Posts Tagged marriage
Expired Coupons
Posted by annaldavis in Everything Else on December 31, 2009
In all the craziness of the holiday season, I did something twice that no stay-at-home mom on a budget should ever do: I went grocery shopping while hungry, and without my coupons. I didn’t even try to use the coupons. The thought of sitting down with the store circular, my list, and my overflowing coupon organizer just seemed too overwhelming, so I threw caution to the wind and just went shopping.
Well today I sat down to discard of all the expired coupons, and realized that I bought many items full price when I could have saved money. As I threw away numerous coupons reading 12/6, or 12/27, or 12/31 — I wondered if it was worth it, taking the easier way, but paying more money for it?
As we say goodbye to 2009, I wonder how many expired coupons exist in my spiritual life. Were there times when God offered me a discount, a freebie, more of something (buy one, get one), or a package deal and I turned Him down because it required some extra effort on my part?
Were there moments of joy I could have experienced had I only waded through the sorrow, or sweet kindness I would have felt had I endured the crankiness? Of course, I did take His offers many times. I am so very grateful that I did. The difficult road, when it’s the one God has placed before us, often yields amazing rewards.
In 2010 I want to have fewer unused, expired coupons. I want to see and accept more of what God offers to me. Not always easy, often requires much effort — but worth it.
…and some other weird things
Posted by annaldavis in Everything Else on November 3, 2009
Yesterday we spent much of the afternoon outside in our backyard, relishing the beautiful sunshine and dry ground beneath our feet, instead of the muddy squishiness it has been. We had the privilege of discovering some interesting “experiments” our son had made and left out in the rain. One of them was particularly rank, and as my husband emptied it out we curiously asked our son what he had put in it?
His little five-year old face lit up. “Oh, some leaves, acorns, water, Dr. Pepper, some food, rocks, and um… and some other weird things.”
I couldn’t help but smile to myself. Clearly those “other weird things” held special significance. They made it uniquely his creation, but at the same time could be a potential source of trouble. My mind briefly wandered to all kinds of disturbing thoughts, filled with bacteria and House episodes on TV where kids get deathly ill from the sandbox. But it wasn’t a day for worrying, so I thought instead about the human heart.
There are things we freely tell others about ourselves. But we too often keep those other weird things — the things that make us both unique and potentially troublesome — under close lock and key behind our lips, perhaps even buried in our subconscious minds forever.
I wonder what those things would tell us about our Creator, if only we would share them with each other?
Wind in a Storm
Posted by annaldavis in Everything Else on October 21, 2009
You know how you can feel change coming spiritually, before it actually arrives? I wrote about this several weeks ago in my post Family and Career. Here is what I said “Like the cool breeze coming through my window — so different from the summer heat – I know my season is changing. May God direct my steps.” And then in my last post Whether to Weather I talked about how “like the wind, the Holy Spirit is a free agent. It can be a hurricane or a gentle breeze… I don’t know about you, but that’s a bit scary to me. A bit dangerous.”
Last week the gentle breeze in my life had a nip to it. Something was about to change. I had no idea what — and generally thought that it would be a positive thing. But let me tell you that right now, that in this week it does not feel positive and I’m doing everything I can do to remain pliable as dust in God’s wind as He molds me into His image.
Scary and dangerous — not in a fun adventurous way as I have experienced from God before, but in a deeply vulnerable and threatening way, rife with temptation and obstacles. I do not know where the Spirit is taking me right now, but I do know this: God is at work. He is everywhere on and in this, and like Larry Who said in a comment to last week’s post: “the Spirit just shows up and takes over.”
