mental

Lately I find myself filled with much gratitude and thankfulness for the work that God has done in our life (Ryan and I), allowing us unique opportunities to share His love with others and experiencing the many blessings of rich friendships and relationships that He has lavished upon us. In my moments of reflection I think I am most thankful for the amazing people that God has allowed me to know at different stages of my life, and I am encouraged and rejoice over the work that I see Him doing in their lives and how He is growing them in new life stages, ministries, vocations, etc.

One person that God has used to influence and mentor my life is my high school youth pastor, Jol, and his wife, Sherri. Shortly before I moved to college Jol gave me and a few of my friends each an old business card of his that had a Scripture verse tapped to the back of it... he had used the cards to help him memorize God's word and he hopped they would be a blessing for us. Jol is a man of purpose, so I have to believe that it is no cosidence that my card read,

"Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vein conciet, but in humility, consider others better than yourselves." - Philippians 2:3

The passage in Philippians 2 goes on to say "Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant and being made in the likeness of men." The Greek word for 'attitude' in this passage is the word 'phroneo,' which means to be mentally decided. God used Jol and the old business card with Scripture to transform my heart and mind to be mentally decided to serve others.

I have been confronted with this truth in quiet moments the past couple of days. Am I currently living my life mentally decided to serve others, or am I mentally decided about serving myself and my own needs and desires?

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can i get some more points over here?

On Friday I officially started Weight Watchers at Work. I refuse to call this a diet--I'm trying to embrace calling, and making it, a lifestyle change. The WW@W program is huge where I work, so I decided to take the opportunity to improve my eating habits and build deeper relationships with my co-workers. Just 3 days in to it, I am doing okay and am staying under my daily, alotted points (21) and overall, I don't feel like I've been missing out on anything...there have only been a few times that I wish I had more points to spare :-) I look forward to reporting my progress along the way and I thought that posting on here would only increase my accountability and incentives (along with the superskinny lady who weighs us in every Friday). Oh, and did I mention that the folks who gain weight during the week have to stand on the other side of the room...pray that won't be me!

...and this is the longest day of my life

Ok, so that's a lie. Today is just one of the longest days of my life -- the quote, which was taken from Season 1 of 24 ("Right now, terrorists are plotting to assassinate a presidential candidate. My wife and daughter have been targeted. And people i work with may be involved in both. I'm Federal Agent Jack Bauer and this is the longest day of my life.")

I'll come back to 24 later, but as for today...

Work has literally been insane for the past 3 weeks. I feel the need to apologize to the world for returning very few calls from friends and family and any nutty stressed-out behavior that I have exhibited. No excuses, I have been pretty lame lately. Oh, and my blog has gotten totally lame, too. Let's just say that there is a national news story that took place where I work this week and I have dealt with escalated national media folks at length for the past 2 days. I am happy to say that things should be calming down after tomorrow and I had the pleasure of telling someone they were escalated today. What a wonderful adjective. Almost as wonderful as the word fabulous.

Yesterday I was a stressed out crazy-woman, but thanks to Jesus, my wonderfully calming/patient husband and an elliptical machine, today I was able to be calm. I have to say that I am so thankful that I can walk through tough days without fear, knowing that

my God has already saved the day through salvation in His son, and that's really all that matters in life. What I do to earn a paycheck is frankly insignificant (as much as I would sometimes like to think that it is very important to the world turning correctly...). The only meaningful part of my job is that I have an opportunity to share love and grace with the people I come into contact with, and I am not even faithful with fulfilling that purpose at times.

The lyrics to a Hillsong United song, Salvation, played in the back of my mind all day.. for I know my God saved the day, and I know His word never fails and I know my God made a way for me.... It's gonna' be alright :-)

Back to 24. What can I say, I love Jack Bauer. I love the suspense. Season 5 rocked and I am dying to run down to Blockbuster and watch the first 4 episodes of Season 6 on DVD. The best TV show ever...