Settling

I ran across this verse this morning: Psalm 107:7

He led them by a straight way to a city where they could settle.

It was sort of the verse that carried me when my family was moving from MI to GA when I was 16, that encouraged me to know that the Lord had a purpose in the move. I thank God that He brought us to Atlanta, every time I think of it.

But when I read it this morning, I began to wonder whether I am settling, rather than venturing. I feel "settled" right now, and it is a good feeling, to not be striving, to not be struggling to just have a basic sense of sanity.

Several years ago, I was going through probably my greatest and deepest spiritual growth spurt, and I remember making a statement that I did not want to settle spiritually, rather be a spiritual sort of pioneer, always looking ahead to the next adventure, always cutting away to the place where no one else has gone or seen or tamed.

I feel like I have two of those little cartoon shoulder voices, one a little angel and one a little devil. One says, "Oh, but it is really hard to move out from what you know, and you're not doing too badly. You don't need to do anything more than you are now. You can have an adventure later. When you're actually bored. You can just enjoy this peaceful, comfortable feeling for now."

But the other says, "You know that's not what you want. You really know that the only way you can be truly content is to keep pressing on and pressing in to what the Holy Spirit is prompting in you. You don't have to know how or where to start, just seek His face, and you'll venture beyond where you are by being transformed."

So my heart has to choose, will I relax and grow more and more discontented as the days go by? Or will I press 'onward and upward'?

I love a digital camera

... it makes me look like a good photographer!

Oddity

In case you needed one?

Closet: Before and After

With a great feeling of accomplishment...

When we moved in to our house in April '07, our house had been occupied by chain smokers, for several years, so every inch of the house smelled of stale cigarette smoke.

We painted every wall and put new floors on every inch that was not able to be cleaned with bleach.

Then when we got the carpet down (in November) we decided we were going to take it easy, since that was the last of the major things necessary to make our home comfortable and attractive.

The thing we put off doing was painting and re-doing the master closets. Yes, thank the Lord, we have 2 closets in the master, and both are walk-in! It was a lovely perk. We even went to Home Depot and spent a good hour in the home organization aisle trying to figure out exactly what we needed to buy. And then the shelving pieces stood in the garage for months.

This is what Sam's closet looks like currently, and also what mine looked like. Just a board across the top, and a bar along one side. We ended up using the board as hanging space, too, but hangers don't slide so well.

Over Memorial Day weekend I pulled all of my clothes out of my closet, and put "what I'd need for about 5 days" into Sam's. (What I needed for a few days turned out not to be enough, so I kept pulling out clothes from the other areas where I had stashed them, and adding to my minimal collection in Sam's closet.)

Last weekend we bit the bullet and started the project for real. We took out the fixtures, wiped down the walls, patched the holes, dings and dents, primed the whole thing (and the ceiling, which was almost brown), and painted.

While we were at it, we also painted the master bathroom. It had been plain primer white ever since we moved in. I had peeled the butterfly wallpaper border off, which was disguising a terrible patch job, and then it remained untouched for a year.


Finally last night, Sam and I put the shelving all up, and were incredibly pleased with the result!



When we put a few items on the racks, we laughed about how model homes and closet manufacturers and fancy-pants catalogues show closets with only about 7 items in them to show how amazingly spacious the closet is. Funny, I tend to need more than 7 items to wear from one week to another, because I don't do laundry that often!

Here is what my closet looks like now, and I love it! Sam did such a great job putting it up and figuring it out. I have yet to put everything back, but it is also a good opportunity to give some unnecessary clothes away.


Maybe next week, we'll clean up Sam's closet!

Be Ready

I read this morning in my copy of 'The Daily Light' devotional these two verses, and they struck me in a way that I had never really thought of them before. I wanted to share it somewhere.

Luke 21:34 - Take heed to yourselves lest your hearts be weighed down with carousing, drunkenness, and cares of this life, and that Day come on you unexpectedly.

What I noticed there is that "the cares of this life" is in there among carousing and drunkenness. All are distractions from where our focus must be - on the mission the Lord gave us, (the great commission), and serving Him. The rest of this passage goes on to say, "pray always that you may be counted worth to escape all these things that will come to pass, and to stand before the Son of Man." In other words, to not be ashamed of our lack of attention to what Jesus is doing and when He is coming.

Then another verse in this devotional is in 1 Thess 5, somewhere between v. 2 and 5 - "The day of the Lord so comes as a thief in the night. For when they say, 'Peace and safety!' then sudden destruction comes upon them, as labor pains upon a pregnant woman."

If we are not prepared for the "day or the hour in which the Son of Man is coming" it would be like a pregnant woman going on with her normal life, as though she were not pregnant. Just caring about herself, just carrying on with 'business as usual' without making any preparation for a baby to come.

In the same way, while a pregnant woman does not know the time that she will go into labor, she can't say she didn't know that the labor pains would come. She can get a pretty good idea that there is a due time for them to start, though the exact time is not predictable. The point is, the labor pains are inevitable. But they herald a great event coming!

The thing that I found the Holy Spirit saying to me as I read this was to remember that the end of all things is certain, and is sure, and it will come. But it is a good thing, in the end, ushering in the fulness of the Kingdom of God, on earth as it is in heaven!

May I live caring more for the things of eternity than for the things "of this life" and may the things that I do in this life be holy unto the Lord.

1 Thess 5:6 "But you are not in darkness, so that this day should overtake you as a thief. You are all sons of light and sons of the day. We are not of the night nor of darkness. Therefore let us not sleep, as others do, but let us watch and be sober."

Okay, this is cool

I may be getting the hang of this. Now, to actually write something.... But first, on to Kroger!

Cindy