The Truth about Norie

I love to dance, Hate to lose
Might take a chance, Been on a cruise
Delight in sleep, But don't do it well
Semi-high strung, Can you tell?
My fav is just chilling, Charlie's my best friend
But I like to do things, Still play pretend
I'm good with people, Never lie to me
I hate/love the ocean, Close to family
Give it my all, Laugh kind of loud
Love Jesus and grace, But can be proud
Thankful for life, Have lots of shoes
This poem is just speaking truths.

I have set the Lord always before me. Because he is at my right hand, I will not be shaken. Ps. 16:8

This reminds me of that song, I will not be moved! Which I love because I feel totally empowered and ready to take on anything when I'm listening to it. And yet, what do I do so often when troubles, trials and things come my way? Well let's see:

1. Rely on myself
2. Rely on others
3. Complain
4. Feel bad for myself
5. And the list could go on and include many more things other than what this verse claims to be true.

My prayer today is that the Lord teaches me to rely on Him...first! Not to run to God as a last resort (although I know He'd still be there) but to delight Him by bringing all my requests, anxieties, doubts and fears before Him first. To truly believe and live a life where He is my Father. And to treat Him as I would my own Father. To let Him know when I'm not doing well, to let Him know when I am, to rely on Him, to run to Him, to speak to Him daily, and ultimately, to develop a RELATIONSHIP with Him.

In our Bible Study we've been having on our prayer, we always start by reviewing what the Gospel is...Good News. Why? Because Christ died for my sin so that I could have a relationship with God. Ya, I'd say that's Good News. But the problem is, I don't always treat God as if I'm in a relationship with Him. Like I said, I don't "set the Lord always before me." But I should. And I can by His grace.

Father, by Your grace, I have been made new and I can still be made even better. Help me to be more like Your Son, who always had his heart attentive and his eyes set on you. I want to be more like Your Son, I want to live as a daughter of the King. I want to live like a child of You.

You called me into light
And showed me who You are
Help me now Lord
To shine as bright as a star
Teach me to rely
On you every single day
For I am Your child
And You my Father, the Way.

From Junk to Crunk

So we bought a house recently, and in the process, the woman selling the home kept putting her old furniture and other things in the ditch. We told her just to leave what she wanted, and we would see to it, but she just kept putting stuff in the ditch. And in turn, my mom and I just kept taking stuff out of the ditch and putting it in our truck to take home and make new.

We've had a great time re-doing some pieces from the ditch, and today, I did one all by myself...well, almost. I cleaned it, sanded it, and then got to painting. Somewhere during the hours of painting, my husband came to the rescue and helped me through, but ultimately, I took something that was junk and made it well...you know it's coming...CRUNK!

Seriously though, it was kind of crazy to me that I was able to take something that had been cast out due to its dreadful condition and restore it to its rightful and wonderful character. So why blog about it? Because it reminded me of what Christ has done for us.

"I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me." Gal. 2:20

Wow. I am so glad that Jesus (whose earthly father just happened to be a carpenter) took me (*takes me) out of that ditch (my sin) and gave me new life. I'm so glad He didn't come by (or down to earth) and say, "Wow, you are so not worth this!" But instead, He loved us even though we hated Him; He died for us even though we killed Him; He rose again even though we doubted Him; and He made a way for us to the Father even though we rejected Him. Jesus looked past the condition of our hearts and saw the potential for His Father to be praised through us, and so He took us, restored us, renewed us and gave us a new life that we might give Him and the Father all the glory.

Yup, that piece of furniture is about to be moved into the house and it'll be a conversation piece. It'll stand out, it'll be commented on, it'll be loved by many. And yet it used to lie in a ditch, waiting for the trashman, getting rained on, and not being seen by anyone.

Thank you Lord for picking me out of the ditch. For looking past my sin and seeing who I was created to be in You. Thank you for new life.

"For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins." Col.1:13-14

The Last Frontier of Social Media...for me, at least

So here I am...finally. This has truly come full circle.

Many years ago, when I was in middle school, I vaguely remember having a blog for a short time. This was when computers moved at the speed of dialing up to the phone line and there was no facebook, myspace or twitter. I don't remember how long I blogged or even what about, but I remember enjoying it.

Though different from the lead touching the white sheet of fresh paper for the first time and feeling the stroke of each letter as I wrote, it was still enjoyable. Probably because for the first time ever, my fingers could keep up with my mind and my thoughts didn't slip out of reach. And yet, I don't know what happened to that. I left whatever site that was and moved on to other things.

I've been through facebook, thankfully never ventured into the myspace world of racey picks and relationship-ending posts, and I even tweeted for a few months. Yes, I am back where I started, but at the same time, I feel like I'm embarking on something new. After all, I haven't lost internet connection while typing this like I used to. No one is pestering me to hurry up because they need to use the computer. And best of all, I have so much more to write about now. Most of it will be nonsense and most of you won't care. But that's the best part. Whether or not anyone ever reads this post or not, it can't take away the feeling I've already gotten from writing it. Yep, it's good to be back.