So when I pray
Author / Bethe
Finally… the resolutions
I’ve been putting this off much too long. Part of the reason is because I wanted to make a creative post with beautiful photos to illustrate each resolution. But you see, I was too busy hosting a Bachelor-watching party, getting a pedicure with my sister, swimming through Wuthering Heights (still), and grabbing an unexpected dinner out. And all of those trump the beautiful photos.
So… as I like to say… good enough.
Resolved.
-I will make my bed every single day.
-I will memorize one new scripture per week, with the assistance of my handy-dandy fashionable note card flip-thingy that my Sunday School class gave me for my birthday. It’s really the best way to guard your mind and your tongue, as well as being able to provide Godly encouragement on the fly to others. Memorizing scripture makes me really, really happy.
This week’s scripture happens to be my life verse from 2008: “Not one of all the Lord’s good promises to the house of Israel failed; every one was fulfilled.” (Joshua 21:45). LOVE IT.
-I’d like to run a half marathon this fall, in honor of my (gulp) 30th birthday. Maybe one in the spring, but we’ll see.
-I will read a ton and cook a ton.
-Save for a “new” (aka–used) car.
And just for kicks… here was a list of short-term life goals I set for myself four years ago. Let’s see how I’ve done since then:
-Run 10 miles (check – ran a half marathon)
-See an opera (haven’t done this yet)
-Go on a cruise (check – twice)
-Travel to Italy (check – twice)
-Go to California (check – twice)
-Learn to play piano again (no check)
-Read 15 books in 2006 (don’t remember)
-Become more organized (depends on your definition of “organized”… small check)
-See more Broadway Plays (check… Wicked, Mary Poppins, Mama Mia)
Here’s some new short-term life goals I’m adding to my list:
-Travel to Africa
-Travel to Israel
-Write a book
-Learn how to quilt… for real.
And then the rest will just be cake.
Wisdom from Dolly
I’m still mulling over my new year’s resolutions. Yes, I realize it’s now January 2, but I figure I have at least a week before I have to commit. But I’ll tell you that of the two I’ve already identified, I’m already 100% on one, and start the second tomorrow. How’s that for a new year?
Yes, I realize you’re rolling your eyes because I have been 100% on something for two whole days… but small victories, people. Small victories.
But first… I’m enjoying a pleasant evening at home in front of the fire, drinking hot cocoa and watching a girlie movie and a Law & Order rerun. So until we meet again, I will just leave you with some wonderful wisdom from the world-famous Dolly Parton:
Find out who you are, and do it on purpose.
Good old Dolly. We’re kindred spirits, you know… ask anybody who was at my Halloween party in 2008. I’ve never worn so many tube socks in my life.
2009 In Review
This is a little tradition I started back in 2007 (you can read 2007 here and 2008 here). It’s fun to look back over the year as I start to make my resolutions for 2010.
Where did you begin 2009?
I hosted a New Year’s karaoke party at my place. The best part was having the karaoke machine all to myself for an extra day. I may or may not have sung every song on the CD… twice. I swear I sound JUST LIKE Alicia Keyes when nobody is around. Promise.
What random cool things happened in 2009?
I walked barefoot on the beach in San Diego. I rode a horse in a blizzard in Colorado. I saw South Beach in Miami during spring break (THAT was scary!). I floated the river in New Braunfels. I hiked a medieval wall overlooking the sea in Croatia. I roamed the streets of Florence alone, eating my weight in croissants and gelato. I auditioned for a reality television show. I flew first class for the first time. My sister got married. One of my articles got published in a real-live journal. The singles ministry at my church exploded (in a good way). I finally finished that masters degree.
Favorite books from 2009?
Don’t laugh – but 20o9 was the year of the Twilight novel (actually, all four). I also read A Voice in the Wind, Black Like Me (awesome!), The Razor’s Edge, Light on Snow, and at the moment I’m trodding through Wuthering Heights. I think that’s nine books in 12 months… not fantastic, but remember, I was also in school.
Do anything embarrassing?
Of course! I mooned a store full of people at Banana Republic. I had a meltdown at the Apple Store. I cooked a cucumber, mistaking it for a zucchini. I thought I poisoned a dinner guest with salmonella (turns out she was fine…). And many, many other silly, klutzy, wonderfully embarrassing things. But at least I didn’t set my hair on fire in 2009. Things are looking up, people.
New Question: What scripture did you study? (this is for me… fun to keep a record)
I taught Esther & the Psalms of Ascent in 2009, so I lived and breathed that scripture throughout the year. During my own personal study time (when I wasn’t preparing for my lesson) I went through a good part of the Old Testament (Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1 & 2 Samuel, Hosea, plus a good deal of time spent in the other Psalms that I wasn’t teaching). And as always, when I’m having a bad day/week, I go back to my favorites – 1 & 2 Corinthians and Romans… they’re like my comfort food.
