Photo-A-Day July 2 - Busy

Photo-A-Day JULY

Maybe  this is a good way to try to get into the habit of blogging everyday....start out slow.  All I need to do is come up with a photo, not organize all the thoughts in my head.

Blessings

I really meant to blog more...but it just didn't happen in June....flowers to plant, water, weed.  Life and stuff just going on....I don't know where the time goes and I have a lot of thoughts tumbling in my head but don't get around to recording them here.  I had to put this quote up though....it summarizes what's been going on in my heart for months.



"Life is not a straight line leading from one blessing to the next and then finally to heaven. Life is a winding and troubled road. Switchback after switchback. And the point of biblical stories like Joseph and Job and Esther and Ruth is to help us feel in our bones (not just know in our heads) that God is for us in all these strange turns. God is not just showing up after the trouble and cleaning it up. He is plotting the course and managing the troubles with far-reaching purposes for our good and for the glory of Jesus Christ.” John Piper

This is my current theme verse that represents what's going on inside and outside of me:

 

 

Ps. 4:6-8 (the Msg) Why is everyone hungry for more?  "More, more," they say.  I have God's more-than-enough, more joy in one ordinary day than they get in their shopping sprees.  At day's end I'm ready for sound sleep.  For You, God, have put my life back together.

I want to find my satisfaction in God alone.... not things!  I want to experience JOY in the ordinary....something not found in things and shopping sprees.  Only God's grace holds me together and the areas where I seem to be falling apart....He works to put me back together. 

What a great book....especially when you are in the process of cleaning out and decluttering.  It's not just about cleaning out physical "stuff" ....it's so much more than that!

  P. 224 "Simplicity isn't about getting by on "what you need" instead of having "what you want," (such a hard distinction to make anyway); simplicity is about wanting something else."  We are not being asked to limit our desire;  we're being asked to tether our desire to the wild vision of God.  Simplicity isn't about having a smaller life;  it's having a bigger vision."

 I have too many distractions...pure and simple~!  I want clean hands and a pure heart...the road to get there is to focus my vision on God.  The less I am consumed by things...the easier that will be. 





Great quote for what I feel needs to be done in my heart and life....

Randy Alcorn

Every item I add to my possessions is one more thing to think about, talk about, clean, repair, display, rearrange, and replace when it goes bad. Acquiring a possession may also push me into redefining my priorities, making me unavailable for ministry. “Take care, and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions” (Luke 12:15). www.epm.org/mgm

(http://adventure.nationalgeographic.com/adventure/trips/best-trails/photo-gallery/)

I am on a journey....

Do I have a sense of urgency?

Amy Carmichael, "We shall have all of eternity to celebrate the victories, but we have only the few hours before sunset in which to win them."

Is my lack of action desensitizing me to the issues?

C. S. Lewis, "The more often we feel without acting, the less we will be able ever to act, and, in the long run, the less we will be able to feel."

Am I willing?

K.P. Yohannan," Please don't misunderstand.  I'm not saying that a nice car or new clothes or anything like that is a bad thing.  If poverty made us more spiritual, then there would be a lot of really spiritual people all over South Asia.  No.  This is about seeing the little ways that Lord calls us to live simply so that others can simply live."