The Floater.

The floater saves our lives while we're at work. Or rather, our sanity.


No such luck tonight.


No floater.

I Luff My Car.

35 MPG.


nuff said.

His Beauty. My Encouragement.

My mind and my spirit are tired. I would benefit from a cabin in the woods with a porch and a chair and some hot chocolate right about now. Sometimes I just feel like that little bug... so small and hanging on during an unexpected and unpredictable ride...


But, I am so grateful that Jesus has all the time in the world to lift us up. Yet He also creates, paints, and arranges to encourage us with His beauty...

Timely.

"Who is the man who reverently fears and worships the Lord? Him shall He teach in the way that he should choose. He himself shall dwell at ease."

Psalm 25:12-13 AMP




Jesus, please make this my reality tonight.

That Thing Called Love.

Love is handing your heart to someone and taking the risk that they will hand it back because they don’t want it. That’s why it’s such a crushing ache on the inside. We gave away a part of ourselves and it wasn’t wanted.

Love is a giving away of power. When we love, we give the other person the power in the relationship. They can do what they choose. They can do what they like with our love. They can reject it, they can accept it, they can step toward us in gratitude and appreciation.

Love is a giving away. When we love, we put ourselves out there, we expose ourselves, we allow ourselves to be vulnerable.

Love is giving up control. It’s surrendering the desire to control the other person. The two—love and controlling power over the other person—are mutually exclusive. If we are serious about loving someone, we have to surrender all of the desires within us to manipulate the relationship.

...

You don’t need a man by your side to validate you as a woman. You already are loved and valued. You’re good enough exactly as you are. Do you believe this? Because it’s true. You have limitless worth and value. If you embrace this truth, it will affect every area of life, especially your relationship with men.

You are worth dying for.

Your worth does not come from your body, your mind, your work, what you produce, what you put out, how much money you make. Your worth does not come from whether or not you have a man. Your worth does not come from whether or not men notice you. You have inestimable worth that comes from your creator.

You will continue to be tempted in a thousand different ways not to believe this. The temptation will be to go searching for your worth and validity from places other than your creator.

Especially from men.

But you don’t have to give yourself away to earn a man’s love. You’re better than that. You’re already loved.

When you give too much of yourself away too quickly, when you show too much skin, you’re not being true to yourself. When you dress to show us everything, then in some sense we have all shared in it, or at least been exposed to it. There is a mystery to you, infinite depth and endless complexity…

Your strength is a beautiful thing. And when you live in it, when you carry yourself with the honor and dignity that are yours, it forces the men around you to relate to you on more than just a flesh level.

You are worth dying for.

If you’re dating someone, what kind of a man is he? Does he demonstrate that he’s the kind of man who would die for you? What is his posture toward the world? Does he serve, or is he waiting to be served? Does he believe that he’s owed something, that he’s been shortchanged, that he’s gotten the short end of the stick, that life owes him something? Or is he out to see what he can give? Does he see himself as being here to make the world a better place?

These are big questions you need to ask yourself.

Take him to a family reunion. Do some sort of service project with him. See how he interacts with people he doesn’t like.

Does he have liquid agape running through his veins? …

Can you tell him anything? Is he safe? Can he be trusted?

Can you open up to him, allowing yourself to be vulnerable, knowing that he will protect, not exploit that vulnerability?

Are you opening up like a flower?

When you live in your true identity, when you find your worth and value in your creator, when you live “in Christ,” in who you really are, you force him to rethink what it means to be a man.


Sex God, Rob Bell

The Dog in My Life

I've got . . .

friends in...

low places...

p.s. kudos to mom for the idea! : )

Your Book is In.

The library called to say that one of my requested books was on hold, so now I am reading Amish Grace. I am thoroughly enjoying it; plus, it's helpful to read more about my neighbors especially when it comes to "explaining" their lifestyle and beliefs to people who ask me if I am Amish. Ha.

I recommend this book!! It's not difficult reading, but definitely thought-provoking!

Summer Update

Time for another update. However monotonous it may be.

Life continues to sail along, of course. Thankfully, I've been given many more hours of work than I was expecting at the beginning of the summer. It's still not the amount I'd prefer, but since it's about 4x as much as initially given, I am extremely grateful!

I am enjoying work a bit more than I did last year; probably because I'm not at the end of the summer yet. It's still challenging and frustrating at times, and my patience is constantly being stretched and grown. But, it is a nice change to feel like I know at least a bit more what is going on... more confidence in my own skills and abilities.

I realized today that one+ month of summer vacation has already vanished! I've been doing a lot more (fun!) reading than I accomplished during the school year. Although in the last week or two the reading has slowed, so I need to pick up the pace a bit. I've finished a few of the books on my ever-growing list, and am looking forward to reading more.

I am most definitely looking forward to finally enjoying a complete weekend off! I have worked the last three weekends, so it will be nice to relax and hang out with family... maybe a fire pit and smores some night???

That'll have to do for now.

Laugh Lines are the Good Kind of Wrinkles

*One note: I think this probably came as an attachment on an email or something. I'm not condoning all lifestyles or opinions, but thought the majority were worth a smile.

• If you take an Oriental person and spin him around several times, does he become disoriented?
• Why do we say something is out of whack? What's a whack?
• If a pig losses its voice, is it disgruntled?
• If love is blind, why is lingerie so popular?
• When someone asks you "a penny for your thoughts?" and you "put your two cents in," what happens to the other penny? Or do you get change?
• Why is the person who invests all your money called a broker?
• Why do croutons come in airtight packages? It's just stale bread to begin with.
• Why are a wise man and wise guy opposites?
• Why do overlook and oversee mean opposite things?
• Why isn't 11 pronounced "onety one"?
• "I am" is reportedly the shortest sentence in the English language. Could it be that "I do" is the longest sentence? (again, sad...)
• If lawyers are disbarred and clergymen defrocked, doesn't it follow that electricians can be delighted, musicians denoted, cowboys deranged, models deposed, tree surgeons debarked, and dry cleaners depressed?
• If Fed Ex and UPS were to merge, would they call it Fed UP?
• Do Lipton Tea employees take coffee breaks?
• What hair color do they put on the driver's licenses of bald men?
• I was thinking about how people seem to read the Bible a whole lot more as they get older, then it dawned on me. They're cramming for their final exam.
• I thought about how mothers feed their babies with tiny little spoons and forks. So I wonder, what do Chinese mothers use? Toothpicks?
• Why do they put pictures of criminals up in the Post Office? What are we supposed to do, write to them? Why don't they just put their pictures on the postage stamps so the mailmen could look for them while they delivered the mail?
• If it's true that we are here to help others, then what exactly are the others here for?
• You never really learn to swear until you learn to drive.
• No one ever says, "It's only a game," when their team is winning.
• Ever wonder what the speed of lighting would be if it didn't zigzag?
• Last night I played a blank tape at full volume. The mime next door went nuts.
• If a cow laughed, would milk come out her nose?