Is the dude in on it?

Watch this video... it's a news team this morning that get the _ _ _ _ scared out of them!
As you watch, look how calm and collected the dude acts. My question:
Is he in on it?
or
Is he just trying to act all cool and play it off?



Either way... so funny!!!
Glad it wasn't me on the TV... I could have possibly let a not nice word slip!!

Happy Halloween!

My husband, the cheerleader

I think I posted a few weeks ago about Billy wearing a cheerleading uniform to Caleb's football practice. If you missed that one, here's a quick preview:

A few weeks ago Billy, who is one of Caleb's football coaches, promised the team that he would wear a cheerleading uniform to practice if they shut out the team that they were playing. Well, it happened. The team won like 13 to 0, and Billy followed through with his end of the deal. I was unable to go to that practice, and I just got some pictures from the team mom.

I'm so glad someone was there with a camera!!

Enjoy!

So... back to that mission project!

So you girlies have been back at school for 10 or so now, which means we've had about 10 weeks of D-Group... and we still don't have a mission project picked! We really need to pick something and figure out in what ways we will contribute.

So as I've said before, be praying about it.

Chelsea suggested Invisible Children... don't remember if we got any other suggestions.

We'll discuss further tomorrow night!

I love you!

Have a great rainy day!

~Molly

The video is reversed...

Okay, instead of watching the part that I said....
Watch from -4:20 through -2:20.
When I watched it on YOUTUBE, the #s were ascending.
But once I put the video on the blog the #s descend.
Certainly watch the entire thing if you have time... but those 2 minutes are powerful!!!

THE BIBLE EXPERIENCE

Okay, so here's a video about the making of The Bible Experience that I was telling you about.

It's sort of long (about 10 minutes). If you don't want to watch all of it.... PLEASE watch from 6:25-8:20 or so).



I love you all very much!
Tonight was a good discussion... I hope that you are able to find worshipful moments all throughout your day!

BTW, here is a video of the song that we heard tonight.
It's not the same video we saw, but it's awesome!!!
Enjoy!
Worship!



Peace, Love, Joy
~Molly

Checking out....

Okay, so you may or may not know that I'm going out of town tomorrow with Billy. Very excited about having a few days with my husband and no kids!

I love you all!

Guess what... Ashlee Davis graced me with her pretty little presence tonight.
She came over, and we had a nice little chat about boys & college on my deck.
Then we came inside to watch Caleb perform his Crank That Soulja Boy dance... so cute!
Then we discussed her new Mac... yes, she got a mac... I'm so stoked for her!

Ashlee, it was so good to see you. We all miss you very much!

Okay, so I hope Homecoming was awesome for all involved!
What a wonderful, cool night it was!

Have a good day off from school Monday.

See you all Wednesday.

I probably won't post before I see you again on Wednesday, as we don't get home until Tuesday night.

Peace, Love, Joy~
~molly

We are all spiritual!

This is the NOOMA video guy.
He's just so cool to me!
Watch this!

Nothing you can do will make me love you less.

So as a continuance of last night's discussion from D-Group....
The scripture that was referenced in the video is Romans 8:38-39

This is taken from The Message.

I'm absolutely convinced that nothing - nothing living or dead, angelic or demonic, today or tomorrow, high or low, thinkable or unthinkable - absolutely nothing can get between us and God's love because of the way that Jesus our Master has embraced us.

I hope you take comfort in Paul's word to the Romans.

~Peace, Love, Joy~
molly

Catalyst

I had the privilege of attending a conference with Dave Saine Thursday & Friday. It was called Catalyst. There were lots of really awesome speakers.

One of my favorite parts was this guy named Wintley Phipps. This is a video of him at Carnegie Hall doing a similar presentation as he gave at Catalyst. Love it!



Love you... hope you are enjoying the beautiful weekend!
~mm

How's the challenge going?

