Moving and Dental Hygiene School
Changes are in store for the Coop/Keathley household! Wow, has this been a whirlwind of a month (April). First DeLynn and I were privileged and blessed to be able to participate in Janet and Jim Keenan's wedding ceremony in Hawaii. Tough job, but somebody had to do it! And then upon coming home we discovered that the house we were renting was going up for sale in May. We decided to be preemptive and started looking right away. After walking through a couple of real "dogs" we found a great little house just down the street from where Ruth Covell used to live and across the street from her daughter, Margaret Holbrook. Our new address is: 5864 Paddon Circle. Same zip code, same phone number. The house has a 70's feel to it right down to the brown shag carpet and green tile and kitchen appliances. But it is now home and we are going to love it.
By the way, a great big THANK YOU to all of you who helped us move May 1st. We couldn't have done it without you! Now we just need to plan the open house and invite you all over to a walk back in time. J First, though, we have boxes and boxes to unpack and pictures to hang. We are doing some major downsizing, which is actually a good thing. It is amazing how much junk we accumulate over the years, albeit, some of it is good junk. We decided that if we hadn't looked at it or used it in the last year, we probably didn't need it. So we took numerous bags of clothes, books, and stuff we just don't really use to thrift shops around the city. It actually feels good to lighten our load. I think that it probably is good to move every few years or so just to keep the junk quotient to a minimum. Ok, I don't think DeLynn will go for that.
It is kind of like our lives. We have a lot of "junk in our trunk" that we carry with us wherever we go. What would our lives be like if we could lighten up and let go of some of those things like guilt and anger? How about if we forgave all those who have wronged us and started fresh? How would it change your life if you did some spring cleaning and got rid of all those cobwebs and dust bunnies that cloud your spirit and keep you from a right relationship with God? I'll bet it would do a world of good.
We also heard this month that DeLynn has been accepted to dental hygiene school (thank you all for your prayers!). It was a long time coming. She was originally accepted at a school in Texas - but then someone had to come along and ask her not only to marry him, but to also move all the way to California. Dental hygiene school had to be put on hold. Then we found out that in California they require a whole gob more prerequisites. Add on another year and a half to get those out of the way. Then add another year when she didn't get in the first time. Take more classes to bring up her GPA and apply again.
But … she persevered. She never gave up. It was her dream and she wasn't letting go of it. She did whatever was necessary and her reward? … Two more years of school - fulltime! It will be worth it.
My hope is that each of us has a dream to follow and that we will not give up on it. It would have been easy for DeLynn to give up at any step along the way. But achieving our dreams is not often easy. Still the rewards are great. God wants for us to have joy. God wants for us to experience love. God wants for us to be in relationship with him. God didn't say it would be a cakewalk, but he does say it is worth it!
It is my prayer that as we clean up our lives, getting rid of all that junk that just weighs us down, that we will be closer to realizing our dreams and closer to a God who loves us more than humanly possible.
Be blessed my friends and as always, I'll see you on Sunday!
Pastor Tom |
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