The Word on Wednesday...

"According to my earnest expectation and hope, that I shall not be put to shame in anything, but that with all boldness, Christ will even now, as always, be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain." Philippians 1:20-21

Wow! Can you imagine the joy, peace, hope and confidence that we could have if we lived out this verse everyday in our own lives?! Paul wrote this to the Philippians when he was in prison for defending God's Word. Through every circumstance that he went through, Paul glorified God and did not question him. Some of the things that we go through are so petty, but we tend to complain and whine. How much more could we be blessed and, more importantly, bless God if we had Paul's attitude?

I want to walk in boldness and confidence, saying, "To live is Christ!" It is because of Him that I breath, love, live, have... In every season of my life, good or bad, easy or hard, relieving or stressful, in rejoicing or grieving, I want to give God the glory, praise Him, and trust in Him. His Word promises, "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him... If God is for us, who can be against us?" Romans 8:28,31

I have gone through something recently where I thought I couldn't go on, I wasn't going to make it, all odds were against me, no good could possibly come from it..., but I cried out to my Father, relied on His strength, comfort and peace, and reminded Him (really myself) of His promise that He would bring good out of EVERY situation; and He once again proved His faithfulness. He took an extremely hurtful, seemingly hopeless situation, turned it around and brought good out of it. Now, I am giving Him the glory! I am stronger, my relationship with God is stronger, my faith is stronger, my marriage is stronger, and my life is better than before. I am so thankful for His promises and faithfulness! Aren't you?

My Awesome, Wonderful, Incredible Lord,
I praise you for every hardship I have been through, am going through and will encounter. Because I know that I will learn, grow and be stronger from them. I pray that, NO MATTER WHAT, I will always give You the glory, having the attitude that, "To live is Christ." I thank You that You are for me, so who can be against me. I love you so much!

I leave you with one of my favorite childhood songs: (Sing it with me, if you know it.:)

Rise and Shine
(Children of the Lord)
(The Arky Arky Song)

Rise and shine
And give God the glory, glory
Rise and shine
And give God the glory, glory
Rise and shine
And give God the glory, glory
Children of the Lord

The Lord said to Noah:
There's gonna be a floody, floody
The Lord said to Noah:
There's gonna be a floody, floody
Get those children out of the muddy, muddy
Children of the Lord

So Noah
He built him, he built him an arky, arky
Noah
He built him, he built him an arky, arky
Built it out of gopher barky, barky
Children of the Lord

The animals, the animals,
They came in by twosie, twosies
The animals, the animals,
They came in by twosie, twosies
Elephants and kangaroosie, roosies
Children of the Lord

It rained and poured
For forty daysie, daysies
It rained and poured
For forty daysie, daysies
Nearly drove those animals crazy, crazies,
Children of the Lord

The sun came out and
dried up the landy, landy
The sun came out and
dried up the landy, landy
Everything was fine and dandy, dandy
Children of the Lord

Rise and shine
And give God the glory, glory
Rise and shine
And give God the glory, glory
Rise and shine
And give God the glory, glory
Children of the Lord

The animals they came off
They came off by three-sies, three-sies
Animals they came off
They came off by three-sies, three-sies
Grizzly bears and chimpanzee-sies, zee-sies
Children of the Lord

Rise and shine
And give God the glory, glory
Rise and shine
And give God the glory, glory
Rise and shine
And give God the glory, glory
Children of the Lord.

That is the end of,
The end of my story, story
That is the end of,
The end of my story, story
Everything is hunky dory, dory
Children of the Lord

Rise and shine
And give God the glory, glory
Rise and shine
And give God the glory, glory
Rise and shine
And give God the glory, glory
Children of the Lord

Canoe Trip Info...

Hello All,
I am so glad that you enjoyed the pictures of our canoe trip!! I had lots of people ask where we were, and other questions. I will try to answer them all to the best of my ability. I didn't plan any of the trip, though. Zack and my brother-in-law planned the entire trip and both know Arkansas (especially hiking trails, waterfalls, and beautiful spots) like the back of their hands.

