Where do I put a Bible app?

I like my phone.  I like that it lets me communicate with people.  I like that I can listen to books and music with it.  I like that I can play games, watch movies, access the internet, track my weight loss and work with documents.  I like apps…..too many apps.  Every once in awhile, I feel the need to organize my apps.  So far, I have twelve folders set up for my apps.  There are folders for books, connections, education, health, food, games, money, music, travel, utilities, visual, and productivity.  Herein lies my dilemma.  I have the YouVersion app.  If you’re not familiar with it, the app allows you to access several versions of the Bible, look at sermon notes from participating churches, read daily devotions, etc.  It’s an awesome app, but where do I put it in my organization? It’s more than just a book, so it doesn’t fit in that folder.  It does help me connect with God and other Christians, but I don’t think it quite fits with the purpose of that folder.  The Bible definitely is definitely essential on educating me in the ways of God, but that folder is more for things that I use in my classroom.  Without God, my health in every area of my life isn’t what it should be, but the apps in that folder are the ones that I use to stay on track with my weight loss.  It used to have the label “fat”, but I decided I needed a more positive approach to the situation.  The Bible is food for my spiritual life, but probably doesn’t fit with my apps for grocery lists and recipes.  The Christian walk is no game so that folder is out.  God requires good stewardship and should be the first consideration when deciding how I manage my money, but YouVersion doesn’t really fit in the money folder.  There are books in the Bible that are considered musical, but not really what I was thinking when I created that folder.  How about travel?  The Bible should guide every step that I take, but putting it with Mapquest and Googlemaps is probably a stretch.  The utilities folder is for those things that I use on occasion when I need them, but don’t they don’t really affect my life very much so that won’t work.  The Bible helps me see what God wants for and from me, but visual in this case is for things that I want to look at.  Productivity……hmmm……The Bible definitely helps me be productive.  It is the core of enabling me to live the life that God intended for me.  It encourages me to do more, be more, and love more.  Yep, I do believe that my Bible belongs in the productivity folder.  

Preparations

I know that it's been awhile since my last blog.  All of my writing efforts have been going into finishing my masters.  Now that that is behind me, I am hoping to find myself here more.  So much has happened in the last several months that it is hard to know where to start.  God is blessing me in ways that I never could have imagined.  My gastric bypass was successful and as of today I have lost 83 pounds!!!  I feel so much better.  I was finally able to complete my master’s degree and just found out that my degree has officially posted.  I welcomed a new granddaughter on August 6th!!  I can't wait to meet the new princess.  The biggest change in my life is the blessing that God has given me in a man named Bunky.  Bunky and I started dating in March and quickly realized that we loved each other.  On July 13th, Bunky proposed and I said, "Yes"!!  We are planning to be married at the end of November in a small private ceremony.  So many blessings!!!

As Bunky and I have entered this journey, I have the opportunity to visit him in Minnesota a few times.  I live in the middle of the Bakken.  He lives about a mile out of town away from the road.  It's very quiet there and I can feel the tension leaving me as I enjoy the calm.  I like the place. The house has great woodwork and a character of its own.  It needs a woman's touch here and there, but it is definitely a place that I feel comfortable in.  Bunky has been making some improvements here and there.  He built a new deck and put in a door to the deck from the living room.  He replaced another door and changed the locks so the house would be secure from thieves when he can't be there. He painted the kitchen and invested in some new appliances.  He planted flowers and apple trees.  I asked him why he was doing all of this.  He told me that he was preparing the house for when it will be ours together.  I didn't ask him to do any of these projects, (ok maybe the fridge was my idea).  These are things that he wanted to do for us.  He did these things because he loves me and is looking forward to our future together.

John 14:2 says, "In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you."  Jesus loves us so much that he is preparing a place for us to be with him forever.  When I marvel at how much Bunky loves me and how he is preparing his place for me, I can't help but think that it is so small in comparison to how much Jesus loves me.  I am blessed beyond belief to have an example in my life of how much I am loved by Jesus.

Make Your Bed

I haven’t slept well this week.  Maybe it’s the start of the new semester.  Maybe it’s the outside noises.  Maybe it’s my fault.  I have to admit that I’m not very diligent about making my bed every day.  I can usually manage to clean things up, but the bed doesn’t get made.  When I think about it, how long would it really take?  A couple of minutes?  Still, as soon as I get up in the morning, I’m working toward getting out of the house and to work as quickly as possible.  As a general rule, I take care of the housework when I get home from work.  This week, however, there were some others things that stole my attention.  As a result, my house, especially my bedroom was in a state of mild chaos.  This affected my productivity at home and how well I was sleeping.  By the end of the week, I was exhausted.  Saturday, I spent a considerable part of the day cleaning the house and doing laundry.  I went to bed that night tired, but calm.  When I woke up in the morning, I noticed that I had not only slept really well, but felt rested.  The covers had hardly moved.

Distractions and chaos threaten to steal things in other parts of our lives also.  Just as the small act of not making my bed, meant less restful sleep, small acts of disobedience means less rest in God.  This doesn’t necessarily mean sin.  It could be not listening to what God is prompting us to do.  It could be rushing to do the things that God wants us to do and forgetting to take of the little things in our own hearts that need attention.  We need to examine our lives for those things that might be robbing us of our rest in God and then take time to concentrate on making our relationship with Him a priority.  And trust me, this isn’t something that should be left for the end of the week.  Daily attention to the little things that result in rest keeps them from being the big things that rob us of who we can be in God.

