Thorn in my Flesh

This is good stuff to those of us with a huge thorn in our flesh that we really wish God would remove.

II Corinthians 12:6-8 (from The Message):

So I wouldn't get a big head, I was given the gift of a handicap [i.e. thorn in my flesh] to keep me in constant touch with my limitations. Satan's angel did his best to get me down; what he in fact did was push me to my knees. No danger then of walking around high and mighty! At first I didn't think of it as a gift, and begged God to remove it. Three times I did that, and then he told me,


My grace is enough; it's all you need.
My strength comes into its own in your weakness.

Once I heard that, I was glad to let it happen. I quit focusing on the handicap [i.e. thorn in my flesh] and began appreciating the gift. It was a case of Christ's strength moving in on my weakness. Now I take limitations in stride, and with good cheer, these limitations that cut me down to size—abuse, accidents, opposition, bad breaks. I just let Christ take over! And so the weaker I get, the stronger I become.

Blogcrastinating

If you read my blog post from last night... you are lucky.  Because I just deleted it.  I just decided it was stupid, pointless ramblings.  Ha.  If you didn't read it, then you are lucky, as well.

Right now I have a TON of schoolwork to be doing, but I am procrastinating by balancing my checkbook, checking Facebook, writing on my blog, etc. I am the queen of schoolwork procrastination.  I mastered the art when I was in college the first time!

I'm also sick with a head cold/flu.  It hasn't been bad enough where I have felt like I needed to stay in bed.... but it's not good, either.  I'm all runny and stuffy (alternating!), coughing, kind-of achy, afraid I have a sinus infection, etc.  It's hard to study when you are sick.  I'm also so happy that when my mom was down last, we found a great deal on Kleenex at Krogers and we each got 10 boxes.  So I have a stockpile to work through.  I have a box in every room, plus one sitting here on the kitchen table while I type.

Thanksgiving was fabulous with my sister and her family down here.  I wish they could move in permanently!  :-)

I was saying in my post of last night that I am changing my major starting in January.  Sitting here trying to get my checkbook to balance... well... I can't say I am going to miss Accounting all that much.  Ha ha. I love it when it balances... but when I can't make it, I feel very frustrated!!!!  Right now I have a $6.02 discrepancy.  That makes me crazy.

I will tell you about my new major in another post.  I'm going to go now and study SOMETHING.  I've had straight A's all semester and I want to finish strong!  Woo hoo!

My Favorite Holiday

A childhood friend shared this on Facebook and it has really warmed my cold little heart this Thanksgiving season- so I decided to share it here.

Her name's Denise and she's one of the sweetest people you would ever meet.  She and her family love God and have the biggest hearts for helping people.  So this Thanksgiving, her older sister told her to invite someone without another place to go to join them for Thanksgiving dinner.  Her husband remembered a widow for whom he had done some plumbing work, so he and their two kids went to her house to invite her.  Only they went to the wrong house - the house of a complete stranger.  There they met another widow and, not to be hindered, they invited THAT lady and she accepted.

On the phone a couple days later, the lady told Denise that she had been on the phone with her daughter who was telling her it would be better if she didn't fly to their house for Thanksgiving because her son-in-law was too sick.  Then the doorbell rang.  And there at her door was this man and his kids, whom she had never met, inviting her to have Thanksgiving with them.  She said she knew God had sent them so she wouldn't have to be alone!

Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.  James 1:27

Like.. alot of years ago

I met this girl named Misty

And Her name wasn't Christy.

Sometime later I started to call her Misty Lou Who

Don't ask me why, it really doesn't concern you.

We met at church (which is a great place to meet)

When we were both newly married with shoes still on our feet.

But soon we were barefeeted and pregnant
And that's just how it went. (Oh yeah, she's an Accountant).

Through................ quitting our jobs and having babies
 and sleepless nights, potty training and scabies (just kidding!)

 VBS and teaching Sunday School together
 and learning the Beatitudes forever and ever

 and going to young mommy's bible study and hanging out and laughing
 and talking and sharing and gossiping and passing.... (notes)

 and many trials and tribulations.....

A friendship was forged.
A river was gorged.

Possibly no one has been there for me as much as this girl
She's really put up with alot- she probably wants to hurl.

Together we've never eaten beef jerky
But she can do a Herkie!

And I miss her so much now that we don't share a church
And there's been so much pain and a whole lot of hurt

And I'm sorry for this because it's mostly my fault
I don't like pepper, but please pass the salt.