We were on the Buffalo River in Ponca, Arkansas, which is close to the Northwest corner. (If you know anything about Arkansas, it is about an hour from Springdale.)

You can take your own canoe (as my sister and brother-in-law did), or rent. Canoe rentals are $50/day, but the rates vary depending on how many days you rent. You put in at the rental place and leave your car. Then, you can have your own car shuttled to the stopping point or ride a shuttle bus back to your car.

You can camp right off the river bank as we did, or there are campsites off the river as well. You can research all of this information and more by going to:

http://www.buffaloriver.com/

The waterfall that we hiked to is called, Hemmed-In-Hollow Falls. Zack and my brother-in-law already knew where the trails were, because they have hiked around there so many times. They have maps, books and do research all of the time. Tim Ernst is the author of several books about the Buffalo wilderness area. They love him and would recommend his books to anyone! One title that I can think of is, Buffalo River Hiking Trails (Third Edition)... really profound title, huh? :-)

I hope all of this helps! (and because no post is complete without a picture...)

Canoe Trip!

This weekend Zack and I went with my sister, Christa, brother-in-law, Tommy and nephew, Paxton on a canoe/camping trip. We had an absolute blast! We canoed several hours Saturday, camped at a great spot right above the river, canoed a few hours Sunday, took a hike and saw some beautiful water falls and returned home at 4:00p.m. There were several fun rapids (nothing scary), and neither canoe tipped the whole trip! I won't ramble on and on about how beautiful the scenery was, how relaxing the river was and what fun we had. Just look at the pictures and see for yourself...

Loading the canoes...
Christa, Paxton, Tommy, Zack

Christa, Tommy and Paxton off to a good start!

...a neat waterfall coming off a bluff into the river.

The beautiful view from our canoe...

The Roy's
(Tommy, Paxton, Christa)

The Hickman's
(Me and Zack)

My Personal Tour Guide...
Zack is an awesome at canoeing! He just told me when, where and which side to paddle on and he did the rest. We made a great team! I just sat back and relaxed until he said, "Paddle left, paddle left. Stop. Paddle right. Hard right. Good job!"

...another gorgeous view

Zack and I...

Paxton is relaxing during our lunch stop.

Zack fishing during our lunch break...

Christa and Tommy

Operation Rescue!
This lady tipped her kayak and got caught in some brush sticking out of the water in the middle of some rapids. We were right behind her and couldn't stop, but we managed to grab her paddle.

Zack pulled our canoe onto the bank close by and wadded barefoot through the current to retrieve her kayak. What a man!

I cannot emphasize enough how beautiful it was!

(This picture is for you, Jessica:)
We saw probably close to 20 groups of turtle's throughout our trip!

...stopping to camp

...the view from our camp site

There was a horse trail next to our camp site...

Paxton enjoyed catching crawdads!

Tommy and Christa enjoying the fire...

Me and my honey!

A camping trip isn't complete without smores. Mmmm!

Ready to roll! It was soooo cold on Sunday morning!

The Roy family working hard!

Sunday afternoon, we stopped and went hiking to check out some beautiful scenery.

Hemmed-In-Hollow Falls

Paxton swung on every tree branch he could find...

Outback Zack

This one's for you, Drew!

I missed Zayde, but really enjoyed myself. I had 3 whole meals without interruption! Our wonderful friends, The Selvey's, kept Zayde and said that he was PERFECT! Thank you Patrick and Kelli!!

Have a Great Weekend!

We're going canoing; we're going canoing; we're going canoing!! This is the 3rd weekend we have planned to go canoing and the weather and schedules are finally working out for us to be able to go. It is very bitter-sweet for me, because it will be the first time I have left Zayde overnight! Please pray for a safe and relaxing trip!