A Personal Win In Spite of Losing

When Cheryl and I started the NaBloPoMo on November 5, our goal was daily posting for 30 days. Unfortunately, neither one of us made it but it wasn't a wasted effort. In the past, both of us have been avid bloggers but recently, with how our lives have changed, our blogs had fallen silent.

My goals were to get past the hurdle of a silent blog and to see how blogging would look for me at this stage in my life, and if I’m totally honest, to see if I could juggle it with everything else and if I even wanted to blog. Those goals were all met, even though I only posted 17 times in 30 days.

In one way I didn’t reach my goal. 17 out of 30 is a pretty pathetic percentage, BUT I’m counting it as a personal win. Here’s why…

• I struggle with balance and I was determined to keep blogging in balance with the rest of my life and responsibilities. And I did. Thanksgiving week hit and my life slipped into high gear. I needed to focus on family and then work, and I did.
• Jumping back into blogging like I did forced me over the hurdle I had been camped at for too long.
• I found that I could add blogging back into my schedule, but it took determination and discipline. Lots of both, mixed with a generous portion of time—something I need to work on.
• A major goal for those 30 days was to see what I posted when scrambling for posts (like I knew I would, LoL). I wanted to see if my focus had shifted while I was away from here. It was cool to see what came out. Because I didn’t make it the 30 days, I didn’t even get through my list of post ideas, and I didn’t touch the topics that I know are favorite soap-boxes of mine. But it was still enough to give me the answers I sought.

All told, blogging 17 days out of the hoped-for 30 days is a win for me. I remembered that I love blogging. I remembered the work it is yet how rewarding it can be. And I remembered how it kicks my creativity and thinking into gear and gets me rolling.

It was a very worthwhile endeavor.

Tweet

Reviewing Bible Memory Passages - Part 1

I cannot tell you how much Scripture memorization has helped me this last year and the last few months in particular. It's made a big difference in my Bible study time, in what I take away from studying, in the satisfaction I find in my studying, and especially in my thought life.  Memorizing Bible verses has been a game changer for me.

Part of my Scripture memorization this time around has been relearning passages I had memorized years ago. I was encouraged to see how quickly I was able to relearn them! Yet even as I relearned them and added them to my "rolodex of Scripture" I wondered how I was going to keep them all in my head. My brain is like Swiss cheese...it's full of holes (so things seem to fall out as fast as I put them in my brain). So, I did some digging on ideas for reviewing the Bible verses you've memorized, and I found this gem with John Piper...



After watching this I found that I stressed less about remembering every verse. Knowing how I work, that itself will be a help.

I'm also putting together a list of verses that I want to have ready and available on the tip of my tongue, to pull out and use at any time. These passages are ones that I feel will help me where I am now and with what I see my ministry is.

So tell me, what is one Scripture passage that you want ready in your mind? 

Tweet

Cutie-Patootie Monkey

As you probably know by now, Toby is a ham. When we're working a fair his job is to be cute, and he does a bang-up job of it.  Of course, while he's being cute, we're trying to get a good picture and often that can be challenging. Very challenging.

Thankfully, we can usually get a picture that works. But in the meantime, we end up with some funny shots of him and of the people he's posing with.

Getting to see people as they meet a monkey lets me see a lot of smiles and hear some pretty cool stories, and it always makes me day.

Tweet

Tips and Tricks for Bible Memorization

Memorizing Bible verses isn't easy but it's one of those things that is very worthwhile.

Here's a few tricks to memorizing that I've learned along the way...

1. Ask God to help you!
2. Be accountable to a small group—your Bible study or prayer group, a friend who will ask you about it and prod you when necessary…
3. Write the verse on a card and post it somewhere you’ll see it or carry it in your pocket for quick and easy access.
4. Read the verse 5 times every day.
5. Draw a box around the verbs.
6. Use a site like BibleGateWay or BlueLetterBible to look up a keyword in the verse.
7. Use symbols to draw the verse then use it as a memory tool to help you visualize the verse. It really helps!! No artistic ability is needed. This is for you, not a gift for Rembrandt.
8. Sing the verse. Remember Silly Songs with Larry? Anything goes.

My personal favorite tricks are... 

• Write the verses using brightly colored pens (I write the verse 5-10 times, depending on my time and how well it's sticking in my head). The brighter the pens, the better it works.
• Look up every cross reference listed for the verses I'm working on. 
• Read about the verses in a commentary or two, to help me understand it more.
• Put motions to the verse. 

I have to admit though that if people were to actually see me doing the motions they'd probably laugh. When I was walking early in the mornings, I'd memorize. I was always very thankful we live on back-country roads so only the deer and dogs would see me waving my arms around. But it helped!! Now, as I drive to work I'll say my verses and my motions have to be limited to what I can do while driving. But, they still help!!

Try different things until you find what works for you.
But the biggest key: Just do it!

Tweet

Monkey Raspberries?

You never know what you're going to get when a monkey is posing for pictures.

He's really not blowing raspberries but sometimes I wonder.


When Toby sits with someone for a picture, we give him a small treat. He'll sit beside them munching, and often that creates a few funny shots.

