Colossians 3

During my recent week of teching at Camp Barakel (teching is volunteering for the week and working and having a blast :]), we memorized Colossians 3:1-4. Memorizing scripture is not one of my strong points, and having the daily encouragement and accountability of the other techs was a great help to me. Anyway, I recently realized that since my AWANA years, I have slacked off in the memorizing department and have decided to get back on the bandwagon. My first chapter was Psalm 91, and I've decided to follow it with Colossians 3. When I memorize Scripture, I like to read it in several different versions of the Bible, to try to begin to understand the full meaning of the words. Now, I'm obviously not a Bible scholar, but I find a lot of clarification in reading from versions other than my good old NIV. One of my favorites is KJV, which I think masterfully captures the original text. I was reading Colossians 3 in KJV, and I came across verse 2. In my NIV, it says "Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things." For some reason, I was able to just breeze over this in my NIV memorizing, but when I read it in KJV, it really captured my attention. It says, "Set your affections on things above, not on things on the earth." The word "affections" really grabbed me- it made me realize that not only are we to think of things of God and dwell only on things that are pleasing to Him, we are also to love the things of Him, not the things of this world.

Here's the whole passage, so you can  read it for yourselves:

Colossians 3

 ¹If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God.
 ²Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.
 ³For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.
 ⁴When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory.
 ⁵Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry:
 ⁶For which things' sake the wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience:
 ⁷In the which ye also walked some time, when ye lived in them.
 ⁸But now ye also put off all these; anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth.
 ⁹Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds;
 ¹⁰And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him:
 ¹¹Where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free: but Christ is all, and in all.
 ¹²Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering;
 ¹³Forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any: even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye.
 ¹⁴And above all these things put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness.
 ¹⁵And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also ye are called in one body; and be ye thankful.
 ¹⁶Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.
 ¹⁷And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him.
 ¹⁸Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as it is fit in the Lord.
 ¹⁹Husbands, love your wives, and be not bitter against them.
 ²⁰Children, obey your parents in all things: for this is well pleasing unto the Lord.
 ²¹Fathers, provoke not your children to anger, lest they be discouraged.
 ²²Servants, obey in all things your masters according to the flesh; not with eyeservice, as menpleasers; but in singleness of heart, fearing God;
 ²³And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men;
 ²⁴Knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of the inheritance: for ye serve the Lord Christ.
 ²⁵But he that doeth wrong shall receive for the wrong which he hath done: and there is no respect of persons.

beach days :]

Yesterday I went to the beach with our youth group. On the way up, we stopped at Michigan's biggest indoor flea market (I'm not really sure why!). It was an interesting experience...at first glance, most of it seemed like junk, but they actually had some pretty cool records and furniture! It was a perfect day for the beach - the sun was shining, it was hot, and there wasn't a cloud in the sky. In fact, it was so hot that some of the people in our group got blisters on the bottom of their feet from standing on the hot sand! We played beach volleyball, ate pizza at this really cool restaurant that overlooked the water, and pretty much just had a wonderful time. Anyway, it was a great day and I can't wait to do it again :]

part of our group

Summer and me on the pier

Sailboat from the pier

puppies again?

well hey everyone :]

today was an eventful day. About 2 weeks ago, as I before mentioned, Goldie had puppies. 11 of them. And, thankfully, all 11 are still alive and kicking, but we now have to bottle feed them. If you've never had the chance to bottle feed 2 week old puppies, let me tell you: it's a long and painful process. Long because...they eat slowly! And they often can't tell what they're doing! And painful because, well, puppies have claws. Sharp claws which dig into your arms. I just finished this long task (it takes about 2 hours!) and I'm in desperate need of a shower, due to the spilling of formula (gross!) and the general smell of puppies.

Now, yesterday I came home from camp, expecting to find a new litter of puppies from Toffee, the other mother who was expecting. Well, I did find puppies. But they were not, however, from Toffee....they are Nova's! all 8 of them! great. I thought, "ok, 19 puppies. We can do this. We've had 18 at a time before...what's one more?" I was, of course, forgetting that Toffee was still pregnant (about to burst is more like it!) and this afternoon, she gave birth to 8 puppies. Well, actually, she's in the middle of labor with more still inside her, and we only have 7 of hers because there were twins and one died. So...yeah. If you ever want to see puppies, or want a puppy, or even just wish you had a dog, come on over to my house. You can play with them to your heart's content.

Anyway, it's been amazing to witness God's provision through this time. He truly does care about His children, as I've seen through His answering my prayers of please let us find a buyer for this dog/make this move injury-free/give me a peace about everything that is going on. Take, for example, Bella, our 130-pound St. Bernard. Bella is something of a protective/selective/not-good-with-kids dog, and finding a new home for her was proving to be difficult (she'd been advertised for for almost 4 weeks). Last night, I prayed that God would provide a buyer for Bella by Saturday. This evening, my dad came home and said that Bella now has a new home - the people wanted to take her tonight, in fact! God is so good to us. I'm constantly amazed.

Although taking care of puppies is somewhat draining, I know that we'll make it through and that it will all work out in the end. Besides...puppies are pretty cute! ;]

Em

My favorite puppy, Red Girl.

abandoned.

I have forgotten this blog. I'm sorry. I'll try to do better! :[

Anyway, what's new in the life of Emily? Three things:

1. I moved.

2. I am going to be homeschooled this fall.

3. My dog had 11 puppies.

Now, you may not think that #3 really affects me right now, but when the MOTHER of those eleven little goldendoodles is an out of control MONSTER, we have issues which involve me.

the MONSTER herself.

Right now, we have an issue. It is a 97-pound problem named Goldie. She is the mom, like I said before, of 11 puppies, each of whom she steps on/sits on frequently. She's totally oblivious to their existence, and so it requires total observation anytime she's with the puppies, which means that one of us is with the puppies for at least 30 minutes, every 2 hours, around the clock. Are you aware of how long 30 minutes seems at 1 AM? Very, very long.

So basically, that has been my major task in the past few days. Along with unpacking more boxes than you can count in a house that has no AC when it's 97 degrees outside. It's pretty much a joyride over here.

Peace out, girl scouts.

Em