Welcome! So you've always wondered what I think about, what my observations on life are, and what I find important, which is why you're here! Or maybe not...
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A Memo From God Effective immediately, please be aware that there are changes you need to make in your life. These changes need to be completed in order that I may fulfill my promises to you to grant you peace, joy, happiness in this life. I apologize for any inconvenience, but after all that I am doing this seems very little to ask. I know, I already gave you the Ten Commandments. Keep them. But follow these guidelines, also.
1. QUIT WORRYING Life has dealt you a blow and all you do is sit and worry. Have you forgotten that I am here to take all your burdens and carry them for you? Or do you just enjoy fretting over every little thing that comes your way.
2. PUT IT ON THE LIST Something needs to be done or taken care of. Put it on the list. NO, not Your list. Put it on MY to do list. Let me be the one to take care of the problem. I can't help until you turn it over to me. And although my to do list is long, I am after all, God. I can take care of anything you put in my hands. In fact, if the truth were ever really known, I take care of a lot of things for you that you never even realize.
3. TRUST ME Once you have given your burdens to me quit trying to take them back. Trust in me. Have the faith that I will take care of all your needs, your problems and your trials. Problems with the kids? Put them on my list. Problems with finances? Put it on my list. Problems with your emotional roller coaster? For my sake, put it on my list. I want to help you. All you have to do is ask.
4. LEAVE IT ALONE Don't wake up one morning and say, Well, I'm feeling much stronger now; I think I can handle it from here. "Why do you think you are feeling stronger now?" It's simple. You gave me your burdens and I'm taking care of them. I also renew your strength and cover you in my peace. Don't you know that if I give you these problems back, you will be right back where you started? Leave them with me and forget about them. Just let me do my job.
5. TALK TO ME I want you to forget a lot of things. Forget what was making you crazy. Forget the worry and the fretting because you know I'm in control. But there's one thing I pray you will never forget. Please don't forget to talk to me OFTEN! I love you. I want to hear your voice. I want to hear you talk about your friends and family. Prayer is simply you having a conversation with me. I want to be your dearest friend.
6. HAVE FAITH I see a lot of things from up here that you can't see from where you are. Have faith in me that I know what I'm doing. Trust me, you wouldn't want the view from my eyes. I will continue to care for you, watch over you, and meet your needs. You only need to trust me. Although I have a much bigger task than you, it seems as if you have so much trouble just doing your simple part. How hard can trust be?
7. SHARE You were taught to share when you were only two years old. When did you forget? That rule still applies. Share with those who are less fortunate than you. Share your joy with those who need encouragement. Share your laughter with those who haven't heard any in such a long time. Share your tears with those who have forgotten how to cry. Share your faith with those who have none.
8. BE PATIENT I manage to fix it so in just one lifetime you could have so many diverse experiences. You grow from a child to an adult, have children, change jobs many times, learn many trades, travel to so many places, meet thousands of people, and experience so much. How can you be so impatient then when it takes me a little longer than you expect to handle something on my to do list? Trust in my timing, for my timing is perfect. Just because I created the entire universe in only six days, everyone thinks I should always rush, rush, and rush.
9. BE KIND Be kind to others, for I love them just as much as I love you. They may not dress like you, or talk like you, or live the same way you do, but I still love you all. Please try to get along, for my sake. I created each of you different in some way. It would be boring if you were all identical. Please know I love each of your differences.
10. LOVE YOURSELF As much as I love you, how can you not love your self? You were created by me for one reason only-to be loved, and to love in return. I am a God of Love. Love me. Love your neighbors. But also love yourself. It makes my heart ache when I see you so angry with yourself when things go wrong. You are precious to me. Don't ever forget that! With all my heart I love you, --author unknown
"Jesus replied, "If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. He who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me. All this I have spoken while still with you. But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid." John 14:23-27 NIV
- posted by Kimberly @ 6:10 PM
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We've had a couple of very hot days this week, and thankfully it's finally cooling down. I live in an older home, built in 1937, and it has no air conditioning and the afternoon and evenings get HOT On top of that I've had a cold it makes for some uncomfortable evenings. Tonight should be bearable, though
I seem to be moving into an autumn frame of mind. I'm beginning to look for hints of autumn in the air and am gearing up for Apple Hill. Yeah, I know I talk about this a lot right now, but if you've ever been there you'll understand
Today I sat in my car during lunch, finished reading a book in 30 minutes and then spent the last 30 minutes dozing. It felt good. I haven't been sleeping well due to the heat and this cold. I wanted to stay in my car and sleep some more, but lunch was over.
Work has been somewhat challenging the last couple of weeks. Dealing with changes to the proofing process, finding out they don't work, going back to the old system, handling difficult people, ironing out things with my supervisor, not enjoying my job as much...there's been a lot. I met with my supervisor Monday evening and my enthusiasm for my job is back, and I'm glad. I can't imagine dreading going to work everyday and forcing myself to get up on time and leave.
