Here it is...

I am officially a brunette. A dark brunette. I know this is a shoddy picture as far as showing my actual hair but it at least gives you an idea of the color. I'll make Nate do a photo shoot of sorts to show you up close. Why I think you give a rip, I'm not sure.

I'm loving it so far...and I just made a donation of the difference to Compassion International.

Peace.

Get used to it...

The hair color, I mean. On Friday, at 3:30pm, I will officially be a brunette. Don't try to talk me out of it...I've already made up my mind.

My reason for the picture and the blog post is so that you will be prepared so that when you see me next, I don't get looks of "holy crap, what the @*#^% did you do to your hair?". I don't need looks like that, k? I'm nervous enough already!

I walked out of the salon about a month ago and thought to myself "Never doing that again. I'm done. No more spending over $100 on my stupid hair. I can't write blogs about caring about people's needs and the fact that there are people who don't have beds to sleep in or shoes to wear or food to eat and then go drop $200 or more on my hair. I'm done. Finished." I was so annoyed with myself when I walked out of the salon that day!

I'm sure you're asking yourself, "What does it matter if you cut down on the cost of your hair if you're not going to do anything with that extra money to help people?" Well...I am. I am going to take the difference every 8 weeks and give it to a group called Compassion International.

So...here's to brunettes having as much fun as blondes!

What a weekend...

I've already bragged about family/movie night on Friday but I have to include that again on this blog.

This weekend was such a fun, relaxing weekend and I wasn't ready for it to end this morning.

Friday night...3 movies starting at 5:30 pm and ending when we fell asleep. Bekah would be so proud...I stayed up for two and a half of them (Bekah is my childhood friend who would bring movies over and I'd be asleep 10 minutes into it and I think she labeled me as the "worst person ever to watch movies with").

Saturday I got up and had breafast at El Chilito with my friend Miranda. We are in a "fight club" together. You can read about fight clubs here: http://www.boundless.org/2005/articles/a0001825.cfm It was a beautiful day and we sat on the patio and read the word together but mainly, just talked about life...where we struggle, where we succeed, what God is doing in our lives right now, how we can pray for each other. It's awesome.

Saturday night, we got a babysitter and had the ultimate privilege of going to dinner and hanging out with our friends Wheels and Melissa. Always makes for a fun night. We ate at Vivo and then headed over to the Flying Saucer and had a beer or two.

Sunday morning we went to the Hideout for our last Sunday service there. It was bittersweet leaving the Hideout. The Hideout has been a huge part of Austin City Life's story and it has been a place where I have grown hugely in my faith. I hate to leave the cozy, quaint environment the Hideout provided but I am really excited about growing my faith more and hearing about Jesus more in this place called the Parish.

Sunday night we had a prayer and worship night at The Parish. It was powerful. God truly showed up. We prayed for each other, the Church and the city of Austin. I feel so blessed too, to have the talent we do in our Church as far as worship leading. It blows my mind.

Then, of course, people came over for the Oscars.

Today starts a new week...here's to another week of trying to follow Jesus as best I can.

I'm on a roll today...two posts in one day.

The kids are asleep and Nate and I are on our third movie of the night...this is awesome!!

Family Night

Tonight is family night. What that means is that we will actually all be home as a family tonight, without any plans, which is always nice.

Our weeks are so packed with things going on...work, kids, fight clubs, Sunday mornings at the Hideout (soon-to-be the Parish), Sunday Night Dinners, Lost, American Idol, Monday nights at the Gingerman, worship rehearsal...and most of these things are done in community with other people and sometimes lots of other people. The Navarros LOVE that but there is something special about a night at home with nothing but time to love on the kids.

I think tonight we'll grill out and then make a comfy pallet on the floor and watch a movie.

So excited.

Brentwood City Group Mission

I really struggle with the tension between Matthew 5 and 6 when talking on my blog about missional work we are doing with our Church/City Group. Matthew 5 says to let your light shine before men so that they might see your good deeds and praise your father in heaven. Matthew 6, on the other hand, says to be careful not to do your 'acts of righteousness' before men, to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven.

I think Jesus is mainly addressing the "heart" of the matter, which would be motive. Is my motive in updating my blog to receive praise and applause for the good our City Group is doing, or, is it to lead by example in what Jesus asks of us and point all glory to Christ? I pray it's the latter of the two.

City Groups at Austin City Life are to be the Church to our neighborhood. The City Groups are broken up as such (by neighborhood) and once a month we do a missional project in that neighborhood. We live in Brentwood and so we focus on this neighborhood in Austin.

