Motivation and a donkey

Part 1: Love is Life's motivator:

Read 1 Corinthians 13. In verses 4-7 replace the words "love" or "it" with your first name. Here goes...

Leah is patient and kind; Leah does not envy or boast; Leah is not arrogant or rude. Leah does not insist on her own way; Leah is not irritable or resentful; Leah does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Leah bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things endures all things.

And how many of those statements are true? Ok, how many of them are true all the time??? err...ummm...ehhhh...yeah. Especially on that "own way" part. Boom...roasted.

Part 2: unstoppable

So, that story in Numbers about Balaam and his donkey. Apparently, I wasn't listening that day in OT survey. Anyway, what a great lesson God taught Balaam. And that poor donkey, probably got kicked until his ribs were bruised just because he saw the angel. What a good illustration of how we can get in our own way. "...not every obstacle is meant to be overcome. Some are placed by God to keep us from doing something foolish. When our plans are hindered, we shouldn't assume that it's Satan trying to stop us. It might be God trying to protect us."

Well here's a question, how do we know when it's the good guy and when it's the bad guy? At what point are we to know when we are acting on faith and pressing on through tribulation? Or when we are being dumb little children who are stubborn and think we know better than God? Good question brain...good question.

Love and Red Tape

Part 1: Love

"The absence of love leaves a devastating void. When it is not present, your spirituality becomes superficial, your benevolent deeds self-centered, and your sacrifices insincere." Love is central to everything: Our life with Christ, our relationships on this earth and in general the way we approach every person in every situation. How the world would be different if we all walked in love all the time. But, we are human. And me? Well, I fail incessantly.

Pray: "Lord teach me what real love is and make me a loving person."

Part 2: Red Tape

"Remember, when your heart is hurting, you don't have to cut through a lot of red tape to present your needs to God. Through Christ, we have full and immediate access."

Well, can't really argue with that. My only thoughts...I am so incredibly grateful.

The bitter pill of ordinary.

That moment when you feel like you have nothing to say that someone hasn't already said? Yeah, I'm there. But hey, who cares? Being consistent with this blogging has proven to be difficult. At one point I thought I could commit to it but obviously...life happens. Pregnancy becomes new motherhood which becomes working-new-motherhood and before I knew it Declan was one and I was one of those "boring" people just living life and going through the motions of my life. Some weeks good, some weeks rough. Then, just when I start to feel like my life is incredibly boring and lame...Friday came and I thought about everything going on and all I did in the last week and then...I fall asleep, lol. To say I am busy is an understatement but, then again, isn't that true for all of us?

Recently my life has been full of ups and downs and I would love to be able to say something profound here about what God has taught me but I don't feel like I have figured it out yet. I can only speculate. God may be teaching me how to be a better wife and mother, and from that point there is several rabbit trails of lessons including patience, communication and of course some mad cooking skills ;-) God may be teaching me how to be close with people and admit that I need people because if I don't admit it I walk an empty path of loneliness. God may be reminding me that everything we have comes from Him and that we MUST be good stewards of what He blesses us with. Each of these lessons has a whole mess of stories that could support why God might be teaching me that particular thing. Forgive me for being a bit vague with that statement I just don't have the time or patience to type each thing out.

So, as I sit here and ponder all of those possible lessons and look back on the last year or so I am realizing several things. First, I am blessed. Blessed to have a job that blesses me and brings me great fulfillment even though it is emotionally exhausting. Blessed to have a wonderful husband who does whatever it takes to provide for his family. Blessed to have a healthy beautiful and slightly ornery toddler. And so many more blessings I could list. Second, though my life is crazy and busy it is ordinary. This realization is bitter sweet. Bitter because I think all of us have a desire to be...what's the word...amazing? We desire our lives to be this great adventure filled with excitement, love and spontaneity. But my life is filled with work, cooking, cleaning and going to bed before 11:30 most nights (I know, so lame right?). But, this ordinary life that I live is also sweet because it is filled with lots of love, lots of smiles and lots of chances. I have so many chances to be a blessing and unfortunately I miss many of them, but when I do catch them...amazing. And just maybe, looking for those chances rather than being focused on myself is how I can go about having that great amazing adventure of a life. Yep, I will ponder that and pray God gives me the strength to live my life this way.

That's what's up...for now.