Liar

What a great post this is, gotta read it @ The Gypsy Momma, go there, read it..... you'll be blessed.

Bloom

Gotta tell you a story, a story about how God works in my life. If there is one thing I have learned in 43 years of being on this earth, it's that I need to be open to things, and content with not always having direction.

Ok, I admit it, that's hard for me, the goal oriented over achiever that I am.

But, there's this book that I bought about 5 or 6 years ago. It was in a rack at the Kroger or Food Lion, can't remember which. I bought it. It's called "Strong Women, Soft Hearts" by Paula Rinehart. 

For some reason, I stuck it on my book shelf and never read it. It later made it's way to a box stored in my shed. As I was cleaning out stuff for a yard sale, I came across the book and decided to sell it at the yard sale. I figured some other women might enjoy reading it. It was in a box in my daughters car ready to be sold. Later that night I was reading this blog that I had discovered several months ago. The blog is called Bloom. It's an online book club, where women read and discuss certain books, and the book that they are discussing now is.......

"Strong Women, Soft Hearts".

So, I ran to the car, and grabbed the book out of the yard sale box. And started reading, and knew that God had totally planned it this way. I really needed to hear this stuff now, not 5 years ago, but right now!

And here is why, in a nutshell, I'm just beginning this next journey with God there is much to be discovered......

In the midst of my mid-life crisis, I feel empty, like I should know what I'm doing, and have a sense of accomplishment. I know, I have accomplished a lot, but it's this emptiness that I can't explain. Paula Rinehart put it like this in the first paragraph of her book, 

"People often complain of such things during that season of life (mid-life is what she is referring to) -- like someone drilled a hole through their souls. While everything looks the same on the outside, they feel hollow and restless, bored in ways that make no sense."

THAT'S IT!!!! She just put into words what I am experiencing right now at this point in my life! 

I love how God speaks to me.

Cycles

I'm drawing a blank these days. I think that's called writer's block or something like that.

Perhaps this is just how life is... it cycles.

There are times of creativity, times of productivity, times of introspection, times of contemplation, times of application, and the list goes on.

Each of these has it's purpose.

It's nice to step back and really take a look at things... gain perspective... wonder.

Ask what if?  and  why?

Stay in the indecision for a while, stay uncomfortable for a while, it's all part of the growth process that we all go through. (yeah, everyone goes through a growth process, but not everyone is aware of their growth process, open your eyes)

We complicate life so much.
We expect too much from ourselves.
We expect too much from others.
We expect too much from God.

If we really knew Him, we would have no other expectation than to love Him, like He loves us.

God created us for him.


He's not a Genie or Magician that answers our requests in the form of prayers.

He's not something I add to my life, schedule in, make time for.

We are part of His creation, His purpose, His plan.

Donald Miller put it ever so wonderfully when he wrote "If I have a hope, it's that God sat over the dark nothing and wrote you and me, specifically, into the story, and put us in with the sunset and the rainstorm as though to say, Enjoy your place in my story. The beauty of it means you matter, and you can create within it even as I have created you." (from his book "A Million Miles In a Thousand Years")

So where are you in the cycle?

Where are you with God?

What are you creating in God's story?

Why do you do what you do?

Thankful Thursdays on Friday, April 16, 2010

Today is a really special day. I am thankful for my daughter Samantha Paige. She was born 13 years ago today at St. Mary's Hospital right here in Richmond, VA. She was 2 weeks early, and weighed 8 pounds!

I remember when I first saw her, she had no eyelashes, and was a beautiful, bald, little butterball. Early on, she was quite colicky. I later realized that was just part of her feisty personality. She was always very determined in everything she did, somewhat of a perfectionist. She's a momma's girl, she always wanted to be held and cuddled, and even today she still likes to be close to me.

I just can't believe my baby girl is 13. Where does the time go? For many years in our children's lives, we can't wait for them to get older and on to the next stage. But when they become teenagers, we start counting the years we have left with them.

How much time do I have to teach her everything she needs to know to go out into the world and a become productive adult?

That would be only 6 years.

And I sit back and marvel at the wonderful young women she is becoming. Samantha is a born leader, other kids look up to her and want to be around her. She has awesome friendships, she is a great relater, her friends cherish Samantha for her loyalty to them. Samantha also loves a sense of accomplishment, she achieves anything she puts her mind to. She's also an awesome artist and clarinetist. She dreams of being a Fashion Designer or Emergency Rescue Vet when she gets older. And I have no doubt that she will!


I am so blessed and so thankful for my
Samantha Paige

Thankful Thursdays

I think Thursdays are great days to give thanks, not that everyday isn't a great day to give thanks, but Thankful and Thursday just sound good together. I think back a few decades to the "positive thinking" stuff that was so popular then, remember Norman Vincent Peale, Zig Ziglar, Maya Angelou?? Ok, so maybe they're not all "positive thinkers", but they were popular back in the 90's, like when Oprah did a show on "Being Grateful". Thankful Thursdays are the same concept.

Everyday, there are things that are good in my life. What if we all lived our lives being thankful for those things? Focused on the positive? Looked at the glass half full?

So Thursdays are the day that I will give thanks for the many blessings that I have been given.....

Last week I posted something about my daughter, Jessi (go to "At Any Cost" to read this post). I am so thankful for my children, they are such a blessing to me. I can't believe that God trusts me this much.... to give me four beautiful children.
Yeah, they're a little crazy, like me ;)

Personal 911

There's urgency in the numbers

Hope for a desperate world

Insurgency in the slumber

How did we become unfurled?

God wipes away the pain

We died to sin, the time it steals

but it never works

to hurt is easier than to heal.

The clock stops on the wall

the things we keep so near

more than a wake up call

the deeper wounds stop here.


Blinded by the chaos
Hand on the gun
Can't get past the pain
My personal 911

Dedicated to a Friend :)

The “Is that contestant on American Idol a Christian? Scorecard”

Today, I am participating in the massive guest blog post on Jon Acuff's blog "Stuff Christians Like".

The “Is that contestant on American Idol a Christian? Scorecard”:

20. They drink a 40 ounce of Olde E. malt liquor during one of their interviews. = - 3 points

To add up your score with over a 130 other ideas on this scorecard, visit stuffchristianslike.net.