Packing - AAAAHHHHH

So, this is most of our stuff that we will be bringing with us to Colorado.  How we will fit ALL of this into our little 5x8 trailer, and van?  I have no clue. :P  But, once we do fit it all in there, I will definitely show you. :P  Plus, you can't even see all the stuff in the way back corner.....*giggles*
Got to go finish packing.....wish me luck! :) 

Two Days and Counting!

So, my family and I are SUPER busy getting our horribly messy house, all packed up to go to Colorado for three months. It's a job, let me tell ya.  It's really hard trying to fit just half of your clothes into two little tubs. (arg!! woe is me) 

Yesterday was our first day of packing, and I was sick. Miserable.  So after cleaning the toy room, I took a nap - a three hour nap to be exact.  It felt really good, but, alas, I still was sick the rest of the day, so I didn't get much done last night. :P

Today, I got up feeling MUCH better! Praise God!  I took a warm bath, ate peanitbutter oatmeal,:P  and then started packing my clothes.  I think I got everything that I wanted.....we'll have yet to see. :-/  Then, this afternoon we took a break, got some ice cream, and went to Walmart, (whoohoo).  It was a wonderful trip in good, ol, wallyworld. :P   Anyhoo...we got home, and kept packing. 
Then my mother told me to sort the socks, which I am convinced is the worst job in the whole entire world.  But, Shane came and joined me, :) sort of.  He sat down, and then eventually he just laid on top of the socks. He was a HUGE help!  (jk, that was sarcasm).  But, finally at 11:00 pm. we called it a day. 

So, we only have tomorrow left to pack up all our stuff, and clean this messy house.
I hope you enjoyed reading about my exciting packing days! :P 

I don't think I'll be posting for awhile, cause we're leaving on Thursday, and won't get to Colorado till the 4th, and then who knows how long it'll take us to unpack. :P 
So, ta ta for now! 

bailey :)

Questions to Ask at the End of the Day

When I woke up this morning, did I think of this day as belonging to me or to Christ?

Did I live as if my time and decisions were mine, of God's? 

Did I allow the distractions and allurements of this world to turn my head, occupy my thoughts, of dictate my choices?

Was Christ my sole pursuit?

How did I spend my free time?  Doing what I liked? Or pouring out my life for Him?

This life is not about me

It's about HIM

How Could You Say No

Thorns on His head, spear in His side,

Yet it was a heartache that made Him cry
He gave His life so you would understand.
Is there anyway you could say no to this Man? 

If Christ Himself were standing here
His face full of glory and eyes full of tears
And He held out His arms and His nail-printed hands,
Is there anyway you could say no to this Man?

How could you look into His tear-stained eyes

Knowing that it's you He's thinking of
Could you tell Him your not ready now to give your life to Him
Could you say you don't think you need his love

Jesus is here with His arms open wide

You could see Him with your heart,
if you'd stop looking with your eyes.
He'd left it up to you,
He's done all that He can,
Is there anyway you could say no to this Man?

Thorns on His head, your life in His hands,
Is there anyway you could say no to this Man?

I was so moved by this song when I heard it!  I know If I hadn't been saved, I definitely would!  

My Prince Charming :)

WOW.  God has been revealing Himself to me in many, cool ways, about a few different things, and it's been AWESOME!!! HE is SO GOOD!  

Here is the latest of what he's been showing me.

.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.

"Jesus Christ is your true Prince," I often say to young women, "the One who gave His very life just to be with you, the One who can rescue you from the dungeon you are in, the One who can transform you into a radiant princess, the One who can carry you away to His beautiful land to cherish you froever.  He is the only One worthy of your entire heart, life, soul, and body - and all you are and all you have.  Jesus Christ is the Prince you should passionately pursue with all your heart."

"He is the Lover of our soul.  Our true Prince. The One who we have been longing for, searching for, and dreaming of since childhood.  The One who will love us the way no one else can love us; the One who will cherish us forever; the One who will transform us from a hopeless girl in rags into a beautiful, confident, radiant princess.  He is the One who makes us ready for true, lasting, human love.  And He is the One who meets our deepest needs when human love falls short."  

(from setapartgirl.com)

How can I not run to Him?  How could I say no after all that?!?!  He, the Creator of the Universe, the King of all Kings LOVES ME!!! He CHOSE me.  HE CHOSE ME! I have nothing to offer, yet, He loves me just the same, and always will.  He really is amazing.....indescribable...incredible....marvelous.....awesome.....what else can I say?!?! 

