My Ways or His Ways?

Sometimes I find that my perception of God needs a bit of alteration.  I find that I am not consistent in my thinking or that I bought into something that shouts that I’m stuck on my ways instead of seeing them as His ways.

Example One: I found a prayer in one of my journals that asked God to protect me from deception.  And at first, I was like, uh….what!? where were you God–why didn’t you step in and intervene and save the day? Except, the kicker here is that I wanted Him to intervene so that things would turn out how I wanted them.  He DID protect me by allowing others to step in and walk with me. Things just looked different.

Example Two: I keep wanting to put lists, rules, and lines in areas of my life.  But, then, I’m reminded…He wants me to fall in love with Him in such a way that life no longer feels like a list of do’s and don’ts but a crazy madly love that permeates all that I do to where each and every moment translates into an all relying on Him adventure both with Him and others!

Example Three: I found myself verbalizing frustration over waiting on God’s timing…yeah, sometimes I get frustrated.  But, see, I kept thinking of Him as almost teasing or just not wanting to give me want I want.  Though, really, no! That’s not it at all. He wants to wait to give me that amazing delicious tasting satisfying falafel instead of letting me settle for some not so tasty cheeseburger…

How about you? Do you need to adjust or alter some areas you translate your ways as God’s ways?

Pressing On

Nanowrimo weekly update: I am officially at 6,365 words!!! Still quite a ways to go, but I’m pretty happy with the progress. Not to mention that I’m absolutely loving writing about “God-threads” and fictionizing (yes, I made that word up, but I like it) events from a different perspective.  Here’s to 43,635 words to go!

p.s. I had a fabulous weekend full of worshiping on a mountain, eating pizza with some awesome people, playing spades, going on a walk, laughing, playing with kids at the park, and obviously some writing.  How was your weekend?

Full

My heart is full.  Saturday proved to be a perfect, full day.  I woke up thinking and tweeting: “sunny saturday and no plans as of yet. not sure how I feel about that…”

I started out by staying in bed for a bit and then going outside to embrace the sunshine.  I read and got a tan while laying on a combo of a sleeping bag, blanket, towel and three pillows with music playing in the background next to six different books (Wide Awake, Out of the Salt Shaker, Her Name is Woman, Christ In You, The Bible, Inner Healing).  I even had a blank canvas, paints, a journal, pens, and of course sunglasses.  I like to be prepared/going inside and up the stairs to get something is not an ideal interruption.

Somewhere along the way I decided to pile all my stuff on my stairs in case I decided to return to my spot on the porch after I made delicious sweet tea.  Sweet tea makes my heart happy and feel like summer.  Though, I never did make it back to lay on the porch.  Instead, I helped (Josh–a volunteer here for 10 days) make a sweet video in iMovie.  I am so using that to make some fun stuff.

Then I intended to go on a walk (with Jace), which was delayed due to hanging out and chatting.  Eventually, we (Jace, Allen, and I) made our way to the pond where we saw some poor, sad, dead frogs while discussing how dirty the pool looked and how we needed to get gloves before trying to shimmy down the zip line.  After the walk, we (Jace, Allen, Jen, and I) jumped into a game of Settlers, which made my heart happy since we hadn’t played it yet.  Then dinner, hanging out (most/all of the interns plus the volunteers), playing guitar on an adorable little guitar, talking about life, laughing, time for prayer (for Tara’s family–pray for them too!), and then we ended the day with watching Wolverine.  I even stayed awake and got in some discussion about how some characters have some bitter roots!

Thus, the day ended with the thought and tweet: “what an awesome full saturday that is ending with a full heart 🙂 praise God!”  I am so thankful for the people God has put around me during this time to walk with me and build me up during this time of re-learning, un-learning, and learning while embracing who I am in Him!

Thankful Thursday

I know, I know…completely unoriginal and found on countless blogs, but I’m in the mood 🙂 So enjoy and be thankful too!

1. Time–Time to pray, read, meditate, think, study, walk Abbi, work out, apply for jobs

2. My brother–he goes above and beyond to help me out whether it’s finding someone to get a student discounted Microsoft Office for Mac or lend me money or drive home with me

3.  Friends–who call randomly to see how I’m doing, who let me call them when I’m sad/want to call someone I shouldn’t, who call about nothing, to hang out with, laugh with, do life with, ect.

4. Cinnamon Crunch bagels–they are absolutely delicious! and it’s way more fun to apply for jobs at Panera than at home

5.  Dogs–I love them and can’t wait until I can have 2 of my own. I decided I want 2 (big, fluffy ones too!) so that they can play with each other and they won’t be sad when I’m not home.  I’m definitely going to be *that* girl walking the two big dogs everyday.