A sign of the times

Life has been on the busy side... which is quite obvious from the lack of blogging

and during the craziness we've been blessed with Spring!

Thank goodness finals are officially over and we can actually get outside and start enjoying the gorgeous weather!

Hopefully I'll be back soon with more updates on life in Denver!

Red Rocks Easter

I feel a little pathetic posting an Easter blog a month after the fact, but I just found the pictures and it was a pretty sweet Easter... so I thought I'd share anyway. 

And let's be honest it's never to late to relive resurrection Sunday.

This year we decided to live it up CO style and enjoy a sunrise service at Red Rocks. 

As a child I abhorred the sunrise service, I'm not sure what my mother was thinking but somehow we always were up bright and early and now it's just a part of life. Although I'm pretty sure as a child it didn't entail waking up at 3:30 driving 30 minutes and sitting in the mist for 1.5 hours.

So thanks for not taking it to that level mom...

It was awesome to see how many people showed up despite the cold and mist.

A red rock... yes there is a method to the madness behind the name.

Yes, I AM the wife that makes her husband get out of the warm blanket to take pictures of everyone... 

These kids in front of us were AWESOME whenever there was some upbeat worship music our group and theirs were the ONLY one's standing up and dancing up a storm. It was great!

And to keep all of our spirits up we brought Easter candy, and Mr. Butterfinger was my first indulgence... and it was a good one.

Honestly we weren't sure what to expect for the service. We'd heard it could be a pretty "universal" message and after seeing the pastor on TV the night before we figured we were in for a pretty watered down message. Fortunately, we were pleasantly surprised! The pastor did a phenomenal job and really brought the message of Easter and the response was great :)

For as long as we're living it up in CO I can see this becoming a great Easter tradition, and the huge potluck with all of our friends afterwards didn't hurt either!

P.S. Posts should be coming a bit more regularly now that we are out of school... none of this month later stuff anymore! 

Community Service

Wow, from the title of that post it seems as though I'm paying my debt to society. And maybe in a way, I am.

Since we've been at Denver Seminary we've been beyond blessed with an amazing group of friends. We share laughter, food, fellowship, and most importantly we share life.

We've become more like a surrogate family for each other and I really love that.

Throughout all of this life sharing I've come to realize how much I really enjoying having people over and a houseful of friends. I've also come to realize this is a direct result of growing up with my siblings friends flocking to our home to feed on my mothers amazing food. In essence, I've become my mother. Never letting anyone help, just needing their presence to feed my cooking frenzy.

I love it.

I love serving others with good food and a comfortable atmosphere.

I've also learned that I enjoy serving others that I don't know as well. On the first day of my summer class we had bread and grapes and were asked to serve others.

Everyday since then someone in the class has stepped up and brought a breakfast of some sort and it has been awesome to see people giving of their resources. We've been blessed with yogurt and fruit, breakfast burritos, and donuts. I have so enjoyed letting others serve me and in turn...

And I felt that call to bake.

80 muffins.

My sweet friend Rebekah helped out and is providing the coffee and milk for tomorrow's breakfast :)

While I lack my mother's raw cooking and baking talent, I think I'm beginning to understand why she enjoys ministering to others in this way.

There is NOTHING better than sharing a meal with others and I'm so grateful that life in Denver has shown that to me!

Compliments

Because I apparently enjoy the feeling of productivity I made the choice to take two summer classes. They are both two week intensives and one started on Monday.

Yes, that's right. After the stressful week of finals, I decided to start up with class again two days later. I also apparently don't enjoy giving myself a break.

However, this class has been absolutely phenomenal.

Seriously.

The instructor is fantastic, my classmates are great, and it is probably the most laid back atmosphere you could ask for.

The class is Groups in Counseling and our instructor, Reggie Moore, does a fantastic job of modeling and facilitating the type of leader one would hope to be. There is structure, yet at the same time it is flexible to allow for movement and a change of pace. In three days I already feel that I've gained a lot of insight.

One of my favorite parts is Reggie's way of confronting others, yet in a way that encourages and empowers others to rise to the occasion.

Today was no different.

He was conversing with one of the men in my class and ended paying him a compliment.

The man said "thank you"

And Reggie came back with " Now you hold on to that. I know in five hours you're going to want to do something that will negate or muddy that compliment, but that still won't take the truth of it away."

ummm. wow.

This hit me. hard. I began to analyze why we tend to mess up or continue to disbelieve when others compliment us. Even if we take the compliment at first, we later find justification for it to not be true.

Is it because we are so afraid of not fully living up to that compliment? We feel the need to prove others wrong?

Do we really see ourselves in such a poor light?

I think for me personally I feel that deep down I don't truly possess the quality that I'm being complimented on and I'm terrified someone might find out how untrue their words are. I think I'm also scared that while their words may be true in the moment what if something happens later that might make them regret giving me those words?

Compliments are a tricky business, but I truly want to get better at accepting them and learn to believe them.

A pretty lofty goal, but one that needs to be accomplished.


How are you at taking compliments? Do you find it easy to accept or do you negate them?