life.

Love, Joy, peace, patients, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.

The fruit of the spirit.

God has been teaching me a lot about self-control, and fruit that had not bee true to me in my life.
I love the freedom that had come with it.

I feel so loved and blessed and cared for.

God really knows what he is talking about. Its soo hard to listen, but once I do its so life giving.

I feel loved.

BE Love.

Staying Connected

Today I was feeling very insecure about things... normally I dont feel this way...
I asked God what was going on in my heart and he said..

"you need to stay connected to the vine"

ummm DUH... no wonder I have been feeling this way.. If i am not leaning in to my source.. the one that my identity is interwoven from.. then NO WONDER I feel insecure.

Hi, My name is Dana Lyn Crabtree.
I am Gods beloved daughter.
I want more then anything to look, live and Love like Jesus.
I DO NOT follow the world.

Be Love.

Make New Friends, but keep the old.

There is just something special about Old friends.

The past 2 days I got to hang out with my friends Jeff and Ryan. We were really great friends in High School and then after we all graduated there families moved to Georgia (they are cousins).

Even though I haven't seen them in years it didn't matter, the conversation was rich. There was a comfort level with them that's harder to obtain in newer friendships. Yeah, we have changed a lot in the past years but our hearts are still similar.

I feel blessed.

Now, don't get me wrong... I LOVE my new friends. God has done amazing things through the friendships.
I LOVE YOU GUYS!

Be Love.

Updating!

I know I know I know... I am horrible blogger... most people do it everyday yet I do it once a month! (if even)

Krista... this is for you more then anyone Else.

I just usually dont have much of anything to blog about. Dont get me wrong, I enjoy my life. I love simple pleasures. I could sit on my front stoop for hours with out moving, but is that really something that people want to read about? Me sitting!? Or the thoughts that go through my head as I sit?
Such as:
"wow, that grass is sooo green"
"hummm its soo interesting that birds hop, its like they have so much joy they cant contain it"
"Look that man is passing, oh gosh he is picking his nose... i bet most people pick there nose while they are driving."
"how can she say to me love will find a way, gather round all you clowns let me hear you say, hey you got to hide your love away."

I think not!!!

I will try to think of ways to make my life more exciting!

be LOVE.

Joy

I love finding joy in all aspects of life.

Yesterday while driving home I passed what looked like a 70 year old women driving singing her little heart out. It brought me sooooo much joy. I dont know why.. but it just did.

I am no longer wearing my winter coat because I am sick of it!

I AM READY FOR SPRING.

I love winter.. I really do, but come march I need warmer weather. I am a nature person, I experience God so much through his creation. I am hungry for it. I need a change in weather mentally as well. The end of winter is when i hit my low. I need to feel.

Be Love.

Memories

One thing that I miss A LOT about this past summer are my girls.

One of my biggest ways I feel love it through touch, and the girls that I lived with this summer and I really never held back. We would always play with each others hair, or scratch each others back... and as silly as it sounds.... I really miss that.

I also miss the people this summer that live by example. These people were missionaries. They have given up so much just to live the life that God has called them to live.
They lived by love.
I learned to live more and more by the spirit. I still do...... but it seems harder here. Stuff gets in the way.

I want to live free.

God, teach me to live free!

Be love.

Long Distance

I am 22 years old and still live with my parents.

The past week I have been house sitting for my aunt and uncle. They are in Arizona for 3 weeks. The other morning my 7 year old sister Bekah called me.
This is how the convo went:

Bekah: "Dana, you need to come home."
Dana: "why?"
Bekah: "Because I need you to do my hair for school."
Dana: "I'm sorry babe, I cant come home right now, but I will stop by in the next few days."
Bekah: "Ok, can you come on wednesday so you can come the 2nd grade musical?"
Dana: " Of course I wouldnt miss it for the world."

I love that girl sooo much.
On Wednesday I did go home, hung out with my family, and went to Bekahs Musical (which was 22 mins of singing and dancing)

After we got back home I told my sisters that I had to go and ask them for hugs and kisses. Bekah started to cry (which was really out of her character). She didnt realize that I had to go back and continue house sitting.

It kinda broke my heart.

I am moving out of the house in July. I Think its going to harder then I thought.

BE LOVE.

Mittens

This weekend my friend Kate and I took a trip to Holland Michigan to visit our friend Shauna.

I was just a lovely weekend. We laughed a lot. I like to laugh.

The 3 of us really enjoy speaking in British accents when we are together. We got lots of looks from people because they thought they were real. One man even wrote about in a journal he had. Funny huh?

