Getting unstuck in my walk with Christ - Day 16

One of my best friends popped by this afternoon and so any plans I had made to organize this evening went out the window - but I'm super excited and thankful that she came by!  This'll be a short post, but I at least wanted to stay on track ;-)


Cleaning...
     Today was another fairly slow day but I did manage to get a few things done.  I've realized that it helps a great deal to keep my mind on staying intentional and persevering to the end.  I just repeat the mantra, "be intentional, be intentional" over and over in my mind and I can make it through even the most mundane of tasks (more on the mundane tomorrow).

So accomplishments:
- all coupons are clipped
- all old coupons are thrown away
- all current coupons are filed away
- maintenance cleaning is still going well!!
- dishes were put away
- some newspapers were gone through
- some snail mail was dealt with
- some random articles about Buffy I had laying around (haha) were read and recycled
- and email is back down to manageable levels...


Spiritual reflections...
"You are going to come across words and sentences that stab you awake to a beauty and hope that will connect you with your real life." - Eugene H. Peterson

What a great view of the love story that we have so easily available at our fingertips!

John 8:31-32 says >>

31  So Jesus said to the Jews 

who had believed him, 

"If you abide in my word, 

you are truly My disciples,

32  and you will know the truth, 

and the truth will set you free."

-Is truth setting me free? [question from Chapter 7 of Unstuck]
     Many times truth does set me free.  I anxiously await those glorious moments when Christ's love fills me with awe and admiration and I cannot believe that I am His wife and am always wrapped in His arms.  But honestly, my depression and loneliness does occasionally bring me away from the freedom that truth brings.  When I fall into these feelings, it's a downward spiral that sucks me in and refuses to let me go.  I don't even want these feelings to let me go when I'm stuck in their bondage.  That's what's so weird about feeling down...once you're there, you just crave more and more.  I know these feelings will always be a part of me (brain chemistry is simply a fact of life, says scientist me), but I also know that, with Christ's help, I don't have to be in bondage to them.  His joy, love, and freedom can fill me with the utmost sense of completeness and fulfillment...I just have to be willing to not crave the shackles.

     I have resolved to memorize 2 Peter 1:3-11 to help keep my mind on higher things and to remember the great promises that I have in Christ Jesus >>

3  His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness,

through the knowledge of Him who called us to His own glory and excellence,

4  by which He has granted to us His precious and very great promises,

so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature,

having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire.

5  For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue,

and virtue with knowledge, 6 and knowledge with self-control,

and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness,

7  and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love.

8  For if these qualities are yours and are increasing,

they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful

in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

9  For whoever lacks these qualities is so nearsighted that he is blind,

having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins.

10  Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent 

to confirm your calling and election, for if you practice these qualities

you will never fall.  11  For in this way there will be richly provided for you

an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

State-of-mind pic of the day
Ngorongoro Crater, TZE (taken by me)