Wednesday...almost the end of May...

Seems like a good day for randoms since my brain is flying in many directions so here we go…

<3 We are full on in the birthday season and started today with this little dude turning six.

His brother has decided to keep growing up too, so we are staring eight years young in the face this week as well.

I remember being these ages. I remember our own kiddos being these ages. Surreal.

<3 As May is ending and we are officially entering summer, I am sitting back and taking stock of my goals from the past month and season and trying to focus on what I hope and dream to accomplish this summer.

Do you goal plan?

I am a list maker but can get sidetracked studying the HOW TO of making goals and then never really doing it.

I found a great exhortation on a post this week that talked about perfectionism and how if you are waiting to do something perfectly it will never get done – so just dive in and do it.

This is a truth I have been applying to my goal-planning. I bought a calendar this year with a section at the beginning of each month where I just brainstorm what I would like to have happen and then try (emphasis on TRY) to outline a few steps I can follow to actually accomplish some things.

It’s not perfect…but it’s working.

<3 I told you this would be random

<3 Do you have a summer study in mind?

I am planning to participate in the free one offered by Lifeway. And by “free” I mean the videos will be provided free and, of course, they would like you to purchase the workbook through their website.

When you register, they send you a weekly email with a link to the video and you have until mid-August to watch them.

It is a good one – Kelly Minter’s “No Other Gods” – which I have done before so will be revisiting with my old workbook (sorry Lifeway)

Would you like to join me? I am “planning” to use one day a week to recap and touch base on the study/video…haven’t decided the day…stay tuned.

You can register here ——> https://onlinestudy.smallgroup.com/v/NoOtherGodsOBS?ecid=PDM177769&bid=1085667250

<3 This summer I am plan to hold a VBS for grownups again and am working on that theme. If you have participated and enjoyed these in the past…would you stop, drop and pray for me as I get my thoughts organized???

<3 Prepping the house for a new season means we have a steady stream of technical people to come spray, set up the AC, make all the stuff needed to survive summer in the Midwest doable and then we have added several maintenance issues and am I the only one that finds it difficult and somewhat disruptive to try and be available at 7:30 A.M. and share my morning space with people who are seeing the innards of our closets and such?

It makes me grouchy…and yet…everywhere I turn the word that keeps popping up is “kindness.”

This morning I flipped my desk calendar to May 29 and this stares back at me…

“When she speaks, her words are wise, and kindness is the rule for everything she says.” Proverbs 31:26 TLB

I don’t know about you, but I need some space to operate in “kindness.”

I feel like if people would give me ample space and time to adjust to things, I stand a better chance of meeting that description. But most days, life doesn’t give me that option.

So I am finding the need to apply the main lesson from the Fruits of the Spirit series.

When I feel pressed hard and “kindness” is not my go to response, I am recognizing the symptoms of struggle as they rise in my heart. Tightening of the chest…increased pulse in my temple…clenching of the jaw and fists….and instead of trying to be kind in this state….I am taking in deeper breaths and surrendering.

Mentally I tell myself that this is the current situation and I cannot change it. But I can lean hard into God and not allow what is going on around me to steal my peace. I imagine setting up a large fence between my soul and the storm that is raging inside of me and I continue to breathe as if God, Himself, were giving me CPR.

And you know, in the midst of that struggle, I see things from a different perspective and the Spirit operates within me to enable me to be kind.

I am not a failure because I struggle.

I am not a hypocrite when I choose to act on the kindness He places in me when my natural self is fighting fiercely to maintain my rights or go for the snarky laugh…or appear smarter than that which is challenging me.

I am a child of God who is being transformed…slowly but surely…day by day.

Ok…I’m done…

time to gather stuff and head out into the real world for the day.

Be blessed…you are loved <3

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