Do you ever have one of those moments where you do something totally and utterly stupid and you slowly turn around to make sure noone was watching??
Well, let me share, shall I?
It was just like any other day. Nothing out of the ordinary. I was just going about my business. I was doing my job and I was away from my desk at the office and the phone happened to ring. I hurried real quick to go try to get it.
Two things you can conclude from this:
Yes, I tripped.
and Yes, the carpet was out to get me.
I mean, it was so fast before I could even realize what happened, I was on the ground. But thank heavens no one saw me.
Apparently I have two left feet and I need to go back to walking 101. I'm sorry if this picture grosses you out. But honestly, I didn't know whether to laugh or cry.
My Mom sent this to us kids yesterday, with note attached, and so thought this was worth passing on.
"Good one. Hopes it helps your days, my children! Life is so full of angry discontented people. Have a joyful spirit. Remember I love you always no matter what and so does God who created you in His image. Love, Mom"
One day I hopped in a taxi and we took off for the airport We were driving in the right lane when suddenly a black car jumped out of a parking space right in front of us .My taxi driver slammed on his brakes, skidded, and missed the other car by just inches! The driver of the other car whipped his head around and started yelling at us. My taxi driver just smiled and waved at the guy. And I mean, he was really friendly. So I asked, 'Why did you just do that? This guy almost ruined your car and sent us to the hospital! This is when my taxi driver taught me what I now call, 'The Law of the Garbage Truck.'
He explained that many people are like garbage trucks. They run around full of garbage, full of frustration, full of anger, and full of disappointment. As their garbage piles up, they need a place to dump it and sometimes they'll dump it on you. Don't take it personally.
Just smile, wave, wish them well, and move on. Don't take their garbage and spread it to other people at work, at home, or on the streets. The bottom line is that successful people do not let garbage trucks take over their day. Life's too short to wake up in the morning with regrets, so ... Love the people who treat you right. Pray for the ones who don't.
Pretty great, right? I mean seriously, how many garbage trucks do we come across each day? When you look at it with this perspective you could probably think of quite a few. It's easy to not think about my reactions toward the garbage. I could probably think of many instances which I could have shown a little more grace. Or better yet, could probably think of even more instances where I was the one spitting out the garbage.
I would so hope that I'd receive grace on "garbage day" that I know I'm called to give others.
And lastly, just wanted to say that note from my Momma is reason #99079754983795847359843 why I love her.
A wise woman she is.
Have a garbage-free day :-)
Matthew 11:28- "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest."
Yesterday on the way home from work I picked up a book that I’m really really excited to read. I wanted to share with you.
Take about 3 minutes of your time and watch this.
I think this is going to be a really great read. It’s great motivation for physical and spiritual fitness.
I think as women we ALL compare ourselves to other women. I think we all want to become a size 0 or size 2 so we can measure up to the woman standing next to us. We don’t take care of our bodies for us but a lot of the times it’s because the world tells us we have to be skinnier to be prettier.
I think this book really challenges us to see ourselves through God’s eyes and not through our size. And how putting God first really does affect every area of our lives and how we view ourselves and this book is written with the goal to help reshape all areas of our lives spiritually and when it comes to food and how we treat and view our bodies.
I think every woman should read this book and I haven’t even opened it up yet, ha!
I’m a size 6. I’ll be honest I don’t feel 100% comfortable in a bathing suit. I’ve always had self-esteem issues when it comes to my body. Some things I was able to wear even a year ago, I can’t anymore. I’m an emotional eater and don’t think twice about what I’m putting into my body. And how many of you can say the same?
I’m not writing all this to talk about weight or what size we are….. But we all want to feel comfortable in our own skin. It’s just so important, especially us as women and playing the comparison game, that when we look in the mirror, what do we see? Is our first thought “Yep, still not skinny as so and so….” or do we think “I’m beautiful and fearfully and wonderfully made”. Are we remembering the truth of God’s word or believing the lies of the enemy.
I realize that we have a part to play too. I don’t think a lot of us, including myself, consciously think about how we view our bodies and that it’s a temple of God, and it’s so so important how we are feeding ourselves spiritually. Plays a HUGE part.
Anyway, getting on a tangent here.
But I’ve had the opportunity to meet Candace Cameron Bure. She’s phenomenal. Who doesn't love DJ? Ha! (and wow, how different do I look?? lol).
Every.Single.Day God is showing us how small we are and how BIG he is.
There is one instance in my life I can vividly remember where I just sat there thinking Oh my word, God does not joke around. I think it was that day and many other occasions since that I really grasped how HUGE our God really is and how much he loves us. There is just no way of measuring up to him. His goodness. His grace. Just no way.
As I stood there that day looking over the Grand Canyon, I felt so very small. It was almost overwhelming. I knew that it wouldn't be the last time he'd show me the abundance and depths of how truly great he is. But I felt like that day, that's when I really got it. Truly got it.
I was with a group of people but standing there, I felt like we were the only two people on earth. I felt like that moment in time, that view, it was just for me.
I will never forget that day.
I never want to forget how HUGE he is and how SMALL I am.
Life is not always easy. Sometimes just flat out hard. In the middle of our mess it's easy for us (me) to forget how blessed we are and that no matter the circumstance we still serve a big God.
Has he been showing you this lately, too?? In what ways??
You see, the kitchen and I, we have a love/hate relationship for many reasons. Too many to go into. Suffice to say, we’re probably both just happier if I stay out of it, ha. The latest incident may or may not have resulted in me breaking something and slipping and falling on the ground landing on my behind. This all happened in the same kitchen scenario. Yeah, see told you!!
