Recently, our toilet seat broke. It doesn't matter how or why it broke. There was a large crack across one side. In case you have not had the experience of sitting on a broken toilet seat, it can be unpleasant. Two uneven pieces of wood when sat upon may not be so bad. UNTIL....one tries to rise from said seat. We will leave it at an uncomfortable pinching occurs. OUCH!
It only takes a time (OK, or possibly 2, duh!) of being pinched before arrangements start to be made to fix the problem. I will confirm that for a short time, tape of the duct variety did come into play. Surprise? (not really if you know us well!)
I will confess that some of my thought processes do occur while in that same room said toilet is located. I started to ponder the paths of my procrastination and the lengths I will sometimes go to avoid dealing with life.
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Lessons from my toilet seat:
(THAT could be a new blog or book title! - not sure anyone would want to read it!)
It doesn't always matter how or why something isn't working. If it is not working enough, fix it or stop complaining.
When life becomes uncomfortable, change it or live with it. It is frequently a choice. Sometimes between the lesser of two evils, but still a choice.
There may be a temporary solution to the problem. Temporary solutions are not usually long-term fixes.
Sometimes we need to get in a bit of a pinch before an issue becomes a big enough priority to DO something about it.
Many times things that we think will take TOO long to deal with? In reality, take mere minutes in proportion to how long we would worry about it by NOT dealing with it.
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Drum roll please?!?!?!?!
One of the first things I did today? Buy a new toilet seat. Already installed. Problem solved.
Thursday, March 31, 2016
Wednesday, March 23, 2016
Grace. Amazing!
Probably all of us by now have heard some form of the song, Amazing Grace. There are older hymn versions, newer hip versions, instrumentals, etc. No matter the form....that song gets to me every time.....usually tears are involved.
The word grace has been coming up a lot in my life. Maybe just because I seem more tuned into it lately.
From merriam-webster.com GRACE:
The word grace has been coming up a lot in my life. Maybe just because I seem more tuned into it lately.
From merriam-webster.com GRACE:
a : unmerited divine assistance given humans for their regeneration or sanctification
b : a virtue coming from God
c : a state of sanctification enjoyed through divine grace
As Easter approaches, I think about grace. So undeserved. So valuable. Amazing grace, but also grace...amazing!
That someone would know all about me (even/especially the bad parts) and love me enough to stand in my place for the punishment I DESERVE is grace.
Wanting to avoid the suffering, but doing it anyway is grace.
Knowing truth and sharing it is grace.
Not always understanding the why, but struggling through doubts and unbelief is grace.
Matthew 27:50-54 (NIV) And when Jesus had cried out again in a loud voice, he gave up his spirit.At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth shook, the rocks split and the tombs broke open. The bodies of many holy people who had died were raised to life. They came out of the tombs after Jesus’ resurrection and went into the holy city and appeared to many people.
When the centurion and those with him who were guarding Jesus saw the earthquake and all that had happened, they were terrified, and exclaimed, “Surely he was the Son of God!”
Have you ever been on the receiving end of someone not extending much grace or favor in a situation? Have you ever been on the giving end of not extending much grace or favor in a situation? What does grace look like to you?
Thursday, January 14, 2016
Less Later
I've already 'fessed up numerous times about being a procrastinator. Probably more than you like or need to read about. However, I'm guessing I'm not the only one (did a song just run through your head?) I digress. WHICH is probably a LOT of my problem(s)?!?!?!? There are times my mind feels like a hamster wheel. Spinning. and spinning. Getting nowhere.
New Year/January always seems to be worse for me. I think it is because I am more aware that I thought some things would be different by now. Honestly, they are. Change just comes so slowly sometimes that it is hard to notice when you're in it everyday. While change seems slow, days seem to fly by. It's already almost the middle of January. I have been in accounting and payroll for many years now so I think that plays a factor too. There is much to be done at work and always, seemingly, at home.
In both places, home and work, I've been trying to make myself follow the "touch it once and be done" rule. Trying would be a key word in that sentence. This means, especially in regards to my nemesis of paper, get it, take care of it and be done (meaning file DON'T pile). If you have been to my office or my house, you would know that this is a real struggle for me. I like to collect quotes and little tidbits of info that others may or may not appreciate. I think I'll find a use for something LATER (see where this is heading?) so I hold on to it which leads to piles.
I even catch myself often saying I'll take care of/do that LATER. (insert maniacal scream here) WHEN exactly IS later?
So. I know what I need to do. I need to do it. NOW. Quite honestly, we are not promised later. Maybe that will become my motivation. As Scarlet O'Hara says at the end of Gone With the Wind, "tomorrow is another day." It is. Today is another day too. The tomorrow I thought about yesterday. My later. Your later. Want to join me on less laters? More nows?
Matthew 6:34 (NIV) Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.
Proverbs 27:1 (NIV) Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring.
New Year/January always seems to be worse for me. I think it is because I am more aware that I thought some things would be different by now. Honestly, they are. Change just comes so slowly sometimes that it is hard to notice when you're in it everyday. While change seems slow, days seem to fly by. It's already almost the middle of January. I have been in accounting and payroll for many years now so I think that plays a factor too. There is much to be done at work and always, seemingly, at home.
