Day of Thankfulness: Week 3

This week I am thankful for friends. For a long time I prayed (and yes, probably did a little complaining) for friends that would be a blessing and an encouragement to me. I have recently realized that although God did not answer my prayer how I thought He would, He truly has blessed me with wonderful friends - better than I could ever ask for!

I love you all!
Marie

Stepping Out

I'm really excited about how God has been leading me recently, so I wanted to share it with you all! God has been working in me and leading me, which has brought about a change in my plans - surprise right? Through different circumstances, I've been feeling that God has been leading me to get involved in the ministry of Biblical Counseling - specifically ministering to girls and young women.

For awhile I've thought about volunteering at my local crisis pregnancy center. And because God has been leading me to get involved in counseling, I figured that would be somewhere I would be able to get some more experience. So, several weeks ago I submitted  a volunteer application; with the prayer that if volunteering there was the Lord's will, that He would open the door for me. Several weeks went by without hearing anything - until two days ago.

Basically, I was told, that once my references get their paperwork in, I will have an interview scheduled. If the interview goes well, then I can begin training in January.

While I have met with some challenges, it has been a huge blessing that I have received much encouragement as I follow God's leading. I am excited about how God has been leading me, but I also feel like He is stretching me. While they may be baby-steps, I feel like I am beginning to step out of my "comfort zone" and follow Christ.

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Please keep me in your prayers as I continue to follow Christ's leading!

Blessings!
Marie

Day of Thankfulness: Week 2

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This week I'm thankful that God has given me the ability to study and learn, and I'm also thankful for random breaks! :) I'm not really sure why, but for some reason this past week I had a whole week long break. But hey! I'm not going to complain about getting a break! I was able to spend time with my sisters, and sister-in-law who was visiting, without having to worry about assignments needing to be done.

Day of Thankfulness: Week 1

I have been so blessed and most assuredly have many things to be thankful for! While I know that this is definitely not the only time of year we should be thankful: this month I'm going to try and post something I'm especially thankful for, at least once a week.

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This week, I'm thankful that God gave us seasons, and that there is something special about each one! 

The peak of this fall is past, but there's no better way to end your summer then with the vibrant colors of a Midwestern fall! There is a big maple tree outside my window, so each morning I get to wake up to it's fall beauty. 

                        

                  

                       "Give thanks, with a grateful heart.Give thanks to the Holy one."

Message for Christians

I found the message of this video to be very challenging and convicting. I was convicted to be thinking/acting more seriously about some of the things I say, watch, do, etc. Please watch and allow God to move and work in your life.  

Road-Trip Part 2

I promised to post more pictures from our trip, so here they finally are.

Almost every day there was a rain shower in Yellowstone. It got dreary sometimes, but it produced a pretty rainbow! :)

Saw lots of these guys in Yellowstone! This is one of my favorite pictures my sister got of them.

The Grand Canyon of Yellowstone. So magnificent!  

Sisters! :)

Old Faithful Geyser Basin. 

The Grand Canyon!

 It was so amazing to stand there and see the beauty and greatness of God's creation!

We spent a day and hiked down the Canyon on the north rim. They don't suggest hiking all the way to the Colorado river and back in one day, so we didn't make it all the way to the bottom, but we did a good 

4-hour hike (which was suppose to take 6hrs).

One other thing that was really awesome on the trip was the stars! It's amazing how many more stars you can see, and how bright they were! It was fun taking the start chart out and finding the different constellations.  Seeing the beauty of the stars always makes me want to breakout in a song of worship to our Great Creator! "The Heavens declare the glory of God".

Road Trip!

The last two and a half weeks I spent on a road trip vacation with my family (that's why this blog has been neglected). I will share a picture journey of our trip.

Trailing our camper, we headed first for Mount Rushmore, going as far northern Iowa the first day.

The first night we camped by a pretty lake in Lewis and Clark State Park, Northern Iowa. We awoke early, picked up camp and continued on to the Black Hills, South Dakota.

We saw a lot of this on the way!

Beautiful night sky in the Black Hills.

Mount Rushmore! 

We went to Mount Rushmore in the morning, then in the evening they had a special program, so we went back that same night. And I think we were all glad we did! The program was great, but at the end they had all of the service men and women go to the stage so we could all honor them, and there were four WWII veterans. That was pretty neat in its self, but comes to find out, one one the veterans is from Dayton, Ohio and not only that, he has bought berries from us at the farmer's market we go too!


From the Black Hills we hit the road for Yellowstone!

Of course everyone that visits Yellowstone has to stop and see Old Faithful. 

We had the special opportunity to see Giantess erupting, which only erupts 2-6 times a year! Giantess is twice the size of Old Faithful.

Since this post is getting long, I will do a part 2 and share some more of the pictures from the amazing places we got to visit.

Most of the pictures were taken by my awesome photographer sister Hannah. Check out her blog HannahRose Photography .

Cheers!