next stage of life: wifedom: December 2011

So this is going to be kind of a two part blog. The first part will simply be the sharing of a sweet moment with you while the second part will be dedicated to an old friend because it was halfway her fault that I experienced this moment on Friday.

So I was supposed to meet my friend Courtney for dinner Friday night and then we were going to head out to our friend Kree's show. I had a little bit of time left after work and before meeting Courtney, so I was trying to decide how I wanted to spend that time. I don't watch a lot of tv, so that wasn't too appealing, I didn't really want to start reading a book because I didn't have enough time to get into it. So, I decided to just sit down and listen to some worship music. Courtney was actually running a little late (which is fairly typical), but it ended up being good because I wouldn't have gotten to this song if she was on time. I've had this song on my iPod forever (To Worship You I Live - Away) and have even listened to it a lot of times, but for some reason, it got to me pretty intensely that night. Just listening to the words over and over again had me nearly in tears while sitting in my kitchen:

To Worship You I Live - I Live to Worship You

This isn't a killer video of the song or anything - I just wanted you to be able to hear it! It's at about 3 minutes that I really broke down...you'll be able to hear the moment for sure.

It puts everything into perspective. I literally live to worship the Lord. We can worship Him in so many different ways: the actual act of worshiping the Lord with music, serving others, being faithful with our tithes, being kind to our families - the list seriously goes on. In everything we do - we should be worshiping the Lord. We Live to worship Him.

Part 2

This second part is for THE Courtney Aldrich

I've been friends with Courtney since high school and I can definitely say I'm shocked we're still close - and I know she agrees with me. We went through some typical high school drama together - shared boy interests, dramatic reactions, unkind words exchanged - the works. It even got so bad once that one of us (not me) jumped out of the other's moving vehicle, but those aren't the things I think about in regards to Courtney anymore.

When I spend time with her now, all I see is how far we've come since then. We've gone from crazy dramatic high school students to responsible, level headed (most of the time) young adults who are eager to succeed in what we're doing and please the Lord.

The first time we reconnected after our last major fall out was spent in the car, at Sonic, talking about Jesus and how He had been working in our lives. We haven't had any big arguments since then.

It's amazing to see how the Lord restores broken relationships when both parties are willing to admit their fault and forgive each other as well as ask for forgiveness. I will always cherish the little things that make Courntey who she is: her love for Sonic diet cokes, our shared moments back stage during theatre, awkward moments with certain people at Mellow Mushroom, her need to always be super sentimental (she's probably on cloud 9 with ME actually initiating a sentimental moment) and so much more!

Thanks for sticking it out Court! I know I'm not always the best at maintaining relationships, but I truly appreciate your patience and grace!