Reflections on James

Our pastor is preaching through James right now and in our home groups we are also going through James to deepen our study of the book. I thought I would share some reflections from time to time. Here's the first one.

James 1:19-20
But everyone must be quick to hear, slow to speak, and slow to anger; for the anger of man does not achieve the righteousness of God.

Can you imagine how different relationships would be if we applied this more often? What great parents we will be if we apply this when we have kids! And it starts right now setting good habits in our relationship together. So what I need to do everyday is ask myself:

1. Today was I quick to hear Joshua? Did I listen to his concerns, his ideas, his frustrations? Or was I busy making sure he heard all of mine?
   
2. Today was I slow to speak? Did I seek to understand Joshua first before trying to be understood? Did I really listen or was I thinking of how I would respond? Was I quick with a response without really trying to listen to him?
3. Today was I slow to anger? Did I jump to conclusions and get angry? Did I weigh each situation to decide if it was worth fighting over? Was I willing to "drop it" in order to promote peace?

We probably all know that person who listens a lot and speaks less, but when he/she does speak, you listen up because it is important. I want to be a person like that. I want to weigh my words and not spill them out carelessly. I will have to give an account of every word spoken, so being slow to speak is probably a really good idea!

Furniture by Joshua

Joshua took a furniture design class this semester. When he started, I gave him a list of pieces of furniture I would love for him to make for our house. I didn't get it all, but he did make some cool tables for us. Here is his handiworkThis second table he designed to fit in this corner that we have by the downstairs bathroom. I was having trouble finding a table to fit there, so he just made me one!He's so good at this!

Only 1 week of school left for Joshua and 1 1/2 weeks for Sarah! Joshua has just one project to finish up - the hospital he has been designing. Sarah turns in a project tomorrow and then has finals Friday, Monday, and Wednesday. The semester has flown by! We can't believe it is almost summer break. We were just talking about something that we did last summer...then it clicked that that was a year ago!

So we've been living in Arlington for close to a year and a half now. I would not say we would have chosen to live here if we had not come for school. But life is pretty good and we have some friends that we love. We are both getting a good education in our respective fields and have jobs that support us. The nations do call to us though...

Arlington News

So, what has been going on lately with us? Well, the semester is coming to a close, which means that projects and papers are due. So we are busy little beavers trying to finish stuff up. Then tragedy struck last weekend.

Well, it's not really a tragedy, just "too bad." Our truck got broken into and Joshua's laptop and iPOD were stolen. Yeah, it stinks. What we are really sad about is that his semester's worth of school projects was on that laptop. So now he has to try to put together a presentation from about 2 files that he could recover from other sources. He's been very optimistic about it, but we are sad that his work is gone. We filed the police report and all but nothing so far about our stuff. Insurance should cover something so we will find out. Fortunately, all of our pictures from our trips are either backed-up on CD at here at the house or on my laptop. So nothing like that was lost.

Besides that the other interesting thing is that we have 2 couches and a love seat in our living room! Haha! My parents gave us their old set and we are waiting to donate the one we have been using. So right now we have lots of seating room...sometimes we sit on different couches just because we can! =)

Yesterday we took a break from studying and went to the park to throw the football for a while. The wind here is crazy right now, so we didn't try the frisbee. But we had a little picnic for dinner before tackling more homework. Now I am procrastinating getting back to reading my textbook. Somehow updating the blog and checking email just seems to be more fun.

Well, have a wonderful week. I will try to keep this updated a little bit more. And if you are ever in the area, give us a call!

Book Corner

Just in case anyone is looking for a fun summer read, we suggest Blue Like Jazz by Donald Miller. He writes in a light, conversational style and keeps you laughing and pondering. He discusses his spiritual discoveries in a very non-typical way. Sarah ate it up and Joshua is reading it now. We are also starting to read together another one of Donald's books Through Painted Deserts which looks like it will be enjoyable as well.

Check it out!

Wedding and a baby (almost)

Hello friends!
Last weekend we got to go to the wedding of the girl who was Sarah's best friend in junior high and high school. We had so much fun seeing Heather and getting to meet her husband. They had a beautiful reception and Sarah got to see some of Heather's family who she hadn't seen in years. Good times.

We also got to visit our friends Melody and Jesse (who we met in College Station). They are expecting a baby in May! We are so happy for them! We got to see their nursery and catch up on what has been going on in their life. Isn't she so cute! I love it!

What's up with the Seefeldts?

I guess it's about time for another update...just in case someone checks this who doesn't get to hear stories of our life. School is still keeping our noses to the grindstone. Josh is upstairs right now designing a hospital for one of his classes. I've been reading St. Augustine's On Christian Teaching for a book review for my New Testament class. Joshua still needs to tackle his cardboard chair project - yes, ladies and gents, he's going to make a chair out of cardboard! That should be an interesting addition to our ecclectic living room furniture collection.

The exciting news for me is that I have been accepted to start practicum in the summer! This is a part of my counseling program at the counseling center on campus. We have 3 semesters of practicum where we watch other students counsel for one semester and then get to do it ourselves for 2 semesters. Yay! I'm really excited!

Last weekend we went to Houston to see "Wicked" with my family. So fun! We really enjoyed the "true story of the witches of Oz." And I got to see my cousins and aunt and uncle from Colorado. We forgot our camera, so hopefully I can get some pictures from mom.

One crazy thing that happened last weekend, too, was a crazy skin problem Josh started having. We thought we had bed bugs. We woke up one morning with bites on us. Then Josh got more the next night. Then the bites started getting worse and worse and turning into some kind of rash. He was still sure he was getting bitten at night. We washed all of our sheets, turned our room upside down cleaning and vacuuming and moving stuff. We tried to find anything that would be carrying bugs. We researched what to do online. The rashy bites kept getting worse. And finally I made him an appointment with a dermatologist. And the verdict...

POISON IVY!!!

He must have gotten it mowing one day last week. So we don't have any bugs in the house and Josh now has medicine to take care of the rashes. Man is he allergic to poison ivy!

So that was our excitement.
Have a happy Easter!

Here we are in North Africa over Spring Break. If you are interested in our adventure, let me know and I can email you about it. Needless to say, we had a great time. We love to travel!