Five in Fridays

1  I’m excited about second semester starting next week.  I continue to change and try new things in the classroom.  This year, I have the added challenge of planning to be gone for a couple of weeks when I have surgery.  It’s coming together, and I am confident that the students will be okay without me.

2  I’ve been trying out different protein drinks to get ready for surgery.  Some of them aren’t too bad, but others taste like feet.

3  Music is incredibly powerful.   Whether it’s a song that brings back smiles or a song that reminds me of pain, music defines those moments in my life when God has blessed me and been my strength.

4  Sometimes it takes drastic measures to accomplish a goal, but unless I am willing to take those steps, I won’t be successful. 

5  Sometimes it’s not so much the person that I miss as much as it is the experiences that the person represents.  I must constantly be aware that people change and move on and often that is the best gift that they can give me.

What I Learned in 2012

1   1.   Letting go is a continual process.

2.  Prayer works.

3.  I really love my job, my students, and the people I get to work with.

4.  It takes courage to make big changes

5.  As much as I hate it, sometimes I have to ask for help.

6.  I am becoming more and more accepting of the fact that most likely I will never be in a relationship that is more than a friendship.

7.  People surprise me.

8.  It’s not smart to teach 5 cooking classes and plan for gastric bypass surgery at the same time.

9.  Kids and grandkids are pretty awesome.

10.  The biggest thing that I learned this year was also the hardest and caused the most change.  I learned that I am “selfish, self-centered, and only think of myself.” (I think “self-centered” and “think only of myself” are basically the same thing, but I wanted to keep the integrity of the direct quote)  These words came directly to me from more than one source so I can’t argue that I didn’t understand.  The thing is that those words have altered my perception of myself, dictated my enjoyment and participation in family events, changed how and if I should celebrate and share accomplishments in my career, determined when and if I use my phone and computer, made me question health decisions and if I should share about those health decisions, and caused me to wonder if those two people were the only ones brave enough to tell me what everyone else is thinking.  All I can do is continue to question and do my best to fade into the background.  I suppose that even writing a blog could be seen as selfish and self-centered, but I see it this way.  Those that have determined me to be selfish and self-centered have already made up their mind about who I am and probably don’t read it anyway.  Maybe there’s someone out there who can look past who I am and find something useful in what I write. 

Have a wonderful and blessed 2013!!  

A New Journey-Part 2

With the new year approaching, I am looking forward to new beginnings.  As I shared in a previous blog, I will be having gastric bypass surgery on February 13^th.  There are some things that have to happen prior to surgery.  My liver needs to be healthy.  To accomplish this, I am required to go on a strict diet for the 2 weeks prior to surgery.  I will have 2 protein shakes (15-25 grams of protein, less than 7 grams of carbohydrates) and one meal of 4-6 ounces of protein and 1 cup of vegetables.  This should result in a loss of about 15 pounds. Finding protein shakes that meet the requirements and are palatable is somewhat challenging so I ventured out to Walmart today and bought each kind that they had that met the requirements.  I also ordered some protein broths to try out.  Over the next few weeks, I will test them out and hopefully find something that I like.  When the time comes for me to “have” to use the shakes, I should be prepared.

Another step that I took was to try to create a fail-proof environment.  After having 17 people living in the house over Christmas, there was quite a bit of food that was not weight-loss friendly.  I didn’t want it all to just go to waste, so my daughter-in-law Dani went through the cupboards, fridge, and freezer and took everything that I wasn’t supposed to eat.  There wasn’t much food left in the house, but I won’t be tempted to eat something I shouldn’t.  I also packed up my cookbook collection. There’s no sense in having them here tempting me to cook things that will interfere with me reaching my goal. 

My last step for this weekend was buying ingredients to make a couple of the recipes from the cookbook that Corey and Raissa gave me for Christmas.  It is written specifically for success after weight loss surgery.  Tomorrow I plan to prepare and puree the recipes, freeze them in ice cube trays, then store them in Ziploc bags so I have some ready meals when the time comes. 

This may seem like some drastic measures and I know that not everyone would need to do this much prep work to be successful, but I know the hard work now will pay off later.

This isn’t the end.  If you’ve read any of my blogs, you know that I try to find a lesson in everything.  When I was creating my fail-proof environment, I thought about how we need to make our spiritual environment fail-proof.  If you know that there are areas in your life that cause you to be tempted to sin, you need to do the work to remove those things when possible and have a game plan in place for when temptation arises.  Just as having food in the house that isn’t consistent with my successful weight loss, having things in my life that I know will cause me to sin doesn’t make any sense either.  Is it easy?  No.  Is it worth it?  Absolutely!!!

Five on Friday...a little late

My five on Friday post is a couple of days late.  I’ve been busy getting things ready for the kids and grandkids to come home this week.  In addition, my mind has been trying to process recent events in this country.  Sometimes, I feel so inadequate in trying to put my thoughts and feelings into words, but I’ll try.

1.       My heart breaks for the families affected by the shooting in Connecticut.  I can’t begin to imagine the fear, grief, anger, disbelief, and anguish that is happening. 

2.       This morning, I sat in church and looked at the empty seats around me.  I can’t wait for next Sunday, when those seats will be filled with my children and grandchildren.

3.       Why is it so easy to believe and hang on to the things that people say about me that are hurtful and mean, but so difficult to accept that someone is being honest when they see beauty in me?  There are areas of my life that I live with confidence, but two conversations about things I have done wrong seem to constantly overshadow anything I do right.  I hate that.

4.       My plans for second semester are coming together.  I will miss at least 12 days of school for surgery.  I’m trying to find ways to continue to teach even though I can’t be in class.

5.       Sometimes God needs us to get out of the way so He can move.