What is your greatest spiritual enemy?

Yesterday after church Sam and I and my brother went to our friend's house with our respective drive-through lunches. I was the last to arrive, so I missed the earlier part of the conversation, but they posed this question to me, to answer while my mouth was full:

What is your greatest spiritual enemy? In other words, what is it in you that keeps you from being in the place spiritually that you want to be?

They said that among all of them it was complacency, paired with laziness. At the time, with just a minute to think, I said it was probably laziness for me as well. I just don't want to put forth the effort to spend time in the Word, pray, or go through the discipline of growing.

But throughout the rest of the day, I found that I didn't agree with my original answer. Laziness does definitely have a part in it, but I'm not a truly lazy person. Sure, I have my lazy days, and I would nearly always do something fun over something that resembles work, but for the most part I'm fairly productive. In fact, I tend to evaluate myself (too much) based on my productivity. It's a very American thing to do: 'She can't get along with anybody, but, boy can she work her tail off!'

The fact of the matter is that my greatest spiritual enemy is this: obsession with my own agenda.

My agenda does not have to be a schedule, it is simply 'what I want'. In fact, my agenda is often my lack of schedule. For example, I don't spend my first time in the morning with the Lord because I prefer to either sleep in, see what Sam wants to do, do the next thing on my list, or just hang out on the computer for a while until I find the motivation to do something I 'ought' to be doing. My life revolves around me and my family, more than around what the Holy Spirit might be speaking.

As I have been aware of this, I have seen so clearly how many times I have the opportunity to choose to pay attention to the quiet voice of the Lord over just doing whatever I want to do.

So this morning, though I slept in late - which I have needed to do, since I've been really exhausted and haven't slept well for the last several nights - I did get up and have something of a quiet time. Nothing outstanding, but still profitable, I believe. And I believe it was important for me to take the time to express this today.

My prayer is that I will pay attention to the times that I sense the Holy Spirit reminding me that I don't live for my own agenda, but His, and that I will respond instead of ignoring His words.

Unpacked!

I just unpacked our last box! It's about time, since we've been in this house since April '07!

In the below post, I mentioned that I'd found the missing china settings; it is only appropriate that I get them out of their boxes and display them as they ought to be. Oddly enough, there are a couple of pieces missing, and they have to be somewhere in our house.... or maybe they were mixed up with Christina's when we combined them for a shower a few years ago. Who knows; it's not like I've used them and need to have all the pieces any time soon.

This was my grand accomplishment for the day; setting up that last shelf with our pretty dishes. There is also a tea/coffee set on the bottom of the picture given to me by my grandmother. It's almost worth getting out the windex and cleaning the glass. .... It's a nice thought. Maybe after 9 PM tonight. :)

I do have to confess that there are 4 more boxes still, but they are full of photos, and that is where they live; they're not going to come out any time soon, so they totally don't count.

Once the crib saga has been resolved, if we do get to keep the furniture, I'll post a picture of it in the room. If not, then I'll wait until I get the furniture that we'll keep.

Who is this woman, and what is she doing in my house?

Apparently I get bursts of energy after 9:30 PM. That's usually when I decide to start in on a project that I had no interest in earlier in the day, or when I decide "I need to make cookies!" (though I haven't given in to that one ... yet).

Last night at about a quarter to 10, I decided it was time to clean the bathroom. So I went at it, and cleaned our little master bath (not the tub, though).

I felt pretty proud of myself. But I still had a little left in me, so then I tackled the room at the end of the hallway. Up till this week it has been the guest room, which has actually functioned as the room where all things that don't have a home find a temporary home. It was also where we'd been keeping the office materials for BWAB, which were just dropped off in TX last month. We'd been working on much of it bit by bit for a few days, but there was still quite a bit of sorting, weeding out, and redistributing the junk to be done.

All of this cleaning was really in preparation for the crib and dresser/changing table that a couple was scheduled to deliver this morning. It had to be acceptable for them to come in and use the restroom if necessary, plus there needed to be room for the new furniture to go, and ideally be set up. This explains my compulsion to get it done "right now."

I proceeded to clear all but my "craft stuff" which is a conglomeration of my sewing machine, yarn, fabric that has yet to become curtains, leftover wedding decorations, and a few bags of odds and ends. And they are contained in one small area on and under a desk that will be moved into the office after the larger desk that I don't use gets picked up or sold or burned or whatever needs to happen to it.

While I was at it, the closet in the guest room/nursery has been straightened up: old clothes that we haven't worn in over a year have been bagged up for donating or thrown into the backs of our own closet, and my missing 4 sets of good china have been rediscovered!

This morning the crib and dresser/changer were dropped off, but due to a misunderstanding, we are not sure we will keep them. We believed we got both for one price, but they believed they were clear in saying that they were selling them for that price each. So we're willing to split the difference, but we have yet to find out whether they will accept our barter. We might have to start over again in the baby furniture department.

Regardless of what happens, we do have a nice, clean guest room/nursery now. And you are more than welcome to use the bathroom.

Timewasters

I am very proud of myself because I figured out how to put that picture of the pink lily up at the top of the blog, then changed the colors just enough to make it sort of match.

