1 Thessalonians 5:18
“Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus.”
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I’m giving myself a 30-day challenge. Each day I’ll share something on my blog I’m thankful for, but it has to be specific to that day. From an unexpected compliment to a perfectly weighted cappuccino to clean sheets – there are no bounds.
Follow me on this journey (sign up to receive emails and don’t miss a post) and/or share in this journey with me. I’d love to hear the little and big things you’re thankful for each day.
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Day 1: I’m thankful on this gorgeous Sunday to belong to a church that believes deeply in missions and is willing and ready to spread the good news to the ends of the earth.
Pray, and let God worry.
It’s been a rough week in the Alderman home. There’s been a lot of stress and a lot of worrying. I couldn’t sleep for hours the other night because I just couldn’t stop worrying about the tiniest things. When I get consumed with worry I always remember these words from Francis Chan’s book Crazy Love …
“Worry implies that we dont quite trust that God is big enough, powerful enough, or loving enough to take care of what’s happening in our lives.
Stress says that the things we are involved in are important enough to merit our impatience, our lack of grace towards others, or our tight grip of control.
Basically, these two behaviors communicate that its okay to sin & not trust God because the stuff in my life is somehow exceptional.”
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Matthew 6:27-29
Can all your worries add a single moment to your life? And why worry about your clothing? Look at the lilies of the field and how they grow. They don’t work or make their clothing, yet Solomon in all his glory was not dressed as beautifully as they are.
Philippians 4:6-7
Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.
Matthew 6:31-33
So don’t worry about these things, saying, ‘What will we eat? What will we drink? What will we wear?’ These things dominate the thoughts of unbelievers, but your heavenly Father already knows all your needs. Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need.
1 Peter 5:7
Give all your worries and cares to God, for he cares about you.
easy like sunday morning.
And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them.
– Romans 8 :28
Obsessed (v): To have the mind excessively preoccupied with a single emotion or topic
“When you are truly in love, you go to great lengths to be with the one you love. You’ll drive for hours to be together, even if its only for a short while. You don’t mind staying up late to talk. Walking in the rain is romantic, not annoying. You’ll willingly spend a small fortune on the one you’re crazy about. When you are apart from each other, it’s painful, even miserable. He or she is all you think about; you jump at any chance to be together.” – Crazy Love, Francis Chan
- Give freely and openly, without censure.
- Love those who hate them and who can never love them back.
- Aren’t consumed with their personal safety and comfort above all else.
- Care more about God’s Kingdom coming to this earth than their own lives being shielded from pain or distress.
- Believe that Jesus talked about money and the poor so often because it was really important to him.
- Are more concerned with obeying God than doing what is expected or fulfilling the status quo.
- Will do things that don’t make sense on this earth, in terms of success or wealth.
- Know that you can never be “humble enough” and so they seek to make themselves less known.
- Do not consider service a burden.
- Take joy in loving God by loving His people.
- Genuinely think that others matter as much as they do and they are particularly aware of those who are poor around the world.
- Orient their lives around eternity; they are not fixed only on what is here in front of them.
Are we living the profile of the obsessed?
Lent: Prayer + Dance
Some party on Fat Tuesday.
Some use it as an excuse to eat everything in sight.
But for me, it’s a day of stress trying to figure out what to give up for Lent.
You name it, and I’ve given it up – soda, chocolate, junk food, caffeine, gossiping, eating out, all things presumably bad for you.
But this year, I’m putting a new spin on it. I’m not asking myself what I should deprive myself of for Lent, but instead, what can I add to my life to enhance it?
So, here it is, I’m making it public for a better sense of accountability, for Lent I am going to exercise every day for 20 minutes. This can be anything – walking, zumba, pilates, running, Just Dance (!!) or heaven forbid, weight lifting. (This also fits perfectly into my Operation Bathing Suit, OBS, but more on that some other time.)
It will be tough, but as is the focus of Lent, I’m surrending it all to God. Whenever I don’t want to get up in the morning, when I feel lazy after work or when I think I have a right to skip a day, I’ll call on God for strength, bringing myself closer to my health goals, but more importantly, a closer relationship with my Father too. It’s a time for reflection and renewal.
What are you doing for Lent? I’d love to hear so we can continue to pray for and inspire each other.
Note to Self
I reached a breaking point today.
I realized how much work I have ahead of me in the last month of school. I realized I’m almost done with school forever. No more summer breaks. No more month-long Christmas breaks. No more spring breaks. I’ll be in the real world with a real job. And then there’s just that, a job, which I don’t have. Terrifying.
I think I’m making myself physically sick.
