A Renewal of Many Kinds

Last Sunday night I got to open a rather large Christmas gift that Matthew and Grey had wrapped for me. (due to Grey helping, half the gift was covered in tape) I knew that I was going to be getting my Christmas present early but I had no idea it was going to be so awesome! I opened the box to find a new set of luggage. As I unzipped and opened every piece, I was getting more and more excited. I figured I was going to get to go on some sort of trip and I LOVE to travel. I opened the smallest piece to find my itinerary and a note telling me to tell Mrs. Erin Timberlake hello. It took it a minute to sink in that I was going to get to actually go to Los Angeles to visit one of my greatest friends for four whole days! Matthew has been planning it since Katie and Mark's wedding in June and was so excited to tell me all about it. All of his secret keeping and effort to make this possible is more appreciated than he will ever know!


So here I am. I had a full day of travel Wednesday in which I had a short layover in Dallas. I was quite nervous about that seeing as that is the very airport that Matthew and I switched gates at about 20 times before not getting to make it to Hawaii until a day and half late for our honeymoon. (that's another long story) I could just imagine myself running through the airport trying to get to the right gate in time. That didn't happen and I was thankful. I love airports and flying and everything that goes along with it. I love getting a free drink on the plane. It does stink you have to pay for any food you want but I didn't care about that. I just didn't buy any. I don't even really mind how close we all are to each other. I sat next to a nice lady from San Diego on my way to Dallas. On my way to L.A. I sat next to a man that I talked to for a few minutes before I realized he did not understand a word of what I was saying. Needless to say I had a really good travel experience.

I love being here. I love being where Erin and Andy live and getting to see their lives here. I have had the past two mornings to myself with lots of time to rest, read, and get online a little bit. It is refreshing beyond words to have a little time to myself. Yesterday morning I had uninterrupted time to read my Bible. We just finished a study on Romans (I recommend any believer study Romans immediately if you haven't already done it) and I was going back through summarizing paragraph by paragraph the first two chapters. I just cannot express how alive and humbled I am when I am in the Word of God. It's very purpose is to renew my mind and that It does each and every time! The Truths of God put everything about my life into perspective and therefore my life looks very different after I dive into those Truths. I find it hard to get uninterrupted time at home so it was really great.

Yesterday Erin and I went to Manhattan Beach and had sushi then had a long walk along the Pacific Coast. (yes it was romantic in a friendly way) Then last night we went to Redondo Beach. The little town where all the shops are was having a Christmas festival of sorts. All the shops had cookies and cider and the Christmas spirit was alive! There were tons of kids and Santa was there! Then we went to Erin's favorite Mexican restaurant that was delicious. I'm looking forward to another really great day today. I also might get to see Laura Nutter and Megan Mueller/Ferrier while I'm here!

My time with Erin so far has been so wonderful. I know that Matthew's intention in sending me here was to have a great time and a change of pace. More than that he wanted me to encourage and be encouraged in a very old familiar way with someone that I have known and loved for quite a few years. It's so great to have the familiarity of Erin's walk with the Lord and even to be in very different places than we were in college but still be able to point everything about our lives to the glory of God. This is so much of a renewal as well. I am excited about the rest of my time here and wanted to share a little about the beginning of it.