Biting off more than I can chew

I firmly believe that God doesn't give us more than we can handle. But unfortunately, I am not so courteous to myself. I have managed to cram 6 months worth of celebrations and parties into the next seven days. Don't get me wrong, I am excited for each one of them separately, and so longing to see Claire have fun enjoying her birthday, and Elyse be baptized, and of course my long awaited Ordination. The community wide party at our house and the t-ball celebration should be interesting. Each one of these things on their own is nice and fun. But when you cram them all into a four day time period - I get a little crazy. My prayer for today (and every day for the rest of my life!) is that I would follow God's example, and NOT GIVE MYSELF MORE THAN WHAT I CAN HANDLE!!!

You think?

Last night, I was up late assembling a meal for Randy's birthday celebration today. (Happy Birthday Randy - 62 years old, twice as old as me! :) As I was cutting up the veggies for the salad, I was absentmindedly reading the nutrition information on the back of the bag of baby carrots. It had the standard list of vitamins and nutrients, calories and serving size, and underneath the nutrition information it said:

Ingredients: Carrots

Really, you think? Do you mean that inside my bag of carrots there are...carrots? I couldn't help but laugh aloud at this obvious, simplistic statement. Today, my prayer is that God's presence in the world around me would be as obvious as listing carrots as the ingredient in a bag of carrots!

I am a genius...in hindsight!

My faithful Monday morning Disciple group has conquered Disciple 1,2,3&4, and this year moved on to the Jesus in the Gospels study. Monday's lesson was entitled Destiny Disclosed, and had an interesting insight on destiny that has had me thinking over the last few days. "Destiny sees a person's present from the standpoint of the future." In other words, we are to understand our current situation in life from where we will be in the days to come. Or - it is only by looking back at our journey in life that we can understand why we are living this life today. I wish I could look back on today and understand why in the world things need to be so crazy!

NO NAPS!!!

So, why is it that children will refuse to nap, doing everything possible in their little power to remain awake when the exhaustion is overwhelming? I would like nothing more than to be given a bottle, rocked gently, cuddled up with a soft blankie and lullabied off to sleep. (Heck - you had me at bottle!) Rest is such an essential need. Without it (or enough of it) we cannot be the people God has created us to be! God tells the prophet Elijah to climb up onto Mount Horeb, and there God will meet with him. Elijah climbs the mountain, and retreats into a cave. First, there is terrible wind, then a great earthquake, and then fire - but God is not in any of these awesome earthly occurrences. After all the ruckus has passed, there is the sound of sheer silence, and it is here that God appears.
My prayer today is that I will find this illusive silence, and may finally settle into a place where I can hear the voice of God.

Don't think about the red faced monkey...

Does anyone else suffer from internal commentary? It seems that no matter what I am doing or where I am, I have an internal commentary running inside my head that is judging me. I don't question whose voice this is - I'm clear that it is mine - but I question why I have to hear it constantly. Why am I so hard on myself? My heart knows that God loves me without question, and without end, but that little voice in my head is apparently a little less sure. Hmmm...I guess my prayer for today is that the little God voice in my heart will bust out, and beat up the little me voice in my head!

Still Pretty New...

On our drive home last night, Claire (my 4 1/2 year old) was monologuing on her age, and her upcoming birthday. "I'm going to be 5 mommy, and then one day - I'll be 10!"
"I know honey - and when you're 10, will you be old?" I asked.
"No - when you're ten, you're still a kid. " Claire said. "But daddy - he's already old...really old!"
Amused by this, I decided to press further. "And what about your sister, is Ely old?"
Claire rolled her eyes and sighed saying, "No mommy - Ely is a baby, babies are new!" (duh!)
"And what about me," I asked, "am I old?" I have to say that I was sweating it out waiting on her answer!
"Well..." she pondered, "you're not a baby, but your not old either. I guess you're still pretty new."

Regardless of the age we say we are, or the age that our drivers license says we are, or the age our kids think we are - we will always remain children of God. Entering into a relationship with Christ starts the clock over - it resets us back to a time of innocence and trust. I might not be that new anymore in my child's eyes (and certainly not in mine), but in God's eyes I am loved and perfect.

Made in God's image

In Genesis, we hear the story of the creation of our world; from the separation of light and darkness, to the land rising from the water, the birth of flora and fauna, birds of the air and fish of the sea, to animals that roam the earth and then finally, the creation of humanity. Chapter 1, verse 26-27, "Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground." So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them." Each of us is created in the image of God. Our challenge each and every day is to love and commune with our neighbors, and to see the face of God in those whose faces are so very different from our own.

May the face of God shine on you in this day!