This week

"Just so you know, this week is going to be a crappy week for me. I reserve the right for me to have one the first week of June and the entire month of September. K?

Actually, I am *really* fighting against that. But if I'm not ok, it's because you don't have a clue what's going on.

*cheesy smile*

You're welcome."

I hate when I send emails and then wish I hadn't. Ugh.

This week is an Amy week, and tonight spending time reading her bebo blog and missing her so much that my heart is aching, I reacted quickly and sent that email to my boss.

Ha. You guys are probably totally and completely thrown off by the weird friendship that I have with my boss and co-worker, Isaac. They're becoming more like brothers the more I work with them, and my heart aches to minister to them. Pray for them, friends. They need Christ so much. Pray that Christ will give me boldness of speech to witness to them.

Listening to some pretty great music tonight.

"I desire like Jesus/Prayed for us to be one
I desire to give/I desire to serve
I desire to love/Others with more than my words
Bless me to be humble/Bless me to be meek
I want to be a joy/When people come around me
Give me a gentle spirit/Bless me to be content
Please keep me from my sin/Let me quickly repent
Please give me discipline/Give me self control
To know when to stop/And when to say no
Make me a bold witness/Please remove fear
Replace it with faith/Pour out Your spirit here
Fill me up Lord/Let me overflow
Let me overdose/Make me holy/Keep me close
I want to give it all/Until there’s none left
But I can’t beat You givin'/Look at Your Son’s death"

I love how God gives just the right song when you need some encouragement. He's so very awesome.

I hope you have a good week. Amy's birthday is Wednesday. What would have been her 30th. I was thinking today what her birthday party would be like. I want to know how she would have reacted to her 30th. Obviously differently if she had beaten the leukemia, but still, I want to know. Missing her so very much tonight, and I'm anxiously looking forward to the day I get to be glorifying God in heaven with her.

Have a joyful heart in the Lord.

Blessings,

Bethan Kara

Morning, friends!

I hope you're having a beautiful Wednesday. Mine has started off really nicely. This morning I fried bacon and an egg and had some toast with it. Now I'm making some White Chocolate Chip Cookies. Oh yum. It's an Ymker recipe and ooooh-sooo yummy. I'm going to take a plate to work with me this afternoon.

I hope all of you stayed safe after last night's storm. God blessed my family once again with safety. Monday it got pretty scary here for them, and Mama ended up taking the brothers to the basement. A lot of trees or branches came down, and I'm so thankful that they were ok. God is so very good to keep us safe through all of these storms. Another batch is coming through today.

I need to pick some flowers to take into work. Yesterday I bought my boss a cactus, but that doesn't count as flowers, so I need to go for a walk and find some wildflowers. I know Spiderworts are blooming right now-- I should go find some.

I got some photos developed to go on my desk. I absolutely love, love, love them. I got two of Amy-one of Amy and Gray, one of just her, one of Paige-girl, and a sunflare picture from one of the photoshoots that I had with some of my sisters. <3 I'm leaving early so I can run by Walgreens to see if I can find a frame(s) for them. I'm leaving in about an hour, so I should start getting ready soon. As soon as the cookies are done, and the flowers are found. I feel like wearing a skirt today, but I'm dressing up on the 1st, so I'll skip today.

Mama just left for a dentist appt. and I need to do the dishes that I've managed to pile everywhere this morning. (Mrs. M would be proud, right, Justine?)

Please have a beautiful day and enjoy your family. My biggest sis would want you to.

Love to you,

LizzieKara

Mondays

Bwhahaha. You won't believe what happened today. It's been *quite* the Monday for me. :D

So I get to work at 7. Sometimes my boss is already there, sometimes he's not. So today he wasn't, so I just did what I always do, and went on in.

Only this time the alarm started to go off. It's never gone off before, since either Mike has been there already, or he's forgotten to set it. Well he remembered to set it this morning.

"Oh crap."

So I called Mike. No answer.

Called Isaac. No answer. Called Isaac again. No answer.

Central Security calls. "Is everything ok there?" "Yes, everything is fine. I just got here before my boss, and I didn't know the alarm was set. You can call him: *enter phone number here*" "Password." "I don't know the password, my boss always takes care of it." "Password." "No, Mike knows the password, he's just not here right now. You can call him, though. He'll give it to you." "Alright, we'll call him."

So I went on with my morning, got the vacuum out, called Mama to let her know that I had gotten there safely, told her the story, and then started to vacuum. Then the police walked in.

"Oh did they not get a hold of Mike?!"

Obviously not.

So they looked at my i.d., checked things out a bit, I called Mike again- no answer. So the police officer said, "Well, I don't think a thief would be vacuuming, so we're all good."

One of my fellow Things came into work today. He needed a sata cable. :) It was soo fun to see him there. No one I know ever comes in, so it was nice to see somebody.

All in all, today was a good day. I spent the afternoon going through all of this year's papers that needed to be filed. That was fun. But it's DONE and it feels so crazy nice to be finished with all of it. :D

I hope your Monday was good. Pray for Joplin. <3

Bethan

Sunday evening thoughts

Tonight is scary. There has already been some pretty incredible damage reported in Joplin, MO and I was watching the live feed come in on Discovery Channel's site. Wow. God is awesome. Praying for those and their loved ones who are in the midst of such destruction. I know God is using this to open hearts to see His beautiful love and mercy.

This weekend has been rough. I don't exactly know why. Well, I do, actually. God is working in my heart so much right now and it hurts. I'm struggling with balancing out my own Bible study time, family time, time by myself, work and the stress that comes with it, exhaustion, and just *everything*.

