One Thing

The Lord really blessed me in 2010, in many ways, but it is so neat to see how He placed some new people and friendships in my life that have really spurred me on, challenged me, and caused me to live and grow - pushing me to know more of myself, and more importantly, to know the heart and love of Christ. (Bet you can't beat THAT run on sentence!)

One of those people is Gigi. I actually met her early in 2009. We were on the same team of people from Fellowship, preparing to go to Peru in September of that year. I ended up getting really sick on that trip and it was miserable. Sweet Gigi took care of me (she is a Family Nurse Practitioner) ... and that was the beginning of our friendship.

Over the next year we would occasionally meet for lunch or coffee and I found that Gigi's passion for the Lord and love of life were extremely contagious. I was so blessed by her wisdom and counsel, attracted to her humility, and encouraged by her desire to learn. One day after lunch Gigi was taking me to my car and she shared more of her incredible story with me. It clicked - there was a natural connection. It was not deliberate or intentional. And now? Discipleship.

I wish you could know her for yourself.

I have learned that Gigi is warm, kind, committed, and intentional. She is hard working, honest, real, and vulnerable. Selfless, funny, a wonderful model of a wife and mother. Dare I forget that she is incredibly creative and a top notch writer. And let me just tell you - she WILL ask you the hard questions. You understand? I am so grateful the Lord placed her in my life.

Earlier this (new) year Gigi tweeted -

@gigimcmurray:

Happy New Year! This is my one wish for 2011. The first page of my new journal. One Thing http://twitpic.com/3lsp6h

... I freaked out over the "One Thing" ...
I obviously love the verse. I adored the nest she drew.
And I am a huge fan of her handwriting!
I told her that that (Ps. 27:4) is what I want out of this year as well, so desperately. I asked her if she would make that for me sometime - I wanted a copy/reminder to keep for myself.

Today, I met Gigi for an impromptu lunch,

and look what she brought me ...

I have it framed and ready to hang on my wall in the place I have already designated in my office. After my walls are repainted, of course. Thanks, Geeg! You should know this is one of the most treasured of any gift I have ever received! Honest! Thank you for sharing your life with me and for pointing me to Christ. Your sacrifice is great and your impact eternal.

Today ...

Is likely one of my favorite days of 2010.

There is no overestimating her work.

In my very humble opinion.

If only I could drive Hwy 1

all day long

in a convertible mini cooper

blaring this album.

But alas, I am at the office,

and I will crank it anyway.

Sing it, Sara.

Overwhelm-ed.

"I know you can be overwhelmed, and you can be underwhelmed,
but can you ever just be whelmed?"

Today, I would like to be whelmed -
but that is not the case with the given state of my Google Reader.

"... I think you can in Europe."

Maybe I should 'go to there.'

Yikes.

31 things, the best things.

I am really blessed to have some of the best friends in the whole world. I am really proud of them. I am sure you know. If you have hung around me for any period of time you know that my college friends are life friends - top notch friends, and I speak of them often. Oh the stories we could tell. My life has been marked by journeying through recent years with these precious girls and I am humbled to have them in my life and look forward to the days ahead.


Heather is a kindred spirit, my best friend. I often wonder how many people are blessed to experience rich friendship like this. We have many memories that I am grateful for: like driving to Destin at the drop of a hat to pick up the Larrivee that was given to me, my sophomore year of college. Going to the Sarah McLachlan concert for my birthday one year, singing paperboy in the car, and endless trips to Dairy Queen that Heather required us to take so she could get a blizzard. These are just a few of the good times, but when I recall many of the highest of highs and the lowest of lows in my life, there are several that Heather has been around for. The day I found out my parents were getting a divorce, Heather took me (and my destructive personality) to the batting cage. She just sat there with me until I was done hitting.