I know we will be friends a really long time
Because eventually we will die and be together in the sweet by and by.

Jesus, bless my sweet and generous friend
And guide us to a place of amends.
The end.

You Would Know

If you encountered the ♥ of the Lord.... you would know it.  It leaves no doubts.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3_97Bd5W0gU

LOVE SONG - Jason Morant
Where can I go?
Where can I run from you?
You're everywhere.
You know all my thoughts, you see through my ways.... and still you come to me.
So I sing a love song to you....

From heaven above
On earth down beneath
Your love reigns down on me.
You know all my thoughts, You see through my skin..... and still you come to me.
So I sing a love song to you....

You walk on waves
You run with clouds
You paint the sky for me to see!
Your majesty, your majesty is why I say...

This is a love song to you!

My life's a love song to you!

Was it worth it?

So... on Sunday afternoon/evening, we drove to Memphis to see Taylor Swift.  This is the continuing saga of the Taylor Swift Trip.  TeST from here on. ;-)  We were running late because of a church commitment and the road to Memphis from here is .... nice from a scenery standpoint.  But there's no expressway (though rumors of a new expressway have been told since we moved here 17 years ago) and only the occasional small town... not alot of traffic and sometime after we cross from Mississippi into Tennessee, but before we got to Memphis... I saw the flashing blue lights behind me and naively changed lanes to let him pass... only he didn't pass.  He changed lanes with me.  So... I contemplated this turn of events a moment and decided, darnit, I spent alot of $$$ buying these tickets and I just shouldn't be hindered from my mission of getting to Taylor, so I floored it and lead Mr. Policeman on a high speed chase through the night, jumping a median and going airborne for a minute... wow- I finally lost him on a dirt road, all the while Onstar informing me I had left the planned route and asking if I needed updated directions.  It was very exciting.

You believed me, right?

No, actually I got a nice hefty speeding ticket and also got in trouble for having the wrong insurance card in the wrong car.  (Or the right car?)

As we drove away from the encounter (much slower), the girls began to complain about how unfair it was that I was given a ticket and how rude the policeman was and how he should have let me off with a warning, blah blah blah.  And I said, "Girls.... I was speeding".  This didn't hinder them- they continued to tell me what I SHOULD HAVE said to him and the attitude with which I should have said it and then they started to think up stories I could have told about how my grandmother was dying and I was trying to get to her bedside... and continued to talk about how it was so unfair, blah blah blah.   And I said, "Girls..... I. Was. Speeding."  They were baffled.  So I seized this teachable moment and had a little monologue about taking responsibility for your actions. You do the crime, you do the time. 

AND since two of them are driving age and one will be in another year, I also pointed out to them how all the time I had gained by speeding was LOST in those 15 minutes I had to sit on the side of the road and wait for my ticket to be written.  Was it worth it, do you think?

No, they agreed.  (Yay!  They agreed!)

A Novel Idea

So I was talking yesterday about our Taylor Swift concert trip to Memphis and how I had mostly positive thoughts on my 3 1/2 hour drive home.  As I've thought about it, it wasn't so much the positive thoughts, but more the lack of negative thoughts that surprised me.  I wasn't spending my time worrying about my future, stewing over things that other people are doing or have done that have upset me, or that kind of thing.  I felt a sense of well-being that has mostly eluded me in life.  I like it.

So one of the "possibility" things that I was thinking about is.... writing my novel.  I had (a year or so ago) what I thought was a good idea for a fictional book and started writing it.  I haven't returned to it in months, though.  I think in my mind I usually have myself defeated before I even really get started on something.  But it occurred to me last night that my idea IS pretty good and there is no reason whatsoever I couldn't get a book published.  Other people do it!  There's even a girl who I used to go to church with (with whom I once attended church) who published her first book within the past year or so.  And she's just a normal person, I think.  At least back when we were friends she seemed fairly normal.  :-) 

I think really I was having one of those moments where you look at your life and you think... dude, you're 41.  You're really blessed.  You have three beautiful kiddos and a nice life.  And that's great.  But- every time you blink, time is getting away and for real, you're running out of time to do the things you think would be really cool to do.

And I think it would be really cool to write a book.

(And dad... you're even older than 41 and you need to write YOUR book, too! ;-))

So- here's the deal.  I'm back to working on my novel.  I'm making a mental commitment to spend a couple hours EVERY WEEK on it whether I want to or not.  And I might even go to a writer's workshop or something.