Taking another week off…

It must be summer because I can’t round up enough of us to pull together a meeting.    Our factory girls have been doing long days of inventory and so they are wiped out.  It’s the week of the county fair so that takes out Pam and to a large degree, me.  Lastly Karen’s on vacation.  So Doris and I decided that we didn’t want to have a meeting with just the 2 of us.  I’m so glad I didn’t find this out unitl after I had completed the study for the week though.  That means that I actually made an attempt to complete it!  Some days it was not my best attempt.  I can confess that.  But I did get all days read and answered.

My goal for this week is to write down what I ate each night.  I’ve got to find a way to plan for success in continuing my First Place lifestyle.  I can do this but it does take time.

Did you read the pages in our member’s guide for this week?  Did anything challenge your way of thinking?

I know that some of us are missing the tracker forms to fill out this week because of the cancellation.  Use a regular piece of paper if you need to.  Also, I’ll only be collecting the last week (July 19-25) of our trackers at the next meeting.

Are you feeling overwhelmed?

Me too.  It’s a lot to think about.  But I think we can all agree that we were too comfortable before.  Each of us had morphed the First Place program into something we could live with.  We had all made some good changes but there probably many things about the old program that you had purposefully turned a blind eye to.  Maybe you decided that it was really okay to eat red meat every day of the week or to not exercise or not to do the study.  Whatever it was you are about to be challenged to re-evaluate your position again.  What a wonderful opportunity!  What will you do with your opportunity?

We’re looking forward!

In the next few weeks we will be getting our new member kits!  I’m really looking forward to the new challenge.  I also wonder exactly what the new CR’s will look like.  So many things to look forward to with this change.  This week we had some good discussion about David and his year  before being king.  God even had to prepare a man as great as David for his life’s work.  What’s God prepared you to deal with already?  He’s prepared me to deal with groups of children in a calm and controlled manner.  He’s given me a love of education that helps me to get through most of the rough days.  Lately God’s even given me the peace to understand the limits of my time.  Being able to say “no” and be comfortable with it is a new thing for me lately!  But it certainly made a HUGE difference in my outlook.

Look up!

Today’s meeting started small with only myself and Doris.  Karen showed up a few minutes later.  Where was everyone you might ask?  Well let’s see….

Pam was at a pig show with her family.

Sandi was being made to work.

Donna was hanging out with Jack at the hospital.

Lisa was….?

Here are few of the positive side of things at First Place St. Paul’s:

Sounds like Jack is recovering well.  He is getting his temporary stint removed today (I think) and he doesn’t need to have a permanent one put in.  God is good!

Doris has been sent a check in the mail from their insurance and that is answer to a prayer.   Now she has more money for their trip to Germany this summer.

School’s winding down which is both a good and a bad thing for over half the group.  There’s lots to get done in the next few days but Summer Vacation is just around the corner!

It’s Spring!

So many things are short lived in this spring season.  My tulips are so beautiful but they only bloom once each year and even in the best conditions they will only last a couple of weeks.  Usually the spring winds kick in and after only a few days of beginning to open up they get whipped and torn.  So I have to make a special point to notice, really notice each day how they are changing or I will miss their beauty this year.  How many other things are that way in your life?  So often I get caught up in my goals that I forget to enjoy the NOW of my life. Spring always reminds me of that. My  students have so much joy!  Hopefully I can begin to reflect that unbounded energy back to them.

I have to enjoy my relationship with my husband each day.  I have to make an effort to notice, really notice how having him with me makes my life better.  God has truly provided me with a better half, it’s sad that I take him for granted.  This week I’m going to notice.

What’s God showing you this week?  Will you notice?

A Guest Entry by Lisa

I enjoyed this week’s Bible study. I liked the question about what do
I want my kids to know. I really like the book’s passages this week.
I liked these ideas
“what Jesus means to me” has more impact on whether or not that young person continues in the Christian faith than if a parent were to send that child to church every week for a year”

Monday Hug your child before they leave and say,”Remember your my son/daughter.”

Tuesday “We are God’s treasure.” “God’s jewel.”

Tuesday “Rejoice in the Lord” Clue “in the Lord” good or bad week is made doable in the Lord

Thursday “Circumcise your hearts” “A heart broken before God in repentance. Heart humbly dependent on Him.

Don’t give up on me, I’ll be back!
Lisa

Ahhhh I’m late!

Okay girls, this is what happens when I can’t sit down on Saturday or Sunday and write the entry.  Sorry.

So here’s my nugget from our discussion this week.  One of our questions asked us about why the trumpet was an appropriate instrument for Easter.  Well I have to admit that I always just figured that trumpets were a good choice because they are loud and joyous sounding!  Turns out that the trumpet call in Numbers was all about asking God for His help in battle.  Now that puts a new spin on things!  We talked our way around this question and eventually had an “aha” moment.  Now I had thought about this question at home and couldn’t quite make it fit together.  But with the help of the other girls we all found our way to a suitable answer.  The best part was that I don’t think any of us had actually fully worked out this answer before we got to the meeting.  But with all of us talking we eventually figured it out.  Isn’t collaboration great?

What?  You want to know what we came up with?  Hmmmm guess you’ll have to ask Doris, Donna, or Pam to find that one out. 

Also we talked a bit about our “line in the sand”.  How far are we willing to let our commitment to caring for our bodies go before we recommit?  So each of us committed to making one change this week.  Pam is going to exercise.  Doris is going to exercise before sitting down at the computer.   Donna is not going to take extra money for the vending machine at work.  I’m committed to doing exercise first thing in the day.  What about the rest of you?  What are you going to do so that you don’t step over your own line?

