today was such an odd day!

I had to get a rental car:

It was a Ford EcoSport.

Interesting little car. It turns off everytime ya brake to save on gas and emissions.

Very eco-friendly/efficient. My friend was explaining to me tonight how newer cars are using much more efficient technologies these days, and how much gas it actually saves to cut off the car when chillin’ at a light or whatever. It used to be that it took more gas to turn the car on and off. Not the case anymore.

Anyway, I picked up this lil number this morning because my car decided not to turn on last night until my friend hit the starter with a hammer. When the car turned on after that, my friend determined that I would need to replace the starter. Turns out my battery was 5 years old as well.

Not too many repairs or too expensive. Thankfully I have a savings account for moments like this. God is good, and always provides all that I need.

I was trying to avoid getting a rental because I wanted to save money. I was hoping one of my frands would let me borrow a car. Nobody came thru. Also, another friend of mine said “why don’t you just get a rental”. I was like huh. Maybe I should.

Convenience is worth it. Not bothering multiple people or owing favors is worth it. Especially when I have savings…

I got tired last night and didn’t feel like finishing this post. So here I am this morning, with two minutes to spare before I go to work.

Hope y’all have a good Friday! I love Fridays because I get to do some reading and kinda resting. It’s a slower-paced day with this client. 🙂

I do have another client right after, but it’s doable. It’s not too much. Unlike Wednesdays, where I have stuff back-to-back. I gotta change that. I can really only change one shift… move it up like an hour or something. Or maybe 2 hours. That would be good. It would give me time to come up for air; rather than going from one energetic job to the next. When I say energetic I mean, of course, that I have to be energetic. lol

Anyway. I’ll definitely write more later. I do wanna mention this though: I want to stop scheduling so many things one right after the next. I do it with social gatherings as well. I always want to go to all the parties and commit to too many things. Sometimes it’s nice, NICER than nice, to just go to one party and stay there all evening. Not go to 5 things in one day. I dunno why I over-commit like that. I guess I like to keep things interesting? Like to keep in relationship with lots of different people? Want to show each person that invites me to stuff that I value time with them and value my relationship with them?

Though perhaps I could show how I value them and care for them more by spending more time with each person. Perhaps on different days. hahaha

If my life was a garden and friends were one of the crops, I think the bed would be overflowing. And every gardener knows that if you plant things too close together they won’t grow efficiently and will choke each other out. I wanna have a few really strong, healthy, fruit-bearing plants. I want my relationships to grow and flourish, not be choked out by each other because I’m spreading myself thin.

K

BYE FOR NOW!

xxx

<3

V

and I’m excited.

Hhahhahaha

I remember staying up til 2 or 3 in the morning every night chatting with people on AOL instant messenger (AIM). AIM was the bomb. Soooo much fun. It was fun because people were on it. It wouldn’t have been fun if nobody used it. All my friends would go home, log in and we’d talk to each other. Hahha sounds kinda sad. But it was the way of things.

My Monday night group is really fun too. And it’s because people are coming. And we’re laughing. And learning. Growing. We’re in a healthy place… and I’m thankful.

Laughing hard… I love laughing hard. So hard that your face hurts! I wish I kept track of how many times this has happened in my life in a little book that I could go back and read when I’m feeling down. Certain times and memories pop up every now & again which is always sweet. I love how certain words or phrases spark memories that make me bust out laughing. Is it bust or burst? I actually like both. 🙂

Each day is a gift. Today was a really good day. I was really productive and feel good about my accomplishments. I worked on organizing my music room today which was fulfilling. I put all my art supplies into a three-drawer organizer that I bought. <3 I also bought some LED rope lighting that I’ma hang up . I started to hanging it using those Command wall hooks but it looks harrrrrrrrible. lol I wanna line where the ceiling meets the wall…. I think that would look cool. I’m gonna YouTube how to do it myself and make it look clean. 🙂

Rope lights smell really weird btw. It’s not exactly a bad smell, but it isn’t a good one either. After I was working with those lights I had to wash my hands twice hahah

Projects come about randomly for me. This isn’t random because I just moved to a new place so organizing and decorating are things that come with the territory. But I KNOW that because I’m taking the time to set up this space, I’m going to use it more often. I’m building a foundation for the room to have lots of practical use. And I’m excited!

Some things happen slowly over time, and other things happen all at once. Tonight in my singles group we prepared a couple parables in Luke for next week’s study. One of them was about building a tower. The parable essentially says don’t take on the task of building a tower unless you know beforehand that you’re going to be able to finish it. The parable warned that if you don’t finish it, you’ll look like a fool. Jesus ends up saying at the end of the parable that to become a disciple of his means being willing to give up all we have.

