Out There Somewhere

I feel like I have been on another planet for the last week or so. I sit down and start to type something out to post and get pulled away to yet another thing I need to get done.

My busiest time of the year isn't usually in December. I try to keep that relatively quiet and enjoyable. January hits, though and I have to go full-tilt to get everything done. It is a "fun" month for bookkeepers and accountants everywhere. The time between January 1 and January 31 may be a normal month but it feels about 1/4 of that time and there is so much that has to be done and is due by the 31st that you can sometimes feel like you're holding your breath for 31 days straight and just praying that absolutely nothing comes up that you "have" to do because there is already too much of that.


It will probably be the very occasional and short posts this month. Hopefully I can get back here again on a more regular basis in February. One thing I do hope to do is start sharing a "Quote of the Day" or something along those lines. Probably not daily but as I find something, I'll post it.

Today, I'm going to leave you with this:

"Everyone is trying to accomplish something big, not realizing that

life is made up of little things." ~ Frank A. Clark

Law & Order Comments

I typed up some thoughts on last night's episode of Law & Order.

Head to Fight4Freedom if you're interested in what I have to say.

Human Trafficking on Law & Order Tonight

The issue of human trafficking is imperative to me. No other word comes to mind. Yesterday I received an email from Free the Slaves regarding an episode of Law & Order that is airing tonight.

If you are home and able, I urge you to watch Law & Order this evening. Check out my post on my human trafficking blog, Fight4Freedom, for details.

I can't stress enough how much I hope you are able and do watch tonight.

LPM Scripture Memorization

I've committed to heading over to Beth Moore's The LPM Blog on the 1st and the 15th of each month, writing out the Scripture I intend to memorize over the next two weeks and then do just that - memorize my Scripture. There is the option, too, of sharing a Scripture that one of the other Siestas puts out there and memorizing that instead of picking my own.

I'm pretty excited at this and am praying that God holds me accountable and keeps me heading back. Scripture memorization isn't my strong suit anymore. I used to have this amazing, almost photographic memory. It went away, though, when I started on some meds years ago for an arrythmia I have. People joke but truly - of all the things I've lost, my memory is the biggest one I miss.

So...I'm jumping into this knowing that God is mightier than any meds and my brain combined and praying that He writes the words on my brain and my heart.

My first Scripture for 2009 is:

If a man shuts his ears to the cry of the poor,

he too will cry out and not be answered.

~Proverbs 21:13

It's not news - the Bible often talks about helping the poor and by ignoring the poor you invite the wrath of God. You also invite the blessings of God when you help the poor, giving with a cheerful heart.

This year I hope to spend time focusing less on me and more on those around me who are in desperate need. As our economy struggles, that number grows larger every day. While we are not rich, we have enough. I am praying God shows me where we can cut back and have more to give away. I look forward to what He shows me - no matter how difficult - in the year ahead.

A Soldier's Mother

I was checking out some of the blogs I have in my favorites. I haven't been reading them for a few days so I decided to do some catching up. My younger one is in the other room practicing his piano and the older one is watching TV. I've packed up two boxes of Christmas decorations (plan on doing one or two more), vacuumed and watched Chronicles of Narnia so far today.

While I was doing that, there is a woman in Israel who is trying to remember to take her next breath. When I clicked on the link to take me to her blog (recommended by one of my "favorites"), I had no idea what I would read, what it would do to me both physically and mentally. Her son, if I did the math right, is very close in age to my oldest. The difference, though, in life experience is so vast I can't begin to fathom it.

We see the news reports, we hear of these places - so far away, so alien to us - and we know there are real people living through these nightmares but we don't know what they are like. Except for 9/11, what have we experienced in this country? I know I have never worried about rockets hitting my home. I have wondered where my next meal would come from but it did come. I have wondered where my son and I would lay our heads at night but we found a place. Never, though, have I wondered if it would be blown up. I never worried about exploding bombs as I crossed a street, rode on a bus, shopped in a mall, took my sons to school...

Here is a woman to read, a life to share even if it is no way other than via "blog world." She is a voice to us for Israel, an "ordinary woman" sharing her life with us using words. Vivid words. Striking pictures.

I lift her up to you, Oh Lord. Her, her children, her son in the Israeli army. I lift up all of those families - mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters...all of them living with war day in and day out. Hear them, please, oh Lord. End this war quickly, give them peace and comfort and I ask, Oh Father - please keep them safe.

Read A Soldier's Mother. She is worth your time.

New Year's Meditations...

Lori at Laurel Wreath's Reflections is hosting a New Year's Meditation meme this week. Hop on over, read it through and if you choose to participate, let me know. I'd love to read what you write for 2009.

