January 2: Writing Prompt #2-Resolved

Have you ever made a New Year’s Resolution that you kept?

     The only New Year’s resolution that I can remember keeping is reading the Bible all the way through in a year. That happened in 2013.  In conjunction with that, I had hoped to write about my readings each day in 2013, but that part remains unkept.  Despite not having kept the writing part of my resolution, I am proud that I accomplished reading the Bible all the way through. I really enjoyed it and would love to do it again, but for 2015, I do have a couple of new goals in mind. For one, I would like to find a way to be of service to others in my new home state in 2015, whether that be volunteer tutoring at a Boys and Girls Club or being part of a organization that helps the less fortunate in our city, I am not sure yet, but it’s something I am going to start researching when I get back home.  I also want to join one of the weekly running clubs that I discovered within my first few months in WA, but have not gotten my butt out to join yet.  To go along with that, I have the usual goals of health and fitness, including eating better and better and exercising more and more consistently (thus the running club resolution).  And I think that’s enough…when it comes to New Year’s resolutions, I think the less, the better…makes it all more manageable if you are not overloading yourself with a bunch of changes all in the same year. 

What about you? Do you dare post your New Year’s resolutions here for all to see? It might make you more accountable for completing them…at least that’s my motivation! J 

January 1, 2015: Writing Prompt #1-Stroke of Midnight

     Where were you last night when 2014 turned into 2015? Is that where you’d wanted to be?

    Last night, my two boys and I were at a friend’s house in Alabama as 2014 turned into 2015.  Actually, the friend was originally one of my brother’s friends from high school. They have stayed close through college, marriage, etc…My brother and his wife always visit with her and her husband and children when they are in town from North Carolina.  Because they have two boys very close in age to my boys, we started visiting them with my brother a couple of years ago, and now I always make sure to text her when we’re in town.  They are a very gracious and fun-loving couple, always making room for us in their home and lives for the once or twice a year (at most) that we visit.  They even take the boys for fun outings with their family when they are visiting my parents during the summer. It’s funny how life turns out. Unfortunately, I do not pay visits to any of my friends from high school who still reside in my hometown. And yes, that’s my fault because I was so far away for so long, and I really didn’t do my part to keep in touch. Now, I attempt to keep up with my old friends through Facebook, but that’s about all. I never imagined the people I would come to treasure most would be my brother’s friends (and now mine too, of course).  As a young girl, I loved his friends, and when they would come over for his birthday or we were on church youth group trips all together, I always wanted to be around them.  My brother didn’t want me around (what teenager wants their little sister there-I am about 5 years younger, and when you are a child, that’s a huge difference), but his friends were always kind to me.  So, for New Year’s 2014, I would say there’s no place else I wanted to be than with a friend whose known me since I was a girl and has welcomed me right back into her grown up life as if I’d always been her friend right from the start. Thank you for your hospitality, Morris Family! You are a blessing!

Now, it’s your turn, blog readers, where were you on the last night of 2014 and was it where you wanted to be?  J

December 2014-The 365-Day Writing Challenge (well, maybe not ALL 365 days…’cuz we all know how often we really ARE able to keep our New Year’s resolutions completely!)

     How did you end up there? That’s the question a friend recently asked me about my move from a small tropical island in the Pacific Ocean to the NW United States. I’ve actually been answering that question for years concerning my initial life altering move from Alabama to the Marshall Islands (and the answer is not all that interesting), but I honestly didn’t expect to be asked that when moving back to my home country (btw, the answer is still not that interesting).  My family’s move from the atoll to the Evergreen state famous for its apples happened like most major life changes….quickly, which is why this blog has laid dormant for so long. I’ve been busy adjusting to life back in the “fast lane,” so to speak. 

     As part of this “new life,” I’ve wanted to get my blog back up and running again for the last few months, but I wasn’t exactly sure how to start. A blog title change was definitely in order, check! And a blog focus change is next.  The last time I blogged, I was writing my way through the Bible, devotional style.  So, to get my writing blood pumping again, I downloaded a 365 Days of Writing Prompts e-book (for free, I might add) from The Daily Post.  I will not start it until January 1, 2015, and I am not going to tie myself down into writing every day OR on every prompt because, let’s face it, I do have a life to live including a job to work, a husband to love, children to raise, and a hyperactive, rabbit chasing bird dog to walk (or more often run after) daily, and even though writing is important to me, my family is important too, and I don’t want to miss out on them because my nose is buried in this computer, writing to a prompt that I may or may not find I have adequate material or life experience to write about.

