Sunday, November 22, 2009

Sunday, A Day of Rest

The church we're attending meets on Saturday evening. It took a bit of getting used to after almost 30 years of going to church on Sunday morning, but I have to tell you, it's a change that's really growing on me.

As a working gal, Monday thru Friday was consumed by alarm clocks, commutes, work, meals, laundry and getting ready to do it all again the next day. Saturday was filled with errands, grocery shopping, car washing, lawn mowing and whatever else needed doing. That left Sunday. My day of rest was another day of leaving a warm comfortable bed to answer the demands of an alarm, showering, getting dressed and rushing out of the house. So you tell me; in that schedule exactly when was my day of rest?

Don't get me wrong, I love church, and the temptation to sleep late and do nothing all day was never a contender to get me not to go. But now I go to church on Saturday night. It's a wonderful end to a busy week, I look forward to it, there's rarely a rush to get there, no alarms are involved and the best part is... I get to sleep as late as I want on Sunday morning. I can leisurely drink coffee and read, watch a corny Christmas movie in my pajamas or do anything else I want to do... which in my mind makes it a true day of rest.

If you think about it, Jewish tradition starts the Sabbath on Friday evening at sunset preparing them for a day of rest on Saturday. I really think they were on to something. I love my Sundays, they truly are a day of rest now. I also love Saturday night church, it's a good way to end the week and puts me in the right frame of mind to be ready to rest and appreciate it the next day. And an added bonus... all of those misguided folks that say you're going to hell if you don't worship on the true "sabbath" can't point a finger at me any more. Of course there are many more of their rules that I'm sure I am breaking... but that's a whole other issue.

Today, I'm thankful for my leisurely and oh so enjoyable day of rest. I'm grateful for Saturday night service and I love spending my Sundays resting.

Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Congratulations... Ya Gotta Love That Word!

It's been an exciting week so far... and it's only Tuesday!

Yesterday I received a "Congratulations your submission has been chosen for our next publication" email. It's an online website that publishes a quarterly online magazine, so it's not like it will actually be something I can hold in my hands and give to my friends, but hey, being chosen is cool just the same. Now I can say for the first time; "I'm published."

Yesterday I also took my first horseback riding lesson. I had a great time, the horse, on the other hand is probably still shaking her head and trying to recover from it. I don't know why but I couldn't seem to get the commands straight in my head. When I wanted her to go left I told her to go right with my feet and left with the reigns. At first she gave me the benefit of the doubt and tried to work with me. But eventually she figured out she had a nincompoop on her back and started messin' with me. She decided if I didn't know which way I wanted to go, she would decide for me. A few times she just stopped dead and waited until I figured out what I wanted to do. This is a very well trained horse, I'm afraid I may have broke her (and not in the good way).

So yesterday was a very good day. I got out of the house, I became a published author and I rode my first horse.

The day before yesterday I also had a great day. Yes, two in a row, I know! I went to a baby shower for my granddaughter who is preparing to give birth to my first great grandchild. Now tell me that's not special. It was a very sweet shower and afterwards I went to coffee with my son's fiance. It's the first time that we've had a chance to sit down alone together and just gab. We had a nice time, well I had a nice time, I'm hoping she did too. I'm still invited for Thanksgiving so I guess it couldn't have been too bad.

Hey if anybody is wondering... I'm getting close to 500 Twitter followers! That's 1/4th of the way to where my future agent said I needed to be before he would read my book. I wonder if I should drop him an email and let him know that I'm now published? I need to have 1,000 facebook or blog followers too though but I haven't been working as hard at that.

Time, time, time... there's just not enough of it in a day!

Saturday, November 14, 2009

Giving Thanks Should Be Easy!

Right around the beginning of this week, someone in facebook challenged all of her followers to name something that they're thankful for every day until Thanksgiving Day. That would mean finding approximately 18 things to be thankful for. Now for the sad part; she said in her post; "I know this won't be easy, but let's all try and do it." My heart grieves for someone that can't think of 18 things to be thankful for.

I believe I could think of 18 things to be thankful for each day until Thanksgiving. My thoughts go immediately to being grateful for salvation and what Jesus did on the cross for me, paying the debt for all of my sins. If He never did another thing for me, that would be more than enough. But then He gave me the Holy Spirit to guide me, comfort me, teach me, and reveal God to me. If that's all He did it would have been enough. But He also went to Heaven to prepare a place and promised He would come back and take me to be there with Him. Anyone would admit that's way more than I deserve. And He constantly intercedes for me, provides for me, protects me, and loves me with unconditional love.

There are so many things to be thankful for in my life. I'm thankful for the people He's placed around me. Those that bless me and yes, even those that test me, because I know that He uses them to cause me to grow. I'm thankful for a warm, dry bed to sleep in every night, enough food to eat (more than enough, as the scale will attest to).

I'm thankful for a husband that loves me and, more importantly, loves the Lord. I'm thankful for our four kids, 12 grandkids, and 1st great grandchild.

I'm thankful for hugs, and smiles, laughter, wisdom, music, conversation, coffee in the morning, animals, the beauty of nature, water, the ocean, faithful friends and just so many things this blog can't hold them all.

I feel sad for a person that struggles to think of 18 things to be thankful for. That breath I just took, I'm thankful for that. And, oh yes, I'm thankful that wrinkles don't hurt.

Monday, November 9, 2009

I wanna be a cowgirl!

It amazes me when I realize I'm how very close I am to blowing out 60 candles on my birthday cake and I'm just now finding out so much about myself. I feel like my life up until now has been lived in a fog. I never knew I had such a passion for writing. I also never knew I had such an attraction to horses and riding.

I went to the National Mountain Trail Competition last weekend because a friend was competing and she made it sound interesting. I got bit bad with horse fever while I was there. Now I want a horse, but if I get a horse I will need a saddle, boots, horse blankets, brushes, bridles, a horse trailer and the list seems to go on and on. It seems very unlikely that it will ever happen, but my friend is excited for me and we're going to start riding together (her horses of course) and give me a chance to see if I really do love it as much as I know I will. One thing I won't have to worry about is a cowboy (or cowgirl) hat, my husband bought me one while I was at the competition.

My friend's grandaughter (13 years old) also competed. She was a joy to watch and oh boy did she ever make me wish I was 13 again and had a grandma like hers. She entered 6 competitions and I think she won something in everything she entered. But more importantly she won the judges award. Every year all four judges get together and vote on the person they think has been the most impressive. All four judges picked this young lady. She really was impressive, even I could see that and I didn't even know what I was watching (not from a judges perspective anyway). At the end of the competition they had "the games." Throughout the competition everything was judged on skill, of the horse and the rider... but on the last day they let it rip and everyone that wanted got to race through the course for a timed score. This young lady was the first one to go and even though there were about 25 competitors, some were even trainers, no one was able to beat her score. She was very impressive!

Maybe next year I'll enter the Novice category. Maybe by then I'll even have my own horse. He'll be my Trigger or Silver and love me unconditionally and do anything I ask of him... even walk backwards over a suspended swinging bridge. Hey, a cowgirl can dream can't she?