Sweep it under the rug

When I want to pick up, I tend to toss some of my stuff in the closet or in the junk drawer, figuring I'll take care of it later.

When Nate cleans, most of his clothes end up on the floor of his closet.

When I sweep the floor, I hardly ever move sofas or the TV stand to sweep underneath them, because no one will see the dust.

None of this is a mess or a problem that needs to be cleaned up until we move out of our apartments. Then it will just be more dirty and more work than if we had cleaned it up periodically.

I always think of this like my life. I tend to sweep things under the rug or toss them in the junk drawer to deal with later - out of sight, out of mind. Unfortunately, that usually means that I just have more junk to clean up the moment I want to move in my life.

Trust in the Lord

When Hannah prayed for Samuel, she agreed to give up her child if only God would let her have one.

I thought about what I would do in that situation. I can definitely imagine praying to God and pleading for a child but would I really be able to give it up if he granted me one?

When Hannah gave Samuel to serve God, he rewarded her with five more children. She also had the pleasure of knowing that one of her children was living a wonderful life of service to her Lord.

When I thought about this, I wondered why I wouldn't be able to keep my promise. I think it all comes down to trust. If I'm being 100 percent honest, I confess that I do not trust completely. I don't think I would trust that giving up my child would be the best thing, that God could make me satisfied and complete without them.

I knew for a long time that I had troubles trusting - even people - but I thought I had gotten better at that. I have come a long way in trusting when making a decision, but I guess I still haven't completely figured out how to trust that my life is alright.

I don't trust a lot of things. I wrote a whole list of things that I don't trust, but I'm not sure I trust enough to let others read it.

I thought I had come a long way in that department, but I realized I still need quite a lot of work.

Sleepy boy

Some days it's just important to smile. I hope to someday have a bulldog, and I found this video. I think it will make you smile.

Special birthdays

My birthday isn't until Saturday but on Monday, I shopped online with my mom to pick out my gift so it could be shipped to me. BTW: The gift I chose was a faux-leather storage ottoman with lids that turn over into trays.

Today, my gift from Nate came in the mail, so he had me open it up - an espresso maker, espresso glasses and espresso beans, with syrups to arrive soon.

Usually, I am a stickler for not wanting my gifts ahead of time. I really love birthdays and Christmas and every other day that presents are given. I like to make that one day really, really special instead of opening stuff up at other moments.

When I was little, my mom even would decorate our rooms on our birthdays, used special birthday dishes with stars on them and would write happy birthday on the refrigerator in magnet letters.

I know that as I get older, birthdays are not as big of a deal, and it doesn't really matter if it has special moments or is just any other day. However, I will always want to celebrate birthdays to the T.

Even though Nate doesn't care, I love to decorate for his birthdays. I love to make him a special meal, a brownie or pie, to given him a carefully wrapped and chosen present - even though he often already knows what it is because I can't keep gifts secrets.

Birthdays might only be one other day, but they are a time that we can celebrate each other. I think that is reason enough to make them special occasions, even if you're all grown up.

No...

I think I mentioned before that my mom asked me how often I put my words of wisdom into effect. This is one of those times that I know I should be doing (or shouldn't be doing) but haven't done very good at...

God works in mysterious ways in our lives. He asks a lot of us.

However, we don't always want to do what He asks of us. Sometimes, we just say no.

I'm going to steal a story from a friend. Hopefully she won't mind. The other day God told her to go help a neighbor wash her windows. However, she didn't want to so she said no.

God didn't leave it at that though. God kept prodding until she finally went over there and offered. The neighbor declined, but God was happy she said yes.

Sometimes I have things come up in my life that I can see are God's hand. However, I ignore it if I don't want to do it. I say no to whoever brought it up.

Even though God isn't here in front of me, I am really saying no to him. If Jesus sat down and told me to do something, I can't imagine saying no. However, I do it all the time, just without seeing him right in front of me.

I really shouldn't be saying no when I know who it is that's really saying it.

Buffet

Usually, after church, Nate and I head over to a local coffee shop and get fresh bagels and cream cheese and americanos.

Instead, yesterday, I decided I wanted to go to a nice restaurant here and try its brunch "extravaganza."

I got a lot of different items - waffles with chocolate chips, breakfast potatoes, ham, sausage egg bake, biscuits and gravy, fresh fruit - but pretty much after I sat down I wished I was just munching on a delicious bagel.

You see, I was never disappointed with the inexpensive bagel. However, I wasn't satisfied just having that week after week.

I saw two lessons here: One, life offers lots of choices, just like a buffet. Many people sample all the different things life has to offer, but they never get to dive in and really eat any of it. They are so busy sampling that they never get to really experience.

Two, even if it's routine, be satisfied with what you have. Sometimes what seems like so great really isn't all that you want. Sometimes you just want the familiar after you get what you thought you wanted.

Timing

I have never been great at timing.

I have a lot of thoughts run through my mind, but I never know when a good time is to bring them up.

Say the topic comes up in conversation but it was not in the way I was planning, should I bring it up then? Then after I take a second to think about it, it seems like it is past the moment. Sometimes when I want to bring up a topic, the words just repeat themselves in my head and I just can't get them out of my mouth. When I finally get them out of my mouth I'm never sure if it was the right time or not, it was just the time that I could finally say them.

Perhaps it's the writer in me. It's hard enough for me to talk, and I plan out what I say so carefully if it is an important topic that when it comes out it's never like I want, so I never want to even start talking about it.

How do you know what is the right time. They are so many different scenarios that could happen just depending on when you bring a topic up, how do you know when to do it? Is it better to just get it out there right away or is it better to let it sit and wait for a convenient moment? What if that moment doesn't happen for a really long time?

Sometimes, I really hate conversation. Sometimes I really wish I didn't have to converse at all. I wish I could relax in the quiet moments and just let the time pass in the peace that I have at those times.

For those of you who are chatty, you probably don't understand this at all. In fact, I often think this is not the right way to go. Even though it's my personality, I try to change it to become more chatty, because that is what people expect of me. That is what people like, others who can converse with them.

I guess I'm just not a good conversationalist, even though I try to be and have gotten better at it. However, when it comes to the important moments, I know I'm not great at conversing or getting my point across in an articulate manner.

I wish I could just stick to writing. It's so much easier that way.