Committing to Him

Today is January 1st. The day when many people will start their New Year's resolutions. Unless I am mistaken, it often seems that most people tend to make the same resolutions from year-to-year. Somehow in the middle of the year (or sooner), failing has become acceptable because January 1st will come around again and we get to start over.

I'm not one to make resolutions. This year I just want to finish something. Instead of starting a new bible study workbook, I'm going to work toward finishing one of the three I have started in previous years. Instead of starting over in Genesis in an effort to read through the Bible this year, I'm going to keep going right from where I left off last year and pray that I circle all the way through over the next 12 months. I truly just want to move forward and draw closer to God.

Paul tells us to keep on in the race. To press on and persevere. Don't quit. Although God's mercies are new and sufficient every single day, I don't think God wants us to keep going back to the starting block when we fall or get off track or get tired and just stop. Get up! If you can't get up, call out to God for help.

Just like people who make resolutions to eat healthier, exercise, etc., I need discipline in my life. Spiritual discipline. I become spiritual mush when fasting, prayer, bible study, memorization, worship, solitude and other disciplines are not a regular part of my life. Anxiety sits at the edge of my life waiting to take over when I am not grounded in the Word of God. I know this and I know that I can't rely on my own good intentions and actions to get me through.

In the last month God has also allowed a series of things to happen in our lives that have made me give up control (like I actually had it anyway!) and to rely on Him. In December I had great intentions of taking this blog in a new direction, but I confess I hadn't really prayed about it or sought God on His plan for it.

Then my husband became extremely busy at work and was working very long hours. The long and stressful hours started and his back went out. Our morning devotion/prayer time together was the first thing to go. There just wasn't time if he was going to get through the day. He wasn't sleeping, he was in pain and rest seemed more important than getting up early and spending 20 minutes in prayer together.

My husband's back gradually got better and within less than 24 hours a previous shoulder problem that I have suffered in the past came back. Preparing for Christmas and just sleeping through the night seemed to be huge mountains to overcome. Our morning prayer time still hadn't returned.

One trial after another then surfaced in our lives only days before Christmas. Trials which made me realize that perhaps this year our Christmas gifts would be under the tree in the store bags and that Christmas cookies would not be found in this house. I had to let go and refocus on what mattered and what was important. And I am thankful for God's timing in it all.

All this to say, that New Year's resolutions will come and go. Lord willing, our lives will be filled with joys and trials, with difficulties and blessings over the next twelve months. There will be days when I will wonder why I can't hear God speaking and days when I am overcome with the sheer joy of His presence in my life. Days of suffering and days of abundant blessing.

My desire is simply that each day of this year is one in which I draw closer to God. I want to seek Him more, spend more time together with Him, enjoy the practice of spiritual disciplines and seek to please Him. When my life is grounded in God and His Word, my life will change without a single resolution being made.

Commit to the LORD whatever you do and your plans will succeed. Proverbs 16:3

May your year be filled with the presence of the Lord in every single day!

Grace to you,

Kim

Feeling Overwhelmed? - Part 2

Sometimes life can leave you feeling overwhelmed. In my own life there are currently three areas that I know I need to work on in order not to feel this way. I am being very intentional about simplifying and de-cluttering in my own home and daily schedule. While there are some things I cannot control, there are some areas that I can certainly make drastic improvements in.

Last year when I started doing the extreme couponing, which I prefer to call being frugal and getting great deals, our cupboards quickly began filling up. Lack of food is certainly not a problem at our house and giving it away helps me to be generous to those in need.

While this is certainly a blessing and not a problem, there are two areas in need of my attention: 1) Coming up with healthy, cost-effective, time-efficient recipes that incorporate what I have purchased and 2) shopping on the reduced budget while adding more healthy foods to our diet.

We have cut our food, toiletries, medicines, paper products budget in half which is fantastic. But I learned last week just how important it is to pay attention to your health and what you put in your body.

When I first wrote about being overwhelmed and becoming a frumpy-lumpy toad, I was gaining over one pound per day. It wasn't from Thanksgiving gluttony, because I tried to watch how much I ate. It wasn't from anything hormonal that I knew of. But by Thursday night, I was becoming really concerned.

Earlier that week I had a serious sinus headache that I couldn't seem to get rid of and so I kept taking over-the-counter medication for it. The medicine wasn't doing a thing for me. Then it hit me, my husband had read that one of the possible side-effects of the medicine was unexplainable weight gain! I stopped taking it and within two days all the added pounds were gone and so was my headache.

All of this to say that it made me very aware that I need to be intentional about what I am putting in my body, what kind of exercise I am getting and thinking about how I want to live out my days on this earth. What I do or don't do today to take care of myself will have an impact in the years to come.

God calls us to be good stewards of our resources and our bodies and it is my desire to honor Him with both. How we feel physically and how we take of ourselves can have a huge impact on whether on not we feel overwhelmed in life

What Happened to Christmas

Feeling Overwhelmed - Part 2 is going to have to wait until tomorrow. And since I didn't include Christmas on the list of things that overwhelm me, this will just have to be a stand alone post.