So instead of more rambling about my stress that will only make me more stressed, I wanted to stop and focus on the wonderful things in my life right now, because somehow I keep forgetting about them. Even though I’m pretty sure I’ve blogged this exact same post before, I need reassurance and reminders over and over and over and this is my way to de-stress. And again as much as I want you to read this and get something out of it, this blog is really for me.
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What I’m thankful for right now…
I have a roof over my head, food to eat and clean water to drink.
and if I didn’t have those things, I would have plenty of people to provide them for me.
I have people in my life who really care about me. I have someone I can call or text or drop by to see at any time — to complain to, to share good news with, to cry with, to laugh with, to simply be with.
As much as I forget it, not everyone has that.
I’m getting married in less than 70 days.
Though the rest of my future is uncertain, that’s the one thing I know I have, and goodness, that makes things so much easier.
I’m healthy.
Yes, I get headaches more often than I wish. And some days I feel nauseous or my stomach hurts or my feet hurt, but I don’t have to live with a disease that affects my life. I can do anything I want without even thinking about it.
I’m blessed financially.
I’m not living from one paycheck to another. I’m not worrying about how I’m going to feed myself. I’m not worrying about the bills getting paid on time.
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The most important thing to remember about being blessed with all these things is how I use them.
Do I give back financially like I could? Do I complain too much about my aches and pains? Do I show how thankful I am to the people around me and tell them how much they mean to me? Do I groan at having to drink tap water when some people have no water?
Looking at everything I have and everyone I have in my life, my life seems almost perfect. Why complain about a silly old thesis when the death toll is rising in Japan and people can’t find their families or have nowhere to go with no food to eat?
Yes, we all know this already. But another reminder can never hurt.
“From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked.” -Luke 12:48
5 Minutes
My soul was unexpectedly revived this morning with a beautiful, inspirational blog post from a beautiful, inspirational friend. She mentions the website Reverb10 as a place to find prompts for introspection from the last year. Yes, I have already done a 2010 reflection post and yes it is nearly a month into 2011, but I want to do anything I can to make sure that years down the road I remember the important steps taken to get me where I am. So, I’ve chosen the prompt:
Imagine you will completely lose your memory of 2010 in five minutes. Set an alarm for five minutes and capture the things you most want to remember about 2010. (Author: Patti Digh)
21st birthday: snow, friends, cops, fights, dancing, love. Vegas. Paris Hilton. seeing the reconstruction of old friendships and building new ones. making your own family wherever you are. game nights: wine, catchphrase, laughing, things, telephone pictionary. learning to let go. the importance of phone dates. learning to re-appreciate my parents. the look in my fiance’s eyes as he proposed. learning to love new people. LA. finding passions: children, human trafficking. weddings. moving and the excitedness that comes with it. the sweetness of doing nothing. the birth of a beautiful child that came to be my godchild.Veronica Mars. community group. the joys of finishing french. having a puppy in the house. realizing who is really important in my life. continually seeing God’s hand in my life.
Confession: I re-set the timer for another 5 minutes after the first one went off. This is way harder than it looks, and I know I didn’t even come close to everything I would want to remember from 2010.
10 Things I Love About My Life Right Now
1. Realizing that this time next year I will be married to and living with my best friend.
2. If I want to watch a movie on a Thursday afternoon, I can.
3. That I have a place on campus that is mine and full of people who can always make me smile. (and often cake)
4. Getting way too excited for my People magazine to come in the mail on Fridays.
5. Having the freedom to figure out what I really want to do with my life.
6. That I have multiple dogs I can play with daily, but not have the responsibility that comes along with them.
7. Being a part of a group of girls I can openly discuss Biblical truths and questions with every week.
8. Feeling really important because I get so many emails a day.
9. Not being stressed out about school because I’m only taking 13 hours and 2 of them are Ballet.
10. The people in it.
Warning: Extreme Introspection Lies Ahead
Today I am: self-reflective.
I’m not one to sit and analyze things, specifically myself and the way I think or the way I do things and why. But for some reason, Vegas, of all places, has gotten me looking from the outside in.
I’ve always had an inferiority complex about who I was. I’ve never felt like I could be characterized by a word or phrase, yet I could point to anyone in my life and tell you who they are. Whether it’s a personality trait, a career or a hobby, everyone has something that most people define them by.
Who am I?
Am I a Disney-crazed 20-year-old?
Am I the “nice” girl? (As great as that sounds, I’ve come to truly despise that as being a defining characteristic.)
Am I the fashion-conscious?
Am I the one with all the celebrity gossip?
The journalist? The wannabe actress? The traveler? The pretty girl?
As I was thinking about all of these things that people might describe me as, I realized that I don’t want to be defined by any of those “shallow” things. If that’s who people think I am, they don’t really know me. This is when I realized two things:
1. I define people in shallow terms.
2. The only possible thing that I could be described as that truly fits what I want to be known for is faithful, loving Christian.
