Crying Out for God

At the Wednesday Ladies’ Bible Study, Ruth, an octogenarian said, “I have clay feet and the body has needs and cries out for these needs to be met, but I want to cry out louder for God to meet my spiritual needs.”
She had two or three profound nuggets that day. Sometimes it’s hard to motivate myself to go, but I make the effort and hear things that impact me or plant a thought that benefits my loved ones, or strangers even. Such a battle to do the right thing at times
When I have a choice between a gingerbread chai tea with whipped cream on top or a full glass of cool water, I oftentimes choose the tea. I may skip the whipped cream, but afterwards, when I take note of my body, I know I would have felt better drinking the clear stuff. Even when I know that tea inhibits iron absorption and I’m a little anemic feeling, I choose the sweet hot comfort. Praise God for His indescribable Grace! He helps me learn and grow and sometimes choose the water instead of the sugar and spices and milk and caffeine, and, of course, tea.
To me, that’s another proof of God’s existence. He keeps changing me, and it’s not only with food choices. Praise His holy name!

Planning

I remember watching my husband open a planner and scribble to-do items into it. As a mother of four children from six to eighteen years old, I was feeling overwhelmed. “I should have one of those,” I said.

“It could help you, if you’ll use it.”

That’s the crux of the matter. Write down the to-do’s, use the calendar, and don’t forget to check the calendar first thing in the morning and again before going to bed. I am a daydreamer living in a dayplanner world. So I meandered to the other side. Quite a few years later, I still miss checking the calendar on occasion. I overbook my day. Did I mention the trait of optimism?

Although if it weren’t for my planner, I wouldn’t be blogging right now. 🙂 Mopping the floors is on my list and I think it’s going on tomorrow’s page.

If you’re like me and you misplace your keys and forget your appointments and stop to marvel at God’s creation and forget to finish what you started and begin something else instead, you may want to purchase a planner and make it a priority to use it.

But, if like me, you find that you are beginning to lose your joy occasionally, hide the planner for an afternoon and go outside on a weather friendly day and stare at the clouds until you get a crick in your neck, and breathe deeply and walk until you feel duty bound to unearth the book or the palm pilot and get industrious again. If you want to. It’s your life, after all.

Sometimes you gotta be the way God made you to be, even if you are a daydreamer in a dayplanner world. The dayplanners need the daydreamers, and vice versa. Do I hear an Amen out there?

Breakfast with Friends

I ate breakfast with three friends today, friends I have a lot in common with. We shared war stories and successes and learning curves. We laughed, we cried, we sighed, we were vulnerable. Why? Because there was a trust factor operating. Then we set our date for the next rendezvous, a few months out.

One friend said, “I’m too busy not to make the next meeting. I need fun to keep me balanced.”

I was glad to hear it because she is a person that speaks the truth in love. If I told her I have a problem: I keep jabbing myself with a pencil eraser and it’s starting to hurt, she’d look me right in the eye and say, “That’s about as smart as dabbing honey behind your ears and then waking a bear from hibernation. Don’t do it.”

I don’t get to tell her I love her sayings, we’re too busy talking and listening. If you get a chance to make a friend or two or three, don’t hesitate, even though it takes time to really get to know someone. Friends enrich our lives. Proverbs 17:17a says, “A friend loves at all times.”

What a great gift. So if a friend or a promising acquaintance says, “Hey. let’s go out for a meal or to the zoo,” pull out your calendar and set a date and purpose in your heart to get there. It puts zest into life. As another friend said, “That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.”

A cliche’ that makes me smile.