Wednesday, October 7, 2009

Day 5: 360 days left, 99 books to go!

  • Personal Status:  Just thrilled!!!  Feel like I'm living a dream, truly...So full of joy today!  (But still stuffed-up between you & me!)  And have discovered that Frosted Flakes for breakfast is a BAD choice...shockinginly, right?  Baby & I get a huge sugar-crash about an hour after...no more Frosted Flakes, no matter how great they are Tony!
  • Baby Status:  Oh, Baby Nelson is heavenly!  And we gained another 2 days @ the ultrasound, so tomorrow will make 20 weeks completed in this pregnancy....rejoice!
READING:
  • Genesis Chapters 20-22:  I love how God refers to Abraham as a prophet in the first chapter, saying to Abimelech, ",for he is a prophet and he will pray for you and you will live."  Chapter 20, Verse 7   To have not only people, but God be confident in my faith to say that I will surely pray for them & they will then live...would be incredible...
    • I love what Sarah says when God gives her a child in her old age, "God has brought me laughter, and everyone who hears about this will laugh with me."  Chapter 21, Verse 6  Such an authentic & down-to-earth perspective!  Love it!
    • It's touching to me how God took care of & watched-over Abraham's son Ishmael..."God was with the boy as he grew up."  Chapter 21, Verse 20  My greatest prayer for my baby is that God will be there for "him" as well.
    • It is noted about Abraham just after that by Abimelech that, "God is with you in everything you do."  Chapter 21, Verse 22  Can you conceive it if people believed that God was with me in everything I did?  That's how my life is called to be though, isn't it?.....
    • Chapter 22 is heart-wrenching...especially in light of the baby we're expecting...God tests Abraham's faith by telling him to sacrifice his only son, Isaac and Abraham OBEYS!!!  Such blind faith....I love what Abraham says to Isaac as they're climbing the hill, "God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son."  Chapter 22, Verse 8  And God himself did indeed...."Now that I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son."  Verse 11  "So Abraham called that place 'The LORD will provide.' And to this day it is said, 'On the mountain of the LORD it will be provided.'"  Verse 14
  • Matthew 6:19-7:6  Jam-packed reading in Matthew today...wow!  
    • 1st there's, "Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth...But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven...For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."  Chapter 6, Verses 19-21  Although it doesn't seem apparent to me that Jay & I put too much importance on material things....I'm sure it's there mor than we realize...but what I know I treasure on earth is TIME...I hoard it to myself & cherish it and use it for ME...I could spend a lot more TIME focusing on what will last in heaven....namely...PEOPLE......
    • "Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?"  Chapter 6, Verse 27  I have to remind myself of this SO much!!!!  And it continues...."O, you of little faith?...For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them.  But seek first His kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.  Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself.  Each day has enough enough of its own."  Chapter 6, Verses 30-34       Ain't that the truth....!  Not that I think it's saying we should be careless & not put thought into anything....but true worrying is pointless....
  • Simple Abundance  Learning to Create Boundaries   
    • "Before I built a wall I'd ask to know...What I was walling in or walling out."  Robert Frost
    • I'm actually not sure I agree with this next line..."Whenever we deny our need to say 'no', our self-respect diminishes,"  How truly important IS it to keep our self-respect as a priority?!  Is that just the secular world talking?  All that, "You!  The Owners Manual" stuff.....What I believe deep-down; it may not show in my life very often....but what I do believe...is that when I become less, God becomes greater.....sometimes denying ourselves is the greater action.  
    • But I agree with the point on this next line, "For it is a gift to ourselves when we say 'no' to those old habits that dissipate our energy, 'no' to what robs us of our inner joy, 'no' to what distracts us from our purpose."  
  • The Love Dare:  Love is not irritable "People who are irritable are locked, loaded & ready to overreact." 
    • One of the reasons for irritability is..."Stress.  Stress weighs you down, drains your energy, weakens your health, and invites you to be cranky."  also "overworking...overspending."  But what I never resort to 1st thing is:  "To pray through your anxieties instead of tackling them on your own."  "Some people are like lemons:  when life squeezes them, they pour out a sour response."
    • This point struck a chord with me:  "Being easily angered is an indicator that a hidden area of selfishness or insecurity is present where love is supposed to rule."   I bet 9 times out of 10, that's where my irritability will come from...
    • Today's Challenge is to make a list of areas where I need to make breathing space in my schedule, then list any wrong motivations that  I need to release from my life.....
      • Okay, so I feel like not having something to report is "not" doing the dare...but I actually just discussed these points with Jay...and the truth is...my entire schedule is breathing room these days....I'm off work & home all the time....and although I really take advantage of my leisure time...Jay feels that I still pick him up from school on time & do my share of the cooking & cleaning and all that.......
      • As far as wrong motivations.....there is one relationship that I've continued to not put effort into because of pride....and we've been aware of that for a while now, the two of us.....and we do need to crack down & get on with it...
  • A Tale of Two CitiesAm still trucking-through Book 2....really enjoying it more & more though.....hope to be at least half finished the novel by the end of the day!  (I was a little preoccupied yesterday with our baby news & all that....didn't get as much reading is as I normally would have!)
    • Definitely completed more than half of the novel last night....really into it!  Hope, fingers-crossed...to finish it today!

                         

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