Where to Begin....
>> Wednesday, July 30, 2008
The last couple of weeks in our house have been ridiculous, which I've alluded to. Every bit of it (except the jury duty and Mark's late nights at work) has been fun, fun, fun.
Last Saturday was the Women's Breakfast at church, so I spent Friday evening decorating the church and running more errands for last minute things. A few of us from Women's leadership even ended the evening at a girlfriend's backyard, which (unbeknownst to us until that night) is a Tiki Tropical Paradise. It is decorated to the hilt and I thought I had been transported to the Islands. We sat around a fire pit, with our feet in a sand pit, lounging on bamboo chairs as the sun set around us. There may have even been margaritas (but not for anyone who is on paid staff at church. Ahem.). The next morning I was back at church bright and early for our breakfast, which was an enormous success.
From there I went home, changed clothes and headed off to my future Sister-in-Law's bridal shower. The wedding is now only a handful of weeks away, which is unbelievable to me. The shower was wonderful, Kayla looked beautiful (as always) and the friends and family members that I met were darling.
Once my Mom and I made our way home from there, Mark and the kids met up with us and we all went out for dinner. All in one day. I'm exhausted just typing it....how did I ever live it? It was wonderful, that's how.
On Sunday it was time to spend time with my husband and my kiddos since I had been away from them so much. After church we piled in the car and headed to the Portland Children's Museum. It was our first visit, but it will definitely not be our last. I won't say anymore about it because I have lots of pictures to share with you, once I get them downloaded to the computer. Needless to say, we had a blast!
All of a sudden the weekend was over and it was time to be up at the crack of dawn on Monday because I had a bright and early dentist appointment. My teeth are clean and sparkling and I love it! Mark has had to work late every night this week (again) and I had jury duty. Fortunately that is over.
So here I am, heading into another busy weekend. Tomorrow night is my weekly Women's Summer study that I lead and then Friday night and Saturday morning we are headed to the Beth Moore Simulcast at a local church. After that, life should quiet down to a dull roar (it can't quiet down too much....there's a wedding coming up, after all!) and I should be back to blogging regularly again.
I've said it before and I'll say it again. I don't like being this busy. It can get in the way of relationships. In fact, we had to cancel on a BBQ with friends for Sunday because we felt it was important for us to spend time just the four of us. I believe we made the right decision, but that has the unfortunate consequence of making our friends feel unimportant. (Fortunately, these are some of our best friends, so they understood.) This has just happened to be a perfect storm of things all happening in the space of two weeks. So that's where I've been. Well, that and tinkering with my blog design, which I think I'm finally happy with (for now)!
Split Personality
I'm really struggling with my new design. I can't decide which way to go. I feel like this blog is, in general, fairly serious. Not always, but mostly. I focus a lot on my faith, which I take very seriously. Not that the Lord doesn't make me jump for joy and laugh with glee. He does. Those things are just harder to convey in words.
The dilemma I'm facing is that I'm not really all that serious of a person. I love to laugh. LOVE it. The people I choose to spend the most time with are all funny and I like to think I hold my own among them. The problem is, most of the things I feel led to share on this blog aren't very funny (some are, though, and I hope you all enjoy them). So I'm teaching myself (very remedial) HTML and making all kinds of different blog headers (on GIMP, if you're wondering) and my split personality is making it impossible for me to decide on a design. So bear with me. I'm going to just keep trying on new outfits until I find one that fits.
PS...I've officially fulfilled my civic duty as a juror for the next two years and can get back to real life.
Read more...
Third times a charm
>> Tuesday, July 29, 2008
OK....last try. No black line, no cut off 'y', no freakishly gigantic signature. I think I've got it. Thanks for bearing with me.
Still changing things.....
Hey everyone! I'm just testing out some new things. I'm still messing with the look of the blog (in case you hadn't noticed). I promise I will actually add some content soon, but in the meantime, I'm having too much fun with my mad HTML skillz. Check out the new signature:
Jury Duty
Sorry that I have been MIA this week already. It turns out I got picked for jury duty (hooray) and so the time I am at home is already earmarked for other things this week. I will be back soon!
Read more...My new look
>> Sunday, July 27, 2008
So I finally took a little time to try to design my own header and this is what I came up with! It's still not perfect (I wish you could read the verse better), but I've been working on it enough for one day. I may continue to tweak it here and there, but for now....I'm proud of it! What do you think?
