EP 2011

I'm back! And with a new adventure!!!

It sure won't be a blog project for every day of the year ... ha! What a flop that was! At least the "every single day" part. I'm excited to get bloggin' again though! .... I really want to spice up my life somehow ... and specifically, my walk with the Lord. I've been in a real rut for several months. Just living for myself. Not doing anything "too bad" ... but just not reading my Bible, not praying, not doing much with God at all, really. Well, hmm ... I've been a Sunday Christian for a while. Bluck! And it's been awful!!! I've been incredibly impatient with my after school kids, slacking with SoZo preparations, reading my Bible only 2 or 3 times a week, falling into sins that I disgust ... just been out of step for a long time.

AND I'M SICK OF IT!!!!!
So I'm trying again. I'm working to read my Bible and talk with God every single day. That's where it all starts. Once I begin to really nurture my relationship with Jesus, everything else will start to fall into place.
So now ... how do I begin again?
I want an adventure. Something big! I'd love to travel to New Zealand or rent a cabin by one of the Great Lakes or take a cross-country road trip. But the funds are very low ... especially after my dance lessons. So I guess I'll start there. Dancing is really adding some spice to my life! Especially the TANGO, the MAMBO, the RUMBA, and the CHA CHA! :)
Adventure #1 - dance, dance, dance!!!
How do I make the rest of my life an adventure?
After school ... hmm ... I could blog about each of my kids. Pay more attention to what I like about each one of them. Work on being patient with them ... now, that's an adventure!!! ;)
SoZo ... I could work on trusting God with my position in the youth group, at Calvary, in my life!! Accepting and really getting excited about where God has me.
Hey! I have a phrase for these "adventures." ... ETERNAL PERSPECTIVE (EP)!
Ooo, yes!!! My life goal. My journey. My adventure!!! :)
So ... I'm almost a month early, but I want 2011 to be my first year of the ETERNAL PERSPECTIVE ADVENTURE!

The Final GoG ... a couple months early

Well, I am beyond behind with my GoGs once again. I don't think I kept up with 'em for more than a week straight this year. Sheesh. And although the year isn't over yet, I've decided to end my glimpses of grace project early. So, let me post one last GoG to finish out the year ....

I may not have posted something every single day, but I sure did get a lot out of this project. God's grace is such an amazing thing! So much more awesome than we really understand. Without it, we'd all be destined for HELL. So praise You, Jesus, for Your MIGHTY and AWESOME and NEVER-ENDING GRACE in our lives!!! ... Grace is beyond awesome ... and it was such a joy and a wonder to find glimpses of God's grace in the ordinary things of life ... the simple things. And the project has helped me see life in a whole new way. Just think ... grace starts with God giving us another day ... simply waking up to our alarm clock everyday is GRACE. And each of us can find grace in really everything we do and experience. Let me challenge you, as I will challenge myself, to never let a day go by without finding grace in at least one part of your day ... and then thank God for it. Heck, you could even blog about it!

And let me leave you with an amazing passage all about God's grace - it's probably in my top ten favorite passages in all of scripture. Read it. Dwell on it. Let it change you.

Titus 3:3-8
At one time we too were foolish, disobedient, deceived, and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures. We lived in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another. But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, He saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of His mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that having been justified by His GRACE, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life. This is a trustworthy saying. And I want you to stress these things, so that those who have trusted in God may be careful to devote themselves to doing what is good. These things are excellent and profitable for everyone.

It'll Be (more than) Alright! (Posted once before, but SO good!)

Wow. I'm ready to give up.

Have you ever felt that way? Ever felt like life is just too much sometimes? Like you want to pull your hair out and burn all your school books and skip all your classes and ditch all your jobs and forget about all of your commitments and throw a temper tantrum and cry till your heart hurts worse than it already does and laugh at all of your "problems" and "pains" and dig yourself a hole and never come out? Yeah ... me neither. ................ Ha ha ha ha!