Wonder why there never was a Jubilee year?

I’m not really feeling like there was a lot to report on this week…….We are finally out of Leviticus! We did discuss a bit about the rules of land ownership as they were set up. Strangely it appears that these rules were never actually followed out. Doris, Karen, Sandi and I had a good time this week and hope to see you there before Easter on Saturday!

Doing it right is hard sometimes….

Girls, this week was all about perseverance for me. I’m hoping we don’t have to read another whole week all about sacrificing doves, rams and goats. I don’t want to read anything else about fat and kidneys or sprinkling blood. But thanks be to God Leviticus is not a very long book. I’ll be interested to hear Pastor Jason preach from this book next week! I think I’ll add his sermon to my prayer list!

This week Karen, Doris and I made it in for the meeting. Hopefully Pam and Lisa will add some thoughts to the blog. Donna was working and Sandi had a head cold.

Leviticus is all about doing what’s right when making a sacrifice. Okay so I’m going to go off on a tangent here but hang with me….. On Saturday evening Todd and I were faced with a tough decision to do what was right. We went to Champaign to go eat and then make a few stops at Menard’s and Meijer. When we got to the grocery store around 9 p.m. we parked our car and Todd took a moment to write a few things down on a list. While I was waiting for him to get out of the car I happened to look out the car window. I saw a group of 4 boys who were sitting outside the store on the sidewalk. It appeared that 2 of them were beginning to hit one of them. The last boy was trying to shield the boy who was being hit.

Now, no blood was being drawn and they could have just be rough housing but it looked to me like it was not good natured because the victim wasn’t smiling or even saying anything. These guys looked to be about Jr. High age to me and one of the aggressors could have been early High School. As I sat there watching and waiting for Todd, 4 groups of people walked by the boys and did nothing. Some looked at them as they walked by but they kept on walking. Now had these been boys at my own school I would have jumped right out of my car and said something and/or done something. So why did I pause?

Well, it was scary and unknown. I mean they weren’t really hurting the boy on the ground and sometimes boys do this kind of thing. So maybe I should let it go. When we got out of the car I walked over and stared at the boys. My hope was that would be enough to get them to stop. No luck. Both of the aggressors glanced up at me and kept right on taunting, kicking, and slapping while the third boy did his best to cover the victim with his own body.

“Guys!” I said. Well that kind of did it. Both the aggressors paused (not stopped) and looked up. Hmmmmmm now what…..apparently in my fear I forgot fully think through what I was going to say next. All I could come up with was a really lame “Knock it off.” And that got me a explanation about how “they were all friends” “just fooling around” and I “should just walk myself into the store.”

Never have I been so happy to hear my quiet husband’s voice as when we came up behind me and said “Come on guys you’re in a public place.” By this time the victim and friend were starting to get up. So Todd and I stood and listened awhile longer from the aggressors that we should go about our business and leave them alone or risk bodily harm and yes I am removing a lot of harsh language from this story. As a matter of fact a lot of harsh language followed us as we finally did walk in the store. Within a few steps of entering a the store a manager walked in front of me and so we also reported the activity outside. I was shaking a little and if I am really honest I would say that I was on the verge of some tears.

Looking back on it now that 24 hours have passed….I think I would do it again. Part of my job as a follower of Christ is to “do it right”. Sometimes that means stepping out of my comfort zone. Now that being said, I am so happy to see my husband felt the same leading as me because to be quite honest, I didn’t even consider that he was there as I opened my mouth.

We’ve been talking about the “laws” of your peer community at the Middle School a lot lately. How far are we willing to let things go before we say something…….before we DO something. I think I stepped up because I recognized the position the boy on the ground was in. If he didn’t really need the help then it was a lesson for the group on how to behave while in public. But if there’s even a chance it could have been more than that then I did the right thing. But the right thing was VERY hard to do!

So Many Details

This week the passages we had to read were full of all kinds of minute details.  Details about building a tabernacle, making a certain kind of robe, justice in community living.  Sometimes all the details were overwhelming.  Sometimes they were just boring.  Thankfully the folks who wrote our Bible Study knew that this might be the case and right on the pages of the study on a few days they told us “not to worry about the details”.  What a delightfully freeing sentence! It’s nice to know that I don’t have to feel guilty about not being interested in all the tiny stuff the Bible puts in front of me.

Sometimes life is the same way.  The individual things that must get done to complete a project can sometimes overwhelm me.  That’s even more true when I got multiple large projects that all need completing!  Sometimes I have a tendency to get bogged down in the details so much that everything comes to a complete stop.  This blog is a prime example.  I have a desire to make each and every entry something that’s deeply thought provoking.  But sometimes I just don’t feel like thinking deeply myself!  I need to remember that there are times when things just need to get done, not done perfectly or even to a really high standard.  All my meals at home don’t have to be gourmet, as a matter of fact sometimes a good old PB&J and a cold glass of milk is exactly what hits the spot.  My house doesn’t have to look spotless like a museum, it does however need to function for my family.   My programs for school don’t have to be works of art but they do need to get the names of the songs and the upcoming performances to my audience.

I can’t do it all.  And God’s okay with that.  He’s okay with it for you too.  How many areas are you trying to be an over-achiever in?  Is it too much to handle?  Are you really listening to what God tells you is important?  Or are you listening to the world and letting them fill you with business?