Still tired… still happy
The new position at work is going ok… I’m terribly overwhelmed right now, but I’m just trying to make it through this first week. After that, I’ll really get down to figuring out what’s going on.
And we’re all still tired, but also still feeling like it’s a worthwhile tired.
My friend, Jessica, from college was in town today visiting family, and Mike and I got to go to dinner with her and her husband tonight. It was so much fun to spend time with her and just to enjoy an old friend.
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Did I get ditched in a sad way or used in a nice way?
This time last year, I was so excited to have a friend at work. Now, we didn’t have anything (seriously… not much of anything) in common, but we clicked well, and I was grateful. Now, we’re friendly, but we’re not close. And because I like to be honest here (likely more so than any of my handful of readers would like), I have to admit that hurts my feelings. I’ve tried really hard to figure out a way for her ditching me (see, a little bitterness) to make sense. But I haven’t been able to do that.
And then last week, I was thinking about how this particular girl wasn’t the only one to move on. If I think about it, I’ve had numerous encounters with various girls (women, whatever) at work in the two years that I’ve been there. And as I was thinking a week or so ago about my two years at this job, I was reminded again of how secure I am in the belief that this is where God would have me.
So, then, maybe, it isn’t that this girl ditched me. Maybe, instead, it’s that God put the two of us together at a time when each of us needed something that the other could provide. If I think about some of the other women who have crossed my path - asked me very personal advice despite me not thinking we were nearly close enough for them to ask me such things - then I think that it’s possible that God caused each to approach me for a reason.
This month’s “Today’s Christian Woman” magazine has a series of articles about spiritual gifts. I’ve never been real sure what my gifts are. You know… the list in the Bible is pretty slim pickins.
Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. To one there is given through the Spirit the message of wisdom, to another the message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit, to another miraculous powers, to another prophecy, to another distinguishing between spirits, to another speaking in different kinds of tongues, and to still another the interpretation of tongues.All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he gives them to each one, just as he determines. (1 Corinthians 12:7-11)
Seriously, now. Could He not have given out gifts of sending cards when someone’s sad? Or how about the gift of taking someone a nice baked good? The gift of listening? Really. Throw me something possible. Prophecy? Not so much.
One nice thing about this series of articles is that it does touch on other spiritual gifts, and I appreciate that. Just for kicks, I took a spiritual gifts test at ChristiaNet, and these are my scores.
- 100% Hospitality (Acts 16:14-15)
- 78% Exhortation (Acts 11:23-24) (I don’t even know what this is.)
- 67% Wisdom (James 3:13-17) (I’m thinking not so much.)
Ok, I looked up exhortation, and it means … this gift enables certain Christians to stand beside fellow Christians in need and bring comfort, counsel and encouragement. I can see that.
I’ve always wanted my house to be a place of comfort, where people felt welcomed and safe and content. One thing I don’t like about our Florida lives yet is that we don’t have people in and out of our home like we did before. I enjoy that. So hospitality feels like a good gift to me, one that I can easily and comfortably use. I have to assume that the ability to make people feel comfortable extends beyond my house and into my work life and might contribute to the myriad of confessions I’ve heard in these two years.
And exhortation seems like a big word for just being kind to people. But I’m good with it.
A few weeks ago, a girl at work asked over the wall (cubicles, remember) and asked if I had ever read Gary Chapman’s “The Five Love Languages.” I admitted that I had actually recently gotten it from BookMooch and had, well, not read it so much as took the quiz and then made Mike do the same. Took the quiz, got our love languages and sent the book on to someone else.
Mike and I both had our primary language as time spent together (or whatever the official term is), which I’m pretty sure is a result of our years together. Our second languages were not nearly the same. My second language is gifts. It’s a pretty petty language, you know. Gimme, gimme. But if I do unto others, so to speak, it matches pretty well with the above descriptions.
But anyway, several days later, another girl at work was telling me that the first girl had been telling her (confused yet?) about the book and that she thought my love language was service, which I would Never have thought. But how sweet that she thought that by watching my actions.
I’m not real sure where I’m going with this, other than to say that I’m grateful that there are different interpretations of the gifts God gives us. And I’m humbled to think that maybe God is using me where I am in ways I hadn’t imagined. And maybe I should look at the people passing through my life as gifts for the moment and not be unhappy when they move on. Instead, maybe I should eagerly anticipate the next person’s arrival.
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Quotes of love… for you, my friend
In going through my hope chest last night, I found a little slip of paper with fabulous quotes. My friend, Tara, gave them to me with my graduation gift (a copy of Dr. Seuss’s “Oh, the Places You’ll Go”) when I graduated from college waaaayyy back in 1992.
