Fun Spring Happenings

Hello everyone! Tonight at church we learned how God is attentive. He is always watching, always listening, and always acting in the world. It's neat how as a teacher you think you are only going to be teaching the kids, but in my experience God has been teaching me a lot too :) I don't feel like I am nearly as familiar and knowledgeable about the bible and even bible stories as I should be. I'm praying that God would increase my understanding and help me get a better grasp on it all. As long as I've been in church, I am very disappointed at how much I really know and understand about the bible. I guess it's good, bc it is motivating to keep trying to learn and grow. And it is exciting when God does teach me something and a light bulb goes off about how that fits with this or that.

anyway, here are some pics of braelyn at dollywood. she has been twice now and has really enjoyed the rides both times. the first time was with her cousins and the last time it was just us(me, aaron , and braelyn) and she still enjoyed riding them even by herself. i also included a few pics from the park. we can walk to the park, such a blessing. braelyn really enjoys going down the slide. she is getting better every time we go. and her vocabulary seems to grow day by day. she just got back from spending 4 nights with her nana and granddaddy in knoxville--wow! she did really great and we did pretty good too :) it was strange not having her around, but we were pretty busy the whole time and didn't have much time to miss her. i can tell that she is nearing the big TWO.....her little stubborn side is coming out sometimes. she loves to play with our neighbor ashley, who braelyn calls "ashee". she is 4 yr old and they like to play bubbles together. she is really into building with her blocks lately. she can count to 10, although she usually likes to go from 3 to 6. overall, she is just a lot of FUN!! I'm so thankful for her and so thankful to get to stay at home with her.

Praising the Lord

Here are some pics from about a month ago, yes, I am behind. we had a pretty eventful april. we had a wonderful outing to the knoxville zoo with my friend steph and her little girl addie. they are about the same age. thanks steph for such a great day of mommy and friend time :) and i think braelyn really enjoyed it too. braelyn wasn't as interested in the animals as i thought she would be. i think a lot of them were just too far away. but she liked the petting zoo part a lot.




Notices how Braelyn goes from brushing the goat's hair to her own hair :)) She loved it! And Addie decided to give it a try too.


Just wanted to share a praise. I just got done leading my first class of the summer for 8/9 year old kids at church!! :) I LOVE THOSE KIDS!! I love most kids, but that age is such a great age I think. We had 8 kids, 4 boys and 4 girls. they did a great job. i know they learned some things and they had fun too. it feels so good to have one under my belt now. I have been working hard getting the room ready. I think I have been there every day this week! But it feels so good to have something to prepare for. it also motivates me in spending time with the Lord each day, bc I know I can do nothing apart from Him. I just thank the Lord over and over for opening up this opportunity. And aaron is helping me too. It was a good night. I think I was smiling most of the way home.

Braelyn has developed her first obsession....."Praise Baby DVD". Yes, she asks for it as soon as we come downstairs in the morning and pretty much anytime she is in the living room. it was a great babysitter the other night when we went to a friend's house for dinner. we put the dvd in, and just like that....we had ourselves about 30 minutes of kid-free eating and conversation :) she is cutting some more teeth. the other day i walked in her room and she was sitting up in the rocking chair......just listening to her music and staring around the room :)) I thought I was sneaking in on her reading her books and I was looking in the floor for her, and couldn't find her and then realized she was up in the chair. i'm surprised this is the first time she has done it. she is climbing up in the kitchen chairs all the time now.
have a good rest of the week.

Pictures from Easter

We had a great Easter in middle TN celebrating with my Granny & Pop and all our Hasty family there. We also got to see Daniel and Joanna on our way in, which was really nice.



