Your's is the Victory

I really can't write much about the situation, but just know...

Over the past 3 days I've seen the devil try to tear apart what is going to be a wonderful outlet for Jesus' name to be spread all over the Cabarrus County and North Carolina this year...but guess what...Jesus has already won the battle! It might be a long road of healing for the people involved in the situation, but I believe God is good and he will be glorified through all of this!


The power of death swallowed up in the hope of our Savior
All fear overcome in the light of Him
All of our sin covered up in the love of our Savior
Set free by your grace made alive in Your righteousness

At the cross where You took my place

Yours is the victory
Yours is the victory
Yours is the victory
Yours alone

The power of death swallowed up in the hope of our Savior
All fear overcome in the light of Him
All of our sin covered up in the love of our Savior
Set free by your grace made alive in Your righteousness

In Your power, You abandoned the grave

At the cross where You took my place
In Your power, You abandoned the grave

-NewSpring Church Worship

Babies, the BELL, a Championship, and a Crown

I told Matt Friday afternoon, as we left Knightdale ,that this was going to be my blog title at the end of the weekend. I just knew that it was going to be an incredible weekend. I could write and write and write about it...but pictures are fun too!

On Friday morning, we woke up to a phone call from our friend Blake that his wife, Jacqui, was having their twins! They are some of our best friends, so this was pretty exciting for us. I was able to take a half of day and spend the afternoon with them and their precious babies since her family lives all the way in Indiana. Little AnnMarie & Aiden are just so precious and we are so excited that they are finally here.
Friday night we bared the rain to watch my brother's football team win a tradition that has been around for over 80 years...the battle of the bell game (and yes, Kannapolis has won this game more times that they've lost). This game is between A.L Brown High School and Concord. The Wonders were able to pull off a win, despite the downpours...bringing the bell back to Kannapolis and sealing the conference championship.To finish off our time at home, my sister accomplished a life long dream of becoming Miss Cabarrus County. She has competed in the pageant for 3 years and after many years of hard work, accomplished her dream. You can read more about her and her calling to participate in the Miss America System at this previous post. I know that I am biased, but Anna did an amazing job last night. I can't wait to see how the Lord uses her with this title to make him famous. She will now advance to the Miss North Carolina pageant in June. I am so proud of her!

To finish off this wonderful weekend, I better get off of here...I need to get ready worship at Journey this morning. We have so much to be thankful for today!

I Gotta Grade Essays...BUT

I really need to go grade essays that my students did a week ago, but it's just been on my heart to share the message from this past Sunday at Journey. Jimmy spoke on the questions that so many people ask, believer and nonbelievers..."What does a Christian look like."

This sermon really meant a lot to me because I know a lot of people who have given up on Christianity and some that just do not believe because of the way Christians act. Jimmy reminded us that Christianity is not about rules, and it's not about religion. God didn't send his son to be the Savior of the world so that Christians could be "good people." He came so that we can glorify him with our lives. If we are following Jesus and have an authentic relationship with him, then we do good because it comes from the overflow of our hearts...not because in order to be a Christian you have to be a "good person." (1 Peter 2:11-12, Matthew 5:16)

I could say so many more things about this past weekend, but one thing that he said that remains in my mind is "The Christian life is not about obligation, it's about obedience." It's about bringing glory to Him. I love that. I know that I am not a perfect person, I don't always do "good," because I'm not perfect and I do mess up. Just like little children mess up and sometimes disobey their parents, so do Christians and God loves me even though I don't always make him proud. But one thing I do know is that I want to live my life so that I am transparent and others see Jesus in me. I want to be obedient. I don't want to be the stereotypical Christian. I want people who do not believe to see something different in me, and I want them to fall in love with him...not because of me, but because He is real!

If you have 30 minutes to spare, or even if you don't I highly suggest you listen to Jimmy's message from last weekend. You can watch it here: Sermon.

Now, I must go grade these Revolutionary War essays!

Luke

Every once and a while I write a post about my family members. I've written before about my sister & brother, Andrew. This past weekend we celebrated senior night at the A.L. Brown football game for my baby brother Luke. (He's no baby at 6'2, 240 lbs.)I can't believe he is a senior in high school. It's so hard to believe that the last of the Seagroves children is finishing up at Brown. I'm so proud of the young man my brother has become. He loves Jesus, has good grades, he's a great athlete (football & swimming), and he has a great sense of humor...he's always keeping us laughing.

