30 + 1 challenge

I have been feeling a little bit... what's the word? LAZY lately? I've been feeling lazy about my health. God has given me my body and it is my job to take care of it as best I can. But it is so easy to grab that diet soda on the go, grab that breakfast cereal bar in the morning or throw that frozen pizza in for lunch. I don't want to be overly focused on WHAT I eat - being overly focused on that prevents my focus from being on Him. But, I do need to make wiser choices. So my dear friend Jayme has challenge several of us to a 30 + 1 day challenge. So - what is my challenge to myself? I'm starting simple... something that should be a no brainer. MORE WATER. I hate it. I don't like it, and unless I ruin it with flavored packets i generally won't drink it. Water is essential to my body. It allows all the proper body functions to take place, and helps eliminate all the waste products left from everything else I do to it. So for the next 30 +1 day - I am drinking water - non flavored - just pure water.... and by doing so - I'm also challenging myself to give up soda for the same period of time. I know myself - if i allow myself the soda - i'll choose that over the water. So - goodbye soda - hello clear life-sustaining water.

So unworthy

So if you came to our women's Monday night fellowship a few months back you may remember that I spoke concerning ministering to others. At the time someone had come to me letting me know that an old acquaintance had recently been sentence to prison and will be there for 10 or so years. I was heart broken. Then I was asked if I would like to converse back and forth with them. I talked to my husband who was at first a little leery of the idea that a convicted felon would have access to our address. Though I felt God tell me that I needed to write to this man, I was not going to disobey my husband and go behind his back. I knew God would make a way. (This is where I was when I brought it before our fellowship ladies). Two weeks later my husband said i could write him but that I needed to correspond back and forth to his shop - not our home. I talked about it further with my husband and I knew my husband was saying yes with his mouth but still shouting NONO in his heart. So I chose not to write to my friend (whom I have not talked or heard of in over 10 yrs) Last week, our mutual friend (friend of myself and the man in prison) asked if I had written to my prison friend. I said no and gave her the reasoning. She said that they now have it set up for email. It is a secure email set up for the prison. There is no exchange of address's. (YAY GOD!) So I went back and asked my husband if I could begin emailing him. My husband was much more open to the idea. So i gave our mutual friend my email to pass on to my prison friend. Within two days I received a request from my prison friend to be email friends. So thus it begins. I received the request. Now it was in my court to accept, set up my email through the prison security email system and write the first correspondence between us. I had no clue how to begin. I mean, "Hey you - haven't heard from you in 13 yrs so what have you been up to... oh yeah -never mind - you are in prison - apparently you've been a little naughty" sounded not right.... So I just shared what I had been up to in the past 10 or so years... I did share a little of my husbands testimony of not being raised in a Christian home and how he hadn't come to Christ until after he turned 19.... I didn't want to shove "Christianity" down his throat - and yet I wanted to let him know from the beginning how Christ can change lives. He responded back to my email two days later explaining to me how prison life was. He said he was sorry for his poor choices and that one day he prays that he can prove to society that he can function in that society. So this morning I wrote in response to that. I told him that every choice we make has consequences - but we are not defined by our choices - we are defined by who God tells us we are. I went a little deeper in that discussion but only brimmed the surface in what I hope will be a long correspondence between us. I feel this will be a spiritual warfare for him. Please pray with me as we write back and forth that God will give me the wisdom to share with him what he needs to hear at the time he needs to hear it!

Puts it all in perspective.

Tonight after church I took a quick trip to the store that turned out to not be such a quick trip. I ran into somebody that I knew from times past. I was about to turn down the freezer aisle when I saw the mom of one of my junior high school friends. I continued on then felt God telling me to backtrack... so I did. We started small talk and then I asked her how everything was. She told me they had put my friend in a nursing home this past June. NURSING HOME?? Nursing home. This girl was two years younger then me and last time I saw her was quite physical well. She went on to explain that my friend had been diagnosed with schizophrenia about 10 years ago and had been able to somewhat hide it from people but the past 3-4 yrs had grown incredibly worse. She had made 4 attempt at suicide, the last being this past February when she decided to go for a swim in the river at sub-degree temps. She was found with sever hypothermia and frost bite... and had to stay weeks in the hospital. From then on, they (her parents) got legal guardianship and now are dealing with this hardship in their life. I don't know what to say or how to think... I'm shocked. I am no novice when it comes to mental illnesses... both my great-grandmother and grandmother have had diagnosis's of Alzheimer's AND I have watch both of them deteriorate from wonderful godly strong women to a feeble body and mind shell of a person. I know how hard it is to watch somebody you love lose who they are. I can't imagine losing my child in that way. I'm not sure why God had me step back to meet my friends mom accept maybe He knew that she needed a listening ear and a praying heart. If you randomly think about this post - please pray with me that God will give comfort to my friends parents and even to my friend during her lifetime of this.

A hohum kinda day.

Well, today is a hohum kinda day, but I will NOT let it get me down. Alexia, I'll cuddle you bc you don't feel good. Isaiah I'll give you kisses because sometimes you just need that extra love and Victoria I'll let you help more because you so want to be a big girl. Nope - not going to be a blah day because even though this seems like a hohum kinda day, this is the day that the LORD has made - I WILL rejoice and be glad in it!