Playing peek-a-boo..........where's Braelyn??
There she is!!!!
Birthday boy, Jackson (3 years old) and his brother Colton
What a beautiful Easter morning!!
Mattie and Braelyn

ooooooooh! What a pretty yellow leaf :)



The Byrd boys....Colton, Jackson, and Hayden Too cute
All the grandkids on the Hasty side
The Jones'

First easter egg hunt. She wasn't really competitive...she just wanted to examine each one after she found it for a while




I am really excited about a couple of things.....one, I got to plant some flowers on Sunday, actually quite a few, in pots and baskets. and most of the time, i was all by myself in the yard, just enjoying the beautiful day without any interruptions. it was so nice to spend so much time on one task and feel like i actually accomplished something :)))) and now I get to smile and enjoy them every day when I look at them. Our God is SO creative (wish i could think of a more brilliant word), when you look at all the flowers, all the details in each one, all the different kinds. I praise Him and thank Him for allowing me the privilege to enjoy them each day.

secondly, I am really excited about teaching a children's class at my church this summer, ages 8-9 year olds. we are using Desiring God's children curriculum, which I have never done before, but am really excited about. I have been wanting to be more involved at church and God has answered my prayer :) We start next wednesday night. Please pray for me and the children. That God will be glorified and hearts will come to love Him and treasure Him.

For me.....God brought to my mind yesterday the word "surrender".......i was reading in the power of a praying woman....GREAT book, and she was just talking about how we must surrender EVERY part of our lives in order to be fully used by God and to experience what God has for us in the fullest. I struggle with this bc I like to be in control and I think I know what I want and what is best for me---WRONG! I have to let go of what I "think" I want....and what I "think" will make me happy. Surrendering my life daily to the Lord and TRUSTING Him to provide and reveal His plan day by day is where I can find true joy. Many times I am so ashamed of how little I trust Him. I think I trust Him a lot, but then when I look at my actions and my attitudes and my thoughts....I just have to pray "Lord help my unbelief and help me trust you more."
"For I am crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me. I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, then Christ died for nothing" Galatians 2:20-21
"If anyone would come after me(Jesus), he must DENY himself and take up his cross DAILY and follow me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will save it." Luke 9;23
"Trust in the Lord with all your heart. Lean not on your own understanding. Acknowledge Him in all your ways and He will direct your path." Proverbs 3: 5-6

Say Cheese!

Would you like to count my teeth??

Finger lickin' good spaghetti!!


Nana and Braelyn playing outside at Nana's house.

ok, i just wrote a blog post, and somehow lost it. so i'll update with words later. here are some pics of braelyn. aaron has been working a lot the last six weeks, but will be on a better schedule starting tomorrow!! Thank you Lord....I miss my husband. looking forward to seeing Sarah and Martin soon ;)

Who is an overcomer?

ok, so I wanted to share how God encouraged me this past Tuesday at bible study. The study was focused on 1 John 5. Here are verses 4 and 5

"For whatever is born of God overcomes(present tense, which means "continuously overcomes", it's an ongoing action) the world; and this is the victory that has overcome the world--our faith."

There is so much good stuff, but honestly I can't convey it all on this blog. Kay Arthur taught us that the word for "overcomes" in that verse is the word "nikao" which means "to rule over, subdue, CONQUER". It is also what Nike shoes comes from, just a side note. So here is the SUPER EXCITING thing that just really sank in and stuck with me in a real way.......if you are a child of God then you are an OVERCOMER!! You can't not be an overcomer, bc God's children by definition are overcomers, bc we have Christ in us. And Christ is our greatest example of overcoming.
In John 16:33 Jesus says to his disciples, before his crucifixion "These things I have spoken to you, so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world." This is the first mention of the word "overcome".
Kay Arthur also reminded us that this doesn't mean that 100% of the time you are victorious in life, but as a pattern or habit of your life, you live in victory. I have been struggling lately with different things, and honestly, have really not felt like an overcomer. But this message was just so encouraging to me.....to know that being an overcomer is not something I choose, it is WHO I AM IN CHRIST!! Yes, I have to choose to believe this and set my mind on it, when Satan tries to get me down, but it will ALWAYS be true of me and of you, if you are a believer. I hope this realization sticks with me until I see Jesus face to face. I pray that God will use this to encourage someone else who might be struggling.
I am so thankful that we serve a RISEN Savior! One of the girls at my AWANA group last week had never heard that Jesus rose from the grave! What a privilege it was to share with her that awesome/exciting news. Hope you all enjoy celebrating our risen Savior this Easter weekend and all year long.

