Saturday Sabbath

Get Fit Friday - 100 Day Challenge - Week 5

These past 2 weeks have been... interesting.
I don't really have a specific update so far as my 100 day challenge goes other than to say that this whole process has opened my eyes to many things.

I have presented the following thoughts numerous times in present tense and today I am intentionally using past tense:

I was such a CHICKEN. I was so afraid of failure that I was paralyzed to move forward in anything. I'd been told that I dream too big for so long that I believed it. I believed that if I tried to do the things I dreamed of, I WOULD fail (not "I COULD fail" but rather "I WOULD fail"). I have not taken risks... at all. I have felt that life has been stressful enough without my help (2 bouts of cancer will do that to ya).

I WAS afraid. I was afraid of failure and rejection.

I'm not. I'm not afraid anymore. I made a decision this week. I am moving forward. I am not going to let fear stop me.

Can I challenge you to do the same?
Try... with the expectation of success.  What's the worst that can happen?

This plays right in with the post from earlier this week about obedience. In everything I am doing, I am asking God to bless it. I am asking God to use me in ways that will bring Him glory. I am asking God to give me courage. I am asking God to guide me and direct me in everything. I want everything I do to bring Him glory.

This eliminates the potential to be lured to sin or to be self - serving, for which I am thankful.

"Be brave enough to do what you dream about" is NOT a challenge to do whatever feels good. I do NOT have an "anything goes" attitude.

I believe that obedience to God and patience to trust His timing has benefits.

For me, one of those benefits is having no fear when I am pursuing dreams that are in line with the ways God has gifted me.

So, week 5... my perspective has changed...again. I'm not trying to be "good enough" or trying to overcome...whatever.

Because of my relationship with Christ, I am already good enough.

I'm not perfect and ya know what? I am totally okay with that. I have nothing to prove to anyone. Because of my relationship with Christ Jesus, I already have everything I need. God has gifted me in so many ways. I need not be afraid to use those gifts.


65 Days to go!

K

Thursday’s Thoughts on... This

I sat down to write this morning’s post, excited to share a little reminder. I pulled up my blog and... what? My Google+ profile has been disabled because it does not meet the requirements. Huh? After a bit of digging around, I find out that I am a spammer. Evidently I send out unsolicited and unwanted stuff. Really? I don’t think I SEND anything out. Unless you’ve signed up to receive ITB via email, you get nothing from me. (Sigh) For a brief moment I was a little ticked off. The thought crossed my mind to figure out who I could talk to about this. I even almost played my “persecuted” card... being a Christian blogger and all.

After a few minutes I decided it wasn’t worth wasting my time being upset  and I changed my profile to a “basic blogger profile” and now I’m back on task.

Today’s thoughts are brief...

I’ve been presented with a couple of challenges these past 2 weeks. I won’t go into the circumstances, but in two completely separate situations, God reminded me that He is present, He hears me, He is for me, and obedience to Him is important. Oh, yeah, and everything is on His schedule.

So so so often I decide something needs to happen, I make a plan, and then pace around like a stubborn spoiled toddler while I wait on God to hurry up and make my plan work. The longer I wait, the more impatient I get and the more impatient I get, the more likely I am to take things into my own hands. (This never ends well btw)

These past 2 weeks I have been under extreme stress. In one circumstance, I asked God to take away a desire for something that I know is not best for my family. In another situation, I asked God to fix a problem that I was (still am) completely unable to fix myself. In both of these situations, I have tried for a while to work things out on my own.(years and years in one situation and about a year and a half in the other)

I learned something about myself these past few weeks... I have a tendency to compromise, to make excuses, and to give up quickly when things don’t happen as timely as I think they should. Bottom line... when it comes to dealing with God, I’m kind of a brat. 

Over these past few weeks, God has been very clear about two things... be obedient and be patient. 

I don’t want to say that I tested God... it certainly wasn’t that. It was more like... I have no other option; I have exhausted all my resources; I don’t know what else to do; so “God, ya gotta fix this mess.”

Now I am not gonna tell you that I heard God speak to me in an audible voice. I will tell you this... I had two thoughts that pressed on my so hard that they may as well have been audible. They were:

Be obedient and Be patient.

I stopped focusing on the two issues I asked God to fix and started focusing on being obedient to His Word and Being Patient and accepting His timing.

Let me say that tonight I am in tears, flooded with gratitude over what God has done. He answered both my prayers in ways I could not have dreamed. He completely and totally took care of both situations. 

