Help Me Find It

Have you ever found yourself at a crossroads in your life?  In your friendships?  In your finances?  In your marriage?  In your hobbies and interests?  In your job?  With your children?  With your faith?

I know I have at various points in my journey, and as a human who is flawed and far from perfect, I immediately have a small, fleeting moment of panic.  I know that, for me, this is my inner control-freak who loves to have a plan...for everything.

From every single detail of our vacations to all of my tasks that need to be accomplished throughout the day, and Lord knows every trip to the grocery store, I feel better when I have a plan.  I use the plan mentality in business, as well, and it has been very successful for me.

Sometimes, though, I feel a stirring in my soul about some facet of my life, and since this usually happens unexpectedly, I tend to freak out for just a moment because I didn't plan on it happening and I don't have a plan in place to combat my feelings of doubt or worry.

This happened to me just the other day, and as He usually does, I love how God touched me and met me where I was...in the car, driving to an appointment for work.  I was just starting to feel that old familiar feeling in the pit of my stomach.  I started chewing on the inside of my cheek (nervous habit). My mind was racing 1,000 miles per minute.  Then, I heard a song and I simply had to smile after listening to the lyrics.

There's more lyric goodness where that came from, and I felt like God was talking directly to me.  Even though I didn't mean to do it, I realized that if I'm stressing about the direction _________ will go in my life, do I really trust God?  He is the only being in the world that has never, ever failed.  He is good, He is gracious, He is glorious, and He is great - do I not trust that He wants the best for me and is leading me there?

I definitely had a gut-check moment. He already knows every detail about my life and where it will go. He knows my every desire and need before I ever even think it.  He knows my heart - heck, He made it.  His Holy Spirit lives in me, and is constantly leading me if I will listen.

So how do you do it?  How do you place your own will and desire for control aside and simply trust God?  

I'm obviously no expert or this post would cease to exist.  Here are 5 things that help me with the "less of me and more of You" struggle of my life.

1.  Ask God to reveal His will to you.  Tell God what you're feeling (even though He already knows).  He desires a relationship with you and relationships take both people communicating. If you're feeling unsettled or unsure, ask Him to tell you what to do, and do so from a place of obedience.

2.  Practice patience. This one is tough for me and I understand why they say it's a virtue. It's HARD! But God's timing is the best timing and sometimes when I feel like He's not answering me, His Holy Spirit leads me to see that He's not ready for me to make any moves yet. I'd rather wait and do things His way since he's yet to experience failure and I practically invented the word.

3.  Read His Word. Psalm 33:4-6 -  "For the word of the LORD is right and true; he is faithful in all he does. The LORD loves righteousness and justice; the earth is full of his unfailing love. By the word of the LORD were the heavens made, their starry host by the breath of his mouth." / Isaiah 41:10 - "So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand." / Isaiah 40:28-31 - "Do you not know? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom.  He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak.  Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall;  but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint."  There is example after example of God fulfilling His promises to His people.  You and I are in that category - we are HIS! He loves us and wants us to be happy, and we are worth more than anything else to Him!

4.   Ask for help.  If you are really feeling down about a decision you feel you need to make in your life, call on your brothers and sisters in Christ, your pastor, your colleague - anyone who is willing to pray for you and intercede on your behalf.  You may not get the answers you desire more quickly, but I can't think of any time having people pray for you has hurt anyone, and the support feels amazing!

5.  Pray for peace.  Sometimes, the thing that works best for me is to lay my cards on the table with God and then pray for peace.  I tell God, if You'd have me do _____, let me know.  If You'd like me to be still, let me know.  Whatever Your will for my life is, I trust in You, and I ask You to bring me peace.  Guess what...He usually always does this for me.  I just wake up feeling better, more relaxed.  He reminds me that "He's got this."

What do you do to place God's will for your life over your own?

Ribs

To Make You Feel My Love

I read a news story recently that got me thinking about the different ways I typically show my love for Dusty and the ways he shows his love for me.

