The Dog's

Yesterday as I was perusing blog-land I found this cute little blog - sadly I don't remember which blog. Sorry.

The lady had a picture posted of her dog with the title "Every Blog Needs a Dog" and I thought that was great - so I'm stealing her idea. If you know who it is - please give her credit. I firmly believe in giving credit where due - I just wish I remembered.

Anyway, these are my dogs - they are litter mates, brother and sister. The tan and white one is Taz, he's the concerned puppy. He seems to feel that his job is to carry all the worries of the world. It is so sweet and endearing. The black and white one is Ellie and she is the mastermind behind the operation. She is always plotting and planning. Both of them add so much humor and joy to our days.

Do any of you have pets? If so, do you care to share a picture?

Take care,
Jenny

Multitude Monday's

How wonderful to start my week with praising my Savior!

20) Left over paint - that I like (I can refinish a $7.50 Salvation Army chair for free)
19) Early morning drives, I get to see each sunrise now with my new commute, and I love it
18) Cool, crispness in the morning air
17) My job
16) Alright, I'll be honest, I'm thankful for coffee
15) Running water
14) Weekends
13) My car is fixed (thanks to the mechanic, see last Monday's post)
12) FALL, I love this time of year!
11) My husband, he's so understanding and willing to help me (he hung SO many things on the walls for me this weekend)

Missed Opportunity

I've been at my job for over 5 years now; for my company that makes me an "old timer". There is a core group of us who were all hired within a year of each other. We're quite close. We've been to each others kids' games, helped each other move, fixed flat tires in the rain, moved monster TV's and attended weddings. Out of this whole bunch I'm the only Christian. For a while I was hard hearted and didn't consider it my job to proactively 'witness' to these people - I figured my life would be enough. Only thing, I was quite the hypocrite. The last 2'ish years Jesus has worked an absolute miracle in my life. He's shown me that I'm not perfect like I thought I was (that was quite a blow to my pride) and He's also shown me that I can trust Him and go to Him for everything. These lesson's have been hard learned but I wouldn't trade them for anything.

A year ago this November I was in a car accident, our truck was totalled, then I was in physical therapy for 5ish months, then I had about a million doctor's appointments, then we decided it'd be a great time to buy a house, then 6 weeks after we're in our house the transmission on our car breaks, to the tune of $3000.00. That's just MY stuff, that's not even my family's stuff - which we seem to have a lot of (cancer, lost jobs, death, chronic long term illnesses). Anyway, all of that to say, the last year of my life has stressful and challenging. But the Lord has been SO amazing, He has taught me so much and carried me and given me a peace that is beyond amazing and totally complete.

So, back to the work story. Earlier this week when we found out it was going to be $3000 to fix the car one of my co-workers was talking to me (someone who I've prayed for opportunities to share my faith with) and commented on how I've not been fazed by all the "stuff" that's been going on - how I've not been freaking out and how that is so unlike me. My response was, "why stress out?".

"Why stress out?" The Lord opens the door and I decide to walk through it with "why stress out". I couldn't have said, "Why stress out, I know who's in charge and I know that He's got it covered."

I realize that the Lord is sovereign and my co-workers salvation is not dependant on me. I realize that there is grace for my humanness. But, I still feel as if I've lost an opportunity. I've worked with him for 5 years now and I can count on 3 fingers how many times I've had an opportunity to share with him.

Lord - open my mouth and my heart to share YOU with these people that you love so much. Forgive me for letting 'fear of man' overtake 'fear of God.' Amen.

Multitude Monday's (a day late)

I've joined the Gratitude Community (I'm still learning how to link things - see the address at the end of the post). What a wonderful challenge and reminder, to have a heart and mindset of gratitude. Isn't there a quote somewhere that states that attitude is 90% of life? I've gone through a great many season's of negativity and "poor-woe-is-me", why would I ever want to live like that? Why would I ever want to willingly make life harder?

My goal is to update my gratitude list every Monday with at least 10 things I'm thankful for.

And so, I'd like to post a challenge to all my blogging friends - join me. Let's focus on all of the good things in life - these things don't have to all be spiritual - just things we're grateful for.

There have been times in my life when the way out of the darkness was imperceptible to me. This happened to me about a year ago in my marriage - I was certain it was over and I did not see a way out. I knew what the Bible said, and I knew what I had been taught but I didn't know how to live those things. I didn't know if God was going to honor His promise to me to provide for me and protect me. Then, He challenged me to focus on what is true and He showed me this verse. I began to recite this verse over and over, and as I did I began to do what the verse instructed and my whole attitude changed. This verse isn't specifically about being thankful, but (I might be treading dangerously close to taking a verse out of context but I don't think so) I think the heart - the intent - of this verse also includes being grateful. Or maybe being grateful is a byproduct of doing as this verse instructs us to do.

"Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things."

Philippians 4:8 (NIV)

10) Coffee
9) The reminder to be grateful
8) Mechanics, I'd never be able to fix my car
7) Gas grills - makes dinner in a snap
6) Sunset's
5) Today is the first day of fall, oh how I love fall
4) Knowing, really knowing, that Jesus is my Provider
3) Water to drink
2) Life's hard learned lessons, painful to walk through, but so invaluable
1) My Salvation, where would I be without it


As promised, in lieu of a fancy link - here is the website address:
http://www.aholyexperience.com/2003/06/gratitude-community.html

Take Care,
Jenny

Under Construction

I am working on updating the format of my little blog... if things look catywhompus for a while I apologize. I promise, as soon as I know what "HTML" is and how to edit it and save it, things will look better.

