A Note

to say Hi...

I'm sorry to say it, but lately my priorities just haven't included updating this blog. And now that I'm home for Christmas, and have a bit more time, all I can motivate myself to do is update the face of the blog.
I just have no writing inspiration.

So for now (until January 1st that is), if you want to know what's going on in my life, call me or go for coffee with me... preferably, go with the coffee option. :)

It's been REALLY good to see a lot of you again. I miss you when I'm gone.

Liz

"Smooth" Talking

Well...
We caved.

It was one of those times when the pain of the punishment was great enough that I almost would go back in time and just... let the hair grow forever.

No, we did not make it to our goal of December 1st.
It was just too much to handle.
We looked like little boys... no, not even little boys, like grown men.

We got Tim to buy us waxing stuff (he was in town already, relax) and braced ourselves. I was the only one who had ever waxed before so I prepared Laura and Jojo for the pain.
Their facial expressions as we started were /priceless/... I've never laughed (or whimpered) that much.

We were all pretty pathetic about the whole process... but it's over and done now...

My legs are officially VERY smooth and hairless.
It's a beautiful feeling.

Hairy Scary

Laura and I are having a competition right now.
We started two weeks in to October.
And we end on December first.
We're tied right now...
For two different reasons:

She is darker and thicker.
But I am longer.

*shudders*

Leg hair is gross.

All I want for Christmas...

...is my one not quite front tooth back.

Yup.
I lost my tooth.
Not like lost lost it... cause I still have it.
But like it fell out of my gums lost it.

It was my fake tooth (hurrah for hockey injuries!).
Gradually for a few weeks it had been getting more and more wiggly,
And like any good kid I helped it right along by wiggling it whenever I had the chance.
I was kinda hoping to pull it out,
But no...
It had to just fall out while I was eating.

Now I look slightly like a pirate.
It's pretty sweet.

There's No Time Like the Present...

Wow...
I guess it's been awhile, eh?

As we fade into winter here at Frontier Lodge our schedule slows down quite a bit. We've only had a few groups in the past 4 months. It's a nice change though, and it gives us time to catch up on other things that need to get done. For example:
-Digging up our lines to check for leaks and to bury them deeper for the winter chill
-Renovating/cleaning the garage so it's actually usable again
-Scouting for out-trips for upcoming groups
-Finishing the office renos
-Refinishing the dining room floor
-Planning and organizing all the music/worship binders (my project)

As for free time... we've started changing our focus to fall/winter activities. The rock is getting a little too cold to be climbing (though Tim and I have gone out a few times), so 6 of us starting practicing for some glacier travel. We hung ourselves off the deck, pulled each other up, ascended the ropes, and built anchors. After a few nights of practicing, Brad, Jess, Migges, Nicole, Tim and I headed out for a day of glacier play. We went to the Columbia Icefields and promptly found a crevasse to throw each other into. It was great. It was so awesome to be on a glacier for the first time ever.


I really am coming up blank with things to say... I waited too long to post. Now everything feels like old news, or I forgot the whole story.
Sorry.

With everything slowing down a bit, I get more time to invest in relationships; with my girls, with Tim, and most importantly, with God. It's been really nice.
God is so good. Every day He blesses me somehow. Every time I'm down, He's there.


Well, I'm signing off for now...
I'll try and get on here a little sooner next time.
Thanks for all your support and prayers, you all mean SO much to me. Seriously.

Grace and Peace.

A Call Out...

Hey guys...

Would you all pray for me the next couple of days?
I know alot of you already pray for me, and for that I am SO thankful...
But I need an extra dose of prayer these days.

There is a load on my mind and a weight on my shoulders.
God is really teaching me alot about selflessness and about how selfish and immature I am.
It's a long and painful lesson.

I tend to base my emotions on how people treat me, what they say to me (or what they don't say), or on how full my "love cup" is.
(I think I kind of talked about this a bit before...)

The other thing I need prayer for, and maybe this is what is spurring on all the other things, is my relationship with God. I feel like I've come to a wall... not necessarily a brick wall, but a paper wall... one that is letting just a little bit of Light through, maybe a little bit of Sound.... but a wall none the less. It's preventing me from getting anything out of my devotions. Anytime I sit down to pray or read my Bible, the wall comes up.