Typically, I show my love by writing cute notes or cooking his favorite meals, or more commonly by trying to make him laugh as I prance about shouting, "I LOVE YOU!!!" around our house or yard.

Typically, he shows his love for me by doing unexpected housework or taking care of my car, but he has been known to be a flower ninja every once in awhile, too.  :-)

Neither of us generally operates in grand, over-the-top gestures when showing our love for one another when I really stopped and thought about it, and I began to wonder - do other couples show their love for one another through the everyday small things like we do, or are more people acting out the divine to show their love?

Take Paul Derthick, of Ohio, for example. He and his wife have been married for 50 years!!! I'm guessing he didn't feel that the annual greeting card was going to cut it this year, so he went big or went home !

This particular corn maze = my mind is blown.

Paul and his children recreated his official wedding portrait complete with the church where they were married and the antique tractor they use on their farm. This bad boy is 17 acres of land!!!! That's huge! Not to mention - how in the world did they check their work along the way to make sure they were accurately recreating this portrait?!?!?!? Again, my mind is blown. I am equally blown away that they were able to keep this ginormous tribute a surprise!!! In case my mind wasn't already blown beyond comprehension, they constructed the entire thing in ONE DAY!!!! Say WHAT?!?!? You can read more about this story here and here.

So how about you? How do you typically show your love? Small gestures? Sillyness? Grand gestures? Do you save it all for the holidays? We'd love to hear from you!

Ribs

Fall Date Night Ideas

Fact - I  l u r v e  my husband. 


Fact - I  l u r v e  going on dates with him.

(He is pretty studly, after all, and I love to show him off sometimes).

Fact - I  l u r v e  saving money.

(This is especially important because we both work so hard for what we have, and God calls us to be the best financial stewards we can be).

Fact - I  l u r v e  the season of fall!

Put it all together, and what do you get? We need a list of cost-effective fall date night ideas!

So, curl up with your blanket and cup of coffee, and get yourself situated by the fireplace, because here is a list of some fabulous fall date night ideas!  I'm going to make it my mini bucket list to accomplish all of these great dates with Dusty before the bitter chill of winter sets in!

1.  Take a hike! No, literally. Take a hike together.  Not only will you be forced to unplug from the technology of today's world, but you will also get to feel the accomplishment of a) working out, b) seeing some gorgeous scenery, and c) accomplishing a goal with your mate! Triple win, in my book, and all it costs is money for gas and snacks! Score!

2.  Find a pumpkin patch and go pick your perfect punkin together!  I know in our area, the cost of a pumpkin is between $0.50 - $5.00 depending on the size, but walking around the pumpkin patch and seeing everyone having such a good time is sure to do your heart good.  Plus, who doesn't love good fall decor?

3.  Go apple picking!  We are blessed to live in a Southern state that has a healthy helping of orchards, and for most places, you're looking at about $3.00 per pound of apples, which can be a lot of fun!  Just seeing the trees and how they're harvested can be interesting and not to mention delicious!  Tis the season!

4.  Host an in-house cooking session!  If you've chosen to go to either the pumpkin patch or the apple orchard, why not take some time to either practice your favorite recipes or try out new ones!  Can you imagine how amazing your home would smell while your fresh, homemade apple pie was baking?  Or how about the sweet anticipation waiting for your fresh apple cider to heat up?  Or, how about that scrumptious pumpkin pie that you were inspired to make after seeing all that orange goodness?  Sounds like an AWESOME date to me - and that is one example of teamwork that would produce sweet rewards!  (Har-dee-har, how did I get to be so hilarious?)

5.  Find a corn maze, and test your luck!  Some friends of ours in our small group told us about a farm near their home that offered a corn maze, a straw maze, and best of all - SQUARE DANCING!  Stop it!  We are definitely planning to hit that action up, and possibly even this weekend!

