Leslie's Personal Walk

I thought it would be a good idea to try to make a schedule for posting to you, my dear friends and readers. YIKES! You all that know me well, know that I am not at all a scheduler. I mean, I live by a sort-of schedule, only because I have to. Like I have to schedule to go to the Dr. (which I have done, since my recent unpleasantries with my intestines- it is scheduled for October 22.) And for going on vacation- well, thats a fine example of the f-l-e-x-i-b-l-e schedule I live by. 

Take today, for example. If there are two scheduled things in my life you can count on, they are the two things that almost always happen on Mondays. Laundry and Pizza. Monday is (and has been for as long as I can rememeber) laundry day.And Monday night isn't football night at our house. It is Pizza Night. That started when we started visiting my sister in Ohio in the summer. Their pizza place, Smokin' Joes (dont even ask) has a one-topping special on Monday, so they always have pizza on Monday night. So when we got home from their house that year, the kids still wanted pizza on Monday night. And so it began, and it just hasn't ended. Yay! I don't have to cook! 

But any other type of schedule scares me. I know it is because once I commit to something, fear causes me to think: did I make the right decision? Should I have waited? Now I have to do whatever it is that I promised I would do. So I just don't make that commitment, so I don't disappoint anyone. But mostly because I am afraid, and I don't want to disappoint myself. Or embarass myself. 

But here I am. If I don't commit, I won't do it. So I decided it would be a good place to start to post two times a week. That would work because I can really only write up an article or something worth reading that often. However, I am also planning to do a "daily" short devotional or verse of the day or something, too. And maybe once every week or two do a "feature" that is longer and more involved than either of the above. 

I also plan to post to my other side- the crafty, seamstress, cooker, household manager side once or twice a week as well. I hope to strike a balance and drive traffic over hear as well. 

I have often been asked, "what's on your nightstand?" 

At first, I didn't understand the question. 

"My vitamins, an alarm clock with an iphone dock, a basket to catch junk, my nose strips, a lamp...that pretty much sums it up."

But then I realized I was being asked, "What are you reading? and what is on the stack to read?"

Well, why didn't you just say so???

Lots of good stuff happening here! But for now, just wanted to share a New Word, for a New Year!

Last year, God led me to a scrapbooker, Ali Edwards, who has inspired many by her "One Little Word" challenge. It has been a way for her followers to focus on one trait, thought or character change for the year. It has been life changing for many, and so helpful for me, in the midst of everything that has happened this past year. My "One Little Word" for 2012 was HOPE. And I want to stay there. I learned that Hope in Christ was the only way I could exist; That I could be fully present and fully alive.

I realized that I had placed my hope in all sorts of other things, especially people. And that did not work, especially when those people were human, flawed (like me) and not able to meet my expectations; nor were they designed to!! So I had a paradigm shift. I learned to place my hope in God alone. After all, he designed it all, including me, so he would know how it all fits together. And because of that, I don't have to. I just have to trust, and place my hope in Him. He knows what I need, and what will make me fall on my knees, rest, and just live in joy. I don't get it all the time, but having that one little word in the forefront of my mind helped me so much.

So this year, God gave me a new word.

What is that new word???

HALF.

Half? Why half?

Well, I have so much stuff. SOOOOOOO MUCH. Too much. Way too much. And there are so many with not enough. So I am going to try to pear down. Not  buy. Use what I have, and give away lots. Sell some. Give more. So I can have time to enjoy what is most precious to me. People. And if I have so much stuff to maintain, pick up or move around just to store it, I don't have time to do what I really want to to: Bless people. Be a mentor. Be a friend. Mother. Cook great food. And if I always feel like I don't have time to do stuff, then maybe I don't need so much stuff to do it with. Maybe it would be better to just live without it. Or make due with what I have. Or pay someone else to do some things. I am trying to figure it out. But I am excited to do it, because God is in it. He has a plan. And I can't wait to see what this year brings. My hearts desire is to have half as much stuff to have twice as much of Him by the end of this year.

Will I mess up? sure I will. But I will forget what is behind, and strain forward for the high calling of Jesus Christ. After all, I can do all things through Christ who is my strength. My hope. My joy. And if I have joy in him, isn't that enough?