Just a quick plug from Christina today- I was gone on a day- long work trip today (so fun! yeah!) so I haven’t had any time at the computer. But for people that spend a LOT of time at a computer (like I USUALLY do,) you might want to check out this website.
You can find all the messages from great Sovereign Grace pastors and teachers. If you are looking for great, gospel-rich messages to listen to at work or on the road, THIS IS IT.
Christina
(by Christina)
I’m listening to the newest episode of the Boundless show , the online radio show of Boundless, the young adult version of Focus on the Family.
This week’s episode talks a lot about friendships changing as people get married, have babies, etc. Has me feeling a little sad… as BF #2 gets married next week (SO EXCITING!) and BF#2 will be in town with her baby. (you know, him?)
Makes me think of that part in PS I love you where all 3 girls are on the boat, and one girl is pregant, one is engaged, and the Hilary Swank character is kind of like, uh, great? I was telling my mom after the movie that this part rang true for me and she said “um, except that girl just lost her husband.” Uh, Good point mom 🙂
And you know what? It has been tough. I think all 3 of us would agree that some of the changes in our lives have been tough to weather together. But we’ve weathered them. Have we had to adjust our expectations? Definitely. Have we had to realize there are some things we can’t really talk about? Sure. But God has blessed us with each other, close to this day.
Still feeling tinge of sadness, though, to be losing my partner in crime to marriage, and the changes it will bring. ~sigh~
Walk down memory lane- Tina’s marriage a few years ago!
Here’s the finished product from my project I devised from here and here.
I used the process from the second link… here’s the directions.
DISCLAIMER- I’m not completely happy with it, because of course I cut some corners… so I think I’ll be re-doing it with better fabric and actually trace the letters onto the fabric. Because I kind of made up this project- I printed out letters pretty big (bigger than one sheet of paper- you can go upload a pdf of the font and word you want to here and print out in the size you want) and cut them out, pinned them to the fabric, and cut the fabric. This of course did not work very well. Next time I will trace the letters onto the fabric and then cut.
Because the letters are held on by water and corn starch, I can just peel them off, wipe off the wall with a cloth, and do it over.
Happy crafting!
I’ve been feeling anxious this weekend about giving my 2 weeks at work. I know that it’s what I’m supposed to do- the timing is right, it’s been coming for a long time, and I feel confident that this is the right choice… but I keep thinking about what I’ll say, and how they’ll react. I keep thinking about that line in “You’ve Got Mail” that the Tom Hanks character tells the Meg Ryan character… It’s not personal, it’s business, It’s not personal, It’s business. I keep telling myself this.
Christina, you are not the first person to move on from a job!
Christina, you are not irreplaceable! They’ll be fine!
Christina, they won’t hate you!
Christina, IT’S NOT PERSONAL, IT’S BUSINESS.
The problem is, it is personal to me. I’m not a businesswoman. I think that’s one of the reasons I’m moving on from here, truthfully. I’m not a hardened business-lady. I’m not a knock-down drop-out cutthroat, getting the sale. It is personal to me. I feel bad that I’m leaving, and they’ll be left in the lurch. I feel bad that they’ve taken the time to train me, being patient with my struggles in this field of work. In general, I feel bad.
And I think what I’ve figured out is, you know, it is personal to me. I can be patient with the fact that I’m emotional going into this, because even though I don’t like it here, I have done my best and feel a loyalty to this company because it has been my job to do a good job here. And that is OK.
In church yesterday- the pastor gave a message that might as well have been just to me. Thank you Lord, for getting my behind to church yesterday! It was all about how when we follow God, it might not be all hearts and unicorns (my paraphrase)… there may be struggles. There may be times when we don’t understand his plan. With Joseph (that I wrote about here,) he had to wait something like 17 YEARS to see God’s plan in the whole sordid deal. This makes me feel a tiny bit {sarcasm} different about the situation I find myself in. For the most part, I DO see God’s hand in where he’s taking me. I am so thankful that he is showing me the light in front of my feet on this path! And the parts I don’t understand? Those parts that are difficult for me on this journey?
Well, then it’s time to reference these verses the pastor gave…
My sister Christina is guest posting today…
So, I realize the blog has been silent this week. Well, it’s because we’ve been together! We spent 3 days in Clear Lake with family (awesome,) then 1 1/2 days in Muscatine with Bret and Katie (wonderful,) and now I’m back to work, and Caroline is enjoying Chicago for the week! Here are some pictures of the fun we had with our wonderful family this past week…
We danced on the boat…
We hung out with the cutest kids ever…
Our family did a skit that involved us all doing “the robot”…
Other families danced as well… 🙂
We hung out with people we love a lot…
Then headed to Muscatine with Bret and Katie! They’re amazing!
Such a great time. We love our family!
Please welcome Christina (my wonderful sister) who shares insights on here every once in a while. She’s got good things to say and is most always better at saying it than I am.
My current “profile” picture on facebook- with Roman at his 1st bday party!
I love facebook. Well, I don’t know that I love it, but I sure do use it a fair amount. I got hooked when I moved to NY, and that was my one way of finding out what was going on in many of my college friends’ lives. Who was engaged, who moved to Africa, etc. It was so fun to have a window into lives of friends that I had grown apart from. As 1 ½ years have passed since moving back to Iowa and therefore could call up and hang out with many of those people, the purpose has changed a bit. I tend to use facebook more for stalking purposes. You know, you meet someone, see if they’re in your network, check out their pictures? No? Only me? I doubt that… :)Oh well!
