"RESURRECTION, ASCENSION, JESUS CHRIST"

seriously, last night/this morning were some of the coolest times ever. now i'm sure you're sitting in your big, cushy chair wondering to yourself, "hmm, what on earth could you possibly talking about bre?" well i'll tell ya kids. it was the MSSR. for those of you who do not go to the vineyard, that would be the middle school sexuality retreat. yep, you could take that as a really awkward sign and leave now, OR you could stay and let me finish my rant before you decide that i'm an indecently deranged girl.

i was given the opportunity to be the leader for a group of sixth grade girls that i lead a small group for every sunday. and let me tell ya, they are probably the most amusing people to observe. especially when it came to this retreat. during the very first talk, we were all instructed to scream the word "SEX" in order to, ya know, clear the tension in the air. when the speaker told us to do that, i turned to see the reactions of my girls, and you seriously would have thought they witness a little puppy dog get shot. they looked absolutely horrified. thankfully, they regained composure when we broke up into groups and we actually had some really good conversations. on a side note, i legit love them all to death. they are so so sweet, and they remind me of back when i was their age. which makes me work twice as hard to love them and teach them through God's word, because i want them to have healthy lives and intimate relationships with our Lord. that being said, i'm so proud of how attentive and ready to learn they were last night.

"Don't excite love, don't stir it up, until the time is ripe—and you're ready." song of songs 2:7 -- man, oh man do i love this verse. it was actually the key verse for the whole retreat. God made us each with a beautiful plan in mind, a plan to prosper us and to give us hope for the future. it isn't our job to go searching for love, but to let Him bring love to us. and when we really care about someone special, use the love He's put in your heart to pour into that persons life to build them up. i try my hardest to do that with my darling, and let me tell you, i have a good feeling that it's working well. because together, we are falling more passionate in love with Jesus.

threw our shoes into the ocean

wow, blog number ONE. what an exciting moment in the life of me. i'll be able to sit back when i'm like, 65, and tell my grandkids the story of my first blog. just kidding, that would be boring, and i'll have more intriguing stories to tell.. i hope. i was actually driving home today and spent a good 80% of the drive thinking about blogging, and how maybe one day, if i have 972739 blog posts, i could compile them all into a book titled.. well, i'll get back to you on that. p.s. i really gotta give credit to jenna lucado for the blog/site/thing title, it's actually a book my friend, abby, recommended that i'm about to dive into. she was also my inspiration for starting this whole shebang. and although my writing skills will never equate to those of her, i'm still pretty stoked about this deal.

i've come to the conclusion that, given proper food provisions and living conditions, i could easily make my home in a bookstore, i mean, i spent a whole hour today sitting in one aisle just going through books. PLUS, the majority of them have a cute little coffee shop, badabing! what a win. and for exercise, i could just run through the aisles like it was a maze. or i could even aim for living in a two story bookstore, and do massive stair climbers on the elevator. DISTRACTION - my brother is watching toy story 3 in the living room, and i'm sitting at the kitchen table on the laptop. i get four, maybe five words typed and then watch the movie for two minutes. all the toys just fell into the trash compacter because the evil teddy bear didn't save them, but not to fear! squeaky alien toys to the rescue! okay, back to blogging (: i really did have a point behind this whole book store thing. the influence books have over people is pretty extraordinary. i mean, how many people do you know that could convice you in one sitting to fall passionately in love with a fictional vampire, or decide to go out and lose 30 pounds and go on a diet. of course, i'm not disregarding those rock star speakers that you can listen to and have your life turned around, i'm just saying. but really, books have quite a significant influence over people. when i was in books-a-million, i'd say there were easily a good several thousand books in the whole store. and you know what book had the most copies? that's right kids, the bible, ya know, that wicked awesome book that was COMPLETELY God inspired that He wrote to us? there was an entire aisle dedicated to all the variations of the bible, it was crazy. and it just made me think, how different would the world be if people took the time to sit down and explore that book? not just skim the pages, but legitimately dive into the pages like it's the greatest adventure you'll ever go on. if you think some of those crazy books out there can change your life, you really have no idea what life changing is until you read God's Word.