Quick takes #4

Just a few quick thoughts (or takes) from my studying and reading of and about the Lord.

--- 1 ---

Jesus is a teacher.  He was a great teacher.
Maybe this is something for all the teachers beginning the new school year.  Jesus was a teacher.  We may not be teaching the same subject as Jesus or in the same setting but we are still teachers.  How can Jesus' teachings help us become better teachers?

--- 2 ---

Matthew 16: 14
"Who do you say that I am?"
What would we say if Jesus asked us this question today?  Does the way we treat him accuratly reflect the answer that we would say?

--- 3 ---

We come to know our creator through his creation.
I love how seeing the true beauty in nature points us to the true beauty of the Lord.  There is nothing wrong with admiring and becoming inspired by the beauty of nature.  The Lord made it so it must be beautiful.  On the other side that must means  that all of his creation must be beautiful.  This is another interesting point to reflect on.

--- 4 ---

How can we impact culture for the Lord?
I always am hearing about how the culture of our times is impacting and influencing our life's and our decisions.  But we are part of the culture as well.  The culture is made up of all of us.  How can we influence the culture by our lives?

--- 5 ---

For every new thing known about God is a new reason for loving Him.  -Frank Sheed

This is just one of the beautiful reasons to study scripture and Catholic writings. 

--- 6 ---

After reading Thomas's word study of matrimony at Listening for the Shepherd, I came across my own interesting word meaning.
Amateur- from the French for one who loves.
An amateur is not someone who is unskilled but someone who is doing what they love.  This gives it a whole different meaning.

--- 7 ---

Well since it is almost Saturday this seems to be all I have for today.  Have a restful holiday weekend.  Enjoy the last bits of summer.

For more Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary!

A thought and a question from Psalm 71

Psalm 71

Verse 5

You are my hope, Lord;

my trust, God, from my youth.

Verse 17

God, you have taught me from my youth;

to this day I proclaim your wondrous deeds.

The Lord has been with us since we were little children, (even before that really).  If we go back to our earliest memory the Lord was still with us, even if we did not realize it.

I grew up Catholic.  I grew up going to mass.  I grew up praying with my family.  I don't really have a time that I first learned about the Lord or first trusted in the Lord.  It is easy for me to understand that the Lord has always known me and cared for me because he was always there in my memory.  The Lord has always been part of my life.  I don't have a time that I first understood that the Lord loved me because I was so young.  

I am very grateful that my parents brought me up knowing about and loving the Lord.  I have found that many of the most devout Catholics and Christians that I know were converts to the faith.  They may not have had this experience as a child.  I would love to read about and hear about the experience of coming to realize that God's love for you is true.  How do you view earlier parts in your life?  Can you now see times when God was working in your life before you realized it?  Please share if you would like.

Just a thought that I had that seemed to lead to more questions then answers, but I guess that's how you learn and grow.

Joining in with Jen today.

Back to The Word and a great opportunity!

So I have been praying and I have been reflecting and I have been posting and sharing these reflections over the past few weeks.  And I have also been posting about my random thoughts.  But these are my own reflections and my own thoughts.  I am missing something.  While personal reflection is great I still feel as if I am missing something. 
Ah ha
The Word
I have been reflecting and praying but I have been missing out on reading the bible.  I have been missing out on reading works of the great theologians of the past and of our time.  I have been missing out on learning from others.  I have been thinking but only about my stuff, what I know.  In order to really learn and grow I need to learn from others.
Jesus, Theologians, You
I do not have all the knowledge.  I do not know it all.
I have so much to grow.
Sometimes in all the self reflection I seem to forget about my true purpose, my true God.

So I am going to spend some time learning:
Learning from scripture.
Learning from books.
Learning from you.
And learning from this great opportunity!

John Paul the Great Catholic University is offering a free online course in the Catholic Faith.  It spans 12 weeks and seems like a great way to learn from the experts (without leaving my couch).  I am going to give it a try.  It starts today but I think the lessons will be up for a while after as well.  Read here for a better description of the course if you are interested.  Looks like a great opportunity. 

I'm going to listen to today's lesson about Jesus tonight.  I'll let you know how it goings.

Joining in with Jen and all the lovely women over there.

Quick Takes #4

Photo Source

Well I'm back to quick takes after a few busy weeks of packing, moving all my belongings 100 miles, a family vacation and then unpacking everything I own.  So here are some of my thoughts from the past few weeks.

--- 1 ---

Why does it take so much longer to pack then to unpack?  It took weeks to pack everything up into boxes and only a little more than a day to unpack it all.  Don't get me wrong, I'm glad it didn't take that long for me to unpack everything but I still can't figure out why it took that long to pack it all.

--- 2 ---

Photo Source

All rooms should have at least 1 overhead light that is operated by a light switch by the door.  I came to this conclusion when I came back to my new apartment alone for the first time since dropping off all my stuff at 9 o'clock at night.  It turns out my new apartment has only 4 overhead lights; 2 in the bathroom, one in the kitchen and one in the small hallway connecting the kitchen and the hallway.  This meant that first I had to find my way around piles of boxes and furniture through the living room to get to the kitchen where I finally found a light switch that turned on a light.  Then I realized that neither of the two lamps that we owned were in any of the boxes in the kitchen.  This meant that I had to feel my way through unpacking boxes in the almost completely dark living room.  When I finally found a lamp I realized that I faced yet another challenge, finding an outlet in one of the dark rooms.  My work was successful and my husband came home to a dimly lit apartment and a trip to Target for some more lamps was planed for the next morning.

