The valleys

I have this great calendar (from The Purpose Driven Life) hanging on my kitchen wall, and every month there is a new inspirational saying to focus on for the next 30 ish days.  As soon as I turned the page on my calendar this month, I knew I'd be blogging about November's saying.  It is timely for me personally, and I hope it inspires you, too.

"God wants to BUILD our faith in the valleys. We love the mountaintops... but we build faith in the valleys. When we come face to face with a dark valley, we get on our knees."

Presidential Quotes

In honor of Election Day (which is today, for those of you who aren't heading to the polls in your state), I thought I'd post some interesting Presidential quotes. At least, they're interesting to me...



We must never despair; our situation has been compromising before, and it has changed for the better; so I trust it will again. If difficulties arise, we must put forth new exertion and proportion our efforts to the exigencies of the times.

~ George Washington

A pen is certainly an excellent instrument to fix a man's attention and to inflame his ambition.

~ John Adams

That government is best which governs the least, because its people discipline themselves.

~Thomas Jefferson

I have been driven many times to my knees by the overwhelming conviction that I had nowhere else to go. My own wisdom and that of all about me seemed insufficient for the day.

~Abraham Lincoln

The only man who makes no mistake is the man who does nothing.

~Theodore Roosevelt

I have never been hurt by anything I didn't say.

~John Calvin Coolidge

We should not let our fears hold us back from pursuing our hopes.

~John F. Kennedy

Every new day begins with possibilities. It's up to us to fill it with the things that move us toward progress and peace.

~Ronald Reagan

Quote to ponder for today

So, I read this quote by Francis Bacon today that really hit home...

"They are ill discoverers that think there is no land, when they see nothing but sea."

Well, I'm determined to be no "ill discoverer"!! :)

So much time, so little to do...

Most of you who know me and my current situation might be shocked and in awe over the title of this post. It doesn't exactly fit my character. I have seemingly ten thousand things to get done in the next 30 days. As I look at the title that I intentionally chose, I have to laugh at the opposite nature of my type-A personality self. Always going, doing, busy busy busy.

For example, this is a picture of my desk right now. Notice the three (count them!) computer monitors (granted, one is for work, but still!). Notice my breakfast dishes on my desk and the sticky notes and lists scattered around reminding me of what I need to get done (otherwise my brain would never remember!). I've got a land line and a cell phone in my office, which, by the way, also doubles as my bedroom.

My desk is a perfect reflection of my personality - always pushing the limits of what one person can realistically do and handle. This tendency of mine to volunteer while I'm working part time and mothering two young children and running a household keeps me hopping all the time. Because of the extremity of it, I have often considered that all of the change I'm facing currently, mostly things being wiped off my plate one by one, is an opportunity for me to reprioritize and feel less frazzled. If only it were so easy for me to simply sit with that.

One of my favorite verses, for as long as I can remember, is "Be still and know that I am God" (Psalm 46:10). I can't tell you why I'm so drawn to that scripture, except to say that God must have given me a love for it long ago as a foreshadowing of what He was going to teach me. It is something I dream about embracing, but my drive to do do do prevents me from truly understanding it the way I think He meant for me to. And (bear with my while I psychoanalyze myself here) I believe that my busyness is a way for me to keep everything and everyone at arm's length - as a measure of protection from disappointment or pain.

Last week, I learned that yet one more responsibility (one that I cherish) will be stripped from me when we move (see my post "It's All in Your Perspective"). After working through the sadness and anger of another loss (in a pile of so many lately!), I couldn't stop my mind from revving up and busily thinking about how I can fill that time with something else. I think it took about 72 hours for me to get back up and start doing again.

The thing is, how much am I really learning from all that I'm going through if I just return to my old way of doing things? How many times am I going to give lip service to the "rich lessons" that life is handing me in my trials, but secretly ignore them and move right back into my way of doing things? Why is it so hard for me to "be still"?

I am coming to understand that this is yet another symptom of my perceived need to be in control of everything (see "Control Freak"). I'll admit being in control is an illusion, but it's an awfully attractive lie, isn't it? I'm so intensely tempted by the facade of control. I suppose it is a step in the right direction for me to realize what I'm falling back into and take pause in that. The real test is, will I trust that all that I need will be provided by God and wait for His prompting for me to take action, or will I opt to, once again, take matters into my own hands? I hope for the former. Time will tell, and I hope you'll keep me accountable in this, too.

I'll leave you with these quotes I'm pondering:

"It is not enough to be busy. So are the ants. The question is: What are we busy about?"

~Henry David Thoreau

"When we get too caught up in the busyness of the world we lose connection with one another and ourselves."

~ Jack Kornfield

"The really idle man gets nowhere. The perpetually busy man does not get much further."

~ Sir Heneage Ogilvie

Quotes to ponder

Here are a few quotes that are keeping me going today, as I endure round two of illness (this time, a sinus infection). I am in need of perseverance, and maybe you are, too.


Great works are performed not by strength, but by perseverance. ~Samuel Johnson

Keep on going, and the chances are that you will stumble on something, perhaps when you are least expecting it. I never heard of anyone ever stumbling on something sitting down. ~Charles F. Kettering

Be of good cheer. Do not think of today's failures, but of the success that may come tomorrow. You have set yourselves a difficult task, but you will succeed if you persevere; and you will find a joy in overcoming obstacles. Remember, no effort that we make to attain something beautiful is ever lost. ~Helen Keller

The difficulties and struggles of today are but the price we must pay for the accomplishments and victories of tomorrow. ~William J.H. Boetcker

Suffering produces perseverance; and perseverance, character; and character, hope. ~Romans 5:3-4

Someone, please pass the tissue...

Quotes I'm Pondering Today...

You are what you are and where you are because of what has gone into your mind. You can change what you are and where you are by changing what goes into your mind.

~Zig Ziglar

When one door of happiness closes, another opens; but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one which has been opened for us.

~Hellen Keller

Before any great achievement, some measure of depression is very usual.

~C. H. Spurgeon

It hurts when God has to PRY things out of our hand!

~Corrie Ten Boom

The great thing, if one can, is to stop regarding all the unpleasant things as interruptions of one's own or real life. The truth is, of course, that what one calls the interruptions are precisely one's real life - the life God is sending one day by day.

~C.S. Lewis

We must accept finite disappointment, but we must never lose infinite hope.

~Martin Luther King, Jr.

Two kinds of people

I just came across this quote by C.S. Lewis that made me laugh. Then think...

"There are two kinds of people: those who say to God, "Thy will be done," and those to whom God says, "All right, then, have it your way."