Ok, if you didn't listen to episode one, you gotta at least check out Josh and Tom's episode 2 for the awesome theme song Josh made :)

http://www.gcast.com/u/tomandjosh

Tell all your friends!

I just found out that one of my former roommate's dad has died. It was totally unexpected. He was completely healthy, but had a sudden heart attack.

I had to re-read the email several times to make sure that's what I saw and that it wasn't some joke. What's sad is my friend has been a missionary in northern Iraq and wasn't supposed to return until June...but I guess the Lord has other plans...or something...

I was speechless as I stared at the computer screen. I was thinking, "This isn't fair, Lord! She is such a great girl and she's been working so hard in Iraq and reaching people..." Her parents were opposed to her going... was it fear or distress over his daughter that hurt him??

Anyway. After my initial shock, my thoughts immediately turned to scripture: "our times are in Your hands." And "The Lord gives and the Lord takes away..." (From the song "Blessed be Your Name" and the Job story).

We truly don't know when our time is up...or when our family's time is up... we don't know when sorrow or pain is going to hit... we don't know why bad things to happen to good people...

I guess the joy in this is He is with the Lord...but so soon! He still has a 14 year old at home...

But...you know, the Lord REALLY is in control. It's times like these you throw up your hands and say, "Ok, God. I don't get it. But I'm gonna keep going. I'm gonna trust you know what you're doing..." (And He does.)

I think it's also times like these that the Lord takes a moment to wake us up... to remind us THIS IS NOT OUR HOME! I thought about Steven Curtis Chapman's old song, "We are not home yet." This is so true! This earth may have been created for man originally, but our purpose is to dwell with the Lord...and we really aren't TRULEY, COMPLETELY in His presence until we go home! We must leave this planet, leave our temporary bodies and be with Jesus.



That's the bottom line in times like these.

I'm grading papers right now, but I wanted to share the news.
My husband got me a Mac. I've joined the club! No more PC!

(Watch these:)

http://www.apple.com/getamac/ads/


It's going well, so far. Just different stuff to get used to...and I have to transfer all my music from itunes on my laptop to my mac still...

Anyway...that's all for now. Josh and I are doing well...He's great. I admire him.

Here I am trying to get started on my reading project, but I thought I'd just procrastinate a little more and listen to the song I walked down the aisle to at my wedding and write an update on xanga.

I finally figured out what I was going to write about, too.

Life is pretty good. Josh and I are kind of in a routine now. He goes to work, I go to work and/or school and then we hang out at night or he plays basket ball and I work on homework. We're finding joy in the Lord and the blessings He's given us. Not much room for ministry at the time...but that's okay.

Red Robin is fun. I'm enjoy the job and like the people I work with. I get along with my managers for the most part, but struggle sometimes with intimidation and the desire to impress them. It's especially hard when one of my managers is a year older than me and treats me like I'm 18 like the other girls...but, eh....

I'm at the middle school tuesdays and thursdays, all day. I teach thursdays...my own lesson, while my mentor teacher watches and helps.

I don't know if I've said it before, but 8th graders are HARD! Something just clicks in an adolescent's mind when they reach 8th grade. I know they're mainly trying to spread their wings and test the waters (or skies-- mixed metaphor) of adulthood, but it usually comes in the form of, "No, I don't want to do it." or "Why do we have to do this, Mrs. Weaver? How does this apply to real life?"  Or even sitting there doing NOTHING.

They no longer take your word for it. They're curious and want to know the world as their own and not their parents' or big brother's, but it comes out as disrespect.

Some of the kids are great! But I need to keep myself from just flocking  to the ones who I connect with really well and reach out the ones who act out or go against what I say....(Seth...oh, boy....he's one of my favorites, but he just knows how to get under my skin).

I'm also doubting myself lately and having a really hard time connecting with my mentor teacher. She has a different style of classroom management then I do. We had a talk about it the other day... but....I also feel like she's watching every move I make and thinking, "Oh, Ashley's a terrible teacher."

It's funny, it's when I start thinking that I'm screwing up is when I screw up. I need to just relax.

I just realized I also have to look at the good things...look at the students who are learning and growing and how those who I think aren't growing are. I just really want to see their progress....It seems so small and faint. But, Chris....oh, boy. This 14yr-old hates reading and writing and has the reading level of a second or third grader. He just REALLY needs individual attention. I sat down with him last week to help him with an assignment and he did it! He wrote a whole paragraph, a WHOLE PARAGRAPH, on his own! It wasn't perfect, but he tried so hard... Usually he just sits there or throws paper at his classmates.

So that's life.
For those of you in college: Happy Spring Break!

P.S. Tom and Machelle gave birth to Chloe last week. That's the new born baby I'm holding

A friend of mine recently got baptized into the Mormon church. I asked to borrow a book she had read, "Why Would Anyone want to Join the Mormon Church?" By Brad V. Brase.

After reading a few pages into it, I decided to take notes on and compare his statements to scripture. Here's an excerpt of what I've written:

      “Latter-day Saints do not believe that God is incomprehensible to the human understanding…How can we be expected to have faith, a faith that influences both thought and action, unless we know and understand the very object of that faith?” (14). This claim is made because the concept of God being ONE being and not three separate individuals (i.e. three gods), is too hard to grasp.

It’s okay for God to have mysterious characteristics. We have ETERNITY to get to know Him.

How can we--mere, imperfect, insufficient humans--claim to understand or comprehend the Holy Almighty Righteous One?? The Alpha and Omega? The One whom the 24 elders around the throne throw themselves down on their faces before every time they catch a glimpse of His glory? (Rev. 4:10-11).  That’s their job, they’re not even humans and they find something new about his majesty for eternity.

Solomon says to the Lord when he dedicates the temple, “The heavens, even the highest heaven, cannot contain you. How much less this temple I have built!” (1 Kings 8:27). We can’t put God, YHWH, “the existing one,” on our level. To have a god that is on our level is stupid. I don't think I would want to trust in a being that is within my comprehension.

And, yes we should seek to know and understand the Lord, but it does require faith. “And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him” (Heb. 11:6). And faith doesn’t always mean we “see” things clearly. “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen” (Heb. 11:1).

Paul reminds us that we only see in part…but someday we will see the whole: “For we know in part and we prophesy in part…Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known” (1Cor. 13:9,12).

I may not be able to defend the “trinity” with great sounding arguments, but I know that my God is ONE; Jesus is THE God, and not A god.

The whole bottom line of the Christian faith is that the holy, just, righteous, perfect, loving, infinite, awesome God in the heavens took BODILY form (“and the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us” John 1:14) to dwell with us dirty, sinners.