an amazing time together, just doing every-day activities.

There are pictures up on my Flickr site now from our trip down to SWU and from this weekend.
Check 'em out!