February 24

5 years ago this very day on February 24, 2007, I said "I do" to Corey Allen Dalton. Funny how just typing that sentence brought tears to my eyes.
I could spend this blog talking about marriage and love and happiness, but I would rather spend it talking about the wonderful man I married.
Corey is kind. He is endlessly patient with me. He is always gentle. He never raises his voice. He knows when I need a hug and he knows when I need to be left alone. He sees the good in me when I can't even see it in myself. He tells me that I am beautiful when I look like a mess. He has stayed up with me all night when I have been sick knowing that he had to go to work the next day. He is a hard worker. He knows what it takes to provide for me and he does it without complaining. He has been my absolute rock over the past couple of years while I was in school. He allows me to be myself and doesn't make me feel bad about it. And he has blue eyes with the prettiest eyelashes I have ever seen in my life.
5 years ago I married a boy that I loved with my whole heart. Today I am married to a man that I love and respect with my whole heart and soul. I will never deserve this gift that God has given me and I absolutely cannot wait to see what is in store for us over the next 50 or 60 years..........

Happy Anniversary to my very best friend! I look forward to many, many more!

Reckless Abandon

As you know if you read my blog frequently enough, I adore worship music. It is one of my passions. I think you can experience God on another level through the worshipping of him through music.
What sparked this blog was some worship I was watching this week from Bethel Music. I was fascinated with the way they worship. They are so open and free. I had one of my friends watch the video too and they didn't quite get it. But while I watched, I was envious. I want to be able to worship that open and free. They worship with "reckless abandon". By reckless abandon, I mean, they worship free from any constraints. They plunge in head first and don't think about what anyone else is thinking or feeling. They just want to bask in the presence of the Holy Spirit. I think that is what we are missing. We think that worship should be this "reverent, subdued" time. Don't get me wrong, there is a time for that. But I think we miss so much of experiencing his presence because we are too worried about making someone uncomfortable or someone thinking we are weird. There is freedom when we lift our hands, freedom when allow ourselves to express our worship in our own way.
Here is the link to one of the videos of this worship


After I watched this video, it just made me wonder what I might be missing in my worship experience by holding back. If I really let myself go, if I really worshipped with total reckless abandon, what would it feel like? What might God be able to do in me and through me?
Just a thought... Hope you enjoy the video!