Living a "Fruitful" Life

I read a blog post the other day that really spoke to me so I wanted to share. It was short and sweet but a great reminder.

Here's the link...
http://www.equipandempower.org/blog/index.php/2011/12/14/known_by_fruit?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+ChristineCaine+%28Christine+Caine+%28blog%29%29

To sum it up though, what is important to God is that we produce "fruit" and what's key is us knowing what "fruit" is. It's not our accomplishments or our talents or our gifts...it's the 9 fruits of the spirit...

love
joy
peace
patience
kindness
goodness
faithfulness
gentleness
self control.

I don't know about you but I think I get this wrong sometimes. I start thinking that my "works" are my fruit. What am I doing in ministry right now? How do I get more involved to touch more lives? Why am I not seeing results like other people?

That's not it at all. Am I producing those 9 things listed above in my life? And am I producing ALL of them..even the hard ones like patience (road rage comes to mind) and self control (over-indulgence in food seems familiar lately)? The beautiful thing is (and possibly frustrating at the same time), is that I can't TRY to produce this. The Holy Spirit produces this in me as I draw closer to Jesus. If I'm not producing these fruits, I reach out to Jesus more. I ask for more of Him in me. I don't try to put the pressure on myself to go and produce this fruit. It's not about works at all. It's not about me.

So this season as I find myself yelling at other drivers on the road and worrying about if I got someone the right gift, I'm subsequently getting closer to Jesus. I'm finding more time to spend in His word and talking to Him. Because I want to produce this fruit. I know this is what really matters. And I know I can't do it in my own strength.

And if I don't get the chance to blog again before Sunday, Merry Christmas friends!!

I Love Being Pregnant

I love being pregnant.

There are the little things...
I love not having to suck in my stomach or fit into my "skinny jeans."
I love maternity pants and really wish I could get away wearing them even when I'm not pregnant.
I love feeling him move inside me every day.
I love that I'm getting a ton of sleep - at least 8 hours every night.

And then there is the big thing...
I love this precious gift from God. I love that I get to carry His creation inside of me. I love the miracle that conception and pregnancy and labor is and I give Him all the glory for it. There is no way this could happen without His control over every little detail of it. I'm constantly in awe of Him and this gift he has blessed us with. I don't take it for granted for a second.

I know people experience some miserable things during pregnancy. Fortunately things have been fantastic for me since day one, but even if they take a turn, I'm committed to not letting that overshadow the miracle that is going on inside me. I'm so grateful for this pregnancy and this precious baby that is growing inside me.

Philippians 4:8

"Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things."

I'm believing that things don't have to go downhill in the 3rd trimester. I'm believing that labor doesn't have to be painful. I'm believing that pain and sickness aren't associated to pregnancy and labor. I'm believing to not fear labor. My God tells me that he doesn't give us a spirit of fear. He tells me that by his Son's stripes, I am healed. He tells me that I live under a new covenant because of what Jesus did for us.

I think so much "worldly" perspectives and advice has creeped into this miracle. People love to tell you how painful labor is. They love to tell you that your life is over once you have kids. I really have to tune this stuff out. None of that is from the Lord. Why don't we talk more about what a blessing it is?! The verse that comes to my mind is Romans 12:2, "Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind." I can't stop people from telling me their stories, but I can believe differently. I'm believing for greater things, for greater experiences. It's scary to write it down and to say it because what if it is painful and I do experience sickness or whatever...but that's faith...believing in the unseen.

I am so grateful to Jesus for this gift inside of me.



Fun, Fall, Family Pictures :)

We have a sweet talented friend, Ande Fanning, that we asked to take a few pictures of me and Hogan one day. My hopes were to get a good couple of shots that we could use on a Christmas card this year as well as a few with some blue balloons since we had just found out the gender of our baby and thought that'd be a fun memory to have.

