Arrrrgh!

One of my favorite pasttimes is scanning CraigsList for cool stuff at reasonable prices. My new photography habit has really grown lately and I even found my camera and lens on CraigsList. I love finding deals and so far this site has been really great. However, today I am CraigsList Angry.... I've been wanting a flash for my camera so that I can do better indoor portraits. The one I am looking at is in the $300 range. I found one on CraigsList that a guy was selling for 1/4 of the price because he owns a business and they used a bunch of cameras and flashes to photograph an overseas trip to one of their plants. Long story short, we emailed many times talking about price, etc. He agreed to hold two flashes for me to come take a look at and purchase as long as they were as nice as he said. We got all the way down to setting a time he would call to let us know he was home from work......we were all ready to go......no phone call. I've emailed him 4 times since then and no reply. ARRRRGH! I do not like to be "jerked" around! It would be so nice if he would call or email to let us know that he'd sold them to someone else or that he had been locked in a closet for 24 hrs. and this was his first chance to get word out.....

I guess I need to calm myself down this evening, so I looked up these verses:

"Smart people know how to hold their tongue; their grandeur is to forgive and forget." Proverbs 19:11 (The Message)

"Don't be quick-tempered for anger is the friend of fools." Ecclesiastes 7:9

I hope these verses help you this week, just in case you find yourself turning red :)

"SAHM" is a four-letter word...

By SAHM, I mean "Stay-at-Home-Mom". I used to think this was such a "potty" word...as a teenager, I wondered what would make a woman voluntarily give up her super-cool career as someone so important, and stay at home with her 'snot-nosed kids'. BOY, was I so wrong!

This post is for all my mommy friends out there and buddies who wish to someday settle down and have kiddos... Let me first start out by saying that I understand how many different viewpoints there are out there about staying at home vs. working and obviously there are several ways to accomplish both. Staying home with the kids isn't for everyone, but I love that it is for me and want to share this joy through scripture this week.

Sometimes it is really easy for me to feel like I've let someone down by not using my degree. I'll admit that it was hard for me to wrap my brain around "giving" my teaching job to a gal who was right out of college. Afterall, that was MY classroom and those were MY students.....whatever. The cool thing of it is that everyday, I wake up to the sound of baby babbles from the other room as my little buddy jumps up and down in his crib. What a marvelous God we serve, who would let me feel joy in having a family to serve and love.

Everyday tasks can get boring and tiring, but I love these verses as they remind me that staying home serves a higher purpose than what I can plainly see:

"The Lord will open the heavens, the storehouse of his bounty,...to bless all the work of your hands." Deuteronomy 28:12

"As for me and my household, we will serve the Lord." Joshua 24:15

"Unless the Lord builds the house, its builders labor in vain." Psalm 127:1

If you're feeling overwhelmed or discouraged this week, remember that God will bless all the work of your hands, no matter how "small" or "great" they seem to us.

Walk This Way ->->->

Well, I'm probably the worst decision-maker in the history of women. If you were to ask my husband, and please don't...., he would have plenty of stories of how long I have stood in the bodywash section of Wal-Mart, searching for that "perfect" scent that isn't too strong or too flowery. (By-the-way....WHY don't they just make soap that smells like clean soap?? Why do I have to choose between smelling like a batch of break n' bake cookies or a funeral flower?) It's sooooo hard for me to decide when faced with several choices...especially if they're all sub-par choices.

"Everydayness" is chock-full of choices. What will I make for dinner? Where am I going to stop for gas? But the biggest choice of all is choosing to live for real....to live for God and his purpose. Each of you has a very special set of spiritual gifts that are uniquely given by our heavenly Father. He already has a path set up for you with arrows and better-than-mapquest directions. It's our choice to follow the Leader, or ditch out on our own excursion. Don't miss your signs today! Who knows where they might lead? :)

"Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you saying, 'This is the way; walk in it.' " Isaiah 30:21

"Commit to the Lord whatever you do, and your plans will succeed." Proverbs 16:3