Tuesday, December 19, 2006

Just doing my thing

Or should I say: “Isn’t God amazing?” Sometimes I walk into a room and I hear my husband talking to someone on the phone and my name will pop up. I always wonder, “Oh no! What is he telling someone now?” Come to find out, nine times out of 10 he’s talking about this blog.

Well, that gives me mixed feelings. Not in a negative way -- just in a weird, writer, creative person sort of way. I start off thinking, “Golly, I haven’t even updated it lately” and eventually work my way around to “Hopefully the person will go to the blog and be blessed.” It’s funny though because I just think of myself as minding my own business and doing my thing.

When I say I’m “just doing my thing” – I mean that I’m just doing what God lays on my heart to do. I don’t try to be anyone special or great or think that I know it all. I just feel like I’ve had some experiences and that God tells me some things that will bless other people like it’s blessing me.

Know what I mean?

So, what I’m encouraging you to do today is “just do your thing.” You don’t have to be all fancy or big time; just allow God to use you in your gift or allow Him to use you to be a blessing to someone else.

For instance, and I hope my daughter doesn’t mind me talking about her (she should be used to it by now :-]), my daughter was riding in the back of our minivan reading her bible. When I was getting out she said, “Guess what I just read?” Of course I said, “What?”

She said to sum it up, ‘You don’t have to be whole to heal someone.’

“Cool.” I said. (If you’re interested, I’ll ask her what scripture that was. I could pretend like I know, but remember I just said, “I’m just doing my thing.”)

The reason why that came up is because my daughter, who’s 15, has a very strong discernment especially when it comes to young people at her school. God will lay someone on her heart even if she doesn’t know them well and it will plague her until she does something about it.

Normally she’ll talk to me and I’ll say, “Ask them.” “Tell them.” “Talk to them.” Whatever seems appropriate. And when she does she’ll find out that what she had to say or share with them was right on time. Her dilemma was that she felt like she didn’t have it all together so how could she tell someone else or share with someone else or be there for someone else. But that’s what’s happens because she’s just doing her thing.

See what I mean?

Just do your thing and allow God to use you. Pray, read your bible and live a life that is as Christ-like as possible.

So as I’m sitting here writing some magazine articles, checking my email and trying to keep up with the life of a writer who happens to be a woman, mom and wife; I continue to just do my thing and hope that I can be a blessing to someone else in the process.

That seems appropriate – especially at this time of year that is supposed to remind us of the gift that God gave us in His son Jesus Christ. Enjoy your holiday season, do your thing and when you get a moment tell me all about it: Drop me a note.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

Men are slower to recognize blessings than misfortunes. -- Titus Livius, Roman author & historian

Ut oh, don’t trip men, you know “men” equals “mankind.”

Wednesday, December 06, 2006

Where have you been?

Today is the first day in over a month that I’ve visited my own blog! I can’t believe it has been so long. Although I apologize for being away; I’m not sure that I would have done any good had I tried to write an entry.

Before I get started, let me first say that I just read my previous post and I think it’s awesome! Please forgive a little patting on the back. The reason I say it is awesome is because I’ve been having such a hard time of things over the past month or so that when I read the post it ministered to me! How awesome is that that God would use something that I wrote to help others to also help me. That makes me think it was destined that particular post remained at the top for so long.

Well, let me tell you what’s been going on. Remember the quote by Robin McGraw that I used at the end of the last post? I’ve been feeling really strongly about making choices in my life instead of just going along for the ride. One of the choices I had decided to make (on the day after I finished reading her book) was to get a tubal ligation. To make a long story short, the day after my decision I found out I was pregnant.

If you know anything about me, you know that I have three children (four total with a stepson) and the youngest is just 22 months old. The next is 3 and the oldest is 15. I’m 38 and had no desire to be pregnant again. Well, here I am. I'm pregnant with baby number four. Mentally it has been quite an adjustment for me as well as physically. I’ve never felt this awful with any of my pregnancies so I’ve spent the last four weeks – give or take – laying on the couch and sleeping whenever I can.

I’ve procrastinated through deadlines. Allowed laundry to grow until it overtakes the laundry room. And whined, pouted and pleaded for things I’ve wanted or needed. Now as I start to feel a little bit like a human being, I knew it was time for me to get back into the swing of things… and that includes updating my blog.

It’s funny how situations in our lives will prove to test our faith, beliefs and ability to survive. In my condition, I’ve tried to think of the positive and not of everything that worries me about being pregnant at the age of 38.

In the end, I’ve been trying to think of God’s purpose and reason in this. Why did he allow me to get pregnant again? The only thing I can think of is that I must really be a good mommy for Him to bless me with another child. (Now don’t think I’ve forgotten about my husband, but since he’s not physically pregnant with the baby my thoughts are on being pregnant. My husband happens to be a very, very good dad. It’s kind of funny because although I may disagree with some of the things he does, I still see him as a very good father to his children. I know parents everywhere can relate to that.)

The same goes for you. Being single and celibate will prove to test your faith, beliefs and your ability to survive, but there is a purpose and a reason why God has allowed you to remain single. Or has put you in a position where you are now single. I encourage you to try and look at what’s positive about it. Try not to focus on being alone, that you’re still single at a certain age or that you “can’t” have sex. Instead think about all the quality time you can spend with God. Think about all the things you can do for yourself. Or just spend time doing what you want to do!

I pray that you have a wonderful and blessed Christmas. My goal is to not be away that long ever again, but if I am know that I still think about you. Feel free to send me an email (there’s a link to your right) or leave a comment. I’m always glad to hear from you.

“Growth is exciting; growth is dynamic and alarming. Growth of the soul, growth of the mind.” --Vita Sackville-West