katie, shut up.

Lately I have been thinking a lot about the power of my words versus the power of prayer. I love to talk to people & the Lord has gifted me in the area of wisdom & counsel; and in the past I would rely on that gifting to a fault. This weekend the Lord reminded me of some things that He taught me in the past & I felt compelled to write about it...

A good friend of mine came in town to visit this past weekend & before she got here, I was asking the Lord what He had for her & what things I could speak into her life about. I clearly heard the Lord say, "Do not speak into her life this weekend, let Me speak into her life", then He went on to tell me some things that He wanted to do in her heart & invited me to partner with Him in intercession for her to receive directly from Him.

the reality is that our words before the Living God are more effective than our words before man will ever be

But do I really believe that? Do I really believe that my prayers will shift things? So often I find myself speaking in to someone's life out of fear that God won't just tell them Himself. Do I believe that He hears my prayers? If I did, I would live in light of that. 

((not to say that receiving prophecy or wisdom from people is wrong... the Lord TOTALLY uses that!!))

This weekend, I watched the Lord speak to my friend about every single thing that He said He would talk to her about... Everything I prayed for happened & more!!! It was so exhilarating watching a dear friend come alive in God because of #1. His Voice & #2. His Word.

So I came away with this once again... His leadership could not be any more perfect. He truly is the Good Shepherd. I am honored to be His beloved sheep. Honored.

the words of the Living God to man are more effective than my words could ever be

kK

you haven't taken your honeymoon yet?

yeah... I know... It's bad! We still haven't taken a honeymoon! Here's the brief story...

We were planning on taking a honeymoon after our wedding, like normal people do... but then our engagement season took some unexpected (& quite unfortunate) turns & it became so busy & stressful that a lot of things had to be put to the side, including our honeymoon plans. We planned to take a trip within our first year for sure, but then, I got pregnant two months after we were married & we never planned the trip! BUMMER!

side note:: we also never took our wedding pictures as just the two of us... We made the decision to not see each other until the ceremony when I walked down the isle (which I would totally recommend by the way...) but that meant that it would be too dark outside to get good pictures of just the two of us that night... so in our wedding album, we only have a few of just us that the photographer took with lighting outside... I'm so glad those pictures turned out! Well, our PLAN (you see, there is a pattern here...) was to take picture the NEXT DAY... I know crazy! to get allll dressed & ready again & take pictures outside on a nice sunny day... well.. we woke up to a rainy, yucky day.. so then we get this GRAND idea, lets wait for the summer & take pictures when it's really nice out! great idea, right? wrong... I got pregnant & will NEVER be fitting in that wedding dress again :/ sad day..

anyways... back to the honeymoon...

The other day, Josh & I were talking & decided that right now seems to be kind of a "now or never" time for us to take our honeymoon. The ladies are just old enough to be left with my parents. I am for sure NOT pregnant. But we DO want more children & feel like the time may be coming soon to either have more or adopt. My parents watching 2 children is decently manageable, but 3? that's getting to be a lot of young kids for a whole week! soOOoooOOooooo....

our plan is...

we will be going to Minnesota (cannot WAIT!) on May 12 for my sister-in-law's graduation, then we have plans to be in MN for an undetermined amount of time... SO after about a week of being there, Josh & I will fly out to our (undetermined) honeymoon destination, leave the ladies with my parents, stay a week, Josh will fly back home to Colorado, and then I will return to MN for another week or so!

sounds like a FUN plan right?! I just hope it doesn't turn out like our other plans & just... not happen.

but here's the catch... WE DON'T KNOW WHERE TO GO!!!
here is what we are looking for...
affordable.
all inclusive resort.
hot climate! beaches etc...

got any ideas?! please leave some comments!!!

have a great weekend :]

kK

it's been a while.

I know, I know... I've totally dropped the ball on this whole blogging thing! I promise I have great intentions, but things have gotten busy & the Lord is just SWAMPING me (so it feels) with SO much... don't get me wrong, it's all really good & to be honest, I am thriving in this season. But to find time for blogging can end up seeming like another distraction, which as you may know, I'm trying to rid my life of as much as possible.

I think this post will simply be an update of what my life is looking like & an overview of what the Lord is doing/birthing in my heart.

