Kristin McLendon: December 2008

Sunday, December 28, 2008

Heading To Kansas City

As i type this from the cell phone, i am on a charter bus heading to kansas city. I can see the st. louis arch in front of me and we just passed my junior high stomping grounds of scott air force base. We are heading to the onething conference that starts today. For those interested you can watch the webstream at ihop.org. This conference is the conference the lord used in my life five years ago to completely change me forever. Since then the lord has allowed me to return for now my fourth trip and take youth with me for this life changing experience! Please pray for us while we are gone this week. I strongly encourage you to tune in and come in expectancy that the lord wants to do something in your life even in your own living room! Know i am praying for you as you pray for us! We would love for you to post comments on how the lord uses this in your life!

Saturday, December 27, 2008

How Great Is The Love The Father Has Lavished On Us

In case you haven't figured it out yet...I'm a crier. For one, I wear my emotions on my sleeve. I can never get away with anything! But I'm especially a crier when it comes to the Lord. I can't help it. I go through seasons where I cry more than usual and now seems to be one of those seasons. I can't sit through Sunday morning worship without balling. When His Presence is so thick the tears start to fall.

Last Sunday I cried--not once, but twice. I want to share one of these moments with you. I've kinda been holding out on this post hoping that the service from Sunday or Christmas Eve would be on the podcast--but I think they are on Christmas break--so I'll go ahead and share with you and if they post it up, I'll let you know!

Robert & I are still learning the ropes here at RiverStone but one of the things we learned this week is that they take up a special Christmas offering each year. The Sunday before Christmas the entire offering goes to a specific thing that they have prayed about and feel the Lord is leading them to bless. In years past it has been a certain missionary or a missionary agency or even a new church plant. This year was a tad bit different and I am so grateful that the Lord allowed us to be apart of a community that seeks Him so fervently.

Last Sunday was the Sunday for this special offering. As I sat within this new Body the Lord has us in, our pastor, Tom Tanner, stood up and started talking about the offering. At first I found this odd. The offering is never really mentioned on Sunday mornings. During our first worship song after announcements they announce that if you are sitting in the center aisle, there is a basket under your seat, please get it and pass it down. There are never any ushers and nothing else is ever said. But this Sunday our pastor stood up and said (me paraphrasing of course) "As you know we will be taking up our special offering--and then we are going to give it back to you. We believe the Lord wants to bless His children here. You will find a request form in your bulletin. Please put your information and then list the top two needs you need the Lord to fulfill for you. For example, we won't pay off your mortgage, but we will pay Decembers mortgage payment. We are believing the Lord to bring in during this offering the same amount that is requested." I sat there in my seat balling. Not that we needed to fill out a form and we didn't because the Lord is still continually meeting everyone of our needs during the season He has us in, but because I could not get over the fact that I was sitting amongst people that believed Him for this. That they believed He said this and He would do this.

For those that requested checks, they could come by between 3-5 on that Sunday and pick up the checks that would be made out to the specific creditors for the specific amounts. We were believing as a body to meet every need.

I was so excited to hear how the Lord moved, I asked first thing Monday morning what had happened. But on Christmas Eve our pastor shared some specific stories. The amount requested and the amount brought in during Sundays offering was almost the same and that amount was $75,000. They were able to fulfill everyones number one needs and almost everyones number 2 needs. Even to the point of one family wrote on their request form that they didn't know if they could do it, but they needed $100 for their baby's formula. About the time of them reading this request, a lady walked in and handed them an envelope saying she missed that mornings offering, but wanted to give. The envelope held $220. They handed this envelope over to the couple requesting $100. The daddy called later saying there must be a mistake and our pastor said, there was no mistake. This happened for most. The Lord not only paid peoples power bills, but anything they had past due. The Lord not only provides for His children, but He provides abundantly!!!

