Crystal Clear

For first time in a long time, I feel such a clarity in my walk with God. When you are so overly involved with church & ministry (not that I'm saying that's a bad thing, just speaking about my experience) it is so easy to get cluttered and out of focus. For years, I've practically lived at church, between youth ministry, band practice, this service, that meeting... Just recently I've cut back - limited my commitments, I guess you could say. I had gotten so overwhelmed that not only was I miserable, but I had no idea who God really was... In a way I thought that if I did all this stuff, acted a certain way, it would please Him, and that was what I was supposed to do. Right? Wrong.

Finally, after cutting out and pruning and leaving and, well... simplifying, I can see so much better. I actually have a desire to be God's friend, to read the bible, talk to him... I've started reading some Christian books again, and I really feel a strong desire to get involved - not so much with a specific ministry or church, with too-high expectations, but to be involved with what God is doing. What he really wants from us is actually so simple and easy - to let Him love us and take care of us, and for us to trust that He'll do just that. Then in turn, we are to show others that kind of love.

My prayer is that more will find this simplicity, this love... We make things so confusing sometimes, especially by trying to be a "good" christian. I know for so long I felt like if I did it right, if I did everything like the bible said, lived up to everyone's expectations, then He would love me more and I would be A+ in His book. I felt that is what He expected of me. And time and time I'd fail, and feel even more confused and miserable. But when I got away from all that "stuff", I finally saw that God doesn't have that expectation of us at all. He just wants our love. And He loves us all the same, sinner and saint alike, no matter what we do, what we've done, or how awesome or horrible we or anyone else thinks we are. And that, my friend is refreshing...

"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."

Matthew 11:29-30

Meatball Subs...

So I made meatball subs last night. We were all excited and stuff, looking forward to it. But...big mistake. We were both sick all night and gross feeling all day. I dunno. But I sure as heck will throw out the leftovers and burn the crazy recipe! Ewww... I don't think I'll ever eat another meatball again...

Coupons, Coupons Everywhere!

I've been collecting coupons for awhile to send to military families overseas. I started thinking about how much we always talk about "supporting the troops"... What exactly does that mean? Yeah, people send care packages to those guys in the desert, but what about their families, or those people in the military that are stationed other places? I think those folks get forgotten... My brother was stationed in Korea for a year, and no, it wasn't "dangerous", but it still sucked, and he still served his country...

Okay, enough about that - back to coupons... So I started wondering what I could do to make some military people's lives a little bit better, and I came across a video online of this lady who mails coupons to military bases. What an awesome idea! I love coupons, and I know every other woman in the world MUST love them, too, so why not help out those army wives a little bit? It can't be fun to be stuck overseas trying to make ends meet with that wonderful, overabundant military paycheck (not!) - especially if your other half is halfway around the globe fighting somewhere! So I looked and found a similar program online at http://www.ocpnet.org/. What you do is collect coupons and mail them to a base that you "adopt" overseas. The families on the bases can get the coupons from the Family Support Center and use them at the commissary and PX on base. They can even use the coupons for up to 6 months after they expire. I picked a base in Korea, since that was where my bro was.

So, for the past month or so I've been collecting coupons, most of which have come from my awesome co-workers and fellow coupons lovers. Finally I had enough to send and today I packaged them all up. I ended up with (drumroll, please) $1515.44 worth! I'm mailing them tomorrow. And now my hands hurt from cutting them out and I don't want to see another coupon for a month.

I can't believe that I just typed that much about coupons...

- Carly

The Simple Life...

So I've decided to start a blog. I had one years ago, but then when myspace and facebook became the world's addiction, I let it go. I've realized lately that I just don't use my brain quite as much as I should, which is pretty bad, seeing how I help educate kids for a living... I read constantly, but usually novels, and I read so dang fast that I barely take in the small nuances of what I'm reading - just get the big picture. Since we don't have cable or whatever, Nick and I sometimes don't realize what's happening in the world around us. Yes, I know I can watch anything I want on the internet, including every episode of Everybody Loves Raymond and CSI, but if you lived by space heater and your computer was in the coldest room of the house, I bet you wouldn't spend too much time browsing for videos either. =)

So I get this blog thing rolling, and Nick and I are trying to come up with a title, something that "defines" us... and we settled on "Life Made Simple". Ever since we tied the knot this summer, we've been really trying to settle down and get our heads on straight. Our lives were so busy, at least it seemed that way, and we were stressed to the max. Now that I look back on it, I can't really figure out why things were so crazy... Yeah, we had some commitments that we've since let go, but a large part of it, I believe, was the pressure we were putting on ourselves to perform, to live up to expectations. When we finally decided what was really important, what we wanted from life (of course we don't have that totally nailed down yet - we've only been married 8 months!), we both felt a huge weight lifted. And now we're both happier and more peaceful that we've ever been. Yes, we still love Jesus, and no, we haven't turned into total heathens, but we have found true freedom and love in the life that Jesus told us to lead - love Him, and love people. That's the true simple life...

"A pretentious, showy life is an empty life;

a plain and simple life is a full life." Proverbs 13:7

- Carly