Well, my mind feels like ALL of these things at the moment, but my heart is telling me to chill out and rest in God's peace. Ya know, if God wasn't so incredibly and entirely faithful, I WOULD have given up by now! Life is hard sometimes, isn't? Whether you've had all of your heart's deepest longings put on hold (yep, I'm saying put on hold, instead of lost - aren't you proud of me?!) or you have lost a loved one or you're battling depression or you're feeling hopeless or any other countless things that seem to go wrong in this life. There is hope! Hope in God's MIGHTY faithfulness! ... God has been pouring on His faithfulness ... pouring it into my life for so long! And I find myself griping and complaining - like tonight - I got home from a super long day at school and work and just spilled it all out for my mom to hear. I'm sure she was tired of listening long before half way through, but thank God she just listened ... and then said "it'll be alright." .... "It'll be alright." ... Those are such simple words, but don't you want to hear that every now and then? ... I do!

Tonight, I want to shout out a message of God's faithfulness to you AND TO ME! IT'LL BE ALRIGHT! ... Actually, it'll be MORE than alright! God promises that He will take care of us. And His EVERYDAY, NEVER-ENDING faithfulness reveals that He DOES take care of us - each and every day - each and every moment - with each and every breath of our lives. Some verses that God's been using in my life lately to reveal and instill His faithfulness are the following. Read these now. Read these later. Soak 'em up! For they are LIFE to your whole self!!!!

Psalm 73:25-26 --- "Whom have I in heaven but You? And earth has nothing I desire besides You. My flesh and my heart may fail, but GOD is the STRENGTH of my heart and my PORTION FOREVER!"

Psalm 62:7 --- "My salvation and my honor DEPEND on GOD; He is MY MIGHTY ROCK, MY REFUGE!"

Psalm 32:8 & 32:10b --- "I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you and watch over you. ... but the Lord's unfailing love surrounds the man who trusts in Him."

Proverbs 19:21 --- "Many are the plans in a man's heart, but it is the Lord's purpose that prevails."

Proverbs 3:5-6 --- "Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways, acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight."

Jeremiah 17:7-8 --- "But blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in Him. He will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit."

Jeremiah 29:11 --- "'For I know the plans I have for you,' declares the Lord, 'plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.'"

2 Corinthians 4:16-18 --- "Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being RENEWED day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an ETERNAL GLORY that far outweighs them all. So we FIX OUR EYES not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is TEMPORARY, but what is unseen is ETERNAL."

I am writing this MORE as a comfort to myself! But ya'll might need some of this stuff too! :)

Keep trusting Jesus, Mical! Keep seeking Him and loving Him, Mical! Keep your eyes FIXED on Him, Mical! Keep at it, Mical! It'll be (MORE than) alright, Mical!

GoG 286: The Mical Who Thinks She's Funny ...

Ya know those people who start telling a joke or something they think is funny but start laughing before they finish?

Umm ... yeah. I'm one of 'em.

Tonight, my parents and I were getting some dessert from The Porch ... we were sitting at the table, chatting about my mom's work day and my dad and I's dinner at McAlister's. At one point, I started to say something that I thought was funny. But as soon as the first word came out, I started laughing .... pretty hard. I could barely stop. And of course, my parents started laughing too. Probably thinking "what the heck? You didn't even finish ... you didn't even start, for that matter!" But I just got goin' ... and I had a hard time stopping. Oh, it was so funny.

So the next time a friend of yours (probably me) starts a joke and can't finish because they're laughing too hard .... just laugh right along with 'em. The joke may not be funny by the time they get it out ... but believe me ... y'all will have a good laugh! ;)

GoG 285: The Hope in Rain :)

Oh, the rain.
The rain was my glimpse of grace for today.
Although it was way too brief, it made me think of HOPE. My hope in Christ. The hope that I have for my future because I belong to God. The hope for cooler weather. The hope for God's grace in my everyday life. :)

Hallelujah, grace like rain falls down on us :)

GoG 284: The Sprite

Today's glimpse of grace ... yes, today! Can you believe it? Not last week ... not two months ago - TODAY. Today's glimpse of grace came in the form of a bottle of Sprite.

Miss Sandi, our awesome leader at after school, stopped by my room and gave me a Sprite. It was a gift ... in the midst of the craziness of the day. And it really meant a lot to me.

Oh, the simple things :)

GoG 283: The Patience Lesson

On Sunday morning, we talked about the fruit of patience.
Isn't it amazing how easily patience leaves us?
Seriously, on our way to lunch (less than 2 hours after our lesson) I was impatient about traffic. Wow.

