Tithing and Attitude

Today in church, we had one of the hard hitting, tough to preach, tough to sometimes hear messages. Obviously, the economy is not so hot right now, and if you think about it, as it affects our bank accounts, so it directly affects the church. Since the church relies mostly on ties for income, a failing economy equals a stressed church financially. Ken Wytsma, our lead pastor, gave one of the most amazing sermons I've heard addressing what tithing is and not why the church necessarily needs us to give our "first fruits", but why God needs our first fruits. Ken portrayed the image of a farmer taking the first bundle of goods that he grew and offering it to God. It wasn't his whole crop, or some of his crop after he took what he needed, or the part of the crop that he didn't really want. The farmer gave away his "first fruits" and placed his trust in God, that He would provide enough of a harvest to provide for his family. So the farmer did this without knowing and more importantly not worrying, if a tornado, plague or drought would come along, and the rest of his harvest would be lost. He had such a strong and trusting relationship with the Lord, that the farmer wanted to give Him the first of his ripe fruit and then trust.

Ken also made the point (one that I had never really noticed) that in scripture, God asks us to bring our offering to the Lord and not give our offering to the Lord. What's the difference? You bring something isn't necessarily yours, but you want to offer it for something else. You bring a birthday gift, because the gift is not for you but for the enjoyment of the birthday girl/guy. Same with God. Our money is not our own, it is a gift from the Lord, that he asks us to give back to our community and church to help keep the community of people alive. He made the visual illustration of cutting open an apple. We eat basically 90% of the apple; the other 10% of the core and seeds (usually) goes back into the earth to recreate another apple tree, to produce more fruit. This image is the same with tithing, whether it's our money or time, we should be giving (or bringing) a portion of ourselves and income, whatever we can, back to God, because it really isn't ours in the first place.

Lastly, Ken talked about our attitude. I will be the first to say that this has been and still is a great struggle for me. I am usually the realist (or pessimist) in many situations and being married to the optomistic idealist (Evan :)) makes things complicated at times. I know that a lot of times if only I changed my attitued about situations, the situation would suddenly be a lot less stressful and upsetting. Ken used a quote which I totally believe is true, however is not always to abide by. I copied this from Ken's blog:

Here is a brief meditation from Chuck Swindoll that I quoted in a sermon this morning. It had a profound impact on my life... hopefully there is someone else out there who it will speak to as well.

ATTITUDE

The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life. Attitude, to me, is more important than facts. It is more important than the past, than education, than money, than circumstances, than failures, than successes, than what other people think or say or do. It is more important than appearance, giftedness or skill. It will make or break a company... a church... a home.

The remarkable thing is we have a choice every day regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day. We cannot change our past... we cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have, and that is our attitude... I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% how I react to it.

And so it is with you... we are in charge of our attitudes

Today in church was just one of those Sunday's where I really feel like God wanted me to really open my mind and not just hear what He was saying but actually put it into practice.

Today's sermon on podcast

Birthday

Beginning the hike
Outside 28 for drinks and dessert
Benham Falls
Last Tuesday marked my 23rd birthday. Last year's birthday was a little rough in that we had been married less than a month, moved to a strange place (for me) and had exactly zero friends. We were extremely poor and a missed my family and friends so much. Needless to say, I try to remember the year I was 22 as opposed to the day I turned 22; Evan can attest to that. Anyways, so Evan and I were blessed to be able to take off my birthday and spend it enjoying life together. Evan made me an amazing breakfast (as always)to start off the morning and then we let our tummies settle for a bit. Evan told me to change into casual clothes and running shoes. I had no idea where we were going. He packed up a picnic lunch and filled up our camelback with water. We drove about 30 min. south of Bend and ended up going on this beautiful 6 mile hike that we had been wanting to try out. Afterwards, we drove back to Bend to have a fun picnic lunch and then open presents! I was so excited that my parents gave me all of the Settlers of Catan extensions and expansions! Now we can play everything from Settlers to Seafarers with 6 people! Evan surprised me with a bag from the Kilns bookstore that I had been wanting for so long! We were so full from lunch that we went out with our closest couple friends up here for drinks and dessert! It was such an amazing and perfect birthday. I felt so blessed and so loved and I am so thankful for all that the Lord has blessed me with!

Hard to believe

So two Saturday's ago, the 6th, marked one year since Evan and I loaded up the U-Haul truck and the Explorer, to start a new chapter of our lives in Bend, OR. Some days it seems like this was forever ago, and others it seems like just a couple of months ago. It's amazing how many things change in a year, and it's amazing how much God can do in a year. When I first moved to Bend, and for the first few months, I will be honest, I was really sad and depressed most of the time. I had left my friends and family in California and so many exciting things were happening. Friends were getting engaged, my mom retired, and a close friends got pregnant (and just had their baby yesterday! :)) I felt like life was going on without me, and I was left to figure out what to do with my life in a new and strange place. Evan started out working for his uncle painting, and all I knew was that I needed to be in school, working on my teaching license and masters.

My life had been all planned out before the move. I was accepted to Sac State's teaching program and Evan I were going to live in Davis...until God revealed His plans, and that he wanted us in Bend, and wanted us to serve/be a part of Antioch Church. I was unemployed for the first month and a half, missed my friends, and didn't want any part of creating a life in Bend. All I could think about was the life I was missing in California. On top of everything else, we were poor. We still are poor as newlyweds, but the first few months we were really poor. I never knew what it felt like to make dinner with whatever we had left in the pantry because we couldn't afford to go to the store. I had to cut out Starbucks (one of my favorite little things in life) and couldn't even afford stamps to mail our wedding thank you notes. I couldn't understand why God would want us here, when I was so miserable. I never thought I could be happy here and especially, would never call Bend home.

