Gratitude for Today

Nothing extraordinary happened today.

Nothing very much out of the ordinary happened today.

Nothing new and different happened today.

Yet I am grateful for the day I had.

Gratuity:
1. Grilled cheese with basil butter
2. Cleanliness
3. A broom and dustpan
4. An internet connection
5. Gardens and dirt and life and growing
6. Colors; purple, teal and red specifically
7. Soap to make and clean and smell good

Not much interesting, but all life.

My friend, find joy in the everyday.

A New Year

Well, that time just flew by...

Bad news first: I got so behind in my blogging! I also got behind in my reading, but I have almost caught up! (Oops, I just gave away my good news.) I am going to give you a pretty good excuse for the belated blog posts... CHRISTMAS! Yay. :) I had a wonderful time with family and friends. Now that we are in 2015, my crazy holiday schedule is starting to slow down. Our puppies are almost 8 weeks old and will be heading to their new homes soon (this requires both a happy and a sad face, so here you go. :(: You decide.) So that will lessen a little craziness as well.

Good news: I am almost on track! (Yeah, I know, you already read that, but it's a pretty huge accomplishment for me this season.) Thankfully, although I haven't been blogging much I have still been reading and listening. I'm now only about 3 days behind in my reading, which isn't too bad since I was 6 days behind as of last week!

For the first week and a half I was pretty good about reading and taking notes on what stuck out to me and what applied to what I was learning right then. I've sort of stopped taking notes because I am trying to get a better continuity. So, I read or listen to a session and make a note about the thing that stuck with me to the end of that reading time. I think this works better for me because I am able to actually pick a bigger point and not have so many little notes. I would definitely like to try to read through the Bible again this year at a slower pace with more note taking. Reading through quickly and getting the big picture seems to be the point of this schedule though.

I finished Kings 1 & 2 the other day, so I think I will share my big impression of those books today.

Sin.

Escapable, but we don't live without it.

Grace.

Abounding, and we can't live without it.

Parents.

Can't live with em', can't live without em'.

I'm serious about that last one! (Get it? We can't be born without parents, but our lives are inherently effected by what they teach us and what we observe in them.)

Take the Kings for instance.

1 Kings 15:3 "And he walked in all the sins that his father did before him, and xhis heart was not wholly true to the Lord his God, as the heart of David his father."

1 Kings 15:11 "And Asa did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, as David his father had done."

1 Kings 15:26 "He did what was evil in the sight of the Lord gand walked in the way of his father, and in his sin hwhich he made Israel to sin."

1 Kings 15:34 "He did what was evil in the sight of the Lord mand walked in the way of Jeroboam and in his sin which he made Israel to sin."

And that's just chapter 15...

We learn from our parents: good and bad. We can be negatively effected by decisions they make, and they also make decisions that are positive for us.

We need to discern when to follow in their footsteps and when to forge our own path.

Just because our parents lead Christian lives and shepherd our hearts does not mean we will end up being Christians, or leading lives honoring to God. And praise God that someone who was raised in a non-Christian home can also come to Christ to be cleansed!

I guess my analogy would be this: everyone is a seedling that will grow. We might have a grand start in a greenhouse where we are watered daily and given nutrients we need. We might be a windblown seed planted in the ground, struggling against nature and bigger plants. In either case, at some point, we either give up and stop growing or we grow and blossom and fulfil our purpose.

Each one of the kings either had a good or a bad example in their father, but when they became king they had a choice to follow in the good foot steps or to run away from the bad and cleanse the kingdom. In many cases it was a choice to leave things as they were, even if they were bad, because it pleased themselves or the people.

Each new year people try to be better people, whether it be eating better, exercising more, reading the Bible each day, or going to church every Sunday. We have the ability to do better each day, but this time of year always feels like a fresh start.

Sorry for a rather disjointed post, but I hope it encourages you to follow a new and better path this year.

P.S. Reading over this again makes me cringe slightly, but I'm going to post it anyways because that was exactly how my thought process worked and what I felt I got out of 1 and 2 Kings.

