God makes life AWESOME!

AHH! I just have to share with you all how awesome God so that you can join me in continuing to praise Him for His greatness and enduring love! I apologize for the excessive amount of exclamation points you'll probably see in this post. Trust me, I'm an English major, I hate them as much as you do, but I just have to use them!!

So basically, it's Sunday (well, it was when I started writing this post).. which is kind of a given to make God's love seem extra awesome because I get to hear His Word and gospel preached and proclaimed TWICE.. worship him multiple times.. and basically just experience some amazing community with His children ALL DAY LONG.

Here's a run-down of my Sunday:

1. I woke up.. on time to get ready for church..which is rare on Sunday mornings, so that started my day off great to begin with.

2. Went to church--the sermon was rockin'. All about honoring God, something I definitely need to work on and will always need to be working on. Also, we sang one of my favorite hymns--Be Thou My Vision. Oh, Lord, keep my eyes on YOU alone!

3. Taught some insanely rambunctious preschoolers about how Jesus died for THEM. I'm not sure they understood, but at the end of the time, they could recite "While we were still sinners, Christ died for us," so I'm hoping 5 years down the road it will come back from their subconscious. Either way, seeing 4 and 5 year olds struggle with and come to some understanding of the Gospel of Jesus Christ is a pretty amazing thing to witness Sunday after Sunday.

4. Our church had a GREAT potluck. Well, actually, they're ALWAYS great. But this basically meant an INSANE amount of community with people of every age you could possibly imagine. I helped a 4-year-old clean up the cookie she chucked under the table and chatted about my excitement and fundraising for my upcoming trip to China with a 65-year-old. Wonderful, wonderful, God-glorifying times. Ah. So great.

5. Bridal shower. This was cool.. made me want to not be single for the sole reason that I'd LOVE to have some awesome baking pans and a cute new apartment to fill with all sorts of adorable decorations. But yes, I'm content single. And will not change my decision because of bridal shower gifts. :)

6. So, I finally got home from church around 3 in the afternoon.. spent a couple hours chatting with my mom. If you know my mom and my history at all, you'll also understand that this was an extraordinarily rare thing to happen up until a year or two ago. Everytime I spend some more quality time with my beautiful mother, I'm constantly reminded of God's grace, mercy, and enduring patience for His sinful children.

7. I headed off to church again around 5 for a mission committee meeting. Volunteered to write some bulletin inserts and bake a coffee cake. Talked and talked and talked about all of the financial and spiritual needs missionaries everywhere need. I decided that I would love it if God made me rich someday. Before you scream hypocrite at me, know that I would love to be rich so that I could give and give and give, and teach my kids to give everything away for God's kingdom, too!

8. Church service numero dos..with my Daddio preaching this time. I've written in past posts about how much I've come to appreciate and love having my father as my pastor. Seeing my dad share his heart with the people I know closer than my own extended family is a blessing I've too often taken for granted.

9. GIFT at Northwestern + seeing all sorts of old high school friends and spending time with some great college friends. SUCH a GREAT way to end the Lord's Day in worship and community with Him and His children.

To God be all the glory for the amount of joy He's brought into my life!