Wisdom to Live By

My youth pastor has been extremely influential in my life. Today I was thinking about two specific things he taught me about being a Christian.

The first is that the Christian life is simply a series of asking yourself “who do you love more?” Sin or God? Controlling the situation myself or God? Spending my time my way or spending it with God? There have been many times that I have had two choices clearly in front of me: do I hang out with friends or stay in to pray? Do I save my money or give it in the offering? Who do I love more? Asking this question has helped me make many correct decisions.

The second is a lesson on perseverance. About four years ago, my pastor told me that he and his friends used to fast together. None of them would eat until the next morning — except one guy. He always snuck something before he went to bed. He could never quite persevere and make it through. My pastor told me the guy still trying but not quite making in the Christian life. This taught me that little decisions to persevere are what lead to perseverance as a Christian. If I am not faithful and cut corners in small aspects of my Christian walk, the totality of my Christian life will fall short of the mark. (Its not legalism, its Eph 4:1.)

I will always appreciate the people who took a little time out of their lives to help me live mine. I never know how to express this enough.

Home

We were really cold at the beach.

Home was good

Homeward Bound

I am 24 hours away from seeing my family! Well, technically, its 26 hours including the time difference, but 24 looks much nicer

I am ready to take a break from Minneapolis life and spend a few days in California! Here’s where I would say something like, “I am going to try and update this blog everyday while I’m home” but realistically, I will probably not even go online…

On the itinerary is seeing a graduation, visiting my grandparents, being with my lovely family, going to the beach, going running in the Muir Woods, scrap-booking, and lots and lots of rest Sounds like heaven.

Work and other news

I love my job, but after working 30 of the last 48 hours, I am exhausted! Its left little time to sleep, much less pray, run, see friends, eat, or clean. It is probably just my tiredness taking over my attitude, but I really feel like the last 2 and 1/2 weeks of living right have been blown in the last few days. My saving grace has been listening to sermons on my iPod as I’ve walked through the park from my car to my “temporary housing” (refusing to call anything besides my future apartment home!) and at work when its permissible.

I found a great training program on runnersworld.com. So far I’ve found at least 5 different programs all calling themselves “the” program, even though they’re all published by the same magazine.

I cant wait! to go home (to Cali). This time next week, I will be there! It is coming up f a s t.

Finally, I have always wanted to like reading, especially so since summer has started. Slowly but surely I’m getting there. I’m reading through PrayerWalk right now (yes, its one word). Its not written specifically for women, but I can’t imagine a guy really liking it. It is motivating, spiritually and physically. I’ll write more on it when I finish it.