You Can't Get No Satisfaction

I recently listened to one of Beth Moore's devotions and felt hugely convicted.  I thought I'd share with you some things that were brought to my attention and in what way it has impacted my life.

Isaiah 47 addresses Babylon--- Ancient Babylonia: The Bible reveals that all false systems of religion began in the land of Babylon.  The name Babel in the Bible means "confused" (Gen 11:9) and throughout the Bible, Babylon was a symbol of the confusion caused by godlessness.

"You have trusted in your wickedness and have said, 'No one sees me,' Your wisdom and knowledge mislead you when you say to yourself, "I am, and there is none besides me.'"  Isaiah 47:10

Wow- this hit me like a ton of bricks.  The Babylonian mentality is this:  I will live for myself, that nothing is as important as me, I've got to find myself, its SELF ABSORPTION.  The Babylonian mentality shows up in us whether or not we say it - our actions show it (our selfish ways).  We are supposed to make a mark here for the kingdom of God and live unselfishly.  We are supposed to become people to live onto others and live onto our God.  We are supposed to become people that glorify his name. But we live in a culture that teaches us to be self absorbed and we are miserable with it.  If we aren't 100% intentional about being unselfish - we are.  We get sucked into it and I'm just as guilty as anyone else. 

Daniel chapter 1 portrays our culture perfectly.
"Then the king ordered Ashpenaz, chief of his court officials, to bring into the king's service some of the Israelites from the royal family and nobility - young men without any physical defect, handsome, showing aptitude for every kind of learning, well informed, quick to understand, and qualified to serve in the king's palace."  Daniel 1:3-4 

Do you notice what he's saying?  Bring me your smart, young and beautiful. We are living in that culture today - how young can we look and how long can we look that way?  How together can we appear and how beautiful can we possibly be?  We've got to do everything that we can to think a certain way and to look a certain way.  And we are all caught up in this, myself included.

The Babylonian mentality is shown in our culture with our overwhelming amount of choices.  I can get my coffee any way I want it.  I can buy any vehicle the way I want it with the features I want it to have.  But the increase in choices isn't making us as Americans happier.  Gregg Easterbrook explored this gap in perceptions about money and happiness in his book Progress Paradox: How Life Gets Better While People Feel Worse. "Envy and dissatisfaction come from lacking what others possess, but coming into possession of those things does not confer happiness.  Seeing the BMW may make you feel unhappy, but psychological studies show obtaining the BMW would not make you happy."  It's not where our satisfaction comes from.  I was hugely convicted here.  Dean and I want a house so badly.  We are saving every extra dime we have because we "think" that will make us happier just to have something to call our own, somewhere we don't hear our neighbors talking and a safe place to call home.  The bottom line is - we are already happy.  Granted I still want a home big enough to raise our children in one day - but the overwhelming feeling of wanting a house and wanting one now needs to subside.  God will bring us the perfect home in his timing - I just know it.

Camera Fun

The last few weeks I've been learning my camera - reading the manual, getting advise off of Pinterest, and searching the web.  Here are just some of the fun things I've done/experimenting with my new friend.

These pictures of the dogs were at Christmas in Hutchinson. 

 

My Mom got a new puppy a month or so before Christmas (it was a great gift from Jerry) - so I had to take some pictures of this cute face.  My Mom and I actually got our dogs at the same place.  So if you're interested you should check out Marlen Kennel!  The sweetest old couple runs Marlen Kennel.  They are retired farmers and loved animals so much that they decided to breed dogs!  They melted my heart!

Meet Miss Sadie!

I got to spend an enjoyable evening with Miss Abigail!  We went to her dance class, ate Chick-fil-A, made movies on my iPhone and fixed each other's hair!  It was a blast and I can't wait to do it again!  Dean and I have bible study once a week with Abby's parents.  We love the Clark Family!  They are expecting another little one on June 22nd!  I can't wait!!!!

Isn't she the cutest thing ever?!  Such a doll!

The weather has been incredible here in the KC area.  D and I decided to take a walking trail one afternoon a couple weeks ago - so I thought it would be fun to take some pictures! 

 Who's that sexy guy that stepped into this gorgeous view?!

My loves!

I also took a couple pictures of my wedding ring!  :)  

 

 Can you tell I've had fun? ha!

Our ::NEW:: Addition

Dean spoiled me this year at Christmas and bought me my very own Canon EOS Rebel T3i -- It's seriously a dream come true!  I've loved photography since high school when I was debating what career I wanted to go into.  So now it's my new hobby.  I'm so excited to learn this little guy from the inside out.  I feel like a giddy school girl with my new camera by my side. 

This is one of my goals for 2012 - to learn this bad boy.  I've already read some articles on the aperture, shutter speed and ISO modes of my camera.  I'm wanting to take a couple photography classes to get more familiar and comfortable with my camera.  We will see...

Plaza Lights

The week after Christmas my BFF from high school and her hubby came to visit D and I.  We went to a hibachi restaurant and then to the plaza to walk around one last time before they took the lights down.  We enjoyed our time together!  I love this girl. ALOT.  Here are a few pictures we took.

The Deibler's {married 11.11.11}

We hadn't gotten a pic together in front of our 1st tree!  Amy did the honors of taking this picture.

2011 Recap

So my computer has spend sometime in the hospital!  So I finally got a chance to steal borrow Dean's computer to catch up on some blogging!  :)

2011 has been a wonderful year.  I started the year by moving out of my cute little 1 bedroom apartment and into my soon-to-be in laws (current in laws) to save money for the big day.  While this made many people nervous, it was a great experience.  That 6 months living there flew by.  It allowed me to really get to know the Shackley clan.  As you know my Dean was/is working in Iowa and big Dean was out of town most of the time working in Manhattan, Ks on a job so it left the girls and dogs to hang out.  We watched the Bachelor together (I was an Emily fan… to bad that relationship didn’t work out), I learned how to make a bow with 2” ribbon (thanks to Makenzi for making bows for the entire softball team to wear in their hair during games) and they got to help with wedding planning.  And before we knew it July was here --- wedding month--- and I officially became a Shackley!  See some of our wedding pictures HERE. We had a wonderful wedding and spent the next week in Cancun soaking up the sun, ha!  Yeah right, it rained every day but one.  It was still a much needed relaxing week with the husband.  Then our life started in our 1^st home.  For the last 6 months of 2011, Dean floating back in forth between work here in Kansas City and in Iowa.  During that time we have had some amazing experiences, attending Gary Chapman's marriage conference and becoming DEBT FREE being two of the many experiences.  Dean and I have an amazing support system with our families but also with our small group through our church.  We have grown with them, but also our relationship with Jesus has grown so much more.  And because of my relationship with him I've been free'd of so much pain and anger that I'd carried with me the last 10 years of my life.  

So as Dean and I start 2012 we've each made a list of goals we hope to achieve and we are going to hold each other accountable!  I can't wait to see what God has in store for us this year!