6.  Build a bonfire and roast s'mores!  This is fun for a romantic evening, but it is also fun for a group date night idea!  Throw in some cornhole, ladder golf, or can jam and some good conversation and you can make an evening of it!  If you don't have the space where you live, maybe that would be an awesome excuse to visit some friends - you can offer to bring the graham crackers, marshmallows, and good ole' Hershey's chocolate!

7.  One of the most fun romantic dates Dusty and I have been on was when he literally took me "camping" in one of the fields of land he lived on.  He knows that I'm a prissy camper at best - sorry, I love having access to an actual bathroom, and I'm not stoked about sleeping on the ground - so he set up our tent with an air mattress and it was within moderate walking distance of the house!  It was really fun to gather firewood together, roast hot dogs and make s'mores!  The stars were GORGEOUS, and the crisp fall air was perfect for snuggling up together! It gave us time to talk, and we even were woken up to see the BIGGEST deer either of us had ever seen!  (Apparently, he wasn't used to humans being in his stomping ground and decided to check it out since we weren't moving).  It was awesome!

8.  Have your own pumpkin carving contest! Now this one can turn out to be hilarious!  Set the rules and time constraints ahead of time, and once the timer is set, it's off to the races!  Now, if you are on the klutzy side, maybe you should stick to a pumpkin decorating contest. In my experience, ER visits are neither cost-effective nor romantic.

9.  Get in the Halloween spirit by either trying on costumes together or making your own!  There are so many hilarious costumes on the market and even more hilarious ideas, so I see this as a fairly inexpensive way to keep each other laughing!  Then, you'll be ready for Halloween parties or for the adorable kids that show up at your door!

10.  This one is a little bit unique, but how about taking the time to volunteer your time together?  From your local soup kitchen to county-level little league football teams, and local Relay-4-Life events to collecting Christmas gifts for children or elders in need, there is no time like this time of the year to give back to your community.  It is vital to give together.  It is massively important to make this a priority in your life, especially during the time of year that usually causes all of us to consider all of the things we're grateful for.  Why not show your gratitude for all you have by giving to those who don't have as much?  Best of all, this date will only cost you your time.  I can guarantee that your love for one another and for your brothers and sisters in the world will grow, and that, friends, is priceless.

Any ideas you'd like to add?

Ribs

That's A First!

This will be a silly post to most but for me, I felt the need to document one of the "firsts" of my life that occurred yesterday.

I was driving up and over the mountain Dusty and I live on going to pick up pizza and drinks for {DUSTYRibs} (our church small group of super awesome people!).  It was about 6:30pm, so there was one of the most glorious sunsets I've seen in awhile.

Example of the kind of sunsets God's been giving us lately in our area!

So, I'm driving and I get to a place where there's a residential section on my left and the wooded area of the mountain on my right, and I see a black figure that I genuinely thought was a German Shepherd frolicking in the woods.

The "dog" started to jog from one side of the ditch, down into the ditch, and then when he popped up on the side of the ditch closest to the road (and inadvertently, me in my adorable Honda Civic), I realized that this large dog was in fact a 

BLACK BEAR!!!!!

Source

Luckily for me, he saved me the most horrible phone call to Dusty saying that I had been hit by a bear and my car was totaled, because - let's face it - that probably would have been the case.  In my experience, bears are way more solid than dogs, and as safe as my Honda claims to be, I'm not 100% confident that I would have won that little altercation.  At the last possible second, the bear decided to stop, turn around, and bound back into the woods.

Well played, kind sir.  Many thanks from your girl, Ribs.

Needless to say, it was an experience that was simultaneously awesome and terrifying at the same time, and I was equal parts stoked that I actually saw a real live bear and horrified because he and I share living space much more closely than I'd ever anticipated.

So here's to firsts!  Live them, celebrate them, and in this case, I think I'm okay if there is never a second!
Ribs

Chasing Pavements

"Ohhhh, ohhhh, should I give up, or should I just keep chasing pavements....even if it leads nowhere????"

