Mai has had this princess magazine for about a year now and there was a recipe in it for a cookie pizza. I've been promising her we would make it for like...well, a year now. We finally got around to it - spent about $15 on ingredients and when all was said and done, ick. No one liked what I did to sweeten the cream cheese "sauce" so although we had a really good time making it, most of it went in the trash :-(
Mai is very into fashion. I let her pick out her own clothes (or rather, she does what she wants and I have little say in the matter)...teen years are going to be
H.
A.
R.
D.
Anyways, I love this outfit she put together. She says she gets a little nervous these days if things don't match quite right. This ensemble was perfect she said - polka dots on top and bottom and 3 matching black accessories. In her world, tights worn by themselves are perfectly acceptable.
ok, on to PDL ~ My interest has wavered along these last few chapters in the past, but this time they are really speaking to me. Here's just a few standout phrases and sentences for me.
I had bookmarked something back on Day12 that I'm not sure I mentioned before. "You are as close to God as you choose to be." I think for the most part this is true. We have choices to make and when we feel very distant from God I think we have to look at the choices we are making to realize it is not God that is distant from us, but the other way around. In Day 14, he says, "The most common mistake Christians make in worship today is seeking an experience rather than seeking God." I often pray to God, please just show me that you are here right now...
it's to make myself feel better or to just feel Him. I think for the most part it is to comfort myself, but it's also often to just feel Him because being obviously in his presence is the most wonderful feeling of all. However, we are to praise Him for who He is, not for our own "feeling".
Day 16 had me highlighting like crazy. "Often we act as if relationships are something to be squeezed into our schedule. We talk about finding time time for our children or making time for people in our lives. That gives the impression that relationships are just a part of our lives along with many other tasks. BUT GOD SAYS RELATIONSHIPS ARE WHAT LIFE IS ALL ABOUT...
Relationships, not achievements or the acquisition of things, are what matters most in life. So why do we allow our relationships to get the short end of the stick? When our schedules become overloaded, we start skimming relationally, cutting back on giving the time, energy, and attention that loving relationships require. What's most important to God is displaced by what's urgent."
I have just been missing the point of all of this thing called life. My path is once again giving me the opportunity to choose what is right and best and ultimately freedom. Will I choose it this time or just keep going past like usual?
P127 "The most desired gift of love is not diamonds or roses or chocolate. it is focused attention. Love concentrates so intently on another that you forget yourself at that moment." My thoughts totally went to my children here...then on to other people, but my children first.
I loved page 128 under The Best Time to Love is Now.
Totally convicted by day 17s thought "It may seem easier to be holy when no one else is around to frustrate your preferences, but that is a false, untested holiness. Isolation breeds deceitfulness; it is easy to fool ourselves into thinking we are mature if there is no one to challenge us. Real maturity shows up in relationships." and also "God wants you to love real people, not ideal people."
ok, just looked at the clock and realized it's time to wake the boy up. He missed three days of school this week and tomorrow starts Spring break so I'm going to try to slip him in for one day so he can do his much practiced Pinguin Speech today.
4 comments:
I can't believe you didn't like the fruit pizza, I love fruit pizza!!
In the PDL study, the part, you can be as close to God as you choose to be stuck out to me too. Just like every relationship I need to work at this one too. And I can't always praise God only when I FEEL like it. Like the book says, even if He never did anything else for me, He sent his son to die on the cross and that is worth everything!
Hey, if you get a chance will you e-mail me, I just wanted to ask you something! abigaildavis@sbcglobal.net Thanks!
Catch up time for me again. Julie I responded to Chapter 10 on the march 11th blog. I've been really strugglig for the last couple weeks...really struggling.
First I want to say that Chapter 14 hit me HARD. Oh, how I cried. I need to work more on the "open dialogue" instead of just plain ole boring prayer!!! I loved how this chapter suggested letting it all out...rejoice, complain, etc. LOVE that.