As this year winds down to a close, the messages start coming fast and furious about "fresh starts" and "goals" and "resolutions." They always do. I get introspective at this time of year and wonder just what God has in store for me in the coming year. What will He ask of me? What will He want me to do? Will I hear Him? Will I respond "yes?" What goals will I set for myself? What changes do I hope to make?

I'm also thinking about 2008. It was the year when God really pushed me to "go to work" in the fight against human trafficking. It will always remain important to me because of that. I know that it was a "foundation" year and I so look forward to whatever God will be building on it. I get back to that same question in paragraph one - Will I respond 'yes?' and you have no idea how much I am praying I do!!

A couple of things I hope to do this year - read the Bible in chronological order (I had this typed before reading Lori's post. Funny how things like that happen, isn't it?). I'm looking forward to it - it just strikes me that so many things may "fall into place" and since I am such a history nut, I hope it makes a lot of what was happening when and how it ties together more clear to me.

One of my biggest dreams is to learn the original languages of the Bible (some day!) and read it in its original format. That comes from doing a precepts study on 2 Peter a few years back. What an eye opening experience that was. Eye opening in the sense that as beautiful as Scripture is, as much as we can (and hopefully do!) learn from it, there is so much we miss simply because our language does not convey the same feelings and meanings the original writer intended. (Did you know there are 6 different words in the Greek to convey different types of "knowledge/to know?" Neither did I until I did that study.) I don't expect 2009 to be the year I learn Hebrew or the year I learn Greek (or both) but perhaps this can be the year I figure out how to start.

I also dream and hope to open a shelter for women and children rescued from human trafficking. My heart aches day in and day out for those people who are caught in the vile web of slavery. How I pray for God to show me the way. How He wants the work done. A few years ago I asked Him to break my heart with the things that break His heart and while the work has started, my heart still cries out to do more. I can't help but be sick at the thought of those men, women and children who are, as I sit here warm and healthy, being starved, raped, brutalized and literally worked to death. Everything in me screams to jump off my chair, run to where they are and "save" them from the life they're living. Not practical. I'd probably be shot dead inside of 30 seconds of breaking down my first door but it is what I want to do.

I dream of wisdom and discernment as I live day in and day out with my husband and sons. I know I could be a much better wife and mother than I am. More patient, more creative, more interested in the lives of those I live with than I am. I pray that God reveals to me those ways I can honor my husband and my children by being a better Proverbs 31 woman.

This begins my 16th year of employment with the same company and heading into my 3rd year with job #2. I hope this year to take a good, long, hard look at the work I do and see if there is any way I can improve my job performance at both places. After being at job #1 so long, everything feels pretty routine and I hope to shake it up, make it better somehow. Whatever that looks like, I want to do that this year. I hope to remain an employee my employers are proud to have working with them and improve myself in ways I haven't even begun to imagine. Take classes at a local college? Perhaps. Just one of a few thoughts swirling around in my head.

Ultimately, my goal in 2009 is to live my life in a way that honors God. To listen to Him more, follow Him more closely and love Him more. Just more. More of the Father. More of Jesus. More of the Holy Spirit. I pray to immerse myself in them and cut more of "the world" out of my life. Turn off the TV. Tune out the enemy.

What are your dreams and goals for 2009?

Thankful Thursday ~ Looking Back

Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute. Speak up and judge fairly, defend the rights of the poor and needy.

~Proverbs 31:8-9

That verse has been my beacon for 2008. What else will I take from 2008? To me, it was a year of branching out in service. The Western Washington Coalition to Combat Human Trafficking has been formed and we are eagerly starting the work God has called us to do. In addition to that, I started doing devotions at our area women's homeless shelter in June and that has been such an amazing blessing to me.

I am so incredibly thankful to God that He has offered me these and other opportunities to serve Him and to serve those I walk with through this wonderful thing we call life.

I am thankful that God is faithful in that He never asks you to do something alone. He has been with me every single step He has asked me to take and has directed my path - helping me to avoid those things He does not want me to do and putting me back in front of those things He did want me to do.

I am just so thankful to God that He reminds us over and over and over again that He may have created us to look different but inside? He created us to worship and glorify Him so in that regard we are all the same. We all struggle with the basics - loneliness, worth, the path we are to take - and He remains faithful to remind us to keep our eyes on Him and the rest falls into place.

I am grateful that God gives us each new day. In that day, we can share His love with others and maybe - just maybe - be blessed to witness the day a heart actually changes with His love. What a joy it is to welcome a new brother and sister into the family of God!

It has been a privilege serving those who, according to our society's standards, have so little to nothing. I have been reminded over and over and over again, though, of the resilience of the human spirit when it looks to God for its strength and hope. What joy there is in that place!

For 2009, I pray God continues to stretch me and grow me. I have no idea what He has in store for me but how I pray my answer is "Yes." Yes, yes and YES!!

Read other Thankful Thursday posts with Iris at Grace Alone... Have a blessed 2009!