Part of the reason I'm doing better is that my supervisor gave me hope for advancement I've been in the proofreading department since I started working for this company back in January of 2001, and I think it's time for a change. The last two years have been a fun challenge with being a team lead and learning more about supervising and the title business, and I'm looking forward to moving into another area, which is the examining group. They research and examine all the paperwork on a property to be sure any open mortgages, liens and judgments are listed on the report, and also verify who the current legal owner is. It can be easy, but as we gain work from more states it becomes more challenging.
I'm looking forward to the chance to learn and grow, and hopefully it won't be too far down the road.
Transitions
Today I felt autumn for the first time this year. I didn't expect it when I woke up this morning, and nothing that happened throughout the day prepared me for it. Yet when I left work, there was an amber glow to the sunlight and a haze to the air.
Autumn is peeking through the door, and soon green summer days will give way to the hues of autumn...reds, oranges, golds and browns. Crisp mornings will usher in thoughts of hot tea, chocolate and coffee, and soon stews will start showing up on the dinner table.
I love autumn...it means trips to Apple Hill, which is a favorite place of mine.
I'm looking forward to autumn
A couple of friends visited me this weekend. One lives in Alameda, the other in Reno. I took them to Old Sacramento for the afternoon. We had lunch at La Terraza, a picturesque Mexican restaurant located on the second floor. Sitting out on the balcony, enjoying fantastic carnitas and watching the tourists was fun.
Afterwards we wandered through quite a few shops, ending up at Blueberry Hill, where I bought a white beanie baby with a purple and green floral design, a small porcelain creamer shaped like a cat and a small porcelain teapot, all for under $17
We ended up coming back to my house and watched "Sweet Home Alabama" and ordered pizza. Unfortunately the pizza wasn't that good, which was a disappointment to me. It's never been like that before from the local place I usually have deliver - it must have been a bad night or something. At least the breadsticks I ordered were good
I'm almost done reading Mere Christianity. What an excellent book! I want to share a bit from the last couple of chapters. After laying the groundwork to establish the existence of God and moral law, C.S. Lewis goes on to challenge us to surrender our all to God. He shows that it's far easier for nasty, mean people to recognize their need for God than it is for nice people:
"You are not one of those wretched creatures who are always being tripped up by sex, or dipsomania, or nervousness, or bad temper. Everyone says you are a nice chap and (between ourselves) you agree with them. You are quite likely to believe that all this niceness is your own doing: and you may easily not feel the need for any better kind of goodness. Often people who have all these natural kinds of goodness cannot be brought to recognize their need for Christ at all until, one day, the natural goodness lets them down and their self-satisfaction is shattered. In other words, it is hard for those who are 'rich' in this sense to enter the Kingdom.
It is very different for the nasty people - the little, low, timid, warped, thin-blooded, lonely people, or the passionate, sensual, unbalanced people. If they make any attempt at goodness at all, they learn, in double quick time, that they need help. It is Christ or nothing for them. It is taking up the cross and following - or else despair. They are the lost sheep; He came specially to find them. They are (in one very real and terrible sense) the 'poor': He blessed them. They are the 'awful set' He goes about with - and of course the Pharisees say still, as they said from the first, 'If there were anything in Christianity those people would not be Christians.'"
Lewis closes with a call to give up ourselves completely to Christ...
"But there must be a real giving up of the self. You must throw it away 'blindly' so to speak. Christ will indeed give you a real personality: but you must not go to Him for the sake of that. As long as your own personality is what you are bothering about you are not going to Him at all. The very first step is to try to forget about the self altogether. Your real, new self (which is Christ's and also yours, and yours just because it is His) will not come as long as you are looking for it. It will come when you are looking for Him. Does that sound strange? The same principle holds, you know, for more everyday matters. Even in social life, you will never make a good impression on other people until you stop thinking about what sort of impression you are making. Even in literature and art, no man who bothers about originality will ever be original: whereas if you simply try to tell the truth (without caring twopence how often is has been told before) you will, nine times out of ten, become original without ever having noticed it.
The principle runs through all life from top to bottom. Give up yourself, and you will find your real self. Lose your life and you will save it. Submit to death, death of your ambitions and favourite wishes every day and death of your whole body in the end: submit with every fiber of your being, and you will find eternal life. Keep back nothing. Nothing that you have not given away will be really yours. Nothing in you that has not died will every be raised from the dead. Look for yourself, and you will find in the long run only hatred, loneliness, despair, rage, ruin and decay. But look for Christ and you will find Him, and with Him everything else thrown in."
I think this can be summed up in Matthew, chapter 6, verse 33: " But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be provided for you. "
On top of that I've had a cold 
it makes for some uncomfortable evenings. Tonight should be bearable, though 
I've been in the proofreading department since I started working for this company back in January of 2001, and I think it's time for a change. The last two years have been a fun challenge with being a team lead and learning more about supervising and the title business, and I'm looking forward to moving into another area, which is the examining group. They research and examine all the paperwork on a property to be sure any open mortgages, liens and judgments are listed on the report, and also verify who the current legal owner is. It can be easy, but as we gain work from more states it becomes more challenging.
