Snow Day Adventure!

Proverbs - Who Knew?!

Our pastor will be preaching a sermon this Sunday on the book of Proverbs. I decided, therefore, to read 6 chapters a day (mon-fri) to cover it all this week, adding on the 31st chapter to either Friday or Saturday, in preparation for Sunday morning. Today I began my reading with chapter 1 (obviously) - My point in stating that is that the title of chapter 1, according to my NIV Bible is, "Prologue: Purpose and Theme."
With that in mind, the next few verses were extra enlightening as I read them - as if for the first time - as an outline for the rest of the book. As I type this out it seems a little like, "duh, Sarah," but I really never noticed it before, so I decided to blog about it. Based of the first six verses here is the "Purpose and Theme" of the book according to Solomon:

1. attaining wisdom and discipline
2. understand words of insight
3. acquiring a disciplined and prudent life
4. doing what is right and just and fair
5. giving prudence to the simple - knowledge and discretion to the young
6. let the wise listen and add to their learning
7. let the discerning get guidance

And he concludes the section with verse 7 - "The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and discipline." I'm no scholar, but from the little reading of Proverbs I have done, this seems to be the "theme" part that the NIV title was alluding to.

I don't want to be a fool. And as I read those seven little points in my list I just realize what a treasure the book of Proverbs is. We wonder and wander at life and through life - why not pay attention to the book of Proverbs for a change?!

One more thing, this wisdom, understanding, and knowledge that we are admonished to obtain is also what Solomon describes as the Lord's tools at the beginning of time,

"By wisdom the Lord laid the earth's foundations, by understanding he set the heavens in place; by his knowledge the deeps were divided, and the clouds let drop the dew." (3:19-20)

I have to say that I don't know what all of the implications of that are, but it's highly intriguing to me to be in pursuit of the very things present with the Lord God as He created.

MERCY HAS COME!

The newest edition to the Goodrich home: Mercy Kathleen Goodrich.
Kimberly and Jordan are officially a family as of January 14, 2009! Congratulations you guys!
We've been waiting and waiting for little Mercy to come - she was due the 31st of December! After weeks of patience and 2 hours of torturous labor, she finally decided to come into this world weighing in at an even 7 LBs and measuring 19 inches. Way to go Momma!
She has many aunts and uncles waiting to love on her - some are in Kentucky, Kansas and Florida, while others are away at school, and yet others, like myself, are not biologically even related, but will most definitely love her as if they were.



Even though they moved to KY after college, Peter and I have maintained a great relationship with Kimberly and Jordan since our early years at College of the Ozarks. The Lord has blessed us with a beautiful friendship.


Peter and Jordan have loved hiking and camping together as well as mulling over and over maps. They're both pretty stubborn but have sharpened each other because of it.



Kimberly and I have have been blessed with a relationship that can been quite silly sometimes, quoting particular movie lines over and over, yet so much of my spiritual growth in college happened with her and I just discussing and questioning all sorts of things, going back and forth.

(We're also secretly trying to work out an arranged marriage between at least one of each of our children...)

(at our wedding)



Kim & Jordan,
We sure do love you guys and are exceedingly happy for you and your new addition! She's beautiful! You will be wonderful parents!

Our prayer for Mercy is that she would grow up to experience her name as well as it's counterpart, grace; that she would know how deeply she is loved by those around her and more importantly by her heavenly Father. May she see her heritage of goodness, generosity, and godliness, and walk in its way.
Mercy Kathleen, "The LORD bless you, and keep you; The LORD make His face shine on you, And be gracious to you; The LORD lift up His countenance on you, And give you peace" (Numbers 6:24-26).

FIRST ENTRY of 2009

DECEMBER UPDATE:


We had a wonderful Christmas - short, but wonderful nonetheless. It was a Maddox Christmas this year, and so on Christmas Eve we drove down to Hardy and spent the day with Peter's family. On Christmas we opened gifts and ate a fabulous meal that Liane made for us - thanks Liane! Our oldest nephew, Gabe, will be three at the end of January and so Christmas morning was a lot of fun watching him open all his gifts! I would ask him, "Gabe, what is that? What did you get?" and regardless of what the toy actually was, he would reply with great certainty, "It's Gabe's!" Gabe's baby brother also recieved a lot of fun gifts for Christmas; sweet baby Sam is always a joy to be around, and even thought he didn't really know what was going on, he had fun with the rest of us and even helped to open some of his presents.



The Sunday before Christmas we had our Scowden Christmas. (Sadly, I only got one picture) Here it is: Jacob got a shirt!