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Adele, anyone? You know you went there, too. I, personally, think that Adele is incredible and I love her range and the amount of control she has over her voice (and her accent, let's be honest), but that could be a whole post for another day.

I wanted to share a HUGE accomplishment that I recently achieved. I ran.

Okay, I realize you probably thought there was going to be much more in that weighty tease of a sentence, but seriously, that's it. I ran. For those that know me, I love a good trend every now and then and running has certainly managed to become one in recent years. For me, though, this was one bandwagon that I just could not bring myself to hop onto. Don't get me wrong, I respect everyone who is a good runner or those who really l o v e running, or even those who understand the health benefits of running. For this gal, I get winded running to my mailbox or playing with my dogs, and the only way you'll find me booking it is if someone is chasing me with a sharp object.

So, it may surprise you to know that I decided to challenge myself this year by signing up to be a member of my company's team in the 40th Annual Genworth Virginia 10 Miler/4 Miler race! I know it surprised me. I figured I'd start with the 4 Miler (since I didn't have a death wish) and I really thought I was going to train and do this thing!

Well, here come the excuses - life got in the way, I was busy at work, I was exhausted by the time I got home every evening, I am not a morning person, it's raining out, it's getting chilly, I don't want to get sick, after all....

I didn't train. I should have. This is where the power of God and community steps in.

On race day, two of my colleagues and I had developed our strategy. Pace ourselves. Start out with a slow jog with the goal of making it to a certain point down the street. Then, we get our Oprah power walk on. Then, we jog across the finish line at the end of 4 miles. Here was our view at the start.

Yep. There we were, standing like bulls in the shoot before a wild rodeo ride with more than 3,500 other people from our community and even other states. And, BOOM! The game changed. The last 10 seconds were counted down. The horn went off. The crowd starting moving. And we started running.

And I ran.

Photo Courtesy of TriDuo - Official Race photographer

And I kept running. I ran past the point we said we wanted to make it to. God and all of the people who lined the streets and cheered you on, rang bells, and shook pompoms just lifted me and somehow a non-runner found the strength and endurance to run.

I did have to power walk three times during the race, as there were some CRUCIAL hills on this course, but after I got up the hills, I continued to run and push myself past the limits I knew I had.

The funniest moment in the race was right after I had hit the two-mile mark. A pack of people on the side of the road started going bananas, so everyone in the pack of runners with me thought they were trying to encourage us, so we pushed harder. Then, we were able to see the real reason they were cheering - Julius Kogo, who ended up winning the 10-mile race for the second consecutive year, was hitting MILE 8 in the time it took our pack of people to reach Mile 2. Seriously. And he wasn't even winded. And he was smiling. He finished 10 miles in 47:34. Ridiculous. Ridiculously awesome.

His fastness and ability aside, I had to stay focused on my own performance. Somehow the other runners/walkers and I continued to encourage one another. We ran together. We power walked together. There were people pushing children in strollers and wheelchairs. There were husbands and wives encouraging each other and keeping pace with one another. There was an 85-year-old man running named Bill Draper who was the only person to run the 10 Mile race every one of the 40 years it has existed.  There was real and honest community happening before my eyes at every point of the race. And guess what?

Photo Courtesy of TriDuo - Official Race photographer

Photo Courtesy of TriDuo - Official Race photographer

I FINISHED!!!!!! I RAN/WALKED MY 4 MILE RACE IN 

54 MINUTES FLAT!!!

And I didn't even come in last place! I actually beat 234 people in my race, and I simply could not believe it! The sense of pride and accomplishment I felt completely outweighed the insane amount of self-inflicted pain my body would endure the next few days because of my lack of training.

The moral of this story? Do not fail to try to do something you sincerely think you cannot do. You will be blown away by what a little faith, prayer, and community can raise you up to do! And also, please, for the love of everything holy, TRAIN BEFORE YOU DO SOMETHING LIKE THIS. Learn from me and avoid stupidity!

Have you ever "done the impossible?" I'd love to hear what you did!
Ribs