In the matter of hours I go from wanting to be down at college, or ready to be, to not wanting to go to college and staying at my current job, to wanting to kick all of the stress out.

Guess what?! There's always going to be stress, because I'm human. I'm Elizabeth Kara, and I get stressed out. I think that I can handle it instead of giving it to Christ, and I fail so epically. I try to convince myself that if I just cut out certain things in my life, the stress will be completely gone.

What a JOKE! Stress is such a sin issue for me, and I struggle with it each and every day. Right now I'm dealing with so many things and I just feel so overwhelmed. Christ is the one I need to rest in, not think about resting in. I need to be completely and totally resting in Him.

Tonight my boss asked me: "Do you think micom will be a long term job for you? Or do you have other plans? " I replied with: "There's a lot of prayer going into it, but as of right now, I am planning on going to college in the fall of 2012. Right now I'm feeling like I really don't want to leave Micom, so I'm praying about it a lot. I don't know if I'll end up at college, or staying back here, or going to college, being able to work for you still, but down there. How would you feel about that?"

Did I answer that well? Did I fail? I just feel like I never know what to expect. Christ is the one who knows my future. While I'm planning, I don't want to be totally and completely set on something, because He is the ruler of my life.

Well, the work week starts tomorrow, and I need to get some rest. My head hurts and I should go take something for it, so I get a good night of sleep.

There are so many tornado threats right now. I'm praying for you all while the storm moves through your area.

Bring joy and peace to your week,

LizzieBeth

Psalm 51:12-19

"Restore to me the joy of Your salvation, And uphold me by Your generous Spirit. Then I will teach transgressors Your ways, And sinners shall be converted to You. Deliver me from the guilt of bloodshed, O God, The God of my salvation, And my tongue shall sing aloud of Your righteousness. O Lord, open my lips, And my mouth shall show forth Your praise. For You do not desire sacrifice, or else I would give it; You do not delight in burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, A broken and a contrite heart-- These, O God, You will not despise. Do good in Your good pleasure to Zion; Build the walls of Jerusalem. Then You shall be pleased with the sacrifices of righteousness, With burnt offering and whole burnt offering; Then they shall offer bulls on Your altar." -Psalm 51:12-19

In my Bible reading today. Actually, April 27th's Bible reading, which God knew that I needed to hear today.

Lizzie

[title]

Hello there,

I'm on the way home from Sfield after dropping off my besties with their Momma's so they could get home and rest after an insane week with little sleep.

I miss them a lot already.

But I'm also ready/nervous for routine to start up again.

I made myself study for the ACT on the way home today. I just took the test at the end of the chapter and almost started sobbing when I saw how badly I failed. Well, granted I didn't have my calculator with me, but still.

I'm feeling really overwhelmed about the ACT and the MCAS tests right now. I just feel like I'm being pulled in two directions along with work stress and home stress, and it's *hard* learning to be an adult. It takes a whole lotta trusting in Jesus and I cannot even to being to think of how I could do it without Him in my life. So I'm sitting here and praying that I will give it all to Him to take care of. I know I'm not going to feel prepared for either of the tests, and if that's how God wants me to take them, then that's what is right.

I've been thinking a ton lately about how He's laying out my life. While I know how many things are going to change, it's been sooo cool to see how He's working with me. For instince, I was really scared about the thought of college, taking classes, and working all the time. And with the job that He so beautifully placed in my life, I am learning so much each and every day. I was pulled out of my comfort zone, but He did it carefully and softly, not harshly and hurtful. I love how He does things like that. I didn't deserve it in the least. I'm scared about work tomorrow (or Friday. I don't know which day I'm working yet. We're 20 minutes out.) just for the reason of being pulled out of my comfort zone. I've had a week at home with my best friends for a week, and just had some time to breathe. Now that I'm jumping head first back into it all, I'm shaking on the diving board.

But Jesus is all around and He's going to always keep me safe. Whether I fail the ACT and MCAS or not. He's always there.

Blessings to you friends. Jesus is with you on the overwhelming days and on the great ones.

LizzieKara

Unsure..

So right now I'm not sure. I don't even know what I'm not sure about. I'm just feeling very "Eh" right now, and it's driving me crazy.

I don't like having a weird schedule and not knowing what's going on.

You can slap me now. I hate that I feel like that. Because things change *so* quickly, and I am so very clearly not in control of my life. Somedays I'm completely and totally ok with that, and other days I fight God's control and end up coming back to the same realization as before: God is always, and forever in control.

That's the best way.

I was planning on working tomorrow, almost sure of it, but then when I got home from church, I had an email from my boss saying that he didn't need me to work tomorrow. And starting Tuesday, I'm off until the 19th... Um.. Ok.

So I'm weirdly sad. Mostly because I was sorta going to miss working for the week, and then when they said that they didn't need me tomorrow, I kinda felt a little lousy and like that I'm just not needed.

That stinks for this very needy person.

We got bad feedback. Translation: I feel lousy. It isn't my fault, but I take it waaaay personally.

Today, being Mother's Day, hasn't been the best... Just a lot of things happening to my family right now, and they hurt *so* much. I just want to scream that God is bigger than them, and that they're stupid for thinking the things that they're thinking, but that's not kindness, it's just hurt talking. God knows the truth. And I don't have to worry about what others think of me- It's what Christ thinks. He is the Truth. I came home, mowed the grass some, and then called my bestie sister, Ker and talked to her for about and hour. I love her more than a lot.

I get to see her in three days. And spend an entire week with her. God knows what I need, and it was some good quality OK sister time, I think.

I'm going to look forward to this week that God has given me. He knows why I have the day off tomorrow, and that I really do need it.

I hope your week is wonderful. Have peace in your heart and love Jesus.

Bethan