All these years later, they’re still fabulous quotes. And I thought they might be inspiring to my friend who is going through a difficult time.
So, these are for you, sweetie. Maybe they’ll make all of us stop and think about people in our lives who might need a little encouragement. If someone springs to mind, send a quick email or text or make a phone call or send an email. Let them know they are loved.
“Faith is believing in things when common sense tells you not to.” — George Seaton, “Miracle on 34th Street”
“Be patient with everyone, but above all with yourself.” — St. Francis de Sales (How did Tara know this would be something I’d struggle with as I got older?)
“Be brave. Even if you’re not, pretend to be. No one can tell the difference.” — H. Jackson Brown, Jr.
“I believe in you.” — T
How fabulous is it to know that people believe in us?!
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Small Screen Memories
Ok, I love me some tv. I admit it. I’m not a mom who tells her children television is bad. How could I, given how much I watch? Ok, so you get it, right? I love tv. I have fond memories that involve tv.
My friend, LeeAnn, and I used to watch scary movies when we were teenagers, and then we’d be so scared we couldn’t go to the kitchen alone. I never think of “Nightmare on Elm Street” without thinking about her and her parents’ house… some cold pizza and a Coke. (And yes, I know it wasn’t a tv show, but we watched it on a tv, ok?)
My friend, Mika, and I lived together for years in college, and we learned the fine art of compromise through tv. I liked “Guiding Light,” and she liked “Days of our Lives,” so we taped and watched both. Each of our grandmothers watched those shows, and we had a family history there. We also watched every episode of “Twin Peaks” together.
When I was pregnant with Griff, I watched reruns of “Boy Meets World” every afternoon after work while I waited for Mike to get home. He’d arrive to find me sobbing to the show. He just shook his head, and now it’s the family joke that I get all weepy when BMW is on.
When Mike was traveling home in rural Mississippi on Tuesday nights, he would call me to talk after his doctoral classes. I’d talk for a while but then have to tell him I had to go because Ozzy couldn’t figure out how to get the trashbag in the can or he was about to throw a ham at his neighbors & I couldn’t miss it.
I spent seven years in front of the television every Tuesday night watching “Buffy.” The first season it wasn’t on, I couldn’t figure out what to do with my Tuesday evenings.
Mandy and I watched “Trading Spaces” for years, laughing at how we could sign up since we lived next door to one another. Inevitably either Mike or Josh would point out that we’d cheat and tell the other what was going on and that I’d never make it… that I’d cave and complain about the work.
Mike and I have watched the Astros on Fox Sports Southwest for years. We got satellite when we moved here for the specific purpose of seeing the games. Griff took his first steps during the last game the Astros played in the Astrodome. We were watching.
My friend, Linda, and I laughed and laughed about a quote in our local paper one morning at work, and she submitted it to Leno’s Headlines, and it ran! I was so excited the night I saw Jay Leno holding up Linda’s highlighted newspaper column. (It’s now a bit of urban lore… I’m pretty sure you’ve seen it in one forwarded email or another.)
Here in Florida, lots of folks speak Spanish. When someone at work asks if I do, I tell them that I learned all of my Spanish from Dora.
I like nothing more than crawling into bed and watching a marathon of some groovy tv show with Mike. I like that last season’s “Project Runway” brought me closer with several people at work that I wouldn’t have really known otherwise.
Recently, in an effort to cut back some to afford gas, I let my TV Guide subscription lapse. It wasn’t easy. Still isn’t. I once submitted a question to TV Guide Online, and Matt Roush - THE MATT ROUSH, TV GURU - emailed me back. Seriously, I have an email from Matt Roush. Still makes me a little atwitter thinking about it.
I have favorite shows that Griff watches… shows that I hate that Eliza watches… shows that I obsess about. I love tv.
When I started this, I think I meant to tell you the shows I’m currently adoring, but I got off track. Maybe tomorrow I’ll tell you about my faves for the moment. Until then, go and watch something. Tonight’s the last night of So You Wanna Be An Old Supermodel. Enjoy.
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I’d like to buy the world a Coke…
Or just make it a Coca-Cola cake. My nephew, Hayden, didn’t believe me that there was such a thing as a coca-cola cake, so, of course, I had to make one to prove him wrong (Much like the chocolate pie).
I had Eliza, Griff, Hayden, Hannah, and Griff’s friend, Cody, help me make the cake. Everyone got a turn.
Cody, Hayden, Hannah, me (needing some color on my hair & a cut to my bangs!), Eliza
Griff (sitting on a stool… still can’t stand for too long in one place), Hayden and Eliza
Eliza and me
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