Picture Friday

I took this picture and then found this quote while I was editing it. They just totally went together and I wanted to share. :-)

Do the right thing because it's right. Face the truth. Courage to say no. Magic keys to living with integrity. That's a lot of stuff to ponder right there.

Enjoy pondering!

My OneWord.

Some of you may or may not be familiar with the OneWord New Year's Theme. You can click on the link for more info from someone who originally started this but I'll fill you in right here.

Basically, it means throwing out the list of resolutions that you do every year after Christmas of all the changes and goals you have to start working on as soon as the fireworks fly and the countdown ends with the silver ball dropping to the bottom. Only to forget all about that list by the time February rolls around.

So instead of making that list, you choose one word as a theme for your year. Something that will motivate you to make the changes necessary in your life. A word that will remind you of where you're headed in order to become better and more Christ-like. Obviously, it's going to be a word with a lot of meaning so that it will help guide the decisions you make.

And you're probably wondering why I'm bringing this up now since New Year's for 2011 is LONG past and 2012 is still five months away. Welllll..... It's because, last year, I saw a couple friends coming up with their word and since I was still healing from all my surgeries (ok, just two but one was really major so it counts for like, five surgeries.) and I was still stuck in bed and had a hard time getting out (mostly because it takes a whole lot longer to heal emotionally than physically, more on that later) I thought this would be a good idea since I never finish my resolution list and I can't really do a whole lot anyway. A one word theme sounded great.

Except I hit a big problem with that. I couldn't decide on a word. At all. I thought about heal because I was healing up on all fronts at that time, but it didn't really do anything for me. I thought about love since I had been shown love in so many different ways and I wanted to return some of that by loving back, but I was already doing that so I didn't need a word to remind me. I thought of content, joy, maybe strong, or even recover but nothing stood out to me or screamed at me "THIS IS THE WORD!"

I prayed, I read other blogs from people writing about their words trying to get an idea, I prayed more, I searched the Bible once for a word to stand out (even randomly pointing at different words, which got me some interesting candidates sometimes) and I just got nothing. So I gave up. I'm not going to have any word, or theme, or resolution this year at all, I decided.

But I guess I never really did forget all about it since I still saw other friends writing about their word and how it was affecting their decisions or how they saw it pop up several times that day or how God was working that word into their life and helping them to grasp a deeper meaning of it. And on Saturday I got my word. And it surprised me. And then I saw it pop up in two other places and heard someone say it in a movie. And then I got excited.

Do y'all want to know? Of course you do, since you're interested enough in my life to read my crazy little blog. :-)

It is:  ORIGINAL


-adjective
1. Belonging or pertaining to the origin of beginning of something, or to a thing at its beginning.
2. New; fresh; inventive; novel:
3. Arising or proceeding independently of anything else:
4. Capable of or given to thinking or acting in an independent, creative, or individual manner:
5. Created, undertaken, or presented for the first time:
6. Being something from which a copy, a translation, or the like is made:
source of definition




Do you want to know how I came across this lovely new word that explodes in my head when I think of all the implications to my life that it holds? It was thanks to my previous post on being normal that I almost didn't publish because I couldn't really get all my thoughts together on the topic and I just needed something to update my blog with because I didn't want y'all to think I quit writing here. And even though I wasn't expecting any comments (even though I LOVE them, yes that's a shameless hint plus a thank you to those who do comment.) I did get one comment and she mentioned my word.

And as I looked at it, it smacked me in face and screamed "THIS IS YOUR WORD!" Of course, I was surprised because I gave up on finding a word because I couldn't settle on one and, naturally, I tried to ignore this even though I had prayed hard for it in January. (See what happens when you comment!?)

I thought about saving it to share when 2012 actually happened but, then I thought, I'm going to be original and I'm going to share my word in August, because that's when I found it (or actually tripped over it because it was set down right in front of me.) And this is my first decision based on being original, but I can guarantee there will be more. And I plan on keeping this word until I come across another one, just in case you were wondering since I'm not choosing one in January like everybody else.

Do you have a word for 2011? (feel free to share mine!) Are you one of those talented people who can actually complete at least one item on their resolutions list? Did any of those definitions speak to you in any way like they do to me? (I'm a copy of God and I'm the first me ever created. WOW!) Do you think the one word theme is dumb? (be honest, I like honest.)

P.S. A thank you to my friend Shieldmaiden, who was the author of comment in which I came across my word and who I am gonna get to see next month in a pretty white dress marrying her man. (insert girly squeal here) :-)

And remember... there could never be a more beautiful you. 