I have just been absolutely amazed by this, that I had to share it with you. This season (for more info on this season, click here) the Lord has had for us has not been the easiest one, but it's the one that I'm most grateful for. He has not only provided for Robert & I, but He has provided abundantly for us. He has lavished His good gifts upon His children. My question to you is, are you believing Him for your needs. One of my favorite verses is Psalm 37:4. "Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart." Most people skip the first part of this verse, quoting only the ladder--that He will give you the desires of your heart. They leave out the first part--Delight yourself in the Lord. We must delight ourselves in Him first. The most amazing part is when we delight ourselves in Him--our desires line up with His. It's a beautiful union.

Enjoy Him today beloved. "How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!" 1John 3:1

Wednesday, December 24, 2008

Our Big News!

We had a little bundle of joy join our family yesterday! We tried to make it a big production for the blog with a video and all--and have spent the last 24 hours trying to get the video to post to the blog with no success. We won't give up on the video, but can't wait any longer to share our news with you!!!

We love you all! For those that we aren't able to see during this holiday season, please know how much we love you and how grateful we are to have you in our lives. Thank you for loving us!!!

Tuesday, December 23, 2008

Think We are Ready?

Just a glimpse of what under our Christmas tree looks like...yes that's a dog bed, blanket and hot pink hippo (it comes in on the second picture!). Because every puppy needs a hot pink hippo! Agree? :)

PS. I'm working on the first anniversary update blog...be looking for it!

PSS. We'll have big news by the end of today! :)

Saturday, December 20, 2008

Saturdays With Ashley

Something To Believe In

Last night I was watching a Christmas movie when the lady in the movie said something that really caught my attention. They were talking about Santa and how she used to believe in him but not anymore. Then she said this "Really I just wanted something to believe in." Wow. He sees you when you're sleeping, he knows when you're awake, he knows if you've been bad or good...sound familiar? I've heard people say it's weird to have a god who watches your every move. I've never heard any kid say they were freaked out that Santa was always watching them. It may have put a little more motivation in them to be good, but shouldn't we as Christians have a little motivation to be good too? This world is looking for something to believe in, something that cares about them, and someone to give them good gifts. I know someone who can, and He's real. He is interested in our lives, He loves it when we talk to Him, He cares about us, and Matthew 7:11 says He gives good gifts too! He cares about us so much that on this day He sent His own son. Lets go back to the basics John 3:16. That's how much God loves us, He gave His only son FOR us. People are looking for Santa, children hoping deep down that he really is real. Adults wishing they still believed. If I went around and took a poll asking people if it was possible for there really to be a real Santa what would they say? I don't know anyone who would say no. We have a God and He is real, but we don't realize it. We look at Santa as some grand guy and God as distant and well not really caring. He cares, more than Santa ever could. He's there for us. He doesn't just come by once a year He is here with us always, and He is coming to reign on the earth. We have something to believe in, and He's real. This is a short email, but I want ya'll to look and think about it. Do you think God is better than Santa? Sounds like a dumb question, but I bet you've talked more about Santa this month than you've talked about God. Why? We don't know how great our God really is. So during this christmas season, look at what God did for us. He sent His son to the earth, He wanted to be with us. Look at what He did, try to understand the weight of what He did, and the glory of it all.

I think this song sums up what really happened on that day. Read through the lyrics one more time of this song you've heard millions of times...Hark the Herald Angels Sing

Hark! the herald angels sing, -
"Glory to the newborn King!
Peace on earth, and mercy mild,
God and sinners reconciled."
Joyful, all ye nations, rise,
Join the triumph of the skies;
With th' angelic host proclaim,
"Christ is born in Bethlehem."
Hark! the herald angels sing,
"Glory to the newborn King!

Christ, by highest heav'n adored:
Christ, the everlasting Lord;
Late in time behold him come,
Offspring of the favored one.
Veil'd in flesh, the Godhead see;
Hail, th'incarnate Deity:
Pleased, as man, with men to dwell,
Jesus, our Emmanuel!
Hark! the herald angels sing,
"Glory to the newborn King!