Read more...He just keeps answering my prayers. Even when I wasn't really sure I wanted Him to.
>> Friday, July 25, 2008
During the school year, I have a regular Women's Bible study that I help facilitate on Thursday mornings. It is my favorite couple of hours of the week and it has had an enormous impact on my life. As we wrapped up the year in June, we decided that we wanted to get together as a group a couple of times over the summer. It was decided we would get together once during the day, with the kids, and once in the evening without. Jonna and I decided we would call some of our regular baby-sitters and have a couple of them come to a park and play with our kids while the ladies gabbed fellowshipped. We confirmed two girls for childcare, but had a third in mind in case we needed her.
A week prior to the park play date, I emailed all the women, reminding them of the details and asking for an RSVP from all moms who would be attending. We needed a fairly accurate head count of kiddos so that we would have sufficient supervision for them. A couple of days went by and I received a couple of RSVPs from moms, including one from a mom who only has a 4-month-old (Susan, you are adorable, but I'm pretty sure Yohan wasn't going to need anyone chasing him around the park). As of the day before the event, I had an RSVP total of 5 toddlers and two infants. It looked like two high school girls would be just fine.
The evening before we were all supposed to meet, I got a phone call from a girlfriend from church saying that she would be coming, and would be bringing a friend and together they would be bringing four more children. I also received an email from another girlfriend (Hi, Stacey!) saying she and her sister would be coming and bringing their kids, as well. Suddenly, in the space of a couple of hours, our total kid-count went from 5 to 12 (and that isn't including infants, who happily hung out with the mommies). It quickly became apparent that I was going to need another babysitter, which meant I was going to have to make some phone calls. Again.
After a short period of panicking and convincing myself there was NO WAY I could get another babysitter on such short notice, I remembered that I have a God in heaven who I can call on for things like this. I asked Him to forgive me for even trying to work this out on my own and then just said "Lord....find me a babysitter. Just tell me who to call and I'll do it." And that is exactly what He did.
The story has a fabulously happy ending. We had enough childcare, the women got to catch up and laugh and hug and all of those wonderful things that girlfriends are for. We also got to meet a new gal who is going to joining us for our study in the Fall. The morning accomplished everything I prayed it would. And more.
I have been begging God to give me a servant's heart. I want so badly to serve the women of our church and love them the way Christ would. Christ would not have panicked over childcare. He would have rejoiced at more women coming to fellowship and trusted His Father to provide for whatever He willed. He would never have felt "put out" over having to make eleventh hour calls to find a babysitter. He would have been thrilled to have more people to serve. That is the heart I want to have. Thank you, Lord, for giving me an opportunity to start practicing that very thing.
Omnipotent
>> Wednesday, July 23, 2008
I had several short errands to run last night. The list of stops was long, but the visits would be short. The kind of evening that sucks the gas right out of your car. Since tonight is Mark's late night at work and tomorrow is my Bible Study, I knew I didn't want my errands to take up too much of the evening. There was only one task that was going to cause me any sort of potential delays. I was on a mission to find door prizes for our Women's breakfast this Saturday. Because our Women's Ministry spares no expense, I went to the Dollar Tree.
During my quiet time yesterday, I had prayed over the list of things I had to accomplish during the day. I lingered for a moment over my trip to the Dollar Tree, asking Him to bless me with discernment about exactly what to purchase. I knew I wanted something cute and fun, yet not too predictable or cheap "looking" (something that can be difficult to dodge at the Dollar Tree). I really didn't want to have to spend an hour there, scanning the aisles, looking for buried treasure. I just wanted to go in, find it, and get back home to my husband.
So after dinner, Mark put on the kids' shoes and took them for a walk to the park, and I put on my shoes and headed out the door for my marathon errand session. UPS store? Check. Party City? Check. Bank? Check.
Finally it was time to hit the store where everything is a dollar. I braced myself for digging through disorganization, looking for candles or lotion or something acceptable to give to a woman who had just won a hula hoop contest. I meandered down the aisles for a few minutes, glancing at this and that, but not being struck by anything in particular. I found some cute little nail polishes, and thought they might be fun, until I saw that the brand on the bottle was "Sweet Seduction". Not exactly the kind of thing I needed to be handing out at a church function.