Last night we visited a retirement center on Burnet Rd. and Justin Ln. http://www.retirementnursingcenter.com/ We took them Valentines cards and Nate played the guitar for them. They loved it. They loved that the kids were there, loved the music, and loved telling us stories of their childhood and early adulthood. They just needed to be loved on. They talked about their children, their past jobs, where they grew up, their neices and nephews. It felt good to meet them and love on them. We plan on going back once a month and trying to be a consistent presence to them.

Here are some pictures from the night:

Matthew 5

Last week Nate and I started getting up in the mornings and starting our day out together reading the Bible and praying. We started in Matthew and have read a chapter each day. Today we read Matthew 5.

Umm...pretty convicting stuff in Matthew 5. The Bible is good for so many things...convicting, motivating, encouraging, comforting, etc. The best thing about it to me is that I feel I get to know Jesus more intimately when I read about his teachings. I've said before that he is the most interesting person in the world to me. I mean that.

There is a lot packed into Matthew 5. Jesus talks about Christians being the salt of the earth and the light of the world. "You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men." Salt was a valued commodity in Jesus' day. It was expensive and sometimes Romans were even paid with salt. It was used to preserve meat and give flavor to food. Salt must keep it's flavor today to be of any use. We, as Christians, must also keep our "flavor" or we are useless. Jesus also says "You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven." This was heavy for me because it reminded me how much in the past I have hidden my light and committed bad deeds for others to see. God is changing my heart though and I am hoping that my light shines bright.

The last thing that Jesus talks about in Matthew is loving your enemies. I'll admit that I don't have many enemies and can count on just a few fingers people who might not like me. It is hard to imagine loving those people and praying for them every day. It is not a challenge in the Bible to do that. It is a command. My prayer for myself is to not just say I love my enemies so that I sound a little bit holier, but to really ask God to help me truly love them and pray for them. He talks about how easy it is to love those who love us back. "If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? And if you greet only your brothers, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that?" This is so challenging because it is so true. It's easy to love people who are easy to love. The true love of Christ though, shows love to those that are not easy to love.

Matthew 5 touches on so much...adultery, anger, forgiveness, boldness in faith, divorce, broken friendships. All pretty heavy stuff...but the cool thing about being convicted is knowing that Jesus went to the cross with our failures in these areas.

I am so thankful for that.

Prodigal God...get it and read it.

I just read this today...such an awesome take on the true meaning of the Parable in the Bible about the man with two sons.

Please Read...

I know I keep urging you to read the blogs of Jaime and Aaron Ivey and I'll urge you again today. Please go to: www.aaronivey.com and read Aaron's recent post called WANT. This post really speaks to me as I have felt God working on my heart to desire and want the things He wants me to desire and want. Not what the world wants me to desire and want.

For me, it is like alcoholism. It is a daily fight for me. A constant struggle. An addiction of sorts. I want the things the world tells me I need. Cute clothes. Cute shoes. A "nice" car. A house with lots of room and a big backyard. A "nice" neighborhood. Just the right jewelry for that one outfit. A skinny body. Highlighted hair.

I read over that list and realize what a schmuck I really am. I mean...really? Am I waking up and fooling myself every day into thinking I need these things? It's embarrassing.

My prayer for myself and for you is that every day I will fall more in love with Jesus and know that my only hope is in him and my true security lies within his love for me, not the world's.

Aaron's post about Want could do all of us a bit of good to read and maybe take some time to meditate today on the things we "want". Are they things God desires for us? Or...are they things the world desires for us?

Back to Blogging

Sorry...I was angry with my blog because I couldn't get the stinking Christmas background off so I rebelled and didn't blog for a while.

I'm back.

Let me think about what all has happened since I blogged last... Ava got her hair cut, Jessica officially has a best fried that she emails with and says LYLAS(love ya like a sister) to, we had our first annual ACL Super Bowl Flag Football game, people have continued to do Sunday Night Dinner at our house, Austin City Life outgrew The Hideout and will be meeting for the first time at The Parish on March 1st, our City Group outgrew our house and like 25 people were consistently coming so we had to "multiply" and send some of them out to start a new group...A lot has happened since I last blogged.

Some of these things are super exciting like: moving to The Parish and seeing Jessica make good girlfriends at school and seeing our house fill up with people every week wanting to be in community with other believers.

I had a hard time with sending off the people from our City Group to start another one but I am also LOVING the new group. It is a great great group of people.

Once a month, we do something missional in our neighborhood and so next Tuesday, we are going to a Nursing Home down the street to love on the people living there. We are going to take Valentines cards to them and sing songs with them and just get to know them.

Here is a link to The Parish (a very reputable music venue in Austin) I've seen Pete Yorn and Brooke Fraser play there.

www.theparishroom.com

And...here are some pictures of Ava's haircut: