#1-PRAY; #2-the iron giant and lessons

please pray for steven curtis chapman and his family. i find myself thinking initially, for some reason, and since he's famous, he wouldn't need as much prayer as someone down the street from me. how painful it must be to have lost their youngest child in such a horribly, seemingly preventable accident. please pray for the brother who ran over her with the car. please pray that God - who, as his manager said on the website, was not surprised by this, and who will use this for His glory and good (He says so: "...in all things, God works for the good of those who love him..." romans 8:28) - will use this use this tragedy to touch lives and show Himself to people. please pray for steven as he steps on stage as his job, that he will be able to show the love and grace of a loving and grace-filled God, that he will be able to continue performing and speaking the truth to thousands of people. pray that God would take the chapman family into a deeper relationship with Him and that this death would bring them closer together instead of farther apart.

in other news, have a i mentioned the iron giant here before? i can't remember. if you've never seen it, watch it immediately. you would love it!! it was one of brad bird's first movies (he wrote and directed 'the incredibles' and 'ratatouille') every time we would look up anything about him (chris does research on pixar movies and people a lot...) it would say "the creator of the under-appreciated masterpiece 'the iron giant'...." and things like that. one of our friends mentioned it once as being his favorite movie. we found out that tim keller preached a sermon on it. we said "we must see this movie!!" so we went to mckays and bought it. it. was. amazing. i cry easily in movies. that's an understatement, since i cry easily all the time. so it might not mean much that i bawled during this movie, or that now when i watch it, knowing the story, i bawl through the entire thing. hah! anyway, you would like it. i promise. not to mention the fact that harry connick jr is one of the voices. he's so dreamy!!! and jennifer anniston and vin diesel are main voices too. haha!! so anyway, we wanted to give it to hudson for his SEVENTH birthday (i can't believe he's that old...i started keeping him when he was 4 months old....) so we ordered it from amazon.com. the next day after i ordered it, we saw it for sale at the bilo. SERIOUSLY? we were amazed.

in other news, coming soon - new pictures from my first trip to the cabin since october! we had a BLAST with old friends and new friends alike!! even though chris was kinda sick, and even though we didn't see precious the bear, we had a great time. have you gotten quelf yet? you must get it and play it. we had the MOST fun with it. hannah had to roll the dice from 5 feet away from the board and if it didn't land on the board she had to move back a space, i had to play the entire game with my clothes inside out, drew had to wear lipstick, we had to put one of the cards in the middle of the board game and call it "chewy" and pull a hair from anywhere on our bodies and put it on "chewy" before rolling our turn...yeah. it's a weird game. but it's SO FUN!!!! :)

our small group served dinner at the methodist church in our neighborhood last night, and the devotional was about knowing who Jesus really is. the pastor said that if we truly love Jesus, we'll do what He asks us to. one of the guys there mentioned how a lot of times people are afraid of God, and therefore His commands are a burden. fearing God and being afraid of Him are very different. i'm learning this lately - to not do things God is urging me to do just to avoid hell or just to check off the list that i did it, ie, to avoid His wrath and anger - but to do it out of love, just like i would do anything chris asks me to do, not just to appease him, but because i love him.

But the eyes of the LORD are on those who fear him, on those whose hope is in his unfailing love, to deliver them from death and keep them alive in famine. We wait in hope for the LORD; he is our help and our shield. In him our hearts rejoice, for we trust in his holy name. May your unfailing love rest upon us, O LORD, even as we put our hope in you. Psalm 33:18-22