Then I saw it. The perfect prize! It was fun, it was cute, it was practical and (best of all) it fit in with our theme! I scooped up the required amount, along with goody bags to wrap them up in, and I was on my way, having only spent about 10 minutes on a job that could have taken much longer.
The Lord cares about the little stuff. I was reminded of that last night. He heard my prayer. He knew it was my heart to be home in the evening with Mark (and my Wii), and He made it happen. Please don't forget to pray about the little stuff, too. Yes, He created the heavens and the earth. Yes, He parted the Red Sea. Yes, He raised from the dead. But He also sent the perfect door prize to the shelf of the Dollar Tree last night. Praise Him that He is so ALL powerful. He doesn't have to pick and choose which prayers He has time for. He can handle it ALL.
My joy and my crown
>> Tuesday, July 22, 2008
Since I wrote my post yesterday, I have received not one, but two emails from women in the Bible study I lead asking me for favors. They were both overly kind about thanking me for "all that I do" (not really all that much) and qualifying their requests with an "if it's not too much trouble".
Here's the kicker....Not only is it not too much trouble, I love every minute of it. I almost feel guilty calling what I do service in any way because I get so much from it. The joy I receive from helping women study God's word and build valuable relationships with each other is enormous! I sometimes wonder if I shouldn't find a ministry that's "harder" so I can feel like I'm "suffering" more for the Lord.
Then I remember that I have two toddlers and that is the ministry that tests my metal every day.
Some women are born to be mothers. I mean that in a theoretical sense more than a literal one. The fact that I have two kids means that I was born to be a mother, as well, but not the way that some women are. I love my boys. More than life. I also think I'm a pretty OK mommy. But I don't love motherhood the way that some women seem to. I was just talking with a girlfriend of mine last week about articles you read in magazines or women you see on TV who seem to feel utterly euphoric about having toddlers. I simply don't feel that way. I feel euphoric about my boys themselves. Not having to play my 3 millionth game of CandyLand or microwave my 7 millionth chicken nugget or change my 10 millionth diaper.
So if you are one of the women out there who has no greater joy than to wash sippy cups and play with play-doh, I salute you. I am not that woman. Yet I do all of those things and will continue to, because I love my boys.
I am so thankful, though, that my God knows me well enough to know that I needed a little something else. Something that was all mine and yet all His, too. Something that would give me joy and create in me an enthusiasm for this life beyond potty seats. Something that would allow me to be home, taking care of my most precious ministry, and yet still have a ministry outside of the walls of my apartment. The Lord is good. And I am grateful.
Overscheduled
>> Monday, July 21, 2008
We are in a season of life that is extremely busy. This is very unusual for Summer and I don't care for it all that much. Oh, I love all the fun I'm having at all of the fun things I have scheduled to have fun at, but I don't like the fact that I don't have any down time. I am someone who requires down time.
I also have very strong opinions about over-scheduling oneself. I believe it is arrogant. To fill up my calendar to bursting is to tell God that I know what's best for my time, thankyouverymuch and if He has something He'd like for me to do, then He will have to just pencil Himself in like everyone else. When I look back at times in my life when I have had the privilege of seeing God use me profoundly, it was when my schedule was fairly open. I was able to build relationships and meet needs. I was able to invite people over and help people move if they needed it. Meeting some one's physical needs will go a long way to earning the right to speak into their lives about spiritual things.
I've recently joined our Women's Ministry leadership team at church. Something I have been praying for for a long time and am very excited to be doing. I feel like God has very clearly and loudly called me into this position, so I am confident it is where God intends to use me for now. Yet it has already begun to fill up my calendar. With fun and fellowship and ministry and excitement. I love it all. I wouldn't change it. However, I pray that I would have discernment about when to say 'when'. I pray that as I build new relationships with the women at church, my first priority would always be for their hearts, and not just for their attendance.
Lord, thank you so much for fellowship and activities. Thank you for friends and family to spend time with. Thank you for the means to do all of these things. Father God, I pray that you would always keep my priorities straight. I pray that you would always give me a heart for relationship. I pray that my eyes would always be fixed on You and Your purpose. For my life, for my ministries and for my time. Amen.
