Ten-Three-Thirty

I have often used the verse in Psalm 119:11 “Thy Word have I hid in my heart that I might not sin against Thee”, in teaching the importance of memorizing God’s Word. Three-Thirty was given as a challenge to us at the SIM Home Assignment Retreat in May this year. Ten-Three-Thirty is taking a portion or a chapter of scripture, like Psalm 23, and meditating on it for 10 minutes three times a day for thirty days. I did that with Psalm 23 and was very encouraged by having God’s Word right close to me in my thoughts throughout the day. I also did it with I Corinthians 13. I must say I didn’t always do 10-3-30 but it was often there. I’d like a challenge to anyone to join me for November in 10-3-30. You can pick whatever verse or chapter you’d like to do.

I have picked Psalm 16:8,9,11:
“I have set the Lord continually before me, because He is at my right hand, I will not be shaken. Therefore my heart is glad and my glory rejoices, my flesh also will dwell securely. Thou wilt make known to me the path of life, in Thy presence is fullness of joy, in Thy right hand there are pleasures forever.”

Notes on Patience

There are two important Greek words for patience:
Hupomone: patience in circumstances, inspired by hope
Makrothumia: patience with people, inspired by mercy.

We see in James 5:7-9, 11 and II Peter 3:9, 15 that the Lord is patiently waiting for the lost to repent.

We are called to patience. Colossians 3:12-13 and Ephesians 4:1-2 couple the word patience with the phrase “bearing one another”.

The completion of patience: From James 1:2-4, the practice of patience helps complete something lacking in us.
How could this be true in forbearance with people?

• They bring out the worst in us. . . so the best will come out.
  
• They keep us from thinking too highly of ourselves.
  
• They keep our pretenses from working.

This is what they are supposed to be doing. II Corinthians 4:10-12 : In any given relationship demanding patience, God could be working life in one person and death in the other.

This is a follow-up of a conversation I was having with Holly last night.

Dinner with the Aunts & Uncles

This afternoon I had the privilege of taking my parents to Ben & Etta's house. The siblings were getting together as Jeff & Chris are visiting from Oregon. It's so fun to watch the 4 sisters together. I should have gotten a picture of them as they were looking over mom's scrapbook of the family. Pictures of their grandparents and so forth. The men were watching football. At the dinner table I was able to wing the conversation around to --you guessed it --dogs. We all got to telling stories about our dogs. It got started as they were first talking about grandchildren not behaving the same way at the grandparent's house as they do at the parent's house. I could definitely relate to this as my Cali doesn't behave like a beggar at my friend's house while we're eating. She knows not to sit and drool. But with me, not so. She knows she can get by with drooling as she'll get rewarded with the leftovers. Oh well, someone has to eat them and she's no worse the wear.

Ten More Days

I'm not counting down a birthday or Halloween as some people might be doing. I'm counting down the number of days left in the USA. These days are full of finishing off projects for mom and day or myself, getting me checklist complete, diminishing my inbox of emails, finally shopping, & figuring out if I should use cardboard boxes or hard plastic containers from KMart to pack my excess baggage in. Yes, excess. What could this be? Spices, toiletries, clothes, gifts, books, CDs, and other bits 'n pieces.

It's also been last time lunches, dinners, teas, . . . with friends. Those are precious times that God has given to me, to be with friends and family. I'll remember those times and the people who've been so thoughtful!!!

Departure day is October 31 at 6:30. This will be a very very early morning! Maybe I shouldn't even go to bed.

Meet Cali

This is my dear wonderful doggy. Her name is Cali, which comes from California. She is 2 1/2 years old, very loveable, agreeable, kind, gentle, and loves to go on walks.
She knows several tricks, the best that she taught herself is "keep away". I caught her sitting in my chair one day. This is a rare ocassion for her to get on this chair. She likes cushions and will sneak on the couch at night if I haven't turned the cushions up. Speaking of night. Good Night.

Attitude

Here's a quote from Charles Swindoll that I think is a good reminder in this life.

"The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life. Attitude, to me, is more important than facts. It is more important than the past, than education, than money, than circumstances, than failures, than successes, than what other people think or say or do. It is more important than appearnace, giftedness or skill. It will make or break a company. . . a school. . .a home. The remarkable thing is we have a choice every day regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day. We cannot change our past . . .we cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the one thing we have, and that is our attitude . . . I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% how I react to it."

Tagged already

Thanks Corene. You did that because you're tired of reading my one post. I'm thinking.

The beginning

Here goes. . . I have a blogspot. Now I just need to figure out what to write and who to inform that it's here.