A teachable spirit

One of my New Year's resolutions, and something I've been praying about, is to get to know God better and spend more time with Him. Request: GRANTED! Last night was the first night of our 15-week Perspectives course to prepare us for Missions, and it was really amazing. I admit, I walked in with fairly low expectations and a distinct lack of motivation, but the lesson was really incredible. I am so excited about the work God is doing in Mongolia and I admit, I am a little jealous of the joy the Mongolian church has for God. I often feel that joy, but I don't often express it...ours is not a church where you shout things and weep and dance in the aisles. We're too...Seattle-y. Sometimes I wish everyone would shout and clap and jump up and down, just a little, because ours is a God who is worthy of rejoicing. Lots and lots of rejoicing.

I learned a lot last night, and am busy soaking up and reviewing the new revelations about our amazing God. I have lots more, though...today I went to our church's Women's Training Day at the Shoreline campus and had an absolutely incredible day of training and fellowship with lots and lots of Mars Hill ladies. All the ladies from our community group were there (and fortunately, we didn't clump, but got to know some other ladies as well - yay!) so it will be fun to talk about what we learned when we meet on Monday. We read through James...wow. I learned a ton and was very convicted to pray more for the things that I know I can't (and CAN) do myself. Sometimes God gives us trials , but He gives us trials that we can handle when we lean on Him. Sometimes the trials are seasons of suffering, and sometimes the trials are to remove idols, like comfort (hadn't thought of that before), and sometimes the trials don't feel like trials because we're oh so comfortable in our sin. Point is, we should be praying with fervor and supplication all the time. I'll admit, I suck at this. But I know how important it is and what an amazing aspect of God's grace that we even get to have relationship with our Creator, so I'll pray that God would help me mature in my faith and improve. James says that if we ask for something that glorifies God, He will grant it. What an awesome thing.

I'm off to work on my homework for Perspectives, and I'm looking forward to what I'm going to learn about God as I work. Thank you, God, for reaching out to me. I'm glad you've got big, long monkey arms, cuz it's a long way down to where I'm at.

Resolutions

To be honest, I don't remember any of my resolutions from last year with one exception: eat more spicy foods. I did that, and it was delicious. This year, I'm going to write down my resolutions and pray about them, but I'll be happy if, by this time next year, I can remember just one. Here goes!

1. Spend more time with God. I really want to spend more time delving into the Word and learning more about the God who knows everything about me. I'm especially excited because I know that at least the beginning of this year will provide lots of structured opportunity for this: we have Community Group every Monday, Bible Study every Thursday, Perspectives on Fridays, and Church on Sundays. I like structure. And learning with people.

2. Have a baby. God willing, this could be an awesome resolution. Even if we don't have one this year, all the trying will be good for our marriage.

3. Spend less time at my job. I get paid from 7:00am until 2:30pm everyday, so staying until 4:30 on a regular basis isn't really all that good for me. I want to set a go-home time and actually stick to it. This will make me use my planning period more effectively, I hope. So, I hereby resolve to always go home by 3:30 every day and the only exception is if I have to set up for a sub.

4. Close out Dad's estate. This includes: closing out the IRA still held with Fidelity, filing tax returns, redeeming that tricky savings bond, emptying the bank accounts, and placing Dad's urn in the columbarium. It'll really feel good when that is all done. My list is so much shorter now than it used to be, and I'll be happy when there's nothing left to do but remember my dad for the great guy he was.

Four seems like a reasonable number to tackle. I'll stick with that.