No Regret Thursday

There are honestly days when the little regrets could just trip me up. You too? As I thought about what I would write today on No Regret Thursday, it seemed that the list of things I truly wanted to write about were all regrets. I have had to ask God to take my negative thoughts captive and replace them with truth and thoughts of blessings. The regrets might be factual, but that does not mean they need to run wild through my mind causing me to miss ALL that God has done in my life and the opportunities he has provided. So for today:

I DO NOT REGRET

1. Not having blogged since last Thursday's Do Not Regret post

2. Having a difficult conversation with someone I love

3. Taking a nap on Sunday

4. The time I spend with my husband

5. Being over 40

6. Observing the Sabbath

7. Any time I spend with the Lord

8. Being passionate about worship and expressing myself during it

9. Having a good cup of coffee and drinking it before bed

10. Unlimited text messages

2 Corinthians 7:10 Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death.

So what do you Not Regret?

Grace to you,

Kim

No Regret Thursday

How ironic that after I posted "No Regret Thursday" I regretted posting it and almost deleted it the next morning. Even before I went to bed that night, I had second thoughts. After all, I was convinced I was the only one with such thoughts of regrets. Thankfully, God saw my doubts and allowed some people to affirm that I am not the only one and that it does somehow matter. So today I shall continue with my list of things I don't regret. Please feel free to post a comment with the things you don't regret.

I DO NOT REGRET

1. Not having a Facebook account

2. Cutting coupons and the time it takes

3. Choosing to do "Called to Belong: A Worship Event" for a second time

4. Saying 'no' to the things of this world to follow after Jesus

5. Selling our last house while waiting for God's direction

6. Having a women's bible study

7. Packing my husband's lunches

8. Driving cars that are paid for instead of ones with large payments

9. Cooking meals for my family

10. Writing the last blog about not having regrets!

2 Corinthians 7:10 Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death.

Grace to you,

Kim.

Called To Belong, Dr, Seuss and a Memory Verse

With "Called to Belong" only a week away, life has been even more hectic than usual. Monday night was our next to last practice and we had a time of the choir members sharing testimony of God's faithfulness in their lives. It never ceases to amaze me how God can take such a mixed-matched group of people and all their brokenness and trials and make such a beautiful portrait. If we never had the worship event, Monday night was worth the time we have taken in preparation. Just to hear the heart of God's people and their gratefulness to such an amazing and Almighty God is blessing enough. He truly is more than enough for all that we will ever need or go through.

Tonight I was meeting with the other couple we are leading the event with at the theater where it will be held. We were meeting to go over the technical stuff and other miscellaneous details. I am all about details - however, I am also like a little kid at times and not paying attention when I should be. As we were going from area to area to determine what was needed and how it would go, we were walking onto the stage where they had just torn down the props from the Seussical and were preparing for the Big Daddy Weave and Selah concert this weekend. I saw the large black pipe hanging down that the curtains were being hung on. And then I saw the props from Seussical - I love Dr. Seuss. There were drawings from the different books and props that included what looked like cotton candy and sodas with straws and the elephant from the Dr. Seuss book and . . . SMACK! another black bar. Then there were stars and not the kind you get autographs from. Yep, walked right into the bar that was at the same level as my head. Hit it square on and they heard the smack in the sound booth. (good to know how well the sound carries I guess) I am proud to say I did not cry, but I did call my friend the nurse after I left to find out what symptoms to watch for in case I had a concussion. Not a wimp, but I don't ever remember hitting my head that hard before. I firmly claim there was a goose-egg on the top of my head. My husband said it was more like a robin-egg. No matter the size - my head and neck and pride are quite sore at the moment.

In the midst of Called to Belong practices, bible studies, theater meetings, church, and life - I need to get my memory verse posted that I am currently working on. Sometimes I love to look for a verse that I feel fits right where I am and what I need. Tonight, however, as I opened my bible this one just stood out and it is sticking out to me like I truly need to know it right now.

You are my portion, O LORD; I have promised to obey your words. Psalm 119:57 NIV

Seems to me to sum up a whole lot in those few words.

No Regret Thursday

I don't know about you, but way too often I find myself running through a mental laundry list of regrets. If the list is long enough, I will feel like I went through the washer and ringer or worse yet like I had a good emotional scrubbing on an old-fashioned washboard. I know I am not alone in this. But here is the deal, what I regret is in the past and can't be changed. It is over and done with. Don't get me wrong, there might be some things I need to make right. I might need to make some apologies or confess some sins. But overall, I cannot change the past. I cannot change what I did or did not do. I can, however, choose to not live in that place and instead move forward in life doing things I won't regret - choosing to do things that I will be thankful for and rejoice in.

How many of you remember the children's song "Here We Go 'Round the Mulberry Bush"? Well, each day of the week was given to a particular task and Thursday was to "mend our clothes". Today is Thursday. Not holding onto regrets and constantly looking back is a great way to "mend our souls".

