Babies at Christmas

This is my niece Kynleigh on the left, and my cousin Reese on the right! :)

A Little Walk With David

I just got back from a Clear Brook Company B concert. It was so great! My friend Mariana was singing in it, and it was just wonderful. It definitely made me even more into the Christmas spirit!

After the concert, David and I went to my house, watched some GLEE, then decided to go to Starbucks. There we saw some friends from school which was fun, but we wanted to go around Bay Oaks, a really nice neighborhood by our house, and walk around looking at Christmas lights, so we did. Just walking and talking was so great. One of the topics we talked about was crying. Its pretty amazing when you can talk to a guy about that! David always surprises me like that, though. We got back into the car and went to his house to see his new Christmas tree, and let me tell you.. It smelled wonderful. It was just a good night to see how God created great things and great people. He's still got me, even though I cannot see Him. Thank you, God, for the smell of Christmas. :)

Shopping day with the boys!

David, Logan, Alen and I went shopping yesterday for Christmas presents for our families. We went from store to store, finding odd gifts as well as legit ones. We ended up at Guitar Center, when David got a call from Michael saying he locked himself out of the house. David left to take care of that, and Logan, Alen and I kept jamming with guitars and bongos. We started to get tired of that, so we left and walked around the shopping center, and ended up at a high-class furniture store. Logan thought it would be a good idea to lie to the lady at the front desk and tell her we were looking for couches for a movie room. Ha. Logan and I were pretending to be married, linking arms and such. We obviously thought we had better taste than Alen. Logan kept teasing him.

"Oh my goodness, Marissa, this would look so good in the dining room!"

"That color would go great with the rug we just put in there."

"OOH. Guys what about this color?"

"Uh...no, Alen, not really...."

"Alen, you're the guy we brought along just because he has a truck."

Shortly after, we went to Target to get some clothes for my niece, Kynleigh. Logan helped me pick things out from a selection that Alen and I found. I was secretly wondering if people thought I was expecting or something, because I was having so much fun picking out cute little outfits.

At the end of the day we met up with Alyssa at Starbucks. We were talking about books and movies and how our day has been. I've missed seeing her a lot, and finally having some estrogen in the group was really nice!

Its every girls dream to be really good at something, like the guitar, and be praised for it's beauty. Its every girl's dream to go shopping for new things for a house with her husband. Its even a bonus if her husband cares and has ideas about the house, too. It's every girl's dream to have kids and be a mother and be able to take care of a household for her husband. Its every girl's dream to have great girlfriends that you can talk to whenever. Yesterday was just a huge game of make-believe for me, pretending to be grown up. And it was the most fun I've had in a long time! Which ended in a text from David saying, "I just wanted you to know that I had an awesome day hanging out with you today. It was very possibly the funnest day of my life :)"

I love this contagious community I'm a part of. Thank you, Jesus for my great friends.

Happy Snow, Everyone!

Today was a wonderful day. :) Snowing in Houston... Forget global warming. The CCISD school system is amazing. David, Michael and I left school around lunchtime to go play in the snow and eat at a Sports Grill. Thank You, Jesus!

Theres just something about today- a complete blessing even though I completely don't deserve it. In english class, We're studying Dante's Inferno and discussing different views on hell and on human salvation, something that I definitely enjoy, though the thoughts and fears of what Dante sees Hell as have kind of skewed my thoughts on God's love for me, and it shouldn't have. So, Today, the blessing of snow has just reminded me that the LORD is good, and His love endures forever. Great friends, intimate conversations, Starbucks coffee, and Christmas. Happy Snow.

Sisters- Short hair and glasses!

So Ana and I really do look like the same person now. I think its cute though. We're starting to share scarves and face wash and stuff. Here are some pictures that we took of us in the backyard. My mom is quite the photographer!

Kynleigh with a Twizzler!

So this is my presh little niece, Kynleigh. My brother (the idiot talking in the background of this video) showed this to me last night after dinner. :) Look at that tounge!

Selflessness

That boy. I love him. He continues to stretch my way of thinking, even though i have heard it all before! The way he ministers to people helps me remember what it means to be a christian.

At lunch today, David came, sat down, and talked with us for a little bit. Alen was talking about how he got half of a sandwich from Tina, and i was talking about how I wanted to be selfless. As Alen and I are discussing how to be selfless and give up things for others, David makes his way to the table across from ours- sitting my a little freshman boy named Jake. Alen and I, realizing that David wasn't next to us anymore, decide to throw some food at David. He turned around, laughed, and introduced us and the other six or so people sitting with us to his new friend. Then he sat back down, and continued making conversation with Jake. Not awkward. Not weird. He's just livin' the life Jesus called him to live.

Thank you , God, for David Gasvoda. :)

Will you take me completely?

This weekend has been so good, and so revealing of who God is. Girls Reflecting Glory was so great- so many intimate topics were shared- How wonderful it is to be the bride of Christ!

• In ancient jewish wedding traditions, for a man to propose to a woman, he and his father would go to the woman's fathers house to negotiate a price for her- something that the man's family would pay. After they settled on a price, the man would give the woman's father the money,("Jesus paid the price") then ask the woman by pouring a glass of wine and handing the cup out to her. If she took it and sipped from it, it meant that she accepted. (Hmm.. sounds like something we do every sunday... Communion anyone?) "After taking the cup, he gave thanks and said, "Take this and divide it among you. For I tell you I will not drink again of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes." Luke 22:17-18
• After she accepted, she was required to go through some kind of cleansing ritual in "living water (meaning connected to an outside source, not just a pool) and was to be clothed in white. (Something like baptism? Also, Jesus is the "Living Water")
• While she was doing that, The man had to go prepare a place for his soon-to-be wife, a part of his father's house. He made a new room and added it onto the house, kind of like how jesus says, "In my Father's house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you." John 14:2. He would promise to come back to her, where he would take her to the house and be with her forever. The young man, if asked when the day of his wedding will be, often gets rid of nosey inquirers by saying: “No man knows the day or the hour, only my father knows”. (Matthew 24:36) Wow.
• I'm sure the jews of the time obviously got this, and it may have been pretty wierd for some of the men, if not all. Shannon Etheridge, the speaker, quoted C.S. Lewis by saying something like, "God is so masculine, that everything, when compared to him, is feminine." Hallelujah! :)

This has just been ringing in my head over and over, along with the song Faithful to the End by Cory Asbury.

"And all will see the glory of this man

With fire in his eyes

He's jealous for his bride

He's faithful to the end

He's faithful to my heart

He's faithful to the end

He will come and marry me "

Marriage is the most intimate relationship EVER. Why would the God of the universe want that with me? Not sure, but I love him. I love him. Forever and ever. I have a husband who is the ultimate healer and provider, who can know exactly what I need and is so in tune with everything that I am. Even if I had a husband here on earth, he would not be able to fufill my emotional needs. But Jesus knows my emotional needs more than I do!