Chapter 15 - my notes say YIPES. I have not been baptized and am not comfortable with it. I have watched some at our church - they do it during service (that is something I am not comfortable with). Feelings that come up are FEAR OF FAILURE right off the bat. Failure at being a good Christian, failure at following thru... I do not want to take this step until I am 100% comfortable and prepared. I feel horrible even saying this, BUT it is how I feel. I am not "there" yet.
Chapter 16 - My first thought is that my hub needs to read this. I have worked hard over the last year re: relationships. There is still much to do, but I have seen the changes and felt the benefits. BUT...I need to focus on my marriage in this regard too. It has started, and will be a slow process.
Chapter 17 - my level of involvement is attendance ONLY. I don't get involved in anything that the church offers - well, I did attend the viewing of Fireproof one night, but didn't sign up for the classes that followed.
Chapter 18 - I have decided that I will take a look at small groups and may join one at the church. Once again, it has everything to do with comfort level both in the people and the subject matter. What I do NOT like is that they are on Sunday evenings. maybe someone out there feels the same way I do and they'll hold them on another night?
Seems selfish I know. Sunday is the ONLY day the hub doesn't work so I rely on that day to have help from him and get caught up.
Gosh the more honest I am about this stuff, the worse I feel!!!
~Helen
Good Morning, Helen! I was so happy to see your comments when I woke up this morning. It means so much to me to share this book with you!! With all you girls!
In Chapter 14, he mentions "When you are a baby Christian, God give you a lot of confirming emotions and often answer the most immature, self-centered prayers - so you'll know he exists. But as you grow in faith, he will wean you of these dependencies."
Did you experience that yourself? I totally did. I SO miss that first year when I felt so surrounded by Him. Sometimes I so long for that "feeling" that I actually pray to Him for it. It's so incredible of a feeling for us that we want it all the time and when I do overwhelmingly feel Him, like in church last night as I silently wept through pretty much all of it, I am again reassured that He IS with me even in the times ahead when I will feel more of a distant, I have the faith that He is real.
I think that you are so hard on yourself. Your comments on Ch 15, 16, 17, and 18 sound a LOT like me :o)
I also haven't been baptized as an adult. Pastor Warren says "Baptism is not an optional ritual, to be delayed or postponed. It signifies your inclusion in God's family. It publicly announces to the world, "I am not ashamed to be a part of God's family." When you read on further down the page, he indicates what it is...but never does it say that you need to "there" yet. You say you want to be 100% comfortable and prepared. What you do mean by this statement? Do you mean you don't feel you know enough about Him? Do you feel that you are not sure He is real? Talk to me on this point so I can understand more. I kind of flew by this point after a teeny tiny bit of thought when I read this chapter. I am SO glad you brought it back up!!!!!
Ohhhhhh...I had so many sentences marked with sticky notes on this chapter and when I didn't get around to posting on them, I used the notes elsewhere. This was def a chapter that hit home with me. I have a fairly small circle of family - my first priority to Steve, Jack and Mai (and I fall quite short here ) and then on to my parents and brother and his family. Then on to my extended family and my friends. When I break it down like that, it seems simple what I need to work on.
As he says, "The Best Expression of Love is Time." These are words to live by!!!!
Helen,
I think that two things have brought me much closer to God - kept me from becoming a loner and that is 1) attending church regularly. For me, this has sometimes been sporadic but I've been really making an effort to go every week and I feel it making a big difference in me to be surrounded by believers. The second thing was small groups. It has taken me 3 bible studies now to start to get comfortable. Actually last bible study we had a very small group of about 6 women and I got really comfortable with the experience. This time I'm in a group of about 15 or 20 and it feels so huge and several of the woman are just so wonderful and outspoken and GET IT...that I feel any comment I might make will be so pale in comparison to their understanding that it's uncomfortable for me again...BUT I am learning SO MUCH!!!! I will press on!! It's not about me and my insecurities.
I love your honesty and wish I had more of it!! Please do not feel bad, because I think you are wonderful!!!!and I love that you have taken this study to heart and are so committed to it. My heart swells!!
I just reread my comment and some of it just didn't make sense :o)
The paragraph that started with ohhhhhhhh was about Chapter 16.
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