Normal

Is there really such thing as normal? Did there use to be a normal standard (as spelled out in the Bible) but due to a steady drift away from the church and the Bible and anything remotely close to Christianity, have we lost sight of what should be normal and what isn't?

Look at any dictionary or thesaurus you want and you'll get some definitions and keywords like this:


Conforming to the standard or to the common type; usual; not abnormal; regular; natural. 


Dictionary.com, in addition to the definition above, had these to say about normal as well.

Free from any mental illness; sane.
Approximately average in any psychological trait, intelligence, personality, or emotional adjustment.



Mental illness is abnormal? Physical illness probably is too, then. Most people have something physically "wrong" with them ranging from arthritis to impacted wisdom teeth to some complications due to pregnancy to cancer to asthma. Does that make everybody affected by something like this not normal?


Who exactly is to judge what is normal or not anyway? Who decided that in order for women to be attractive their bones have to be sticking out and a size 0 pant needs a belt to keep it from slipping off bony hips? Why is it that young people feel the need to "stand out from the crowd" by getting all sorts of piercings and tattoos? (the only problem with that is they only stand out from one crowd, while they fit in with another crowd who's done the same thing). 


Kids who are sick with some chronic disease usually say something along the lines of "I just want to be like other kids, you know, normal." What they really mean to say is "I don't want to have (fill in the blank) anymore." 


I think I've come to the conclusion that there is no such thing as normal. Not now, at least. At one point in time, there was normal. It was the one time on earth when everything was perfect and that was shortly after the world was created and filled with oceans, plants, animals and, the finishing touch, people.


Adam and Eve were perfect and being perfect was normal. Having free will is normal. Being curious is normal. And if Adam and Eve had been able to not give in to the temptation to sin... someone else would have. Because, maybe our sin natures our normal too, otherwise God wouldn't have had to come die for us so we can be saved from ourselves.


Never mind, there is such a thing as normal, and it's not a good thing. It's not normal to dress modestly, to date someone without sleeping together, to go to church regularly, to read the Bible, to not yell hurtful words when you're angry, to give food to the homeless.


"If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me [God] before it hated you." John 15:8


I was one of those kids that wanted to be "like everybody else" but not anymore. I don't want to be normal. I want to be like God. And NOTHING about Him was normal in our crazy mixed up world of "fitting in." 




Just some random thoughts I've been thinking about lately. Is there anything you have to add? Do you agree? Disagree? Did you ever just want to fit in and then realize that it was better to just be the you that God made? Share your thoughts in the comments below, I want to know what you think. :-)

Long time no blog post!

Sorry! I keep wondering when my life got so busy but I guess it just happened so gradually that I didn't realize I had so much going on and then my poor little blog got neglected. 

I don't have pictures yet but I will put them up as soon as my sister gives them to me. I was able to visit her this last weekend and had such a great time. I've been really missing my girl and it meant a lot to be able to see her and hang out together. 

Yesterday our Backyard Bible Clubs started, we have two at our pastor's and assistant pastor's house and both clubs have had a great turn out. Since my pastor only lives right down the road from us, I've been helping with the club there. I do puppet shows, sing songs and help play games and get wet with the kids. Today was our second day and I'm pretty sure I'm having more fun than the kids are! I love hearing them sing and to see them so excited about the games and Bible stories. 

I have an appointment at the transplant center tomorrow and my dad has an appointment with his doctor up there as well so while I'm not so thrilled about the drive up there, I am looking forward to having lunch with a friend of mine that I haven't seen since my sister's graduation so I'm pretty happy about getting to see her and spend some time with her. :-)

I'll blog tomorrow if I can about how my doctor's visit goes and give y'all a health update so you know how I'm doing. I'm continuing to improve, obviously, since I've gotten myself busy with things like weekend trips to a summer camp to see my sister and playing around with little kids singing Bible songs and doing puppet shows.

Also, if you're not on facebook or you've just missed it, I have started a very informal exercising "program" (I put that in quotes because it's hardly a program) of.... hula hooping! Yes, you read that right. I bought a really cool hula hoop that comes apart into sections for easy traveling and I learned some tricks watching youtube videos. It's an aerobics/cardio exercise like Zumba or Walk Fit and it's very low impact (unless of course, you happen to whack yourself in the head with the hoop while swinging it above your head, like me) and it's a TON of fun. So much fun, in fact, I've got materials to make my own hula hoops and my whole family wants one. :-)

I'm buying a camera from my friend tomorrow (she wants to get rid of it so she can upgrade) and then I'll be able to take a lot more pictures of things like my hula hooping family and the progress of my bedroom redo and all sorts of other fun stuff so you can keep up with this crazy life of mine.