Scrapbooking

I'm going out of town for a couple of days, so thought I would blog a little early this week.  I spent last night and all day today at our ILNC Scrap-booking retreat with 40 other women.  I have gone in the past to sit and yak with friends.  This time I went as a brand new scrap-booker.  A couple of friends gave me a scrap-booking starter kit for Christmas, preparing me for this annual ILNC event.  


I spent last Sunday night printing pictures for my scrapbook.  I decided to make one for my husband for Valentine's Day.  He doesn't know about it yet, so I hope I can keep it a secret.  I'm calling it "The Passions of Paul".  I did pages on family vacations, granddaughters, ILNC, and the dogs.  Most of the pages have him in the pictures.  I think he'll like it, and will someday enjoy sitting in his rocker and looking back at the memories.  


One of the games we played at the retreat was to tell three things about ourselves...two of them true, and one false.  I chose the following three:

1. I once worked for a cemetery.
2. I went to school to be a secretary.
3. I graduated from seminary.

You decide which is false.  If I had been given a chance to do three more facts, two true, one false, I would have said:

1. I have lived in 19 houses/apartments in five states during my 35 year marriage to Paul.
2. I went on a work and witness (mission) trip with my husband and father to the Dominican Republic.
3. While in college I took a class at the Jerusalem Center for Biblical Studies in Israel.

I have lived an interesting life, haven't I?  Even my two false statements should have been true, for they represent who I am and my background.  The deal is, when I was a little girl I wanted to grow up to be a secretary (and my brother wanted to be a trash truck driver).  Well, not being able to pronounce secretary, I said cemetery.  How ironic it was that one of my first jobs out of high school was to work in an office of a cemetery.  I had to type labels for mailing advertisements, and make phone calls to people to set up appointments for a representative to visit them to sell them cemetery plots.  Didn't last two weeks on that job!  Hated disrupting people's lives to find out if they had a cemetery plot or not.

Ends up I never actually went to school to be a secretary, but I have been in the office environment most of my adult life (mostly as bookkeeper).  At mid life I went back to college and got a degree in psychology, and then I went on to seminary and graduated with an M.Div. degree, desiring to teach Greek or somehow be employed in the college environment.  That never happened, except for three weeks in the mail room at Greenville College, Greenville, IL...which God used to open doors for my son to become employed in the IT department at the same college...and I became full time caregiver for my granddaughter.  Nice arrangement.

While attending Lee University, I did take a two week Biblical studies course in Jerusalem.  That was a tremendous, unbelievable opportunity for me...given to me by God himself.  But that's another story.  I came back home determined to study Greek to know my Bible better.  By the way, I did teach Greek for three years...to senior citizens on our campground.  

My father was the pioneer of the Nazarene work and witness program and made more trips than I can count to various countries in South America and the islands between North and South America.  My husband went on some of those trips with him, but I always stayed behind to take care of our sons.  Never really wanted to take a mission trip, too afraid of bugs and raw food and bad water.  Sorry, God. 

Well...that's a little bit about myself...more than you wanted to know, I'm sure.  I've been busy at the office this week with some special projects.  I've done some shopping, played some games, visited some shut-ins, ran errands, colored my hair, baked cookies, and booked our family time share for next Christmas.  It has snowed most of the week, been very cold, and just not nice weather to be out and about.  This week is almost over, and sounds like next week could bring more severe winter storms.  But, oh well, it's winter, and this is Michigan.


Looking back at my devotional journal for this week:


More insights to aging well:

• God has brought you this far, He'll guide you the rest of the way
• activate, don't vegetate
• decide to rejoice every day
• we need to honor and respect the elderly as we do God
• we must encourage them by involving them in significant work, recognizing their skills and wisdom
• we must support them by including them in our church and family activities
• we must pray for them and their needs

Reprogram your mind:

• to change your life, you must change how your think
• the way you think determines how you feel
• the way you feel determines the way you act
• you change how you think by programming your minds daily with God's wisdom/His Word

Your "life sentence":

• be who you were created to be
• bring happiness into the room with you
• fulfill your God-given purpose
• love unconditionally

Scripture that spoke to me this week:

• Then Jesus said to the disciples, 'If anyone wants to be a follower of min, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.  For anyone who keeps his life for himself shall lose it and anyone who loses his life for me shall find it again.  What profit is there if you gain the whole world...and lose eternal life?'  (Matt 16:24-26)
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• For if you had faith even as a tiny mustard seed you could say to this mountain 'Move!' and it would go far away.  Nothing would be impossible.  But this kind of demon won't leave unless you have prayed and gone without food.   (Matt 17:20-21)
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• Because the Lord is my shepherd, I have everything I need.  He gives me new strength.  He helps me do what honors him the most.  (Ps 23:1-3)
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• Who may stand before the Lord?  Only those with pure hands and hearts, who do not practice dishonesty and lying.  (Ps 24:4)