Yesterday I felt pretty much like crap, so I spent the whole day on the couch with the laptop and a box of Kleenex, searching Craigslist for furniture and researching brands and models for all kinds of baby junk. I have read more reviews for cribs than I thought I would ever have the patience for - and I think I've determined that it's probably better to get something cheaper than more expensive, because chewmarks and scratches and normal wear and tear are unavoidable. Besides, we don't have a lot of expendable income at the moment.

I also spent more hours on facebook than is probably healthy. Oh, well. :-)

Yeah, that's all I was gonna say for now. I might be back later - probably later this week.

It's a...

This morning was the "big" ultrasound appointment, where they do the anatomy scan, making sure everything's measuring correctly for the gestational age, and they can usually determine the gender.

For nearly the past four years, Sam has always wanted a boy first. He likes the idea of an older brother to watch out for the younger ones as they come along. He put in his order to heaven for a boy when we were about ready to start the baby stage in our lives.

I have been feeling like this is a girl; while I was in Texas this summer at camp, during worship I felt like I suddenly had a name for a baby girl. It was after I came back that we decided we might start planning to have a baby. So when I came up pregnant this fall, I have had a feeling I've got a girl.

Well... the results are in: it's a girl!

Home Again, II

Sam is in the back yard with my dad, who is having fun playing with his chainsaw, cutting down crooked trees into firewood. And they just downed a pretty substantial pine tree; that was impressive. The yard has been so full of trees that the grass back there has had no real no chance to grow, so this will hopefully allow us to have more of a back yard and less of a wooded dirty area. We have plans of trying to make up a landscaping plan for back there, but we haven't really made any progress in that regard yet. Last year we focused on the inside of the house; this year maybe we'll get somewhere on the outside. Of course with a baby coming.... We'll see.

So, while we were gone....

My dog stayed with my parents for the 13 days (wow!) that we were out of town; a family from the church, who also live in our neighborhood, came by and played with the cats and made sure they had what they needed. All the animals were thrilled beyond their capacity when we came home. The cats barely allowed us to sleep the first night we were home; they spent hours purring and kneading and kissing us while we tried to get to sleep.

We took off the day after Christmas and went to Hattiesburg, MS, - a 7-hour drive - where we stayed the night with a family we knew from Texas. We don't get to see them very often, so any time with them is always fun. Their girls are skilled in basketball, and they hope - quite reasonably - to be given scholarships for college. Maybe we'll see them make names for themselves in a few years.

After that, it was on to Houston - 7 more hours - to visit Sam's parents and brother. We had a good time, and stayed there from Saturday night through Thursday morning, which is about the limit that either of us can graciously visit with his family. They love us, and they care deeply for us, and they are some of the kindest people I know. But they do tend to kill us with that kindness.

We ate very well while we were with them (more kindness), yet while we ate, Sam was constantly reminded not to eat too much, because he is "too fat!" and has a "moon-face". Sigh... he can't win. But they do keep us laughing.

Sam kept busy for a day painting some of the trim at their house and fixing odds and ends that they don't know how to take care of themselves. We were also commissioned to take as much of Sam's stuff out of his old room as possible, since Sam's brother needs more room. He's engaged, and his fiance' is due to come over from Taiwan this summer and they'll be married once all her paperwork goes through; odds are they will start out living with Sam's parents. Hopefully they won't stay there long and will be able to get a place of their own quickly.

We made it to San Antonio (a 3 hour drive), the home of the Alamo, the Riverwalk (there we are on the Riverwalk, the night before they drained the river for its annual cleaning to remove the chairs, debris, and lost tourists), and the best Mexican food in the world. Even better than the food in Mexico.

The best part of being in San Antonio was being involved with the Next conference, which was so much fun, and so rich in fellowship, depth of relationships (both relationships we have with others, and the relationships that you know are there between other people involved there), and the Word. We believe we needed to be there because it is important to stay connected with so many of the people who also attend, who have been involved in our lives, and who are a tangible part of the Body of Christ from all over the country - some from all parts of the world.

Sunday afternoon we spent a few hours visiting with Beth and Thomas, who live in San Antonio, catching up and soaking in the encouragement that they are to us. Then we headed back out to Houston for one last night with Sam's parents, packed as much stuff from his old room into the car as we could cram in (believe me, it was an engineering feat), then headed to Mobile, AL, (about 8 hours in the car) after a noon breakfast at Denny's.

In Mobile, we stayed with probably the most brilliant couple that we know, both lawyers, with teenage kids who are just as bright as their parents, just younger. They used to be youth leaders for about a year when I was in youth group, and are strong and bold believers. Again, it was an encouragement to be able to spend time with them, too.

That is the outline of the trip; we put a little over 2000 miles on Sam's car, dropped off the office furniture and files for Boy With a Ball in San Antonio, brought back nearly as much as we took to Texas, ate very well, got food poisoning and got over it, and reconnected with some really wonderful friends. There are more things that can be said, but for now this is plenty long; and I need to find some lunch.

Home again, home again, jiggety-jig!

We've just gotten back from Texas - and all the states in between - and for the last 2 days have spent our time playing Super Mario 1 and Wii Fit (thanks to Sam's brother!).

And doing laundry. And fighting through what was either food poisoning from a McD's in southern AL, or a stomach bug.

But we're back, the animals are happy, and I will post more later. :)