Thursday, September 20, 2007

God's Plan for Our Good

"Can we give up all for the love of God? When the surrender of ourselves seems too much to ask, it is first of all because our thoughts about God Himself are paltry. We have not really seen Him, we have hardly tested Him at all and learned how good He is. In our blindness we approach Him with suspicious reserve. We ask how much of our fun He intends to spoil, how much He will demand from us, how high is the price we must pay before He is placated. If we had the least notion of His lovingkindness and tender mercy, His fatherly care for His poor children, His generosity, His beautiful plans for us; if we knew how patiently He waits for our turning to Him, how gently He means to lead us to green pastures and still waters, how carefully He is preparing a place for us, how ceaselessly He is ordering and ordaining and engineering His Master Plan for our good - if we had any inkling of all this, could we be so reluctant to let go of our smashed dandelions or whatever we clutch so fiercely in our sweaty little hands?"
-Elisabeth Elliot

Monday, September 17, 2007

Isn't it Funny...


how they can fall asleep...

in almost any position??


(I wish I were still that flexible!) :)

Friday, September 14, 2007

Quotes from Jane Austen

YLCF had a funny collection of quotes from Jane Austen posted today. http://www.ylcf.org/2007/09/witty-remarks-from-jane-jane-austen.html#links

I love Jane Austen, there are so many humorous lines! I'm almost finished with Northanger Abbey now, and here are some good ones.

"I wear nothing but purple now: I know I look hideous in it, but no matter; it is your dear brother's favourite colour."

"To retire to bed, however, unsatisfied on such a point, would be in vain, since sleep must be impossible with the consciousness of a cabinet so mysteriously closed in her immediate vicinity."

"'I cannot speak well enough to be unintelligible.'
'Bravo! An excellent satire on modern language.'"

"...this is a very nice day; and we are taking a very nice walk; and you are two very nice young ladies. Oh! it is a very nice word, indeed! It does for everything."

"'Miss Morland is not used to your odd ways.'
'I shall be most happy to make her better acquainted with them.'"

And this one is my personal favorite... :)

"Miss Morland, no one can think more highly of the understanding of women than I do. In my opinion, nature has given them so much that they never find it necessary to use more than half."

(Ouch! :) )

Wednesday, September 12, 2007

A Random Oops!

I'm paying closer attention to the gender specific signs above the locker room doors these days...

That sounds like a disaster... well it wasn't, but it was close. I am still not good about navigating the gym in school, so usually my method when I don't know my way around is to fall in line behind someone who looks like he knows what he is doing. :) Hence, I was on the stairs behind the athletic director. He held the door at the bottom of the stairwell open for me, and then headed toward what I thought was the direction of the hall...

Well it wasn't.

It was the men's locker room, and I caught myself just in time before I followed him in.

It was one of those moments in which you just try to act casual and hope nobody noticed...

At least I now know where not to be in the gym!! :)

Wednesday, September 05, 2007

Quiet Time

I really identified with Candice Watter's post on "early morning quiet time" on the Boundless blog.

http://www.boundlessline.org/2007/09/the-early-part-.html

I am becoming more and more dependent on "quiet time" not necessarily just in the morning, but at some point during the day I feel the need to the read, rest, and refocus. If I'm having a bad day sometimes it's worse if I missed my "quiet time." My room is also my sanctuary when I am down, or feeling unrest, or just need some time to be alone with God.

There is just something about time alone. I like to use time alone in my car to pray, but even that has its own distractions. (And don't close your eyes to pray while driving, either. ;) ) I can understand the reasoning behind: "But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you." (Matthew 6:6) Praying in secret not only avoids the appearance of a legalistic "religious" attitude, but it also eliminates the common distractions and keeps our eyes on Him. We are human, and our flesh needs all the help we can get!

I like to take a mug of herb tea upstairs and take some time to restore my soul. The funny thing is, I nearly always drink lukewarm tea, because I get wrapped up in what I am reading and forget to drink it for an hour! :) Sometimes I go for a walk. It just helps so much to refocus if we can tune the world out.

One devotional I am reading now is Whispers of His Power, by Amy Carmichael. It has inspirational thoughts divided by the days in a year. (This is just one devotional book I am going through, I have a reputation for reading multiple books at a time. :) ) This quote was a recent encouragement.

"In the day that we see Him all will be clear. The mysteries which now perplex us will be illuminated. One day we shall see the glory to our glorious God and the good to all of us contained in the disappointment we cannot understand.
So let us live as those who believe this to be true. Let us praise before we see. Let us thank our Lord for trusting us to trust Him."
-Amy Carmichael