E is for Everything

I decided to pick back up on my alphabetical journey last week and wrote the title of this post with no idea what I was going to say. So I left the"E is for Everything" post black. Then today I made a decision and opened up my blog to document it... and unbelievably it fits perfectly into the title I had pre-created.

So I have a lot of personal struggles, one of the worst being a lack of self control... in many areas of my life. So I made a decision today while reading the story of Daniel and how he decided to show God's power by only eating vegetables and water. No... I am not going to only eat that or even attempt the Daniel fast program. But I did realize how being mediocre is never glorifying to God. Yes, God is able to show His strength in our weakness... but I don't think we should hide behind that to rationalize living in weakness.

So what I decided was I need to start cutting things out of my life that are definitely not God glorifying. As far as food goes, I am going to really try (because I have been faking it for weeks) to follow the Paleo diet that my healthy husband is convinced is best for our family. That means mostly cutting out the junk that I waste money on. Money management will be a by product (gold star for me!). Also I wanted to cut out some time and productivity wasters. Nick always says that you should take action on a goal within 24 hours if you want to succeed... so I uninstalled both Facebook and Pintrest from my phone immediately.

I will try to be on the look out for other little things I can cut out... because I really want to give Everything to God. That's almost a funny statement, considering everything is God's, and He gives it to us as a gift. So what the heck are we sing with it!?

Every time I have an urge to break this goal, I will remember both God's grace, and his expectation of obedience. This will be a war with many battles and I covet your prayers and partnership.

The Fabric Of Freedom

Wow! I haven't posted in over a year. Well, time is up. I wrote a little blog on my phone at work the other day and I believe it is worthy of sharing.

Ok, so I'm at work and I'm supposed to be working and I'm listening to my favorite "hippy" music and thinking about all the things I want to do in life. Life passes far too quickly to not do what you're passionate about. I was taking to an older lady at work about how another lady was retiring early because she was going to be laid off because of health issues after putting in so many years. The lady was telling me about her dreams, to start an art school of sorts with her daughter, where they taught drawing, painting, and sewing. Then there was a cool twist that I won't give away, but it would give them an awesome edge. I was so impressed with the idea and asked her what was holding her back. The Risk.

It's insane how paralyzing our fears are. But I would go out on a limb and say most people don't fear death, falling, spiders, or snakes as much as they fear failure. But failure makes us stronger.

People used to say when Nick and I were engaged, if you're not fighting, then you're not talking things through enough. And I'm not sure that's accurate... but the idea follows through that if you're not failing, you're not trying enough things. We can convince kids to try new things and we coach them through learning and getting better at stuff even if they're not pros right away. But we can't convince ourselves, and no one else can either, that we need to fail at stuff as adults too. We just want to stick to the comfortable. But where is comfortable going to get us?

And honestly as I write this, almost every hippy song that comes on, is telling me to make the most of life, have no regrets, never forget about what's important, and so on it encourages my free-thinking spirit.  So why not?

And on a similar tangent, we complain so much about our circumstances (worst offender right here), but what about our complaints is not in our control to some degree? And for the rest of it... I believe it would make it so much easier to get through if we had a positive attitude.

Ok, so here's my last thought. A friend told me over coffee this week that her pastor laid down some deep thoughts on her recently. Here it is, and I want to simmer on it a bit.

"Joy is waking up with the knowledge that God will act on your behalf."

If I woke up knowing and expecting to see God acting for me in great ways, what amazing things will He do for us!? Yeah, wow.