Gifted by the Spirit

"It is the same God who does the work in all of us. A spiritual gift is given to each of us so we can help each other... It is the one and only Spirit who distributes all these gifts. He alone decides which gift each person should have."  ~1 Cor. 12:6-11

(I keep intending to blog, then I get busy with other things and forget about it.  So this may be a bit of a short post again, but perhaps that's preferred. lol)

I'm thankful for the gifts God has given me... my "spiritual gifts" include teaching, exhortation, and discernment, and I'm truly thrilled that I'm on a road that will soon put those gifts to better use.  But I'm especially thankful right now for the gifts God has given me through other people... Mom spent most of her weekend helping me with an extremely difficult transcript.  Gift!  I got to take a break from the stress of that and do dinner and a movie with my favorite cousin.  Gift!  I got to see Missy K and the Jaceman in all their preciousness.  Gift!

Then last night, the Wilsons hosted a prayer night & Pioneer Woman dinner, and it was awesome and refreshing!  I somehow forgot to get a group pic, but it was the group pictured below + Jessica, Evan, and Mindy.  After a delicious and fun dinner, we took time out to share serious prayer requests and then formed a circle and laid hands on each other and prayed specifically over each person.   There's a lot more I could say about it, but for now, I'll keep it in the circle and just say that I really LOVED that time praying together.  And I felt strengthened by hearing close friends speak words of genuine affirmation and specific prayer for me!  GIFT.

The above pic = celebrating Kelly's birthday!

And here's the "Vegas 7" again back in February! :) #flashback #memorymonday

Today = the first day of my classes!  So far, so good.  More on that later.  It is also day one of getting serious about getting healthy!!  New post on that coming soon also, I promise!

This Friday = the 1st birthday of "the girlfranz!"  Crazy - the world didn't know what it was missing a year ago. lol  Get excited!! =)

And now, a few inspiring quotes:

 "All men seek happiness. This is without exception. Whatever different means they employ, they all tend to this end. The cause of some going to war and of others avoiding it is the same desire in both, attended with different views. The will never takes the least step but to this object. This is the motive of every action of every man, even of those who hang themselves."  ~Blaise Pascal (This goes with the one below...)

“God is most glorified in you when you are most satisfied in Him. Fight for the right joy! There is greater joy in God than you’ve yet known. Don’t give up. Don’t settle for the lesser joys. 'For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.'" ~John Piper