Tag Archives: Summer

A Summer of Growth

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Looking back, summer has always  been an important time in my life. I imagine I’m not the only one. There’s just something different and special about this season that sets it apart from the colder months.

I’ve had some summers of excessive downtime–Summer 2005 I completely caught myself up on Law and Order SVU–and some of intense spiritual growth–Phoenix 2003 and Turkey 2004 both come to mind.

I want summer 2011 to be numbered among the latter.

To that purpose, I’ve recommitted myself to my goals. I’m not stopping there, though. I’ve also decided to use John Piper’s “A Challenge to Women,” something I’ve read several times, as a jumping off point for meditation and–with your help–discussion. In short, I seek to challenge myself and perhaps you too, reader.

So each week, I’ll be talking about one point of this challenge.

Now, on to the first point of the challenge:

“That all of your life—in whatever calling—be devoted to the glory of God.”

Well, that’s a doozy! Everything else Piper mentions can be summarized in this one.

When I read this point, the word that stands out to me is “devoted.” Devotion is a beautiful concept in theory, but a hard concept to pull off. Am I truly devoted to God, or are my loyalties mixed?

What do my actions reveal when I more often seek my own pleasure than to spend time with the Lord or helping others?

This goes well with the verse that I memorized last week:

“Therefore we also have as our ambition, whether at home or absent, to be pleasing to Him.” – 2 Corinthians 5:9, NASU

I want to be a woman marked by devotion to God. I want God to be my sole love and desire. May this be my prayer and song this week.

Photo by doug8888

Now Comes the Fall

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I’ve always been a summer girl. There’s just something about late-evening sun, flip flops, and a hot breeze that brings a smile to my face. It reminds me of home and childhood in a way that none of the other seasons can.

Though fall has never been a favorite season, I can enjoy various aspects of this time of year: school starting, the leaves turning, and football. It’s really a rather pleasant season when I think about it.

But this year I’ve resisted. I’ve refused to acknowledge that it was fall. In my head I’d just tell myself it’s still summer. No need for sweaters, jackets, or socks. I’ll wear flip flops all winter long, because it’s going to stay warm. I don’t need to worry about papers, finals, or Christmas presents, because those days aren’t going to arrive. It’s going to be summer forever and ever.

I believe the reason why I’ve been wanting summer to last forever is because I realize that with the changing of the seasons comes the changing of a season of life. Once winter is here, I’ll no longer be a student, losing the last vestige of being a kid. Once the winter comes, I’ll no longer be able to wrap myself up in homework and get lost in a paper. This is it: the end of the road. After this there is no more school, no more childhood.

Though I’ve tried to cling to summer, I can’t help but notice that it is slipping through my hands. There seems to be a chill in the wind that wasn’t there before. The air conditioner in my car and in my home aren’t working as hard. The sun goes down much to soon. I’ve kept these thoughts in the back of my head until one day, when I had to spend much of the day outside in the cold, wind, and rain. I wasn’t dumb, so I brought a sweater and a jacket, but even those things weren’t enough to keep my barely-polished toes warm in my worn flip flops.

I realized it was silly to try to fight the changing of the seasons. I can no more stop myself from growing up then I can stop the summer from turning to fall then turning to winter.

I went home to my grown-up apartment, turned on the heater, and put on a warm pair of socks. It’s fall, and it’s about time to enjoy it.

As Random as the Day is Long

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This will be quick, because I have a busy day in front of me. Normally I like to keep one post on one topic, but this will be random. Sorry.

Kerry mentioned the other day that maybe it’s time to update on the smelliness of our apartment. And she’s right. I mentioned way back that our new apartment smelled like a couple of smokers lived there. The smoke was drifting over from the apartment next door. After many efforts to rid the smell ourselves, we didn’t get very far. With the help of friends and heavy-duty air purifiers, it had gotten better. Then slowly the lingering smell faded away. I still ask people that come to visit if it smells like smoke, and the answer is always “no.” There’s an occasional time if I’m standing in the just right place of my bathroom or dining room that I smell it, but other than that it’s gone. I think our property manager told our neighbor about how it was affecting us and he has started smoking more outside or at least inside with the window open. He should be moving out by the end of the month, so that’ll be even better.

I have a friend visiting this weekend which is a lot of fun. I’ll also be starting back with Sunday school and Awana. The beginning of the year can be overwhelming at times.

Since everything is starting back, I think about what was going on a year ago. Things looked a lot different, that’s for sure! Thursday night before we started Sunday school was when the fire took place. It definitely threw me off a little bit, but I learned more than I ever thought I could through that experience.

Work is uncharacteristically busy today for a Friday. Goes along with the theme of the week!

A lot of my friends are going through changes of various types at this time. They’ve all been on my mind a lot, which inhibits blogging some. After all, I can’t really talk about what I’m thinking about if what I’m thinking about is someone else’s business. It also doesn’t help that I haven’t been reading; I’m sure that has stifled my own creativity. I’m definitely not winning any blogger of the year awards for this week’s material: some disorganized posts, a couple random posts, and a meme. Hope to back in better form come Monday!

Hope you all enjoy your last pre-Labor Day weekend!

Long Live the Flip Flop

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And let summer reign again! I am officially done with my summer class. I finished my last paper as quickly as my fingers could type, stuck it in the mail, and now I’m done. Yes, the paper was due Friday, but I wanted summer again.

My regular semester starts one week from tomorrow. That means that I have 8 days of summer.

Long live the flip flop!

(Oh, and I’m glad I’m not the only Croc-hater. They’re even known to be a safety risk around escalators.)

Giveaway: Summer Lovin’

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Summer lovin’ had me a blast…

Okay, it’s summer! And summer means ice cream, right? And by ice cream, I’m talking about the BEST ice cream, Coldstone!

That’s why I’m giving away FOUR Coldstone giftcards, worth $5 each. I thought about making the giftcards for larger amounts, but I don’t want to add to America’s epidemic of overindulgence.

All you have to do to be entered to win is to leave a comment on this post. Sounds simple enough, doesn’t it? Don’t forget to leave your blog or email address so I can contact you to let you know that you’re getting some free ice cream!

This contest will be open until 5 PM EST on Friday, August 1st. The contest is open to anyone who can get to a Coldstone. If you don’t know, or you’ve never heard of the best ice cream place ever, check out their website. They’re not paying me to say that or nothin’. Though if you’re reading this, Coldstone, please pay me in Love It portions of cake batter ice cream with chocolate chips. Yum yum!

If you’re just stopping here for the giveaway, consider looking around at what else this blog has to offer. It’s not a requirement or anything, but I’d love for you to get to know me better and vice versa! Welcome to my summer party!

Other giveaways posted this week can be found here.

**This giveaway is now closed.**

Summer Remains

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Sunday night I laughed more than I have in a long time. Who knew Mafia could be so much fun?

I started writing my paper for my summer class today. Yes, I know it is no longer summer. However, it is due Monday. I have been really dreading writing this paper, but it doesn’t seem to be too difficult. My research turned out better than I hoped, and it is a topic I’m fairly passionate about (Spiritual Mentoring for Women: Titus 2:3-5) so that helps.