I pray that I may grow to love Him, more than everything!  If this Guy really loves me, then I want to love Him, with ALL my being!

Loved by Him,

Bailey

I Did It!

So.....I didn't think I was actually going to do it...but, alas, I talked myself into doing it....and now, I LOVE it!!! :) 

Before :)

After!

 

That's all. =)

A Lily Among Thorns

I just started reading The Lost Art of True Beauty, by Leslie Ludy.  I am in the middle of chapter two, and slowly I am grasping the idea that in myself I am ugly, sinful, and have no value.  But, I am slowly seeing the freedom and beauty that Christ brings to a person fully surrendered to Him. It's His beauty that makes a girl sparkle.  This is a quote from Oswald Chambers.  Read it over, and let it sink in.

"It is a tremendous freedom to get rid of all self-consideration and learn to care about only one thing - the relationship between Christ and ourselves." 

Wow. I want that. To only care about my relationship with Christ...bliss.


Here's another quote:

"The secret to becoming the radiant, beautiful princess of our childhood dreams is forgetting all about our self, and becoming completely consumed with one thing - Jesus Christ....it's the cure for feminine insecurity."

The cure for feminine insecurity?!?!  Again, wow.
I am just starting to catch a very small glimpse of Christ's design for beauty, true feminine beauty.  Leslie writes about girls who are SO obsessed with becoming beautiful and alluring to guys, trying to find satisfaction in them.  And the find NO SATISFACTION, plus their lives are dark and destroyed.  The more I read about that, the more I want to run the complete opposite direction!  I want Jesus to make me shine; to make me truly beautiful.

I'll leave you with one more thought.

"He is the lily, but His beloved is like He, for He applies His own chosen emblem to her - "As the lily among thorns, so is My love among the daughters."  Notice that He is the lily, and she is as the lily - that is to say, He has the beauty and she reflects it! She is comely in His comeliness which He puts upon her. If any soul has any such beauty as described here, Christ has endowed that beloved soul with all its wealth of charms, for in ourselves we are deformed and defiled!...There is no beauty in any of us, but what out Lord has worked in us."

~The Shape of My Heart ~

If my life is a stage, who's applauding? 

If my heart is a script, who's the lead?

If I walk unrehearsed, will Youwrite every verse,

'Til the crowd fades and You're all I see?

Let the shape of my heart take its pattern from You.
Let the things Heaven treasures,be the things I pursue.
And when the curtain is drawn, at the end of my days
let the shape of my heart bring Youglory, and honor, and praise!

If Your hands bore the scars undeserving,
And Your feet walked the path meant for me,
I will live at all costs for the sake of the cross,

and the Savior, whose love set me free!

Let the shape of my heart take its pattern from You.
Let the things Heaven treasures,be the things I pursue.
And when the curtain is drawn, at the end of my days
let the shape of my heart bring You glory, and honor, and praise!

Fully Surrendered to My Precious Savior

I love it when the Lord shows awesome things to me! It's so cool because I know that I never could have come up with this on my own.

I was cleaning at my boss' today, and this fleeting thought about a certain guy and marriage came into my mind.  Kind of without thinking about it I gave that thought to the Lord.  Then I thought about it, and God gave me a little rhema.... =) 
'm often worried about not being wholly surrendered God .  In the quiet of the morning, when no one has disturbed me, yet, and I'm sipping on my coffee I wonder, "How do I fully surrender to Christ?"  Well, it's after someone has disturbed me, or I'm thinking about guys, that I have the choice to surrender.  "Will I give my frustration and dreams to God, right now?" 

Yes, I do believe that someone can have an altar experience and in that moment be wholly surrendered, I do.  But I also believe that it's when we're in the battle, that the decisions that we make will bring us one way or another. We're presented with a choice; that choice can either lead us to our own pleasures...or it can take us one step closer to living a wholeheartedly, surrendered life to Christ.
It's the little steps; the daily moment by moment, thought by thought, choice by choice that is going to direct my steps and determine the shape of my heart in the end. 

I give all the glory to my Precious Redeemer and Friend for all that He is showing me.  Lord, help me to live it out! 

He is a good God.

Joy in Heaven's Greates Treasure

 A friend emailed this to me the other day and I really like it, so I decided to share it with all of you.

VERSE:  

"Rejoice in the LORD; and I will say again, rejoice!"  

~ Philippians 4:4

THOUGHT:
 Joy is found in the Lord, not in things. Joy is found in knowing
that he always accompanies, sustains, helps, protects, and upholds
me. How can I not rejoice? God loves me so much that he emptied
heaven of his greatest treasure so that I could join him in glory.
Joy is mine because of his grace.