Anyway, recently I’ve been feeling not so great about this little relationship. Conversations I have over it are feeling less and less like conversations, and more like sentences shot out to feel a little better about not calling. And my biggest beef with facebook? My time on facebook seems only to make less content. This friend is recently engaged, this friend moved to a gorgeous island, this friend just purchased a house. Cue ugly green monster. I even found myself irritated the other day when I was looking at pictures of a wedding for a summer friend from 4 years ago- why wasn’t I invited? Not taking into account that I haven’t spoken to this friend for probably 2 years, and wouldn’t know her husband from the next guy on the street, and we definitely had not made any effort to keep in touch. Bad news, friends. I was indignant. So that’s that- my sin issues with facebook. Josh Harris, pastor at Sovereign Grace Ministries, and Author of some great books (including the popular “I kissed dating goodbye” from my high-school years,) wrote about facebook last summer, after he joined for one week. He found that facebook helped him waste time and took his focus off of Christ and put them more on himself… which led to him quitting after only 7 days.
So what do I think about this whole deal? Well, I need to hold loosely my image on facebook. I need to remember that how people see me is not of much importance. I need to value real relationships and real conversations above internet “shout-outs.” I need to value finding out more about my God waaaay more than finding out about friends of mine. I need to praise God for blessings in others lives, and not let discontentment creep in.
And if it does? Time to hit the off button, slather on some bug spray, grab some granola, and go head outside to go read some Bible. For, if you’re spending time thinking about God’s ability to “do more than we can ask or imagine,” it’s pretty hard to keep thinking about yourself.
This guest post was written by my sister Christina. Enjoy!
There is a rumor going around that I’m a bad driver. Weird, right? Since I’ve had barely a ticket (going 5 over doesn’t count, does it?) since high school. That’s been 6 years. 6 YEARS. Plus, it’s notable that 1 of those years was in the NYC suburbs, which may have the craziest drivers in the country. So why this rumor? I fear that I’m to blame.
I have gained a reputation as a story-teller, and many of those stories are about my own goofy life. If I do something funny, or stupid, or absentminded, I don’t mind at all, because it will make for a great story at the next party or family function I attend. I’m not sure how this started, but I guess a few years ago, one particularly funny story at a family get-together was about driving, or cars, or something like that, because now the family always wants to hear a “car story.” I’m happy to oblige, so I dig back into my brain to find something that I can make into a fun story.
Hmm, well, I did just get rear-ended by a guy that wasn’t paying attention last month- could that be funny? Well, it was really scary to me, so probably not the funniest story…
How about the time in college when my roommate and I weren’t sure how to jump a car and we accidentally switched the wires, and it was smoking, and the Cy-ride driver got out of the bus to tell us that shouldn’t be happening, and a week later my dad and brother spent like an hour trying to pull-start it around the neighborhood with a yellow rope before we figured out I had simply blown a fuse? Ahhhh, that’s a good one 🙂
So anyway, I love telling these stories. I love turning unfortunate events into stories for opportunities to make people laugh! The bummer happens when people make assumptions based on these stories- like that I am a bad driver. I guess that’s the downside of self-disclosure. For people that don’t publish their silly escapades for all to know, they can happily go on knowing that no one will know that they accidentally drove off with the gas nozzle still in their car (you know who you are :).) But for me, I guess it’s worth it.
My driving record speaks for itself, but how fun is it to read something so boring?
Since I’m out at a Leadership Conference this week- I’m having my sister guest-blog for me. She’s technically retired from the world of blogging, but is coming out of retirement for a post or two to help me out.
Welcome, Christina, to Musings of a Foreign Heart!
My grandma died- and I’m so sad. Yesterday I found myself having to drive home at lunch, to be able to cry about it in peace. When I stopped at stoplights, I rolled my windows up to have some privacy from the drivers around me, even though I am aware that this doesn’t make me invisible. My heart just hurt so much, missing her.
The weird thing is- my dear Grandma died about 15 years ago. And you know, I’m really used to it. Its part of my life now, something I take for granted. I’m really not sure why suddenly I started thinking about her so much. Maybe it’s the book I’m reading with my new mentor, Becoming a Woman of Excellence. (She was- very much so.) Maybe it’s the fact that yesterday I was writing Mother’s day cards to my mom and Grandma Sponsler, and I found myself wanting to thank Grandma Avonell for being such an amazing woman, mother, and Grandma, and couldn’t. Either way, she’s been on my mind in a big way these past few days, and I’m just missing her so much. I just wish, as an adult, that I could know her.
There are so many questions I have for her- so many things I didn’t know to ask before she died. I wish I could talk to her about being single at 25—she experienced it and waiting for the “right guy” really worked out for her- in my Grandpa Fletcher. I wish I could tell her about the great father her son, my dad, grew up to be, and how he and my stood in the gap for me while I learned how to make my own choices, and stumbled a few times along the way. I wish I could learn from her in person, how she found that perfect place in between feistiness and having a quiet spirit… my constant struggle. I wish I could learn from her how she was the kind of mother-in-law that made my mom think, when she married my dad, “I want to be just like her.”
Maybe I’m selfish- I have an amazing Mom and Grandma, that are excellent examples to me of Biblical Womanhood- who am I to want more? But I just keep feeling like there is this piece missing. I don’t know enough about her- I don’t know about her walk with the Lord, I don’t know how she encouraged my Aunts through the world of Dating, I don’t know how she handled 8 kids on my Grandpa Fletcher’s dairy farmer budget. I remember so little of her, and her with me- I’m having a hard time deciphering the difference between my memories and stories that I’ve heard. And I’m mourning for that.
So, I’m going to start digging. I’m going to ask about her- about her walk with her Lord, about her parenting and letting go, about her feistiness.
It’s time that I got to know her.
MUSINGS IN THE MIDST 
