A Beautiful Morning

(photo by catmadogma)

This morning I went to the park just before dawn, which means it was dark - really dark - and the mist had set low in the air. An unsettling place to be by yourself - I considered turning back and going home. But I didn't. I reminded myself that light was coming soon. As time passed, the orange and purple line of the sunrise began to show a faint smile behind the trees. I saw the dew shimmer on the grass, heard the "cooing" of the doves. Slowly, more people began to come to the park. Soccer moms and soccer dads and lots of soccer kids. The park was awake.

As I ran I saw many familiar faces and even met some new friends. Each interaction brought a smile. I imagined all of the life at the park and imagined that instead of grass there were fields and fields of flowers. If I would have turned back in that brief dark moment before dawn, I would have missed all of the beauty that was revealed in the light.

"For His anger is but for a moment, His favor is for life;

Weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning." Psalm 30:5

Age Before Beauty

"...and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them..."

1 Thessalonians 4:16-17

So I read this verse this morning as I was doing my Daniel Bible study (by Beth Moore - totally recommend it) - the heart of the study right now is about the end times. Well, when I read this verse I thought of the above title, "Age Before Beauty" and it made me laugh (though Nick is still trying to see the humor). I'm just saying, perhaps we have found the origination of the phrase.

Now that I've spent 10 minutes explaining my joke, it's starting to lose its hilarity.

Family Secrets

Well, these skeletons might not be as dusty as the title implies but...sharing from the heart at any rate.

Nick and I have a desperate desire to be runners. There, I said it. Operative phrase - "desperate desire." But how is this desire manifested? Well, often in our thoughts as we sit on the couch after a long day of work and discuss the Runner's World article we just read - and how one day we'll relate to that (after a bag of munchies and maybe a cookie)! Hehe. Well, don't misunderstand, when there is ample time to do nothing but run, we do run. It's when life gets busy that we struggle to be who we really want to be.

Tonight we were able to work on our goal together. The day was not as tiring for me as it could have been so by the time Nick got home at 7:00 I had energy to call him - here's the family secret - "runner husband." His desire is to run, my desire is to run, but we get slapped by busyness and hide under a rock, however, we have no excuse.

Case in point: my cousin Carolyn (we love you Carolyn!) is doing her residency right now at the University of Utah hospital. She works long hours - really - like 36 at a time - and runs on little to no sleep. But, she still manages to run oh, you know, 10 to a million miles after a really long day at work because she wants to, because she has to. Nick and I can not complain about busyness in the face of my dear cousin.

Well, on our run tonight I did not have my IPOD which has really become more of an encouragement and charge than I expected. Lord knew He had some words for me. It just made me think - back to calling Nick my "runner husband." (Note: before we left for the park we were fighting between the park & "WipeOut" - thank you people for being brave enough to look completely ridiculous so that we can laugh at you). We made it to the park partly because of the "out loud" encouragement to Nick and subsequently to myself.

Not to get cheesy or make you go "duh," (that is SO 80's) but isn't that why it's so important for us to talk about our faith out loud? To encourage each other in the way of God's Word? How often do we shy away from being open and honest about our faith - especially to other's who claim to believe as we and who WANT to believe as we - who want to be runners.

Those words of encouragement, or reminding about God's hand in our lives is so important to "spur us on" - Hebrews 10: 23 "Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful. 24 And let us consider one another [spur each other on] in order to stir up love and good works, 25 not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching. And "speaking to one another in psams, hymns and spiritual songs" (Eph 5:19).

I don't know, it just hit me tonight and I thought I'd share - you know it doesn't happen often. So now it makes sense to say: "Christian, brother, Christian sister, how is God working in your life? Where do you see His hand? What has He said to you today?"

Let's not be afraid to say this out loud - for in hearing, others may be reminded, encouraged and spurred on to become one who will "run in such a way as to get the prize" (1 Corinthians 9:24).

Ansley and her super cute nursery.