His Name is Safe
>> Friday, July 18, 2008
I don't do a lot of email forwarding. Not because I am "anti-" email forwards, I just know that a lot of people are and I don't want them to start seeing my email address in their inbox and rolling their eyes. So I am choosy about the emails I forward. I have to really mean it.
Today I got an email forward that I had to pass on. It was one of those "out of the mouths of babes" emails that listed all the things children answered when asked "What is love?" I have no idea if children actually said any of the things in the email or not, but it didn't really matter to me. Some of the responses actually brought a tear to my eye. Not because they were supposedly said by a 6-year-old, but because they were profound even if they were said by a 36-year-old.
My favorite was by "Billy-age 4". He (allegedly) said "When someone loves you, they way they say your name is different. You just know their name is safe in your mouth."
This instantly made me think of Jesus.
Because I love Him, His name is safe in my mouth. That's saying a lot these days. His name is thrown around as an expletive. Or even worse, He is misrepresented. People use His name to justify hate. People use His name to support their judgemental attitudes. People use His name to support their tolerant-of-sin attitudes. He is given credit for being a good man, a divisive man or a lunatic. He is described in all different ways, but not by people who love Him.
For those of us who love Him, He is called Lord. He is called God. He is called Savior. We know that He is loving, merciful and kind. We also know that He is Truth, and Truth stands for something. He stands against sin and against evil. But mostly He stands as our representatives, covering us in His blood, ensuring our eternal salvation.
I love Him, so His name will always be safe in my mouth.
The Wii
>> Tuesday, July 15, 2008
Honestly, I feel like the Wii deserves it's own blog post. I babbled on about it so much prior to getting it that I felt like I had not done it justice yesterday when I mentioned it. If I knew how, I would have added some kind of drum roll and fanfare to the announcement.
I have a very generous Aunt and Grandma who took pity on my incessant whining about the Wii and purchased one for us for Christmas. The beautiful thing is that I did not have to wait until Christmas to get it. I just had to promise to remember that my Christmas present had already been given to me come holiday time. No problem.
Seriously, I have had my Wii since Saturday and it has already been such a source of joy in our house. Last night, instead of watching something mindless on the TV, Mark and I played a couple of games of tennis and then bowled a couple of games. In our living room! We were both out of breath and sweaty when we were done, but neither one of us had realized we were working that hard until it was all over. That's my kind of exercise! We also let Elijah stay up and play for awhile, and his new favorite game is fishing. He jumps up and down like a nut every time he catches a fish.
I know that video games can have a bad reputation as being time-wasters and couch-potato-creators, but the Wii is the opposite of that. It brings our family a lot of together time (time that we would probably be watching TV and not necessarily interacting) and gets us up and active.
Thank you so much, Aunt Maureen and Grandma! We love our Wii and we love you!
Read more...
Menu Monday and other things
>> Monday, July 14, 2008
I can't believe I haven't posted since Tuesday, except to say a quick good-bye to Tony Snow. I had been doing so well keeping up on my blogging. The truth is, this is one of the busiest summers I can remember. I think it has something to do with my brother getting married at the end of it. It also has to do with friends going on vacation and asking you to cover their ministries for them. It also has to do with my having such a desperate need to have a women's Summer Bible study that I am leading it myself. It also may have something to do with my having two toddlers.
So time is flying these days, which is strange for summertime. I usually find that the pace of things slows down in the summertime. Apparently just not this year.
So a brief catch-up on miscellaneous things:
-I made every recipe on my Menu Monday last week, and am looking forward to doing the same this week!
-I called every single person I was supposed to call for Meals on Wheels last week, despite my sweaty palms and cotton mouth every time I dialed the phone.
-The date of Boomama's Before and After has changed to sometime in September, so don't expect any pictures of my bathroom next week (I am certain that none of you are too disappointed by this news, but if you are, and pictures of my bathroom were something you were really looking forward to, you might want to look into getting some kind of life. No offense).
-Ummm...that little video game system that I have publicly and frequently dreamed about on this blog? Yeah...we got one! We have a Wii!!!! Thank you, Aunt Maureen, for our 5 months early Christmas present! We're already having a great time with it! See?:
You can see that is has a place of honor, right next to the potty seat.
So to wrap up this mish-mosh of a post, I am going to once again post my menu for the week as a source of accountability. Please feel free to ask me about any recipes you're interested in. I'm happy to share, but don't want to take the time to list them all on the blog.
So, here we go again....
