Reading the Bible in 90 Days - are YOU in??

Read the Bible in 90 days?

Why? Am I a glutton for punishment? Am I an overachiever?

I’m reading the bible in 90 days because it’s going to be my medicine, my food, and the strength I need to get 2010 off to a great start. I need me some Jesus more than I need my next breath…..and committing to an intensive reading program is way to keep me accountable.

2009 has been an upheaval of a year for me, and now I need a detox. My mind needs healing; my soul needs scrubbing; and my spirit needs to be rejuvenated. From the outside, my life has been fine. I have a beautiful, God-fearing family, a loving husband, a happy-healthy-precocious 4 year old, and a wonderful 16-year old stepdaughter (who I adore). I also started a new business (Scentsy); became a Partner at my “real job”; and I have super friends.

...But the inside of me has been in turmoil all year. As you’ve seen in earlier posts, I’m in that Egyptian desert…..complaining about the manna, circling around like an Israelite, wondering why things are not going the way I want them to go. Hmmm….could it be that I’m as stubborn as those silly Isrealites? Oh yes, yes indeed.

Posting my vulnerability is not so easy for me. As a woman who believes she is called to write for the glory of God…and to teach others about Him…it’s more than difficult for me to put my shortcomings and struggles on paper (or, I guess…online(!) for all the world to see). But honesty is where it starts, right? I’m totally feeling trepidation as I continue to type here….but I could not be a testament to God’s grace if I lived a façade.

The decision to read through God’s Word in 90 days is ICU for me. It is a commitment to bury myself in scripture, and therein find my Savior.

I’m totally geared up for this. Anyone want to join me?

Click here to read all about it: I’m Reading through the Bible in 90 Days

Consistently Inconsistent

I think the most consistent thing about my blog is its inconsistency. Grrr..

Every morning, I faithfully read a handful of my personal much-loved blogs. And each day, I make a mental note that I need to write a new blog post. The effort generally does not go past the mental note part. However, there are good streaks of time where I post two or three a week….until the chaos of my job takes over.

Is it too early to make a New Year’s resolution? If not, then I want to officially make one now: 3 blog posts per week in 2010. You all heard it right here. Just be gracious when I’m lagging behind come May (or February, whichever comes first).

2010 blog posts will include my Journey Through the Bible in 90 days, along with Amy at Mom’s Tool Box. I am beyond excited about this. I love structure and planned reading programs…..but even more so….I love the word of God. I love digging deep into scripture and finding out what God has for me to find. It's my prayer that these posts will bless your life and encourage you to dive into the Bible for yourself.

I’m also going to keep everyone posted on the Sunday night cooking expos that I have with my neighbor Kathryn (who in the future will be referred to as NK (Neighbor Kathryn). This distinguishes her from Daughter Kathryn. Sunday night cooking expos should not be confused with any expert cooking blogs. NK and I are amateurs at best. For the last year, we have cooked dinner on Sunday evenings together…and the comic relief we have provided for our husbands is star-quality blog material. Sadly, they have not experienced nearly as much good food as they have laughs. It’s the thought that counts, right?

Hopefully, my love of structure will help me in my efforts to consistently post. Anyone out there willing to help me be accountable in this??

Just Stuff...

There is absolutely nothing going on in my head of which to write. So I have committed dead-head bloggy-ness with a list of only remotely interesting links and things:

I have bragged about this jewelry before, but I am totally in love with it. My good friend, Kimberly sells it - - and I’ve already accomplished 72% of my Christmas shopping on her website: www.stelladot.com/kimberlyjohnson

My niece Kristi sent me flowers yesterday because I am so special! Actually, she sent me flowers because I made Director with Scentsy (www.smellgoodie.scentsy.us). It’s kind of funny because I have a full-time job, which I love….but I started selling Scentsy in April of this year as a hobby. I am bowled over by the fact that now I have a team of nearly thirty people, and I am a DIRECTOR. It makes me smile just thinking about it…..not to mention, my house always smells good, and I have a nice amount of extra cash each month. Not a shabby deal I must say.

