Just what I needed

The last week has been a week of huge expenses for me. Some completely unexpected. There's been tuition and books, parking permit, getting my piano tuned, my one time a year stock up order of Mary Kay.....then, my car started being funky and I ended up having to spend $450 on it, I accidentally fried my external hard drive and that costs $200 to recover the data and get a new one, and I had to spend $48 on a tetanus vaccine because my doctor's office didn't have it even though I specifically told them that's what I needed and they sent me to the Public Health Dept where they don't accept insurance! Then, there's expenses coming up in the very near future like new running shoes (mine are falling apart), and those will be about $100. Yikes! Even my phone has been acting up. Well, even though I am incredibly blessed to have family helping me out, all these expenses and things breaking down at once is stressing me out! But God gave me a great reminder today that was much needed.

My devotion today reminded me that earthly things fall apart, get lost, and don't last forever. But God cannot be destroyed. Hebrews 12:27-29 says, "This means that the things on earth will be shaken, so that only eternal things will be left. Since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be destroyed, let us be thankful and please God by worshiping him with holy fear and awe. For our God is a consuming fire." As my devotional's prayer for today says, "O Designer of our souls, help us clear out our lives and focus on what you have created. May we hold dearly only what is of your design scheme. Amen." Thank you God for the reminder and the encouragement that You do not decay and cannot be destroyed.

Optimism and faith

I was reading Hebrews 11 the other day, and it's a great, inspiring chapter about faith! I'm a pretty optimistic person, and I have big dreams. While some think one person can't do much, I refuse to let my passions and dreams die because of the monstrosity of the challenges. Hebrews 11 encourages me because it says and shows that by faith, we can do great things! 

Here's some snippets: "What is faith? It is the confident assurance that what we hope for is going to happen. It is the evidence of things we cannot yet see...." Then, it goes on to list what all these different people did by faith. Such as, " It was by faith that the people of Israel went right through the Red Sea as though they were on dry ground. But when the Egyptians followed, they were all drowned. It was by faith that the people of Israel marched around Jericho seven days, and the walls came crashing down. It was by faith that Rahab the prostitute did not die with all the others in her city who refused to obey God. For she had given a friendly welcome to the spies. Well, how much more do I need to say? It would take too long to recount the stories of the faith of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthat, David, Samuel, and all the prophets. By faith these people overthrew kingdoms, ruled with justice, and received what God had promised them. They shut the mouths of lions, quenched the flames of fire, and escaped death by the edge of the sword. Their wekaness was turned to strength. They became strong in battle and put whole armies to flight. Women received their loved ones back again from death."

I love this chapter.

Peaches galore!

John and I went to Apple Annie's orchard in Willcox this morning. We picked peaches! A worker picked a white one and yellow one and cut both in half for us to taste. Peaches right off the tree are amazing! Here's me with the two halves he gave me:

And here's John:

Then we bought fudge and a fresh out of the oven apple pie from the gift shop/bakery! Drove home, got vanilla ice-cream,  and enjoyed our delicious apple pie a la mode. My fave. I love picking peaches and apples :)

Dolphins

My first post is going to be about a sad issue! I watched "The Cove" last night. It's a documentary about the capture and slaughter of dolphins in Japan--Best documentary I've ever seen! I don't think I'll be going to Sea World or to swim with dolphins any time soon. The dolphins are herded into a cove/lagoon by the sound of clanking which scares them. Dolphin traders choose the ones they want which are sold to Sea Worlds and Swim With Dolphins programs throughout the world. The rest of the dolphins in the cove are killed brutally. I definitely cried. They're killed to be sold as meat, but not very many people eat dolphin meat! So it's often disguised as more expensive whale meat. And the ones in captivity seem to live sad lives as well. I think it'd be much cooler to swim with dolphins in the wild.

It's important to realize that the treatment of these dolphins is not much worse than what we do here in the U.S. with our cows, chickens, and pigs. CAFO's (Concentrated Animal Feedlot Operations) raise them in horrible conditions on diets they are not meant to consume for the purpose of fattening them up as fast as possible to supply our greed for meat. I prefer to buy meat that is not crowded together for its short, miserable life.

"The Cove" made we wonder how zoo animals are captured and treated. My favorite part of the entire documentary was when one of the main activists walked into the IWC (International Whaling Commission), which he is banned from, with a TV strapped to himself showing the slaughter of the dolphins that his group secretly videoed. It was during talks about how humanely the dolphins are killed too. It was inspiring! Anyway, one more fact about fishing in general: the world's fish stocks are estimated to collapse in 40 years at the current rate of consumption and killing. Scary!

Now for a quote from the movie: "Governments are really great at getting together and holding meetings and conferences and glad-handing each other, but they never ever seem to accomplish anything. Margaret Mead said to never, ever depend upon governments or institutions to solve any major problem. All social change comes from the passion of individuals."

If you are interested in finding out more, visit www.takepart.com/thecove.