The Familiar “New Year” Post… December 31, 2007
Posted by servingthesavior in life.1 comment so far
I decided to post one of those cheesy new year posts that no doubt millions of people have posted or will post. It’s just nice to write down things you hope to achieve in the new year, etc. This way, you have something to look back at, in case you lose sight of your goals… So here goes!
First of all, I thought it would be beneficial to list a few things I want to eliminate from my life in 2008.
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First, I want to eliminate complaining from my life. I complain entirely too much and it’s time I focus on what I have instead of what I don’t have. My aunt told me about a book she read that helped her to eliminate complaining from her life. I doubt that I will read it because it was written by Unitarian Universalist minister (the kind of “church” she attends) and I have SERIOUS issues with their beliefs. I do, however, agree with the need to eliminate complaining from our lives. She told me the basic premise of the book and I plan to try it.
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Second, I want to eliminate all forms of entertainment from my life that doesn’t glorify God. This one will be hard with all the shows on TV and all the movies that are out. The TV has been a major part of life in my house, and I intend to change that.
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Finally, I plan to eliminate as much ungodly and unholy thinking from my life. This will be the hardest thing to eliminate because I may profess Christ with my mouth, but who I really am lies in what I think about when I’m by myself. How I respond internally to a situation I don’t agree with. What I think about when something happens that upsets me. It’s hard for me to explain this, so I’ll go to God’s word. Here are some verses that made me decide on this final and most important decision:
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Job 21:27 states “I know full well what you are thinking, and the schemes by which you would wrong me.”
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Psalm 94:11 states “The Lord knows the thoughts of man; He knows that they are futile.”
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There are others, but basically I take this from these verses: if God knows my thoughts, I want ALL of my thoughts to be pure. God knows every single thing that goes through our mind. We always assume our innermost thoughts are private and there is no way others can know what we’re thinking. God knows. We might as well yell our thoughts at the top of our lungs into a microphone.
Next, some things I want to achieve by December 31, 2008:
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For the first time, losing weight isn’t at the top of my “to do” list for the new year. No, this year the top of my to do list is to grow closer to God. I want to keep growing in the Word and live my life in God to the fullest. I want to learn everyting I can about my Lord and Savior this year.
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Now the weight thing. I always have the goal of losing weight at the beginning of the year. This year is no different. Hopefully I will actually be successful with this goal, unlike other years. This isn’t so much about how I look this time though. I developed high blood pressure this year, which was a big scare for me. I NEED to lose weight to help keep my blood pressure under control. When you have wake up call like that, it becomes a big deal to lose the weight you KNOW you need to get off.
These are the only goals I’m setting for myself. I hope to achieve these and many more things throughout 2008, but I’m limiting myself to these “must do’s” for the year.
I wish everyone a safe and happy new year and I pray everyone will accomplish their goals through the coming year!
I know…It’s been FOREVER! December 22, 2007
Posted by servingthesavior in life.add a comment
Sorry for not posting in so long. As I mentioned before, my back has been giving me all kinds of trouble. Fortunately it’s doing a lot better now. I’m still going to have to get a check-up to see if any further damage has been done, which I will be doing soon, but I’m functioning now. So, enough about that.
I did well in school this semester. All A’s except for one stupid B in an English class. There is always one class that keeps me from having a 4.0. ALWAYS. Even in high school. I shouldn’t complain. Some people would LOVE those grades. I just hate working SO HARD and falling just the tiniest bit short. But hey, that’s life!
So, in case you didn’t know, my favorite holiday is CHRISTMAS! I am so excited it’s coming up on Tuesday! I will see my family and it’s going to be great. More exciting than that is actually considering the real reason for Christmas, something I didn’t do before.
Anyway, I’ll post a more “meaningful” blog after the holiday. For now I just want to wish everyone a MERRY CHRISTMAS!
PAIN! December 9, 2007
Posted by servingthesavior in life.2 comments
Sorry I’ve been slightly incommunicado lately. I’ve been in severe pain the last few days. As some of you know, I have back issues–big time. I have several discs in my lumbar and one in my thoracic spine that are bulging and on the verge of herniation. This causes me frequent pain that I’ve been learning to live with. Thursday, though, I had a sudden, severe pain start in my mid-back. This pain has not yet let up, which worries me that maybe the problem disc in that area has finally given way. If this is so, surgery could be the only treatment.
I don’t know anything yet, but usually sudden severe pain with nothing to cause it usually indicates a major problem. I’m going to make an appointment with my spine doctor the first of next week (unless this pain mysteriously goes away), and will probably be getting another MRI to see what’s going on. I guess treatment will be discussed from there. However, in the mean time, I can barely move. There are only a few places I can be without experiencing horrible pain-sitting in the recliner or in my computer chair (which explains my ability to be online). I’m putting off going to bed because I know it will be a night of tossing and turning in pain and when I finally do sleep, I will no doubt wake up stiff and in excrutiating pain which has been lasting about 6 hours into the day. This pain has kept me from leaving the house since class Friday and I probably won’t be able to leave tomorrow. I would skip school next week if it weren’t finals week. I just hope I can drive. Anyway, please be praying for me that this can be taken care of — especially without surgery!