Did you know anybody who got married?
My sister! Plus, I went to weddings for Tera & Lee, Katie & Justin, Rebecca & Tyler.
Did you move anywhere?
Thank you Jesus… no.
What sporting events did you attend?
Rangers games, a Cowboys game, a Baylor football game, a TCU football game, a Mavs game or two, and a marathon race. I’m in love with the new Cowboys Stadium, by the way. Never thought I’d say that.
Describe your birthday:
I had my first ever surprise party! It was so fun and I was definitely surprised! You can read about it here.
What’s something you learned about yourself?
I learned that if someone is in the hospital, you should visit them. Or bring them a meal. Anything to be sure they realize that they’re remembered.
I learned that if you’re praying for someone, you should tell them… because they probably need to hear it. The girls in my Sunday School class–so many of them–provided such good encouragement at different times throughout the year with little cards and emails and phone calls. They’re a wonderful reminder that we’re here to reflect God’s glory (and love) to other people.
Speaking of which… in 2009 I heard God speak more loudly and more clearly than probably any other time in my life. It was wonderful and humbling and encouraging and convicting. Praying for more of that blessing in 2010.
I learned the hard way the importance of taking time to rest, before life forces you to do it anyway.
Were you in school this year?
Yep… I took five classes in 2009. But you already knew that. I also spoke at a couple of junior high schools and to some college classes at TCU and UTA.
Any new additions to your family?
I gained a new brother-in-law whom I just adore. And he and my sister adopted a new puppy… a Goldendoodle named Rusty. He’s a maniac, but he’s a cute maniac.
Made new friends?
That’s the beautiful thing about life… it’s always bringing new folks into your path. I made some really fun new friends this year… both guys and girls. I’d list their names but don’t want to leave anybody out.
Favorite night out?
When I was in Santorini, Greece, I sat on a patio for about four hours, enjoyed a leisurely dinner and watched the sun set behind a nearby volcano. When the sun finally disappeared, everybody cheered. How often have you seen folks cheer for a sunset? Only in Greece…
What do you want to change in 2010?
I want to cook more and read more. Be waiting for a dinner party invitation from me very soon.
Other than home, where did you spend most of your time?
If you don’t count TCU and church, I spent a good amount of time hanging out at the lake, laying out by the pool, or finding just about any excuse I could make to spend time outdoors.
Do you have a new year’s resolution?
Besides cooking and reading? You’ll have to stay tuned…
What was your favorite purchase?
Plane tickets. My iPhone. And maybe the Words with Friends App (shout out).
Did you get sick this year?
After five years of never taking a sick day at work, I took my fair share in 2009. I got the “regular” flu in February (2 weeks of fever and 25 blogs) and then got the “swine” flu in September (cake compared to the regular flu). I also made my first trip to the ER for my crazy annoying asthma. But it was probably a good thing, because now I can say “I’m not just the spokesperson… I’m also a client.”
Start a new hobby?
I took salsa lessons for three months. Trust me, these hips don’t lie. Although they stutter occasionally.
What are you wishing for in 2010?
In 2010 I am looking forward to living a life of spontaneity. Less planning and more flying by the seat of my pants. I hope to squeeze in a trip or two, spend a ton of time with friends and family, and officially start (and maybe finish) the book that I’ve been mulling over in my head. And whatever plans I have will take backseat to what God has planned for me, because let’s face it, my friend, those are the only plans that really matter.
Like the morning mist
Want to be humbled? Read Hosea… it’s what I’m studying right now, and it’s a good way to suck the air right out of your lungs.
It’s about Israel’s unrepetence… they’re compared to a harlot who continues to leave her husband, her true love, to sell herself for something cheap and tawdry.
The people of Israel forget God, are punished, and then repent… only they’re full of hot air.
Your love is like the morning mist,
like the early dew that disappears.
(Hosea 6:4b)
Ouch. God (through Hosea) is saying here that His people claim to love him… but they love with an A.D.D. mindset. It’s convenient today. Popular today. The church is super cool today, so they’re on board. A dynamic preacher. Awesome music. Cool audio/visual stunts.
And then the preacher leaves. The music changes. The stunts are passé. The singles group is no longer cool. That warm fuzzy feeling is gone. And like the morning mist… the believer’s commitment disappears. Actually… the commitment doesn’t disappear, it’s just redirected. To a boy. Or a girl. Or a job. Or a new hobby. Maybe another “it” church down the street offering a new brand of warm fuzzies.
Ouch.
Or how about this one?
Ephraim mixes with the nations;
Ephraim is a flat cake not turned over.
Foreigners sap his strength,’but he does not realize it.
His hair is sprinkled with gray,
but he does not notice.
