Hooray for Tuesdays!

Tuesday is not a work day for me.  It is the day that most typifies the life I was hoping for in retirement!  Hubby and I start our Tuesday by going to the library.  Nothing screams old folks like going to the library the same day every week!  We come home and have a light lunch and then I go to my women's Bible study.  This truly is just a wonderful two or three hours.  Our little group has become very close and we pray for each other during the rest of the week, then we come together and visit and study and share our prayer requests and then we go back to our own homes, refreshed and strengthened.  I keep a prayer journal and it is amazing the wonderful and special answers to prayer.  If you have a thought that your prayers are not being answered I highly recommend a journal for them.  I was feeling just a little unheard a couple of years ago and was encouraged by an older saint to keep a journal of my prayers, what an eye opener!  Now I can look back through the journal and encourage myself when I feel a little down.  I see the things I was praying for a year or two ago and am so blessed to be able to put the answer in the journal as it occurs, of course some of the answers were not what I expected but they were answers!  Also having friends praying for you is such a comfort, I am sure that sometimes I can feel a warmth in the midst of a trial and know a friend is praying for me, sometimes a friend will call and ask if I or a family member are ok as she was moved to pray for me, and it will be the same time I was going through a trial.  We pray for our church, our country and our leaders - and the world needs more prayer! 

I look at the things that are going on in the world and am so saddened.  I have always followed politics - my Dad taught political science and government - and enjoyed the debate and the back and forth.  It really is no longer about politics, I almost can't watch the news.  There are so many examples recently of people who have no moral compass!  The three boys in Oklahoma who shot the Australian student because "they were bored" - my parents never let me be bored!   The two guys who beat the WWII vet to death because he "fought back against the attack and angered them"!   With all that is going on in the world today is Miley Cyrus really the top story?  Is no one paying attention?  Where are the adults, what are the parents doing out there?  Has anyone wondered what the world will look like in ten years when these uneducated, thrill seeking, youtube posting punks are old enough to vote? 

So on Tuesdays I go to my friends house, sit down with my spiritual sisters and pray for the world.  It helps me remember that I don't have to worry - God is in control, everything has a purpose, even if I don't understand it.  It reminds me that I need to do my part, to help and mentor, and work with young people who might not know that this behavior is wrong.  I have a responsibility to share my faith and live my faith. I remember to be thankful for the blessings that I have received and I am reminded again how fortunate I am - it isn't about money it is about joy! It reminds me that I have read the end of the book and God wins!

I feel better - I thought I'd share.

Time in a bottle

I have been thinking about time a lot lately. Specifically how nice it is to have time. (I say this knowing that tomorrow is promised to no man, and God is in control, and my 'having time' could be an illusion!)

When the kids were little we struggled to have time to get anything done! The demands of a kindergarten student and 2 preschoolers 15 months apart were amazing. Hubby would come home from work and say what did you do today and I would be so upset because I could not point to one thing and say – that - but I was running non stop all day, I was doing something?! When they all got to school I went back to work, and now I was running to school, to work and then to their activities, now we were trying to get everything done! Of course during this period of time I had a whole list of things I had done and don't get me wrong I adored all the years, I loved the preschool years, I loved elementary and up. I cried happy tears at graduation and fearful/proud tears at enlistment, happy tears at the weddings and sad tears when we moved to a different state than the kids. They were some of the best years of my life.

Those years were so full of activities that there was very little time for 'taking the time', the garden was some tomatoes in containers, reading was a treat, sewing was limited to mending, 'scratch' cooking was a weekend treat (if there was no band competition, drumline competition, church activities or family outings) Somehow grandma's noodles never seemed to come out quite right for me, I went to the store and looked at things that I liked and said “oh I can't spend money on that because I can make that myself”, knowing in my heart I wouldn't do it, I just didn't have time. When we got ready to move from our home of 27 years I was mildly shocked and somewhat saddened by the boxes of kits, and patterns that I had purchased and not used!

Neither Hubby nor I ever thought we would retire this young, we thought we would work at least till our 60's because we wouldn't have enough money to do otherwise. The layoff was not unexpected, the permanence of it this time was, it became obvious the jobs weren't coming back. The economy crashed, the jobs were ended, the house was worth what we owed, the 401K was getting smaller! We were so fortunate! God truly is in control and we tend to forget that in the good times, he had a plan for us and this was what it took to get us into place.

So here we were, a small but adequate pension, enough left in the 401k to buy the fixer upper outright (with more property than we thought we could afford), the layoff came after enough years that our medical insurance is paid by the company (can you say incredible blessing?), and we just have to be frugal to survive!

Now I have time!