Oh, on the upside, I know I just complained about it, but I really am trying to use this time to my benefit. It’s given me time to study my Bible and my finals. In a way, this pain has kept me home and focused on what I need to be focused on, rather than out enjoying myself for the weekend as I probably would have done!
Undoubtedly, I am still working on this “Being happy in my hard times” thing!
Be Glad When You’re Depressed December 3, 2007
Posted by servingthesavior in Uncategorized.1 comment so far
I read the book of Philippians this weekend, and I learned two things that were specific to my current situation.
1. In reading about how Paul was joyful about his imprisonment, God revelaed to me that I have not been joyful in the hard times I have been experiencing lately. Refer to my first post to learn a little more about my “hard times.” Instead of getting discouraged like I was, I should have been praising God for the opportunity to trust and grow closer to Him! We should always rejoice when given the opportunity to allow God to work in our lives!
2. Philippians 2:14-15:
Do everything without complaining or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shile like stars in the universe.
I am the world’s worst about complaining when asked to do something I don’t particularly want to do! If I’m asked to do something I don’t want to do, I may not complain outwardly, but inwardly, let me tell you. I know now that I must do EVERYTHING with JOY and THANKSGIVING. Not just the things I want to do. Let me tell you, this isn’t easy either. This is one area of my life I am going to have to pray hard about since it’s one of my most difficult areas. I
t’s difficult but not impossible.
Things I’ve Noticed… December 1, 2007
Posted by servingthesavior in salvation..1 comment so far
I’ve noticed something recently. I love how, since my salvation, I have begun making connections and noticing things that never even occurred to me before. Now, every time I even have a thought that I know is not pleasing to God, I immediately notice it and feel guilty. Every time I say or do something that God isn’t pleased with, I’m immediately remorseful. This may seem like something that is blatantly obvious to most people, especially those who have been saved for a while. It wasn’t like that for me before, though. Before I was saved I might feel guilty and ask forgiveness if I did something that was obviously sinful. If I told a lie or took the Lord’s name in vain, for instance. However, one thing I hardly ever noticed was when I’d have a sinful thought. I never even thought about what went on in my mind as being sin. Many times I could sin and never feel the slightest remorse. It got to where some of my sins became habitual, never even giving me the slightes bit of trouble to commit. It never occurred to me (before October) that “HEY! Maybe that signals a problem!”
I know now that I can’t live with Jesus in my heart as well as unconfessed sin. I literally grieve when I slip up. I am working on keeping God in control of my life and not being so quick to try and handle things myself. I am so desperate to try and live a pure and holy life that I don’t stop to consider that our human nature sometimes makes that difficult. I am still guilty of trying to do things to fix the problem rather than confessing my sin and asking God to help me live a life that is pleasing to Him each and every day. Without Him, it is impossible to live a holy life, yet I continue to make the mistake of trying. My prayer is that I will grow and mature in Christ and eventually not struggle so much with this particular problem.
I hope anyone who reads this understands what I mean. Sometimes I am guilty of spilling my heart out on the keyboard in a way that makes perfect sense to me, but absolutely no sense to anyone else. But, if it does make sense, does anyone else struggle with this? I get frustrated sometimes when I make these mistakes continually, even though I try my best not to.
Living with our flesh is a constant struggle, though. God never said the Christian life was easy. Before October, I thought it was easy! I was living life the way I wanted, because in my mind, I had signed up for “fire insurance” back in 1999. I understand now that salvation is truly the most amazing gift I’ve ever received, but living the christian life definitely isn’t easy!
Thanks to a challenge I read in another blog, I began reading the book of Ephesians. In reading, I found something that can be one of my reference points for helping me live a life that is pleasing to God.
Ephesians 4:1-6
1As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. 2Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. 3Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bodn of peace. 4There is one body and one Spirit–just as you were called to one hope when you were called–5one Lord, one faith, one baptism; 6one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.
These words just jumped off the page at me. Praise God that with His help, we can accomplish this!
The Great To-Do List December 1, 2007
Posted by servingthesavior in school.1 comment so far
So, here is what I have to do by December 12:
- Get Leadership clinical worked out
- Finish Peds Paper
- Finish Essay for Comp
- Finish 4 careplans for Peds Clinical
- Write Paper for Community
- Finish Study Guide/Study for Peds Test
- Study for Peds and Comp Finals
- Present community assessment findings
I’m sure there’s more, but this is all I can think of right now. There is an awful lot of writing assignments in that list…I better get moving! Guess I know what I’ll be doing this weekend.