For those of you who are taking the H2O Challenge...
Please let me know how it's going for you. I'll tell you some of my experience.
As I said in a previous post, I was having an awful headache from the lack of caffeine!
Well, on top of that I've gotten a little sick over the week... don't really know what it is, but it's the typical flu type feeling... achy body and head, sore throat, drained feeling all the time. So I expected the head ache thing from the caffeine withdrawal, but I certainly didn't expect to get sick. I expected the opposite! I figured since I was drinking water only that I would feel better!

I'm not saying God made me sick to teach me a lesson, but I'm learning a big one through all of this...
Going into this challenge, I knew that it would be a sacrifice (caffeine specifically), but I was also seeing some benefits! I thought maybe I'd lose a little weight (since I wasn't going to be drinking soda... which has gotten worse since Sonic came to town... I love vanilla coke & strawberry limeade)
I figured that in general I would feel better drinking water only.
So far, no weight loss.
So far, I don't feel better... I feel much worse.
Neither of the benefits that I expected....
Expectations... that's a big word.
We are all guilty of expecting!
Sort of like the post I did a few days ago about how spoiled I am...

I have to remember why I'm really doing this challenge!
It's not at all about any of benefits for me!

It's about a child dying from unclean drinking water every 15 seconds!
Imagine how many have died while I've been typing this blog...

Go here to see some of the horrid things that can happen when people don't have clean drinking water.

The verse that comes to mind right now is:
James 4:10
"Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up."

Lord, make me humble. Help me realize how blessed I am!

So here's a picture of Carlos and his family.
For those of you who didn't get to see the episode of LA Ink with him on it last night....
He did a great job of telling his story without shoving the gospel down America's throat.

He told the story of what his tat is all about:
Basically Saul was the dude that persecuted & killed Christians.
Anyway, one day a light shone down on him from heaven and Jesus spoke to him.
He pretty much told him that he needed to stop doing what he was doing.
When Saul got up, he was blind. He had to be led the the place where Jesus told him to go, Damascus.
Jesus eventually sent someone to restore his sight.
Well, after his conversion Saul's name was changed to Paul.

You can't really tell from the picture, but the tat is Saul's blinding conversion experience.

So who is taking the challenge?

I wasn't out in the shed Sunday, so I don't know how many of you are taking the H2O Challenge.

Please let me know how it's going... let's be a little support for each other!

I'll just tell you right now... going without coffee sucks!!
I didn't realize how addicted I actually am to the stuff!

I've had a head ache all day long!

But even through the head ache, I'm so very aware of some things:
I am so spoiled...
I have my coffee every morning (well, not for these two weeks).
I eat when and what I want for the most part.
I get to bathe everyday.
When I get sick,
I have medicine readily available in my medicine cabinet (or as near as my local doctor) that will make me feel better quickly.
I have freedom...I can wear what I want, go where I want, say what I want, worship the god of my choice whenever/wherever.
I have a car with heated leather seats, a DVD player, navigation system, run flat tires, etc.

I have CLEAN DRINKING WATER!

The list could go on and on and on and on and on.....

This challenge is about more than just sacrifice.... it's about clean drinking water.

The following is from the H2O Project website.

The statistics are staggering.

1 Billion very important people lack access to clean water. (Although we don't know them personally, are they really less valuable than we are?) They drink from polluted lakes and streams where animal waste, human waste, and parasites infect the water.
Women and children walk 2 hours each way to fetch water (hauling dirty water back to their families.) They have no time or energy left for education or small business, and many of them die.
Preventable water related diseases kill one child every 15 seconds. That's 10,000 every day (and that's just the children). Imagine if that many precious ones were dying in the U.S.!

25,000 people lose their lives to water-related illnesses every single day.
The Solution is Simple.
All they need is a well!

As little as $10 can provide one person with a lifetime supply of clean water.
You can provide that money without dipping into your savings, without affecting your contributions to churches and other charities. Instead, you can effectively get restaurants and grocery stores to make a contribution for you. Here's how:

Take The H2O Challenge

For 2 weeks make water your only beverage.
Contribute the money you would have spent at the soda machine and coffee shop toward the
drilling of clean water wells.
Is it a sacrifice to give up your milk, coffee, soda, etc. for 2 weeks? Will you be changing someone else's life forever. Absolutely.

