Daybook

Out my Window:  beautiful end of summer overlapping with fall kind of day

Enjoying: starry nights, the moon, cut flowers from my garden, sunflowers, cooler nights, fresh corn, zucchini cookies and bread, amazing views as I drive around for work

Listening to/Watching:  Holy Post Podcast.   https://www.holypost.com/holy-post-podcast Listening to the second book in the Lord of the Rings Trilogy: The Twin Towers. https://www.audible.com/pd/The-Two-Towers-Audiobook/B009ABHTF4?qid=1598033985&sr=1-1&ref=a_search_c3_lProduct_1_1&pf_rd_p=e81b7c27-6880-467a-b5a7-13cef5d729fe&pf_rd_r=6KR21Q0934XX42SAEX7KI am thankful this epic story has captured me for this season.

Reading: By my bedside: The Pursuit of the Holy: A Divine Invitation by Simon Ponsonby.  I finished Beautiful Resistance: The joy of conviction in the culture of compromise by Jon Tyson. Definitely worth the read, thought, and application. In Beautiful Resistance there is much to contemplate and act on in a “beautiful resistance” to the darkness of the world. This would also make an excellent small group study. It includes a full study guide in the back of the book.

“How would things change if you resolved to rebel against your own indifference and embody the things you long to see in the world? If you resolved that you would pursue beauty and resist brokenness? That you would resist idolatry with worship, exhaustion with rest, apathy with hunger, fear with hospitality, contempt with honor, hate with love, privilege with sacrifice, and cynicism with celebration? If your life became a parable of what happens when someone lives with integrity and in community no matter the cost?”

Susie Larson’s new devotional Prevail released into the world this past week. You can find my review here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3459477819

I started Jen Pollock Michel’s book Surprised by Paradox: The Promise of And in an Either-Or World. It has been a good start with underlines in the forward and the first few pages of the introduction.

“A book about paradox is a book about spiritual posture: the posture of kneeling under God’s great big sky and admitting that mystery is inherent to the nature of God. As soon as we think we have God figured out, we will have ceased to worship him as he is. God, in his very being, is inscrutable and unsearchable. “

Study with my Ladies’ Small Groups: The Good Life: What Jesus Teaches about Finding True Happiness by Derwin Gray. It is a study on the Beatitudes.

Rambling Thoughts: Blessed are the humble (meek) for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed, happy, joy-filled are those who keep their strength under control. Last week my small group was studying this Beatitude. I have been thinking about how much strength and power Jesus had as He walked on earth. He had all the power of heaven and eternity at His beckoning, and yet he was meek and humble. He was under control. Even those moments we would say he looked a bit out of control (in the temple flipping tables), He was still in control. He had a purpose to His actions. He could have called down fire from heaven at any point as the disciples had requested once, but Jesus said that was not His plan. Thinking on the cross in terms of strength under control makes it even more powerful. Jesus could have called down angels at any moment as the people taunted Him to do, but instead He called down forgiveness and welcomed a thief into the kingdom. He assigned a new protector to His mom. He endured what was ours, such love and amazing humility. I am thinking of how many times I am proud of myself for keeping my mouth shut, or not acting out in a situation, even in my humble acts there is pride sneaking up in the background. Blessed are the humble… St. Augustine once declared, “Humility is the foundation of all the other virtues hence, in the soul in which this virtue does not exist there cannot be any other virtue except in mere appearance.” Humility is the foundation. Until I continually choose to go low and become like Jesus who humbled Himself to the point of death, all else is still tainted with me.

Fitness and Mental Health: Walking and/or Pilates every day. Jumping into a 5 day Pilates Challenge September 15 https://thebalancedlifeonline.com/ Mental Health: Exercise is key and continuing to look for beauty. Writing the date and day and a brief list of the events of day has been very helpful for my mental health. Numbering my days…

Home: Mostly keeping up with the basics. It cooled off enough to bake all things zucchini…

Giving Thanks For: my home, provisions, rest, laughter, vegetables and flowers growing in my gardens, walks and hikes, so much beauty in this world, praying friends, serving with friends, Census job, good books, challenging thoughts, comfort for friends who have lost loved ones

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