For several weeks I have been mulling over and discussing with my immediate family the desire and need to do things differently for Christmas. Somewhere over time and generations of traditions passed down, Jesus didn't seem to be invited on Christmas day.

I followed along with what I knew and then by the time I realized it really needed to change, I felt too guilty and too intimidated to make the bold announcement that we were no longer going to follow the handed down traditions of way too many gifts and no Jesus.

As I type this, I keep thinking that I am probably the only one going through this. But that's a lie from satan. I can be sure somebody else is right there with me even if might look a bit different.

Tonight was the final moment for me as I talked to someone about Christmas and shopping, etc. and half-way through I started thinking "I cannot believe I am having this conversation". There wasn't a chance that there was any room for Jesus by the time all the details of gifts and errands and money was discussed. I think I may have tuned the person out with my own thoughts, so I hope they didn't say anything I will need to remember later.

The secular world has made Christmas into a 'Happy Holiday' and a consumer extravaganza. The "Happy Holiday" has become all about us.

I want to give something to Jesus for Christmas this year. What would please Him? Something beyond a gift to the poor, something beyond extra food to the food bank. How does Christmas truly get turned back around to be about Jesus when the flying wrapping paper on Christmas morning would be enough to lose a baby in?

As I continue to think about what it might look like to take a stand against all the commercialism in heightened form, I can't help but think about the kings in the Old Testament who knew that to stand up for what was right would cost them something materially, but the eternal gain would be so much greater.

Sometimes we just need to do things differently and recapture the true meaning of Christmas in our homes and in our lives.

Feeling Overwhelmed?

In the last few weeks, I have found myself feeling increasingly overwhelmed. You would think that I would then rattle off a long list of all the responsibilities and activities going on in my life or health or financial concerns. But that's not the case. My feelings of overwhelmedness (my own word) stem from three areas in my life that I can clearly name:

1. Too much stuff in my life and an increasing need and desire to simplify like never before.

2. A sedentary life in my mid-40's which is making me feel like I am going to turn into a frumpy looking toad if I don't do something.

3. A plateau in my spiritual life that needs to be recharged.

In the last three years we have moved twice and hauled off bags of stuff to charities and to the trash. Our kids have moved out taking most of their stuff with them. So you would think we would have less stuff. Not so. I think it multiplies like the dust under the couch.

As I walk into my closet, the clothes are spilling off the shelf and the shoes are falling off the shoe rack. Yet every single morning I find myself wondering "what will I wear to work?" Well, let's see - there are the pairs of jeans that are not going to ever fit again and by the time they do they will be so out of style they could pass for something vintage. There are the shoes on the floor that were probably in style in the 90's or are so worn out they are not worthy of being worn any longer. Not too mention the umpteen other pieces that I'm never going to wear again. Stuff!

I am a pile-prone woman by nature. So if left to myself, I will die in the middle of random piles of stuff in my house. I don't like it. I like a clean, well-kept house. But when you have too much stuff - you get piles. And as the piles continue to steal the space in my house, it also steals my contentment and I feel overwhelmed.

So I am currently a woman on a mission. A mission to get rid of stuff and to do it with intentionality. As I cleaned house tonight, I made sure to take the extra 10 minutes or so and actually go through two piles of stuff in our bedroom and either throw it out or find a new place for it. I opened a drawer to put some cds away only to discover a brand-new 2009 calendar. The calendar and most everything else in the stack went into the trash.

My goal over the next 30 days (yes, right in the middle of the Christmas season) is to go through every drawer and cupboard in my house and get rid of anything that needs to go. If it isn't being used, isn't necessary or will never be used - it needs to go somewhere else.

You know those bottles of lotion under the bathroom sink - the ones that have just enough in them to keep, but not enough to really make you use it? Yep - I have a little collection right there beside the face cream. So I am going to start using it up before I open a new bottle. I may smell like a mixed-fruit basket by Christmas, but at least there will be less clutter.

Tonight I lit all the candles in the house. No - they do not all have different strong scents. Some are just pretty. I like candles. I like the smells. I like the way they make my home feel, especially in the winter. Sadly, I have spent most winters not using them like I want to. Instead, I put them out, pack them up for a season, get them back out and move them around the other candles in the boxes that I never burn either. Life is too short not to burn the candles. If I burn them, there is less stuff to store and more enjoyment in the use.

Life is full of stuff. It can either overwhelm us or give us pleasure. My desire is to truly simplify in every area of my life. By simplifying I will be able to focus more on my family, other people and my own relationship with God and the ministry that he has called me to.

Tomorrow I will write about #2 and the sedentary life of a wife in mid-life and the changes that need to be made to honor God in all that I do.

I Stand Amazed

Tuesday's are my favorite. For three years, every Tuesday night I was involved in a women's bible study at a camp. Every other Tuesday night a group of men were meeting at our house for prayer and bible study. Very seldom was I home when all the men converged on our basement.