Hail! the heav'n-born Prince of peace!
Hail! the Son of Righteousness!
Light and life to all he brings,
Risen with healing in his wings
Mild he lays his glory by,
Born that man no more may die:
Born to raise the sone of earth,
Born to give them second birth.
Hark! the herald angels sing,
"Glory to the newborn King!

Merry Christmas
God Bless
Ashley

Saturday, December 13, 2008

We Made It!!!

Robert & I leave in the am for a week to celebrate our first wedding anniversary together in a cabin in the middle of nowhere, enjoying being together and fellowshipping with Jesus.

We can't thank you all enough for being such a huge part of our lives and loving us as you do!!! We won't be blogging for the next week--but we look forward to hearing how you encounter Jesus over the next week! Enjoy Him. Enjoy His Presence! We love you!

"I am a rose of Sharon, a lily of the valleys. Like a lily among thorns is my darling among the maidens. Like an apple tree among the trees of the forest is my lover among the young men. I delight to sit in his shade, and his fruit is sweet to my taste. He has taken me to the banquet hall, and his banner over me is love. Strengthen me with raisins, refresh me with apples, for I am faint with love." Song of Solomon 2:1-5.

Saturdays with Ashley

Do You Miss Me?

While I've been home I've noticed something I've said a lot is, "I missed you." I'm not just saying this, but I really have missed all of my friends and family. I've also noticed that there are two groups of people in my "I missed you" life. The first group are the people who I would think about a lot and I couldn't wait to see again. The second group of people didn't consume my thoughts as much as the first group. When I saw the first group of people I was excited and glad to see them. The second group was different, when I saw those people I realized how much I really had missed them. That a piece of me was in them too, I guess I realized I missed them a lot more than I had originally thought.

I was thinking about this and God asked me a question." Do you miss me? What group am I in?" At first I was like well...I mean you're with me all the time God sooo how am I supposed to miss you? Then I started really thinking about this, do I miss God? Think about it, this world is temporary and eventually we are going to be reunited with God. The way we interact with God now is barely a taste of what is to come. So do we miss Him? Do we long for Him to return to the earth so that we can be WITH Him again? Jesus prayed in John 17:24 "Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am." Jesus is at the right hand of the Father, and this is where He desires for us to be as well. Everything that Jesus prayed will be fulfilled, and we will be with Him by the Father.

David said in Psalm 42:1 "As a deer pants for streams of water so my soul pants for you O God." Usually we look at this a pretty picture of a deer drinking from a nice stream, it's a very peaceful picture. I don't think that's how David intended it to be read. He never said the deer was drinking from the water, he was saying the deer was longing for the water. Imagine you just finished running a marathon and there is only one bottle of water in sight, what are you going to do to get that water? You're longing for that water, your tongue is like sand paper in your mouth, you're beginning to feel a little light headed, and your throat is dried up. All you want is that water, this isn't a peaceful sight. You're doing all you can to try and make your way over to get that bottle of water. This a more accurate portrayal of what David had in mind. He was longing for God, He wasn't content with what this world had to offer. He wanted more, he knew there was more of God and he longed to lay
hold of it.

Do you miss Him like that? Is He your only source of fulfillment? Are you able to function during the day if you haven't spent time with Him? The sad reality is that the majority of us don't miss Him. We're content in this world and what it has to offer us. Why? Because we don't really know what it's like to be with God. We don't know how great He is. It doesn't hit our hearts that He is the King of the Universe. That one day the whole world will be a monarchy under the leadership of Jesus. That we can go up to President Bush or President Elect Obama and say, " My God rules over you." The reality of Him being the King, Judge, Father, ect. doesn't hit us. We serve a BIG God, and we are only able to grasp a small portion of who He is and we're content with that. He's big, He's mighty, He's holy, He's powerful, He's jealous, He's good. We know this, we've heard this, but do we miss Him? How many times have you ever sat down and said, "God I can't wait for you to return to earth." Not often enough, but then He becomes like a person in the second group. We don't miss Him, but we get a taste of who He is and we realize how much we really do miss Him.

Do you miss Him? Do you long for His return? He can't wait, He really misses you.

