Christmas Cheer

The Smith Small group all gathered at mine and Trish's place this past Sunday to make bookmarks and cards to bring to the Continental Manor nursing home in Blanchester. We plan to go there this coming Sunday after Church and sing Christmas Carols and bring our homemade gifts. We had lots of fun, and even Scott who claims he is not crafty joined in and tied some knots. Here are some pictures of our fun and crafts.

Are you guilty?

Is anyone else guilting of judging people that you have never met? Well last week me and Trish went to see Emerson Drive in concert. We met up with a bunch of our friends that we had met by going to Emerson Drive concerts, and there were probably 10 of us near the front of the stage. It was standing room only so very difficult to save anyone a spot. 9 out of the 10 of us had a meet and greet pass to get our picture with the band before the show. This posed as a dilemma because how was the 1 person left going to save a spot for all of us. I mentioned to a couple of my friends that we could ask the 2 ladies behind us if they would help save our spots and we all agreed that they looked way too snooty. Kelly had asked 3 guys that were standing beside us to help save our spots and they agreed but it would be extra helpful for the 2 "snooty" girls to help save our spots. As we were all filing out to go get in line for our meet and greet I decided that I was going to ask the "snooty" girls to help save our spots and to my surprise they were both very pleasant and agreed to do what they could to help save our spots. We had to go to the front of the place to meet with the bands road manager to get in line, and then he walked us back stage. We had to walk past the front of the stage where our spots were and I thought it was quite funny to see a large gap on the left in front of the stage where all of the nice people around us were helping to save our spots. When I got back to my spot the non snooty ladies asked me how it was meeting the band. I told them that it was wonderful and thanked them for helping to hold our spots. Later on while the concert was going on one of the girls proceeded to chit chat with me about the band.

The moral of the story is that we should not judge people. Sometimes we make assumptions about people and who knows they could be really great people that we don't get to know because we choose to judge. Try talking to them instead of judging them. What do you have to lose?

Who Cares?

I just read a post on someone's blog that I figured I must share with everyone.



Nobody Cares?
A church newsletter mentioned a man who visited eighteen different churches on successive Sundays. He was trying to find out what the churches were really like. He said, "I sat near the front. After the service, I walked slowly to the rear, then returned to the front and went back to the foyer using another aisle. I smiled and was neatly dressed. I asked one person to direct me to a specific place: a fellowship hall, pastor's study, etc. I remained for coffee if served. I used a scale to rate the reception I received.
I awarded points on the following basis:
10 for a smile from a worshiper
10 for a greeting from someone sitting nearby
100 for an exchange of names
200 for an invitation to have coffee
200 for an invitation to return
1000 for an introduction to another worshiper
2000 for an invitation to meet the pastor
On this scale, eleven of the eighteen churches earned fewer than 100 points.Five actually received less than 20.The conclusion: The doctrine may be biblical, the singing inspirational, the sermon uplifting, but when a visitor finds nobody who cares whether he's here, he is not likely to come back.
~Author unknown



What is everyone's thoughts on this? Have you ever been in a similar situation? I remember several years ago when I was looking for a church home I visited this one church maybe 4 or 5 times, because I figured I wouldn't know for sure if I am meant to be at that church on just the first visit. I always sat close to the back, and a couple of times I came by myself and a couple of times I brought my Mom with me. After several visits I did not know anyone's name and I had never talked to the Pastor.

Traveling Adventures

I was not planning on doing a Vacation tell all because knowing me it would be one really long blog so I am going to spread out my vacation experience in more than 1 blog. I am sure since most of you are linked to Trish's blog that you will hear about a lot of the same things, but I am sure that me and Trish might each tell the story from a different point of view..LOL.

We left for Vacation on Friday the 14th, our plan was leaving out of Indianapolis at 6:00pm and we made it to the airport in plenty of time. We boarded the plan 30 minutes before take off. I had the window seat which I really enjoyed. Many of you may know that I am or well was really really afraid of falling lets just say that was before this trip. Well I am still not completely cured, but I have a better outlook on it. While the plane was in the air me and God talked and I just let him have it all. If the plane was meant to fall from the sky then so be it, but I was trusting that God would take care of me and I felt so much better about the plane ride after that. That doesn't mean I still didn't freak out a little before take off and landing.

We landed in Phoenix, AZ for our layover at almost 8pm Arizona time. We were scheduled to take the same plane to California, but it wasn't going to leave for another 45 minutes so we got out to stretch our legs. When we came back from the restroom and getting something to drink at Starbucks we heard that our flight was delayed. We asked one of the employee's what was going on and they said that the brakes needed changed on the plane and that they were hoping to have it done soon because the Santa Ana, CA airport that we were flying into had a flying curfew and planes were not allowed in the air after 11pm California time. If our flight didn't leave in time then we were going to be stuck in Phoenix for the night. I was a little freaked out that the plane we were just on needed its brakes changed because if it was that bad to not even be able to make one more flight then what were they doing flying us to Phoenix on those brakes? They kept upping our estimated departure by 15 minutes every 15 minutes. The airport finally decided to get all of our luggage off the plane and put it on a new plane for us to take to California. We landed in California at 10:50pm California time...10 minutes before the flying curfew was in place.

