Rediscover (day 40): Ending Thoughts

Forty days ago, a friend and I set out on a journey, and began a fast of rediscovery.  Even though the forty day fast is over, the journey has just begun.  I have learned so much over the last six weeks.  Things weren’t always easy, but I walked this road hand in hand with my Savior and side by side with an amazing friend.

I want to give a heartfelt thank you to everyone I know who was praying for us.  Your prayers helped get us through the tough times and road blocks.  Also, I want to give a huge heartfelt thank you to Sarah, my traveling companion.  I wouldn’t have been able to do this without you.  You kept me going when I felt like giving up.  From the bottom of my heart, thank you my friend, may God bless you for your gift of friendship.  We made it to the finish line together.

God is unexpected.  He teaches and shows us things in unexpected ways.  But then, His ways are not our ways, they’re better.   I know that I still have much to learn and far to go, but my foundation is strong, my course set, and my Guide always with me.  He will never let me go, even if I wander far from Him. 

Thank you for taking this journey with me.

God bless you.

~Laura

2 Timothy 4:7

Rediscover (day 5): All of Me

The last two days have been a rollercoaster ride of emotions.  My stress level shot to an all time high the other night.   When I get stress, I fall apart.  My stress pulls the trigger on my worry gun, shooting me right in the self-conscious that bleeds dread, causing a puddle of self loathing to grow and spread under my peace of mind, choking the life out of it.  (See if you can make sense of that.)  The result of all this is a frazzled, blond, blue eyed pathetic mess.

In the mist of this I was silently complaining to God.  In my heart I told Him, “What’s up?  I’m doing this Rediscover thing.  It was going so well, what happened to bring me this low?”  Just like so many times before, when I woke up from my little pity party, the answer was all but written on a neon sign and hanging over my door. 

I hadn’t yet given my whole heart to Rediscover.  Sure, I’ve been reading my Bible and praying more then I have in recent months, but my heart was not in it.  I can pick out several times a day where I should have sat down, opened my Bible and spent some extra time with God, but I didn’t.  I roamed around the house absent mindedly ticking off the minutes on my fingers, waiting for the day to end.

Praise God that He is so full of grace!  If He wasn’t, I would have been a smoldering ball of ashes long before now.

It’s time to start putting my heart into it, for real.  Father, take my heart, change it.

Rediscovering where my heart needs to be. 

The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise. ~Psalm 51:17

Rediscover (days 2-4): Attitude

No time spent in quiet Bible devotion and prayer = a not so great attitude.

Ain’t that the truth.

I’ve been told by my family that when I’m not having my daily Bible study it shows.  Ouch.  Nothing like the hard truth from the people you love, but then, it takes that to wake me up.  Since I hadn’t had a proper Bible quiet time in around two months, my attitude was on the brink of a nuclear meltdown. 

Now, I have, (and am admitting to having), a bad temper, and when I don’t keep it in check, chaos is sure to follow.  It’s very hard to bite my tongue when I’ve been neglecting my relationship with Christ.  I can’t control my temper, but with His help, I can.

Since I started Rediscover, I’ve noticed, (and so has my mom,) the shift in my attitude.  The forecast was lighting and thunder, but now the skies are clearing and it looks like we’re in for some sunshine.  

Attitude is such a huge part of life.  It directs how we view things, the kind of work we do, the way we treat people.  When we let our relationship with Christ slip, what we don’t realize is that we are letting our attitude slip from sunny, to rainy.

Rediscovering a good and holy attitude.  

Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.  Psalm 51: 10

Rediscover (Day 1): Time

In day 1 of the Rediscover Challenge, I discovered just how much time I wasted goofing around watching worthless junk online.  Yesterday, when I felt tempted, I closed my laptop and opened my Bible and read passages I had marked in the past.  It refocused my mind and my heart to where it needed to be.   

It’s so easy to waste time, and with the internet, it’s even easier; countless distractions are right at our finger tips.

Day 1: Rediscovered the value of time spend in the Word and not just doing what I want to do, or feel like doing.

My heart is fixed, O God, my heart is fixed: I will sing and give praise. ~Psalm 57:7