I'm actually uber excited for the next year, but I'm sure the bumps will come. Such is life.
July 28, 2012
To my FAMILY in Christ:
Summary: Thank you for making my bday WOWmazing
If
you want to keep reading, go for it. I tried to shorten it, but I'm
having a diarrhea/cheetos vomit writing splurge (ask Moon for details)
so it's rather long...
It is often said that family sees you at your best, and at
your worst and that they just get you. I’m not sure if you’ve seen me at my best, but I know for sure you’ve
seen me at my worst, and you know me pretty well. You are my family.
You guys know I reeeally like beer, boys, and coffee. You expect me to
laugh at my own TERRIBLE jokes (they're not even jokes...just broken
phrases that come out of my mouth), yet you still choose to watch me
laugh instead of running away before my joke begins. And you know how I
often kick and scream when it comes to
obeying God and you’re probably familiar with the fact that I detest
board
games but I’m always playing a game of hide-and-seek with the church and
the
Spirit. But the Spirit keeps winning every now and then, popping into my heart
and making me cry like a baby. That's why my red face keeps showing up
randomly in your presence. Sorry :P
and YET, you still choose to love someone as broken as me.
From the bottom of my
heart,
thank you.
Thank you for being the church. For exemplifying Christ to
me. For choosing to love me when I haven’t loved you as I should. For patiently waiting for
me to return when my heart is not devoted to serving and loving you in humility.
Sometimes I wonder if the Lord lets me fall away for a
little while so that His amazing grace could just dig THAT much deeper into the flesh in me
that needs to be flushed out. It's working pretty well, but slowly. He really knows what He's doing, but it's painful. No likey.
When Moon handed me the gift of birthday notes that you guys
all put together, and as I received all your birthday gifts/blessings through the weeks/day, I was absolutely shocked.
As I was taking in your words of encouragement and acts of kindness, I was laughing
and crying with “Jesus, why why whhhhyyy are you so good to me” joy. It was really unexpected.
The grace of my God. Always a surprise and so sooo undeserved.
Anyways, I pray that you continue to be the
image, the hands and feet of CHRIST
to sinners. To commit to loving them when they don’t deserve it, to wait
patiently upon the
Lord to deliver, to speak the truth in love, to continue giving
generously even when if makes no sense, aaall because Christ first loved
you!
Keep
pointing to the Savior like you already do so well to sinners like me.
Keep doing this because I was given the privilege to TASTE a little of
how greatly God is using you and OH BABY IT'S AMAZING.
I love you guys. Kinda.
Just kidding. :)
I’m looking forward to
running this race together to know our beautiful Jesus more and more.
I apologize for such a long email. But I am truly humbled and grateful.
My God is so good to me!
With a big virtual hug (and ONLY virtual),
Vicky
