I had a pretty good weekend. Friday, the 4th of July, I had to work for a while, which was fine with me because I got holiday pay, and then I went to Tina and Danny's. From there we all headed downtown for the fireworks, which I enjoyed because I had never gone. When I was little there were always fireworks at the mall, so my family always went there. Anyway, Friday was nice, even though it rained, because we got to sit on the edge of the river right near where the barge was that shot off the fireworks (that's what it's called, right? a barge? just sounds really funny now). Afterwards, of course, we headed back to Danny and Tina's. Some people headed home earlier than usual, but some of us hung around. The guys played their typical game of Zero Uno while the girls were entertained by Leslea's dance moves! She's a riot!

Saturday... now here's a story. I had been hoping since Friday a week ago that I wouldn't be called in to work on Saturday because I desperately wanted to go to St. Augustine for The Edge. So I had mentioned to my manager during the week that I really didn't want my on-call to be used Saturday and that I was trying to find someone to take it for me. No one was available to take it, so I just kept hoping that I wouldn't be needed. Saturday rolled around, and I wound up only having to work from 3 till 6 instead of till 11. I was extatic! So after work I went home, changed, and headed for St. Augustine around 7:00. When I got to Anastasia I realized they were not having the service that I had made such an effort to get to! "You've got to be kidding me!" I thought to myself. Mind you, I had been logical and checked the websight beforehand to make sure they were having the service, since it was a holiday weekend. The websight said they were, but in fact they did not. "What to do now?" I thought. I was already in St. Augustine, so I had to take advantage of it somehow. So I picked up a frosty from Wendy's and finally decided to head for the Outlet Mall to the Gap Outlet because I have my employee discount card (Old Navy is owned by Gap). I told myself I would not buy anything unless I absolutely needed it or unless it was an incredible deal. I did pretty good. I got a black T-shirt to replace my old black Gap tee because the old one is getting faded, and I do believe Gap has the best T-shirts I've ever worn. And I got a pair of jeans, which technically I could have lived without, but they were marked down to $19.99 with an additional 20% off and then I get 30% off with my employee discount, so they were just over $11! Good deal for a really comfortable pair of Gap jeans. I got to talk to the really cute cashieer guy and found out that he used to work at my store, and I got the impression he might go to my school, but I didn't ask. (I might have to make another trip to the Gap outlet!) Anyway, the Outlets were closing as I was checking out, so I got in my car and headed home. The trip wasn't completely waisted. I got some good deals, and I also got to see a really beautiful view of the sky when I was crossing the 312 bridge. It was one of those moments that I decided was worth an hour drive just to see something so wonderful. I wish I could put into words how it looked. God is amazing!

Today was a good day. Started off a little weird, though. We had "general assembly" this morning in place of Sunday School. That was interesting. (I'll be polite and leave it at that.) The morning service went well, as usual. Bro. Keith preached from Romans 1:16 "For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth: to the Jew first, and also to the Greek." It was kinda funny because I had some little notes written in my Bible about that verse, and they were basically the exact points that he made this morning. This evening's service went well also. The choir and orchestra had a break tonight, which was nice for once. Bro. Keith is doing a series of messages on "classic revival texts" right now. Tonight was from Habakkuk 3:2. Aside from delving into the points of the verse itself, Bro. Keith also noted that we often leave out half of the characteristics of God. We are prone to see God from one of two extremes: either we focus on His love and mercy and grace, or we focus on His judgement and wrath. He pointed out that we must keep our view of God in proper balance. Very true. During the sermon I was reminded of this song: "Revive us again- fill each heart with Thy love; May each soul be rekindled with fire from above. Hallelujah, Thine the glory; Hallelujah, amen! Hallelujah, Thine the glory! Revive us again!" I wrote down the words, and not long after, Bro. Keith proceeded to quote those exact words! Pretty cool. I remembered tonight that there are things I need to do in my life that I seem to always neglect. I need to lift up our leaders in prayer; I need to pray for revival as Habakkuk did; I need to seek God diligently in my personal life. As I wrote down these things tonight I wrote that seeking God diligently needs to be top priority. It's not that our purpose in life is to shut out the world and learn about God, but we must seek God in order for everything else to fall into place. I know I severely lack in the evangelism aspect of my Christian life, but I also know that the more I seek God above all else, the more this will begin to fall into place.

Random note of the night: my brother David is getting married on the 19th. Finally! Actually, I'm glad he's waited this long to get married because Michael rushed into it and that didn't work out too well. Selfishly, I hope I'm not almost 34 by the time I get married. But then again, if that's what it takes for me to find the right person, then I guess that's best. The weird thing is my parents were my age when they got married! I couldn't imagine being married now! I want a happy medium, I guess. For my brother, it took this long for him to grow up enough! Not to say that he's actually grown up now; just enough to handle the responsibility. He still acts 19. In a "perfect" world, I would say that I want to be married around 22. But in the real world, that's in like 2 years and I don't know anybody that fits the job description! I guess things'll just happen when God wants them to. G'night.