L.A. trip!! and a little more...

Here are some pics from my trip to L.A. in early April that I promised I would post!!
There are random pics of Jamey and I at a yummy mexican restaurant in Hollywood, in our rented convertible (SO FUN), at his show at the Troubadour, and with some of my favorite people in the world (aka Cassie, Sarah, and Sean)!! Such a fun trip!!







































As far as what's going on now.....
I'm a little tired and in a weird mood so I'll do some bullets and see where they take me!

- Love my job!! Its so fun and so right up my alley. Praise God that I get up in the mornings loving what I do. (I don't love having tons of meetings...) but I LOVE getting to hang out with college students and international students!!

-Jamey just started recording his first major debut album! He sends me texts from the studio saying things like...and I quote...."I'm in guitar heaven!"....not too sure what that means, but it makes me happy that he's so happy!!

-LB moved to Fort Worth!! Praise his holy name on high! Its such a blessing having a good friend here, because although I love my job, and know my purpose here, I dont feel like I've made a ton of connections with people. Maybe I'm just spoiled from my old homegroup, or the days of 1031.... I meet people, and when I do..... I can enjoy them as a person, but in my 7 months here I haven't really felt a deep connnection with anyone except my sweet friend Tessa! But there's still time, and probably somewhere deep down inside I'm looking for a "new Dawn," or a "new summy/chavon" who loves Jesus, but is just slightly inappropriate, or a "brooke" who I can have worship sessions/dream about saving the world with or someone who gets my humor....you get the idea...geez the more I write, the more selfish I sound. So I'll end on the note that I'm just thankful Lauren is here!

- Lastly, I was reading in Luke 18 about the persistent widow and something about that parable grabbed me! I decided in my heart,...."I WANT TO BE THE PERSISTENT WIDOW".... Jesus tells the disciples in this parable, "ought always to pray and not lose heart."
Lately, I've had some weirdness between me and God concerning prayer. Part of my heart was walking in some serious unbelief and it was (and still is some) affecting my prayer life.
For some reason I've been feeling like my happiness and God's desire for his glory are mutually exclusive.
Example: Sometimes when Jamey drives home late at night from an out-of-town-gig I pray that God would protect him and keep him safe. (But I do so with the thought in the back of my mind being, "Well, I can pray for God to keep Jamey safe...BUT...he's not as concerned with me (somewhat good but mostly not good christian) having a long lasting marriage....AS MUCH AS HE'S concerned with his glory being made known. And maybe His will is for me to have a 4-month-long-marriage that ends tragically and I go around sharing my testimony and God gets the glory. (Now I know what you're thinking...unhealthy train of thoughts....dont worry....I'm fully aware of this) I'm sure I need some major "katherine-esque-theophostic-sessions" to get to the root of all this, but nonetheless....God used the persistent widow in Luke 18 to encourage me some. And all I know is that she begged and pleaded to an unrighteous judge and he granted her justice. So how silly is it to not ask God for something, on the off chance he doesn't answer the prayer...pretty silly, right??
.....at least I'm trying to convince myself of that truth
How sweet of God to show me a passage about His true character as opposed to the skewed one I tend to see through the lenses of at times...

Luke 18

1 And he told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart. 2 He said, "In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor respected man. 3 And there was a widow in that city who kept coming to him and saying, 'Give me justice against my adversary.' 4 For a while he refused, but afterward he said to himself, 'Though I neither fear God nor respect man, 5 yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will give her justice, so that she will not beat me down by her continual coming.'" 6 And the Lord said, "Hear what the unrighteous judge says. 7 And will not God give justice to his elect, who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long over them? 8 I tell will you, he will give justice to them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?"

MUCH LOVE....

Mel