Tonight- BBQ Chicken Wraps with Baby Carrots and chips
Tuesday- Cheesy Sloppy Joe's and salad
Wednesday- Taco Salad (Mark's late night)
Thursday- Chicken and Black Bean Burritos
Friday- Gnocchi Bolognese
Have a good Monday, everyone!
Read more...Good-Bye, Tony
>> Saturday, July 12, 2008
"The secret of learning to be sick is this: Illness doesn't make you less of what you were. You are still you."-Tony Snow
And what you were was a great man, Tony Snow. Keep the partisans in check up in heaven until I get there!
Meals on Wheels
>> Tuesday, July 8, 2008
I once saw an episode of 'Dr. Phil' where his guest was a woman scared of styrofoam. That was not a typo. She was terrified. He brought some styrofoam out on stage with her and she was physically shaking. She looked just like I would have if I had been on that stage and he had brought out a gigantic snake (or a tiny snake, if I'm honest) and expected me to hold it. Truthfully, I was laughing at this woman a little bit. How could you be scared of styrofoam? Then he brought out his next guest. A woman who was scared to talk on the phone.
Suddenly I wasn't laughing so much. I, myself, am phone-phobic. I used to think it was just me, and that no one else in the world could possibly be experiencing the same silly (and it is totally silly) fear. Seeing this woman on 'Dr. Phil' made me realize that I wasn't alone. I wish I could explain it to you all, but I can't. I am perfectly able to talk to my husband, or my mom, or a select group of friends on the phone just fine. I am even able to talk to perfect strangers on the phone without problem. It's the "in-betweens". The people who I know enough for them to have some expectation of me on the phone, but not enough to be totally comfortable talking to them. It's bizarre. My palms sweat, my heart beats really rapidly and my mind goes totally blank. I can't do it. I know you all are laughing at me just like I was laughing at the woman afraid of styrofoam. You're thinking "How could someone be afraid to talk on the phone?!" And my answer to you is, I don't know. But I am.
I've spent a lot of years making excuses for why I didn't answer the phone when someone called or why I didn't return their calls. I was living a lie, people. It was not good. I finally started to realize that this was an obstacle in my life that was not benign. I was lying to people. I was less effective in any ministries I participated in because I couldn't call people. It was terrible. I started to pray about it.
My friend Jonna organizes the "Meals on Wheels" ministry at our church, and she is amazing at it. Our friend, Becky, just had a baby last Wednesday, July 2nd, and Jonna had put together a sign-up of two weeks worth of women to bring meals to Becky. Since Jonna left on vacation later that same week, she asked if I would be willing to make the reminder phone calls every day to the people signed-up. Instantly I knew this was way out of my comfort zone (and Jonna knew it, too. She's one of the few people aware of my phobia), but I thought it was the perfect opportunity to face my fear. I would have to make a single phone call to an "in-betweener" every day for 2 weeks. Perfect.
Little did I know, God had more planned for me than that. The very day Jonna left on vacation, our friend Sara, who was pregnant but not due for three more weeks called to tell me she was at the hospital having the baby! All of a sudden I wasn't just the reminder-caller. I was the call-people-and-actually-get-them-to-sign-up-to-take-a-meal-person. I won't lie to you. I panicked. For a good hour I was absolutely convinced there was no way I would be able to accomplish this.
Then God reminded me that I had been praying for this very thing. I had asked Him to get me past my phone fear. I had wanted Him to just make the phobia vanish. In His wisdom, He is requiring that I work it out of me.
Since I got the phone call from Sara at the hospital, I have had nearly every person on the list for Becky call me needing to change days or cancel all together, meaning I have had to make even more phone calls to juggle people around and get days filled. What started out as one phone call a day to one "in-betweener" has become many phone calls a day to many "in-betweeners". God brought the styrofoam out on the stage and is expecting me to hold it. I have to say, as scary as this has been for me, it's been a really great feeling knowing that He is that interested in growing me as a person that He is taking me through this. It humbles me.
But Jonna totally owes me.
A Rushed Post
My morning started a little bit strange today. I never heard my kids on the monitor (I think the white noise of fans and air conditioners drowned them out). Mark worked late again last night (what's new) so by the time he got home (11) and we unwound and he ate dinner, I was up way too late. So I was dead asleep this morning when Elijah started banging on the kids' bedroom door because he had to go potty. It was 8:15! I have no idea how long they had been up! Praise the Lord nothing serious happened!