PRAYER:
 Precious Father, thank you for always being there and knowing
what is on my heart and caring for me in ways that I cannot even
imagine. I long to know you face to face and share in the unbridled
joy of heaven with you. Until then, I truly rejoice because I know
my future is in your hands! Thank you in the name of Jesus Christ
my Lord. Amen.

Lots of love,

Bailey =)

"Friends are great, but God is greater!"

"Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God."  

 Matthew 5:8

This past weekend my mother, Anna and myself headed down to the cities to meet our friend's at Elizabeth's house. All of us, (Mom, Anna, Jayne, Hannah, Tabby, Lydia, Kathryn, Simone and Elizabeth) were going to attend Amy Vest's, "Pure Heart" purity conference.  We arrived at Elizabeth's a few hours early so we took a stroll around Central Park. It was a blast!  Every hundred few hundred feet we wanted to stop and get a picture together. =)  And at the end of the walk, we girls played tag on the playground! So fun! =) 

We went over to Bethlehem Baptist for the conference.  It was amazing! When most people think purity conference, they think of physical purity. But this was so much more!  It was all about being pure before God, and living a pure life for the Glory of Him!  Amy is so fun to listen to!  She just radiates with the joy and love of the Lord, not to mention the fun props that she likes to use.  The whole atmosphere was great: being with 450 other girls seeking after Jesus, the worship, the teaching, the Lord...all of it was amazing! 

God used this conference in a great way! All of it was just what I needed to hear at that time. I was encouraged to spend more time with the Lord; to press into Christ, to pursue Him.  And also, to surrender all to Him! He has such amazing plans for me, if I would just wholeheartedly surrender all to Him!  She gave this analogy: "We have a little bag of dirt, and we like to treasure our bag of dirt.  We hold onto it very tightly.  But God is offering to us a sparkling, beautiful gift.  Inside it are treasures unimaginable, and more than we can ask for.  So what do we do?  Will we give our 'little bag of dirt' to Christ, in return for His amazing gift?" 

Amy said something that stuck with me, (well all of it, but this one in particular).=)

        "I surrendered all to Him, and that's when I started to live."

Here are some pics to help you understand what a fabulous time we had! =)

Walking in unity. "Left, right, left, right."

It was windy, but that just adds effect. 

My Favorite! =)

Don't they just look adorable?!

Our lovely mothers :)

Girls, don't fall for frogs; wait until they're princes!

:: Anna, Amy and me::

The "Pure Heart" Ladies :)

Having fun at Wendy's, as you can tell.  Why? Because we're girls! DUH :)

<3 Tabby and me <3

The end our amazingly, wonderul, crazy, encouraging, animal-cracker filled time! :)

The Awesomest Variety Show Ever (well at least at the Wilderness)

So, I live at a Christian retreat center, and every year we have a variety show on labor day weekend.  Us kids might do something, some of the people from the community might come, some campers, and even the choir directors from Northwestern College!  It's been really fun the past three years, but I think this year takes the cake!  Here are some photos of our hilarious night! The O.O.K. Wingnutz (the Otterson, O'Brien and Klawitter kids

 

 

Levi, Shane and Ethan in a Rubix cube competition.

Pat O'Brien's AMAZING finger illusions! :P

Shane and Ethan - don't even ask...if you want to find out click here

we played volleyball for 61/2 hours - it was AWESOME!

The Northwestern College people sang for us - heavenly!

Just Some of My Peoples :)

Everyone trying to act like me! :P 

So, all in all with the variety show, vball, rootbeer floats, and all the laughs it was an amazingly-superbly-fantabulistic Labor Day weekend!

*Me*

Abundantly Above

"Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we can ask or think, according to power at work within us, to Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen."    Ephesians 3:20

