Oh the Bliss!

12The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ... 18But in fact God has arranged the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. 19If they were all one part, where would the body be? 20As it is, there are many parts, but one body. 21The eye cannot say to the hand, "I don't need you!" And the head cannot say to the feet, "I don't need you!"... 25so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. 26If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it. Today I saw the body of Christ played out among a group of women. It was as if these verses from 1 Corinthians 12 were being acted out right in front of me. I was amazed. I don't think, in all my church going experience, I have ever seen a more clear portrayal of Christ's intentions for thos

Got to love this picture of my sleepy boys. So cute! Wednesday night I went to dinner with 4 other girls who are all married to Newport Cops. We also all (minus one) live within 2 miles of each other! I have only known two of the girls for a short time, and the other two were new to me. We sat and talked for hours. Talking about how we met our husbands, how our pregnancies and deliveries were with our respective children and just having quality time with each other. I had to laugh and tell the other girls about my mom-in-law who met, and still meets, with a group of LAPD wives every other month for 27+ years!! They've been through thick and thin together. They go to weddings and funerals and baby showers and GRANDbaby showers. They've become such a close group of women, it's fun to see them together - there is such a strong feeling of history when they're all in the same room talking and laughing with one another. I looked around at the girls sitting at the table the ot

Happy Birthday to my very first nephew Michael Thomas Abbott!! He is 3 today! Oh my, where does the time go? I got to talk with him and wish him a happy birthday. He told me all about his friends that came over to celebrate with him. Michael has some really great friends, I met them while I was out there. I miss that little guy, but I'm so happy he had a great birthday. Today I am thankful for... 1. Michael being born three years ago and what a fun, sweet, adventurous boy he is. 2. trying out a new recipe for fish. That's right, I cooked fish tonight, and it was good. :) 3. running into an old friend from our old church at Trader Joe's!! Cami and I lost touch when we moved to HB, I lost all my info on her (maybe you remember the Great Computer Crash of '05?) and now we live just a few miles away from her! So exciting because she and her husband have a little girl just 4 months older than Ben. I see playdates in our future. :) 4. Mark's retro paycheck he received tod

Today my very special friend Ali Dimitri is here with me to share the 10 things she is thankful for today. So, in no particular order.... 1. Anthony!! (her hubby.) :) 2. my family 3. Ben (#3 on the list, that's not too bad.) :) 4. friends 5. my animals... Queenie, Serj, Einstein, Kumo and Nollie (four dogs, one cat and two chickens...they don't have names.) 6. my health and Anthony's health 7. my finches. (they're not really hers. She likes to think that they are, but really they're just out and about and come to her house everyday. She feeds them, so they're kind of hers, I guess.) 8. good pizza. (I'm telling you, the place down the street is so good! Come and find out for yourselves.) 9. pictures... of Ben (she said that, but really Ali loves all pictures and she takes really good ones too.) 10. no traffic on the way home. (to Chatsworth, since they're leaving past 11pm, I think they're good.) That's it!! Thank you Ali!!! Today I'm thankful

I Love Sundays!!!! (Not just the ice-cream kind.) Today I am so thankful for... 1. a really interesting message today at church based on The Da Vinci Code, everyone should hear our pastors response to one of the biggest slaps in the face- punch in the gut conspiracies ever thought of. 2. Ben's great attitude today. It's probably because Mark was with him all day, so that was a nice change of pace from Ben always being with me. 3. Papa Paul, Gma coming for the day!! Along with them came Christina and Matt, two great kids who are family friends. 4. the great Matt's sweet way with Ben and his little sister. 5. our little jaunt to Lake Mission Viejo, just 2 miles up the road. We played on the play-ground and walked around. It was beautiful! I think we're going to love having that lake so close, especially in the summer. 6. the GREAT dinner Paul and Tina fixed for us. They brought everything and cooked it all and we got to sit back and enjoy their company and the company of

(He's got some big shoes to fill.) Micah 6:8 "He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of You? To act justly, to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God." This is the final verse of the 7 verses that have become cornerstones of my faith. What a journey! And to think, the vast majority of this growth has taken place over the past 5 or 6 years! It's as if I went through a 7 step program: 1. Romans 1:21-23 - Admittance 2. John14:6 - Finding The Way 3. Romans 5:8 - Letting go of Guilt 4. Romans 12:2 - Reformation 5. John 14:27 - (Real)Peace 6. Psalm 37:3-4 - Action 7. Micah 6:8 - My Calling I have mentioned before that my interest and heartbeat for the poorer people of inner cities was fashioned in me at a young age. One of the benefits of attending a large church was all the resources it provided. All the areas of serving it opened up. And for me, the monthly weekend trips to inner-city LA molded my perspective of how Jesus would be

For those of you who faithfully keep checking day in and day out to see if a new post is here... wait just a little longer. I know the final installment in the 7 verses of Sarah is way over due, but so is my DVD from blockbuster, and I'm not worried about it. It's coming, I promise. In the meantime, here are some pictures! (I knew that'd smooth things over.)

