Bury the Hatchet

There's an interesting phenomenon in life – hurt and offense. There is a good amount of time dedicated to these topics in the scriptures and basically how to guard your heart and get over it! We are not permitted to hold grudges and offenses. We are commanded to forgive, let go, move on....

Integrity

Thursday night was the first meeting of The Living Room, a Bible Study at my house for those ages 20-35.  We're studying Ephesians and specifically started with chapter 1 verses 1-14.  Paul starts by introducing himself and then begins to get caught up in a bigger story.  One about God's blessings and the inheritance that awaits all of us.  Before we read this portion of scripture the study guide we are using gave an illustration of a bigger story overshadowing other things in life. The example was of a man who waited for a bus that was late.  He got irritated when he began to tell his family about the ordeal and before he knew it was complaining about the government and how soon there would be an election and he could vote for someone that would fix the bus system.  The issue at hand was the late bus, but the man's frustration over the late bus was overridden by the bigger story, his frustration over a government that he felt was failing.

WANTED: Mouse Killer

Last night after an evening of hanging out with the girls over at the Lovett house I came home and was unwinding a bit before going to bed.  I sat down to journal and catch up on the happenings of Facebook over the last few hours.  Suddenly I heard a ruckus coming from the bakers rack.

Blessed Beyond Measure!

Today I had lunch with Rebecca.  Okay, yes it was the second time this week and maybe I could still sit and talk to her for another five hours and still not run out of things to say.  I can't help it!  She's one of my besties! 

Summer Time!

Even though I hate the Florida heat there is something about Summer that makes me happy.  It must go back to all of those summers as a child and the fun and adventures they held.  It's been quite some time that I've been a grown up with a job that doesn't take a summer break, but I still remember those amazing days of summer.  Even when I had a summer job I still managed to enjoy every bit of my summer vacations.  I remember when I wasn't working I would stay up all night reading, watching TV, listening to music, talking on the phone and then sleep all day.  Summer in Ohio often meant it was still cool enough in the evening, and as it would have been for me the middle of the night, to open the windows and enjoy the amazing summer air.

A Day In the Life

I tend to feel this pressure to only blog about revelatory moments in my life, or when I'm struggling with and overcoming something.... you know in order to help others do the same.  However, back in the day when my blogging consisted of filling up my Myspace Blog or the Notes section of my Facebook or my Live Journal or my Blogger account I didn't care so much.  I wrote about any and everything going on in my life.  Now however, paying for hosting I feel like I have to make it mean something.

This is what you get!

If you feel like people should keep their struggles and emotions to themselves, rather than share what they are going through, then you should probably stop reading now.

Lately I have totally lacked motivation.  No matter what time I go to bed, how much sleep I get, I'm flat exhausted.  I haven't been to the gym in a shameful amount of time and all I want are carbs... ever.  I also seem to be drained of any creativity.  It was as if my well had run dry.  A couple of weeks ago I finally had a moment of clarity.  I put all of the pieces together and realized that I was experiencing all of the tell tale signs of depression. 

The Adventures of Turning 30!

I spent more than a year dreading turning 30.  My tongue would get stuck on the back of my teeth anytime I tried to say the dreaded word.  In all honesty I was afraid that 30 would come and go without any real celebration.  Now that might seem silly, but considering birthdays have always been a big deal for me, and this was a BIG ONE, it was a legitimate fear from my perspective.  I asked Rebecca if I could turn over planning of my birthday weekend to she and Ashley.  She gladly accepted the responsibility.  As much as I wanted to ask what we were doing I didn't.  And I tried not to give too much input along the way.

Just Another Manic Monday - This is the Day the Lord Has Made!

It's Monday, and like most people I know the weekend, though good, was more tiring than restful.  Consequently I thought long and hard before I got out of bed and committed to going to the gym.  Even the prospect of coffee already in the pot wasn't much of a motivator.  Turning 30 was... and so was the thought of trying to develop more discipline in my life.  Now I'm faced with trying to make this a productive day despite my lack of motivation.  I did manage to dwindle down the emails in my inbox, and honestly if that's all I really accomplish today I will consider it successful!

Love doesn't cost a thing... or does it?

Back around Valentine's Day I started writing about love.  I was pondering how we love others and if loving others the way we receive love, instead of how they receive love, is love at all.  Well, I got about knee deep in the blog and got stuck.  Not so unusual.  There are lots of 1/2 written blogs in my repertoire. 

I Gotta' Have Faith

I recently joined an online book club.  It's awesome because there are about 100 people reading different books and then talking about what they read.  It's fun to see how everyone felt about the different characters and situations.  Also, because different people are reading and discussing different books you get an idea of whether or not you want to read it. 

The last few days...

Recently I have been repeatedly confronted with opportunities to loose my cool, and at times have held onto it by a slipping thread.  At the beginning of February, during our Ministers Summit, I attended a workshop about Emotional Intelligence, or EQ.  EQ is basically emotional maturity.  The ability to control your emotions.  It's not just being a grown up by the numbers but by the attitude.