I have a friend of mine watching the ladies for me 3 mornings a week, & my mother-in-law watching them 1 morning a week; a couple hours each. In case you didn't do the math, that equals 4 mornings a week! It is SUCH a blessing to me! I always use that time to go to the Prayer Room & then run an errand if need be. This time is SO valuable to me... it is fueling my walk with the Lord & it's encouraging a better relationship between my girls & I... you know the whole phrase, "distance makes the heart grow fonder", well I have definitely found this to be true with parenting! If I can get a couple hours away by myself, coming home is EXCITING & I take SO much more joy in them as babies & find that I am taking joy in the little things with them. I am naturally wired to want to move on to the next thing as quickly as possible & that is hard with children, just desiring for their next stage to come, but the Lord is teaching me to take it all in & enjoy them thoroughly! Anyways, I consider myself SO blessed to be getting time away like this, knowing that most moms do not.

Josh gets home from work (still working a temporary construction job for his dad) around 4:45, we eat dinner, play with the ladies & have family time, put the girls down for bed around 7pm, clean up & head to bed ourselves! Josh has really early mornings for work & I need like 10 hours of sleep to run on (minor exaggeration!) so we do our best to get to bed as early as possible. My friend calls me "grandma" when making fun of my bed time... I'm totally willing to take on that name! different seasons bring major changes to life, don't they?

As for my relationship with God... I'm pretty sure that moving out to Colorado is one of the best things I've done. I'm absolutely LOVING it! Yes, the Lord had to work on me for over a year to break me down & rip things out of my hands to actually get me to move away from my beloved state of Minnesota but now that He has taken me here, I soooo understand why! I am thriving in this place in a beautiful way... I'll write a post about that to give better detail... I could go on & on...

but anyways,

The Lord has woo'ed me into the wilderness & He truly is speaking tenderly to me & releasing His heart into me in a profound way. As I have alluded to in past posts, there is just SO much He is doing. You know how He usually will have you focus on one thing at a time? well sometimes I feel like He has me doing a hundred different things at once... It's overwhelming, but in a glorious way.

Here a few areas He is taking me through...

the sleeping bride. where the church is at today & the reality of where it's headed & how the Lord feels about it.
the Song of Solomon & the Book of Revelation. I am in a girls Bible study where we are reading these two books side-by-side & allowing the Lord to reveal the Bridegroom heart alongside the King & Judge... all one Man, just different characteristics. It's SO good to have that study once a week.
the book of daniel. what does it look like to be a generation wholly consecrated to the Lord & to be ones who do all for the glory of God (whether eating or drinking) ...to have the favor of the Lord on you in such a profound way that it shakes the kings & kingdoms of the earth.
inner healing. The Lord has given me a counseling gifting & He is currently have me read the book Pure Heart by Tom & Donna Cole. I highly recommend it for anyone desiring to walk through inner healing. http://store.ihop.org/store/product/9138/Pure-Heart%3A-Restoration-of-the-Heart-through-the-Beatitudes/
the life of Jesus the Messiah. I don't know the man Jesus & I need to... taking a class through IHOP... it's called The Life of Christ in the Gospels by Stephen Venable (one of my favorite teachers from Kansas City). I'm sure this class will spark many blog posts from me in the near future... so stay tuned!

If you would like to read more about this class or even take it yourself, go to this website: http://eschool.ihop.org/catalog.php?item=68

well, that about sums up my life as of late... This turned out to be much longer than I expected... sorry to blab!

Hopefully I'll start writing more often again!

kK

one of my favorite things.

Being a parent, one of my favorite things is finding a video of the ladies that Josh has made without me knowing it. Today, I was taking a video of Emayah & wanted to upload it & found this PRECIOUS video of Josh going in to the ladies room to get them up for the day.

Here it is!!




seriously... is that not the CUTEST video EVER!! there is something so special about a daddy with his daughters.... speaking of which, I just HAVE to post another one...

This is Josh playing a game with Olivet... every time she giggles, she hits her face on her little piano! If you listen closely, you can hear it "ding"!!!




okay.. I'll post ONE more... this is today of Emayah... she always is pumping her arms like this lately. It cracks me up!



well... that's enough of the ladies today! Hope you LOOOOOVED it!

leave some comments!

kK