(Hosea 7:8-9)
A flat cake not turned over is a cake that is burned on one side, raw on the other. It’s uneatable. No longer useful for the purpose it was created for. I am quite familiar with this concept as much of my cooking ends up this way… burned on one side, raw on the other… maybe God is trying to bring His word alive through my cooking… or maybe I have issues with my oven (at least this is what I will tell my dinner guests).
Basically, the people of Israel had intermarrried with foreign people who didn’t have the same beliefs in them. They didn’t worship Israel’s one true God. And little by little, His people forgot Him. Not all at once, but inch by inch, they backed away from their God and picked up the habits and beliefs of those around them. And when that happened, the people were useless… not a Jew, not a Gentile, not fully believing in God, not fully believing in the other Gods. Like a flat cake not turned over.
Don’t get me wrong… I would marry a foreign man in an instant… with some thick, sultry accent (preferably Australian, or British, or Spanish, or Italian, or Greek… or just about any for that matter–feel free to join me in praying that God will bring me a dark-haired foreign Baptist boy… and soon!!). The deal wasn’t marrying the foreigner, it’s that they were marrying someone of a different faith. Fast forward to present day – this could mean marrying someone of a different faith (oh man, if I just could have dated some of the beautiful non-Christian boys who have asked me out over the past few years… but it’s NOT worth it… don’t even dip your toe in that water, my friend).
Dating or just regular “friends,” we act like those closest to us. It’s just the way life goes… we pick up their gestures, their speech, their attitudes. The quickest way to make me materialistic and self-conscious is to put me in a room of materialistic, judgmental girls, and it takes me about 30 seconds to absorb that mindset. Want to make alcohol a struggle? Hang out with only folks who drink. Have an attitude problem? There’s probably a best friend with one too. We think like those we’re closest to, we talk like those we’re closest to. We start to comingle values, beliefs, attitudes.
Change can be subtle… slow… and then one day you wake up and realize that you’ve become one of “them.” Whoever “them” is.
Hopefully your “them” don’t have a faith like the morning mist.
And so as I read Hosea, I pray that I can have a faith that’s steady, tested, steadfast. That my “thems” will be people who model a faith stronger than mine, with pure hearts and sweet spirits (and remember… pray for that cute foreign Baptist boy… I’m not joking on this one).
Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.
(Psalm 51:10)
A snowy evening
Tonight I had another really special evening. I’m really digging this vacation.
I’ve been hankering to cook ever since I finished school (praise Jesus, hallelujah, every day I wake up thanking the sweet Lord that I am FINISHED with school). So of course tonight, what with the rare Texas snow and all, I just had to make my mom’s famous chili. And because I like you, my dear friend, I thought I’d share the recipe with you. It’s super easy, but shhh… don’t tell anyone. A good cook always pretends like her masterpiece was much more difficult to make than it really was.
Here’s that recipe…
Here’s the chili…
And the melt-in-your-mouth cornbread (with butter… butter makes everything better)…
And you can’t have a snowy night, homemade chili and cornbread without a fire in the fireplace…
And of course, a soft, warm Christmas glow lingering from my tree which I just can’t bring myself to take down just yet.
The rest of my decorations came down days ago, but there’s something about having a tree glowing in my front window that soothes me. And so this old tree may be sticking around until Valentine’s Day. I’m not afraid to be that girl.
Oh… who am I kidding… of course the tree will be down by the end of the week. I’m too much of a conformist. But I like to pretend to be a rebel.
Back to my evening. With a stomach full of chili and a fire to keep me warm, and a nice big mug of hot chocolate, I curled up on my couch and watched the most adorable movie… Julie & Julia.
And as I watched my movie I worked on my latest project: a quilt, made from scraps from upholstery samples my sister brought me home from work. This one should be completed by 2015, if I work fast.
Two-for-one special
I have been off work for five glorious days now. After several years of living in a state of perceived chaos, I am relishing all this free time and have decided to make good use of these days off by organizing and cleaning everything. At this point, every cabinet, drawer, and closet in my house has been cleaned out. I’ve got a huge stack of clothes and kitchen items to donate to charity (along with 146 pounds of canned goods my very generous friends brought to my graduation party last week, which I carefully weighed and then have since left in the middle of my entry way for me to stumble over every time I leave my house… simply because moving 146 pounds of food is no easy task).
After my crazy organizing kick, everything I own is in some sort of plastic bin, carefully sorted and organized. My house looks amazing.
And yet, with all this new found organization, I can’t seem to find a darn thing! Every time I get dressed, I can’t seem to find my clothes (I’m a bit worried that some of my favorite clothes may have somehow jumped ship into the “donate” pile… never to be seen again). I can’t find my shoes. I can’t find certain items which used to be stuffed into a junk drawer. Now that my junk is so meticulously organized, I’m baffled.
This is why I should just come to terms with living in chaos. Being disorganized is a bit easier to handle. Let’s face it… I’m no Martha Stewart. But please do me a favor and don’t tell anybody… I must at least give the impression that I am domestically inclined.