I think I may have a split personality (oh, not really!) because I talk all day long with Ph.D. economists about their careers, etc., and then I come home and talk to women about wickless candles. What can I say? I’m diversified.

This morning, I took Luke through the drive-thru at McDonald’s because someone forgot to pack his breakfast. He complimented the drive-thru lady for using her manners, so she sang a song to him. It was kind of sweet.

Thanksgiving…..so much to be thankful for….and that is what I’m going to continually remind myself of as we travel 9+ hours to Oklahoma tomorrow. Thankfully, we have the DVD player for Luke, and Kathryn will have her iPod.
One of my favorite reasons for thankfulness this year is that my mother-in-law is giving me her first set china. It’s the set that Larry’s father sent to her when he was in the Korean War. I never registered for China (gasp!), so this is over the top exciting (and precious) to me. I could go on and on about how much I love my mother-in-law….

Oh! One more thing! Did you know my Luke can shoot spider webs out of his…..? Yes, yes, he can. He told me all about it….

Happy Thanksgiving, friends!

RT (Re-Tweet) - 37 Days of Kindness

I get SO frustrated this time every year. Namely because buying presents for people and stressing out over the perfect gift is so NOT what Christmas is all about. My husband knows the tension is coming as I pull out the Christmas gift spreadsheet and start obsessing. Come the middle of November, my blood starts to boil and my mind becomes overwhelmed at the “task” ahead. Fighting the rush and the crowds to find ultimate gifts for friends and family is just not enjoyable to me. For the past few years I have done a lot of my shopping online, but even with that convenience, the buying-spending-hunting-stressing saga that defines the Christmas season is just plain ugliness to me.

This morning, I read Lysa Terkeurst’s blog post: 37 Days of Kindness. This was a timely post, and Lysa has inspired me to step away from the “rush” and the “frustration” and invest the next 37 days in loving people in honor of Jesus’ birthday.

I will not be able to stop the retail frenzy or holiday marketing efforts designed to encourage a season of spending. Neither can I change the expectations of gift-recipients in my own household; but I can change my own attitude….and Jesus can change my heart.

What better way to spend the next 37 days than to focus on showing love and kindness to other people. Maybe I buy someone a Starbucks….or maybe I buy a meal for a friend….or perhaps I simply make a point to call someone I haven’t called in a long time, just to let them know I’m thinking of them.

Who knows exactly….but I’ll be sure to keep you posted on how it’s shaping up.

May Jesus be the ONLY one to glory in this….may this be my birthday present to Him this Christmas!

Waiting.....for what?

I have been waiting.

For what, I’m unsure.

There has been a little (or a big) something that God and I have been working on weeding out of my life for the last three years. This is something that God has explicitly told me time and again NEEDS TO GO. So why, you ask, am I still holding on to it?

Because I’m waiting! I’m waiting for the day it will become easier to let go of this. I’m waiting for the perfect day in which there will be no craving or longing for this particular habit. And I’m waiting for the day when He just snatches it from me, and I am gloriously willing to be obedient.

Ha! And the joke is on me. Because waiting is just a state of limbo to which Satan has lured me. He has blinded me with lies of how “one day, I’ll wake up with the self-control to do this……but it doesn’t have to be today.”

This “thing” has been choking me for three years, people…..and you would think that I would willingly and humbly lay it down. Especially since I am a woman who loves God, a woman who desires God’s glory to be evident in her, and a woman who is serious about bible study!

Oh! But it’s not so easy to let go of that "thing" which provides so much comfort! This “thing” is a pleasure; it’s a friend; it’s enjoyable; and yes, it’s an idol. I have acquiesced to Satan’s lies of how I cannot live with out it because life would be less endurable. But is life just something we “endure”? What a bold-faced lie! Yes, the enemy has stood on my inheritance for years - taunting me with the threat of hopelessness of ever reaching the promised land.

