0 Sneak Attack

Boy, I thought I would never get on here tonight! My laptop is a grandma compared to all these new cool computers and it literally took me 20 minutes to start old Ellie and log on to blogger.

How is everybody doing? Today was a pretty good day for me. These past couple of months have been a little rough for me since I have been pregnant. I won't go into the gross details but let's just say that morning sickness should be called continual 24 hour sickness. And, there should also be a huge warning label for husbands that they are going to have to be their wives' Superman during those months.

I tell you what, Raleigh has been a great husband to me. He has always been wonderful but it has been so cool to see certain characteristics that he has really take center stage. One of those is obedience. He has always been a very obedient person and that has been a trait of his that I have always admired. Since I have been feeling so sick for so long he has really had to take on my share of the household duties. He has been cooking dinner, washing clothes, cleaning the house, and doing so many other random tasks that I just have not had the energy to do. He has gone above and beyond and has not complained once...I appreciate it more than he will ever know.

Since I have been pregnant, a lot of change has occurred in my normal every day routine. For instance, I used to always get up in the morning and read my devotional, Bible, or something along those lines while eating breakfast. That was my quiet time and helped me get my day started. Well, thanks to morning sickness I get nauseated even looking at a book much less reading it and I have been eating dry cereal and Gatorade in the bed for the past month. Also, I have been working out on occasion but it has not been a rigorous routine. My body is just so tired! I am surprised I am even still up right now. The days that have been the worst so far are the ones where I don't leave my bedroom or change out of my pajamas. During Christmas, I could tell you all of the commercials that were on T.V. because all I could do was lie down and listen to what was on during the day.

That sounds so pitiful, doesn't it? I'm not trying to be a complainer I am just giving you some background that relates to the reason why I am writing tonight. All in all, I wouldn't trade being sick for anything because this really is such an amazing experience. Raleigh and I could not be more thrilled that God has blessed us with not only one but two little babies. Every day I think about them and pray that they are growing into healthy little ones. They say getting sick means that they are healthy so to me it has been worth it one hundred fold.

What I have found interesting though is how the devil works the hardest during our most special moments. When God gives us such blessings as being pregnant or getting married or fulfilling our life calling; Satan is busily trying to mess all of this up for us. For me, the little devil has taken away my will to have alone time with God. I have always cherished our mornings together and rely on that time to give me strength through my day. The minute he saw I wasn't feeling well he stepped in to make sure that I would start neglecting my prayer and devotional time. It's funny...I have felt the worst on Sundays so far. I don't think that is a coincidence...I believe that Satan is using this to get me to not spend time with God on his chosen day of rest and worship. He knows that if I start to lose my personal relationship with Jesus Christ that he has planted a stronghold in my mind and I won't be as willing to rely on Christ when things really get tough during this pregnancy.

Well, no more. I'm tired of letting him win this fight. I want my time with God and by golly I am going to find it some way and some how. It might not be in the mornings because I just can't control Mother Nature's timing but it is going to come sometime during the day. I miss spending time in the Word. I miss hearing the band play on Sunday mornings. Most of all, I miss feeling so close to Jesus. He is right there for me but I haven't met him half-way lately.

Friends, have you ever found yourself in these types of situations? I'm sure you have at some point. Next time you have a God given blessing, don't let the enemy sneak in the back door.

Till next time, let your light shine!

Blessings, christen

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1 Two for the Price of one!

"Trust in the Lord and do good; dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture. Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart." -Psalm 37:3-4

How many times in life have we wanted something? Wanted something but never thought it would become a reality? Never really believing in it...never allowing ourselves to fully trust that He can make that desire happen if He so chooses for that to be a part of our purpose in life?

Friends, what I am about to share with you is living proof to me that God is in control of my life. It shows me without a shadow of a doubt that He loves me and hears my prayers. Not only does He hear them but He answers them on His time; not mine.

After Thanksgiving, Raleigh and I found out that I was pregnant! We were beyond thrilled and decided to tell our families at Christmas. It was such a special moment to share this news with the soon-to-be grandparents. In the midst of their excitement, we made them promise not to tell anyone until we went to the doctor to confirm that everything was going smoothly. With it being my first time pregnant I really didn't want the whole world to know we were expecting until that point. Well, this past Friday we went to the doctor and everything checked out great. It was so neat to hear a heartbeat and to finally be able to tell our friends! Our doctor scheduled us to come back on Tuesday to get an ultrasound.

So, yesterday we headed back to the OB office expecting to see this itty bitty peanut shape on the screen. As the ultrasound technician squirts the goo on my belly, Raleigh and I look at each other just so thrilled at what we were about to see. Well, she starts moving the wand over my belly and up on the screen is more than a peanut. It is an actual shape of an itty bitty baby. And, as we look closer, we realize that we aren't seeing just one shape on the screen. The technician looks at me and says, "Do you see what I see?" I look at her and say, "Is that what I think that is?" She says, You're having TWINS!!!!! Raleigh and I just can't contain ourselves at this point and we just burst into laughter saying over and over again, "Oh, my gosh. Oh, my gosh. This is crazy. Wow. I love you. Wow. This is crazy."