So anyway, I've been playing catch-up all morning. No shower for me yet and only one of the beds made. I do, however, already have dinner made for tonight, because I wanted to get it done before the heat sets in. We're having Chipotle Chicken Salad, so I could make it all ahead of time and just assemble it when Mark gets home (which, Lord willing, will be ON TIME tonight), and I did make the Grilled Chicken with Gnocchi that I promised last night, so I'm 2 for 2 so far!
Alright....I'm off to finish getting caught up on my day. Hope you all have a great one!
Menu Monday
>> Monday, July 7, 2008
Confession:
I have not cooked a real-life, honest-to-goodness dinner in well over a week.
Before you think I've been shirking my responsibilities (again), let me remind you that my husband was not home any night last week before 10 PM and his office was keeping him fed with Red Robin TO GO. While I sat at home and had Lean Cuisine french bread pizza for the umpteenth time. The weekend before that we celebrated his birthday two nights in a row by going out. Friday was the 4th, and we had a fantastic BBQ at my parent's house. That only leaves the last two days open for opportunities to cook and can I tell you all...I was exhausted! The seven days leading up to this past Saturday were so full and so tiring that I don't feel one bit guilty about the "run to the border" we made last night (or the night before).
In an effort to make sure that I don't continue to slide into a rut of laziness and fast food, however, I decided to take advantage of my accountability partners again. I'm going to post my menu for the week. This will hopefully accomplish a couple of things. First, I will once again feel the responsibility to live up to what I have promised on this blog, which will keep me more motivated to cook this week. Second, it may give you some ideas for your menu planning at home, and third, maybe you'll be inspired to give me some of your ideas of what you're cooking in your house this summer!
So without further ado, I present my first (and possibly last, we'll see) edition of "Menu Monday":
Tonight- Grilled Chicken with Gnocchi in Sage brown butter
Tuesday- Chipotle Chicken Salad
Wednesday- Pizzadillas (Mark's late night)
Thursday- Wraps and Chips (I start leading a summer Bible study this night, so I need something easy so I can get out the door)
Friday- Drunken Chorizo Chili
Believe it or not, all of these recipes are Weight Watchers friendly. Some of them are new ones, so I'm excited to try. It always makes me more excited to get in the kitchen when I'm getting to do something new. So there you have it. This is what my family will be eating this week. How about yours?
After I typed this post, I went onto Photobucket to make a banner, but found that there is another blogger who already does Menu Monday. This makes me so happy! So I'm joining I'm an Organizing Junkie at her Menu Mondays! Check it out!
Happy 4th of July!
>> Friday, July 4, 2008
"Sure I wave the American flag. Do you know a better flag to wave? Sure I love my country with all her faults. I'm not ashamed of that, never have been, never will be." -- John Wayne
"The things that the flag stands for were created by the experiences of a great people. Everything that it stands for was written by their lives. The flag is the embodiment, not of sentiment, but of history." -- Woodrow Wilson
Day 4
>> Thursday, July 3, 2008
It's amazing how something as minor as a blog can have such a profound impact on my day. Yesterday, after I posted all sorts of glowing reports about how my week was going, it took a sharp, downhill turn. The kids started loudly and aggressively getting on each other's nerves, which was working loudly and aggressively on my nerves. For a minute I really wanted to crawl into a ball and cry. Then I really wanted to call my husband and cry. Then I remembered how I had promised you all on this blog that I was going to rely on the Lord for all things and not call my husband when the going got tough. I decided that if I didn't want to face bloggy embarrassment, I needed to get on my knees, cry out to the Lord, and then call my mom for support instead of burdening my husband at work. My mom wasn't home, but my dad was. He'll do in a pinch. The Lord....He's always home.
So thank you for this week, bloggers. Without even realizing it, you have all been holding me accountable. If I didn't have those blog posts to live up to, I might have indulged my emotions and had a pity party. Instead I faced the tough stuff with the Lord's help and lived to tell about it. I still have today to get through, and it should be an adventure. Micah is in rare form. I'm pretty sure he's sick of my face and is wondering what I've done with his Daddy. He's taking it out on everyone and everything around him. But my spirits are up. My mood is good. My attitude is right. The Lord never promised us it would be easy, only that He would be with us no matter what. I can honestly tell you that He has been. He absolutely has been. And so have you all, whether you knew it or not. Thanks!
