Jesse and I are undergoing a major change on Sunday: we're getting baptized at the Baptist church and entering as new members. We've been attending this church since February, and after a year+ long search for a new church, this one feels like home. I'm very happy to be joining this church. The members are welcoming and incredibly generous. This is not a place where your faith is allowed to stagnate; I will regularly be challenged to grow. What I'm really excited (and a little nervous) about is being baptized. I was, of course, baptized as an infant, but it obviously wasn't a decision I had any part of. It had nothing to do with my faith. (I do however, love the baptismal service from the Methodist church. It asks the congregation to welcome the baby and pray for and love him/her. It's a beautiful ritual) I was confirmed at 13, but at the time I had very little faith. I spent most of my classes questioning God and struggling with what it meant to believe. I went through with the process to please my parents, but again, it really had nothing to do with me.
I started believing in God sometime in high school, but I didn't have a relationship with Jesus until I was 30. I prayed all the time, but they were selfish prayers, and I certainly didn't do anything to change my life for Him. I view this baptism on Sunday as a symbol to my new church home that I love the Lord, and I live my life for Him (or at least try to). I am a bit nervous about the process. I'm a large woman, and the idea of being sopping wet in front of a large crowd makes me shudder. But the soaking will hide the tears I'm sure I will be shedding in copious amounts. While I'm anxious about the procedure, I know that when I emerge from the water, I will be a new creature, born of Christ. I can't wait.
I Heart Bloomberg by
Melody Carlson is the first book in the 85 Bloomberg Place series. Kendall Weis has a great plan: she will rent out the home her grandmother has given her to three roommates and live off of the income insuring she won't have to get a job and can continue to support her designer clothes habit. But when Megan, Leilani, and Anna see the place, it's not quite the luxurious upscale home Kendall advertised. The four women renegotiate the contract leaving Kendall frustrated and angry at the reduction in income and the remodeling her new roomies plan on making. Carlson is a fantastic writer of Christian chick lit, and this book is another fab example. Megan is recovering from the death of her father, Leilani from a bad relationship resulting in pregnancy, Anna's trying to break free from her mother's stranglehold, and Kendall is devastated after her parents abandon her. Each woman is trying to mend a wounded heart and hoping that this house will be the cure. The women are interesting and multi-dimensional (even selfish Kendall). The groundwork has been laid for suspense, with several young women disappearing in the area, and romance in future books. There are so many different plotlines running through this book, I don't know how Carlson will wrap them all up in just four books, but I know that this writer can handle it with aplomb. I hope the series goes longer than four books; these are characters I will enjoy reading about as they mature again and again.
Today's pic is of the mother swan with her cygnets at the zoo on Saturday.
Jesse and I are undergoing a major change on Sunday: we're getting baptized at the Baptist church and entering as new members. We've been attending this church since February, and after a year+ long search for a new church, this one feels like home. I'm very happy to be joining this church. The members are welcoming and incredibly generous. This is not a place where your faith is allowed to stagnate; I will regularly be challenged to grow. What I'm really excited (and a little nervous) about is being baptized. I was, of course, baptized as an infant, but it obviously wasn't a decision I had any part of. It had nothing to do with my faith. (I do however, love the baptismal service from the Methodist church. It asks the congregation to welcome the baby and pray for and love him/her. It's a beautiful ritual) I was confirmed at 13, but at the time I had very little faith. I spent most of my classes questioning God and struggling with what it meant to believe. I went through with the process to please my parents, but again, it really had nothing to do with me.
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