God Bless
Ashley

Friday, December 12, 2008

Great Friends & Christmas Sweaters

Wednesday night we wrapped up things for 2008 in the RSM with a huge Christmas Party--by the end of the night I'd been to Little Caesars twice and ordered a total of 28 pizzas. I woke up this morning and was still thinking about those 28 pizzas! But the night was amazing! We had lots of fun with games and a tacky christmas sweater contest--but the night ended in powerful powerful worship and the kids crying out that "there's gonna be an awakening." It was a beautiful moment. I am continually blown away that the Lord has allowed me to be here and be apart of what He is doing here!

On a lighter note, I had to share a picture from the evening with all of you-some of the amazing friends the Lord has given me since moving here and I and our beautiful christmas sweaters! :)

How about you? Do you have any of these sweaters hidden deep in your closets???? Will you be pulling them out this year???? :)

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

Our Baby Girl--3 1/2 weeks old!

We received pictures today of our baby girl and we just had to pass them on to you! She is 3 1/2 weeks old right now and we're so incredibly excited about her coming to be apart of our family!!! We are 99.8% sure of the name--but don't want to release it just yet--just in case she changes our mind once she gets here! :)

Tuesday, December 9, 2008

The McLendon Christmas Tree Extravaganza!

The Smith family Christmas tree tradition is to drive to Midway the weekend after Thanksgiving and cut down our Christmas tree. We've done this as long as I remember living in Coastal Georgia--which would be 1992--and I don't remember ever missing a year!

Last year was mine and Roberts first time getting a Christmas tree together as he was already in the house we would be living in when we got married right before Christmas. Of course it was obvious (at least to me) we needed to have a tree in the home for when we returned home from our honeymoon in Italy on the 23rd...so off we went with my parents to cut down a tree and start the McLendon Family Christmas Tree cutting down tradition!

Here we are one year later--having moved to a big city--and there was never a thought in my mind that we wouldn't actually cut down our Christmas tree. I just somehow can't imagine buying it off a Christmas tree lot--I know this is the simpler thing to do--but something in me just can't do it--not yet....The original thought was to go get the Christmas tree in Midway with my parents over Thanksgiving--but it rained all weekend, so it was too wet. Plus Christmas came early (pictures coming soon!) with my parents, so I'm not quite sure where we would have put the tree in the truck if we did get one!

So off we went back to Atlanta with no tree...Now I realize we moved to a big city--I did not realize we would have to drive to Egypt to get a tree. No matter where we looked online everything was about an hour and a half away. With my pitiful puppy eye look--my precious husband--started driving north. I fell asleep as it took even longer than the hour and a half online told us it would.

When we finally got to where we were going--it only took us oh about 10 minutes to pick out a tree. From past experiences with my family--which could take hours--this was great--but when you drive that long, you somehow hope that it would take a little longer! We did take them up on the offer of free apple cider and a free tractor ride to haul our tree (yes it would have taken us about 3 minutes to walk up the hill with our tree--instead it took about 20 with the tractor), so it made it a little better.

I can't say we will do this again next year. Actually I'm pretty sure I remember my hubby saying we will not be doing this again next year....but at least this year there are pictures for you to enjoy! :)

The actual cutting down:

Abigail hiding when the tree came in:

My incredible hubby:

Gifts from my mom that were labeled "open when you put up your tree"...what a great mommy!

Abigail deciding she no longer needed to hide--she wanted to help:

The bows from our reception made another appearance thanks to my great amazing uncle that turned all our wedding decorations into Christmas decorations!!!! Now, if I could have just had him come decorate my house like he did last year for us!! :)

I'm minus a fireplace this year--so the stockings had to be hung on the windowsill :(

The finished tree:

Thanks for enjoying our tree with us! I'll have to take pics of the rest of the house and the decorations, but this is enough for now! :) How has your tree experience been this year? What are your traditions? Would love to hear them!

Sunday, December 7, 2008

NaBloPoMo Recap and a desert song...