It was truly one of the best moments of my life. It was so cool to see their little features. Below are some of the ultrasound pictures. Both babies have great heartbeats and their due date is July 24th.



Not only has God blessed us with a child but He has given us two! And the best part of it is I have always wanted twins. That has been a desire of my heart since I was a little girl and I would read Sweet Valley High books about Jessica and Elizabeth being identical twins. I know that sounds silly, but it is true. I am not kidding y'all when I say this but I know without a shadow of a doubt that God hears even the little whispers and the dreamy fairy tales of our hearts. Not only have I always wanted twins, but I used to say that I would love to marry an architect. Yesterday, as I was laying on the exam room table all of these thoughts came rushing through my head. It was all I could do to make it to the car before I burst into tears of His outstanding grace and mercy over my life. He has heard everything. Not only has He heard but He has listened and answered my prayers! It overwhelms me to think about how much He truly cares about me.

He is going to watch over these two bundles of joy over these next six months. Please keep our growing family in our prayers. Pray for us not to worry and to just continue to trust in His guiding hand. Pray for our families and for all of us to be a team as we prepare for these new beginnings. Pray for our doctor and for my health.

"For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be." - Psalm 139:13-16

Till next time, let your light shine!

Blessings, christen

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0 I Am Second

I'm sure you all are aware of a little football game played last Thursday night. As Texas took on Alabama, the number one team going into the BCS National Championship we all watched in shock as Colt McCoy, the Texas quarterback, was removed from the game when he was hit during a play by an Alabama defensive player.

We all know how the game ended. Alabama walked away as the number one team for this season in football. I know my dad, one of the biggest Alabama fans in this state, was a very happy camper that night.

But, that's not what this post is about tonight. It's not about who won and who lost. It's not about which team we were cheering for or what we thought the game was going to be like. It's about the Christian character that was shown by Colt McCoy that night as he watched from the sidelines his last football game in his college career.

Anybody that has ever played any sport can totally relate to the emotions he was feeling that night. Athletes have so much heart for their sport. It is more than a game. The game tests the athlete and develops inner character. Below is the post-game interview that was given to Colt. Check out what he had to say:



We all face unexpected trials in life. Are we going to let that curve ball control us or are we going to let someone far greater be in control of our lives?

*I am second is a movement where significance in life is a shared value among people of all kinds. Actors. Athletes. Musicians. Business leaders. Your next door neighbor. People just like you. Their authentic stories here on iamsecond.com provide insight into dealing with typical struggles of everyday living. You'll meet people who overcame destructive lifestyles. Plus you'll discover those who've tried to go at it alone and have failed, yet still found a life full of hope, peace, and fulfillment.

Take a look at Colt's I am Second video:



Do you see yourself as second? I think we should all take some time to think about where we rate ourselves in life. To see more I Am Second videos, click here.

Till next time, let your light shine!

Blessings, christen

*iamsecond.com. What is I Am Second?.

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0 un(.com)plicated

Hey everybody, as Christen pointed out, were an official .com now. As always, this is done for you, the readers. The previous link was, shall we say, complicated. Hopefully, you will find www.theuncontainabletruth.com much easier to remember when you are not are your home computer and can't access your favorites.

I want to take a little of your time to explain some more features of the site. I will just touch on a few today.The website design itself will hopefully simplify some things also. First, you will notice that you now see a description of the actual posts. If you click on the title, you will then be able to read the full article. This will help keep the length of the homepage down and will also allow you to see previous articles you may have missed without having to scroll a mile. We also put a convenient "Back to Top" button in the lower left hand corner - give it a try - it will take you all the way back to the top of the page once you have read all the way down.

Another convenient feature is the new Topic menu located in the sidebar to the right. This will allow you to easily search all of the topics that have been covered throughout our posts. It's in alphabetical order, but you will also notice that the topics we frequently discuss appear larger than others.

That should do it for now, I will be back later to tell you about more of the new features.

-Raleigh

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0 Just Keep Pedalling

As I sit on my bed this evening trying to put my thoughts into words all I can think of how to start this post is that honesty is always the best policy.

So, I'll be honest. The month of December was busy for me (as I'm sure it was for all of you) and as I was taking my time off from work, I found myself taking time off from my daily routine of being in the word of God. I love to read but I had no desire to pick up any book or devotional. You can call me a "spiritual slacker" if you will, and I'm not proud to admit that.

From my experience, my walk with Christ is like riding a bike up and down rolling hills. My journey starts out with strong legs pumping my bike up the first hill and my head speaks words of encouragement to my heart. I reach the top of that hill and I come to God in thanksgiving. Then, as I start the fast downhill spin I am just bursting with joy and a fresh spirit. But, as I continue to pedal up one hill after the next, it just gets harder for my head to tell my legs to move and for my heart to be willing to make the journey. At this point, I feel defeated and as though I will never get to my ultimate destination. So, I start to slow down. I might get off my bike and take a break, maybe walk the bike up the next hill to keep moving, but my direction is lost. I need help. So, when life gets to hard to stand, I kneel. In prayer, I cry out to God telling him that I can't do this any more, that I feel so defeated, so lost. I pray for Christ to point me in the right direction so I can reach my final destination. I ask Christ to provide me fellow travelers to help me make my journey. He whispers in my legs to get back on the bike. He takes control of my head and my heart just follows him to the finish line.