Though I do describe people in shallow terms such as the funny guy, the sports-aholic, really into politics, the dancer, etc. I know that is not the extent of that person’s personality, but from the outside that’s what defines them. I just want one word that people define me as externally, as ridiculous as that sounds.
As I pondered this for a few days, I was reminded that my identity truly lies in Christ. It doesn’t matter that I don’t know who I am or what I want to do, because He does. Even if I don’t have that one shallow word or phrase that everyone else does, I at least want my light to be shining so brightly for Him that people know whose I am.
Part Two
I am a planner. Every night before I go to bed I plan my next day in as much detail as I can. I make to-do-lists like they’re going out of style. I put something in my planner as soon as I hear about it. It literally makes me nervous to not know how my day/evening/weekend is going to look.
I’m marrying an improviser, and I think I’m planning my life away.
The biggest obstacle in my life lately is that I feel like I don’t have time for the people in my life. Unless I have a class with you or work with you, I pretty much have to “pencil you in.” Sadly, this is even true about the people I live with a lot of the time.
I feel like I’m becoming the person I never wanted to be. The person that puts work over people. The person that has to check her schedule 5 times to see if she has time to go see a movie.
I want to be free and spontaneous and an improvisor. I want to be able to just go on a walk, or talk on the phone to someone who needs me, or go to lunch, or just spend time with someone. I don’t want people to assume I’m busy so they don’t even ask if I want to do something. I want to be able to have a bad day and just relax and eat and cry or whatever I want to do rather than finishing everything on my to-do list.
If you know how to do this, please contact me.
This blog is dedicated to those people I love who I rarely spend time with. I hope you know how much I care about you.
“La Dolce Far Niente”
I have been reminded how therapeutic “nothing” days can be.
You know those times in your life when life is just so hectic and you are swimming and swimming, but you never seem to reach the surface? That’s where I’ve been the past few weeks and it seemed as though not only was I not going anywhere, but rather sinking to the bottom.
And possibly I did hit bottom on the fateful day when my car got towed and various other punishments ensued including finding out I have to go to the Student Ethics board. If you know me at all, you know this would make me upset, but if you really know me, you know this would make me absolutely sick. I’ve always been the perfect student who didn’t get in trouble, and the second I did I lost it. Though my skin has grown a LOT tougher since elementary school, getting in trouble still makes me upset. So on Wednesday when everything was already too overwhelming, the tears came pouring in the Parking and Transit office. When it rains, it pours.
That’s when I stepped back and took a look at my life (thanks to the wise words of someone very dear to my heart). What was I doing? Who was I living for? Why was I letting the troubles of this world weigh on me so heavily? I threw my selfish, stubborn self aside and prayed. and prayed. and prayed.
And just as I had expected, almost instantaneously God released me from this state of war inside myself that had taken hold of who I am and who I want to be.
“Come to me all you who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest.” Matthew 11:28
Let’s get back to today and how wonderful doing nothing can be.
With a peace and inside joy I’ve been longing for, today I’ve: cleaned, prayed, lay on my bed, listened, rejoiced, read- all under the soothing voices of John Mayer, Michael Buble and Jack Johnson.
And though everyone else I know is tailgating and preparing for the first Razorback game of the season, I needed this time to myself to relax and enjoy “La Dolce Far Niente” the sweetness of doing nothing.
Here’s to Life
It’s 2:45 a.m. and I’m more than a little hyped for the hour. (You’re talking to someone who’s normal bed time is around 10:30). I just went to the midnight premiere of Eclipse and as ridiculous as this sounds I can’t stop thinking about it. I also have a lot of thoughts floating around in my head that I’ve been meaning to blog, so here is insight into my mish-mash.
Team Edward vs. Team Jacob
Two years ago when Twilight was the biggest thing to drop onto the earth, I was completely against it. I thought it sounded ridiculous and the biggest waste of my time to read. I had much better books to read that would teach me and invoke serious thought. (“But it’s a looooove story!” I can’t tell you how many times I heard that) My roommates and I even banned it from our apartment: no Twilight paraphernalia or talk, at all.
Fast forward a year later when I was forced against my will to watch the first movie- ridiculous and probably one of the worst movies I have ever seen. However, part of me was intrigued, so I promised a friend I would go see New Moon in theaters with her.
I walked in a skeptic. I walked out a twi-hard. My roomies from the previous year couldn’t believe it, and wouldn’t let me live it down (they still won’t). I saw the movie in theaters three times and began acting like a love-struck teenager when either Taylor Lautner or Robert Pattinson was seen or mentioned. I had decided that I was on Team Jacob (Taylor Lautner, the werewolf, for all you non-Twilighters). Friends told me it was because they weren’t portraying Edward correctly in the film, which may be true, he’s just too depressing and pale for my taste.