As most know, I took the NaBloPoMo challenge--which was to blog each day for the month of November--I was a little shaky in the beginning--but for the most part, I think I did alright! :) Anyone out there enjoy reading the blog or getting an email each day?

So, do I think I will continue the blogging each day? Well as you can tell, I'm not sure what happened, but December 1 hit and I haven't blogged in a week! I did enjoy the everyday blogging, but don't think it will be an every day thing. This week got hectic and I was somewhat relieved I didn't feel the "pressure" to blog! :) I will try to make a conscious effort to blog often and looks like my hubby will be back on board on blogging! (We head back to the wart doctor tomorrow--I'm sure that will lead to some entertaining story he'll want to share with us! I know you are all looking forward to that!)

On that note, I want to leave you with a song that we sang tonight at FaceDown (which is our corporate church prayer meeting here at RiverStone that is the first Sunday night of each month--it's a time that every ministry comes together from each church in our network--and it has continually each month since I've been here led me to be literally facedown on the floor, tears, snot and all--yep, good times!) This song ministered to my heart--I really don't have words. For those that know me well will understand this song and where I've been and where I've come from and where I'm going. Thanks for letting me share this with all of you! The video is below the lyrics (**side note-for those of you that get this blog in an email, the video won't show up in the email. You will have to click on the title of the blog in your email that will lead you to the actual blog website to watch the video. Please don't pass this one up!!!) My prayer is that this song ministers to your heart as it has mine. May it leave you facedown before your God.

The Desert Song by Hillsong

This is my prayer in the desert

When all that's within me feels dry

This is my prayer in my hunger and need

My God is the God who provides

And this is my prayer in the fire

In weakness or trial or pain

There is a faith proved

more worth than gold

So refine me Lord through the flame

And I will bring praise

I will bring praise

No weapon formed against me shall remain

I will rejoice

I will declare

God is my victory and He is here

This is my prayer in the battle

When triumph is still on its way

I am a conqueror and co-heir with Christ

So firm on His promise I'll stand

All of my life

In every season

You are still God

I have a reason to sing

I have a reason to worship

And this is my prayer in the harvest

When favor and providence flow

I know I'm filled to be emptied again

The seed I've received I will sow

Saturday, December 6, 2008

MMmm that smells good...

Saturdays with Ashley

MMmm that smells good

The majority of you have been to a Mexican restaurant, if you haven't this also applies to coffee shops, and if you haven't been to either then well that's really impressive. When you first go into a mexican restaurant usually the first thing you notice is the smell. Depending on who you are this can either be a very pleasant thing or a very unpleasant thing. However every time you leave the Mexican restaurant someone will come up to you and say, "Hey you smell like Mexican!" You've already gotten used to the smell so you can't really smell it anymore, so you smell your clothes and come to the conclusion that well they must be crazy because you don't smell it. However if you go and change clothes and then come back to ones you were wearing earlier you end up saying, "Man I sure am glad I changed so I didn't smell like Mexican all day."

Some of you probably already know what I'm going to say, but for the people who are completely lost here is what I'm getting at....As christians we give off a smell. Now don't try smelling yourself because it's very rarely a real scent. This scent comes from sitting at the feet of Jesus like Mary of Bethany did. The more we sit at His feet and as our relationship goes to a deeper level with Him, His scent begins to cling onto us. When I came back from my first mission trip to Guatemala two of my friends kept talking about how I looked different. They went down the list: haircut, tan, loose weight, crest whitening strips, new clothes, taller? They couldn't figure out what it was. I didn't realize at the time, but I realize now that I had been sitting at the feet of Jesus and that made me different. My heart had changed and I was now giving off a different fragrance.

Unbelievers are drawn to Christians, and they don't know why. It's because we have something that is satisfying, we have something that fulfilling that deep yearning inside of our hearts. They don't have that, but they can sense that we have some sort of fulfillment, and the fulfillment that they have been craving. They've been filling it with other things, but nothing seems to satisfy. Their spirit recognizes the fulfillment that we have in Jesus and it draws them near to us, they usually don't know why they feel drawn to us but they just know something is different. When you become a christian and enter into a relationship with Jesus you begin to realize how much your other fragrance STUNK. You thought you were doing ok then, and that everything was going pretty good, but in the end you realize it really stunk. You weren't getting the fulfillment that you wanted, and you really weren't happy.