Well, yesterday at after school, I was being impatient with my kids. And on the way home, I remembered our lesson. Don'tcha love it when you remember lessons God is teaching you AFTER the fact? Haha! But at least I remembered it. The lesson concerning patience in which we need to see people the way God sees them - that way we can learn to be patient with them. So I am ready to try out my new patience perspective with my after school kidos today!

GoG 282: The Kindness Discussion at SoZo

Mmm ... our discussion about kindness during SoZo on Sunday night. Man, it was good. We only had 3 youth there (that hasn't happened in probably 2 years or more!), so our discussion was probably even a little better than if everyone had been there. I learned a bit ... that the kindness level of our group isn't very high .... that lots of things go on under the radar that I don't know about .... that I need to be more assertive. It was a great meeting ... very productive, and I think we'll be able to work on the kindness level of our youth group now that we know some of the issues.

GoG 281: The Day in E-ville with Wes :)

On Saturday, I drove to the University of Southern Indiana in Evansville to see my brother for the day. He left for college around the 20th of August, and he hadn't been home since. And he's not planning to come home until Thanksgiving break. Blah. I'm excited for him ... enjoying the college life, being popular, living for the Lord, loving life. But I'm sad that he's gotta be 3 hours away to do all of that. So it was really great to see him on Saturday.

He said, more than twice, that he was glad to see him ... that he was glad I was there. And that, of course, made my day. The two of us and his roommate, Luke, went to Red Robin for lunch - I bought Wes his lunch - and then we went to the mall ... where Wes talked to every salesperson in the place. After the mall, we headed back to Wes' apartment, he changed his shirt into the one he just bought, and we headed to campus, where he showed me every building he's ever been in. Haha! He made us some chicken alfredo for dinner ... we took a few pictures ... he gave me a hug, and I head home.
All in all, a very good day with the little brother :)

GoG 280: The Race in the Church Parking Lot

Last Friday night's taco and movie night was a big success with SoZo. The kids ate ALL of the food I brought and still wanted more. They thought The Sandlot was hilarious. And we all spent a good chunk of time laughing at me for my good mood shinanigans. (When I'm in a good mood, I'm extra bubbly and ditsy and loud and weird.) We had a good time!

And afterwards, when almost everyone had gone home ... Andy, Gabe, Michael, and I were talking in the parking lot. And all of a sudden, Michael asks Andy, "Will you race me?" We were all taken off guard ... so of course, I start laughing. And then Andy and Michael race across the parking lot. Andy won. And then! Gabe wanted to race ME. I was reluctant because I might be the slowest runner on earth. But I finally gave in, and we raced. Of course, Gabe won. He even slowed down for me to give me a chance. It was quite humorous. We all laughed about it afterward.

GoG 279: The Drawing Project at After School

At after school, I started a project with the kids in my group. Partially, because I need some semi-peace and quiet for a few minutes each day, but mostly, because I want to get their "juices" flowing, and I want to get to know them better. (I also got the idea from the movie Freedom Writers ... no, I'm not this cool all by myself - haha!)

We spent a couple days making books for our project. They decorated construction paper; we hole-punched the pages; and we tied the pages together with string. And everyday, for our craft, I have them write the date down on their papers, and I ask them a question. For example, "What is your favorite season? If you could have any pet in the world, what would it be?" And on and on. And each day, they draw a picture to answer that day's question. And then we take turns coming up to the front of the class and sharing our drawings. It's been quite successful in the midst of them being easily distracted. I'm excited about the project!

And last week, one of the boys - his name is Jaxson - drew something entirely precious to me. The question was "Who is someone you admire the most (look up to, think is really cool, etc. - they're 5 years old)?" And Jaxson picked ME! :) He said that I take care of them. And that's why he picked me for someone he admires. I nearly melted into a puddle. :)

GoG 278: The Dinner and a Movie with Liz and Jess :)

Last Wednesday, I invited Elizabeth and Jessica over for dinner, and we watched a movie. We had a great time laughing at old stories, poking fun at the movie characters, and they laughed at me getting lost on my way to Jessica's house. It's such a privilege to work in youth ministry ... to hang out with cool teenagers like Liz and Jess. I love these girlies!