Instead of listing all the things I regret, I'm going to list the things I DON'T regret. Feel free to comment with your No Regrets list. Each Thursday I am going to post this list. So start keeping track throughout your week of what you do not regret. It's a great way to keep our focus on God and the blessings and to remind ourselves to live intentionally.

I DO NOT REGRET

1. Marrying my high school sweetheart

1b. And staying married for nearly 25 years

2. Having our daughter

3. Having our son

4. My daughter's wedding

5. Being a grandma

6. Not being perfect

7. Not eating the donut last night that looked oh-so-good

8. Not cleaning my house last weekend so that I could spend time with my family

9. Taking a different job with less pay so that I could have more time at home and less stress

10. Eating the Starbucks ice cream straight out of the container and never looking at the calories

2 Corinthians 7:10 Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death.

Grace to you,

Kim

Dreaming of Coupons

Okay - everyone who knows me, knows I have a thing with coupons and saving money. In addition, if you are near me long enough I will tell you about them. I try really, REALLY hard not to, but I can't seem to help it. It is just beyond my imagination that you can get free groceries and save that much money. I have tried to not blog about it any more than I have already. But last night just beats all.

Around 10:20 p.m. I realize that my husband's men's prayer/bible study group is not going to be over probably any time soon and so I head to bed. Get ready for bed, flip on the TV to Everybody Loves Raymond, tilt my fairly new bifocals down on my nose enough so that I can see the TV and here come the commercials. The truth is that I don't really watch the show. I think I will, but after about 3 minutes in bed, I reach up and take my glasses off and roll over to go to sleep. So the thought of the commercials filling my last few minutes of awake time was a little irritating. But I was going to hold out.

And then I saw it. Up on the left hand corner of the screen of our tiny TV was a blue button just like the one that normally displays when you are to do something between the satellite and the TV. I could make out from where I was that it said "select". So I pushed "select" and lo and behold (drum roll please) coupons to be gotten from the TV screen! Yep, you read that right. You push 'select' it takes you to another channel where you can then navigate your way through to get a coupon for the item that was just being advertised. Sadly, I got all the way through only to not have the channel on our main satellite receiver so I could not receive the coupon. It was for some Kellogg's product and they were going to send me the coupon. No strings attached.

Seriously that is brilliant advertising! Almost makes me want to watch TV.

Out of Egypt

A couple years ago my daughter introduced me to the song "Painting Pictures of Egypt" by Sara Groves. I was going through a difficult and emotional time and she thought that it might describe just how I felt. She was right. Although I knew beyond any shadow of a doubt that I was being obedient to all that God had asked, and wanted nothing less than that, my heart ached for the familiar and the comfortable. I like being content.

It is easy to be out of a setting or situation and look back and only see the good or the bad and never the true mixture of both. I don't know anyone who is still drawing breath that doesn't have both good and bad of some sort in their life. They may not choose to acknowledge the good or the bad, but they are there at different times and in different forms.

After the Israelites were rescued from captivity and bondage and slavery and taken out of Egypt, they frequently looked back during difficult or uncertain times and asked that they be allowed to return to Egypt. Somehow looking back made the slavery seem almost desirable, because they had forgotten how horrible it was and only remembered whatever good there might have been in it. While the season I longed to go back to certainly was not bad, I will never know what might have happened had I chosen to stay in the familiar and not be obedient to God. As my daughter also will say "they were romanticizing the past". As odd as that might seem to us now looking back several thousand years, I don't think we are really that far removed from the possibility of falling back into our slavery and bondages of sin or strongholds if we don't continue to keep our eyes on the Lord and in His Word. Our knees to the earth also help to keep our feet from walking down a dirt path in the wrong direction.

I'm not really sure what the actual moment was or even now how I knew, but in the past few days I have finally realized that I am no longer desiring the things of the past that I gave up three years ago. While they were good and I am oh-so grateful for every opportunity and lesson that God afforded me during that season of my life, I am even more thankful for the opportunities that lie ahead.

Scripture Memory

A better title for this blog might be "called out". At the beginning of the year I started posting the scriptures I was memorizing and asked others to join me. After a relatively short time my posts for updating were often a day or three later than they should have been. So instead of being disciplined and/or just confessing my weaknesses in posting - I quit posting about scripture memory. I might also add that satan was more than happy to put thoughts in my head of "who cares what verse you are memorizing anyway" or similar thoughts. Maybe no one in blog world cared what verse I was memorizing, but God did and so did the enemy. The memory would draw me closer to the Lord and honor Him. The scripture memory would also increase my weapons of warfare and ammunition against the enemy.

Although I continued on, I have to confess it was not with the same commitment as if I had been posting them. So here I am several months late and 5 days late for this month alone. But this is the verse God has laid on my heart for this time around and oh how desperately I have needed it!

So do not throw away your confidence;

it will be richly rewarded. You need to persevere so that when

you have done the will of God, you will receive what

he has promised. Hebrews 10:35-36 NIV

A little ironic huh?

Feel free to post a comment with the verse you are currently memorizing. I will update scripture memory again on August 15th. I only say that for my own accountability. (thank you Beth)