The H2O Challenge

Who's joining me?

Our Youth Group is participating in this project... will you take the challenge?

Even if you don't want to take the challenge, you could give toward the cause.

For more information:
404-421-9407
mooremolly@mac.com

Take the H2O Challenge!

LA Ink

Tomorrow night (Tuesday, Oct. 2) my friend Carlos (Los) is going to be on LA Ink
TLC (the learning channel) at 10:00 p.m.

Check it out.....

Not all of you will appreciate this, so take it for what it's worth.
I found this on this guy's blog.

Kendrick, you gotta show it to Laney!

He's putting on a skirt!

Okay, so some of you know that my husband is a coach on Caleb's football team. As an extra motivation for the boys last week, Billy promised that he would wear a cheerleading uniform if they would come up big Saturday & shut out the team they were playing.

Well, it happened.

We won something to nothing... I think we had 13.

So what do you think I was doing yesterday afternoon... looking for a big ole' cheerleading uniform!
I found this one at Party City.



Not sure if I'm going to be able to make the practice tonight, but there will be plenty of cameras I'm sure!

I'm so thankful that those boys have coaches that can do stuff like this and have fun with the boys.
I know football is all serious and stuff... whatever, but sometimes football coaches (even at the younger ages) get a little crazy and go a lot overboard!

Just wanted to share this little bit of football silliness!

A merry heart maketh a cheerful countenance: but by sorrow of the heart the spirit is broken.
~ Proverbs 15:13

"But Momma, it's cold."

For the past several days it has been getting a tad bit cooler in the early morning and late evening, but there’s certainly no call for snow.

Sarah Beth decided to go play outside this morning. She went to get dressed and came back looking like this!

I just checked the weather, and it’s 59... while that is much cooler than it has been around here for several months... seriously Sarah Beth! That's my sweet, silly, dramatic girl!

I am enjoying the chill in the air this morning and am so very thankful!

Thank you God for the changing seasons.

Comments... and Chelsea's e-mail

I got the following e-mail from Chelsea. Since she is saying that she wanted to be able to comment about the last post (less is more) I thought I would just paste her e-mail in this post.

I'm sorry about the comments thing. I actually disabled it cause I wasn't getting many comments, and I let that discourage me. I'm going to enable it again, so please post a comment any time you have something to share regarding a post... or any other random thought!

Here is Chelsea's e-mail:

can we not make comments anymore on the blogs ?? b/c i cant find the "add comments" button ... and i really like the post from today less is more .. and i just wanted to add to it something that i'm reminded of when i think about material things and what i "want" but dont "need" or what i have and dont have.. becuase of my mission experience ( considerably small compared to some other people) i have learned that it is possible to survive with next to nothing and be completely humble and content with that .. and i kinda think of it as you can either center your life around material possessions and "stuff' or you can put God and your faith that he will provide for you at the center of your life .. i guess i just wanted to make sure that somethin' along those lines gets heard when everyone reads that blog b/c sometimes we get so caught up in habits and we skim through and dont even bother to look for what God might want us to hear .. is this making sence? i'm just afraid that sometimes we just read it and dont think twice about the blogs and this blog really spoke to me and hit on one of my passions and taking advantage of our possesions bothers me but i'm guilty of it too ... I think as a group project we should keep track of the number of hours we spend on the computer for social aspects ( not work related like writing papers and researching etc. ) like checking email , myspace, facebook , blogs and w/e else we do on the computer and then the next week we try to spend the same amount of time or more in devotion, connecting with God in prayer, or community service ( not clubs at school or stuff we do normally ..) something extra we devote to something other than the computer ... idk just an idea we can either run with or throw out the window

wow .. this is way long than i realized it was .. sorry if my grammar and run on ideas and everything mushes together and doesnt make since ... have a great weekend !!!