Good luck this week at Concord Luke...bring home that BELL!!! We love you!

And just for fun...here's a recent picture of Matt, myself, and my siblings.

It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown

Tonight I didn't bring home any school work and Matt is at band rehearsal, so I had to decide what to do...finish the laundry, clean the house, bake. Nope, I'm relaxing on the couch with the Molly girl watching one of my childhood favorites, "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown."
I love fall & I love Charlie Brown...oh, and I'm learning to LOVE time to relax. One of my favorite women in the world tells me it's important. (Thanks Beverly!)

I Will

Well...my posts have turned to weekends only. At least I'm still maintaining a blog.

Friday night we went to the NC State Fair and like always had a lot of fun and FOOD! But, we also went to the Chris Tomlin concert. We've heard him before in concert, so I knew we were in for more than a concert...we were in for a whole worship experience. The whole time I was thinking..."How cool is this? We get to experience the state fair and we get to worship at the same time." Tomlin is coming out with a new cd in November and he did a lot of new songs from his album Friday night. One song really stood out to me, it's called "I Will." This is really how I feel about my life. I've been so bogged down with so much junk lately (I'm not going to get into it again)...just read past posts. God has brought me to my face recently...I just want to make sure that whatever I am doing, I am allowing the Lord to use me and teach me something about him. No matter how overwhelmed I may become.

Where you go, I'll go
Where you stay, I'll stay
When you move, I'll move
I will follow...

All your ways are good
All your ways are sure
I will trust in you alone
Higher than my side
High above my life
I will trust in you alone

Where you go, I'll go
Where you stay, I'll stay
When you move, I'll move
I will follow you
Who you love, I'll love
How you serve I'll serve
If this life I lose, I will follow you
I will follow you

Light unto the world
Light unto my life
I will live for you alone
You're the one I seek
Knowing I will find
All I need in you alone, in you alone

In you there's life everlasting
In you there's freedom for my soul
In you there joy, unending joy
and I will follow

Weekends...

I'd like to say that I've easily been able to create margin in my life...since that was what my last post was all about. But, unfortunately I haven't. My days consist of 5:30 wake up, school at 6:30 till 5:30, home to cook dinner, and school work until I go to bed. I haven't figured out how to create much margin, all this school work HAS to be done. There's just so much paper work these days. People always give me a hard time and tell me to give up something...to learn to say no, but really there is nothing I can say no to. If you talk to any public education school teacher they will tell you...we're swamped. Yes, I coach cheerleading but really it's 2 hours a day and it's something I enjoy about school.

So for now, I have to make the most of my weekends and any little free time that I get during the week. For example, tonight I have school work that needs to be done but I also had a blog post & some pictures that I wanted to get online...so I decided you know what, I'm doing it. I work all day & the school work will get done. I just NEED me time & I need Matt time. If I don't get those two things I know I'll end up sick in the bed and then school WILL suffer. I don't write all of this for people to feel sorry for me...remember, this is my online journal. If you don't like it, you don't have to read. :)

Now, on to the blog post I wanted to write... This weekend we spent the entire time with my family in Kannapolis. We went to my brother, Luke's, football game Friday night. It was homecoming & I went to Brown so it was fun to be there...although, I didn't really see anyone that I went to school with. If you're from Kannapolis or if you've known me long enough you know that I love Kannapolis football anyway. There's just something different about watching the Wonders play...it's not like normal high school football, it's not to me anyway.

I love my brothers! (And my sister, sad she couldn't be there...)

Saturday & Sunday I didn't do anything but eat & sleep. We slept in till 10:30 on both Saturday & Sunday and it was glorious. Usually I would feel bad for wasting my day away, but I don't because I needed that rest. We were also able to spend time with my Mom & Rusty, Dad & Teresa, Anna & Jeremy, Andrew & Chelsea, and Luke. Yes...this is just my immediate family...there's a lot of us. We're rather silly when we all get together too, but it makes things fun.

I've come to really value my weekends. I love spending time with Matt, catching up on housework, and worshiping at Journey. I especially love when we get to spend time with family. There's a lot more family weekends to come with Matt's mom's birthday this coming weekend, Luke's senior night & big rival football game, and Anna's pageant in November. Matt & I will also get to spend a little family time together in November when we head off for a long weekend vacation...we've decided that we need it and even though it's still a month away, I can't wait!

Off to tackle some of this school work and drink a cup of coffee to help me through, yes i know...it's already 9:00. :)