Just a Quick Word (With Cats!)

            Wow! I don't know where the last week went! I wanted to do another picture post sometime this week, but the week seems to have almost escaped from me.  I would also like to tell my fellow bloggers that I'm sorry for getting behind.  I truly do enjoy reading your posts, but this month has just been more hectic that I thought it would be, and I hope to catch up with you guys soon. 

            Just for fun, I thought I would introduce everyone to my cats.  They have made some appearances in post pictures before, and I thought they deserved a proper introduction!

 

Here they are:

 

 

They're pretty lazy

 

 

 

This is Kitty:

 

 

We wanted to come up with a great name for her when she was a kitten, so we waited for her personality to develop.  But the next thing you know, we just couldn't come up with anything more fitting than Kitty or just The Cat since she was our only indoor cat for a while.

 

 

This is Sawyer:

 

 

He's my lap baby and a great comforter after a long day at work.  He also likes to sleep in a lot of strange positions, so he ends up in more pictures than the other two.

 

 

This is Sophie:

 



 

She is the bratty, "little sister" of this clowder.  She sometimes ninja-strikes all, whether cat, dog, or human, who cross her path.

 

 

            That's all for now, I hope you have enjoyed meeting my cats.  Do you have cats?  Are you a cat person or dog person?  Or neither?

 



When You Leave the Mountaintop

            The youth from my church have been at church camp this week, and since the camp is in our town, I went to the evening services on Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday.  There has been some good preaching and a lot of decisions of salvation and rededication have been made.  I have helped as a camp counselor a couple times in the past and it is amazing to see God working on those kids throughout the week.  Although I haven’t been highly involved this year, I know that God is still working in their lives.  The catch is that they eventually have to go back home.  A very common problem that we have all probably faced at one point or another is having those mountaintop experiences, and then returning home and forgetting what happened or just falling back into the same habits from before.  Sometimes, it’s an emotional high, and the decisions made are not truly genuine.  Sometimes, a real commitment is made, but no effort to follow-up.  Either way, these kids need our prayers.  Ever since I was their age, I have watched teen after teen get saved or dedicate their lives to the ministry and they appear to be on fire for God.  Some of them do go on to serve God in missions or ministry, but more often than not it seems that many eventually fall away from the church.  This deeply saddens and troubles me.  When I see someone on fire for God, I want them to stay that way, especially since I have been working with these kids on Wednesday nights for the past eight years.  Watching them spiral downhill is hard because I committed some of my time to help them and I want to see them succeed in God’s kingdom.  I know there comes a time in everyone’s life when they must make their own decisions, but I hate it when those decisions lead down the wrong paths.  Sometimes, they will return to the church after a while, but there may be some scars they will have to live with for the rest of their lives.  Sorry, if this sounds a bit discouraging, but I have watched this happen so many times.  The youth from my church are going home today, so keep them in your prayers.  Not just them, but all the kids, counselors, pastors, ministry leaders, missionaries, or any other adult that makes a decision to follow Christ.  Pray that their decisions are genuine and that they commit to following through on the choices they made.  Because the struggle is real and Christians do need to commit themselves daily to following Christ, especially when they leave the mountain to go back into the valley.

“And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me.”  Luke 9:23 (KJV)

The Prayer of the Impatient

            Out of pure curiosity, I signed up for the WordPress.com Blogging 101 email course that started on July 6.  I just wanted to know what kind of assignments it had, and Day 4 has actually come in handy.  Here is today’s assignment: “Publish a post you’d like your ideal audience member to read, and include a new-to-you element in it.”  So, I thought I would share my thoughts for this assignment.

            Who is my ideal audience member?  First of all, after having a birthday this past week, my mind has already been on my age and the future and biological clocks and all that.  Therefore, my ideal reader at this moment would be my future husband if he’s out there somewhere.  In all honesty, I do often wonder if he has ever stumbled across my blog and if he likes it.  I participated in a Bible study about six years ago that encouraged the participants to write letters to their future spouses and being the sentimental, romantic type, I have kept a small box with a few letters I’ve written since then.  I looked through that box and those letters are too personal for the public eye, but I did come across a short poem/psalm that I had put in there.  If I were to title it, I would probably call it “The Prayer of the Impatient” and it could work as the new element for the assignment.  I have used some poetry in the past, but it has been a while and most of my newer readers have probably not seen any.  Hope you enjoy:

Calm my restless spirit, Lord.

 

Still my anxious thoughts.

 

Help me not to keep watching for tomorrow,

 

but to live for You today.

 

Show me the way to Your peace and joy.

 

Let me be swallowed up in Your love and mercy.

 

Bring me to a place of comfort

 

and fill me with Your peace.

 

Help me not to dwell in the “some days” and “what ifs”

 

but to live right here, right now in Your good and perfect will.

 

Teach me to stop looking for where I’m going,

 

and just to focus on where I’m at.

 

IWSG: Time is Ticking Away

            Has it been a month already?  It seems like only yesterday that I put up my first post for the Insecure Writer’s Support Group!  IWSG was founded by Alex J. Cavanaugh for writers to share their insecurities and encourage one another.  Group postings occur on the first Wednesday of each month, click the link above if you’d like to join us.

