Fall???

Let's hope it's starting to arrive! Goodness, today was only in the 70's! It was BEAUTIFUL. Perfect flip flop/sweatshirt weather. My FAVORITE time of year. I hope it stays this way. Sure will make running anytime of the day a lot more doable. Well, how was your weekend? Mine was pretty good, quick! I'm soooo glad Justin is working his last night of 7 tonight! He will have the next 2 days off. Even though he will get off at 7am tomorrow and sleep probably most of the day and then has the fire meeting tomorrow night and that's usually a few hours, so probably won't get to see him still much tomorrow. BUT! I am excited he's done with the 7 in a row! :) I know he is too.

Well, he got home from work this morning and he made me breakfast in bed! It was yummy and so sweet of him. I was sound asleep and he came and told me that breakfast was ready. :) It was nice! After we ate, G was up for a little while, then she went back to sleep with Justin and I got ready for church. He kept her today so I went to church by myself for the first time! It was good. Pastor Joel was a little more serious than usual, but the message was still really good. After church, I got G dressed and we went and hung out at Tara's house for a few hours. I haven't seen her for a couple of weeks and she only lives 1.5 blocks away! She just started working at the school so she's been busy. Then we came home and hung out til Justin went to work. After he left, G and I went on a walk. We walked 3.7 miles. It was so nice and cool! She got all snuggled in and took a nap for most of it. We stopped at my in-laws and my SIL & BIL were there. :) Hung out for a bit and then we walked home. It felt great to be out. So after that we came home and I gave G a bath and put her to bed and sat down to blog. Pretty exciting day huh?? :)

There's been a few things on my mind lately and I guess I'll discuss them but I'll be pretty broad. Today's message in church was "Don't ACT like a Christian, BE a Christian." Joel went on to talk about how the top 3 things we should be passionate about in our lives were 1. God 2. Other people 3. The lost. This really hit home for me. For those of you who don't know, Justin claims to be an atheist. I say claims because I don't think that's what he actually is, I think he just isn't sure what he believes so it's easier to just say that. But who knows. He's had a LOT of bad experiences with "christians" (people who talk the talk but don't walk the walk) and some other issues and it's just left a bad taste in his mouth so he doesn't have anything positive to say about Christians or church or religion. In fact, a lot of times we don't talk about it because we have such differing opinions. He also has a tendency (blame debate in HS! haha!) to try to push his opinions on people, he has a hard time accepting that we just agree to disagree! :) So needless to say it doesn't get discussed much. He had me watch this video today. Him and his cousin (who is also his boss) watched it and several others at work last night I guess.... It just made me sad... I dunno, it's not that I want him to believe what I believe because I believe it. But, I'm not gonna lie, it breaks my heart that he doesn't believe in anything at all having to do with God. He thinks it's all just "stuff made up to make people feel better". He believes that nothing happens when you die, there is no heaven or hell, therefore there's no "consequences/rewards" for being a good/bad person. He believes that hell is made up to "scare" people into doing the right thing, and so many other things I won't get into. So, with Joel's sermon today, it just really hit home with the third one. The lost. Like I said, the last thing I want to do is try to push my beliefs on him. I just tell him what I believe and I respect what he believes. I don't like it, I don't believe what he does, but I respect that it's his choice. The thing I hate the most is he's just had so many bad experiences with people who claim to be christians, that he lumps them all (with few exceptions) into one category. I hate that he never got a chance with a "clean slate" to see what having faith, believing in God is REALLY about. I dunno. I suppose I'd have to get into more detail for it to really make sense to anyone other than the few close people who have discussed it with him before. But there's just no changing his mind, not even OPENING his mind.... *sigh* It makes me sad, but it's not like I didn't know what I was getting myself into. I just get emotional thinking about it. I guess I just can't imagine not having faith. Not believing in God. Not believing that we have SO much to look forward to after this life. Not believing that our mother's are watching us everyday. So I guess the short of it is, if you are reading this and you are the praying type, say a little prayer that maybe someday he'll at least be open to the idea of hearing other ideas/beliefs about things, instead of thinking it's just ridiculous. I'm not asking you to pray that he is saved, to pray that he finds Jesus.... just simply that, that maybe someday he'll at least open his mind up to other possibilities and THEN make an informed decision about what he chooses to believe. I dunno.... maybe this all sounds crazy or doesn't make sense.

Anyway, now that I'm all emotional again I guess I'll sign off for the evening. I hope you all had a great weekend. Happy Labor Day tomorrow! Enjoy your day off (if you are lucky!) :)
1. I'm thankful for God's love & grace, every single day, even days I don't deserve it.
2. I'm thankful for the BEAUTIFUL weather we got today.
3. I am excited that even though I haven't lost any more (yes, I weighed today) I still weigh the same! Down 59lbs! It's "judgement week!" I have 'til Friday to have these last 2 lbs gone! Wish me luck! :)
Love