Well, a year later, I do call Bend home and I'm no longer miserable and sad haha. On the other hand, I feel like once again, God completely provided for us in ways that I never could have believed. He knew, as always, what we needed more so than we did. Evan got a job in December with Whole Foods, where he is now the Specialty Team Leader and loving life working with wine, cheese, beer and specialty foods and people on a daily basis. I am happily half way through my Masters in Teaching and teaching license program where I have met some of the most amazing people. I couldn't imagine being anywhere else. I still miss my friends and family every day, and on a day like yesterday where one of my best friends gave birth to her first baby with her husband, my heart aches some because I wish I could be there to celebrate in their joy. However, Bend is now my home where Evan and I have made some amazing friends and have made a pretty neat little life for us. God has completely challenged me this past year, but I can see now why we needed to pushed outside our comfort limits. I feel like I have grown so much to the point that even in my disappointments (see a few blogs ago) and sadness, God has a plan greater than I can see. I am thankful for my life here in Bend, and for God's faithfulness. I am to the point where I can willfully and happily offer all of me and my life to God and know that where He leads us in the future, is where we need to go.
Just a few, fun pictures from the last year in Bend.

Our first house
Deschutes River in the Fall
My first snowy winter
Cutting down our first Christmas tree!!!
Our first Christmas as a married couple!
Ben and Katie came up to celebrate New Year's Eve with us!
Evan and I were in Katelyn and Charles' wedding!

Valentine's Day!
Second Honeymoon in Napa in March

Our first trip together to beautiful Seattle and the Historic Columbia river highway
Watching the fireworks on 4th of July with Kip and Kristin

Hiking the Metolius River in Sisters with my parents who visited us for a week!


We were in Ben and Katie's wedding!!!!

So there are many other pictures that would depict our last year in Bend, however, these ones give a pretty good overview :)

Trust

When I got off work yesterday, I had a voice mail from the Spanish teacher that I will student teach for, and hopefully would be taking over her classroom in November. I was filled with nerves hoping she would say that I got the job and would be her long term sub, but instead she just said to give her a call back. Long story short, she called me again and started with "Lyndsey, I have some bad news...". Essentially, I pretty much had the job until Friday, another applicant applied who has a license already and Katie Winning's words "administratively, it makes more sense to go with the person who already has a license", as opposed to jumping all the hoops to get me an emergency license.

Needless to say, I was pretty devastated, because I had let me hopes get so high, and almost expected to get the job. But as Evan, my family and all my friends tell me, it is a good experience to have gone through an interview already and to have made the connections that I did. I'm still really bummed, but I also have learned that God ALWAYS knows what is best for me and I don't. He obviously has other plans for me, and all I can do is "Trust in the Lord with all my heart and not lean upon my own understanding".

So it's back to Ann Taylor and regular student teaching, and hopefully come next April when I am a qualified, licensed teacher, I will finally have my teaching job! Or, maybe God has other plans regarding that too...I can only trust.

Labor Day Weekend on the OR Coast

The Rogue Brewery!

naptime!

Aquarium!

Sea Otter, Katelyn, Charles and Us

The beautiful Oregon Coast Aquarium!!

Depoe Bay

The cute seafood place where we at lunch in Newport.


Growing up in NorCal, the "beach" to me was always rocky, cold, foggy and beautiful. I grew up going to Pebble Beach because my grandparents lived there, and it is quite possibly one of my favorite places in the world. Well, last weekend, Evan and I went for a mini-vacation to the Oregon coast, which is very similar to the NorCal coast. This was another new and fun adventure for me because I had heard how beautiful it was (like the norcal coast) but I had never been. We stopped at a cute seafood place in Newport, saw whales in Depoe Bay and ended up at the Warne's place near Lincoln City. We had a great weekend hanging out with our college friends Kate and Charles and Charles' parents. Evan and I ran on the beach Saturday morning, we went to the aquarium, ate yummy food and had a fire with smore's on the beach. It was such a fun and relaxing weekend, that we definitely were not ready to head back to the real work afterwards!

Nerviosa

November was supposed to be the beginning of my student teaching. However, as of today, I still don't have a placement. I do have a placement at the high school in a Spanish class for January-April though. The teacher for that class though is going on maternity leave and needed a long term sub. Last week, my cohort leader/teacher called me with the news that Summit High still hadn't found a long term sub and that she recommended me for the position. Most student teachers give up 50 hours a week easily, without pay and dedicate their lives and time to teaching. This opportunity would be amazing because not only would I be paid to student teach, but the classroom would essentially be mine from November to the end of the school year in June.

I was "nerviosa" because I haven't had an interview that meant so much to me and had so much on the line possibly ever. That interview for the position was today. I went in praying, knowing that God knew what will happen, and that God's will will prevail, but even so, I had butterflies, like I haven't had since competitive swimming! The interview went fairly well, it was mostly the vice principal and Katie the Spanish teacher I would take over for, telling me what the job would look like. Essentially, in November I would take over the class with 2 Spanish II classes and 2 Spanish III classes. I would be a real teacher in a matter of months!

I think overall it went well, except that one of the other Spanish teachers kind of drilled me and I hadn't had to speak Spanish on the spot like that since college...So, we will see in the coming weeks what will happen, but I know God has a plan and in His strength, I will rest.