…..and then Jesus said, “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.” John 10:10

Do I have to wait for this abundant life? Will there ever be a perfect day to surrender? No, for goodness sake – NO to both questions! Because I am a child of God (an heiress!), my rightful state of existence is a joyful, free life. I can choose to believe God will satisfy me even when I’m aching for a temporal fix. I can fall on my face and cry out to Him for fulfillment; for help; for deliverance. When I do this, He will faithfully provide.

I have been missing God’s best for me as I have danced with the lies of the enemy. However, I should tarry no longer…..his best is there for me today. And if I kid myself in saying, “I’ll wait for that perfect day when_____,” then, well, I’m just missing the best.

Dry and Tasteless

A couple of weeks ago, I posted on a Friday that I would be doing a 30 day blog series on Being Free.
Since you have yet to see Day One of this series, suffice it to say that I have been in a dry spell.

If I had not been reading Jennifer Rothschild's Self Talk Soul Talk, I would be calling myself a crazy fool for talking about a blog series I had yet to write. I guess I thought that if I promised the internet that I would be posting this - it would magically appear at my fingertips.

But oh no. Quite the opposite. I have learned the lesson that before I commit to a series - I should at least write it first. Some would call that common sense......but procrastinators and Type A frustrated perfectionists like myself call that a normal learning process. Fail First....then learn from the mistake.

My dry spell has been ugly......I'm in a "season" right now where for the last three weeks, I have existed on a vegetarian spiritual diet (i.e. no scriptural meat). I have gone through the motions, and now I'm tired of it. Who do I think I'm fooling? God knows He has gotten only leftovers from me. My heart has been hard, and when my alarm goes off in the morning.....instead of spending time with Him - I've hit snooze over and over again. The sad thing is, I am the one who suffers from this......not God. Yes, He misses that time because He quite enjoys it, too.....but I am the one who gets dehydrated...and joy-less.....and ugly.

Can anyone else identify with me? I know that we all can't be "on" all the time.....but I feel like such an Israelite. I know the wonders God has done in my life; I know the JOY of doing daily life with Him.....yet, I so quickly forget and convince myself that I can do this thing on my own.

Please, please leave me your comments.......tell me you know what I mean.....

Amy and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

So I don’t think I’m generally a negative person (at least I hope not)….but this morning as been hellacious. It’s not like I had a wreck, or got a flat tire, or even woke up an hour late (because those would be events worth my dramatic reactions). No, I just simply:


*didn't have my quiet time (a much needed practice for my sanity).

*left the house without my scarf (that was a crucial element to my outfit).

*walked out of the house with straight hair….and stepped into Houston Humidity. My hair immediately sprung into a frizzy, wavy mop…much to my chagrin.

*left the house without Luke’s football (which was a crucial element to his outfit….as he is a football player for Halloween…and today is trick-or-treating at preschool.)

*Larry spilled coffee all over the car.

*After dropping Luke off at school, I stopped at my usual convenience store to make my usual coffee-mixed-with-cappuccino - - only they didn’t have the usual cappuccino. I sucked this up and….

*went to the next convenience store, which ALSO did not have cappuccino mix. However, before I found this out….

*I slipped on their newly mopped tile.

*backed out and ran over a curb (minimal frustration….this is not an unusual occurrence for me).

*walked into the office and found an email from a client saying they owed me $13,000 less than our invoice reflects. Nice.


So today, I truly need to find the JOY in all of this. For the past hour, I have been telling myself over and over to change my attitude. This is even harder to do since I know I have a major case of PMS today (or so Larry tells me.)

In the big scheme of things, I can laugh about the trauma caused by leaving my scarf at home (I’m really not that vain).

I can laugh about my hair….because I just pulled it up into a ponytail. Take that, humidity.

I can shrug off the fact that I sent my son to school in an incomplete costume. I’m sure his teachers are actually thankful we forgot the football.

Larry cleaned up his coffee….so that wasn’t really my problem.

I did get my coffee on the third try, so I can smile at the obstacles this addict had to overcome to get her fix.

At least I know the convenience store was “clean”…..that’s stretching the positive outlook a bit….but I’m trying!

And I can deal with the client who wants to short me on the invoice. I am thankful I even have clients that pay their invoices!

But taking a trip to Australia would be nice.