Chelsea

Less is More

The following was taken from a blog that I happened upon through ragamuffinsoul.com

Less Is More

What a perfect story to go along with our "wants & needs" talk!

Rich

Okay, for those of you who got to be with us last night for D-Group... pretty deep huh?
I'm going to put a portion of the video up again.
I know some of you have seen this a million times now, but it just really speaks to me.

Please think, pray and discuss over the next week.
We need to pick our group mission project.

The only suggestion I've gotten from any of you was from Chelsea... thanks Chels.
She told me about Invisible Children.

Here's a portion of the RICH video:



Wanting to make a difference....
~molly

I figured it out!

Okay, so I posted this video a few days ago... but it was only the link to the video.
Here's the real thing, so you don't have to link to it.

Yeah! I'm getting better at this whole thing!

U2 Yaweh

Seems like I posted this video several weeks ago... before I screwed up and deleted everything.
It certainly can't hurt to post it again.
I love this song.
I love U2.
Don't know who put this video together, but they did a jam up job!!
It's very powerful!

Venti Vision

I know many of you love Starbucks... check out this blog from Tony Morgan.
http://www.tonymorganlive.com/tony_morgan_one_of_the_si/2007/09/venti-experienc.html

Please say a prayer tonight, or whenever, for my friend Carlos (Los) and his family.
He has been in Atlanta for several weeks settling into his new job at Buckhead Church, but his family is finally coming to Atlanta as we speak. They hopped a plane just a short while ago from California, where his wife & kids have lived all of their lives, to fly to Atlanta to live. Southern California to Atlanta... that's big! Anyway, they feel certain that this a move that God wants for them, but it's hard nonetheless to just pick up and move from a place that you call home.

Today was/is a big day for them... their adoption of Losiah (they got him from Korea) was final today.



Their oldest daughter, Sohalia, is having a really hard time with the move... she is Sarah Beth's age.
This is a picture of her saying good-bye to her grandmother.



Here's a picture of Los kissing his mother good-bye...



I hope you get to meet him one day!
He's a cool dude!

I love you all very much.

Peace,
Molly

Having Trouble

I have tried posting some videos lately, but it's not working. I was doing it correctly before (remember before I deleted my whole stinkin' bog). Anyway until I figure out what I'm dong wrong... here is a really cool video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CT7x3VnrqbA&mode=related&search=

Let's see if that works.

When you watch the video, really listen to the words.... I love the song!

Peace,
Molly

"I like your Christ....Your Christians are so unlike your Christ."

A quote from Mahatma Ghandi:

“I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.”
~ Mahatma Gandhi

That is a powerful quote!

Below is from an author, Lizzy Fox.

Sometimes becoming like Christ does not happen intentionally. Instead as we seek to know Him better, we become like Him.

Recently, I was riding in a large wooden trailer that was being pulled by a tractor. We were fast on our way to see a beautiful waterfall near Rio Dulce in Guatemala. A little boy from one of the villages came sprinting to try and catch a free ride down the road. As he got closer, he reached out and caught the trailer in the back portion by one hand and tripped. For a moment I watched the fear in his eyes as he was being dragged along. We were going too fast to let go, and he could not climb up into the trailer. Before I knew what I was doing, I was on my stomach laying in rocks and cow manure embracing this little boy and pulling him up onto the platform with our group. There was no time to think.

As I looked down at my scraped knees and the dirt that now covered my designer swimsuit, I was overwhelmed by emotion. My friends looked at me in shock. Blood trickled slowly down from my left knee. This is how Jesus loved us. I felt as if heaven had opened up and shown me the change that had taken place in a once callous heart. When we could not help ourselves up, Christ bled and was made dirty for us. In a small way, I realized how my relationship with Christ had affected my impulses. He soiled his perfect robes of heaven that we might me with Him and become like him.

