distracted scatterbrain?

i would definitely think that i fall into this category... i set out to do one thing, and end up doing something completely different.  when it comes to digging into the Word, and finding what God has for me, sometimes i feel like i fall into this category.  however, i don't thing it applies.  just because i jump around in the bible, and read from all over i don't think that's an issue.  the issue that i may have is not always remembering what i read.  but seriously, do you remember what you read every time?  probably not.  as a matter of fact, i bet you couldn't tell me what you read on your other friends blog that you read yesterday.  how can i remedy that?  how can anyone remedy that?  well, for me i think it's a matter of writing things down.  this was all prompted by something that i read out of james today.

james 1:22-27 says

"Don't fool yourselves into thinking that you are a listener when you are anything but, letting the Word go in one ear and out the other.  Act on what you hear!  Those who hear and don't act are like those who glance in the mirror, walk away, and 2 minutes later have no idea who they are, what they look like.

But whoever catches a glimpse of the revealed counsel of God-the free life!-even out of the corner of his eye, and sticks with it, is no distracted scatterbrain, but a man or woman of action.  That person will find delight and affirmation to the action.

Anyone who sets himself up as "religious" by talking a good game is self-deceived.  This kind of religion is hot are and only hot air.  Real religion, the kind that passes muster before God the Father, is this:  Reach out to the homeless and loveless in their plight, and guard against corruption from the godless world." (the message)

i don't really think i'm a distracted scatterbrain.... at least the kind that is referred to in this passage.  i do listen to God and do what he says, but sometimes i do forget.  it's human nature.  at least it's my human nature.  so, i must remind myself regularly of this fact....  i can take things to heart... and do them, but if i don't continually go back to the Word for more...  or write them down, it will be kind of worthless because i will have forgotten why i am doing the good that God called me to.  so, i encourage you... stay in the Word... continually surround yourself with reasons, things that remind you why you are doing the good.

on a completely unrelated note... to those of you that know of my struggles with my stupid lap top and the cursor moving and randomly erasing things...   i took the advice of the wise caleb borke and covered the mousepad up and hooked up an optical mouse and haven't had any further issues :)  (other than continually putting my thumb where the mousepad is to move the cursor instead of reaching my arm over to the optical mouse)

best part of my day so far

so, i thought that finding out that i'm getting a bunch of money back on my taxes was the best part of my day.  but then my son came home from school :)  i said, can i get a hug and a kiss?  and he RAN to me and said, "just because i love you mom."  now that was definitely the best part of my day!

Number 2

mLet me tell you a little bit about a program that I am part of.  It's blogging for books by Waterbrook.  I pick a book that is on their list (which is a lot of books to choose from) and I blog about it.  Then I get to keep the book!  Well, being that I love to read, I love this program!  I recieved my first book in the mail a few days ago, but I was in the middle of another book so I had to finish that first.  Well, it just happened to be another book by the same publishing company so I can review that for them as well.  You can review any book by their publishing company.  That's why I reviewed the book yesterday.  Well, I finished another last night, so I will review it here.

Let me tell you a bit about what I think about book reviews.  First of all, I don't even read the back cover of a book because I feel like it gives too much away.  So, in my reviews I will tell you some of the good premises of a book (or not so good, depending), but I will never give too much away.  Read the book for yourself if it's that good :)

The book I am reviewing today is another book by Rene Gutteridge, Skid.  It is also in the Occupational Hazards series.  This book took longer for me to get into, but once I was about 50 pages I didn't want to put it down.  The ending was especially good.

Gutteridge has a nack for bringing humor into nearly every situation.  She's a good writer.  Some of the things in her books are farfetched, but it's a book for crying out loud.  It's for entertainment purposes.  I definitely like how she draws you in though.

I was a bit disappointed in the beginning of the book that there were SO many characters that Gutteridge seemed to be developing.  I really wanted to just hear the main characters story, but in the end it all came together.  I just wish that it wouldn't have taken so long to get there.

I still give this book a 4 out of 5 stars.  It was a good read.

Rate my review at Multnomah here....

My first book review!

I was so excited to find out that I can blog, read a book, and get the book to keep if I write a review on it.   So, here's my first book review of many to come...  It's through Multnomah Publishing, and if you love books check it out here...

Scoop by Rene Gutteridge


This is not only my first book review for Multnomah, but the book "Scoop" is also the first in a series of books by Rene Gutteridge in the Occupational Hazards series.

Gutteridge was the author of the book "The Ultimate Gift" which was an excellent movie and the reason that I chose to read more books by her.