#NaBloPoMo Day 12

Tweet

Road Blocks to Bible Memorization

Memorizing Bible verses can be hard enough, but when we don't see the things that prevent us from memorizing, it can be that much harder, if not impossible.

The other night as our ladies Bible study was wrapping up, I wrestled with the bag I use for hauling my study books in. They were getting hung up on a bag of special mints I keep in there as a reward for the ladies who have worked on their Bible memory verse. That night I hadn’t even asked if anyone had reviewed their verse. In all honesty, I was discouraged in that area of study but didn’t want to share my discouragement with the ladies. They’ve been so faithful in attending and participating and even writing out the passage we’re studying that I didn’t want to be a debby-downer nor a nag, so I simply left the bag of mints inside my bag.

But to get my books in the bag I pulled the mints out, and one of the ladies commented on them. So, I asked the dreaded question...

Has anyone worked on their memory verse?

And again, no one had. Their faces said it all.
That’s when I heard Dad’s voice in my head…

Why aren’t they trying to memorize anymore?

I didn’t know, so I asked them.
They had great answers! From silly to painfully honest...

• “I have the memory of a goldfish.” (She doesn’t but it was definitely worth the giggle.) And if you want to think about this one seriously, if you have a bad memory that's the very reason you need to memorize --to exercise your brain and keep it learning new things. Use it or lose it.
• “I didn’t know what to memorize. I just want you to tell me which verse.” (So I did. Right away. I’d had one in mind for her, right from the very beginning of this round of study.)
• “You told me I couldn’t memorize the verse I wanted to.” (And she was right. I DID tell her no. Good grief! What kind of a teacher am I?! In my defense, I said no because I was sure she had memorized Ephesians 2:8-9 as a kid since she’d grown up in the church. But I also told her that if she began remembering the verses to add verse 10. Hehe.)
• “I just haven’t done it.” (And I was thrilled to hear muttering coming from her corner even while shenanigans were going on as we worked through why I didn’t let MissM pick the verse she wanted.)

I could relate to each of their reasons.
Well, except for being told I couldn’t memorize the verse I wanted to. I had good teachers who encouraged me and told me I could, not one who told me I couldn’t. (Such a Duh moment for me! Sheesh!)

Part of succeeding is knowing what your handicap is and finding a work-around…finding what is preventing you from succeeding and then learning how to move past those things.

So tell me, what keeps you from memorizing?

Tweet

Quietness

Quietness.
A stillness that permeates every fiber of your being.
A time to simply sit, to set aside all the work and worry of life and just be.
Not planning.
Not thinking.
Just being.
Being in the presence of God Almighty.
Bowing before His awesomeness.
Soaking in His glory.
Letting His peace fill you.
Renew you.
Overwhelm you.
Strengthen you.

Sometimes, often, this is what we need most.

#NaBloPoMo Day 4

Tweet

No Limits

Off and on throughout the day I've been thinking about limiting God--something I do far too often. I should know better. I have the sea urchins to remind me...

Even though I grew up on the coast of Maine, I had never found a sea urchin that I could bring home. The shells captivated me but the few I found were either broken or still smelly and awful so they stayed where they were found.

But a couple years ago when I went to visit Cheryl in Puerto Rico we found oodles of sea urchins. More urchins than I ever would have imagined possible. The funny thing? I had asked God for one. Just one to put on my shelf and I would be thrilled and content. I think God snickered. We didn't find just one. We found a gazillion of them. They were everywhere. Little, adorable sea urchins.

Thankfully, whenI found myself limiting God this morning the Bible verses I'm memorizing came to mind.

Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power the works within us, to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen. Ephesians 3:30 NAS

God can, and will do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think. So let's quit being naysayers and let Him to do it! Let me tell you, if we do, the biggest shell collecting bucket we can find won't hold what He has for us.

Let's open our minds and hearts and start watching for what God will do when we let Him. 

#NaBloPoMo Day 3

Tweet

Let Your Light Shine

You are the salt of the earth;
but if the salt has become tasteless,
how can it be made salty again?
It is no longer good for anything,
except to be thrown out
and trampled under foot by men.

You are the light of the world.
A city set on a hill cannot be hidden;
nor does anyone light a lamp and put it under a basket,
but on the lamp stand,
and it gives light to all who are in the house.

Let your light shine before men  in such a way that they may see your good works,
and glorify your Father who is in heaven.

Matthew 5:13-16 NAS

#NaBloPoMo Day 2

Tweet

The Time Has Come

Often I've sat here at my computer and wondered... is it time? Each time life has showed me it wasn't. But this time...

This time life is saying something different.

It's time.

For the past week I've been feeling nudges.
Today, when my sister Cheryl nudged me I almost fell off my chair. NaBloPoMo? No way. But even as I laughed that tiny flame I thought was out flared to life. Without stopping to think, afraid panic or sense would set in, I shot a text back to her. So, we've joined the NaBloPoMo over at BlogHer and we're going for it. Daily posts during November 5 to December 5.

Crazy? Possibly. But I know all too well that sometimes it takes a drastic step to get out of the rut you're in. This is me taking that necessary step. It's time to move forward again.

The time has come and I'm excited!
Anyone else doing this?

NaBloPoMo Day 1

Tweet