Take Care,
Jenny

Multitude Monday's

60) Scarf's
59) Eyelashes (can you imagine the gunk that would get it your eyes without them?)
58) Toothpaste
57) Tights - wish I had some on now so my legs wouldn't be cold
...Wow, I really don't have any "deep" and "meaningful" things this week, but I'm still thankful...
56) Cold Pizza
55) Revlon ColorStay Lipcolor (stays great and doesn't dry your lips out)
54) Spray Paint (transforms ugly into pretty)
53) Hot Coco
52) Friends who are true friends
51) Honesty

Unexpected Feelings

As mentioned in my earlier post, I am now living in a town that I swore (yes, I swore) I would never live in. I've been here about 5 weeks now and I have learned some very unexpected, and unwelcome, things about myself. I am prejudiced and a snob.

My background. I grew up as a good little white girl who went to church every Sunday and Wednesday. My parent's weren't rich, but my brother and I didn't lack anything. If you ask my mom, she might tell you that when I was a kid I complained that I didn't have all the cool toys like my friends at school, but in hindsight we grew up quite blessed. The rule at home was basically you obey the rules, you do what's right, you follow God and you can basically do what you want. This worked great for my brother and me (not counting sibling squables and fights, of course :)) My whole life I've been a reader (thanks Dad for passing that on!), sadly I read mostly christian romance novels. This reading material encouraged my romantic tendancies. By the time I was 12 or so, I was convinced I was going to become a country doctor (anyone ever watch 'Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman'? I was going to be her.) Anyway, I was going to go live in the Ozark mountains and minister to the poor and needy right here in America. Well, along the way, as us romantics are prone to do, I fell in love with a boy and my dream of being Medicine Woman went out the window. Fastforward a few years, now I am 28, happily married and living in surburbia. The only thing is that this surburbia looks nothing like what I grew up in. I am surrounded by people with mullets (no joke), smokers, drinkers, swearing like sailors, dirty people. (If any of my family members are reading this, I'm sorry if I've offended you - that is not my intent at all).

I don't want to shop in this city, I don't want to socialize in this city, and I certainly don't want to grow where I've been planted in this city. My fear: that I'm going to become one of "them". And yes, in my heart I do mean that exactly as it sounds. Horrible. The Lord, in His incredible wisdome (and humor I might add) gave me a picture the other day. In this picture I was sitting on my porch and He came and sat next to me - he flashed me a picture of the Ozark Mountains and the people who live there - and then He showed me a picture of the people I now find myself living amongst. And He smirked at me. He smirked. There was such gentleness though in His face. Obviously He's right, and I need Him to change this in me. But how does one love swearing, smoking, drinking, mullett wearing people without herself becoming one of them?

On another note, which I so needed to hear from the Lord today. I was thinking of the verse in the Bible about seeing through a glass darkly. And it dawned on me - on the days that I feel the MOST loved by God, what I'm feeling is only a glimmer of His full feelings for me. I only feel His love, and see His love, through a glass darkly. I can't even imagine love more powerful that what took place on Calvary - but if what we see is through a glass darkly then what does the full measure of His love look like? What does if feel like? What happens to us when we experiance it to the fullest?

Open our eye's Lord, clear the fog away so we can see You clearly. Amen.

Tree: Part 2

Afternoon to all my wonderful blog friends... actually I don't have any blog friends yet but I'm sure that one day I will. I thought I'd post a picture of my little tree. Currently it's looking a little sad and quite small. There is such such expectant hope in that little tree. I've planted it, watered it, mulched it, watered it, photographed it, watered it. Did I mention that little tree's require lot's of water at first?

I wonder if that's how God feels about us? I wonder if He thinks: "There's so much potential, so much life - now is she going to grow where I've planted her?" The only hope I have of ever growing is to be watered, daily, by the living water. I could go on and on with this analogy, but I'll spare everyone. I find myself "planted" in a place that I swore I would never live (you know what they say about saying never, right? It's true.) The challenge is to embrace this life that God has given me with all of it's growth opportunities (translation: challenges).

My current challenge is church. About a year ago I was in a car accident - recovery is complete minus the migraines. I now have a daily headache that spikes to migraine level about one a week. When we moved it became clear that commuting to our old church wasn't very conducive to being involved in church life. So we're church shopping for one that's closer to home. Lately my migraines have been happening on the weekend. On one hand that's nice because it means that I don't have to miss work, but on the other hand it means that I spend most of my weekends in bed. Not so fun. Anyway, I don't want to go to a new church and say, "Hi, my name is Jenny. I have a migraine." Then again, if church is about being real, transparent and living life with one another it shouldn't mater to me if I have a migraine. Right? Pride, stupid pride.

My little tree lost a couple of limbs in the process of getting planted yet it is still growing. I wonder if that's what God wants me to do with my headaches and church?

Jenny

P.S. I'm still learning how to blog so things look a bit goofy. Below is a picture of my little tree.

My First Blog...

As the title implies, this is my first blog. Currently there are exactly zero followers. :)

My name is Jenny. I am a Christian, the proud wife of Tyson, owner of 2 cats and 2 dogs, I'm a full time worker and a full-time-first-time homeowner. We just bought our house 1 month ago. Last night we planted our backyard tree. A Red Sunset Maple tree. It's a baby tree, it's growing and strangley it's already teaching me things. Or rather Jesus is using the tree to teach me.

More to follow on the tree and other things as well...

Jenny