Dance for Jesus
>> Wednesday, July 2, 2008
I am so full of gratefulness this morning, I can hardly contain it. I'm going to let it overflow onto my blog.
Yesterday was another great day! God is just showing off with the way He is keeping me full of peace, patience and self-control these last couple of days. Honestly....I am not capable of the attitudes and choices I have been making this week. I give Him all credit.
Also...He worked a good, old-fashioned miracle for me this morning. For the last week I have been horrible on my diet. H-O-R-R-I-B-L-E! Between VBS, being sick and my husband's birthday celebrations, I hadn't made good food choices lately. Lots of coffee drinks from our church's coffee bar (The Perk) and nutritious snacks like grape soda over ice cream (why did I eat that?! Just typing it makes me nauseous) were the types of fare I was enjoying at VBS. While I was sick I was downing bowls full of Top Ramen (what can I say? I was sick and it sounded good). Then the weekend....oh, my goodness. Two separate birthday celebrations for my husband that included steak, potatoes, Mexican food, margaritas, wine, ice cream, cookies (we didn't have cake, my husband is a cookie monster) and I didn't count a single Weight Watchers point. I was too busy eating.
So needless to say I was not looking forward to my weigh-in this morning. I was certain that I was going to have gained every pound back that I had lost. I begged the Lord on Monday to prepare my heart for what the scale was going to say. I asked Him to not let me be defeated by any discouragement. Guess what? I lost a pound!!!! I know! I can't believe it either! The people reading this who were with me this weekend while I was stuffing my face are wondering what kind of diet this could possibly be. Well, I'll tell you. It's the Jesus-had-mercy-on-me diet. I know He won't do this for me every week, but He did me a favor this morning and I am so grateful. I literally did a dance in my bathroom when I stepped off the scale. I won't lie to you....it was not cute. I am not a dancer. But I know that God thought it was beautiful because it was my little worship dance of gratefulness.
So here is praying that your days are all full of reasons to dance for Jesus, as well. He loves it.
All Things
>> Tuesday, July 1, 2008
Last week was "Week, Interrupted". I had a whole week of VBS ahead of me that should have been busy and fun. Instead I had a partial week of VBS and a partial week of being sick. Mark also had a partial week of work, because of my being sick. This week is a short week for him, also, because of the holiday, so he has last week's leftover work and this week's consolidated week of work to cram into 4 days. You can guess what that means....late nights all week. We really won't see him until Friday, except to sleep.
The difference this time is that I'm ready for it. I've spent some serious time with the Lord, preparing my heart for this week, and yesterday was a successful day. So far, so good. "I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength (Phil 4:16)." Right? Sometimes it's hard to remember that during the mundane times. I turn to that verse when huge things rock my world, but I find myself trying to handle daily life on my own strength, instead of realizing that I should be doing ALL things (that is what the verse says, after all) through Christ. I should be doing the laundry through Christ's strength. I should be playing with my kids through Christ's strength. I should be making the bed through Christ's strength.
So that's what I'm going to do this week (and hopefully every day after that). The first thing I did this morning as I laid in bed was roll over and say "Good Morning, Lord. We've got another long day ahead of us! I can't do it, but I know you can!" That's my attitude and I'm sticking to it!
The other thing I'm praying for is that I would not say anything, even unintentionally, to make Mark feel bad about having to work so late. I know he feels terrible when he is gone such long hours. The Holy Spirit has really worked a miracle in my heart over the last year or so. I used to get really upset when Mark would tell me he wouldn't be home on time and I would take it out on him. I'm embarrassed to admit it, but it was so frustrating and I had no one else to get upset with. Looking back, I'm ashamed at how I must have made Mark feel and I'm so thankful that the Lord worked on my heart and gave me enough patience and peace to cover my frustration. Now I just worry about saying things unintentionally. Burdening Mark with things going on at home that he can't possibly do anything about from where he is. I need to have discernment about what is important to tell him about and what I need to just handle on my own (with the Lord, of course).
I'm really excited to see God work this week. I know it might sound silly, but I believe He's going to do a miracle for me this week. Instead of moving a mountain, He's going to move my heart.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