             Right now, I’m insecure about time.  It seems as though I am constantly trying to perform an impossible balancing act of working full-time, church activities, spending time with family, spending time with friends, taking advantage of a business opportunity, writing, reading, hobbies, unwinding on Netflix, and most importantly (although often most ignored) Bible study and prayer.  Whew! Can you imagine if I had kids?  At the end of each day, I try so hard to be positive and think about what I accomplished, but more often than not I end up staring at my never-ending to do list and feel like I’ve failed.  I question my writing capability sometimes and wonder if I will ever take the time to put my ideas into sensible words and stories.  Prioritizing has never been my strong suit, so I end up trying to squeeze as much as I can into whatever time I have.  But I want to concentrate on the tasks that need my undivided attention and that is hard to do when there are so many things I’m trying to get done at once.  I wish I had some great go-to solution for this time conundrum, but all I can really do is take each day as it comes and make the most of it.  I recently read (source: Get Organized Wizard Blog) that it helps to just focus on a few items each day that can help you reach your long term goals instead of trying to mark off as many to-do list items as possible.  Of course, having the right attitude helps as well.  Do you feel like you’re constantly chasing time?  How do you manage your priorities?

 

Throwback Thursday Photos



Today I thought I would try something different.  Here are some of pictures from my trip to Florida in April 2012.  All of these were taken at a beach in Cape Canaveral.  I hope you enjoy!

 

Sunshine on the pier

 

 

 

Is it lunch time?

 

 

Our shadows

We watched this manatee swim along the pier

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sunrise on the beach

Victory in Jesus

            Stress-wise, the last month or so has been rough.  I was working more than normal and I only had about two days to myself during the last month.  Every other day was spent at work, at church, or out shopping; not that I consider the latter two items to be strenuous, but as an introvert, I still need “me” time alone at home.  When I don’t have enough time to recoup and revive my energy, I don’t feel like doing much of anything, including writing.  I was having a particularly bad day at work yesterday, but all the burdens and anxiety were instantly wiped away the moment I walked into church last night. 

As I walked into the sanctuary, my eyes immediately found my dear friend Lauren, and sitting in her lap was her daughter Victoria.  If you have not seen my other posts about Tori, you can find them here: Prayer and Encouraging Updates.  I knew that she was due to come home that day, but I was not sure on the time or if she would be able to come to church, but there she was, the sweet, little miracle girl!  She still has to be on oxygen and a feeding tube at night, but she was walking and laughing, and even singing with her dad.  This little girl who was on an ECMO machine for too long and the doctors didn’t think she would make it was sitting with her family at church again!  There truly was victory for Victoria!  The trials of my day were dissolved and forgotten when I got to see this living, breathing miracle in front of me.  It was encouraging for those of us from my church who did not get a chance to visit her in the hospital to finally get to see her after nearly four months.

Photo from Pray for Tori and Sam Facebook page

 

This post was practically writing itself every time Tori turned around and smiled, and I’m glad to finally have inspiration and another day to myself again.  I said in my last post that I had hoped to get back on a normal work schedule last week, but I still felt strained.  Now, things are getting back to the normal level of stress and routine that I have grown accustomed to, so I’m hoping to get back on track with weekly blog posts.  I know not everyone can find such a victorious answer to prayer in their lives, especially not on a regular basis.  Sometimes we have to look to the little things, the whispers of encouragement that God provides through nature, a kind word, or a Bible verse.  I’m speaking to myself when I say that it is much better when we look for the positives in life instead of allowing the negatives to drag us down, and by the end of the day, we can feel much more inspired and motivated if we just shift our focus.

Insecure Writer's Support Group

            Well, here it is: my first post with the IWSG.  This will be my first regularly scheduled post among my updates and changes to my blog.  Every first Wednesday of the month, you get to hear about my writing insecurities, yay!  Of course, I have many insecurities with my writing, but one of my first concerns with joining this group was whether I was willing to share those insecurities with the world.  Showing such vulnerability and continuously putting these insecurities into words each month sounded a bit daunting at first.  I have realized, though, that this is called a “support group” for a reason.  It is nice to have accountability and encouragement once in a while and the only way to find that is by sharing my uncertainties with someone else. 

            Something else that I was a little unsure about is that it appears that most of the people in this group are published authors, or at least the handful of random pages I clicked on from the list.  I have a lot of crazy ideas floating around in my head and a few pages worth of notes.  That’s it.  I also have a full-time job that drains my energy, so I do not know when I will be able to focus on the great undertaking of book writing, but I do hope to someday.  Until then, I still have plenty of insecurities to share and there will be many, many more when I take on that task, so I’ll keep you posted.
 

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That's my job in a Death Star-sized nutshell

            Speaking of my job, I have been working more the past few weeks due to one person quitting and another on vacation, and so I have not been able to read or comment as much as I would like on most of the people I have been following.  I’m hoping to get back on my normal work schedule next week, and I will try to catch up with those I follow and get back on the road with the Post A to Z Road Trip.