Scoop had an excellent story line.  I was captivated by the first page.  Gutteridge began the story by posting the obits of 2 people, Mom and Dad Hazard.

I not only thoroughly enjoyed the book, but I actually grew spiritually from the book.  I love it when that happens, especially when I'm not expecting it.

The Hazards (last name of a family if you haven't figured that f you out yet) are great at mixing faith and every day life.  It challenged me to live the same way.  

This book specifically targetted a few different "big topics", but I really benefited from the plot that encompassed getting older and worrying about the way we age.  Not a only is that a reason to, be anxious, but there are other themes in the book that are coming from an anxiety driven standpoint, which I also found very enlightening to read about.

I would give this book 5 stars, and I suggest it to anyone!

it's where i'm at

and it's good. 1 corinthians 10: ^19-22Do you see the difference? Sacrifices offered to idols are offered to nothing, for what's the idol but a nothing? Or worse than nothing, a minus, a demon! I don't want you to become part of something that reduces you to less than yourself. And you can't have it both ways, banqueting with the Master one day and slumming with demons the next. Besides, the Master won't put up with it. He wants us—all or nothing. Do you think you can get off with anything less?

 ^23-24Looking at it one way, you could say, "Anything goes. Because of God's immense generosity and grace, we don't have to dissect and scrutinize every action to see if it will pass muster." But the point is not to just get by. We want to live well, but our foremost efforts should be to help others live well.

so...  the part that sticks out sticks out to me is the part that says, "we want to live well, but our foremost efforts should be to help others live well."  yep.  that's my life. :)  

it's where i'm at... Blessings!

learning

i went to a class on wednesday night on "forgotton God" by francis chan.  it was being taught by a friend of mine, niel deiner...  it is an excellent study.  i am enjoying it thoroughly.  anyway, my blog today is on learning.  i am learning a lot of different things.  the first thing i want to talk about i was reminded of by a conversation i had with my son on the way into church on wednesday.  i said something about him going to his class while i went to a class that niel was teaching.  and i said to him... "do you remember niel and stacey?"  and he said.  "yeah.  i met them once.  their my  mom and dad."  i was like... uh, no....  you're daddy and i are your mom and dad and we're the only ones you'll ever have.  and maz was adamant...  no, mom.  niel and stacey are my mom and dad.  this discussion went on for a while.   it just made me thing, "who's your daddy?"  in a spiritual sense.  i wasn't thinking earthly dads and moms anymore.  i was thinking spiritually.  God is our daddy.  and, sometimes we forget it.  we replace Him with other things or people.   we can replace Him with good things and people, but if we're replacing Him at all then well...  we've forgotten who our daddy is.

God, help me to never again forget who YOU are.

Last week

Anxiety…

I’m reading a book by Rene Gutteridge. She’s the one that wrote the story that the movie, “the ultimate gift” was based on. Anyway, the story is irrelevant, but I am learning a ton. There is this character in this book that is awesome. It’s like she really does have it all together, but not because of what she has, what she looks like, or who she is. It’s all because of her identity in Christ. She has said things like, “trusting God won’t definitely make your life easier. But you will know that there is something to hope for.” And, she’s telling an older lady who people are pressuring into botox (namely her bosses at the tv station she works for) that God designed us to age and that beauty is on the inside and allow God to age us as he sees fit. And, most recently she says to her boss, Hugo, while referring to anxiety… “With all due respect, do you know where anxiety comes from?” Hugo paused. Was this a trick question? From not trusting God. We’re all going to be anxious if we think we’re in control of our lives, because we’re contantly making mistakes. Do you know what I mean? We’ve got to trust our Father in heaven to take care of us, even when we mess up. Or when others mess things up for us.”

Anyway, this book is just really speaking to me, and I really wanted to share it J

Another super amazing awesome thing happened today, and it’s about my kid. Yep. There it is. My kid Mazerick. He’s been talking about death lately, and how he doesn’t want to die. He doesn’t want to go to heaven because in order to go to heaven you have to die. Anyway, tonight I read him the story out of Revelation about the new heaven and new earth… from his kids bible, so it was easy for him to understand. At the end again he was like, “I don’t want to die.” And I explained to him that if he prayed to Jesus and asked Jesus to live with him forever and tried to live for him he didn’t have to worry about dying because even when his body here dies he would come back to life in Heaven and live forever. He was like, “Can I do it right now?” So, we prayed. First he said, “Mom, I want you to do it for me.” And, I said… Mazerick. I can’t do that for you. You have to make that decision. So, he repeated after me.

