Time and Blessings

There are exactly 86,400 seconds in a day. 7 days in a week. 30/31 days in a month. 365 days in a year. On average you will take 1200 breaths an hour which means in the course of your life you will take approximately 893,520,000 breaths. WOW that's a lot! And to think that we are so quick to take advantage of the time and the breaths we have instead of cherishing them.
This past week I have been reminded to cherish the breaths in life and to number my days. I started out the week on an incredible trip to Palm Springs with the Saddleback Student Ministry team. To sum up the trip...it was glorious and refreshing filled with new friends. Monday was my little sister's 22nd birthday. Tuesday was the 4th anniversary of my cousin and goddaughters passing. Thursday my dad had major surgery to remove cancer from his prostate (all went well and he is home recovering now). At work we have exactly 9 days until camp. Which means a lot of long hours putting together cabins, games, chapel programs and much more.
Its Friday night now and I'm finding myself counting the breaths I take and thanking Jesus for the breaths I will take over the course of the next 23725+ days. Its been a roller coaster of emotions type of week but right now I couldn't be happier to be at home with my family as my dad recovers. As a family we have spent the last 1825 days dealing with tragedy. It seems that for the Harts tragedy is lurking around each corner and more times than not gets the best of us for a couple days or weeks. However through the last 1825 days we have learned and grown a lot. We now love each other more deeply. Fall into the arms of our Savior more frequently. Humbly confess we don't have it all put together. Open our hearts to learning, listening and sharing our journey to others. And know how to have fun when we get a brief moment of down time. Tragedy and the unexpected have not defeated us! God conquered the grave for us and has conquered our heartaches again and again too.  This week God kicked my dad's cancer in the butt and once again we are praising HIM!

my dad at the lake w/little sis Erin

So remember stop and cherish the breaths and days that you have ahead of you so that in times of tragedy and unexpected events you can uses those to lift you up and bring you hope

Favorite Day of the Week

Most people dislike "hump day" or as the calendar on my wall calls it Wednesday. However I LOVE Wednesdays, it is by far by favorite day of the week. Yes it is the day of the week that I find hard to be motivate to do work. I find myself going to Starbucks for an afternoon pick me up every week. And I hate getting up on hump day mornings. I'm not sure my three hour counseling class gets 100% of my attention because I'm either too tired from my already busy week or because I'm thinking of all the other things that still need to get done. Staff meetings are great but honestly sometimes they serve a disservice to my OCD, organized, tightly scheduled work day. Despite all that I still love it. 
Why? Well I'm so glad you asked =)
Wednesdays are my favorite day of the week because I get to spend two whole hours with my HSM Life Group girls!!

These 12 high school sophomores are incredible young women who are learning to love the Lord with everything.  I have watched them grow up in so many ways the past two years that I am encouraged by them. If you were a fly on the wall I'm sure you would think we are crazy as we talk about boys, parents, friends, random things we see while driving and of course how God is changing our lives. You'd also see diversity in every sense. We are a hodge podge of personalities which makes this group outrageously fantastic. To the world these girls might just be ordinary high school girls. To me these girls are part of my core. They are my friends, my little sisters, my inspiration. I am their mentor, bible study leader, friend. These girls flood my parents living room every week with so much joy, laughter and genuine humbleness. My favorite is watching the grins on their faces become huge cheshire cat smiles as relationships are built! 


Tonight I realized just how much God orchestrated putting this group of girls together under my "supervision." I'm a pretty mellow person but love to have fun!! Growing up my sister and I were always coming up with creative ways to play but normally our play time ended with wrestling. Tonight that is exactly how my Life Group ended the year!! I know a little off the hook and unexpected from a girls life group but that's what we did. Celebrating the end of the year at Partyopolis is always super fun, so we spent the night hanging out there playing games. With only five minutes left, a wrestling matched emerged and we all went for it, athletic or not you were in the game. And in the midst of being hit in the head with foam blocks, I saw the beauty displayed in my group. I saw the unique personalities of each girl and got a glimpse of just how perfect we are as a team. The group is called Ninja Turtles 4 Christ and tonight I saw the "brotherhood" of the ninja turtles and just how great these girls are going to be as united Jesus followers!
Gosh I love them!!!!


Here is a video clip of our craziness at Partyopolis:

Thanks Girls for an incredible journey this year!!

Good Friday

I ran across this article this morning. Its a great reminder of what Jesus went through on Good Friday.

Holy Week: What Happened on Good Friday?