Setting up camp in my new house seems like tower-building to me. I feel as though I’m preparing to really live here. Live and thrive. I’m setting up with some permanence. I didn’t feel like I could express myself like that in the last place I was in. This place feels much more like my own…. it’s hard to explain, but I am at peace. And so SO thankful!

I also am willing to take on Jesus’s challenge of giving up all that I have and all that I am for His kingdom work. I know there’s a lot of work to be done and I know that He’s already gone before me and has prepared me to do it. I know that His plans are better than my plans and His promises are always kept. I know that he has given my heart desires to do certain things and I believe that he WILL bring those things to fruition. So I’m waiting. Trusting and waiting.

Just realized the time. 10:38. Time for me to go to bed. I hope y’all sleep well. I hope y’all dream big dreams and entrust those dreams to God.

OH I’m trying out a new pillow tonight. It’s a bamboo memory foam pillow. I got it on sale at a store that gets random shipments from random places. I was SO surprised to see the bamboo memory foam pillows there because I’ve been looking to get one. Or at least try one. There’s a hoity-toityer (sp?) pillow I was thinking about buying but I might not have to now. We shall see!

God bless

xxx

Love you all! <3

V

Something that I’ve been learning lately is that God doesn’t need my help.

He doesn’t need me! He wants me though, and He chooses to use me and His other children to do His work here. The keyword is “His”. His work is not my work. His kingdom is not my kingdom.

God alone knows the motives of my heart and the intentions I have with doing the things I choose to do. He chooses to bless me and use me and teach me day by day.

But guys

I don’t want to run ahead of God. If we’re on this journey together, which I know that we are, I want to walk WITH Him. I want to walk beside Him and let Him determine the speed. The direction. I want to be with Him during the challenging parts of the journey. I don’t want to be by myself forcing things to happen or trying to tackle something on my own strength. What’s the point in that? When we can abide in the power the Vine? De Vine. Divine hehe 🙂

Jesus is the vine and we are the branches. John 15:5

The other night I was mountain biking with three friends. We stopped by a beautiful bay and waded into the water. We stayed a bit too long and underestimated the amount of time it would take to get back. I take the blame! I was time-keeping that night, and didn’t factor in how much darker it would be in the woods on the trail as the sun was going down. Long story short, we ended up biking in the dark for ~30 minutes.

I was praying for my friends the entire ride back. I was praying that nobody would fly off the trail and hit a tree. That they wouldn’t hit a root and pull a muscle somewhere. That no tires would go flat. That no animals (or people!) would be standing stationary on the trail in the dark and one of us would plow into them. It was a hairy situation. We were in the dark and didn’t have a light.

I prayed, and everything was okay. God was looking out for us.

I was leading the pack though, and urging my friends to challenge themselves and bike a bit faster so it wouldn’t be completely dark before we got to the car. Well it was way too late for that hope because it was that dark after about 1/4 of the way back. I found myself biking at my natural speed and getting further and further from my friends. I had to slow down several times and stop three times long enough to hear their voices before I pressed on again.

When I slowed down it was because I couldn’t hear them anymore and was worried that something may have happened to one of them and they were stopped dealing with it in the dark. I thought about backtracking once but I was never that far from them so I didn’t. In theory, anyway. Since I couldn’t hear them, anything could have happened.

All of us were okay, and the evening ended relatively well; minus our on-ramp to the interstate being closed resulting in us having to drive an extra 25 minutes out of the way to get home 🙁

I learned a few things that night:

I learned to PUT MY DANG BIKE LIGHT BACK ON MY BIKE. It was in my car the whole time too *eye roll*

That reminds me, I told my friend I would order us both some bike lights. I gotta go do that.

Don’t rush ahead of the pack. A good leader stays with the pack; doesn’t get out of earshot. I guess I was thinking that I was motivating them to go faster, but instead it caused me slight grief as I questioned the state of their well-being.

Don’t rush ahead of God. This picture is an example of what I’ve been doing in my walk with Him. Rushing ahead hoping He will hurry up and meet me at the end of the road. Trying to get there faster. If I wait for God, we can journey together.

That night I was impatient, tired, suffering from slight indigestion, and disappointed in myself for not doing a better job of keeping the time.

I often feel disappointed in myself for not making better use of my time. But I also try to take on an unrealistic amount of things to do. Besides working, participating in church activities, preparing and leading bible studies, exercising and taking care of myself, and hanging out with friends or dancing… or resting… I have also been trying to produce multiple creative projects. I have been feeling bad that I haven’t completed them yet, and have attributed not finishing them to not being disciplined with my time; being too distracted, not being disciplined enough in other areas of my life like eating well, resting and sleeping enough, and spending time with the Lord enough. The reality is, I can’t always be doing doing doing going going going. I need to rest. And often. I need to take time to write and reflect and read, and sometimes stare outside my window and listen to the birds chirp.