Let me be clear... he did not give me exactly what I wanted, nor did He give me exactly what I asked for. He did not make the process painless. He did not snap His God-fingers and remove all my stress and anxiety. . He did not part the sky and send angels down to usher in the answers to my prayers...

but He gave me exactly what I needed. 

So many times I (we) want God to take care of things while we keep living by our own rules.

If things are not working for you today, try obedience. You will be amazed how much your heart will be changed when you are obedient to God’s Word. Your situation may not change quickly, try patience. Trust God’s timing. Really trust Him. Get on HIS timeline instead of trying constantly to get Him to line up with your plans.

Sweet reader, God is for you, not against you. He is against sin. He is against the lies that Satan tells us. He is against anything that pulls us away from Him.... but He isn’t against YOU.

We are designed to desire a relationship with God. If you don’t have a healthy, growing, rich relationship with Him, you are likely trying to quiet that desire with other things... financial or SoCal stability, relationship stability or fulfillment, career success, parental prowess... any of these sound familiar. The angry attitude of “I don’t want anybody or anything” also screams of a need for God, as does “everyone and everything is against me.”

If this sounds like you... try obedience to God. Let Him remove the things from your life that are strangling you, stunting your emotional, mental, and spiritual growth. Let Him put your priorities in His order. Trust Him.

Is it easy? Nah, not exactly. However, it is easier than living the rest of your life searching for some sort of fulfillment that life can’t give you... and it’s easier than living the rest of your life resigned to being empty and alone.

Okay so maybe my thoughts weren’t as brief as I anticipated... go figure.

Big hugs, 

K

Wednesday's Weekly Recipe: COOKIES!!!!!

OH MY goodness! DO YOU KNOW WHAT I am looking forward to?
Here's a hint... it is NOT having something huge planned every weekend in October... or that the "holiday crazy" starts November 1 (may need to start my tips on surviving the holidays...for my own sanity!).

I'm looking forward to ....

 All SORTS of excuses for COOKIES!!!!!!! 
Oh GOODNESS! I am way too excited about this, I know...

But just LOOK at these:
 

      

Okay, so to be fair... cute and adorable cookies are great and all, but  no amount of cuteness will be remembered if the cookie breaks your teeth or tastes like last year's fruitcake. 

So, to start your Holiday cookie extravaganza... here is a reliable recipe for sugar cookies:

Serves:30 to 40

Prep time:30 mins

Cook time:10 mins

Total time:40 mins

 

Ingredients

• 1 cup butter, softened
• 1 cup white granulated sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 egg
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons baking powder

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 350F.
2. Cream together the  butter and sugar with a mixer until smooth.
3. Beat in the vanilla extract and egg.
4. In another bowl, combine the flour, salt and baking powder and mix together.
5. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients a little at a time and continue using the mixer until everything is combined and the mixture is crumbly.
6. Wet your hands and knead it by hand. Separate it into 2 or 3 dough balls. Cover the remaining dough balls with plastic wrap while you are rolling. (Don't chill the dough)
7. Place the dough on a floured surface, sprinkle a small amount of flour on top to keep the rolling pin from sticking and roll it out until it's about ¼" thick.
8. Using your favorite cookie cutters, cut out the shapes, then use a metal spatula to transfer the shapes to a parchment lined cookie sheet.
9. Bake at 350F for 8 to 10 minutes.

Notes

1. If your dough is too "crumbly" it might mean your butter wasn't softened enough. But no worries! Add ½ tsp to 1 tsp of water to the dough and kneed it in until it sticks together properly. You might need to add more water when you are rolling the scraps a second time.
2. Cooking for 8 minutes will result in a softer cookie with a lighter color. Cooking for 10 or 11 minutes will result in a firmer texture with a more golden color. Ovens will vary, so keep an eye on yours, but I cooked these cookies for just over 9 minutes.

Enjoy!

K

Tuesday Tips and Tricks - You DO have time

Here's today's tip...

Honey, you DO have time....

Here's a (possibly real) example of how "I don't have time" plays out in daily life...

"I just don't have time to clean up my office...."
So you don't. You spend your time taking care of important things like answering emails and phone calls and... checking Facebook.... cause, well, you have an extra 5 or 10 before you need to leave for your meeting...
Then you spend 20 minutes looking for your blasted keys... that were buried under a stack of papers that you needed to throw away a week ago. THEN you spend another good 30 minutes chatting with the police officer who gave you a ticket because you were speeding... because you were late to aforementioned meeting because... why?  Oh yes, you couldn't find your blasted keys. You'd have been better off to spend another 10 minutes and use that solid hour to clean up your stinkin office!

