Cappucino Please, With Hazelnut

"The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork."  -- Psalm 19:1

This morning I was able to see something I wouldn't normally see.  The sunrise.  My son has archery practice before school every morning, and I have somehow been able to weasel out of taking him until today. 

With my eyes only half open, I got up and slipped on a pair of shoes, found a bandana to cover my hair rollers, and grabbed my keys, wallet, and a jacket. 

Before we were even out of our neighborhood, my son tells me, "I have a note for you to sign.  Also, I need ten dollars."  I turned left out of our neighborhood instead of right toward the school, so I could stop at the ATM. 

"You're gonna be a little late," I told him.  Thinking about this now, I'm pretty sure we were right on time.  I mean on God's time, not ours.  He needed to show us something. 

As we drove toward the school, I began to notice the sunrise.  "How cute," were my thoughts at first.  However, the closer we drove to the school, the bigger the sunrise became.  The clouds were all pink and were offset by the sky which was a brilliant shade of blue that I'm pretty sure I'd never seen up there before. 

I pointed it out to my son.  "Look at the sunrise.  Does it always look like that?  Look at the blue."

Maybe he was still half asleep, or maybe my voice was half awake, but his response was, "Huh?  Wha-?  Where's the moon?" 

"Not 'the moon.'  I said, 'the blue.'  Look at the blue." 

"Oh, yeah."  He had apparently never even noticed the sunrise before on his way to archery practice.  Maybe it had never been like this before. 

I quoted the verse to him.  "'The heavens declare the glory of God,'" and told him, "That sky is what that verse is talking about.  It's God saying, 'Here I am.'"

I dropped him off at the gym and headed back to turn onto the main road.  I was a little saddened that now I would be driving in the opposite direction and would not be able to see the sunrise. 

I turned right at the stop sign, thinking the Lord was finished showing me Himself, and guess what was in the sky in front of me now.  The moon.  "Oh, there's the moon."  Too bad I couldn't tell my son I had found it.  It had a lovely halo around it that stood out in the midst of all the grey sky surrounding it. 

That got me thinking about how when we look back at things, sometimes we see a lot of grey, but then there's a light in the midst of all that grey that seems to be the focal point.  It made me wonder if others could still focus on the Light with all the grey I have in my past. 

Within seconds my eyes began to fill with tears.  That sunrise that I thought I had seen the last of had somehow spread all the way across the sky, and I could see the pink reflecting off the grey clouds in front of me.  My thoughts went to the words I had just told my son, "It's God saying, 'Here I am.'"

To me He was saying, "I was there, and I'm still here."

I've Been Craving Pancakes ... With Peanut Butter

Since the new year has begun, I have decided it is time to do a little review of those New Year's resolutions I made last year.  Out of the four I made, I think I did fairly well in keeping them.  Let's take a look. 

1. Read through the Chronological Bible.
2. Go to an awesome concert like Newsboys or TobyMac.
3. Not going to let anyone push me around.
4. I'm gonna blog.

I did go to an awesome concert!  I think that's my favorite fulfilled resolution.  We had season tickets to Magic Springs over the summer and of the few concerts I did attend, NEWSBOYS was one of them.  What an awesome concert.   It was Legen -- wait for it -- dary. 

As for not letting anyone push me around, I cut ties with certain people that were not of any benefit to me, my social life, or my spiritual life as well.  In other words, people who were not of good influence and only brought me down.  That does sound a bit cruel, but why should my life suffer because of those I've tried to help, but couldn't because the person never benefited or improved themselves from it and also took advantage, which led to them only being a burden to me and my family?  I'm trying not to be too specific, so as not to hurt anyone's feelings, but hey, I've cut ties, so no one to whom this is referring will be reading it anyway. 

I did not stay caught up on reading through the Chronological Bible.  I did get behind on that.  But it's a new year and I've started over, so I will do it this time around.  I'm trying to incorporate several strategies at the same time so I will be able to follow through on this one. 

And as for blogging?  I posted two blogs last year.  I think that counts. 

Three out of four is pretty good considering most people keep none of the resolutions they make. 

I actually did not make any resolutions this year.  I feel like I would benefit more from maybe setting some goals of improving things that I already do.  For instance, getting through MORE of the Chronological Bible than I did last year.  Spending MORE time playing with my kids.  That one shouldn't be too hard now that I am no longer in Nursing school.  I would also like to keep in better touch with my friends.  I have made a lot of friends going to school at UACCB and being in the musical "Beauty and the Beast" over the summer, and I've noticed that some people that I, at one time, spoke to on a daily basis are now just friends on facebook that I rarely see in real life.  And when I do see them, we only have the friendly, casual, "acquaintance" type conversations that merely discuss weather, family, and what classes we're taking this semester. And that's only if the conversation gets past the "Hello!  How are you?" point which rarely occurs.  And this with people I once shared deep, meaningful, "secrets you only tell your bff" conversations.  It really is in no way the fault of either person.  Things change.  Goals change.  People go their separate ways.  I keep thinking of the verse that says, "A man who has friends must show himself friendly..."  I think maybe I just need to be MORE friendly. 

So to recap, I would like to do the following things.  I'll add MORE that have not been mentioned as well. 

1.  Read MORE of the Bible.
2.  Spend MORE time playing with my kids than I already do.
3.  Talk MORE to old friends. 
4.  Sing MORE.
5.  Be MORE friendly.
6.  Take MORE adventures.
7.  Show MORE love to others. 
8.  Sing MORE.
9.  Help others MORE. 
10.  Give MORE. 
11.  Post MORE blogs. 
12.  Sing MORE.  
13.  Add MORE things to this list.

Is it me or does the word "MORE" seem to not make any sense now?  Anyway, you get the picture.  I want to do MORE.  And yes, I know I put "Sing MORE" three times.  That one I think is one that even if I do it MORE, it still won't be enough.  I can always, no matter how much I'm doing it, sing more. 

I am fairly satisfied with my decision to not make resolutions and to instead do MORE of the things I am already doing.  This seems like it will be beneficial to me.  I already have a plan for two MORE blogs, so that one should be taken care of pretty soon. 

Check back in the near future for my next post which will be a recap of 2012, and also another "List" type post of not my favorite things, but my most UNfavorite things.