In both places, home and work, I've been trying to make myself follow the "touch it once and be done" rule. Trying would be a key word in that sentence. This means, especially in regards to my nemesis of paper, get it, take care of it and be done (meaning file DON'T pile). If you have been to my office or my house, you would know that this is a real struggle for me. I like to collect quotes and little tidbits of info that others may or may not appreciate. I think I'll find a use for something LATER (see where this is heading?) so I hold on to it which leads to piles.
I even catch myself often saying I'll take care of/do that LATER. (insert maniacal scream here) WHEN exactly IS later?
So. I know what I need to do. I need to do it. NOW. Quite honestly, we are not promised later. Maybe that will become my motivation. As Scarlet O'Hara says at the end of Gone With the Wind, "tomorrow is another day." It is. Today is another day too. The tomorrow I thought about yesterday. My later. Your later. Want to join me on less laters? More nows?
Matthew 6:34 (NIV) Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.
Proverbs 27:1 (NIV) Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring.
Thursday, December 31, 2015
A Different New Year
A Different New Year
We started the year with you here
Now it's been months with you gone.
The days go so slow, but already a new
year will begin.
I pick up the phone to call you a few
times a week
I still haven't erased your number from
my phone
It hurts to not get calls from you or
hugs or I love yous
It hurts because you were loved
We drive past the cemetery
We stop when we can
Even though it's just a slab in the
ground
It helps to be near you
To think of you
We look at pictures
Of you
With us
We smile through tears
As we remember
I've learned some things to start this
New Year
Not resolutions, they don't seem to
last.
Patience.
Not to take people or the time
they so willingly share for granted.
To smile more.
To hug more.
To say I love you MORE.
TODAY when possible not put off for
tomorrow
because tomorrow become todays and
yesterdays.
Yesterdays are what we remember
But we will continue to live in today
So we'll start our different new year
Like a new chapter in an ongoing book
Characters will come and love and leave
This is not The End...
kl 12-31-15
Friday, December 25, 2015
For When It Hurts
We can KNOW all the right information, but when we hurt? We are not always thinking or focusing on the information we know. Our feelings/emotions can get in the way. We hurt and that is the only thing right then that we are sure of.
As the world seems to continue growing darker and fear continues to try to invade our hearts, minds and spirits, we need a little/lot of peace on Earth, joy, and HOPE.
Hope as defined by dictionary.com:
Maybe this year has been less ideal than most. Our family dealt with death more close up than we had in a long time when my father-in-law passed away in August. One life ripples into so many others. Sometimes in ways we are not even aware of until much later. He was a husband, father, grandpa, brother, uncle, friend.....
I am finding comfort in remembering that God sent Jesus into this corrupted world to bring hope not just for then, but for now too. Jesus came as a baby. Innocent. He grew up. Made friends. Lost friends. When he lost one of his close friends to death:
Jesus wept. John 11:35
We don't cry alone. God did not intend the world to be this way. A world with pain and suffering. My heart hurts when I see my children hurt. How God must feel the pain of His children and want to step in with comfort. We, like our own children sometimes push us away, sometimes push Him away. To do it on our own. Too proud to acknowledge dependence on somebody else.
God sent Jesus to this world because the alternative is that we would live our time on this fallen sphere and then we die. God sent us Jesus so that we can live with the assurance that THIS? This is not all there is. He sent Jesus to experience what we experience. For when it hurts.
1 Peter 1:3 (NIV)
Praise to God for a Living Hope
3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,
As the world seems to continue growing darker and fear continues to try to invade our hearts, minds and spirits, we need a little/lot of peace on Earth, joy, and HOPE.
Hope as defined by dictionary.com:
to look forward to with desire and reasonable confidence
to believe, desire, or trust:
For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Isaiah 9:6 (NIV)
It is easy to feel hopeless or less hopeful than we normally would when life seems to block our view of the Jesus of Christmas (birth) and Easter (death and resurrection). Sometimes we focus on one based on the time of the year. In order to see the BIG picture though, we need to remember both.
For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Isaiah 9:6 (NIV)
It is easy to feel hopeless or less hopeful than we normally would when life seems to block our view of the Jesus of Christmas (birth) and Easter (death and resurrection). Sometimes we focus on one based on the time of the year. In order to see the BIG picture though, we need to remember both.
Maybe this year has been less ideal than most. Our family dealt with death more close up than we had in a long time when my father-in-law passed away in August. One life ripples into so many others. Sometimes in ways we are not even aware of until much later. He was a husband, father, grandpa, brother, uncle, friend.....
I am finding comfort in remembering that God sent Jesus into this corrupted world to bring hope not just for then, but for now too. Jesus came as a baby. Innocent. He grew up. Made friends. Lost friends. When he lost one of his close friends to death:
Jesus wept. John 11:35
We don't cry alone. God did not intend the world to be this way. A world with pain and suffering. My heart hurts when I see my children hurt. How God must feel the pain of His children and want to step in with comfort. We, like our own children sometimes push us away, sometimes push Him away. To do it on our own. Too proud to acknowledge dependence on somebody else.
God sent Jesus to this world because the alternative is that we would live our time on this fallen sphere and then we die. God sent us Jesus so that we can live with the assurance that THIS? This is not all there is. He sent Jesus to experience what we experience. For when it hurts.
John 3:16-17: For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.
1 Peter 1:3 (NIV)
Praise to God for a Living Hope
3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,
If you are hurting right now more than normal? The following is my prayer for you. Make it your prayer too.
Ephesians1:17-19 I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people, and his incomparably great power for us who believe.
Amen and Amen!
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