The sad thing is a lot of christians are still wearing their smelly clothes. They chose to follow God, but they didn't leave their old man behind. They decided to carry the things that they think satisfy them along with them. They aren't able to walk into the pleasing fragrance because they aren't willing to first let go of the smelly one. They don't even realize how much they're missing out. They think they're doing fine keeping those smell clothes. Why would you want to keep those when you can have new clean ones? Because you don't think that He can satisfy. You aren't willing to let go of the temporary fulfillment that this world is giving you because you're afraid that when you do Jesus won't be enough. That He won't be able to give you the satisfaction that you need. He is the only one that can satisfy, it's not just a nice phrase, this is reality. We choose to do the things of this world because we would rather feed our flesh than our spirit. We are satisfied with this because we haven't experienced the one thing that will really satisfy. When you experience this deep satisfaction, you'll wonder why you ever did anything else. Try to wrap you mind around a God who knows you, He knows everything about you and He has chosen to love you with everything that is in Him. Why don't we want that? Why aren't we accepting that? We need an eternal mindset, we get so focused on this world and what it has to offer us that we forget there is a life after this one. We're on this earth for....maybe 90 years if your lucky. Yet we continue to invest everything that we have into this temporary world instead of investing into eternity. Umm hello? Is this making sense? It sure doesn't make sense to me. ETERNITY! We are going to reap what we sow for ETERNITY. Stop sowing into your flesh and begin to sow into your spirit. Don't go out on a friday night, spend time with God. You might think it's a waste of time, but what's a few hours compared to eternity.

Sit as His feet, take off your smell clothes, accept His new ones, sow into your spirit not your flesh.

God Bless
Ashley

Tuesday, December 2, 2008

We're Expecting

So... Kristin decided she was going to accept a challenge from a fellow-blogger to blog everyday in the month of November. She did a great job, and I vowed not to write a blog for the entire month of November. So... Now I'm back.

If you've been reading Kristin's bloggings then you've seen that we have been entertaining the idea of getting a puppy. We've decided that if we were going to get a dog, it would be a Basset Hound. They are small, play well with other pets, and they are calm inside dogs.

A week ago, Kristin and I saw an ad in the AJC and I called to see if they had any puppies. All of the puppies from the advertised litter were gone, but they just had another litter. We decided to wait a week while we were in Richmond Hill for Thanksgiving to see if we really wanted a puppy or if it was just a phase for us. It didn't help that as soon as we got there Kristin's sister was talking about getting a puppy... And they did. A cute little boxer.

Kristin and I returned from Richmond Hill, and gave the breeders a call to see if we could check out the puppies. Needless to say, we went to see the puppies and 30 minutes later, we made a deposit to reserve a two week old female basset hound puppy... SUCKERS!!!

Here are some pictures...

One Week Old:

Puppy With Siblings - Two Weeks Old:

Me And Puppy - Two Weeks Old:

Kristin McLendon

Kristin McLendon

Sunday, December 28, 2008

Heading To Kansas City

Saturday, December 27, 2008

How Great Is The Love The Father Has Lavished On Us

Wednesday, December 24, 2008

Our Big News!

Tuesday, December 23, 2008

Think We are Ready?

Saturday, December 20, 2008

Saturdays With Ashley

Saturday, December 13, 2008

We Made It!!!

Saturdays with Ashley

Friday, December 12, 2008

Great Friends & Christmas Sweaters

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

Our Baby Girl--3 1/2 weeks old!

Tuesday, December 9, 2008

The McLendon Christmas Tree Extravaganza!

Sunday, December 7, 2008

NaBloPoMo Recap and a desert song...

Saturday, December 6, 2008

MMmm that smells good...

Tuesday, December 2, 2008

We're Expecting

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