Affirmatively Answered Prayer

This fall’s Ladies’ Bible Study at church is Beth Moore’s “Believing God”.  She says that a sign of our growth in belief in God is an abundance of affirmatively answered prayer.  This makes sense because, as we grow in our relationship with Jesus, our attitudes and desires become more aligned with His.  We learn to pray for His will, and recognize His will being carried out.

I thought that this was encouraging. I hope and pray that I may come to know Christ better, and learn to recognize his grace in my life.

I like…cookies.

Yesterday in my Creative Nonfiction class, we read an excerpt from “The Pillow Book of Sei Shonagon” written circa 1000.  Sei Shonagon was a Japanese courtier who is credited with writing the first piece of creative nonfiction. The excerpt was fun to read because she basically just lists things she likes and things she thinks ought to be one way or another. Here’s an example:

Oxen should have very small foreheads with white hair; their underbellies, the ends of their legs, and the tips of their tails should also be white.

I like hourses to be chestnut, piebald, dapple-grey, or black roan, with white patches near their shoulders and feet; I also like horses with light chestnut coats and extremely white manes and tails — so white, indeed that their hair looks like mulberry threads.

I like a cat whose back is black and all the rest white.

I always felt guilty for writing that way. It seemed presumptuous to think that others might actually want to read such meaningless opinions for the sake of nothing other than self exposure.  But apparently, that’s what creative nonfiction is, and, truth be told, I enjoyed reading this excerpt because it was interesting to think that my opinions might be the same as that of a woman who lived 1000 years ago…no matter how trivial.

Rainy Days and Thursdays…

Something about rainy fall days brings me instantly back to 2nd grade.

Cake Wrecks

Sometimes stupidity takes so much more effort.

Underappreciated Snack Foods:

1. Nilla Wafers (the Nabisco brand…imitation brands do not cut it)
2.

Um…I’m sure there’s more…

Doing Hard Things

I had a really good run last night. I felt good, I ran further and faster than I had before. I think that I had once thought that actually improving in one’s ability to run was a myth! But, apparently it’s not…who knew? I wonder what other things I have assumed were impossible, and thus refused to attempt.

A few weeks ago, I was struck with the realization that the only thing that was preventing me from being the person I wanted to be was myself. Though it sounds obvious, it was a huge perspective shift to me.

That night in my journal, I wrote that the realization was both inspirational and maddening. Why don’t I just do the things and be the person I want to be? So I started a little experiment. I have always envisioned that a disciplined, organized version of me would wake up at 6:00 a.m. and run before work. I wanted to be that person so bad. But the task seemed completely impossible.

But, armed with my new perspective, I decided to give it a try. I was up by 6:00, and working by 8:00 (about 4 hours earlier than normal). Shocked by my success, I tried it the next day. It is amazing how different life is with an additional 6 hours of productivity.

I’ve run 5 days a week for 2 weeks now. And now, I am enjoying the fruits of my discipline: what was once impossibly hard is now becoming easy.

I am now on an adventure of doing hard things. Things that make me a better person, things that ought not be hard, things that make my world bigger, things that make me rely on God.

I can do everything through him who gives me strength. (Philippians 4:13)

I’m kind of a “English Major Pretender”

Click to view entire image.

Tina, the Tech Writer

There is a character in the comic strip Dilbert that is a technical writer, and I always kind of liked her. Now that I sometimes work as a technical writer, these strips are even better.

I drew this, and I’m proud of it.

It’s not perfect, but it’s pretty good for me…

This one reminded someone of me…

…I wonder why. Thanks Tim.