summer, the infamous 'Bugs', and choosing joy!

Hello - it has been an interesting beginning to the summer (which is going to be a crazy adventure of Young Life traveling).  I will be in Summersville a total of 3 weeks and a few days.  I am looking forward to WyldLife camp, Young Life camp, and Young Life assignment as a work crew boss in the month of July.

Remember my last blog - the one about my bathroom being finished & that it was the last room to be complete?! Well I would like to retract that statement because I've been hit with a terrible inconvenience in the last month that caused me to basically 'destroy' my house and put it back together again (someday).  That putting it back together part is still a work in progress...

What is the terrible inconvenience ---- have you ever heard the phrase:

"Sleep tight, don't let the bed bugs bite?"

GROSS, I know!! Fortunately the ones I found were on the small size (like on the left....not the monster size yet!) 

Well BED BUGS ARE REAL & they do BITE & it itches really bad! - and they chose to invade my house.  I already knew they were real because my friends in college had them, but to find them in my room was a different story altogether.  

With the help of my parents we had to take all my clothes and material belongings to the laundry mat to be dried and washed and dried... everything had to be bagged up into garbage bags, furniture moved to middle of room, drawers emptied, cabinets emptied, carpet pulled up on edges, light covers taken off wall...etc etc etc. Its crazy really - but its the best steps to take so that the exterminating treatment will work. I could go on and on but really its been a lesson and a trial to teach me some things I've been needing to learn.  Even though the learning isn't always a fun process.

The Bible says "For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it." Hebrews 12:11

I'm trusting that this is producing in me the peaceful fruit of righteousness, even though it feels more chaotic than peaceful right now! 

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The second infamous bug was the "Stomach Bug" - the Norovirus that wiped out 19 out of 22 family members at our beach trip & then hit my brother two days after returning home.  Leaving only 2 family members unaffected by the virus.  Fortunately it was only a 24ish hour bug --- but it led to less of a vacation and more of a "pukation" as my family chose to call it.  You've got to make light of it --- because otherwise you are just sad!

My cousins made a Toilet Sand Castle... it just seemed appropriate to sum up the week! 

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And my fav Beth Moore quote, "Choose joy --- even when you don't feel it, choose it!"  Why? Because 'the JOY of the LORD is our STRENGTH!  Without it, I am so weak! I allow so many worthless ideas, worries, expecations, and fears to steal my joy every day.  I want to fight the GOOD FIGHT & FINISH THE RACE.

Nehemiah 8:10: "Do not grieve, for the JOY of the Lord is your strength.

Blessings <3 

Hoping to fight these bugs, get my house back in shape, and enjoy the summer of adventure and loving Jesus and loving teens! Because - there is JOY in the GOSPEL which is Salvation for all who believe.