"Thou shalt have no other gods before me."

A god is anything to which you give priority over God.

...friends, your truck, grandchildren, boyfriend, your cell phone, a job, places to go, your house or yard, television, internet, homeschool…  

...things.

How often do you check facebook or texts?  Do you talk to God that often?
How much time do you spend connecting with others? 
How much time do you spend on making your car look good, or your home or yard?

What are your priorities?  
What do you spend most of your time on?

How much *personal* time… do you spend with God?

If your spouse or boy/girlfriend gave you only that much time, how would you feel?

God is right there, waiting.

Stephen

Acts 6

In verse 5, Stephen, "a man full of faith and of the Holy Ghost," was one of the seven chosen to minister to the widows.  By the end of chapter 7, he was dead.
v. 8  And Stephen, full of faith and power, did great wonders and miracles among the people.

 9.  Then there arose certain of the synagogue... disputing with Stephen. 

10.  And they were not able to resist the wisdom and the spirit by which he spake. 

11. Then they suborned men [bribed them], which said, We have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses, and against God. 

12.  And they stirred up the people, and the elders, and the scribes, and came upon him, and caught him, and brought him to the council, 

13.  And set up false witnesses, which said, This man ceaseth not to speak blasphemous words against this holy place, and the law: 

14.  For we have heard him say, that this Jesus of Nazareth shall destroy this place, and shall change the customs which Moses delivered us. 

15.  And all that sat in the council, looking stedfastly on him, saw his face as it had been the face of an angel.

Acts 7

v. 1 Then said the high priest, Are these things so?

Then for the next 50 or so verses, Stephen began to tell of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and of Joseph who was sold into slavery but later made governor over Egypt, and of Moses who was rejected, and was said of him, "Who made thee ruler and a judge?"  God made him a ruler over Israel, but the people turned their backs and worshipped a golden calf.  

51.  Ye Stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do ye.    
52.  Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted? and they have slain them with shewed before of the coming of the Just One; of whom ye have been now the betrayers and murderers:

53. Who have received the law by the disposition of angels, and have not kept it. 

54. When they heard these things, they were cut to the heart, and they gnashed on him with their teeth. 

55. But he, being full of the Holy Ghost, looked up stedfastly into heaven, and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God, 

56. And said, Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing on the right hand of God. 

57. Then they cried out with a loud voice, and stopped their ears, and ran upon him with one accord, 

58. And cast him out of the city, and stoned him: and the witnesses laid down their clothes at a young man's feet, whose name was Saul. 

59. And they stoned Stephen, calling upon God, and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. 

60.  And he kneeled down, and cried with a loud voice, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge. And when he had said this, he fell asleep.

Could we be willing to tell the truth no matter what?

Travis and I are going to be FATHER- AND MOTHER-IN-LAW!!!!

Been anticipating when this would be "official" for a good long while now!
So excited!  So happy!  So thankful Rebekah is marrying a Godly young man who wants to serve the Lord.

So gorgeous!  Caleb has great taste!

They have "officially" known each other for almost 2 years.  Caleb's mom and I actually met years ago when Rebekah was about 5 years old and Caleb about 7, I guess.  We were in a homeschool group together.  I remember meeting this lady that had several cute little boys!  Neither of us were in that group for very long, and I'm sure we both skipped some meetings.  And by the time we were to meet up again, there would be 7 children.  5 boys (4 teens) and 2 girls.  Hehe, made me think of the 5 loaves and 2 fishes.  Wonder if Caleb's little sisters would object to being called fish?  lol.

But on September 3 of 2011, Caleb and Rebekah were at the same church meeting at the same time.  I always say to be where God wants you to be, and you'll meet the right one!  You'll meet a lot of the right people, because those are the ones who are where God wants them to be!
They didn't see each other again until some time the next month, but they were quickly smitten. ;)  They had found out that Caleb's family and my girls and niece (The Hawks Trio) were singing ♪♫ at the same revival on different nights.  So they figured it out for each of our families to come on both nights so they could see each other again.
And it's been that way ever since.  If there is a revival or youth meeting near enough to attend, chances are both of our families, or at least our family and Caleb and some of his brothers, will be at that meeting! 😊


So yesterday...  Caleb and Rebekah are going to be doing the music for the Bible School at Caleb's church, and Rebekah still needed to practice a few of the more tricky songs from Patch the Pirate.  If you know anything about their songs, you'll know you can be humming along and you may go one way and the song will go another!  So Caleb's mom asked that the girls come over to their house to go over those songs again.  Afterwards, several of the boys and girls went walking down the gravel road on the pretense that my girls could meet some friends that lived down that way.  Then they came upon this in the road:

Awww!  The kids always say that finding a penny means, "God loves you." Caleb gave Rebekah the penny and told her, "God loves you..." and knelt down and finished, "...and I love you too!" ♥  He had never actually said the words before.
She put her hand over her mouth, eyes big.  She finally managed, "Is this for real?"
He assured her it was for real!  Then he pulled out the ring.  "Rebekah Anne Hawks, will you marry me?"
He barely got the words out before she answered, "YES!"  Followed by, "Oh, my soul!" and moments later, "It's so beautiful!"  Then she asked, "Are you serious?" still not quite believing this was really happening!  lol.  She totally had not suspected a thing!  😊
This was the first time they told each other "I love you." ♥♥♥  Oh, they had hinted around about it forever, but she was waiting for him to say it first, and knew he wanted to give her a ring first.
They were on Cloud 9, let me tell you!  Still are.  Well, I guess they have been for quite a while already, haha!

One of Caleb's brothers, Ethan, was videoing, and I was able to pull a couple of shots from that:

"Rebekah Anne Hawks, will you marry me?"  (Duh!) heehee

       See the heart♥ in the road? ↑ 😊

"Show me the ring"

►You can watch the proposal here.


Travis and I were just down the road, waiting for the final text from Isaac, another of Caleb's brothers, to tell us it was okay to come on.  We didn't want to arrive too early and make Rebekah wonder why we were there.

back at the house

Then followed pictures, phone calls, excitement from everyone!  The younger kids were especially excited.  The youngest said, "But that's your marriage finger!" and it had to be explained why an engagement ring goes on the marriage finger when you're still not married yet. 😊

And Caleb's little brother Gideon gathered up the ♥ rocks and put them in this container. These are the "love rocks," as he calls them.  So sweet.  =)

Needless to say, facebook has been a flurry of beeps all day from notifications -- of comments to posts I've been tagged in, or have commented on, or have posted myself.

Such excitement!  😄

Apple Festival, October, 2012

after singing at the Wilkes County rest home

See Abi making a ♥ in the background! =)

Rebekah's 18th birthday

at Caleb's house

at Rebekah's house

♥ ♥ ♥

sMiLeS,