Family Prayers are being answered

Thank you to all of you who have been praying for me and my family. God has heard those prayers and is heaping blessing upon each of us. I have learned so much about how much we all love each other, and how much God wants the best for us. I really learned so much from the book The Five Love Languages and have been putting it to work. It makes so much sense! I encourage each of you to go read it!

I am praying for each one of you reading this blog for your families to be unified and blessed in the same way!

Psalm 59:
16 But I will sing of your strength,
in the morning I will sing of your love;
for you are my fortress,
my refuge in times of trouble.

17 O my Strength, I sing praise to you;
you, O God, are my fortress, my loving God.

two good quotes

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.” -Nelson Mandela

I Cor. 5:11 "But now I have written unto you not to keep company, if any man that is called a brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner; with such an one no not to eat."

This one hits me right in the gut. I am not going to be able to eat with all those extortioners in my life! Uh-oh. Time to weed out some friendships....

Spending time with the Lord

Woke up this morning. Spent some time with the Lord. He loves me. He loves us, all of us.

Emerging from the cocoon

Andre. Agassi. Open. Go buy it and read it. Cover to cover. He is so freaking funny and brilliant that I want to cry. And marry him. And laugh the whole time. He is mind-blowingly captivating. I can't put this thing down. For me to buy a book full price takes a LOT. It makes me want to write. I want other people to have belly laughs and laugh so hard my teeth were chattering. Twice. I don't think my teeth have ever chattered from laughing before. pg. 211, Sharen. read it!

Reading his book coincides beautifully with my butterfly emerging from the cocoon feeling. I feel untouchable. Brilliant. Broken-through. Some kind of breakthrough happened today, but I don't even know what it was. Intangible, but so real I can hold it, feel it, breath it. Sick. This is the way every day of every life is meant to be lived. With passion, clarity, and love. I love my God, my life, this earth.

I feel like I just won ten million dollars. Andre is right. Winning is not much different from losing. Winning the lottery will not change me. Having more money, houses, clothes, cars, friends, will not change me. Essential me. I feel like I am getting a glimpse of my vast potential. I feel like I could run for president, and change the world. The world is here, for my taking. For the conquering. I know how Jesus feels at the end of Revelations and he's staring down into the pit of Hell where Satan is floundering, apologizing on his knees for the all the horrible things he has done, the lies that he told, the countless lives he has ruined and is ruining even as I write. But I feel like right now, in this one moment, Satan can't fool me anymore. I feel wiser, uncannily strong, like I outwit the enemy. He knows my weaknesses, but I also know his now.

Open. Brilliant. Completely brilliant. I can't believe he doesn't even have a ghostwriter. May I live half the life he has and be half the writer he is. I almost don't want to write this, because you probably won't get the same unadulterated joy I got out of this passage, but in case you don't ever take my sound advice and go buy this national bestseller right away, it's on page 185...
"I can't shake the idea that Brad looks like Early Man, that he just jumped from a time machine, slightly out of breath from discovering fire. Maybe it's all his hair that makes me think this. His head, arms, biceps , shoulders, face covered with black hair. Brad has so much hair, I'm both horrified and jealous. His eyebrows alone are fascinating. I think: I could make a beautiful toupee out of just that left eyebrow." Nuff said.

Running again

I went running again for the first time in AGES! It was really really nice. I am training for the Tufts 10K, which is in two months. It's about 6 miles, so I think it will be doable. It felt awesome to get out there and pound the pavement and break out a sweat. My right knee bothered me, which is weird because it is usually my left knee that bothers me! (Please pray for my knees not to hurt.)

So, I am still swimming at least 1/4-1/2 miles once a week at the beach and now I am running. I am trying to get my bike lock sawed off (lost the key, argh), and then hopefully I might be able to work up my way to another triathlon! We shall see...