Henri Nouwen says, “The friend who can be silent with us in a moment of despair or confusion, who can stay with us in an hour of grief and bereavement, who can tolerate not knowing... not healing, not curing... that is a friend who cares.” That is the kind of friend that Heather has been to me, but she is even more. A mentor, accountability, someone that gets my craziness and laughs at me when I make NO sense. Whats more is she calls me to a higher standard. She is the one friend that I can always count on to call out sin in my life, and I appreciate this about her. I love that she esteems my relationship with the Lord more than even I do at times and she is always looking to point me to Christ and His word - and yet, she has more grace than you would ever know. Times of temptation, hurt, anger, defeat, despair - I can call her, and find a loving friend.

I had the privilege of standing by Heather as MOH on her wedding day, and being at the hospital when she and Clay welcomed their two beautiful children into the world.

(I always say that if I can love my own kids a fraction of how
much I love my friends kids I will be in good shape.)

Heather is a few years older than me, and so I learn a lot from her as she is very candid with me about each of life's stages, and as I see her handle challenges, joys, fears, and dreams - I am encouraged, and I grow.

I will never forget this one day. Clayton was just a baby but Heather began to pray for him, consistently. She made this card that listed 31 character traits that she desired her son to have, and each day of the month she prays, even still, that the Lord would instill these things in him. She made one for me, so I can pray too - and I keep it in my pocket Bible - and although I'm not as faithful as she is, I pray for Clayton. And I pray for myself, that I, by the grace of God, would possess these traits as well. That I would be molded more into the image of Christ with each passing day. I pray these things for my husband, my brother, my cousins, and friends.
I guarantee that you will be convicted when you read through this list. I am, every time. Thanks for the example, Hal. Thank you for sharing your life with mine, and thanks for teaching me how to be a Godly friend, wife, mother, and lover of Christ.

"Real Men Say They're Sorry."

Wow. Why am I even surprised? Is there a need to go into how I can't believe how long it has been since I have blogged? Do you even know me? This is what I do but, I need to blog again. So, here is a first attempt. I guess that's it - I wait so long to return that it suddenly feels new again. There might be something to that. Anyways, I digress.

I seem to be learning a lot lately. The longer I live life, the more I find I am really blessed. It seems that with each stage of life, the Lord never lets me down. If only I could always remember that.

Lately, the Lord is really using my co-workers to teach me a whole bunch. Big life lessons here, kids. I am fortunate to be surrounded by an amazing team at work who are my friends - and even better - like family. I affectionately refer to them as, my teamily. We care deeply for each other - and I can talk bad about them all day long - but if you try to cross them, you are going down. They have my back in the same kind of way. And because of the precious friendship the Lord has given us, He is using them to teach me, challenge me, and change me.

Here is a little example: Last week we met off campus one morning for a series of meetings. Somehow I was already in a funk because in a high maintenance moment, I didn't think the guys hustled quickly enough to help me lug a few things from my car (ridiculous, really) - they refer to this as me "tanking." I tried to shake it and decided just to keep to myself so no one would find me in a bad mood.

Moments later we ended up in a conversation during one of our meetings that left my very relational side hurting for some people. We all begin to discuss, and before long, my Boss, Rob, had officially hurt my feelings, misunderstood what I was trying to say, and dismissed my point. By no means was this intentional. I am learning this is real life. We were having a conversation, all sharing our thoughts, opinions, and (God forbid) our feelings. Tears welled up in my eyes and none of us had any clue where this had come from-they all grew silent. I am the one that does not cry, and so when I do, they take it pretty seriously. Rob tried to talk it through with me and after no avail he said we would discuss it later.

Great. Conflict Resolution. ANOTHER lesson. Ugh.

I masterfully compartmentalized for the rest of the day, as I seem to usually do and we had a blast - but that was not the end of it and I should have known. The next day Rob called me into his office to talk about what happened (talking through conflict in a healthy way was something that was pretty foreign to me before Fellowship). I didn't want to have another hard conversation or try to figure out what was really going on in me to illicit such a response the day before.