Well she gave us SO much more than we expected. We went out to the Botanical Gardens here in Birmingham and she took pictures of us for like 2 hours! It was such a beautiful day and it was such a blessing to us. I've shared just a few of my favorites below...

Gender Reveal

I can't even express how excited Hogan and I were to find out the gender this past Friday. Hogan was like a kid on Christmas Eve. When he was finished getting ready in the morning, he joked about just going to wait in the car until I was ready but in all honesty, I think he would've if I hadn't laughed at him saying that.

They did the ultrasound right away when we got there. It was an incredible experience. While we were so excited about finding out the gender (which we did at the end of the ultrasound), I was completely in awe of seeing our baby on the screen as the nurse checked on the development of it's entire body. Technology is amazing. Pregnancy is amazing! Hogan and I keep saying over and over again what a miracle pregnancy and childbirth is. By no control of my own (other than being responsible with my body of course) am I forming this baby. What an amazing gift from God and what an amazing God we have!

After the nurse had checked on all the development, we had to wiggle the baby around a little bit to make him uncross his legs so we could find out! Luckily, he did and we immediately could see we were having a baby BOY!!!!! Not that I favored either gender but I just thought it'd be a girl for some reason so it was more of a surprise for me (Hogan had told me a few days earlier he "knew" it was gonna be a boy). We are beyond excited for this precious baby boy and it's so much more real now. We even have a name already but are keeping it a secret until he's born! It's been so much fun though to pray over HIM now and talk about him to each other using the name we've chosen. Now on to registering for boy items whatever those might be :)

Here are some of my favorite pictures from our ultrasound...

And finally he reveals that he is a boy!!!





We found out the gender on Friday and celebrated our 1 year marriage anniverary on Sunday so it was a pretty exciting weekend to say the least. We've been all smiles and are so grateful :)

Oh, and Hogan has already persuaded him to pull for Auburn...

A Beautiful Birmingham Fall

I LOVE LOVE LOVE my city in the fall. I especiallly enjoy my drive to work in the mornings because I go through an area that is abundant in trees and leaves. The entire way in this morning, leaves were falling and blowing all over the place. Put a huge smile on my face!

Also wanted to give an update on life right now. I've gotten a little lax in blogging. These past few months have flown by. Our pastor said last night at church that there were 7 weeks until Christmas - is that for real?? That kind of scares me because I am so bad with Christmas shopping. I aspire to be one of those people that buys gifts throughout the year and is done with major shopping by the end of November but sadly, I don't see that happening. It doesn't help when so much of my family have birthdays that fall closely before Christmas - gotta focus on those days first of course.

This fall has been wonderful. Hogan and I have led a newlywed small group every Friday night where we go out to eat with other couples at a different restaurant every week. We call it "Taste of the Ham - Married Edition" - all Hogan's creativity there. We only knew 1 of the couples before we started this group so it's been so neat to build relationships with new faces. It's also been fun to lead a group with my husband. We have each led many small groups individually before we were married so to join together in this has been great.

The extent of our Halloween activities included pumpkin carving and trying to hand out candy to kids trick or treating. Unfortunately I think our doorbell only rang 3 or 4 times and NO ONE was really dressed up in costumes. I really don't care if you are 15 years old and trick or treating but make an attempt to dress up at least - geez! I had so much fun though carving my pumpkin. An added bonus was the pumpkin seeds that I got from it and roasted - still snacking on those. Here are our creations - Hogan's is the left one and mine is the right one. The picture doesn't do his justice though - he actually made ears that stuck out of the side of the pumpkin as well as nostrils!

And this is Molly checking them out. She was very curious.



