Top 12 Bailey Moments of 2012

Happy New Year!!

Parker & I are spending this New Years Eve together cuddled up in our warm home watching tv/movie marathons/football and enjoying delicious food and wine (I am anyway)!  I can't think of a more perfect evening.  It's just want I wanted.  So we started the night off discussing our 12 favorite moments of 2012 and here's our list if you are interested!

Top 12 Bailey Moments of 2012:

1. Celebrating 2 years of an awesome marriage (we think so) on 4/3/12.
2. Our European adventure in March.  This was our first trip as a couple to Europe.  Highlights of that trip included Paris, Brussels, Bruge, Amsterdam and the Swiss Alps!
3. Parker graduating from GT with his MBA degree!  So proud of that stud.
4. On that note... Parker getting hired by Infosys Consulting Group and starting his job in Manhattan. 
5. Becoming an Account Representative with CORT.  My first outside sales job and I love it.
6. Taking trips with our married small group friends.
7. Starting to serve together in Transit (middle school ministry at Buckhead church). 
8. NYC trip at Christmas time!  I also saw my first (hopefully of many) Broadway play.
9. Competing in our first CrossFit competition together.
10. Attending the Braves game play-off (Parker was on cloud nine)!
11. We went skiing together for the first time in North Carolina in February (I busted my booty)!
12. Enjoying life events with our family & friends: graduations, birthdays, baby showers, baby births, weddings, new jobs, new dreams realized, etc.

It's been a great year!  Next up... we talk about what 2013 will look like!  Can't wait.

Be.You.

Let Scripture Become You

Recently I was listening to a message by a favorite female minister, Joyce Meyer, about the power of praying scripture over your life. The way she spoke about this concept brought it into a new light for me and I had an "ah-ha" moment if you will.
Think this over: how much time do you spend thinking about becoming a better version of yourself!? You can fantasize over becoming the ideal you in obviousy a number of areas. To name a few of mine: learning to cook better, being more fashionable, fulfilling my pinterest "To Do" list., etc., etc.
Of course there's also the spiritual list of ways I want to improve (which I deem most important): become more patient, kind, being all encompassed with love, giving, show greater self-control, and the list goes on and on again.
So what it is it that I often do to become this amazing Amberly? Well... I listen to sermons. Read Christian based self-help books. Share my heart with loved ones on the matter. What do I rarely do? I'm embarassed to say... I rarely pray about these spiritual goals in a beneficial way.
I actually pray fairly often for God to change me and make me more in His likeness. As a young Christian I can tell you I sadly prayed to a God who I thought felt ashamed of me and viewed me as "not good enough" too often. At the heart of my prayers in those younger days when in my was the need to repeatedly ask forgiveness in an effort to be accepted back by God. Little did I know the depth of God's love for me at that time.
Now I realize that God's love is never-ending, unbroken, and beyond belief. I know that I am by nature an imperfect being but He loves me more than I could ever fathom.
These days I'd like to think I have a slightly better idea of how to talk to God about my faults and shortcomings. These prayers now sound more like "God, I know I'm imperfect. Can you please help me be more like you? I submit myself fully to your plan for me and who you want me to become. Please help me."
Now I am learning to also pray scripture over my life.  of course in order  to do this you must study the Word and really learn it. My greatest struggle.
So thats my number one goal.
This is so cool bc you can then ask and trust God to fulfill the promises in His word in your life. Then you don't have a need to worry about what you aren't and what you need to be. Naturally you will always have an awareness of how you need to change to be more like Jesus (as any healthy individual should) and also goals in mind to achieve, but trust God to make the change in you. Also, trust His timing for these changes in you and your life to come about.
After all God, not us, is the only one who change us. As a follower of Christ we must trust that in this moment we have to trust that we are exactly who we should be and we are 100,000,000% loved and adored by our Creator.