I believe that verse with all my heart, because that is what my Savior is doing in my life, right now! If you don't believe that there is a God, let me tell ya, "THERE IS A GOD!!!"
It all started two weeks ago, Friday. My family and I were at a friend's picnic. They were having a "missionary report" evening, and wanted my brother, Kyle, to share about his time in Taiwan.  The evening was going fine, nothing particularly exciting, but then this guy, Steve, got up to share about his summer.  He spent the whole summer at Ellerslie School of Honor.  When he said that, my mom and I both perked up and looked at each other. He talked out about his amazing time there; how every day was about cultivating his relationship with God, and constantly yielding to Him. After he spoke Mom and I went over to talk to him and his wife Kara.  It was great to talk to them; they told us more about their time at Ellerslie.  They both are so passionate for God! :) When we said goodbye, Steve told us that he had a burden for my dad, and our family.  So, he gave us his number and email.  When we left that night, my mom and I were both pumped. I said to her, "Mom, we have to start praying that Papa can go to Ellerslie!"  So we did...and amazing things happened.
So, I'm going to make this version a littler short.  on Saturday, Me and my mom told my dad about Friday night, and he told us that God had been speaking to him this whole week.  All he hear was, "Bible school. Bible teaching."  That made my mom and I really excited, so we told him all about our conversation with Steve and Kara.  On Sunday, God worked spoke to my dad, and "bid him to come." (long story) so on Monday, my dad checked out the Ellerslie website. Now, he knew nothing about Eric and Leslie Ludy, except that I had gone to their conference, and I read their books. So, he email the secretary, Sandi, and asked her about the ten week training program, and housing and all of the info.  (I don't know how exact the details will be, but I'll try to remember as much as possible.)  Sandi didn't get back to my dad till Tuesday; but she said Eric would be giving us a call.  So, on Wednesday I'm home with Anna and Charlie, and the phone rings and I see on the caller I.D. : Eric Ludy. !!!!  So I answered it, and we talked for a minute, then my dad came in and they talked for about an hour.  all the while I'm hyperventilating, cause Eric Ludy is talking to my dad. :)  An hour later, he gets off the phone, grinning from ear to ear.  Here's how it went.
Me: "Soooo??  Can you tell me something!?!?!"
"Well....I want to tell you mom."
"So, you can't tell me anything. Not even a little?"  I wanted to know something, DUH!
 He could tell I was excited, and he  was excited so he did tell me something. He said," Well, they have a house for us.  A couple from Australia bought it and can't move in till next summer, so they're going to let people from Ellerslie use it till they move in.  The rent on the house would be $2800, but somehow, we are only going to have to pay $400 a month."  So I don't remember all of what he told me, but I do remember what Eric said, "There's a place for the O'Brien family."
Alright.....fast version....Papa told Mom what Eric said.  Papa told Shane that we were maybe going to move to Colorado for three months, and he was all for it! (answer to prayer) Papa told Anna, and after she knew that it was only for three months, and there are two girls her age a block away, (Steve and Kara's daughters) she was OK with the idea....Mom called Kara to ask if they would come over Thursday to tell us a little bit more about their journey...so they did!
So, on Thursday Steve and Kara Rosen and family, came over to have lunch.  They have four adorable children: Kate (12), Anna (10), Stephen (8) and Nathan (4).  Just Anna and Charlie's ages - perfect! :)
We sat down for lunch and for three hours, nonstop, we talked about Ellerslie, and all the amazing things that God did in their family.  As we talked, a bond formed between our families...we hit it off right away!  Kara showed us pictures of their time there, (now I'm so excited for all the photo ops!) and somehow we got talking about the house we might stay in. It's a really nice house, but totally empty.  Well, Steve and Kara have this whole house in storage, (quick side note: Steve and Kara and family are now moving out to Colorado, near the Ellerslie campus) and they didn't want to take all of their stuff. BUT it turns out that they have a washer and dryer, and a couch that they're going to give us to put in our new house!  So, they are going to furnish our house for us! (another answer to prayer!!)
So, that night I am sitting in bed remember the events from the past three days.....and all of a sudden it hits me: We are going to Ellerslie School of Honor, our whole family!!!!!!!!!  and GOD is performing amazing miracles to get us there!!!! 
I ran out to find Mom and was freaking out for like twenty minutes, (a good freaking out)!  I was like,"Tell me that there isn't a God, because I will tell you that there is! He parted the red Sea, and now He's working miracles in the life of Bailey O'Brien!!!!!!!!!!!   The whole night this was ringing in my mind: "He can do exceedingly and abundantly, above all that we can ask think or imagine!!"  and that's exactly what He was/is doing for us!!! :D I was ecstatic!

So, I tried to remember the most important details, and I hope you can understand what all is going on, cause it's so cool!! (you can email me if you don't understand some of it:P)
But I just wanted to let ya'll know, that my family and I, as of the end of September are moving to Windsor, Colorado for three months, to attend the ten week program at Ellerslie School of Honor.
I am so excited to go, and so excited to see all that God has in store for all of us there!
There is a God! and HE IS AMAZING!!! and love's to do exceedingly, abundantly, above all that we can ask think or imagine! 

*Bailey*