Psalm 37:4 "Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart." The footnotes of my bible say this: "To delight in someone means to experience great pleasure and joy in his or her presence. This happens only when we know that person well. Thus, to delight in the Lord, we must know him better. Knowledge of God's great love for us will indeed give us delight." I think that you can easily find a recurring theme among all of my verses: Joy comes from the Lord. I love this verse because it reminds me, once again, that finding joy in the Lord opens up the gates of his blessings for me. This verse encourages me to read the Bible so that I can know Him well. It also puts a quick end to my prideful thinking that I don't need to go to church, that I'm just fine with having my closest friends me non-believers and that finding pleasure in this world is wrong and meaningless whether or not anybody knows or seemingly cares. It's a happy v

John 14:27 "Peace I leave with you; my peace I give unto you. Not as the world gives, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, nor let it be afraid." This verse was written on my heart at a very young age. One of my best memories of my mom is the many times she would comfort me if I had a nightmare by reading this verse to me. Many times she would quote it if I was afraid while my dad was out of town. It was "her" verse, and it quickly became mine too. If I look at the patterns of my life it is easy to see the times that I felt the most alone were the times I was trusting the world for security, acceptance and peace. Though this verse is embedded in me, somehow I would slip back into the comfortable "patterns of this world" and forget that the peace that Christ offers is not what the world offers. His peace is not granted because of popularity or prosperity. It's freely given because I am His child. By this point in my life the enemy was well a

Romans 12:2 "Do not conform any longer to the patterns of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is - his good, pleasing and perfect will." Verse #4 is a powerful verse, is it not? For one who is wondering what God wants from them, what His will is, this verse has the ability to completely change a person. And fortunately that person was me! I had a lot of worldly things to no longer conform to. It was difficult to remove myself from those "patterns". They were comfortable and safe. The people I was spending the majority of my time with were not "bad" people. In fact, they were extremely intelligent, passionate and fun, whoa- were they fun! But they were 100% "of this world". When I met Mark I was living in a house with three other girls and we had a blast. But I saw the difference between them and the girls I had grown up going to church with. My house-mates were

(On a side note: did anyone realize that a historical moment in time was made yesterday? Something that will only happen again in 1,000 years. Yesterday for one second the date and time was 01:02:03 04/05/06. Learn something new everyday, don't cha?) Romans 5:8 "God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners. Christ died for us." This is the third verse that opened up a new life in Christ for me. After being hit head on with the fact that I was living a classic "Sunday morning Christian" lifestyle, the guilt set in. I was too ashamed and embarrassed to approach God. I didn't feel worthy of His forgiveness. Have you ever had a best friend, one that you told everything to and they knew you better than anyone else? Then you start to do something you know they wouldn't approve of and the friendship slowly deteriorates. You don't want to call them or see them because you don't want to feel guilty about the choices you've

John 14:6 "Jesus answered, 'I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.'" Verse #2 in my story is one I'm sure every believer has heard, probably even memorized at some point. I know I had it heard it countless number of times, I even knew a catchy tune to sing it to. But after being hit head on with the fact that I was proclaiming God with my mouth, but denying him by my lifestyle, I had some decisions to make. The first one being whether or not I was going to really be a Christian, by definition -a follower of Christ. Which lead me to the question of why Christ? I knew God, knew He exists, controls, creates, and loves, couldn't I just follow Him? Then I read John 14:6 and one of the greatest truths of the bible finally became real to me; to follow God is to follow Christ. And there is no way to even come to God except through coming to Christ. An elementary concept for the vast majority of Christians, but it was a

Romans 1:21-22 ~ " For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools." I was reminded by sweet Heather Russell that I had mentioned sharing the key verses which have had the greatest impact on me during my walk with Christ. There are about 6 or 7. They pretty much tell "my story"; where and when and why. So this will begin a 7 day look at the 7 seven verses that I'm convinced God had written in the bible just for me. Who knows, maybe they were written for you to? :) I got to a point after high school (got to love that time of life, don't you?) when I just didn't care too much about church, the community within church and pretty much anyone claiming to be a "Christian". I had seen my share of hypocrites (at this time I didn't recognize the fact that essentially we're all hypocri

One of the best parts of moving is the ready-to-play boxes that just scream "turn me into a fort!" So, we did, and for the last four days Ben (and Mark) have had a grand time crawling in and out of "the fort" and acting the way regular little boys should act. I love it! I want to write about something I learned today. I'm feeling chatty, so this might be long, feel free to skip it. Anyway... Today I learned why my church has a gourmet cafe in it's lobby. For months now I've chalked it up to the fact that it's because my church truly caters to the rich. A coffee cart doesn't do Mariners justice, we need an entire Starbucks. (I'm not kidding.) I figured, hey, when in Rome... right? But I found out tonight the truth behind the cafe, why it's truly there: people eat. Not just Christian people, people people. We got to eat. And whether you're a regular at the church or just driving by, it's a place to simply fill a stomach. Which leads