We then went downstairs to get our luggage and pick up our rental car. When we got to the Hertz counter it had a sign that said "were closed" on it. At that point I will admit that I freak out ALOT! But level headed Trish got closer to the sign and noticed that the print under the closed sign said to go to the Hertz counter on the ground floor of the parking garage. We managed to get our rental car....lol. We were very tired and it was so difficult to understand the guy behind the counter. He was going over the terms & conditions and all he got out of his mouth was "if your car disappears" I told him that it will not disappear, and he said it happens. I guess disappears is another way of saying stolen. We chose the economy class car and were very pleased with our Mazda 3 rental car. On the way out of the garage with our rental car we saw this little matchbox looking rental car, and I told Trish that if we were not chatty and nice with the guy then we may have ended up with that car for our rental...lol

Okay that is all I am going to write about for now because this is getting to be longer than I expected so I will just say to be continued.........

My 2008 Bucket List

At the very end of 2007 me and Trish #2 wrote out a list of everything that we had wanted to accomplish in 2008. The start of the 30 days to live series at Center Pointe got me thinking that we did not have a single thing on our list of things to accomplish in 2008 that pertained to God or Church, or about leading people to Jesus, or about even attending church because at the end of 2007 me and Trish had not been to church in at least a year or more. How would things have been different if our list would have been different? I honestly don't know, but to be honest with everyone I am glad that things turned out the way that they did. Had our list included finding a Church then me and Trish may have ended up in separate churches because she grew up in a Nazarene church and I grew up in a Baptist church. Center Pointe feels like home...all of the people are amazing. When I attended church before Center Pointe that's all it was just attending church, but now I want to be a part of something wonderful and life changing. Before when I just attending church I would wake up some Sunday's and just not feel like going to church and I would make excuses and then more weeks would pass with me missing church. But now I actually want to go to church, headache or no sleep I'm there. Since I have started at Center Pointe something has changed in me at least. Well when me and Trish first started going we missed a couple of Sunday's because of pre arranged plans, one of them being us going up to our friends house in Columbus. Well last Saturday night me and Trish visited our friends up in Columbus and stayed the night, and instead of making excuses as to why we can't go to church Sunday we were both discussing the reasons why we CANT miss church Sunday. Therefore me and Trish got up early and hit the road at 7:45am on Sunday to make the drive from Columbus so that we did not miss church on Sunday. We sure were tired but it was definitely worth it.

Anyway the point to all this is that I am really glad that me and Trish did not put anything God or Church related on our 2008 list, because I really do not think that things would have turned out the way that they have if we had included it on our list. I didn't put God by my side before like I do now, and if I had then he would have been on my list. He will definitely be on my list from now on.

2008 has been a really great year for me! Me and Trish have made this year about things that we have never done before, such as trying new things and stepping out of our box and our comfort zone.

Oh and I also wanted to add about Ray's message from this past Sunday and all of his talk about riding the drop zone at King's Island. I have a huge fear of falling. I have ridden the drop zone twice, the first time was because Trish told me that her Mom rode it and I figured that if her Mom did it then it shouldn't be that bad. I didn't like it at all and I am always afraid on those rides that the ride is going to break and my feet are going to go smashing into the crowd. I know I know its a little crazy of me to think like that. Well me and Trish are going to Disneyland on vacation and there is this elevator ride that drops you straight down picks you up again and repeatedly drops you again. I told Trish that there was no way she was getting me on it, but from listening to Ray I think I am going to live a little and face my fears and just do it! Yes yes Trish you heard me correctly.

Pray About Everything

I just got a new CD and I really like one of the songs so I thought that I would share the lyrics with everyone. The CD is a country singer Luke Bryan. Oh and I must add that I got it for $3.20 on ebay, plus a couple bucks for shipping but still an awesome deal for a brand new CD. I would love to hear everyone's thoughts on the lyrics.

Time is tight and money's short
River's up and the weatherman
He's calling for another storm
Pressure's on, the margins thin
Gotta figure out a fix for this awful fix I'm in
Oh Mama, what am I gonna do
She said, "Child there's only one thing you can do"
Chorus:
Don't worry 'bout nothing
Let it go, see what tomorrow brings
Don't worry 'bout nothing
Pray about everything
Pray about everything

Love is blind, fate don't care
Lose your grip
And your balloons go sailing off into the air
Oh Mama, what am I gonna do
She said,"Child, there's only one thing you can do"

(Repeat Chorus)

Yeah take a walk, take a breath, oh give it all a rest
Take a cane pole to the fishing hole and catch a couple fish
And just like that toss 'em back and make a little wish

Don't worry 'bout nothing
Let it go, see what tomorrow brings
Don't worry 'bout it stress about it, fret about it
Don't worry 'bout nothing
Let it go, see what tomorrow brings
Don't worry 'bout nothing
Pray about everything
Yeah, pray about everything

Movie night at Center Pointe!!!!

Hey everyone! I am sure that you already saw Robin and Diana's blog about our movie night immediately following the youth spaghetti dinner next Sunday, but we all figured that if everyone in our small group wrote a blog announcing our movie night then chances are more people are going to see at least 1 person's blog and decide to come.
We decided to have our small group today right after Church at Larosa's. I was very disappointed that there was literally no one else in the restaurant to hear our excitement. We all were talking about what we would do if we had 30 days to live and the discussion of our own personal bucket lists came up; therefore we decided that we had to host a movie night at the church as soon as possible so that we all could watch The Bucket List movie since it fits in with the current series. I personally have never seen it which is surprising because I love movies and try to see all the new ones that seem good. The movie night is going to be immediately following the youth spaghetti dinner next Sunday the 9th. It will be a long day at Church, but I guarantee that everyone that comes will have an awesome time! The Smith small group will be providing snacks such as chips and soft drinks. I hope that everyone plans to come! Bring a friend or 10!