“Dear Jesus---Dear Jesus…”

“I want you to live with me forever---I want you to live with me forever…”

“I love you---I love you…”

“And I will try to always make you happy---And I will try to always make you happy…”

“Thank you Jesus---Thank you Jesus…”

“Amen---Amen…”

It’s definitely a theologians prayer J It’s the prayer of a little kid. And, I believe, with my whole heart that my little Maz meant it. He giggled and giggled afterwards. He said… “If the streets are gold can we drive cars on them? I wonder if there will be cars in Heaven. I hope there are cars in Heaven, because cars are cool.”

a lot on my mind

we'll start here at the fork in the road. inspired by my friend faith over at wordpress.

so, faith and her husband faced a decision. you can read about it here.

is it not the truth though that we all face decisions? some of them may not seem as significant as others, but in reality, they are all decisions. and, well... a decision must be made. which road shall we travel?

am i going to be content with the place that God has me or am i going to live in misery wishing i was somewhere else? i'll choose contentment. sometimes it's as simple as a choice. i don't say this to forget striving for what i want. i think in order to be content you must also seek God. and, for me... seeking God means continuing to move forward. continue planning the plans that God has been guiding me in planning... like, a youth center in bremen. it's going to happen. my husband and i will facilitate this event. with Gods lead. it will be good.

*****

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.
It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?
Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world.
There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you.
We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us.
It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone.
And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same.
As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.
Marianne Williamson

the above was brought to mind from another friend over at wordpress.

my thoughts on it are, well... it's true. live it.

****

another thing i've been thinking about as of late is this.... one word.... i've come across numerous times people that are choosing one word to live their lives based around this year. it could be a word that describes who you are, what you want to be, or where you want to go. as i considered this... well actually i wasn't even considering it. i was just drawn to it. and then it happened... i realized i was living it. daily i sought the same thing. i sought to hear God.... and listen... and do.... do what he has told me to do. and with that listen to my heart... what God tells me to do i must take to heart and follow through. and again... do. so, my word is "listen." listen to God. listen to my heart. and listen to others. and in return, do. so, you may see new things this year in my life. i will continue to seek God and go where He tells me to go.

God is good.

today

what does God want me to do today? i often think about this, but often times it leads me to planning for the future. today i am hanging out with my son.... instilling him the importance of loving each other. loving is sometimes just being there. being in the same room together. chilling. talking when necessary. who was it that said... "preach. use words if necessary." or something like that? charles spurgeon? i'm not sure. anyway, that's kind of what today is for me.... only it's "love. if necessary use words." and a bit later i get to hang out with my husband too... the same will occur :)

while hanging out with my son i've been able to catch up on my surfing.... the net :) and, i came across blogging for books which is really exciting for me. i absolutely love to read! now i will kind of get paid to read :) at least i'll get paid in books. thanks rachel for introducing me :) i'm really excited to get started... wish i could start today, but i'll have to wait for the shipping of my first book.

our morning started with a conversation about jonah... maz told me he was fish food, and wanted to know why. and i told him that it was because God told him to go to ninevah (and explained that it was a town) and he was supposed to love the people there. but he didn't. then he was fish food... and it was because he didn't listen to God. so, it's very important to listen to God. then maz asked me what God wants us to do. so, my immediate response was... "love people." and, well.... that's what we're doing today, and until God gives us further direction :)

another thing God has me doing takes a little more planning... it's this youth center that i've had on my heart for a while. i've almost got the paperwork finished to become federally known as a nonprofit.... which will get me grants.... which, is what i need. i have someone interested in purchasing a building, but some things are held up in that regards. but, it will happen.

i've been reading in romans, and God has been really speaking to me through it... the message version says this: God does not respond to what we do; "we respond to what God does. We've finally figured it out. Our lives get in step with God and all others by letting him set the pace, not by proudly or anxiously trying to run the parade"

that's chapter 3 verse 28 for those of you that needed to know... you know who you are :) anyway, it's been good... real good... God's been speaking to me in a million different ways, and i'm enjoying life. join me will you?

this is the stuff

alright, people.... seriously. we've all got stuff. but, the song that i put on here is a great refocus... at least for me it was. since christmas i've really been digging into God's word. it's been great. and, then i heard this song and was totally blown away. God is SO good. but, it's true. we've all got stuff. so, i'm giving my stuff to God... because i can :) and, so can you.

This Is The Stuff Lyric Video