I find that the truly fulfilled people in life are the ones that have a personal relationship with Christ. Not people that claim to be spiritual, or even ones that call themselves Christians and state that they have been raised in the church. I mean people that learn that they can't do squat in life without Christ guiding their paths. Now, as illustrated above, that doesn't mean that everything is just rosy in that relationship. It's hard like any other relationships that we have. An effort has to be made on our end but the great thing about this relationship is the effort has, is, and will always be made by our Savior, Jesus Christ. When we engage in this relationship, we can't help but be fulfilled in life.

When our lives are fulfilled through Christ, we start to put that as the focus of everything that we do. I believe that this makes us better people and wonderful contributors to society. This does not mean we will always be the richest, the CEO's, or never get cancer but it does mean that we will be living our lives with the sole purpose of loving Christ and then loving others. When doing this, we start to see why we were put on this earth and how we can make the most of His purpose for our lives. We have His guidance, blessings, and love filling our spirit every single day.

I think it is easy to state that we all know people that don't have the best track record in life. People who drop out of school, don't get jobs, steal money from their friends, take advantage of their parents, have pre-marital sex only to get pregnant and then live off of baby daddy child support....the list can go on and on. We see our children, brothers, sisters, or friends making these mistakes and just watch them spiral down-hill. As a parent, I can only imagine how tough it would be to see your child go down a path of destruction. *In Exodus, chapter 34, the Lord spoke to Moses on Mount Sinai. As he passed in front of Moses, he proclaimed, "The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished." (Exodus 34:6-7)

**In this verse, a key phrase to focus on is "maintaining love to thousands." This word maintain can be translated to guard, to protect to keep. God is abounding in love for us and he shows this to us through blessings in our lives. God never withdraws his love from us but he does withdraw blessings when need be. Parents, if you are dealing with a disobedient child, the best thing you can do for your child is to withdraw the blessing but not the love. So often, we find ourselves feeding the beast. If you see your child making a bad decision, don't give them things (money, clothes, car, etc.) that can be fuel to the fire. Continue to give them your love, compassion, and grace. Try so hard to be like God and be slow to anger and to forgive them when they hurt you. It won't be easy but who said being a parent was easy?

As I close, I just want to encourage all of you to keep pedalling. If you have to walk your bike up the hill from time to time, know that you aren't walking alone. Life is hard and it is so easy for us to take an off-road path but I challenge all of us to stay on the path that Christ is guiding for our lives. I can't wait to meet y'all in heaven one day.

Till next time, let your light shine!

Blessings, christen

*NIV Bible
**Beth Moore, Living Proof Live.
Memphis, TN. 2009.

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2 Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!

Hello all my blogger friends; I hope each of you have had a nice time celebrating the holidays! I am excited about it being 2010...not that I didn't love 2009 but I am looking forward to the opportunities that await me in 2010.
I'm not one to really make New Year's resolutions, but one thing that I do want to commit myself to this year is really investing in my walk with Christ and sharing it with you all on this blog. I will be honest...these last couple of weeks I haven't really felt like myself and the lack of activity on this site has been obvious. I apologize for not writing but we have been working on different aspects of the blog.

One new feature that is the most obvious is the design of the site. Raleigh and I collaborated on what we thought would best showcase what we feel when we think of The Uncontainable Truth. Some of the words that came to our minds were jumping, joy, bright, cheerful, and passion. So, the new look is designed around those thoughts. We did a little poll on the right-hand sidebar so take time to tell us your thoughts on our new look. I have to give major kudos to my husband for working on this site...it is amazing what that boy can do in photoshop!

Another new feature is we want this to be more than a blog. We want this to be an area where you can come and find out the latest on books, music, and people that are making a difference in our world. The blog is now officially a website so it can encompass all of those things. The blog is still through blogger so if you come to us through that avenue you will just be redirected but an easy way to get to us is to save the site as theuncontainabletruth.com.

Since we are now a website we wanted to have the page options that are easy for you to click on to find what you are looking for. You will notice in the top right hand corner the different pages. We have an About, Contact, Do, Give, Teach, and Pray. The idea behind these different pages came from New Testament scripture when Jesus was preaching to the masses. Some of the key words that kept popping out to me were "do, give, teach, and pray." These pages are a work in progress but keep checking them because over time they will continue to have more information provided for your use.

There are a lot more cool little things that Raleigh and I will be sharing with you over the next month or so, but we just wanted to officially show off our hard work. Thank you to each and every one of you for coming to this site. It makes my heart swell to think that with each post we are all glorifying our wonderful Savior. In closing, I want to leave you with the mission statement of this site which is, "To joyfully encourage each other to passionately seek the truth spoken by Jesus Christ and to become an uncontainable light humbly serving our world."

Till next time, let your light shine!

Blessings, christen

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