Day 1 - Favorite Food

Disclaimer: Technically, its Day 2 but in my defense, I've been sick so yesterday I came home and went straight to bed.

Today is Favorite Food - for those of you who know me well, you probably already know the answer but the thing I love more than anything (besides Diet Coke) is......

That's right chips & salsa!  I love salty food more than sweet any time of the day!  I've started ordering only a taco or rice at Mexican restaurants because I eat so many chips and salsa.  Chili's is one of my favorite places because of there chips and salsa so there you go!  Today I'm sharing my gratitude for chips and salsa!

Hi..my name is Angie....

And I'm addicted to Pinterest.  I love this website and all the ideas and photos etc that everyone pins.  Yesterday as I was browsing this site, I came across something that struck me hard.    It was a pin for a 30 day photo challenge on gratitude.  When I saw that I realized that I haven't had an attitude of gratitude lately and decided then and there that I needed to do this challenge.

So tomorrow is Day 1 of the challenge and I'm going to blog about it.  I'm excited to see what and how my attitude will change by the end of this challenge.

PS. - Day 1 is your favorite food - any guesses on what I will post?

Transitions

That's the name of the book that I'm currently reading.  Ok I'm not actually reading it yet, but I'm going to.  It was recommended to me by a friend who said it was really good for her to read it and it really put things into perspective on her experiences over the last year.  So I'm looking forward to reading it.

But it's more than just a book that I'm going to read.  It's also where I am at the moment.  I'm about to make a huge transition....I'm moving!  After lots of praying and someone finally just telling me to do something, anything....I'm moving to Peoria.  I'm really excited about this change but I'm nervous as well.  Nervous because its been a long time since I've done this and its harder the older you get or so it feels.  I'm also nervous because I don't have a job yet!  I will finish my full time job the week of Christmas and then we'll see.

I finally feel like I'm excited about life again.  I'm looking forward to seeing what God is going to do.  I'm looking forward to meeting new people, and all the stuff that goes along with being in a new place.

So that's my transition...more to follow.

Perspective

I got a bit of it today!  Even now as I'm typing I have tears rolling down my face. 

All day a friend from Denver kept showing up in my news feed on Facebook.  He and I were never close but we did have the same circle of friends so we hung out together on many occasions.  I finally took the time to find out what was going and and found out that he was diagnosed with a tumor on his brain stem yesterday.  He went to the ER for something else and was diagnosed.  It's so serious that they are beginning radiation immediately and trying to decide if they'll do chemo.  Because the brain stem is so delicate they aren't sure what they can do.  He's a year older than I am!  Yep, I'm kind of freaked out.

I suddenly realized that my problems/issues are nothing compared to what he's got going on right now!  How can I be so selfish and inwardly focused when his life has just changed forever?  He loves Jesus and has a whole YWAM community praying for him so I know that whatever the outcome is, Jesus will get the credit and some cool stuff will happen along the way.

And for me...well, it's just a reminder to get my head back in the game and stop sitting on the sidelines!

One Night at Dinner

There I was having dinner with a friend I hadn't seen in a while.  We were just chatting about life and how things were going, trying to catch up on all the changes we've experienced.  She was telling me about her new job and how she knew she was meant to be where she was in this moment, even though she didn't fully understand it.

All of a sudden it's like this light bulb went on over my head and I had this amazing revelation.  I've spent my whole life immersed in Christian environments.  I even spent 5 years in missions.  When I left the missions organization, it took me almost a year and a half to work through everything that had happened.  I remember being somewhat angry at the experiences I'd had because I felt like I'd lived in such a vacuum and once I left, I was no longer a part of that and was immediately forgotten.  I'd given 5 years of myself to that place and now I wasn't even a blip on the screen.  Realistically, that wasn't excited true but that's what I was feeling.

Fast forward to today and after 10 years in one position, I again left and seemingly was immediately forgotten.  What just happened?   Why did I just give up 10 years of my life for what feels like nothing?  As my friend was talking, I realized that at this point, I wasn't excited at the thought of going back to a Christian workplace.  In both of my current jobs, I work with people who don't necessarily love Jesus but they know I do.  And they don't judge me, they accept me for who I am, respect what I have to say and ask my opinion.  My whole life I had this preconceived notion that I'd never want to be in a secular environment because people would mock and judge me for being a Christian, I wouldn't be accepted, etc.  Umm wow, did I ever make a huge judgement!!  Last night sitting there, I realized that I really love interacting with the people I work with and I love how we are all so different and yet we find a way to get along. 

I still don't  understand all that has happened and probably never will, but I do know that without realizing it, I've totally and completely changed the way I look at unbelievers.  I'd made a judgement that I wasn't aware of and God came in and just showed me how wrong I've been.  Wow, was my mind blown.  I don't really know what the next step is but I know that I'm going to start paying more attention to what's going on around me.

I'm Still Here

Dang, I'm terrible at posting these days.  I feel like there are so many things happening and none of them very positive so instead of complaining or being negative I've chosen to not blog for a bit.

I'm sad that's its already August and it seems as though the summer has flown by and I feel like I wasted it - haven't done a lot of fun things recently but August is also a big birthday month, both in my family and with my friends.  So having said all that, I have either a birthday party or wedding to attend for the next several weekends so it will be good to re-connect with people I don't get to see much these days.

Yesterday was my niece Lauren's birthday - she turned 4.  If you guys know me at all, you know how much I love this child and how much she loves me.  My sister always jokes that she's my daughter because whenever I'm around, she wants to sit with me or I have to do everything for her.  We are celebrating her birthday this weekend, so I'll save her birthday post for later as well as some pics from the party.

I wanted to share a blog with you that my dear friend Pam writes.  She's been posting a lot about shame lately, and let's just say its given me a lot to think about, especially how I have and am still allowing it to rule me in some ways.  Here's the link: she's a wise woman!

Well I realize that this post is pretty dull!  Hopefully, I'll have some fun updates for you in the next few weeks!

All About Me

A few days ago, a friend of mine posted on her blog and let's just say it caught my attention.  Here's her post:  You know how sometimes you read something and you get that sinking feeling in the pit of your stomach??  Well that's how I felt when I read it.

I do this all the time, sometimes with the things she talks about but more often than not I do it with life stuff.  Such as, how come they know what they're doing with their life, why is she married and I'm not?, and the list goes on and on.

I've been reading a lot again lately and picked up Karen Kingsbury series.  The main character in the book was named Bailey and she was asking God all these questions about why this or how come did this happen?  All of a sudden she had this revelation about how she'd become so inward focused that she'd turned into a selfish, self-centered individual and had missed the things that were going on in the people's lives around her.

Then I had lunch with a friend last week and she had some really encouraging things to say.  The most encouraging thing for me was that I'm not alone, a lot of others are feeling what I'm feeling and while it might feel like we're in the wilderness, God has us there for a reason and when we come out of that place, He's going to do some amazing things.

Wow, I feel as though God has been trying to tell me something, so I think it's time I listened.  So I'm resolving to take my eyes off of myself, open my ears and heart to what God says, and take stock of what's going on around me finally.  I'm excited to see what I'm going to learn.