"I will be with you."

Well, here we are.  It has been a little over a week since I started the 90 day Bible reading challenge.  I have to be honest.  I haven't been completely consistent, and I only have excuses.  I had a few days where I was working and I got up early and went to bed late, so I didn't read.  So, I spent the last couple days reading a little extra, and I am currently only 1 day behind.  I want to be more consistent, but as long as I mostly stay on track, I am still making progress.  Plus, we do have grace days! What would we do if it wasn't for grace. Amen? *grins*

How are you doing on your reading?

Before I get into one of the bigger lessons I feel I've been learning,  I want to let you know what the next couple days look like for me.  Tomorrow, I am going to try to leave my house by 4 so I can get to the airport to leave by 6.  Guess where I am going? VIRGINIA! YAHOO! I was selected to be 1 of 45 people to go to Polyface Farm in Swoope VA for a two day working interview.  I will be flying Thursday and Sunday, and working Friday and Saturday. I would really appreciate your prayers.  I would love to be chosen for the 2015 summer internship, but there will be 44 other deserving people, and I want the Lord's will to be done.  Anyways, that's what the rest of my week looks like.  I will have a great chance to get some reading done on the airplane! Oh, and if you do a lot of commuting, I would recommend getting an audio Bible.  I was able to listen to the entire book of Leviticus while driving to and from work, and then while packing this evening. Moving on to another topic.

Here are some of the thoughts I had during one of my reading sessions.

"Then the Lord said to Jacob, 'Return to the land of your fathers and to your relatives, and I will be with you.'"
Genesis 31:3

"Then Jacob was greatly afraid and distressed. He divided the people who were with him, and the flocks and herds and camels, into two camps, thinking, 'If Esau comes to the one camp and attacks it, then the camp that is left will escape.' And Jacob said, 'O God of my father Abraham and God of my father Isaac, O Lord who said to me, ‘Return to your country and to your kindred, that I may do you good,’ I am not worthy of the least of all the deeds of steadfast love and all the faithfulness that you have shown to your servant, for with only my staff I crossed this Jordan, and now I have become two camps. Please deliver me from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau, for I fear him, that he may come and attack me, the mothers with the children. But you said, ‘I will surely do you good, and make your offspring as the sand of the sea, which cannot be numbered for multitude.’” Genesis 32:7-12

"I will be with you."
How often do we hear those words?

Here's a little context.
Jacob had fled to his relatives house to avoid his brother, who had threatened to kill him.  Jacob went to his uncles house and served seven years for the hand of the woman he loved, but was deceived into marrying her older sister.  He served another 7 years for the hand of the woman he loved.  He continued to serve, the entire time earning wages that were blessed by God, till he had more than his uncle.  God said to Jacob, "Return to the land of your fathers and to your relatives" and to top it off, He said "and I will be with you." Wow.

Sounds great, right? Well, Jacob was getting close to his hometown, and his brother heard he was coming, so he set out with a company to meet Jacob.  When Jacob heard his brother was coming, he was "greatly afraid and distressed." Now, I can understand why he was afraid, because his brother had threatened his life, but I guess he was forgetting one thing. God had said He would be with him.  Well, maybe he didn't forget altogether. The passage goes on to describe how Jacob pleaded to God, reminding Him that He had promised him that his offspring would be as many as the sand of the sea. 

Jacob sure seems to have mixed emotions.  He trusts God enough that he reminds Him of His promises, but he goes to lengths to protect himself from any harm that might befall him.

How often do I do the same? How often do I say, "Here Lord, I know I am supposed to trust you, and follow Your will, and I know that You have provided for me up to this point, but will you continue to provide for me after this moment?" Of course, I don't say those exact words, and I don't realize I have that sort of an attitude, but it's true.  I don't always trust God fully, and I don't always do what I know is right in His sight.  Praise God though, that He is always faithful, no matter how I waver. He is my solid rock in a pouring storm.  He is my haven on a stormy sea.  And He always draws me back into His loving arms where I am safe.

