Recessionista Fashonista

I. love. to. shop. Seriously...I love it. Shopping can turn a sad day into a happy one. To throw in a little irony, though, I'm super cheap. There are very few things in this world I want to pay full price for. So when I shop I'm usually on a mission to find the cutest, least inexpensive thing in the store. Yesterday, my friends, was a successful day in my shopping world. I managed to purchase two dresses, three tops, and a pair of pants for....$35! Yes, just thirty-five dollars! I was beaming as we walked out of the store. Is that weird?

Shopping isn't Sean's favorite thing because it usually consists of me picking up a cute top, acknowledging it's a cute top, looking at the price, then putting it back. It probably does get annoying after a while.

As a related side note, have you seen the commercial for Chase credit cards where the husband is trying to convince the wife to take a vacation with their reward points, but they can't go because the wife already used all the point to purchase an expensive dress?? How inconsiderate! I feel bad for the husband in that situation because his wife doesn't know how to make responsible money choices. They're probably headed into foreclosure, too.

I'm also on the lookout for an inexpensive newer-ish sewing machine...keeping my eye on Craigslist.

Sean and I are doing great...school is off and running and Sean's work is going well. We are loving the beautiful fall weather and value the time we have together at this super fun stage of marriage. We're off for a walk/run now...

But Why??

A recent conversation I had with a friend is the inspiration of this post. He is not a Christian and knows that I am -- which sparked the whole convo to begin with. He threw lots of good questions my way, some easier to answer than others. For example...Do you think it makes God happy when unbelievers do good things? Well, sure! He created and loves you more than you can ever know and is surely happy when his creation obeys. A difficult one he asked, and that most humans on earth have asked at some point, is Why does God allow bad things to happen??

This past week has exposed some disappointments, failures and unfair happenings. Our mentors don't live up to the standards we think they should, people die, we don't get the response to our prayers that we wanted and our world is full of sin, war, and famine. Is our God really in control of all these awful things? By God's grace I happen to be on a chapter in a book that addresses this current topic when I was having an especially difficult day last week. (He knows my every need!)

We are all going to have to come to terms with the fact that there are things we are never going to understand about God. He's more powerful, knowledgeable, and influential than we will ever be able to comprehend. Though we strive to know God's will for our lives, the reality is that His plan does not always coincide with our own. His will does not always proceed in a straight line (to many of our perils) from point A to point B. He sometimes leaves us wondering how this event fits into the big scheme of building His kingdom.

God is in complete control of every situation -- even the ones we don't understand. He uses things like death, disappointment and other tragedies to steer His all-knowing course for humanity. Sometimes God will use these events for our good and His glory. If you're skeptical of this idea, go back to what you know about God. We know his character is good and dependable. We know that we need Him for purpose in our life. We know that he desires for us to prosper and grow in faith.

I've been so thankful for my sweet husband this week. More and more I see why God chose him for me and me for him. His strengths are my weaknesses and my strengths are his weaknesses. As I struggled with the difficult situations put before us and kept asking 'why,' my husband led by example to teach me that no matter how many details I try to put together in a situation, I won't always get an answer. Over analyzing the situation does good for no one...including myself. We will choose to lift our concerns to our Lord and remember that His character is dependable.

MIZ-ZOU!

It's finally that time again...college football! I had a rare treat of enjoying a MU football game with Sean yesterday. Since he has worked with sports medicine beginning freshman year, he is almost always working at the games or traveling with the team. It was fun to get all mizzou'd out together and watch the game with friends! Mizzou looked pretty good, too! We (and by we I mean the football team) beat Illinois 37-9 and our new quarterback, Blaine Gabbert, was confident and cool for most of the game. I will also say that my Mizzou dress was a hit and that I made my own MU flower for my hair (it's pretty hard to see in this pic).

Sean has to spend most of this week in STL for work, so I think I'm going to go with him tonight and tomorrow since I don't have class due to Labor Day. p.s. What is labor day?? I'll Google it when I finish this post.

School is going well so far...just looking forward more and more to graduation with every day that passes. Sean has finished the first part of his application for graduate school at U of A. After he gets accepted to the graduate school in general he will submit his department-specific application to the athletic training office. We visited Fayetteville and really liked it -- we're now praying that we would be led in the direction that God would have us to be. I'm going to wake up my sleepy husband with warm cinnamon rolls now. :)

Who am I living for?

I've had to ask myself this question quite frequently and honestly it gets a bit old after a while. Why do we know something, even an absolute truth, one minute and the next minute fail to remember that same idea? There's a constant tension, in my life anyways, between what God calls me to do and what the world asks of me. I can't think of a good example to liken this to, but here's what I've got. I know a 4 year old who, when learning to write, always wrote his 'R's backwards...every time. Others would critique the handwriting and he would then correctly write an 'R'. Next time, though, he reverted to his reverted R status. I feel just like a 4-year-old at times...I'm lovingly corrected by my Father, but seem magnetized to false truths and worldly standards.

I'm a classic type A personality, through and through. Since a young age I was interested in pleasing those around me through my hard work and loved the recognition I received - from others and myself. I know that my perseverance will get me somewhere in life...or at least that's what I'm told. That begs the questions...Where do I want to go in life? Who do I want to most please? Whose truth will I choose to listen to?

This morning I was reading in Thessalonians and ran across these words:
We are not trying to please men but God, who tests our hearts... We were not looking for praise from men, not from you or anyone else. 1 Thess 1:4b and 6

What a difficult truth for me to live out on a daily basis! I know it, but forget it often. Strange, huh? My heart wants to value only God's opinion, but my mind knows how good it feels to have compliments or approval from man. I guess I don't really have an answer to these issues...actually I know I don't have an answer. I do know, however, that I am completely a work-in-progress and will let my Master mold me into the woman he desires me to be from an eternal perspective. Maybe tomorrow I will have the answer. :) My type-A personality would sure like that!