I bought a scripture verse wall sticker for my new house that says:

“That person is like a tree planted by streams of water,
    which yields its fruit in season
and whose leaf does not wither—
    whatever they do prospers.” Psalm 1:3

In the translation on my wall it was supposed to say “you will yield your fruit in season” but when I was transferring it the “y”, “o” and half of the “u” stuck to something else and wouldn’t come off. So now it says:

“I will yield your fruit in season”.

I. As in God.

God will yield my fruit in season.

After all, He is the vine…… I am but a branch. Without the vine, the branch would not exist. The branch would dry up and become kindling for someone’s fireplace.

Resting in the knowledge that God must be the one that yields my fruit gives me hope and peace.

I don’t have to strive. I don’t have to and I won’t.

REST in God. Ask Him for guidance and direction on when to move. And He’ll let you know. But don’t run ahead. You might miss something important! Or tire yourself out. And why walk (or bike) it alone when you could be with Him?!

Hope this blesses you!

xxx

<3

V

Psalm 119:103 “How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth!”

Lord, your words are sweeter than honey. This is what I was just thinking as I sat down in my plushy leather armchair stationed by my two windows. My feet are elevated on its’ accompanying ottoman and my waist down to my shins is covered by a bohemian print fleece blanket. The sky is overcast, but still bright.

I just finished eating a “carb conscious” Elevation chocolate caramel peanut nougat bar (only 2 grams net carbs!) and drinking vanilla almond milk sweetened with stevia. Both sweet treats but not bad for me. haha! I gotta satisfy my sweet teeth, after all.

I look out the windows and see the leaves turning yellow and slightly orange and burnt orange. Autumn is just around the corner and I am excited. Today the weather is only a high of 78 degrees… a major improvement in my opinion, being from the Northeast 🙂

I am thankful for having this short window of quiet. About an hour and a half of quiet before I go back to work for a bit, then work on a writing project, then help my friend move. Oh how I want to go dancing tonight! But I probably won’t make it. Too much all at once.

A bird just flew by and reminded me of how my thoughts are so quick to stray away. I was thinking about dancing and how I might be able to make it work after helping my friend move. No, I think not. I’ll need more rest after today’s long day to prepare me for tomorrow’s long day. Yes, I’ll rest. And then dance soon <3

Psalm 119:109, 112 “Though I constantly take my life in my hands, I will not forget your law… My heart is set on keeping your decrees to the very end.”

These verses are too perfect. I have been talking about and praying about this phenomenon all week. Trying to force something, take it into my own hands, accomplish it on my own time instead of waiting on God’s timing.

I know I’m not the only one. Just yesterday a friend of mine posted on facebook that he is his own worst enemy when it comes to getting stuff done. I totally understand. He’s self-employed and doesn’t have anyone to keep him accountable. As an up and coming writer, video creator and blogger, I totally get it. Thankfully, it doesn’t take much effort at all for me to blog. I love it. It comes naturally to me. I have so many words that I don’t know what to do with them. Hence this random outpouring of thoughts called my blog. Welcome. Welcome & beware hahaah 😛

1 Peter 2:3 “Now that you have tasted that the Lord is good”

I HAVE tasted that the Lord is good. All of His ways. Yes. His way is THE way. To live and to be truly free. I love talking about my freedom in Him as I choose to live for Christ day to day. I had a long, raw conversation about freedom in Christ last night. I was explaining to a friend that there is true freedom when we are living our life God’s way. It’s not freeing to choose our own way because we don’t know what’s best for us. && it’s extremely difficult to choose God’s way, but it’s His power residing within us that gives us the freedom to choose His way. Before belonging to God and being His child, I couldn’t choose His way; I was a slave to sin.

All glory, honor and praise to King Jesus for rescuing me from my prison that I was once living.

Lord I was stumbling around in the dark and didn’t know where the exit was. I was fraternizing with the wrong crowd and didn’t know how bad things had gotten. When your light flooded my life I realized what I was “living” in. You pointed out the exit and said “you’re free to go, anytime”.

“My chains fell off, my heart was free

I rose, went forth, and followed thee!

Amazing love, how can it be 

that thou my God wouldst die for me!”‘

Amazing Love How Can it Be? lyrics

The Lord is good. The Lord is sweet. There is nothing sweeter than life with Him.

Hope y’all are having a great Tuesday! Take a break from what you’re doing and enjoy His creation today 🙂

xxx

<3

V