By Default

{We are gonna take a break from Moms Like Us for a couple of weeks ..with so much going on with everyone during the holidays I would like to just offer some simple thoughts over the next couple of weeks instead...but no worries, we will come back to it!}

I have realized something over the past couple of months. Its not my own idea but rather a concept that several around me have used lately. Its a concept that has got me thinking about me and how the me-ness of me adds to my stress and my use/misuse of the godly resources I have.

Its this concept of "default settings"  ...who you are, when you arent trying to be anyone else. Its what you are doing mentally, spiritually or emotionally when you arent paying attention. It is what comes naturally to you, without thinking or feeling otherwise. Its your default mode. 

How well I relate to that!

There are default settings on our phones/computers/gps/cameras/coffeemakers, our tv's, our laptops..everything electronic that we own.  We can customize the stuff by making some changes,  we can add apps, tweek here and there to make the equipment fit us better ...but the default settings are always accessible by finding that little red button somewhere that wipes the slate clean and returns everything to the way it was fresh out of the box.  

I feel that way sometimes ...like I am working on being a better person, like I tweek and attend to and try to change but it will take one day when my guard is down and my default button is hit and all things are returned to my base line instincts!  Darn default button.

I think that without realizing it, Paul was talking about these settings when he said, "I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do, I do not do and what I hate I do." Romans 7:15 

Who cant relate to that?

 

We are called to deny ourselves, take up our cross and follow Him ..I think that another way to think about that is to say ..."ignore your default settings, sacrifice them and decide to replace them with God's customized settings instead."  

This week, I would like to explore this idea a little more, especially how it relates to stress and how those settings cause us to misuse our resources and lead to a loss of peace overall.  I hope you will join me in looking at those things about ourselves that perhaps God wants us to sacrifice for the benefit of his glory!

Welcome ifellowshippers ..so glad you are here!

Why Wait?

Okay, I know that you will hate me by my saying this ..I know because I would hate it if someone else said it but ...

Why wait for the new year?

I love the new year.  I love a fresh, new twelve months just sitting there stretching out all clean, uncluttered and ready to be ridden to the anticipatory betterment of me.

I have a whole list of things that I want to be, do and achieve over the next few months or a year.

I am in an exciting place right now.  I feel very much like I am floating in the ocean, with a strong undertow just at my feet ready to pull me in and take me away.  I feel God's power moving through my life, through my family's life and through my friend's lives.  I feel it.

Even still, some of the things I feel inspired to change, do, or work on  I am tempted to move them to the back burner of the new year.


I want to participate in the Radical Experiment ..a one year commitment to praying for the world, reading the bible, giving specifically, giving my time ...but I want to start my one year on January 1st!

I want to focus on getting my body healthier ...but I want to wait until after the holidays, of course.

I want to declutter my house and get rid of things that I dont need ...but I want to wait til the spring.



The New Year seems like a perfect time to start fresh and new...right?

Or, am I putting off the blessings those things will bring me by pushing them to the future?

I think I am gonna try not putting it off. It may throw my whole "new year" rituals off course, but really ..I dont want to wait for another month before I see the benefits of a healthier body, a nurtured spirit, or a decluttered home.

What do you think? ...what New Year's resolutions do you anticipate making that you can get started now?

Tips on Tuesday: Prayer Blog

I was using this tip this morning and I realized that I benefited from it so much I should share :)

I have a PRAYER blog :)  Its a blog that I have that is just for me and God to read ;p

It was what I came up with when I realized a few things ...first, I do better with my prayers when I write them down. I have always kept a prayer journal, since I was a young teenager. I have boxes and boxes of journals that chronicle my adolescent, teenage, in like, in love, engaged, just married, pre-kid years :) Since having kids I have had a hard time getting back into the swing of prayer journaling, though I have tried various and asundry methods to do so. I needed a more efficient way

Then, I realized that I type faster than I write.

My brain that loves order likes typed word better than written.

I kept losing where I wrote my prayers ..was in my Stress Less Journal, was it in my planner, a blank book? I dunno. I basically have lost my prayers of the past 5 years.

I find blogging and typing very easy, and have to resist not doing that more than I need to.

So, I set up a blog for myself, where I made it totally private and accessible only to me.The posts are my prayers and thoughts for the day, just between me and God. Some are short and sweet and some are long and drawn out, when I am working through our giving alot over to Him.

Some things I have noted since starting this a few months ago ...
* I love having my prayers dated and timed 
*I love having my prayers so easy to read and reference
*I love having the sidebars to keep a prayer list, personal goal and book list 
* I love being able to quickly type my thoughts
* I love that I can access my prayer journal anywhere, from any computer
* I love that I go back and "comment" on my prayers ..whether an update or a change of heart
* I can link to things, people I am praying for, etc. for future reference 
* I can link straight from there to the online One Year Bible, devotional or bible study sites
* I love having a secret place where God and I can talk amidst the choas that is often all around me while I write :)

 Now, I certainly dont need a computer to pray, worship or praise God. But, it is a great way to focus my mind and work within the resources that I have been given, and use so often! It is also a way I have discovered I can take a weakness (too much time on the computer) and turn it into a blessing instead!

Just thought I would share, in case it helps you as much it as it has me! :)

Moms Like Us ..You!

This week, instead of having a Mom Like Us share her thoughts ...I would like YOU to share yours!

Are you a mom like us? Can you relate to the moms who have shared their hearts the last few weeks? Which questions did you most relate to?

For the next couple of weeks, I am going to as YOU some of these questions, and I would love for you to answer them ...we havent had a lot of comments on the blog, but I have heard alot of great feedback in other ways. So, I know that these answers are a great encouragement to Moms Like US!

So, this weeks question ...What do you feel is your greatest struggle as wife/mother?

See the links below to see some of the answers of our other Moms Like Us! :)

One of those weeks ..

It is one of those weeks when blogging isnt the most important thing to do :)

I have thoughts but with the very infrequent blessing of getting to see two of my sweet sisters in teh past two weeks (one I hadnt seen in a year, the other in two) ..blogging just got put appropriately on the back burner :)

Hope to get back on the ban wagon soon enough but meanwhile, I am letting that no-see-em fly away and will look foward to some writing time in the next week or so!