To be like Christ, we should look at how He lived his life. He was kind to all regardless of beauty, career, or social status. He was not impressed by people with important titles. He kneeled to show compassion to an adulteress and dined with tax collectors and sinners. He was the essence of love. We must be like him in not isolating ourselves from those who need us most. Christian community is important but taking care of widows and orphans even more so. The world is broken and we are afraid to get our hands dirty and to pay a price. Jesus paid the ultimate price for us and being Christlike is not free. It is going to cost you something.

Jesus said that Christians would be known by their love for one another. We must do all we can to care for those around us. It begins right where we are. The key to reaching a lost world is not in a pamphlet or a video. These things are good things of course, but the key is to live our lives in the manner that Jesus did. We should show love and compassion to all not just to those we deem worthy. He thought that we were worth it, and we must live in light of that worth and pass the love shown to us to other people. ~Lizzy Fox.

Striving to be more like Christ....
~molly

Authenticity

Here's a little more on being real.
I like the word "authenticity".
My little desktop widget dictionary defines authenticity as:

If you can't read it, click on the picture... it will open bigger in a new window.

My prayer is that I can be as authentic as possible with you girls and that you practice authenticity with each other as well!

Authentically,
Molly

BE REAL!

I've told you all about my friend, Carlos, who is moving back to the ATL.
His blog is called ragamuffinsoul.com

What is so cool about him is that he is REAL. He doesn't act or talk "churchy" with lots of "spiritual" words.
He just lives from his heart, which is a heart for God. The quote below is a message that some random person sent him regarding his blog and how it has ministered to him.

"Didn’t want to post this online, but in response to your Church…? question.
I am one of the people out there in the world that do not currently go to church.
I grew up Methodist.
Until I get my head on straight and find a church home, you are my church on a daily basis.
So if you ever think your blog isn’t really “ministering” remember me and all of the other “non-church” people that read your blog and Heather’s blog and are touched. You encourage me to pray and think and converse with God.
Thank You!"

Please remember to be as authentic and real as possible in your walk with Christ!

Trying to keep it real~
Molly

I LOVE YOU

This post is a message from my heart.

I feel like I made some of you mad last night in d-group... I could just see it on some of your faces.
I'm sorry if I said something to hurt your feelings. I know that often times the things that I say, even though they are in love, come out the wrong way. I tend to be somewhat brazen in brash at times. I don't like that about myself; sometimes I wish that God had made me a soft spoken person. So I sincerely apologize if anything last night was taken as offensive on my part. I didn't mean for it to be.

Everything that I said last night was out of love. I hope you girls know how much I love you!

As I said... being a Christian is not about a set of rules. If we had to meet certain standards and requirements in order to be part of God's kingdom, none of us would have a chance in _ _ _ _!!!
That's why Jesus came!

Everybody has their own convictions and set of ideals about what is appropriate or acceptable when it comes to everything from diet to dancing and all the stuff in between. There are so many places in the Bible, Old & New Testament alike, that leave all of us with questions... My friend recently wrote this in an e-mail:

"THE BIBLE IS CALLED GOD'S WORD because it is what HE SAID. And when Jesus ascended, the Holy Spirit came, and He is IN us as believers. So, if you aren't sure what the Bible says, ASK THE HOLY SPIRIT TO TELL YOU because HE WROTE IT and HE'S IN YOU." ~Lynn Sexton

There are so many areas of life (we talked about many of them last night) about which we are not given clear "directions" in the Bible. God sent Jesus to die for us, as an atonement for our sins. As Christians, when we accept that, God gives us the Holy Sprit. To me that Spirit is what we so often refer to as "the voice inside your head"... the gut feeling you get when you know you should or shouldn't do or say something.

