Refiner's Fire

I love art. Thats probably why I majored in it (well, that, and I'm too smart for rocket science...). My art classes in college were my favorite, and one semester I took a metals class. I liked that class because they let me play with a blow torch......ME!!! Yeah, they didn't know me very well at that point. Anyway, our first projects were in copper - copper is cheap. I learned to solder metal - used a blow torch to do that. An ACETELINE blow torch (that means its a really COOL one). something else I learned to do was lost wax casting. That was really cool. I made a ring. What you do is you make the ring out of wax just the way you want it, then you make a cast and heat it up. After its been heated the wax melts away and there is a void in the cast the shape of the ring. I was going to use silver to make my ring, and I was so excited because guess what I got to use?!? You'll never guess! Well, you might guess (torch), because I've slightly hinted (torch) to it a bit already. Yes, I got to use a torch to melt the silver and get it ready to pour into the mold. The silver we used came in little pellets, they looked like BB's and they were pretty expensive. So I got my little silver pellets into the mini cauldron and got the blow torch out and started it up. It was so cool to watch the pellets start to melt. First one melted, then a couple more until they were all melted. But the silver wasn't ready to be cast just yet. Even though it was all melted, the silver itself was dull it wasn't shiny like silver is supposed to be. My teacher told me to keep heating it until I could see myself in it. What? That sounded really weird at the time....but a few seconds later that dull layer burned off the top of the silver and it was like looking into a very strange mirror. It was awesome! It was finally ready to be cast.

I am so grateful that I had that class and was able to go through that process. Sometimes we feel like we are in a furnace thats being heated up. The bible says there are those that he will refine like silver and gold (Zec. 13:9) I might be going through something and He turns up the heat, and feel like I can't take any more, but just a few of my pellets have been melted. And then something else hits and its getting hotter and I know - this is it, I really can't take anymore, but I've still got the dull layer over me. And then something else comes along, and I say God, you have to help me in this - and thats when the dull layer burns away and He says, "Okay, I can see Myself in you - now you're ready."

My dog has tricks...

Yeah, so back in Colorado I taught Babe (my dog) this awesome trick. This trick has come in handy SO many times. Check it out - you'll see why....

I'll bet you wish YOUR dog would do this...

Scary Prayers

I need more faith. I just do. I don't want sway like the reeds when trials come, I want to be firm and grounded in what I believe and Who I believe in. So I thought to myself, I need to pray for faith. Now, praying for faith is a scary thing. Its like praying for patience. You pray for patience and God brings along a situation that requires you to be patient (like waiting 2 months for the Detroit Utility company to turn off the electricity at the house that you've not lived in for 8 weeks!! oh, but thats a different story...I digress). I'm pretty sure that its the same thing with faith. I ask God to strengthen my faith and the next thing I know I'm in some horrible situation that requires me to use my faith. I don't want all that - just the faith. I don't want to have to actually go through something just to get faith. Sometimes I wish God had a drive through where I could go and order up some faith minus the trials and tribulations, a side of blessings and living water to drink, and why not go ahead and super size that for me today. Ha ha ha. Thats like....spiritual steroids. We'd rather go the easy route and not have to work as hard for what we want. I know we've heard it said before, that faith is like a muscle- we have to use it to strengthen it. Use it or lose it. Nobody wants to go through trials. I don't hear people in church asking for God to bring trouble into their lives...and yet I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that its through these times that God exercises our faith and builds it and makes it stronger. I say all of that to get to my point...I'm going to be praying for faith. I'm telling you all this now so that when my 'faith building' trials come, we'll know why. Now, just pray in my behalf that the Big Guy goes easy on me....

Gainfully employed!

Hey! I just wanted to let everyone know that I got a job!! I'll be a case manager essentially helping people who are on public assistance (like food stamps) get jobs and stuff. I'm really excited. I start Monday the 19th!!! :)

WOO HOO!

Noelle and Taylor

I have to say that the best thing about being in Phoenix are my nieces. They are cool. The first video is of Taylor, being her cute smiling self. This is a change from how she was her first few weeks of life. My mom was calling her Lucy.....short for Lucifer. It was not a pretty picture. :) The second video is of Noelle because as soon as she realized that I could take a video of her, that was it, now thats all she wants to do. Ha ha ha!