So I've obviously been a little busy with my puppy and haven't found a lot of time to post. I'm actually taking a few minutes at work to do this, just don't tell my boss... although I'm sure he wouldn't really care since he checks his MySpace a million times a day anyway!!! ;)

We have also been pretty busy because at church this week we are having a Seminar on "I Found Freedom" from Wellspring Ministries. It's quite interesting and a lot of people are seeing some emotional healing from this. The teaches show us that things like bitterness, self-hatred, anger, fear, and other things are not from God and that bad things really DO NOT come from Him either. Ergo when people say things like "God did ______ to teach me/you a lesson" or "Maybe ________ happened because you have sin in your life" those things are LIES! Even well-intentioned people can lie, and unfortunately I may have been one of those in my life.

If we don't realize these things are lies and that the feelings of bitterness, anger, etc are from the ENEMY then we can't truly be healed. It's something that for me seems fairly easy to comprehend, but who knows what God is going to do in my life down the road that I may need to refer back to these teachings.

I'm grateful that our Pator is willing to allow someone else to come in and teach his flock, because this doesn't happen at all churches. So we will go and listen, and learn, and pray because this is powerful information and God IS using it.

Speaking of being used... can I just say that I am thankful that even though I don't have a terrible past with dating and 'going too far' with a guy that I wansn't married to, God is using me to teach and mentor people in the avenue of dating. When I was going through all my past relationships I would get so discouraged because I felt like a flake, or that I wasn't hearing God telling me who/how to date. Well now I am seeing the full picture that even though my mistakes weren't huge, they are still able to help shed light on some young girls lives.

I'm still very close to a few girls from a youth group we belonged to in Wheaton, and let me just tell you that I love and care about those kids like you would NOT believe. One of the girls is like my little sister, and she is the most recent person God is helping me mentor in this area. Just last night I was able to share a story with her about a relationshp I was in, and it paralled her current situation so much it was eerie! But my errors, and my reflection on the situation has now helped her fine tune and accept what God was already putting into her heart. How amazing!

This has turned into a bit of a praise report on my life more than a post about Frugality, but I hope you don't care because I think we all need to be able to rejoice with each other in these type of victories. God is still working today, whether we chose to accept it or not.