Even though our 1 year anniversary is this coming Sunday, we "celebrated" it last weekend by going to....................Ross Bridge! Surprise there :) But it's seriously the best in-town getaway and that's what we were up for. It basically turned into a day of pampering me though as much as I tried to take the focus off of just me, but if you know how sweet Hogan is, that's what it always turns into. I had a pre-natal massage and oh my goodness, it was amazing. I so prefer pre-natal massages over regular ones and seriously want to try to get those even when I'm not pregnant. I also enjoyed a pedicure and then we went out to dinner and dessert that night. It was such a nice relaxing night. Hogan also got me a dozen pink roses and I think the pregnancy hormones are affecting me because when I walked in the room and saw them, I just started crying. It was a good cry but Hogan was so confused, ha ha.

Pregnancy has been a fantastic experience thus far. It is such a gift from God and I'm loving every second of it. We find out the gender here soon so stay tuned!

Jesus is doing a work inside of me right now too. Every now and then I hit those seasons where I get so much revelation from the Lord and I think one of those seasons is happening as I speak. I'm going to articulate myself a bit better though and I'll post a blog on it all soon :)

Love y'all. Thanks for reading!

He Really Does Hear You

He really does hear you. He really does care. He really is faithful.

Since my last post on making big decisions, I've been overwhelmed with answers from the Lord. I'm not ready to share quite yet mainly because it's just too soon, I don't know all the details, and I'm still seeking His will, but I have an incredible peace in all situations right now. And this comes only a few days after the uneasiness I felt about everything. But I kept praying, I kept asking, I kept seeking his will for my life. And most importantly I kept trusting that He would answer me. And He has. I consistently stand in awe of my Lord. I'll never fully understand, in this life, the magnitude of how much he cares for me, but he does, and so I will stand on that and thank him for it - over and over and over again.

And he cares the same way for YOU. So don't be afraid to ask him for help, for an answer, no matter how small it may seem. And in time, he will respond. I pray His overwhelming peace for any situation or decision you are facing right now friends.

Trying to Stay in God's Will

I love those times in life when you know you are living God's will for your life. Life may not be easy but you KNOW you are where you are supposed to be. Decisions have been made and you have a complete peace about them. For a while, things are peaceful even though they may not be easy. You aren't in the middle of huge decisions. You are just living and moving right along in this life.

And then you find yourself in a place where big decisions have to be made again. Or possibly the decision isn't even yours to make yet but you find yourself constantly thinking about your future plans. You don't want to step out of God's will. You need the right answer! You need clarity in that decision.

Well I'm finding myself in one of those places right now.

I'm in a new season...pregnancy...and man are there a ton of decisions to make and many to make in the near future. I want what God's plan for my life is. I need his wisdom and I need clarity moving forward. I need to know whether I'm supposed to stay at home with our child or go back to work. And if I go back to work, should I try to go back to work full time or part time. What is it going to look like Lord?

Proverbs 19:20-21

Listen to advice and accept discipline and at the end you will be counted among the wise. Many are the plans in a person's heart, but it is the Lord's purpose that prevails. 

I want his purpose. I want his desires to become my desires. I'm in a place where I don't even know what my heart is telling me right now. And so I wait, I wait patiently on the Lord. He hears me, he knows my heart. I wait for his perfect timing. He will lead me in peace.  

It's also that time of year again where I would usually start scheduling games and holding interest meetings for Woodlawn soccer. But right now I can't get in touch with anyone at the school. I feel disconnected. The teacher contact I've had for the last 2 years no longer works at the school. I'm at a loss. I'm reaching out to people trying to figure out the person I need to talk to. And yes, I'm impatient. But only because this time last year I already had games scheduled and right now I have nothing happening at all. But I can't force anything. I don't want to force anything. I want the plan the Lord has. If it's coaching Woodlawn in the spring, then he will make a way as I reach out to others. If it's not, then I'll submit to that plan as well - as heart-crushing as it may seem. I'm pretty sure I'm putting worries in my mind though that will all work themselves out.

But I'm in this place right now. I'm trusting and praying and listening to Jesus. I'm waiting. I'm thanking him for this season. I'm so excited about everything going on and what's to come. And I'm trying to not let these decisions become worries.

Philippians 4:6