However, I walked in to a room where I was greeted with humility and kindness. Rob, after a few statements, said, "Erin, I am so sorry." He began to explain to me how he realized he took his "black and white" approach to life and nailed it to this situation our team had been discussing - and to me, there was a grey area. When we couldn't agree, I felt misunderstood, and things went crashing in a downward spiral. I realized ... he didn't apologize because he did something wrong, he apologized because he cared and that was huge for me to see. It was because he had offended me, hurt me - not that he had broken a rule of some sort. I realized that this was intensely healing for me - I didn't grow up like that. Humility and apologies were not something I encountered as a child - especially not like this, and definitely not from a man.

Days later, Kayla and I were at Rob and Kirsten's for dinner when Ben, their youngest, and Sarah, the middle child, got into a fight. All I remember was walking down the hallway when I overheard a conversation between Ben and Rob.

Rob sat Ben down and said:

"Ben, I will tell you one of the things my Dad always told me."

"What, Dad?"

"Real Men Say They're Sorry."

I hope Ben learns what a difference it makes.

The world could use some more real men.

I am beyond blessed to get to work with a few of them.

Thanks for the lesson, thanks for caring, and thanks for teaching me too,

Boss.

*Robs Dad passed away years ago. We all know how much Rob loved his Dad. What I love is seeing a man that lived so well, and loved so much,
that his life affected people who never had the chance to meet him.

today i miss ...

So, my friend, Kelley, posted this about missing her friends, and of course... what did it do?

made me miss mine

SO

since she asked ... I'm showing who it is that i miss

please meet or reacquaint yourself with the people in my life who make me better


maybe one day someone will teach me how to format pictures.
until then ... deal with this.

pick me up

I keep saying that I will stop drinking, again.


But, when 2:43pm comes everyday, its really hard to stop.

Sorry, Mom.

How Cute Is He?

Smacking and All. Best Valentine's Day Ever.

Hypothermia

Today?

Today I fell into a lake.

T'was COLD.

the great snow debacle

So,

this is all we have to show for a "snow day?"

really, Nashville?

Really?

watch your step, everybody.

The End of the Firsts

I really cant believe it has been a year.

I was overwhelmed to the point of tears today thinking of how special our time was in Dallas last year as 13 of my very best friends from college gathered to celebrate the life of Sweet Hopkins. After the day of the service, and a feast of food and friends - we told stories and laughed and cried and then ... we played cards. It was an unforgettable scene.

I have recently read Donald Miller's new book and it has rocked me. There is part where Miller speaks of a dear friend dying and he describes the scene of being at the friends house, late - the night of the funeral.

He says,

"Later, at around two in the morning, when there were only a few dozen people left at their house, I looked across the deck at Steve and Ben sitting and talking to Jim (whose wife had passed away), and as they laughed and drank their wine, I wondered how much it costs to be rich in friends and how many years and stories and scenes it takes to make a rich life happen. You cant build an end scene as beautiful by sitting on a couch, I thought to myself. And I also knew that while this group had experienced devastating loss, the ones who remained were richer still because of her passing, as thought Janice left an emotional inheritance of stories that would continue to be told, stories that would be passed down to her children, and theirs.

I looked across the deck at Steve sitting and talking to Jim, and as they laughed and drank their wine, I wondered about the story we were writing and wanted even more to write a better story for myself, something that leaves a beautiful feeling even as the credits roll."

I hope that through the years we continue to fight our schedules, distractions, and comfort to commit to one another the time needed for the scenes and the stories that we must have in order to be rich in friendship. I am so very thankful for how far we have come - for the stories I can tell and the scenes I can see. I am thankful for a person like Sweet who was in our lives, and showed us what it is like to be a masterful scene maker.

The picture above is what we sent Ivy today to remind her of our love and support and care.

We also sent her a letter, here is part of it for you to read.