She has this great "always intrigued" look that is too funny
and way cute (is that word overused?
It just always seems like the right one to use :)

Ever since Nick has visited Salt Lake he's wanted to hike Mt. Olympus - the mountain in our previous post. It's a HUGE hike - lots of elevation gain very quickly and a good 4 miles one way.
Concerned, perhaps, by our ambition to hike Mt. O (seeing as how we live and walk at sea level), some friends told us to try this hike as a warm-up, so we did. Lake Blanche up Big Cottonwood Canyon - about 2 3/4 miles one way - the highest point is about 9,000 feet. We went on this hike yesterday and had an amazing time! We got to traipse through snow, and see Cottonwood blow gently in the breeze (we felt like we were in the Chronicles of Narnia, or something).
Today, we are remembering our amazing time by being slightly unable to walk :-). Two pairs of sore legs. Tomorrow is supposed to be our day to hike Mt. Olympus...hmmmm...."to hike or not to hike, that is the question" (really, it's what Hamlet meant to say).

P.S. as an update, I have not been able to bring myself to eat any garlic since my garlic spree (wouldn't that be the worst flavor of the candy?!) earlier this month.

Enjoying our "Staycation"

Dear friends,
We are having a very wonderful time here in Salt Lake City with my family. One thing we love so much is the view of Mt. Olympus from my parent's house. The tree from our post "Salt Lake Reflection" is doing well, as you can see. Summer has definitely livened its branches :).

Today, Nick is helping my dad reconfigure the sprinkler system in the front yard so that it actually waters the lawn and not the trees.

We have spent much of our time engrossed in our captivating novels. Nick is almost done with "A Thousand Splendid Suns" and I am finishing "The Glass Castle."

Yesterday we went on a hike with my mom up Neff's Canyon just a few minutes away. We ran into some other hikers - one homegrown Texan (who still dreams of Pappasito's) - who helped us cross the creek a few times by grabbing logs and branches to make a makeshift bridge. Click on the video to get a sense of the cool spring run off we encountered. It just doesn't get any better than this.

We've gotten to see our sweet little niece, Ansley Kate, since we've been here. She is a cutie!

The other day we did sit down and watch an incredible movie called "The Power of Forgiveness" www.thepowerofforgiveness.com
It presented different concepts about forgiveness and showed events such as the Amish School Shooting and 9/11 and many more, where people either chose to forgive or chose not to forgive. It showed how hard forgiveness can be when tragedy strikes, but yet how important it is to forgive. They also showed a really neat study relating to forgiveness and health. If you have spare time, we definitely recommend watching this.

Hope everyone is doing well. I drank sweet tea yesterday and thought of you! Stay tuned for pics of the super cute nursery my bro & sis-in-law made for their baby. I know you will like it and perhaps get some more super cute ideas to add to your already super cute nurseries! Until next time...

Mmmmm.....

To all of our dear blogger friends, here is a post, finally, from us. Well, really just me, Alia. On my run this morning I had all of these wacky and witty things to say to inagurate myself as a true life-inspired blogger - because I was, completely life-inspired. And now I sit dumbfoundedly at my computer not remembering a witty thing I thought (or thing I think I thought I thought). Now we will be known for posts about trees and garlic. If that doesn't win the boring award I don't know what does! Well, buckle your seat belt, (or should you take it off?), here comes the story of ... "The Mystery of the Ear Infection" - written, by yours truly.
So two months ago I had a raging ear infection in my right ear. I was home for four days from work - it was crazy. Ever since I've had crazy itchiness (everything's crazy these days) and still slight pain. Well, I went back for my six week check-up (cheers to all the newborns :) two days ago and he said everything was fine. The audiologist said my hearing was fine - everything looked great! Well, great! Except for the fact that my ear did not feel completely normal. Well, the next day (yesterday) I woke up and found myself unable to touch my ear without pain. Not a good sign. The pain increased throughout the day and was disconcerting. At the softball game I told Jaime about my ailments and she told me about a friend of hers who fed her son garlic for a week to rid him of his ear infection and, "though he smelled like garlic for a week, it worked!" Well, Jaime, I so appreciate your advice. Little did you know that my family can eat garlic like potato chips! So I went home and diligently ate three whole cloves of roasted garlic (not to mention fish oil, echinacea, vitamin C and sudafed - but I really think it was the garlic). I woke up this morning fresh and refreshed! My ear is still sore but not nearly as sore as yesterday. Though I am suffering from some slight stomach cramps, a continuous burning sensation in my mouth, and a forever garlic flavor, I will continue to eat garlic to ward off my pending ear infection. Perhaps it is all of the new ailments eating three cloves of garlic gives you, that cures you! There's too much else to think about. So I'm seriously wondering, what's causing these ear infections?