My friend, Lynn, also told me this story:

"We have the Holy Spirit in us telling us what the Bible says. WE CANNOT BE EACH OTHER'S HOLY SPIRIT. There is a girl at our church who wears a bandana-like scarf around her neck and when we pray, she covers her head with it. I don't feel like I need to do that, but SHE does. She is not wrong. That is right for her. But it is not right for me. It is WRONG for her to tell me that covering my head is the right thing for me to do and it is WRONG for me to tell her that she doesn't need to do it. That is how BOTH of us interpret the Bible." ~Lynn Sexton

I want to apologize again for hurting anyone's feelings... that is never my intention.
I also pray that you allow the Holy Spirit to work in your life and help you with your own issues of right and wrong.
Most importantly, remember that being a Christian is not about a set of rules... it's about love,
As Paul says in 1 Corinthians 13:1-13,
it doesn't matter how much faith you have, how much money you give away, how much biblical knowledge you gain....
if all of that is not done for the purpose of loving others as Jesus loves us, those other things are devoid of value!

It's all about love.... Jesus is love.

I LOVE YOU!
~molly

I wish things were like they used to be!

Have you ever heard your parents or grandparents talk about "the good old days"?
They might say, "I sure wish things could be like they used to be."
You have probably even done it. Perhaps you wish relationships with your friends were a little more simple, as they used to be. Maybe you wish your school was more like going to school used to be for you... not so big - you knew more people. There's a chance that you wish the relationship with your parents was like it used to be when you were little. I've heard church folks young and old talk about how the church used to do this or that.

Often times we wish things were "like they used to be".

So here comes some scripture:

Do not say, “Why were the old days better than these?”
For it is not wise to ask such questions.
~ Ecclesiastes 7:10

The following was taken from kikkit2.wordpress.com

The only thing we get by spending our time looking in the rear
view mirror is a big disaster in our front windshield! Our best
days as Christians are always ahead. Jesus has promised to return
and take us home to God — what better future could there be! So
let’s not get distracted with nostalgic cynicism. We can thank God
for his past blessings, but let’s not waste the present with
pessimism. Let’s make a commitment to redeem our time and trust
that the same God who raised Jesus from the dead also holds our
future in his hands.

This spoke to me.
My prayer is that is speaks to you in some way as well.

Peace,
Molly

More on "Starting Over"

Okay, so I was ticked when I ended up deleting the blog!
I'm still a little ticked that it was so easy to delete it... there was no "are you sure" questions prompting me to be certain that I really wanted to do something SO STUPID!!
You know what? It's not blogspot's fault! Yes, they could create a precautionary step for when spastic people like me try deleting entire blogs... but keeping that blog going and intact was my responsibility, not blogspot! I'm the one who was not paying attention. I'm the one who didn't read all of my options... I just hastily pressed buttons. I made a mistake... it was an accident!
That's just like it is in life... we are all going to screw up over and over and over and over....
Some of those screw ups are going to be big time and life changing and others are going to be seemingly less serious and have less impact. The fact is: "all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God," Romans 3:22-24

It's easy to blame others and/or justify our actions when we mess up . When we screw up in a major way, especially if we get caught and in trouble, it's natural to beat ourselves us.
Shame-Guilt-Worthlessness-Self Pity
Do any of those feelings sound familiar?

But there's good news!
God is not a god of guilt and shame; He's a god of grace, mercy and forgiveness.

Guard your hearts and minds!
Remember that when trash goes in, trash is going to come out!

But when you fall into that pit of sin again... rest assured, you can start over!
God accepts us as we are... broken.

So I'm starting over on this blog... I'm moving forward and am going to continue blogging.

Thank God that He gives us the chance to start over!
"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!"
~2 Corinthians 5:16-18

Starting over

Okay, so as you all know from my e-mail... I accidentally deleted our blog - yes, I deleted the ENTIRE blog... the whole thing!!
I was trying to delete a post, but I deleted the whole dang thing!

I was so mad, sad, and everything else today when it happened. It gave me a great idea for my first post on the new blog....

It will have to wait until in the morning.
I'm very tired!

I love you all very much.
Night Night.

A special "Welcome" to our new friend, Haley.
We're so glad you got to join us and hope you will come back again and again!

Godspeed,
Molly