Sunday on the drive home Kate and I stopped in a small Michigan town called Constantine. A dear friend of mine lives there, and since he kinda lives on the way home I told him we would stop for awhile.
His Grandpa told us to call him "bad Chucky". I really liked his grandpa.

We got caught in the snow strom on the way home. NO FUN! My friend only lives 2 hours away. The first hour went by fast, but the last 45 mins took us 3 hours. It was a stressful ride, but we made it home safe a sound.

Be Love.

Van Gogh

I think its safe to say that I have a crush on Vincent Van Gogh.... I know I know its strange, but while people are stalking there friends on facebook, I stalk Van Gogh and his life. Not only does he Art work completely inspire and motivate me, but his life, his story extremely intrigues me.

Originally at 16 he starts an apprenticeship with his uncle Vincent at an international art dealership. Eventually he becomes bored with his life and turns to God. He started to work as a clergyman. He had a huge heart for people and wanted to help and love them. He became very passionate about evangelical Christianity and ministering to the poor. This didn't fit in with the church at the time, so he went to missionary school. Eventually he went to Borinage Belgium to preach to coal miners. He really fell in love with these people. He related to them, lived in there poor living conditions, and really just loved them where they were at. To me, it really sounds like Van Gogh was Jesus to them. BUT this also didn't fit in with Missionaries at the time. They still lived a comfortable life style yet tried to tell people about Jesus. To me, that doesn't make much sense, but whatever.

ANYWAYS... because of this, he also was asked to leave as an missionary field... and THAT'S when he decided that he was going to be an artist. He pretty much taught himself how to paint and draw. Is that not amazing?

The rest if his life was filled with a lot of tragedy, and in the end he commits suicide. That really breaks me heart.

Its also makes me sad how the church treated him. He was loving the way Jesus loved. They should have learned from him.

But anyways..... yeah.. that's my secret. I have a crush on Vincent Van Gogh..... and I bet now you do too.

This is probably his most famous and most recognizable painting, Starry Night. If you look at it though, notice that all the houses have lights on, but the church doesn't. That for sure expresses his heart for the Church. How sad is that?

So last night my dads side of the family and I went to Medieval times.....




(clockwise starting back left, brother jimmy, dad, grandma, grandpa,
step mom, half sister Livy, some man, half brother Jack, me)

We went for my dads 43rd birthday. At 1st I was skeptical about going, but seriously it was a blast! As you walk in you all get a crown which assigns you to the knight that you will be cheering for. Then you sit down at long tables, eat dinner with your hands, drink, and watch knights battle. It was great! At one point all the knights got carnations to toss to a few lucky ladies in the the audience. I just so happen to be one.
I sat between my step mom and my sister. Sue (the step mom), and I had so much fun cheering and yelling as obnoxiously as we could for our Knight. At times Livy would get Embarrassed and push my arm down. That just made me want to do it more!

If you have ever considered going to Medieval times before, just do it! Its a lot of fun!

Like Minds

I am coming to realize that the way I think/the way my mind works is rather odd.

At time when I try to express my self verbally, the people I am sharing with end up more confused then enlightened. So more often then not I keep most of my deeper thoughts to myself.

I do have one friend though that always seems to get me. I don't have to try to explain myself over and over again, he understand my abstract thoughts. I love it. Around him and I can throw up my verbal processing and he gets it. And with that, I feel blessed.

Not to change the subject but.....

I love my Missional Community. I love what God is doing among it, and I love the friendships I have gained because of it.
When I came back home after the summer I thought I would be coming back to the old normality's of the life I left. I had fear I fall back in to the complacent, disimpassioned person I had let myself become.
God knew better.
I have been overwhelmingly blessed with Gods love and community. The new people and friendships he has put in my life show how great his love is for me.

I am his daughter. I am his Beloved. I am His.

Snow Falling

Me time.

Its something that I so often forget to have.



These past 2 nights I have made fires in my fireplace and just "was". I was so deeply blessed by it. I journaled, read, prayed and just sat in silent. AMAZING.



God spoke to me a lot about who he was, and what he wants for me in this moment. I truely felt his love.



I also realized for me its NOT hard to love the poor but its hard for me to love the poor at heart. I really need God to give me the eyes to see them for who they are; His Children, his creations.



Something else God has been putting on my heart, is his creation. I know that I a lot of times take frograted what it is, and how we have a responsiblily to take care of it. We are destroing what he created with the cars we dive, the houses we heat, and the trash we throw out. How can I take responsibilty and care for this world!?