Tuesday, July 7, 2009

Day 37: Words to live by

Hi All! How was your weekend? Mine was largely spent in front of the laptop, but at least my office has windows. The sun was shining, fluffy clouds rolled by...it could have been much worse :)

I woke up this morning thinking about our personal commandments idea from last week. Here's what I've come up with so far. They're not rules exactly...just things I've noticed that make my life work better when I remember them:

1. Smile
2. Pray first, argue later
3. Eat, drink & be glad...don't go through my days in a frantic, numb rush. Notice when something tastes good or quenches my thirst, and be happy even when it doesn't make sense.
4. Don't fret, it leads only to evil
5. Guard my heart...be careful what I listen to, watch, believe.
6. Guard my tongue...keep things positive, lined up with what God says about my circumstances (rather than what my circumstances might indicate about God)
7. Live by the Spirit...without God guiding me, I'm sunk
8. Believe (as singer Brooke Fraser says, "To believe is to begin...")
9. Remember Luke 18:27 "What is impossible with men is possible with God."
10. Floss

We're a little behind in our Ecclesiastes reading, but I'm going to apply #4 here and decide that that's okay :) Here's a link to three chapters to catch us up.

"When times are good, be happy; but when times are bad, consider: God has made the one as well as the other. Therefore, a man cannot discover anything about his future."

Interesting, right? I just started a book a friend recommended called Is God to Blame? that deals with questions around making sense of bad times in light of our faith in a loving God. More on that tomorrow.

For now--what are your commandments? Anything you can share?

5 comments:

kim said...

hey trish, hope your writing is going well -- can't wait to read your next book.

i'm wondering if we break the fast on friday or saturday?

Abby Green said...

I think this is already in line with "don't fret", but a good one that I often repeat is "this to shall pass".

Sarakastic said...

I'm stealing "lined up with what God says about my circumstances (rather than what my circumstances might indicate about God" from you

Stella said...

This is a great exercise to discover what thoughts occupy or dominate your day! Kinda' like "so you think, so goes your day".

I'm SOOOOOOOO easily swayed into "what my circumstances might indicate about God".

YIKES!

Smiles,
Stella

heiress said...

I'm still thinking about my personal commandments. I know one of them will have to be to Lighten Up! And another will be to Laugh at least once a day.

I can see I've strayed away from my true happy self, and I've allowed myself to be jaded because my prayers haven't been answered.