What are you praising?

My memory verse for the week was spurred on by a reaction I heard in class yesterday. There is a Korean girl who has flunked her drivers license a couple times and yesterday she happily told the class she finally passed! The class clapped their hands and all together said, "Yay!"
Not many minutes later the professor mentioned leading his neighbor to Christ; the class did not clap their hands for joy of their new brother in Christ, or yell with excitement. There were a few low rumbles of, "that's great". Why is that?
Why are we as Christians so backwards when it comes to what we praise? We go to games and cheer like crazy! We go to church and we hesitate to lift our hands during a song of praise. I really want to understand what is holding Christians back from truly praising God for salvation.
As you go about on your day, remember this verse....

"Sing joyfully to the Lord, you righteous; it is FITTING for the upright to praise him." Psalm 33:1

Whatever singing joyfully means to you, do it. Don't hold back from being glad and having sincere hearts, praise God...Acts 2:47a
It is fitting to sing joyfully, shine forth your joy for the Lord!

Anna

Mindy--continued...

Here are a few more of my favorites!

Mindy

This is Mindy May, one of the craziest, spunkiest, prettiest gals I know. She is full of life, very photogenic, and has the cutest freckles. Mindy needed a head shot for her website for where she will be working, but I decided to also get some fun shots while we were at it. Mindy is working on her PhD at Southwestern Seminary, and she will make such an impact on our world one day through her gift of counseling. Thanks Mindy for the great day! There are more pictures to come. This is just a little sneak peak.....more to come!

Scripture Memorization

I know I have a long road ahead of me, but this week the Lord has been leading me to learn of his holiness and how to tremble before Him. I know some people love storms, and actually one time during my life I loved to sit outside when storms would be rolling in, lightning all around, gusts of wind hitting me, and then when the rain started to pour was when I would go inside. Well, since moving to Texas storms scare the holy day lights out of me ( never really understood that saying) however, you get the point. I curl up like a little girl who is afraid of the dark. Oh wait, I still am afraid of the dark....hmmm...anyways, there is a Scripture that speaks to what I am getting to. Psalm 97:4 says, "...his lightning lights up the world; the earth sees and TREMBLES." How do I and (we) get to the point of trembling before the Lord as we do when loud thunder rumbles over the rooftops of our homes?
This week my memory verse is: "Worship the Lord in the splendor of his holiness; tremble before him, all the earth." Psalm96:9. I am starting to post a memory verse on the right side once a week, you are welcome to memorize with me. I think memorization of Scripture is something that has been thrown to the side and seen as not important. When meditating on specific scriptures God really reveals Himself to me in a different light. I feel so much closer to Him. Right now I am asking Him to help me get to a trembling state with Him. You would think this would be an easy task, but with all the casualties in life, it is easy to sit back and not worship God the way He intended. Join me on this journey and pray for me as I step into a new light with God.
Love to all, Anna

Celery and Asparagus

Okay--pre-warning--this is a very random blog. But, I have to keep it interesting, right? :)

So--you know when you eat asparagus your urine smells like it too? Well, if not, try it out. Just steam the asparagus and put a lot of butter on it if you do not like the taste of it, oh and a little bit of garlic powder.

Well, the other night Justin and I had some celery with peanut butter on top. (It's the only way I will eat it) Anyways, I had a tank top on and I lifted my arms up to stretch, and all of a sudden I got a wiff of celery. I thought to myself that's weird we ate celery the night before, why would I be smelling it now. Strange enough, my underarms smelled like celery! So, I am not sure, but maybe if you perspire after eating celery it ceaps throught you pours and you have a nice perfume of celery. Odd thing is, Justin's underarms did not smell like celery. WEIRD.

Okay, there you have it, weird post for the week! :)

A Good Reminder

"So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, CONTINUE to live in him, rooted and built up in him, stregthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness."

Colossians 2:6-7

I have been meditating on this Scripture for the past week because it is so easy for me to get caught up in my daily routine with Abigail, keep up with my studies, and make sure the house is clean and tidy.....and forget to continue challenging myself spiritually....and forget to be thankful for the small things in life the Lord pours down on me.....and forget to overflow with joy to others such as my friends, family, and others I come in contact with.

How are you continuing in the faith?

What small things are you thankful for that are taken granted of?

Who have you been overflowing into that needs to feel and see the joy of Christ?

Anna

Easter Weekend

The fun begins...checking out the eggs. We kinda did it backwards at first, we let her play with the eggs in the basket, then we threw them out in the grass for her to go after....she had a blast!

Hmmm.....blue or green?

Green! That a girl, momma's favorite color!

"This egg finding thing is a breeze!"

"I found a treasure inside, another bow!"

Making faces!

She took off with her friend's Easter basket.

Later that day I took her to Botanic Gardens to get some pictures of her in her Easter dress.

Sitting so proper and ladylike before we left for church.

Easter Sunday!

Found an Easter egg under the couch. It is so cute when she squats down to look under the couch if she sees something, but this time she got all the way on her belly, she meant business!

Easter was a lot of fun, but at the same time I was sad because we had no family here to celebrate with us. The Lord knew I needed comfort because while in church as we sat down I looked to Justin and said, "I need you to hold me close because I am about to cry because I feel lonely." Soon after that some friends of ours came by and visited with us, that made me feel a little better, and then a family I use to watch their kids for sat by us and gave us BIG hugs! After that, it was confirmation that God was letting me know that I was not alone and that I had a full house of believers that were my family. Truthfully times when Justin and I feel alone when we can't find a babysitter or when were at church and only have the two of us to sit by one another as family, it has made us rely on one another that much more.

Our home has been a roller coaster of emotions lately due to not knowing what direction to go in once I graduate, but we do have a peace from the Lord. I am sorry for the suspense, but I would like to write about it once I hear back from a specific place. So, once again, here are some pictures from Easter weekend to hold you over until I feel led to share.
FYI-

Abigail is into everything,

starting babble a lot,

still no teeth,

pulling up on anything she can get her hands onto,

and still not consistently sleeping through the night. She likes to tease me and sleep through the night maybe once or twice a week every once in awhile.

I promise to update very very soon! There is a lot going on in the Pociask home....but we have some direction, but are still waiting to hear back from somewhere. Here is a picture to hold you over until I have time to write.

I graduate in 3 weeks so I am finishing up all my assignments and taking tests!