Every. Single. Thought.

I can’t get over this…

The average person has 70,000 thoughts a day.

As a Christian, I am called to…

Take every thought captive and make it obedient to Christ.

2 Corinthians 10:5

But I’m reminded…

Start small. “Every moment is a second chance. Starting over. Move from the past to the present tense.”

Starting Out With Joy

197. Sparkling snow and sparkles in the air

201. not opening my computer first

204. ziploc steamer bags work wonders

211. finding out that kids play nanana boo boo still

224. sending snail mail

229. feeling the ache of love

265. looking forward to things

What’s on your list this week?

Covered with Books

Being back in the States provides a wealth of opportunities to catch up on reading.  Though, I tend to bite off more than I absorb at a time and literally surround myself with reading material.  Just for fun I counted…6 books on my bed, 4 on my nightstand, and even more on my bookshelf’s to-read section.

Last night, I finally moved one of the books to the done section.  The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver. The book made me want to jump up, find a sunny, cute little writing desk and pour out all the thoughts jumbling in my head into written words. I also found myself tossing around some quotes from the book.  Here are a few that stuck out:

“Now he has a world. What can he possibly do with it? He has no muscle tone on his wings. They are atrophied, probably beyond hope of recoevery. Where his pectoral muscles should be, he has a breast weighed down with words of human beings: by words interred, free-as-a-bird absurd, unheard! Sometimes he flaps his wings as if he nearly remembers flight, as he did in the first jubilant terror of his release. But his independence was frozen in that moment.”

“Can’t they be patient? Could you be? If your belly was empty and you saw whole baskets of bread on the other side of a window, would you continue waiting patiently, Beene? Or would you throw a rock?”

“Don’t try to make life a mathematics problem with yourself in the center and everything coming out equal. When you are good, bad things can still happen. And if you are bad, you can still be lucky.”

Have you read it? If so, what did you think? If not, what are you reading or what else should I add to my stacks of books??

Strengths!

If you happened to stop by last Friday, you’ll remember that I wrote about some God-sized dreaming and a challenge to step out on a journey.  I’m still plodding along and letting God use each day as a way to get to know myself and Him.  Today’s post talked about strengths.  Ohhhh, yes, some of us cringe at the thought of revealing those at risk of sounding…prideful.  Myself included. I don’t like to run around spouting off my strengths. Before going there, read yesterday’s post and then take a look at this:

Strength: a personal characteristic that can be used on behalf of God in service to others.

and then this:

Service – Does it help me serve God and others?

Time - Has it been present throughout much of my life?

Relationships – Do others see this?

Energy - Do I feel energized when I’m living this way?

Natural – Does this come naturally to me most of the time? OR do I know God has intentionally developed this in me even though it doesn’t?

Glory – Does God ultimately get the glory from it?

Trials – Even in hard times, does it usually come through somehow?

Heart – Does this really feel like a core part of who I am?

Takes on a fresh, new feeling doesn’t it? Because, really, God designed us in unique, strong ways so that we can fulfill His purposes. Check out the post for a list of strengths and take a minute to reflect with God on your own.

As for me…some of my strengths include thoughtful, calm, and hardworking.

What about you?

Question.

Have you read Secondhand Jesus by Glenn Packiam? Or heard anything about it? If so, what were your thoughts?

Pressin’ On

Yesterday, I wrote about resting in Him rather than trying to strive toward behavior change versus heart transformation.  There’s a difference. I can self-manage myself all I want, but if I don’t get rid of the roots (side note: I’m trying to correct my Minnesotan accent and say that word correctly except then I just get confused on what way is correct! how do you say it?) and get my heart right then I’m just covering up the real issue.  So true…but along with that…

I need to strain toward what lies ahead. I need to beat my body and make it my slave. Put aside my old self and put on the new. Letting God direct my path and fix my eyes on Him because He is the author and perfecter of my faith.

Where do you find balance between these two? How does it look in your life?

“They Will Run and Not Grow Weary”

Remember when there were arcades in malls? Or maybe you’ve recently been to Dave and Busters? Playing all the fun games like skeeball, Crusin’ the USA, and dance dance revolution. Every once in a while I even played Whack a Mole.  Constantly hitting those moles to make them go back down into their holes.  Over and over and over and over and over.  By the time I finally got one “under control” another would pop up….can I say over and over and over again?

I keep hitting. They keep coming up.  That’s when I get tired. I grow weary. I feel overwhelmed. I focus on how I’m failing instead of how far I’ve come. I wonder if I can keep this up. I try to tackle sin. I try to buckle down and keep pressing on toward the goal. And right there, in the midst of all my striving His gentle whisper reminds me…

So, at the end of the day, I rest in that…being obedient to the Holy Spirit so that He can do a work in my heart and transform me to be more like Him. He gets ALL the glory. I just need to lean into Him and find that His yoke is easy.

How are you doing today? Feeling weary? I would love to pray for you or just hear from you.

A Warm Blanket

The weeks speed by and the joyful moments abound.  I am finding “joy” all over the pages of my bible and embedding it in my heart.  From the brief moments my heart pauses to notice to the situations that weigh like a warm blanket, I am beginning to see Him even more in all that I do. And that. I love. Seeing My beloved all the time and resting in His delight in me.

136. writing late at night

140. blustery roads

157. a deep breath

161. hummus quesadillas

169. realizing how far God’s brought me

170. couches and blankets with love

171. hugs at church (Antioch)

172. impromptu speaking about Africa at church

175. Answering: So how did Katy change?

176. Trader Joe’s stops

178. knowing I’m right where God wants me to be

Talked about this over chipotle lunch…

Quotable

In a recent conversation, I found out that people actually read the info page on facebook! Who knew? I didn’t….hence, I hadn’t really paid attention to mine or updated it in quite a while.  All of that led to a Saturday morning of updating which led to rummaging through old posts and looking at quotes.  I post quite a few quotes!  To keep track of them, I made a handy little “Quotable” page at the top.  Check it out!  In the meantime, here a few that stuck out:

“Don’t say yes just because it’s difficult to say no. If you don’t know who you are and who you’re not, you’ll probably say yes when you should say no. Why? Because you’ll focus on the wrong thing. You’ll focus on the position instead of your calling.”

“But it brought me back to ground zero: I want to be dead-center in the will of God. That is the only position that counts. That is the place of blessing. That is where God can use us most.” -Mark Batterson

“Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful”–William Morris