1 John

So, I've been doing a bible study on 1 John for a while now, although I have to confess that I have not been doing the homework the past couple of weeks. But I went this morning anyway and still learned a lot. It is a Kay Arthur study and boy is she good! I love the way she teaches because she just tells it like it is and doesn't try to sugarcoat anything....truth is truth! And that's what I need to hear, and we all need to hear. So, I just thought I would share a few things I learned this morning.
Some parts may seem random, but i'm still going to share.

It was mainly on 1 John 4. We talked some about verse 18 which says "There is no fear in love; because perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves punishment , and the one who fears is not perfected in love." I have heard this verse a lot and read it a lot through the years, and usually just tried to come up with my own ideas on what it meant(still mostly confused), not really using the context too much. And I had heard a lot of people just quote this verse by itself and use it in different ways.....well, I felt like I got some new insight on this verse that I hadn't had before. And the Holy Spirit revealed it to me first a few weeks ago while i was studying these verses, and then confirmed it this morning during our discussion time. It had been a long time since I felt like the Holy Spirit had taught me something new in my own quiet time, so I was excited just to experience that. It may be something you already know, but it was new for me.

I learned that the word "fear" means "to run away from in terror" in this verse and it is referring to the fear of God's judgment. When I realized what this was talking about it reminded me of when I was young, before I was saved. I used to lay in bed at night and wonder what would happen to me after I died.....and it was terrifying, bc I didn't know.....I just thought of total darkness and being alone. THEN, when I became a Christian, I no longer had that fear....I knew I would be in Heaven with Jesus. People who don't know the Lord do have a reason to be afraid and to run in terror because there will be a real day of judgment and they are enemies of God. They don't have Christ's righteousness in them to make them presentable before our Holy God. This makes me want to go out and share with people so bad, yet when I go out, I make excuses and don't say a word most of the time. I am really missing sharing the gospel with people, just talking to people about Jesus.....I hope and pray that God will give me boldness and opportunities soon. so back to the verse, it just made more sense to me....when we are saved through God's perfect love, we need not fear the judgment, because we have Christ in us and our sins have been forgiven. but those who fear the judgment, as they should, have not surrendered their life to Christ and have no righteousness on their own, they are enemies of God....not a good place to be.

every week, i want to write about stuff from this study, but then I don't. it has just been so good, but so hard too. it's all about knowing that you KNOW, that you really KNOW that you are saved. If you have doubts or have friends/family who have doubts, 1 John is the book that gives you the tests and helps you have that assurance of salvation.
"These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life" 1 John 5:13

Spring fever!

Soakin' up the sun!!

Braelyn discovered the headband at my mom's house and just thought she was the coolest thing!
Aren't I pretty? :)
Hanging out with my cousin, Mattie, at Mamaw's house. They had lots of fun playing together.
Just a random shot of Colton, my nephew....showing off his creative skills. He actually did this all by himself, and he's not even in kindergarten yet! I was impressed! Pretty cute.

Well, I am so thankful for the sunshine and warmer weather we have had recently. It has been so refreshing to be able to get outside and enjoy some sunshine. We have been to the park twice already and Braelyn loves it. Things are starting to bud and green shoots are coming out of the ground- woohoo!! I love watching spring unfold and watching things grow. I have definitely been more motivated to get some things done lately. I am almost done organizing all of Braelyn's clothes, which feels nice. I like being organized, but a lot of times I lack motivation.

I wanted to share a few pics. One of the days when it was really pretty we decided to just move Braelyn's chair out on the deck for a picnic lunch. She loved it. Aaron and I decided that we might need to invest in some outdoor furniture for our little deck so we can eat out there more as the weather keeps getting nicer.

Braelyn was excited to get to see her Nana yesterday and today. Aaron's mom came up and spent the night with us last night and we were so glad to have her visit us. I am thankful that we are close enough that she can do that. And I got to go get some shopping done while Nana took care of Braelyn :) Thanks Nana!

hope everyone has a good weekend