Holiday Confessions

I confess…

As the dust settles on the craziness of the year’s long move…as the boxes disappear from every room in the house… thoughts of my favorite time of the year is knocking on my heart’s door. The sense of holiday urgency for turkey dinner to decking our new walls with boughs of holly for the season nibbles at my core.

However, I confess to new anxieties.

From details to disruptions...

"We must be ready to allow ourselves to be interrupted by God who will thwart our plans and frustrate our ways time and again, even daily, by sending people across our path with their demands and requests. We can, then, pass them by, preoccupied with our more important daily tasks, just as the priest--perhaps reading the Bible--passed by the man who had fallen among robbers (Luke 10:31). When we do that, we pass by the visible sign of the cross raised in our lives to show us that God's way, and not our own, is what counts." 

~ DietrichBonhoeffer, 1906-1945, pastor, theologian, spiritual writer, musician, author

A grateful heart is a gratified heart

In April of this year I accepted the challenge of blogging every day of the month using the alphabet as my guide. But if you’ve followed me at all, you know our move took precedence over all of my life. Nevertheless, I continued to blog through the alphabet with my most recent letter being “S” for Settled.

Fast forward to today and new challenges to make me write—daily blogging for November and writing devotionals with the intention of publication submissions…

Psalms, Proverbs, Planks, Prose...and a Hail Mary Pass

“Happy is the person
    whose sins are forgiven,
    whose wrongs are pardoned.
Happy is the person
    whom the Lord does not consider guilty
    and in whom there is nothing false.” Psalm 32:1-2 ncv

Day 2 of my November challenges has been challenging. Being a Saturday means my husband desires my time and attention, while these challenges require my time and attention, too. However, I did survive and check marks of completion have been applied to each.

A Month of Challenges

"You know that in a race all the runners run,

but only one gets the prize.

So run to win! 

All those who compete in the games

use self-control so they can win a crown.

That crown is an earthly thing

that lasts only a short time,

but our crown will never be destroyed.

 So I do not run without a goal..." 

1 Corinthians 9:24-26

Today, November 1, 2013, I accept the challenges thrown down before me - body, spirit, and soul...