"Ivy, we thank God for the woman you are in each of our lives. Together as we look back over the the events of a year ago in remembrance and forward towards the future with hope, we pray that the One who gives us His light burden and easy yoke will hold you tightly in His arms. We trust that He will continue to shape you, grow you, and mold you into the incredible woman that He has created you to be.

We love you so much, Ivy. We are praying with you and for you. We rejoice in the Lord for the works He has done in and through you in the past year.

Grace and Peace,

13 Auburn Friends"

*to read Ivy's post about her mom, click here:

http://theladyinthestreet.blogspot.com/2009/10/365.html

Family

Still no clever title, and no real reason for this post, other than the fact that I have these cute pictures of my best friend and her family and I want to introduce you to them.

I am so grateful to have Heather, Clay, Clayton, and Turner in my life. These kids bring so much

joy to me and many good times. I miss them bunches, but try to get back and visit

often. Crazy how fast they grow.

Clayton is already an avid iPhone and Auburn

fan, before long he will be drinking boutique beer is he hangs out with his Dad long enough.

Thanks Conner

Family for blessing my life!

I am so thankful for each of you!

Oktoberfest & Friends

I give up. I wont even try. Im just NOT a clever blog title maker.

How do you people come up with such creative titles? I dont get it. Ill just be plain jane -

its okay.

I had to dedicate this blog to the wonderful Oktoberfest in Nashville a few weekends ago,

and visits from great friends! Sarah and Kortnie came in town for an

audition

Kortnie had, and also for a visit with me! It was sooo good to see them. For those of you who dont remember or did not know, Kortnie is my friend who battled colon cancer this past year - she is now free and clear! Praise the Lord! We went to Virago forSushi and tried to talk Kortnie and Kayla into Karaoke, but it didnt work - maybe next time. Oh, and yes, we

made Kayla wear those glasses allll night.

The day after Sa and Kortnie left, John and Lana came in town to hang out with Katlin and me. It was such a good weekend to have friends in town. We hit up Oktoberfest, Next Big Nashville Music Festival, Peter's (more sushi) and even the Pancake Pantry - fat kids! Of course, somewhere in there I drug Lana to the DMV with me to get my Tennessee license. She decided after that excursion that she wants to work there if she ever moves to Nashville. Hilarious.

Recent Fall Fun

So, I know I have slacked on the blog lately. I have been too busy living life to tell stories about it. Don Miller would be so proud of me right now. I am reading his new book, "A Million Miles in a Thousand Years" - and it is rocking me. He talks about the whole concept of 'story' and characters in the story and how they chose to live their life. Its simple, but profound. I cant do it justice. Go see for yourself how much it will challenge you. Its perfect for where I am right now.

Though I have been MIA lately, I didnt want to

skip over some of the fun I have had. Several weeks ago, after recouping from Peru on the couch, I was able to go with Kirsten to shop for

her 20th year High School

Reunion at Lake Highland, in Dallas.

She is like me, and HATES to shop.

We had a blast. Oh, and she had a great time at the reunion. Chris Harrison (Bachelor Host) said she looks just like his wife. Hmm.

Two weeks ago, Worship and Arts had our annual Staff Retreat.

This was the first one

I have been on and it was a blast. I am so thankful for the people I work with, and that we are friends - not just co-workers. We fished, canoed, hiked, went spelunking (caving, silly), and ate lots of good food. We laughed so hard and it was great.

Last Sunday was a blast! Sante Fe Soup, Sarah's Soccer Game, Titans Game, Chili, and

homemade cookies with friends. I wrapped up the day with a great night

with my Community Group, meeting John and Molly's new puppy,

Murphy - and then going to see Where the Wild Things Are with great friends. I love days like that, spent with people I love, doing things I love.

I love Nashville in the Fall. It is my favorite. The leaves are really starting to change around

here, and it has been sooo much fun to wake up to all the pretty colors everyday.