Did you bring your lampstand?

One night we were setting up for our Friday night webcast that we do in conjunction with CBN and someone said that we should do worship more like someone else.  Let me tell you, that was the wrong comment to the wrong person at the wrong time.  I let them have it, and got quite a look of shock from the other person standing by.  I said, "We are not so-in-so and even if we do so-in-so's songs we will not be them.  We are unique just like they are unique, and if you don't like it you can leave."  If you haven't figured it out yet I am as loyal as the day is long, and if you dare mess with someone or something I love you will see the timid side of me fade away in a blaze of righteous indignation!

What's for dinner?

I love to host get togethers at my house.  Last summer we started doing Sunday dinners where everyone would pitch in $5 and come have an amazing home cooked meal and great fellowship while saving money!  (I may be a little biased because I cooked most of them.)   The invitations started out rather open as long as we knew who was coming so that we would have enough food.  However, I quickly started to narrow down the guest list based on the grateful versus ungrateful participants.  

Walk It Out....

My blog has been silent for almost a month.  It's not that I haven't had things to say, or even tried to construct a blog.  On the contrary, I've attempted two.  However, I never got to the point of finishing either one.  In fact I have a whole list of blogs that I would like to write, but they haven't come together yet.  Here's a thing to understand about my blogging process.  Some come easily.  I sit down and it is as if the words flow directly through my fingers to the page with little effort.  Then there are the times when I labor to collect the myriad of thoughts going through my mind into one cohesive flow.  It's the latter that usually end up being really great, but possibly taking months to write.  For instance my blog "Whatever It Takes" was six months in the making.  Also, I don't want to make my blogs so long that no one wants to read them.  Sometimes there are just so many things I want to say on a subject that it overwhelms me.  I've thought of breaking those things up into a series, but then that overwhelms me.

I Got a New Attitude

A year ago I made up my mind to get in shape.  30 was looming over a year away and I wanted to feel better when I turned 30 than I did a few months before 29.  I started by walking here on campus in the mornings.  When summer started to roll around it just got too stinking hot and the opportunity opened up for me to join the gym with a few of my friends.  Throughout the summer we were hard core, sometimes doing 2-a-days and challenging each other to be there every morning.  As Summer ended and we welcomed fall and the peace and quiet that comes with the tourists going home, schedules got crazy.  Our morning workouts had at some point shifted to evenings after work, but with only Monday and Thursday evenings free that didn't leave me much time to hit the gym.  Then the conference season started and that really threw me off schedule.  I stuck to it as much as I could, but wasn't pushing myself the way I wanted to. 

He's in the business of GOOD!

As I tried to go to sleep last night I continued pondering Romans 8:28.  (Read Tell Me No Lies to see my previous ponderings.)  The scripture says that God works all things for good for those who love him.  Some versions say, "all things work together for good."  In my blog last night I likened it to fixing a messed up recipe, but it's not that God fixes the messes, instead He makes them good.  I thought about this and became grateful that God doesn't just fix stuff, but He decides to make it good, or make good of it.  To me fixing something is just putting it back together in it's original form.  But what if the original form was broken to begin with?  Then the fix won't hold.

Tell me no lies...

I've been wanting to write a New Year's blog, but not been successful in producing my thoughts about the coming year in a cohesive manner.  It's not that I didn't have anything to say, I actually started a page and a half, but it wasn't right.  It wasn't what I wanted to say.  While getting ready for bed last night I heard God say, "I am not a man that I should lie."  Of course I know God doesn't lie.  I know He doesn't say things he doesn't mean, but somehow this hit me in a new way.

I'm dreaming of Di'Carlo's pizza...

I'm sure everyone who lives away from the town they grew up in has places they must eat at when they visit home.  When I make it home to Wheeling, WV there are at least two must haves on my list - Di Carlo's Pizza and Coleman's Fish Sandwich.  Now to the non-native neither of these may seem all that interesting, nor look all that appetizing, but that's because you aren't from the Ohio Valley!  My Step Dad will eat Coleman's but will not even entertain eating Di Carlo's.  I think he considers it a disgrace to pizza world-wide that it would bare the sacred name.  He is also convinced that there is some sort of illegal substance in it that makes the masses crave it, especially with all you have to go through to get some.  Our Toy Poodle, Dexter, even turned his nose up to it, and he LOVED pizza!  That's okay... that meant more for me!

I Gotta' Feelin! Woo hoo!

September 21st Jermaine emailed me and asked me to go on a top secret mission for him.  See he was, well and still is, dating my roommate Rebecca.  The top secret mission was to find out Rebecca's ring size and what kind of engagement ring she wanted.  Being that I love them both, and I love them together I was more than willing to accept the mission.  It took me a few weeks to find the right time, but eventually, while Jermaine was in Scotland, I found an opportunity to work the critical questions into a conversation with Rebecca.  Ironically we had actually talked about rings before, but I could not for the life of me remember what size she was.