(sigh)


Here are some tricks for those of us who are a bit challenged in the "time management" department....

• Break projects down into chunks. You may naturally do things one step at a time, in a nice and orderly fashion....or you may be like me and address most everything like a you're trying to wrestle a tornado. I missed the gene/talent/gift/ability that allows a person to easily separate things into nice neat compartments in my mind. I see everything as one giant tangled up wad of yarn... or, back to my tornado analogy... you know in movies where all the stuff is just flying all over the place in a tornado? Yeah... that's how life looks to me.  This helps me: I usually have to stop and actually write down what needs to be done. Once I can SEE it broken down into separate tasks or projects, I can manage them better.

• Break time into chunks. For example, work for 1 hour at a time. Totally focused on the task at hand for 60 solid minutes. Going back to the previous point... if I have my tasks / projects written down, it is easier for me to say "I am spending the next 60 minutes cleaning my office," or (more likely) "I am spending the next 60 minutes painting/writing."

• Finally, and this is my FAVORITE....
  DONE is better than PERFECT if needing to be perfect keeps you from getting it done.

Can I get an Amen?

Big hugs y'all!
K

Monday Motivation

Sunday Scripture - Exodus 14:14

The Lord will fight for you, you need only to be still. 

Exodus 14:14

I've claimed this verse in many different areas over the years...

Sometimes though, if I am honest, I'm not sure I believe that God will fight for me. I SAY I believe it. I wouldn't dare say otherwise.  I mean, I know he CAN. 

But that's not really the question, is it? The question is NOT whether or not God CAN fight for me... 

...it's whether or not He WILL.

I've written about this before. This question rests heavy on my heart and resonates within my very being. It stirs something fragile deep in my soul that I cannot put words to.

To believe that God CAN fight for me is easy. I truly believe that God CAN do anything. I believe that He is the Creator of all, Ruler of all, LORD of all. I truly believe with every fiber of my being that there is NOTHING my God cannot do.

But again,  that's not the question.

The question is much more intimate. There is much at stake. The question speaks to His love for me... and only me. It's personal. This does not apply to "the nations" or "all people" or even "the church." This is between me and God...and there is a part of me that isn't completely sure what His answer will be. 

Sitting here, starting this post this evening, I had no plan and wasn't sure where it was gonna go. Honestly, I'm facing a battle I cannot fight on my own and I NEED His help. I sat here, not sure what His answer would be. 

First, Exodus 14:14 came to mind. 

As if that was not enough... (because I am a slow learner)

I am reminded of the woman in John 8. Caught in the act of adultery, drug from her lover's bed, paraded through town, tossed at the feet of Jesus... broken, empty, shattered...guilty... she waits. What will her fate be? Left to the religious, she was already condemned... left to the religious she would have been stoned. 

Jesus had other plans.

"Let any of you who is without sin throw the first stone at her." (John 8: 7b NIV)

One by one, these men, who only moments ago were so quick to judge her guilty, dropped their stones and left. (Wouldn't you love to know what went through their minds as they walked away?) Once everyone was gone, Jesus asked, "Woman, Where are they? Has no one condemned you?" and her response puts a lump in my throat and brings tears to my eyes...

"No one, sir" (John 8:11 NIV)

My answer would include two little words that hers does not...

"but you"

My answer would have been "no one but you, sir." 

Maybe the answer in her heart was more like mine, because Jesus responded, "Neither do I condemn you. Go and sin no more." (that's verse 12, if you're keeping track)

Maybe you are reading this and have no clue what I'm rambling on about. Maybe you aren't afraid of anything. Maybe you believe that you deserve God's outpouring of grace, mercy, and love. Then again, maybe you are like me...

I sit here at the keyboard, my heart pounding in my chest, hands trembling, tears flowing freely, asking with a voice barely above a whisper...

"Will you? Will you fight for me?" 

I can only imagine what the woman in John 8 must have felt when the only one who had right to judge her harshly... pardoned her, showed her grace, bathed her with mercy, saw through her guilt to her battered soul... and loved her... and... do I actually need to say it? He FOUGHT for her. The Lord of all Creation, God in flesh, Emanuel, King of kings and Lord of lords fought the battle she was helpless to fight for herself.

This is why I love God's Word. It soothes my fragile heart, encourages me, and gives me hope. God's Word Promises me (and you)

"The Lord WILL fight for you, you need only to be still."

If you are like me and feeling a bit defeated today...

remember this, Not only CAN God fight for you...

HE WILL!

Much love and big big BIG hugs!

K