1.19.2011

A New Day: Thanking God

Questioning

I am so genuinely thankful for a new day. Thank you creation, thank you universe, thank you God - for your constant promise of renewal.

This morning I woke up internally feeling much better than yesterday.

The headaches are not pleasant, but I will learn to adapt.

We are having a Women's Retreat next Saturday at church,
and I'm having a blast planning and preparing. My dream job is currently:
Yoga-teacher, librarian, retreat facilitator, lady pastor -
So I'm excited to have an opportunity to actually facilitate a retreat! The theme is balance.

I know, I know - how ironic that I would lead a retreat on balance -
since I'm often quite unbalanced.
"They" say we often teach what we most need to learn. That is very much true in this case.

Any tips on how to stay balanced, beloved readers?
Many of you are so good at managing your different roles and schedules.
What are your secrets of success?

Also, what books of the Bible do you love? Not like? Find mysterious?

Also, how do you feel about small group activities? Uncomfortable? Awkward? Fun? Exciting?

I'd love your feedback!!!!

P.S. - The retreat is open to ALL women - and it's free! If you live in the area and want more info, please let me know! We'd love to have a big group. It's 8:30-11:30am on Saturday, January 29th. Ages 14 and up.

5 comments:

  1. my secret to success....well, I can't say I actually follow it super well, but when I go to bed early so that I can get up early and when I choose a few priorities (currently working out, time with God, playing with my kiddos and preparing food for our family) things seem to work well.

    On another note, after reading through Matthew's account of Jesus' temptation today, I was hit by the fact that I need to rely on GOD to feed me spiritually. Not church, not Bible studies, not Chris, but GOD. So that is my new prayer. Love you!, Goodnight!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Beautiful thoughts, ERIN! Thank you. :) Beautiful.

    Love you, too.

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  3. So, I loooove Ecclesiastes and Job. I feel like those books are often geared towards men, although I'm not quite sure why. Struggles and wonderings? I don't know, I think all people can identify with that.

    Small group activities...I think it depends on the activity, and the group for the matter. I went to a women's retreat and LOVED it but that was mostly for the large group activities.

    Glad to hear your feeling better. You've been in my prayers these past few days.

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  4. Just read this - I'm a few days behind!

    I've heard several things about "balance" that have helped me. I can't remember any of them exactly, but I'll try to give you the "key points."

    One is that "juggling" is a good term because when you juggle you do not always have all the balls in the air at one time. It's ok to set some things down for a while to keep others going.

    Another is that "balance" is a bad term because it suggests evenness. There are days we need to focus more on family, days we need to focus more on ourselves, and days we need to focus more on work (and so on).

    Finally, it's a bit over-used perhaps, but I often think of the metaphor that comes around in email forwards every once in a while. It involves a teacher filling a jar with rocks. "Is this full," the teacher asks. "Yes," the students respond. The teacher repeats the procedure by adding gravel to the jar. Same thing, still "full." Again, with sand. And finally, one more time, with water. The teacher demonstrates that if you filled the jar with water to start with, you couldn't fit a rock, piece of gravel, or grain of sand in the jar. It's a metaphor for the whole "don't sweat the small stuff" thing, but I like it as a good visual reminder to take care of the "big" things first.

    Sounds like a great retreat!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Just read this - I'm a few days behind!

    I've heard several things about "balance" that have helped me. I can't remember any of them exactly, but I'll try to give you the "key points."

    One is that "juggling" is a good term because when you juggle you do not always have all the balls in the air at one time. It's ok to set some things down for a while to keep others going.

    Another is that "balance" is a bad term because it suggests evenness. There are days we need to focus more on family, days we need to focus more on ourselves, and days we need to focus more on work (and so on).

    Finally, it's a bit over-used perhaps, but I often think of the metaphor that comes around in email forwards every once in a while. It involves a teacher filling a jar with rocks. "Is this full," the teacher asks. "Yes," the students respond. The teacher repeats the procedure by adding gravel to the jar. Same thing, still "full." Again, with sand. And finally, one more time, with water. The teacher demonstrates that if you filled the jar with water to start with, you couldn't fit a rock, piece of gravel, or grain of sand in the jar. It's a metaphor for the whole "don't sweat the small stuff" thing, but I like it as a good visual reminder to take care of the "big" things first.

    Sounds like a great retreat!

    ReplyDelete