30 Challenge Update

 

Proverbs: Continues to be great - so much so that I'm actually ahead! The proverbs that have been jumping out at me have been those that contrast what the righteous man does and what the fool does... Specifically that the righteous overlooks a grievance and the fool makes his anger known at once... This is one of those things that hits home with me - I can tend to get angry fast. It's also brought to my attention what our culture/society says about how "normal" we see "needing to vent." It seems to me that Proverbs doesn't allow me the freedom to just go "vent" to someone unless I want to act like the fool. I read an excellent blog post by Wendy Alsup that was talking about the whole "in your anger do not sin" passage that people talk about when they want to justify their anger. I could copy a lot of her blog into this one, but trust me, if you read the whole thing it's good. She also includes the following verse from James to give further proof that in our anger we cannot produce the righteousness of God. If I claim to obey Christ in overlooking/forgiving my brother/sister when he/she sins against me I cannot justify venting to another about it - even in a "prayer request."

 

James 1:19-20 Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger; for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God.

Acts: I'm also somehow ahead in Acts too... There are just some passages that I can't stop reading when the chapters ends...(which makes sense since the chapters are artificially placed and not present in the original writings...) I am still having to fight the urge to think, "Well, that was then, those sorts of things don't happen now..." like when people are let go from jail via help from an angel right in front of the guards... Wrong thinking. Our God is Infinitely POWERFUL!

Now what I find funny is that not only am I REALLY enjoying these two books in a way I haven't enjoyed reading the Bible in a while, but I am also getting regular workouts in... We recently joined the YMCA that is so close to us. Sarah takes swim lessons there and before she goes, I get a workout in and both girls are taken care of by a great program of people! So far I've been running (my default exercise) and I feel amazing... The workouts have been short (20-30minutes), but I've been able to increase my speed and distance... Humbling though to feel like a 10 minute mile is SOOOO long! But I'm getting there.... God definitely made it so that I put His word over exercise... I love how firmly, yet gently He guides us... I love you Lord!

30 Day Challenge - Friday update:

Whew! Busy/crazy week, and it's not over yet! Daily reading is going well. Loving reading Proverbs - reading it slowly and purposefully & rereading it if my mind wanders... So good! What hit me the most in the first four chapters was that Wisdom & Understanding are there for the taking-God just calls us to orient our lives so we receive what He's so readily provided. The picture I get in my head is that Wisdom (capitalized because she is personified in the Proverbs) is there at every turn, pursuing us, available to us, and we'd almost have to purposely avoid her if we didn't want her influence on our lives...

Reading Acts has been really good too. I'm glad that I'm reading it, but also need to go back and listen to the sermons that go with the readings to feel really caught up. Very challenging to read about the first church and realize that they were not perfect, but very much praying for boldness to share the gospel and the Lord heard them and answered their prayers...

Going to go to get ready for bed now since today was one of "those days".... Keeley has an ear infection and for the past two days pretty much hasn't napped, let me put her down for long at all, or eaten more than two bites of what I've given her to eat. I'm amazed that she's still crying tears because she doesn't seem to be hydrated compared to what she normally drinks... Sarah's still running a temp & has a sore throat... SOOOO glad we live in a time where they have antibiotics (and TV)! And Todd is going out of town for three days... God is my strength, God is my strength....A lot of prayer lately...

Look who's 15 months!

Keeley Renée is...

Walking like a pro...

Almost semi-running...

Climbing anything that stands still...
Often found walking around with Sarah's flip flops on her hands (above)
In to EVERYTHING!

 Gentle in spirit

Easily redirected & quite obedient

Always excited to have her teeth brushed (asks for it via signing)

Talking some....both spoken and signed

In LOVE with anything to do with cats

A veggie, fruit, carb eater, not so much a protein eater

 Wearing 18m - 2T depending

A cuddler extraordinaire

A singer in the car

Lover of being read to...

An early riser

 The BEST at giving "real" pucker up kisses! Over and over and over...

A belly laugh-er

Confident: She can climb up our swing set slide (3 steps with top at 3.5'-4'?)

AND slide down herself unassisted (but closely spotted)

Admirer of Sarah...
A Mama's girl...
Very very loved...

Hmmm, where to start? Lots to try and put to words, but I'm not sure I've ever really "hashed out" an issue I'm thinking of (heart-wise)  via blogging before, so it seems a bit abrupt to just do it now... Generally I'm more of a "share face to face" or phone kind of person... What I'm talking about is the last 30 day challenge and the fact that I didn't meet my goal. I'm not totally torn up about it, but I know that God is working through that unmet goal to make me stop and take stock of why it didn't happen. Here's a number of things that I'm trying to sort out:

Being competitive - with myself & others - sometimes to a fault...
When is it an excuse, and when is it a reason for doing/not doing something....
Perfectionism and the tendency to not want to do something if I can't do it perfectly...
Feeling rebellious when I have parameters....
Laziness
The knowledge that my body isn't acting 19 anymore... Bleh!
Comparison
Balance between legalism & giving myself grace
and I guess this all boils down to my motives for participating in a 30-day challenge.

As I feel like I gain clarity on any/all of these areas, I'll try and update. But for now, I know that the Lord is showing me a LOT of areas where I need more consistency. The primary area is reading His word, so that's where I'm focusing my 2nd 30-day-challenge.

I'm going to go ahead and read through the 30 chapters of Proverbs - one each day - plus a chapter or two of Acts since that's where our church is camping out right now for Sunday messages... Pretty basic, but for now I'm going to focus on just that and pray through the above list and listen to what the Lord has to say to me...