The noodles come out right when you take the two days to make and dry them properly, the garden is much bigger and will supply much of our produce for the summer and some canning for the winter months, those patterns are still good and the projects are things that we need and want around the house. The furniture we brought with us was the antiques, the recent purchases came from the thrift store and have all needed some work (cushions, legs, sanding etc), some of the work is done but the list is long! My sewing skills are better when I'm not in a hurry, cooking is more fun when it is not on the run! Our home is comfortable now, it is filling up with the things we like to do and have always wanted to do.

There is time for the Lord. Sometimes it seemed that Bible study and reading were luxuries. It is hard to read the Bible when there are constant interruptions and then late at night when the 'interruptions' were in bed I was so tired I could hardly concentrate. We took the kids to church and volunteered in AWANA, sang in the choir, volunteered for bake sales and went to retreats – in a rush. Today I did my devotion on the back porch, read in my Bible listening to the birds, and thought about how much I enjoy my time these days. I was reminded of Ecclesiastes 3, “To every thing there is a season and a time to every purpose under the heaven.” This then, for me, is the time to take my time, do it right, do it well and maybe pass some of it along. This is my season to enjoy a simpler existence, to reconnect with the Hubby.

Thank you Lord for this season!

Not Resolutions - Projects!

Resolutions are things that were invented to make us feel bad about ourselves!  Probably invented by the chocolate manufacturers of the world to sell more chocolate.  See...this is how it works - first you make a resolution, say, to start excersizing more.  Now if you are normal, this is vague and hard to do and by February you have given up and are depressed and are eating chocolate for the emotional comfort!!!  I'm tellin ya, I think it's a conspiracy!  
This year I am going to beat the bad guys.  This year I'm making a list of projects - not resolutions.  I am pretty good at projects and organizing for projects, I suck at resolutions, so I will play to my strengths.  I have also found that I can trick myself, or as I call it 'playing head games with myself and winning', which probably says something sad about my mind (but that is another topic).  So for the next few days I will be coming up with my lists and organizing my projects.

The first thing to make sure that I always keep the Lord in the lead, sometimes I get to thinking I'm in the lead and have ended up in some bogs and marshes in my life!  (and yes I do look sheepish when I say that, I do know better!)

So my first project is to increase my Bible study time.  This last year the Lord helped me break through my issue with forgetting my daily devotions.  My Bible and devotional book sit on the kitchen table all the time and whenever I get to the table and sit down be it 7am or noon I do my devotional reading and read some in my 'reading through the Bible continuously'  project. First part of the project - I feel the need for more than simply reading the Bible now though, I need individual study time.  Church Bible study is wonderful and important but I want to look at things that are individual for me.  The second part of the project is to become more organized in my prayer life.  To my great shame I find that my heart is in the right place  "of course I will keep you in prayer"  but my mind fails me and several days later it comes to my mind again and I feel terrible.  While I may have 'a prayer on my lips' many times during the day, that is for the immediate need or praise.  Like so many areas of my life my prayer life needs organizing.

The next step then is to break it down and decide what methods will work for me.  Since leaving my Bible and devotional on the kitchen table worked for the daily devotional project, maybe the same technique in a different room will work for this.  I have picked a study that I want to do, I have had the book and workbook for years (something I was going to do and ...you know).  It is "The Pursuit of Holiness" by Jerry Bridges.  I read in the evening at my desk in my home office, the small table beside the desk is where I lay my Bible when I get home from church.  Two Bibles, one in the kitchen one in my room.  One of the advantages to growing up in a Christian home is that you have a collection of Bibles to choose from when you get to be my age!  I am currently reading out of the New American Standard and will study out of the Scoffield KJV that I carry to church.  Bible study time will come in the evening, after dinner.  I like pretty, purposed tools and comforting processes - the feel of the leather on the Bible cover, teapots with matching cups, my lovely Bible cover with pockets and zipper and now hopefully my prayer book.  A dear lady in our last church Pat, was the leader of the womens Bible study and made each of us a covered prayer book with our names on them, yes she is a quilter and seamstress.  When we moved, it got packed and forgotten.  I have found it and am ready to use it to help me.

Isn't this just fun to think about using?

I now have the goal articulated, a list of the needed tools and a plan of action.
- Each evening I will work on Bible study and an organized prayer time
- In my Bible, next to my phones and in my purse are pretty notepads dedicated to writing down prayer requests from others
- Each week will have a page for requests - added to daily if needed
- Saturday night when I'm laying out things for church on Sunday I will flip to the next weeks page in the prayer book

Set up and ready to go!

- I will try to never say flippantly that I will pray for someone without writing it down, I don't think they will mind
-If a 'rabbit trail' in my Bible study throws me off target I will embrace it and enjoy the side trip
-If I miss a day, fall asleep in my chair or can't keep my eyes open I will understand that these things happen and give myself a break

I will not be perfect and I am ok with that - So is God by the way, he too wants to see me keep striving, even knowing as he does perfect isn't in the picture - better certainly is!

-Kathy