Would you guys join with me in prayer that my walls would be broken and that my weights of selfishness would be lifted?
We serve a Great and Powerful God and He has promised that He will always be listening and answering prayers.
That being said, would you guys email me and tell me some things I can be praying for for you? I may be struggling a bit, but that doesn't mean I can't be praying on others behalf.

Grace and Peace to you all.

Liz

A Speedy Lesson

Over the six months that I've been here at Frontier God has really taught me a lot of lessons.
Some I learn right away.
Some I have to surrender every day.
Some hurt.
Some are really beautiful.
Some take a few nudges to get my attention.
This one took a really long drive to learn.


Some of you may know this, some of you maybe not... but...
I like to drive fast.
Like I really, really like it.
It gives me a sense of freedom, power, and control...
And plus it's just stinkin' fun.

I know that speeding is wrong.
God has really been convicting me of this.
I obey the other rules the government has put in place...
Like, I don't steal,
I don't graffiti things,
I don't assault people,
I don't drive on the wrong side of the road.
I believe those are wrong.
So what gives me the right to think that speeding is ok?

I was really struggling with this whole issue.

But once you get into a habit of sin,
It becomes a habit hard to break.

So anyways.
I'm driving back to Frontier on Tuesday...
I'm doing really well,
You know,
Watching my speed and all...
Well, slowing I start to creep faster and faster.
I know inside that this is wrong,
But it feels so freeing.

Next thing I know:
I'm getting my very first speeding ticket.
Actually, it was my first time even being pulled over.
I always thought that the first time I got pulled over I would be really upset...
Well...
I started laughing.
God has such powerful ways of getting our attention.
I know I deserved the ticket.
I had been stupid.
The police officer was really nice.
Because I was so pleasant to him and recognized what I had done wrong,
He bumped it down to the lowest possible ticket he could.

While I was sitting there,
God brought some verses to mind.
It was a set of verses that I had been reading repeatedly for the past few days.
The verses are from Romans 6 (The Message) and are as follows:

When Jesus died, he took sin down with him, but alive he brings God down to us. From now on, think of it this way: Sin speaks a dead language that means nothing to you; God speaks your mother tongue, and you hang on every word. You are dead to sin and alive to God. That's what Jesus did.

That means you must not give sin a vote in the way you conduct your lives. Don't give it the time of day. Don't even run little errands that are connected with that old way of life. Throw yourselves wholeheartedly and full-time—remember, you've been raised from the dead!—into God's way of doing things. Sin can't tell you how to live. After all, you're not living under that old tyranny any longer. You're living in the freedom of God.

What Is True Freedom?

So, since we're out from under the old tyranny, does that mean we can live any old way we want? Since we're free in the freedom of God, can we do anything that comes to mind? Hardly. You know well enough from your own experience that there are some acts of so-called freedom that destroy freedom. Offer yourselves to sin, for instance, and it's your last free act. But offer yourselves to the ways of God and the freedom never quits. All your lives you've let sin tell you what to do. But thank God you've started listening to a new master, one whose commands set you free to live openly in his freedom!
I'm using this freedom language because it's easy to picture. You can readily recall, can't you, how at one time the more you did just what you felt like doing—not caring about others, not caring about God—the worse your life became and the less freedom you had? And how much different is it now as you live in God's freedom, your lives healed and expansive in holiness?

As long as you did what you felt like doing, ignoring God, you didn't have to bother with right thinking or right living, or right anything for that matter. But do you call that a free life? What did you get out of it? Nothing you're proud of now. Where did it get you? A dead end.

But now that you've found you don't have to listen to sin tell you what to do, and have discovered the delight of listening to God telling you, what a surprise! A whole, healed, put-together life right now, with more and more of life on the way! Work hard for sin your whole life and your pension is death. But God's gift is real life, eternal life, delivered by Jesus, our Master.


I was giving in to sin,
Thinking that it was giving me freedom...
When really,
All along, God was waiting with His Life giving Freedom.

The rest of the ride back to camp was pretty sweet.
I definitely drove the speed limit,
And God really blessed that.
The sunset was spectacular,
The moon was huge and full,
I had an awesome time of worship,
And when I got back I had awesome friends waiting impatiently for me.

Sometimes learning lessons costs more then we want,
But in the end,
The new Freedom and Life we get is FAR better, and worth so much more then money...


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Here are the flowers I had waiting in my room from my amazing man.