Choosing my attitude.

Oh, James MacDonald, you brilliant but challenging speaker.

I hate choosing my attitude. No, wait, scratch that, I like to choosing the attitude that comes most naturally to me in the given moment. But, I hate the nagging voice in the back of my head that sounds eerily like James MacDonald that says, "Choose your attitude." Basically, that means, you have the wrong attitude, so choose the right one.

It's hard, okay?

Sometimes I just want to scream and snap at others and be mean. Sometimes I'm just driven to non-Holy-Spirit-filledness. Especially lately. Sometimes I wonder whether it's a good challenge for me to remain in a situation with others who really irk me, or whether it would just be better to avoid situations that are going to make me cranky. I've been trying to conflict resolve, which means using my, "I feel _____________ when you ___________" statements, but changing actions is hard when they are ingrained. And I know, really, I need to worry about the plank in my own eye before the speck in others'.

Oh, just pray for me, guys. Work is stressing me ouuuuuuuuuuuuuuut!

Lord, help me choose the right attitude, and help me not to conform to the patterns of this world, but to be renewed by YOU.

"I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength." - Philippians 4:13

Wickedly Wicked

"It's good to see me, isn't it?

No need to respond, that question was rhetorical." - Galinda (with a "Gah")



Ahahahahaha, I can't believe how funny, touching, and thought-provoking this musical was! And it was so brilliant in how it incorporated references to the Wizard of Oz movie! Ridiculously good.

And the made-up words! I LOVE made-up words!
"Rejoicify"
"Innuendo...outuendo"
"Scandalacious" (I just used scandalacious in a phone conversation!)
"Festivations"
"Swankified"
"Confusifying" (are all these words confusifying?)
"Hideodeous" as in, "My granny is always giving me the most hideodeous hats. I'd give it away, but I don't hate anyone that much."
"Now wait just a clock tick!"
"We can't all come and go by bubble."

And the best part? My date! Thanks for coming with me, Kevin! :)

Go watch Wicked!

The spiritual side...

One of the things about being back in easy North American society is that I forget the spiritual undercurrents of everything. Any decision I make, any action I take...they all have some spiritual aspect to them. I've been thinking about this recently because the youth have been on my heart, and because I know they face difficult decisions everyday that DO have spiritual ramifications, whether they know it or not.

A quote I read in someone's testimony really stayed with me. He said, "Although I am now fulfilled in having assurance of everlasting life, I regret giving the best years of my life to Satan. I regret embracing sin and insecurity. Though it might be fashionable to say 'I do not regret anything because I am who I am because of my past mistakes,' I would disagree. I believe Jesus Christ was sufficient to save me. My unwholesome experiences contributed only to the problem, not the solution. If only I had enough humility to listen to the 'great cloud of witnesses' earlier in life."

I forget that as much as God wants us to succeed, Satan wants us to fail. BUT, knowing I have power through His Holy Spirit to resist Satan's evil is reassuring.

"Satan knows full well that God wants to present His Son with a pure, spotless, virgin bride, so he's doing everything he can to defile her. What he doesn't seem to 'get' is that he cannot touch or taint the Spirit of Christ in us, which is what ultimately gives us our pure standing before God."
- Beth Moore, When Godly People Do Ungodly Things

Fight the good fight, brothers and sisters!

It's time to clean the gutters when...

Today, I cleaned out the rain gutters. Actually, I cleaned out one part and then my sister went on the roof to make quick work of the rest.

How do you know when it's time to clean your gutters?
1. When you see leaves sticking up over the sides.
2. When the rain that should be going down the drain pours over the sides of the gutters.
3. When there are plants GROWING in your gutters.

Yes, we had all of the above. My sister discovered a PLANT growing in part of the gutter. But a plant needs soil to grow! Yes, indeed it does, and apparently, when you haven't cleaned the gutters in a REAAAAAALLY long time, the leaves decompose and form a really great soil/mulch, which is apparently very ideal for the particular plant we found.

Oh the shame! Ahahahahahaha. So, here's to more gutter cleaning in the future. Ahahahaha. We shall be the home for gutter plants no longer!

Restaurant job = less social life

Being a server cuts down my social hours. I mean, really, I work when every other person who works has their break. Lunchtime? Working. Dinner? Working. After? Still working.

I'm thankful to have a job in an environment that's easy to work in. I just wish restaurant hours were different, and that I could still have more of a social life during the week. It's also hard because my most productive work hours are at night, but I come home at 11pm or midnight now, which means ummm...ahahaha, no productive hours in my days, ahahahahaha. I wonder how I get things done.

ANd NOW, my mom is in Japan for 10 days. Gah! I'm not exactly sure how we'll survive, even though she left us LOTS of food. The one good thing is that it will force me to clean out our over-stuffed fridge, which means the rotting food that is hiding in the crevices of our refrigerator will meet their ends.

Take that, you moldy cabbage!


Oh, and I decided I should give wedding planning updates on here. So far, we have booked a venue, talked to our Pastors about being in our service, booked the photographer and planned our invitations (somewhat...the Star Trek theme is apparently still in debate, ahahaha) ;) ....next big thing: FIND A DRESS! Gack!

On a further rant-y sidenote, I had my first experience with Star Trek today. I mean, besides the 10 min. clip I saw in gr. 5 for our space unit. Anyway, I saw "First Contact" and...........I'm not sure how I feel about this yet, but.... I rather liked the movie.

Gah.

I know.

I think.......
I might.......
like Star Trek?!?!?!?!

This is a whole new....universe.....ahahahahahah. Oooh, I think that might have been a corny attempt at a pun, and I think it may be the negative side effects of watching the movie. AHahahha. Okay, but seriously. I did like it. Thanks for introducing me to the ST empire, Kev!

Just give me another couple weeks to get used to the idea that I like it. Sigh.