I will say this, I was on that yeast-free diet thingy for like 80 days, no sugar, no dairy, no yeast and wouldn't you know it. The weekend I got my ear infection was the weekend that I consistently ate off of my diet for like three days. I ate carbs, cheese, lattes, sugary desserts. I can't help but see a connection somehow (though my dr. just laughed). I saw in a detox plan that itchy ears and ear infections were signs of being "toxified" (say it in a loud, boomy voice, it's fun). Even before the YF diet I have suspected milk as a culprit for me in getting sick. Well, since school has been out just a week now, I have consistently been drinking Starbuck's Lattes (not to mention the three bowls of cocoa puffs I had for dinner last night). I don't think milk does my body good. It is long overdue that I see an allergist, and I will. Until then, friends, garlic and dry cocoa puffs will have to do.

Well, we're off to Salt Lake in the morning and I will keep you posted (or will I?) on how my ear does with my intense garlic and milk-free treatment. Adios!

3 New Additions!

Kenzy Coronado

Born April 1, 2008

Evan Christopher Gonzales
Born May 8, 2008
Ansley Kate Khader
Born May 19, 2008

Salt Lake Reflection

When we went to Salt Lake for a weekend in March, something struck me. We had left sunny, seemingly summer, Texas weather and had traveled to a place that was still experiencing winter. The signs were everywhere, trees without leaves, snow on the mountaintops, yellowing grass. What occurred to me in the morning moments of looking out at the barren trees, was how God has ordained seasons for particular times all around the world. Some seasons last longer than others. It made me remember that just because I was living in summer, it didn’t mean that the rest of the world was too.

I have always thought of winter as being the season where things die and disappear. But what I realized was the things I thought were dead in winter were really alive. The only reason I thought they were dead is because I could not see the life on the outside. I was depending on what I saw to be the judge of whether something had life, when in reality, that life is being transformed on the inside to produce something even more beautiful than the season before.

When we are tempted to think of our own period of winter and mourning as leaving us stagnant and barren, we must remember that just because the signs of life are not apparent on the outside, God is still breathing His life into us and growing us into something that will be beautiful again. Being in Salt Lake also helped me remember to be sensitive to those who are in a season of winter even though I might be living in summer.

Through Death comes Redemption, Togetherness and Peace

This has been a very weird month for me and Alia. In 1 month, we've had 1 wedding and 3 funerals. Almost sounds like a title for a movie. We experienced the loss of my grandfather, a former band parent of mine, and a father of one of Alia's students. When you sit back and think of it, what a sad month for all 3 families. Losing a loved one is never easy, and at that losing a father. All three being the rock of their family. These past few weeks I have really been thinking about my own life. How am I as a husband? How am I as a son? How am I as a brother, a friend, a teacher, or even a stranger that no one has met? What am I doing right now to lead others to Christ? This month I truly have seen how life is short. We are only here for a little while.

I was was inspired by all three of the men that passed this month. Of course my grandfather, as he taught me and my brothers many things growing up and showed us how to be a man in supporting our family. The father of my former band student was such an inspiration. He showed how much he loved his wife and kids by devoting so much of his time to them. The father of Alia's student I had never met, yet his life made a huge impact on me. His love for the Lord was evident to his family and friends. In the last weeks of his life he continued to go to church, barely standing, despite his illness. The letters he wrote to his children and the smile on his face in his pictures, taken weeks before his death, put me and Alia to tears. His family and friends knew his relationship with Jesus and it was powerful even in his death. It is amazing how Christ can radiate through people even when they die! I pray for that kind of faith. I know that is what we need to pray for everyday. The Lord gives us joy even in times of suffering (James 5:7).

I pray that the Lord will lead me as he did these men. It is so easy to become impatient with other people and even with ourselves. But we have to remind ourselves that what we say and do must be pleasing to the Lord because it just may be the last thing we say or do here on earth.

Please pray for the families that the Lord will give them strength, guidence and a clear path.