I’m really more of a Rachel-Ray-meets-Punky-Brewster-while-trying-unsuccessfully-to-pass-herself-off-as-a-Grace Kelly. I’m not sure that’s working so well.
The cat’s outta the bag
So I’ve had this little blog for several years now. Actually, I’ve had this one for two, and had another one for 2-3 years before that. What can I say, I’m a writer… an expressive personality, and a bit gabby. Plus I really enjoy going back and reading about things from the past. Just yesterday I found a stack of notes for the book that has been swimming around in my head for about two years now, and it was so fun to read some of my ideas which I had long forgotten. So this is why I write things down. Why I share those things with you… well that I don’t really know.
But I don’t really tell people about the blog. I let my friends discover it on their own. So it made me laugh a few days ago when Sister Sarah called and in the midst of our typically random sisterly conversation (I have the BEST conversations with her… she’s amazing), she blurted out… “Bethe, I think you need to start a blog. Something for our Sunday School class… you know, like Beth Moore, but only something more ‘you’ instead.”
I had to grin inside and felt kind of silly admitting that I indeed have a blog (although not exactly a Beth Moore blog… mine isn’t even a fraction as fabulous), so I just told her I’d think about it and moved on. I’ve bounced around the idea of writing something simply for girls at my church, but it seems a bit presumptuous, and I do share some scripturely insights on this one anyway.
So fast forward a little…
Tonight I went and saw an absolutely dreadful movie with my family (I won’t even tell you which one… but it was horrendous) and afterward we went to “celebrate” at our favorite restaurant nearby. Again Sister Sarah brought up the whole “blog” idea, and that’s when my mom got a mischievous grin on her face and said, “Well Bethe, don’t you already have a blog?”
Um… my mother doesn’t know about this blog. How embarrassing! But wait… she does.
(gasp)
So I admitted the blog to the family. Turns out my dad knew too. So then I asked my mom… “So if you’ve been lurking all this time, how come you never mentioned it? And why have you never left a comment?”
And that’s when my very own mother said, “Well, it’s not like I read it that often.”
Mmmm… thanks mom. My own mother knows that I write on a regular basis, and yet she doesn’t bother to actually read it. I felt so very loved right about that moment.
But I’m sure that she was overcome with guilt and is now catching up on all my ramblings from the past few months. So hello, mom, and welcome. If you look carefully, maybe you’ll find some nice things I wrote about you, seemingly behind your back.
You should be reading this
I’m working on a couple of posts… a 2009 recap, my 2010 New Years Resolutions, and a scripture/church one that may not ever get posted, but will at least be sent out to the lovely ladies in my Sunday School class. So much to do, and so little time.
Oh wait. I’ve got all sorts of time these days! And I am so very grateful! Not only am I done with school, but I’m enjoying a bit of a Christmas holiday from work. I truly adore my job, but I also am one of those people who realizes that I’m a much better employee if I have some time off to myself to play and recharge. And that’s exactly what I’m doing this week… and man is it nice!
So while you anxiously await future blogs (nah, I know you’re busy too!), here’s some reading for you:
The Pioneer Woman – Recipes, plus fun stories from a “regular gal.” I like regular gals, seeing as I’m about as regular as they come.
Copy Cat Chic – This gal takes trendy, expensive items, then points you toward a cheaper-but-equally-chic steal somewhere else. I’m on a big home decorating/reorganization kick, so this one is right up my alley.
Beth Moore’s Blog – Anybody who knows me knows I simply adore Beth Moore and her Bible studies. I find a lot of encouragement from reading about this great woman of God who is another one of those “regular gals” who finds humor in normal female things. One of my favorite Beth Moore stories was when she forgot her hair stuff and had to tease her hair with a fork. I’ve been known to use any random sharp object I can find to part my hair… including a pencil, tweezers, my keys…
Back to organizing those closets and cabinets. There’s something so refreshing about regaining control of your life, one messy cabinet at a time. Yet somehow the more I organize, the more junk I seem to accumulate on my kitchen counters that no longer have a “home.” Luckily I’m taking a car-full of goodies to my church’s food pantry/clothing closet this week – so I can get rid of all this superfluous stuff and somebody else can be blessed with items they need.
Snow Day & Guitar Hero
We had a wonderfully lazy Christmas today. We slept in, ate a huge breakfast, finally got around to opening presents around 11:00. Then we ate some more, took marathon naps, and topped off the day with a little… guitar hero.
I’ve secretly always dreamed of becoming a rock star. Unfortunately, I wasn’t blessed with the ability to sing, play a musical instrument, dance… about the only thing I can do is wear sparkles well.
But not today. Today… I was a true rock star.
Merry Christmas from snowy Texas! This Christmas was one of my favorites!
