1/2 hour resolutions of a recovering sluggard

Discipline is something that I have been developing in my life over the last year. It is a constant struggle for me, as I realize that being a sluggard is much easier.

Here are my resolutions:

To consistently wake up at 6:00 AM
1/2 hour of prayer and bible study
1/2 hour of working out
1/2 hour of writing
1/2 hour of deep cleaning the house

This means that by 8:00 I am either ready to start the day with my kids or get out the door for work.

This means that 1/2 hour at a time I will be on track spiritually, physically, creatively and environmentally. If it takes 30 days to make a habit, in one month I will be prayed up, toned up, up to speed with beginning a daily writer's discipline and cleaned up so that when we do put our house on the market it won't be such a hassle.

This is so simple it could actually work.

6 Go to the ant, you sluggard;
consider its ways and be wise!

7 It has no commander,
no overseer or ruler,

8 yet it stores its provisions in summer
and gathers its food at harvest.

9 How long will you lie there, you sluggard?
When will you get up from your sleep?

10 A little sleep, a little slumber,
a little folding of the hands to rest-

11 and poverty will come on you like a bandit
and scarcity like an armed man.

Proverbs 6: 6-11

Micah Girl

Finding God in the mundane

That is one of my goals.

To see God in the mundane details of my life.

The dull times.

The having an argument with my husband times.

The kids are driving me crazy times.

The headache times.

But also to be able to count my blessings at those times and change my perspective so that I am grateful for all that I have and all that I am.

It is the daily living that sustains us more than the ecstatic times and more than the dramatically awful. Day to day life is ordinary and yet so blessed if only we have eyes to see.

Micah Girl

Honest kisses

An honest answer
is like a kiss on the lips.
Proverbs 24:26

Even if it stings, like salt in an open cut.

Even if you wonder why you even asked the question now.

Even if you need to pray for God to give you the wisdom to listen to a critic when you want to lob grenades off a wall of defense.

Even if it doesn't meet with the ideal answer you have in your head.

Even if it forces you to re-examine your own character and to face up to long-term flaws and cherished, ugly sins.

Even if you were hoping for affirmation and a pat on the back, and instead got a reason to go back to the drawing board.

Honesty comes from Truth.
Truth is a Person.
That Person is Jesus Christ.
So an honest answer is like a kiss on the lips from God.
And encounters with God can rock your world.

Micah Girl

Quotes on Character

"Character is like a tree and reputation like its shadow. The shadow is what we think of it; the tree is the real thing." Abraham Lincoln

"The function of education is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically... Intelligence plus character - that is the goal of true education." Martin Luther King, Jr.

"Character is power." Booker T. Washington

"Fame is a vapor, popularity an accident, riches take wing, and only character endures." Horace Greeley

Now the Bereans were of more noble character than the Thessalonians, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true. Acts 17:11

Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us. Romans 5:3-5