We went to church, came home, ate Dad's traditional sausage gravy and biscuits, and then exchanged gifts. It was a good day. Mom and Dad bought us a dresser, and since then Peter and I have been working on staining it...it's been an interesting project, and I've decided that maybe it was a little bit too big of a project for my first attempt at staining because I feel as though I never want to stain another piece of wood again! I am glad about the dresser, though, and it has been a fun leaning process.

Also, in December Peter and I became Travel Agents. We have our own website - coldcreektravel.com - and anyone can book travel through us - flights, hotels, cruises, rental cars, the works... We have the same deals as Travelocity and those others, the only difference is that when you book through our website we earn commission off of whatever you book. I've posted a link to the website here on our blog on the right-hand side.


JANUARY 2009:
We are both continuing to work. Peter has been transferred to Willard which is only 15 minutes away from our house instead of the 45+ he has been driving for the past couple of months. I think it will be a good change and save on wear and tear on the car, plus Peter can be home a little more.
Our lease on our apartment ends in April, and we aren't sure what that will mean for us exactly, but we'll probably stay in Springfield...who knows...so much could happen in those next 3 1/2 months.
We continue to love being married and love being with each other (married for 1 year, 5 months and together for 3 years, 8 months). We feel very blessed to have each other.

From the Maddoxes:

MERRY CHRISTMAS!



We would like to wish all of our friends and family a very merry Christmas and a memorable New Year, too! You are a blessing to us and we are constantly thankful for you!

Another Year...

On Tuesday, November 25th, I turned 23. It seems that the older you get the less birthdays are a big deal, and therefore you barely remember turning another year older. That's how I feel about 22 - it wasn't really a big deal, and now I can't believe that I'm 23 already. ...halfway to 46! :-)

My birthday was wonderful...
Shopping, new clothes, good food, new hair-do, games & coffee with friends, roses from my husband...lots of fun!

THANK YOU TO EVERYONE WHO MADE
MY BIRTHDAY SUCH A SPECIAL DAY!

Tears at the Thanksgiving Table

We had a Missouri Thanksgiving this year at my parents', and as I had anticipated my mom had some questions for us at the dinner table. A lot of times, and at Thanksgiving in particular, my mom likes to ask us questions, like "what are you thankful for?" or "how has God been good to you this year?" This year she said she had two questions. The first was the classic, "what is the first thing that pops into your head that you are thankful for?" We all went around and answered successfully with barely our second bites taken. The second question was preluded with the story of a faithful missionary who suffered much in the mission field, even being raped, and the Lord asked her to search her heart for what she was thankful for that she did not yet understand His purpose behind. My mom proposed this question to us. While each of my family took their turn, my mind was searching: the last year has been hard but I have no misunderstandings with the Lord about it; He has brought me to a place of contentment about it. What would my answer be? Nothing? I could think of nothing for a little bit. Then I remembered a time recently when I had thought "It doesn't seem fair, Lord." I couldn't place the exact event immediately, but then it came to me and my eyes welled up (as they are now), and I wondered how I would ever verbalize what I was thinking of.
After Peter, Jacob, and my parents each took their turn, it was my turn, and I attempted to get it out, but couldn't. As my mom said, "The women in this family (consisting of herself and me) do not have the ability to talk and cry at the same time. Some women can do it; we can't." Eventually I mustered enough calmness to verbalize what had caused me to question the Lord about "fair": Grandaddy and Grama.
Quickly the family was silent, and all of my floodgates were open.
For those of you unaware, Peter's grandparents were in an awful car accident about two months ago. Grama went to be with Jesus, while Gradaddy's life has been given a little more time on this earth. I am thankful that Grama is with Jesus, I would never wish that away from her. And, I am thankful that Grandaddy is still here with us; he is such an honorable, sweet man. It is just so difficult to reconcile the two apart. I know the Lord is in control of all things. That truth will never change in my mind, but I am still yet to understand the purpose behind parting two people who had lived so well, worked so hard, and loved so beautifully. I am thankful that the Lord loves me even though I can't understand.
There will probably always be something in life that just doesn't quite sit right, but the point is that there is also always something to be thankful for. It's what Thanksgiving is all about.
Practicing thankfulness is practicing what we believe about God: The HE is the giver of all. My grandfather used to end his prayers saying, "all that we have and all that we are comes from You." With each meal there was that reminder of who we are and more importantly, who God is. When we have a right attitude about the Lord, we'll get even closer to a right attitude about our circumstances.