We Needed That

Fantastic weekend. Lately, weekends have consisted of either me working Friday/Saturday nights, Ben getting ready for trial, Ben going out of town, or all three of us going out of town to visit family. We did NONE of that this weekend...and it was great!!! We didn't even work on a home improvement project (and for those of you who REALLY know us know that that is how we spend almost all of our free time).

Friday night we went to dinner and Grant ate the food right off of my plate for the first time. Saturday morning we picked strawberries with some of our best friends and their kiddos. Ben thoroughly enjoyed eating them while he was picking them. Grant and I went back home from the orchard and he "napped" (some post on his lack of napping later) while Ben was an honorary coach at the MSU spring football game. We caught the end of the game and enjoyed the awesome breeze. Then dropped Grant off with the Durans and we went to the beautiful wedding of Kyle Lessor & Paige Pendley. Kyle and Ben work together in the DA's office. SO nice to get out...childless. I wore a bright yellow spring dress with a blue necklace and blue, white, and yellow striped peep-toe heels with a flower on the side. Not that you care at all...but I felt like kinda cute...and normally I'm either in pajamas, work-out clothes, or scrubs, so this was a really nice change. After the wedding, we picked up Grant from Aaron & Erin's house and as we were leaving, we heard an accident down the road. We all hoped in the car and came up on the scene of a car/motorcycle accident. Naturally, my adrenaline gets going, I pull off my super-cute heels and run across the road to help the motorcyclist laying on the median. Pretty sure he's going to be okay...just some abrasions and a busted-up knee. He WASN'T wearing a helmet though. He said he didn't hit his head...but just a side note to all of you motorcyclists...PLEASE wear a helmet :) This guy is lucky to be alive.

It took me a while to go to sleep because I was replaying the scene in my mind and playing the "what if" game, trying to brush up on my trauma nursing skills from back in the school days. We made it up early though, on Sunday and listened to two FANTASTIC speakers at Grace Church from Probe Ministries in Dallas speak about "Cultural Captivity." Basically, how our culture has affected the Church, our ways of thinking, our relationships, etc. It was awesome. Check out their website at www.probe.org.

One of the many things they touched on was the issue of transparency. Research shows that the top two prayer requests are about financial situations (i.e. I lost my job, we need to sell our house) and health (so-and-so's grandma is sick). Totally valid requests and God absolutely cares and wants to hear about those things. However...they are socially acceptable to share with others. The typical prayer request doesn't include "my marriage is struggling, I don't feel like Jesus could ever love me, I'm totally embarrassed about the mounds of debt I have, etc." So, so true. Good stuff. I'm a huge believer in transparency, being honest, sharing where you're really at, and loving people where they're really at. I'm challenging myself this week to practice transparency even more...so I'm challenging you to do it, too.

After church, we ate some DELICIOUS hamburgers, asparagus, and yes...homemade strawberry pie made out of handpicked strawberries made by the fabulous Erin Duran. Grant "napped" that afternoon (again, more on this later :) while Ben rode his bike, went back to hear the speakers finish up last night, ate dinner with a group of friends afterwards, came home, payed bills, and watched some much-needed rain fall.

Yes...it was a great weekend. And other than pay bills, we didn't do one single project or check anything off our to-do list. Just hung out, loved each other, loved our friends, and learned to love people a little better right where we're all at. We needed that.

Happy Monday.