--- 3 ---

I used the magic eraser cleaning sponge for the first time and I am quite amazed.  I'm not sure quite how it works but it definitely works.  My only guess is that they contain some horribly dangerous chemical.  Either way I was able to get our old apartment a lot cleaner than I though it could ever be (I was also able to get our new apartment pretty clean).

--- 4 ---

As I began to unpack at our new apartment, I realized how many white, empty wall that it had.  I don't know why this wasn't an issue at our old apartment but I really feel like I need to hang something on the walls.  Any inexpensive ideas?  I don't want to spend to much money because I don't know how long we will be here.

--- 5 ---

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When driving you should always beware of Uhaul trucks.  They are often driven by people with not experience driving anything larger than a minivan.  They are not professional truck drivers.  Give them space!

--- 6 ---

Having air conditioning is so nice.  That's all I have to say about that.

--- 7 ---

I just love getting to know a new town.  Walking around the streets, visiting the library, even going to the grocery store.  Everything is so exciting.  I don't want this feeling to go away.  I think I'm really going to like this town.

For more Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary!

State of Denial

After a big move and a busy vacation with my parents, my 5 younger siblings, and my husband I am back to blogging.  On the drive back to my new apartment (the first bit of quite time I had all week) I thought about something that my mother told me several times that week.  "You are just like your Dad, living in a state of denial."  Most of the time this was in result of our discussions about some of the troubles that my brother is going through.  "A state of denial."  This sounds negative.  This is not the way I see my outlook on life and this is definitely not the way I view my Dad's outlook on life.  It is not a state of denial.  It's something more.  It feels to me more like a state of hope.  Not the kind of hope like when you hope there will be ice cream for desert.  I always tell my students that hoping they are going to pass a test is not going to make them pass the test.  

No, not that kind of hope.  A different kind.  An eternal hope in the Lord.  Living in a state of hope means that you don't overwhelm yourself with worrying, not because you deny that there is a problem, but because you know that it is in the Lord's hands and when we are in the Lord's hands we know we will be taken care of.

So when we as Christians are not filled with worry about those who are struggling or about the problems of the world, it is not because we live in a state of denial but because we live in a state of hope.  

Dear Lord, help us to never give up hope in you.

For some more of my thoughts on hope, check out these posts.

Hope for the Hopeless

Psalm 14:6

Follow up to Psalm 20:8-9 

Joining in with Jen today. 

Quick Takes #3 Reading a great book

Source

Here is the other side of last weeks quick takes.  Last week I listed signs that you do not like the book you are trying to read.  After another trip to the library I can bring you a list of signs that you are reading a book that you love.  Happy Reading!

--- 1 ---

  You read the first chapter before you even leave the library.

--- 2 ---

You always read before bed and often end up being awake hours later than you planned on going to sleep.

--- 3 ---

You have the book with you every time you leave the house.  You never know, you might get stuck in traffic, there might be a line at the grocery store or there might be a really long red light.

--- 4 ---

You find yourself thinking about the book all the time.  You just can't get it out of your head so you might as well read it.

Source

--- 5 ---

You tell everyone you meet about the great book you are reading.  You also show it to them because you are always carrying it around.  (See number 3)

--- 6 ---

 You arrive at doctor appointments 30 minutes early just so you will have time to read in the waiting room.  You are then disappointed when the doctor is ready for you early. 

--- 7 ---

 You have not posted all week because every spare minute was spent reading.

For more Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary!

Priorities

Just another reminder about making the Lord a priority.  

Today was going to be a busy day.  I had a lot of things to do at home, laundry to do, had some shopping that I had to do, wanted to go to the gym and had some phone calls to make.  The phone calls were what I was dreading.  Well really one of the phone calls.  I needed some information from someone.  I needed this information before I could make all the other phone calls.  She was supposed to have gotten me this information by Friday.  But it was Monday and I still didn't have it.  I needed to call her.  I really didn't want to call her.  I figured I would wait until the afternoon and hope that she called before then.

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The morning was quite productive.  I was putting on my shoes to take the laundry downstairs I realized that it was 11:45am.  I had just enough time to put the laundry in the washer and get to daily mass downtown and be back to put the laundry in the dryer.  I wasn't planning on going to daily mass today but the timing worked out perfectly.  But I still had so much to do.  And I still had those phone calls to make.  But the timing was perfect.  So I put the laundry in the washer and jumped in the car to go to mass.  As I walked across the parking lot I silenced my phone as I always do. 

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Daily mass was amazing as it always is.  As I parked my car back home I realized that I had not turned my phone back on.  I quickly looked at it and noticed that I had not received the phone call that I was waiting for.  Oh well I guess I was going to have to call her.  I hoped that she had the information that I needed because if she didn't I was going to have a lot more work to do.  Did I mention that I hate calling people on the phone.  I put the laundry in the dryer and walked up stairs.  I looked around for the piece of paper that had her phone number.  As I pulled it out my phone I noticed that it was silently ringing (because I had not turned the ringer back on yet).  I recognized the number, it was the same number that was on the paper that I was holding.  Finally she was calling!  I was so relieved!  Did I mention that I don't like calling people.

I was just as productive throughout the rest of the day.  Got my work done at home, went to the gym, bought the perfect gift, did not get too overwhelmed by the mall and even had time to write this post.

Once again when I put my work, my worries and my fears aside and spent time with the Lord my work, my worries and my fears were made less.

It is at times like these that I remember what a good friend of mine used to say:

"Make time for God, he will make time for everything else."

 

 

Dear Lord, Help me to make you a priority.

 

 

Have you ever had a similar experience?

 

 

Joining in with Jen and the other beautiful women.