I guess, the biggest point I want to get across is that He is faithful in all things.  And I am happy to remind you (and myself) that, praise God, His love does not depends on what I do, but on His own perfect nature, and I can trust His perfect will for my life.

Learning to read the Word

In which the authoress learns to read...more.

I absolutely love reading.  Cracking open a new book. Smelling the pages. Feeling the smooth fresh paper beneath my fingers.  Even the feeling of finishing a book and seeing the crease down the middle of the spine can be nice.  Wanting to read the book again, or even just the last few chapters where all the ends get tied together in small bows or double knots.  Mystery, suspense, romance or history. So many options and so many delights can be found in reading.

I don't know about you, but I approach reading as either a leisure activity or a chore.  It is rarely looked at as anything in between in my eyes.  I'm either reading for fun because I am on vacation and have time or I am trying to relax, because I love a good book or I found the second book in a series. I read late into the night with a headlamp so I do not have to get out of bed and turn the light off because I can hardly wait to see how the next chapter will end.  Once I read an entire series in a single day, staying up until 3 AM because I really wanted to know how it ended.

Then there is the reading as a chore.  Mostly related to school, these books are educational and somewhat dry.  Sure, they can be interesting, but for the most part I would rather be reading the next chapter in that other book I am in the middle of reading, or sometimes I would just rather be washing dishes (yeah, I know, but I honestly enjoy washing dishes sometimes, even if you hear me say otherwise, because there are very few feelings like that of clean sink).  Basically, even if I enjoy it at times, for the most part, I don't really want to read it, not in large chunks anyways.  Thankfully, I'm often interested enough, or "know I need to read it" enough to actually plug away and get those 68 pages of nutrition information read. Whew, that was hard.

There is one book though, that I always have flip flop feelings about.  I am never bored by it, but I go back and forth between pleasure and pressure. Spare time and planned time.  What book is it you might ask? Well, I suppose I have a hard time admitting this, but it's my Bible.

I love opening my Hebrew-Greek NASB and thumbing through the tissue paper thin pages.  I love reading a chapter and seeing my old notes, or previously underlined or highlighted passages.  My Bible contains a little of everything: fully history, romance, wars, intrigue and suspense.  PLUS is contains the story of salvation, which makes it all the more precious to me.  So why my inner turmoil you ask? Well, I often look at my Bible reading time as a luxury.  There's nothing wrong with that mind you, because the fact that I have a large print Bible and a pocket sized Bible and a slim-line Bible IS a luxury.  I just sometimes look at my Bible reading as something to do when other work is done, not something that will get me through the day with less blow-ups and melt-downs.

I go through phases of reading a lot and then reading a lot less.  I get busy with other things and take less time for my Bible reading rather than taking the time to read my Bible and taking less time to be on Facebook.  Well, recently (meaning last night after reading a blog post about diving into the Word of God) I decided I need to read my Bible more.  I need to take the time I have and spend it in the Word instead of online.  In fact, I need to be more purposeful in how I spend all my time, whether it's time in the Word or time spent doing other things.  I often feel I do not have enough hours in the day, when in reality, I just squander my hours on other things ( a minute or ten on Facebook throughout the day adds up to an hour or two, which ends up being 1/12th of my day).  See what I mean?

With how sporadic my Bible reading can be, it gets even worse over the holidays, just because I get busy doing other things and I do not take time to read my Bible.  So I am purposing to be more purposeful in my Bible reading, starting today.  I am going to read through the Bible in 90 days or less, using a reading program by Zondervan that goes straight from Genesis to Revelation.  Not only am I going to be accountable to God, but to whoever reads this post and any successive posts.  I'm going to try to write every week about how far I have gotten and little things I am learning.

Bible reading is not a chore, it is a privilege to be taken very seriously.  A mixture of responsibility and pleasure.  A responsibility because it is a necessity in our walk with the Lord, to know Him better.  A pleasure because it is how we know our Savior better, a way to get to know Him better each day. It is the written Word of our God... think about that!

Anyone want to join me on this challenge?