An example of love

What difference do it make?

I received a book for review from Thomas Nelson Publishers (if you read my book blog, you'll have read my review already). It's the follow up book to one called Same Kind of Different as Me, which I haven't read, but plan to. You can read more about what the book is about here.

I felt like this book was talking directly to me--like I just got a good smack upside the head from God to get my attention. I needed it! Here are a few good quotes from the book:

After talking about how some people go out and serve the homeless on Thanksgiving or Christmas, one of the authors (a former homeless man) says this:
"I ain't got no way to read the mind a' God, but I 'xpect part a' His business is makin it Christmas for somebody ever day. If all the Christians--I mean all of 'em-- got outta the pews on Sunday and into the streets, we'd shut the city down.
We'd shut down hunger.
We'd shut down loneliness.
We'd shut down the notion that there is any such of a thing as a person that don't deserve a kind word and a second chance."

"A lotta homeless folks has been hurt and abused since we was little bitty. At one time or another we loved or was loved by somebody. We had hope. We believed. Then hope flew out the door, and everything we had was gone. For a lot of us there come a time when nobody was willin to take us in. Nobody was willin to help in no kinda way. All the doors was slammed in our faces, and next thing you know, we just sittin on the curb with everbody passin us by, won't even look at us.
Even though you is still a human bein inside, even though you mighta been a little boy once with a mama, even though you mighta been married once with a house and a job, now you ain't nothin. And once that happens, people rather come up and pet a stray dog than even say hello."

This book seriously broke my heart. But I think that's a good thing. I think God's heart is broken over all of the poverty, the hurt, the people in need. I want my heart to be broken over the things that break God's heart.

Heal my heart and make it clean
Open up my eyes to the things unseen
Show me how to love like you have loved me
Break my heart for what breaks yours
Everything I am for your kingdoms cause
(from Hosanna by Hillsong United)

Help meeeeee!

I can't stop myself. I've left the look of this blog alone for the most part, but I keep changing my book blog. I'm talking daily. I don't know why. It's fine how it is, and then I think, "maybe I'll just see what it looks like if I make a different header, or use different colors."

And I never seem to be satisfied with it. It's never perfect. I kind of wish there was no editing options. Can someone take the option away from me? I want to quit trying to change my blog, and just post like a normal person. I can't do it, though! I need an intervention.

Less Posting, More Other Posting

I haven't been posting very much here on this blog. First, because I don't have a lot to blog about. Sure, I could blog about our trip to Arches, and I will. But I really don't have any good pictures. I'm still waiting for certain people who said they would e-mail me some pictures to e-mail them to me.

Otherwise, not a whole lot of interesting things happening. I started women's Bible study this morning. We're doing a study on Genesis, and I'm pretty excited for that. I didn't do women's Bible study all last year, because I was so busy with MOPS, so I'm glad to be back into it.

If you're a reader, I've been posting more on my book blog than here, if you'd like to follow that blog or read it to get suggestions. I have excellent taste. ;) Reading is pretty much all I've been doing for fun lately (besides other things that I can't think of to blog about), so that's where you'll find me. The link is on my sidebar.

Summit Triathlon

Last weekend I completed my first (maybe only) triathlon. It was a beginner triathlon: 1.5 mile run, 6.5 mile bike, and 200 yard swim. My time was 50:57, which was almost 10 minutes faster than my goal. I was pretty darn pooped by the end, but it was nice to say I've done one. I might try again next year if I'm in better shape (and I plan to be!). Here are some pictures, thanks to Dallas for taking them!

Finally---woo hoo!

After a few years, I FINALLY got my pictures from Paris framed. These have been sitting rolled up in a tube since we went, I think back in 2005. I am a huge procrastinator, and sometimes I just need to decide to do things and get them done.

So we went to Michaels, and despite being shocked at the cost, we went ahead and ordered the framing. When I picked them up yesterday, I was very pleased. They looked better than I expected. I wanted them hung on the wall by my staircase, and couldn't decide how to hang them. Troy wanted to do side by side, but I didn't think it looked as good. Plus, if you're a tiny bit off, and they're not even, it's really noticeable. So I suggested putting one lower than the other. The stairway goes down anyway, so I thought it would look okay.

And I think it does look okay. I couldn't for the life of me take a good picture of them, though. The right one was always blurry. And in this picture they look crooked to me, although they're not crooked on the wall. Anyway, here is the finished product. I love them so much, and I bet they're happy to be out of the tube.

Wasting Time

Today was the first day that I had both of my older kids in school for a full day, and just Ethan and me at home. I got to thinking how little I get done in a day, and I can't really figure out where my time goes. I want to be more productive. There are so many things that I want to do around my house, books that I want to read, etc., but nothing ever gets done.

I think the internet is my worst time waster. I tell myself I'll just check my e-mail, or check Facebook for just a minute, and I find myself sitting at the computer for hours. So, I've started thinking about what wasteful things I can cut out so I can start doing the more important things.

The first thing I did was cut down on the blog links that I have in my sidebar. I tried multiple times to catch up on my blog reading, and I never could. There was just too much, and I don't need to read that many blogs. So I narrowed it down to 10 that I can read every day. Then I saved the rest in a blog folder under my bookmarks. If I ever find my house clean and everything I want done, Ethan asleep and the kids at school, I'll have a nice, relaxing time reading blogs. Why are you laughing? One of these days it could happen.

My second thing I'm planning to do is cut back on TV watching. I really don't watch that much. Just one or two shows about three days a week. But I know that fall is coming soon, and all the new fall shows will be starting. If I start watching something, I'll get sucked in and won't want to miss it. And I want evening time after dinner to be family time. I don't want the TV to always be on. I'm ashamed to admit that at just about every dinner, we have the TV on. I don't want that, but it's not always my choice, unfortunately. So my plan for the fall is to maybe pick one show to watch, or if I can, none at all.

But back to the internet. I need to think of a better plan to not spend so much time on the computer, but still get the enjoyment that I get out of certain parts of it. I really like to read blogs. I love getting new ideas for my house, and just seeing what other people are doing. But I want to be reasonable. I like staying in touch with people on Facebook, but I don't need to spend so much time there either. So I'm going to have to think of a computer time schedule, or some way to limit myself that is enforceable. Like maybe a computer seat with an automatic ejector that will throw me out when my time is up.

Just some goals I'm thinking of with the kids back in school. I'm going to keep thinking about ways to be more productive and to actually feel like I've gotten something done at the end of each day.