    That said, I will write about as many of the 365 prompts that I feel I can wind a sufficient rabbit trail down to interest you, and I’ll leave the rest of the blog entries to chance. So, I can’t be sure where the blog is going to go…all I know is that I must keep writing, whether or not anyone decides to read it. Why? Well, I used to say because it’s therapeutic for me, which is still true, but that’s not always the sole purpose….Mainly, it’s just because I need to share my life with others, to hear their feedback, to know that I am not alone in my thoughts, insights, frustrations, and mistakes.  Life is hard enough to comprehend and navigate successfully on your own, but with family and friends to help you write your life story, to include in your repertoire of memories….wow, that makes it all so much more interesting.  So, I hope you’ll join me in my newest blog challenge. You can find the e-book at the link above or follow me as I post the prompts I respond to throughout the year. OR if you are not into writing about the prompts, at least check in with me now and again and respond to my posts with your own thoughts, encouragement, insights, or stories. I’d love to hear from you! 

November 15-December 2, 2013 The Things Which make for Peace…

“Let us pursue the things which make for peace and the things by which one may edify another.” Romans 14:19

      As I near the end of 2013 and the end of my first year of reading the Bible in its entirety, I am struck by one thing, how much the children of God have to fight for peace.   For those who do not have complete faith in God, that is one sure sign of his existence, in my opinion. If the Disciples of Christ were willing to give their lives and to fight their whole world in order to have eternal life with Him, they MUST have experienced a greater peace when they were in His presence than anything they’ve ever felt.  The peace of God cannot be matched to any other wonderful feeling this world provides.   

     It’s been a while since I have sat down to write, and I tried to start this entry yesterday, but my mind was blank. The only thing I could think about in regards to pursuing peace and edifying one another was the unrest among people who work together in my own department as well as the unrest of people I know in the community who are more often than not complaining about one another or about what they cannot or do not have living on an island so far away from the luxuries they are used to having at their fingertips. I started to write about this, but felt it was so petty and not important enough to write about in relation to this verse.   

     Then, this morning during my devotional time, I continued my journey with Paul as he wrote his letter to the Corinthians, and I realized that life has always been like this.  The world has always been filled petty complaints, problems, and quarrelling among people. The difference is that the unrest, complaints, and drama surrounding Paul and all of God’s apostles led to their death.  They died in order to bring to others the kind of peace that only God can give.  If God’s first church was willing to do this for Him, how much more should I be trying to bring God’s peace and edification to others in my everyday, ordinary, very blessed life than Paul was doing for the early Christians? 

     So many of us are blessed enough to have been born in a country of freedom, freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom to express ourselves and live good lives, easy lives in comparison to what the people of Jesus’s time survived in.  I am free to choose how I want to speak and what I want to do with my life.  So, why would I choose to do anything that would hurt another human being, which would bring strife or unrest into their lives instead of peace and edification?  Unfortunately, so many of us find that easier to do than to be a bearer of positive guidance and God’s grace. 

     I struggle with not getting caught up in the gossip, drama, and complaining about the little things of life. I struggle with remembering to give it all to God and keep my big mouth shut when my thoughts are up to no good.  I struggle with being the kind of Christian the early disciples of God proved to be, dying for their faith. Would I be able to do that? I don’t know. I would like to think that I would, but more than likely, I would end up like Peter, denying Jesus three times before the sun rose after his arrest. 

     I believe in God, and I have felt that peace beyond compare that comes from faith in Him, but I still have a long way to go in becoming like Jesus.  Today, I thank God for his mercy in giving me multiple chances to get it right. I thank God for his continual forgiveness when I mess up, and I pray for His help as I learn how to be slow to speak, slow to anger, and quick to bring peace, edify, and uplift others in my daily life.