Which all leads upto tonight. I LOVE movies and LOVE going to movie premieres, so I thought the Eclipse midnight premiere would be an experience, and it definitely was. I had just one problem. I’m almost positive I was the only person in the theatre that hasn’t read the books. Thus, I’m sitting on the edge of my seat, heart pounding, during the battles of flesh and the battles of love. I would gasp and get wide-eyed, when no one else even flinched. The plot was no surprise to them, just to me.
I’m very glad I haven’t wasted my time reading the books. I am getting much joy and excitement waiting for the next installment of the movie, not knowing what’s coming. I can also say I’m not too much of a twi-hard since I haven’t read the books. (Well, let’s be honest…..)
My Future Career
After my post about acting as a passion, I received several very concerned texts about what I was going to do with my life. Apparently I left everyone hanging. Which, in all honesty, not even I knew what I was going to do. I was left hanging.
I’ve always prided myself in not worrying about the future. I worry about everyday things a lot, way more than I should, but I’ve never been one to worry about what will happen after college or how much money I will have or how my life will turn out. I’ve always had a peace about it, knowing God has already made my plans, so why worry?
After writing that post I thought back on other posts I had written, about how I wanted to mentor students, how I wanted to write something that affected people and now how I want to act. It seems like I don’t know what I want. And I don’t. But that’s okay. I don’t have to know. I trust that God will lead me where he wants me and that I will be most affective with the talents He has given me. I can’t, however, sit around and just wait for him to shove the perfect opportunity my way. I need to keep stepping through open doors until He closes one. Thus, I will mentor, I will write and I will find a way to act. And when he leads me to the position He wants me in, I will know. In the mean time, why try and figure out His plan?
Sick
As it turns out, I have gotten my week of sickness I’ve so desperately desired in the past, and I know even more now that I never ever want this again. I’ve literally come home every afternoon, taken a nap, then watched 24 pretty much until it was time to go to sleep again. I’ve interspersed other things I needed to do in between, but I’ve felt so terrible that all I want to do is lay down. I feel so unproductive, so useless, but I know I need to learn how to be still and let my body heal itself. I’ve also actually been learning a lot through my t.v. watching. Everywhere I go I feel like I’m being watched and snipers surround me in the bushes. However, I feel like I could protect myself in any situation and know not to make the stupid mistakes they make on t.v.
Et Cetera
Other things I’ve learned today include: waiting two hours for a movie is the best time for conversation, D.O.D. means Department of Defense, laying out is bad for you while you are sick (and yes, maybe not the best when you are healthy either), the new Harry Potter trailer is incredible, you can always learn something new about someone you thought you knew everything about.
“The intense prayer of the righteous is very powerful.” James 5:16
What a beautiful day it has been that God has given me. My entire day has been thread together by Him in so many little ways that now make sense to me.
Passion
I’m at freshman orientation handing out The Traveler and talking to students interested in journalism. All morning this has been very rewarding for me, talking to bright-eyed, bushy-tailed students with a wonderful four years ahead of them to discover who they are. One girl that particularly struck me was interested in journalism and writing and was just overjoyed that she found our table. Come to find out she graduated from BHS (as did I) and we began talking like friends do. Just seeing the joy and excitement in her eyes of finding something on campus that she could be a part of was nearly enough to just make my day. Thus, my realizations of the morning are how much I love being a mentor or leader in someone’s life.
Prayer
I come back to the office to find a forwarded email from my mom about prayer. It began by saying that we often find ourselves too busy during the day to say a prayer. Everything has to be accomplished asap, so we often forget to speak to God in prayer about it before we react. However, we should really think about the acronym differently…
When there’s work to do, deadlines to meet; You’ve got no time to spare, but as you hurry and scurry- Always Say A Prayer.
This very simple idea had a profound effect on me, as my life lately has been characterized by being busy- too busy to praise the God who created us.
Passion and Prayer
I had received an email at the end of the semester about becoming a mentor for freshmen. It looked appealing and I strongly considered applying, but it fell to the bottom of my list of things to do. Today I remembered that email- thinking about how much I enjoyed it this morning and how wonderful it would be to help even a handful of freshmen. I got home and began looking through old journals when God placed me on a page from 2008 that read, “Lord, I really feel you calling me toward spending my free time in conversation club. Also, how about mentoring students?” and that’s all I ever said about it. I honestly have no clue why I wrote that and can’t remember any reason why I would think about mentoring, but it secured my thoughts all day.
What an incredible God we have who will use anything such as a curious freshman, an email and old journals to lead me to glorifying Him and revealing part of His purpose for my life.
m.davis xoxo 