Then God took a different turn with the women's bible study and so now I am home every other Tuesday night while the men meet here. I have been blessed over and over and over again in so many ways by what I experience on those Tuesday nights.

Tonight was no different. The front porch light was off and most of the men enter through the garage. As I sat in the office, I heard footsteps on the porch and a knock at the door. Since the 'regulars' know to walk in the garage and find their way around, I figured this might be someone new.

I went out to the living room, opened the front door and I don't know who was more shocked me or them. They were expecting to come to a men's bible study and here was some woman answering the door and not a man to be seen. (They were in the basement - remember?) My shock was that these two young men, with bibles in hand, couldn't have been more than 25 and I am guessing younger.

Honestly, I hate to admit this, but I thought they were lost. They were the youngest men I have seen come to bible study at our house. As a good hostess, I offered them coffee and they just kind of looked at me funny. I'm not used to that reaction to an offer for coffee, but once I got over myself I showed them to the basement.

Then I think I hummed right out loud the song "I Stand Amazed". It might not have sounded like that to an untrained ear, but Jesus knew. He knows what tune I'm humming even if it really sounds like a poor dog yelping. It's the heart that counts and my heart was beltin' out a tune of joy and praise.

Because I truly do stand amazed at how God works. I pray that those two young men bring their friends and that they shed new light into the lives of those men who aren't, well, in their 20's anymore. And I pray that those more mature fellas feed into those young men and encourage them in their walk with the Lord.

There is much to be gained when more than one generation of godly men gather together to seek after the LORD. Much to be gained when they bow before God in prayer.

As an interesting side note. Charles H. Gabriel, 1856 - 1932, wrote the original version of this song. In his biography, it says that "Settlers in that area (Iowa) often gathered in the Gabriel home for singing sessions and fellowship." My husband and I might not ever write songs, but we believe in gathering often in our home for fellowship. And we invite people who can sing. It's good for some things to stay the same.

Consider the Homeless

All day today it seemed that my thoughts and prayers kept returning to those who are homeless. I'm not exactly sure why, but I know that God kept laying it on my heart to pray for them today. And so I did. I have friends who have been homeless. They are without question some of my favorite people in my life. Their lives are rich in many ways that someone who has never been homeless would never know. I am blessed to call them my friend.

On my way to and from work every day I drive past two houses not far from us that sit empty. One I am not really sure why it is vacant and the other one most likely a foreclosure based on the way it was left. These houses have also been sitting empty for quite awhile now with no "for sale" signs in the front yard. I don't know what happened in either case. But then I started wondering, what a difference it might make if all those houses that have been sitting empty for so long could be used to house all the people who have been homeless in the last year. Just wondering.

This Bloomberg report stated the following:

"About 18.9 million homes in the U.S. stood empty during the second quarter as surging foreclosures helped push ownership to the lowest level in a decade."

Fox news reported this:

"Overall, 1.56 million people spent at least one night in emergency shelters or transitional housing, the report said. One-third of those individuals were part of a homeless family.

Volunteers counted 643,000 homeless people, sheltered and on the streets, during one given night in January 2009, the report said."

It seems to me there a lot more vacant homes than there are homeless people. I know there are many more factors to consider, but sometimes I get tired of rationalizing away hope. Sometimes it's just good to consider the homeless and consider how we might make things different.

The $5 Giving Challenge

For the last several weeks I keep hearing "be generous", "be generous", "be generous". God just seems to be telling me the same thing over and over and over. The Scriptures are full of commands and instructions on being generous. Somehow I have felt as though God has a very specific purpose in pushing me to be generous beyond our regular tithes and offerings. As I have continued to seek God's instruction as to what He desires, there is something that has come to mind that I am really excited about.

After many months of couponing, sales, stockpiling and playing the drug-store game, my cupboards are overflowing. There are bags of items waiting to go to the homeless shelter this week. There are items bagged and ready to give to a Christian pregnancy program for new moms. We regularly give out of our cupboards to others as well.

So this week I am going to start something new: "The $5.00 Challenge". The goal is to take $5.00 and with the drug-store sales, Kroger deals and coupons get as much food or other items as I can to donate to food banks, homeless shelters or others. In other words, the challenge is to see how much I can get for my $5.00 by spending wisely and taking advantage of sales and coupons.

So far I have purchased: (2) full size Secret deodorants; (1) Oil of Olay Quench Body Wash 23.6 oz; (1) Oil of Olay Ultra Moisture Lotion 11.8 oz; (4) cans of Campbell's Select Harvest Healthy Request Soup - 18.6 oz each; and (1) can of sliced peaches. Total spent: $3.07

Krogers is having some amazing sales this week so I will most likely grab more groceries that are on sale. I can get another 4 boxes of name brand cereal for $1.96 total which would finish out the $5.00. For the $5.00 invested, I was able to purchase $29.49 worth of name brand products.

"Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. Each many should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver." 2 Corinthians 9:6-7

Just doing what I love so that others might benefit and giving all the glory to God.

Blessings to you

Kim