I never claim to be an expert in the kitchen. In fact, far from it. My poor future husband, ha!
So when I come across super easy recipes, I’m all for it. I honestly can’t remember if I’ve ever put this on the blog. I’ve made this one other time.
I’m going to make it again tonight. It’s super quick and easy and so so yummy!!!
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Spray a 9x13-inch baking dish with cooking spray.
Cook and stir the ground beef in a skillet over medium heat, breaking it up as it cooks, until the meat is no longer pink, about 10 minutes. Drain off any excess fat, and mix the sloppy joe sauce into the cooked meat.
Unroll a can of crescent rolls, and pinch the triangles together to form a single sheet of dough. Lay the dough into the bottom of the prepared baking dish. Spread the meat and sauce mixture in an even layer over the dough, and sprinkle the Cheddar cheese over the meat mixture. Unroll the second can of rolls, pinch the triangles together to make a single sheet of dough as before, and place the dough over the cheese.
Bake the casserole in the preheated oven until the top sheet of dough is golden brown, 15 to 20 minutes.
Easy enough, right????
Nom Nom! Enjoy :-)
Any of you others out there have the same relationship with the kitchen??? HA!
This weekend was great. We went camping with my brother and his family. SO much fun. Although I really wouldn’t call it roughing it when you’re in a camper with AC, ha. To me, nothing beats a weekend where you’re just spending time with family, the ones you love, the people you do life with.
I love my family. They are my rock.
Yesterday we went out on the Gulf to go scalloping, spent some time on the water swimming, grilled out on the grill for lunch. Pretty much the day was perfection.
And then the rain came.
Pretty much the day was beautiful and then we saw that the sky was getting dark so we decided it was time to head on in. But the rain had no mercy. We got caught in the rainstorm of the century. There was no staying dry as the rain was coming down hard and FAST and we scrambled to keep everything dry that needed to stay dry. We were all trying to take cover and huddled together and here we are out in the middle of the water and my poor brother trying to steer the boat when you can barely see ahead.
I was pretty sure this was going to be the next big flood and somebody forgot to build an Ark, ha!
It might have been one of those “you had to have been there” moments…. But all we could do was laugh though because at that moment that’s all you could do and memories were made.
I really wish I could have videoed the whole thing. It was quit comical. Later on, after we were all dry, My Mom proclaimed “Getting caught in that rainstorm was so awesome.”
I agree Mom, I so agree…Because as I sat there dripping wet with a towel over my head, I looked around I could only think when the rain comes, there’s no other people in the world I’d rather go through the storms of life with.
Your family are the people you need the most.
When the rain comes.
Anyone who says sunshine brings happiness has never danced in the rain. ~
I am the salt & light of the earth (Matt. 5:13-14)
I am a member of the body of Christ (1Cor 12:27)
I am free forever from condemnation (Rom.8: 1-2)
I am a citizen of Heaven. I am significant (Phil. 3:20)
I am free from any charge against me (Rom. 8-31-34)
I am a minister of reconciliation for God (2 Cor. 5-17-21)
I have access to God through the Holy Spirit (Eph. 2:6)
I cannot be separated from the love of God (Rom. 8:35-39)
I am established, anointed, sealed by God (2 Cor. 1:21-22)
I am assured all things work together for good (Rom. 8:28)
I may approach God with freedom and confidence (Eph. 3:12)
I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me (Phil. 4:13)
I am the branch of the true vine, a channel of His life (John 15:1-5)
I am God’s temple (1 Cor. 3:16)
I am complete in Christ (Col. 2:10)
I am hidden with Christ in God (Col. 3:3)
I have been justified (Romans 5:1)
I am God’s co-worker (1 Cor. 3:9; 2 Cor. 6:1)
I am God’s workmanship (Eph. 2:10)
I am confident that the good works God has begun in me will be perfected (Phil 1:5)
I have been redeemed and forgiven (Col. 1:14)
I have been adopted as God’s child (Eph 1:5)
I’ll be the first to admit, I forget who I am. Each and every day it’s easy to believe who this world says we are and what the enemy would like us to believe and somewhere in there the truth gets lost.
Sometimes I feel like the Lord is constantly banging me up against the head and repeatedly asking “Don’t you get it, don’t you see who you are?”
Don’t you think he ever gets tired of that? Because he sees it so clearly in the midst of our obscured view.
I’m sure he does, but I’m so thankful that our God is a God of patience.
It’s like the great “I am” has all the time in the world to show me who I am.
I’m a firm believer that there are certain things you are never too old for.
Case in point:
I realize I could alternately title this “The post where I talk about cereal”…. Ha! But stick with me here.
I am 27 years old and still love Lucky Charms just as much as when I was a kid. I found myself snacking on these last night and mentioned something on Twitter and so many others were in agreement with me that you are just NEVER too old.
I still pick out the marshmallows, ha!
Don’t get me wrong, I realize there are some fruit loop lovers out there too:
So, which are you??? The beloved Lucky Charms or do you have a special place in your heart for Toucan Sam??? (and I seriously just had to google the name of the fruit loop bird, ha).
So yeah, I’ll probably be 80 years old and still eating these things and still picking out the marshmallows!
I just realized that last month marked three years of blogging for me. July 5, 2008 I wrote my very first blog post. I can’t adequately explain what the blogging journey has meant to me.
People might think the whole blogging thing is crazy. I say it’s completely awesome.
People might say it’s crazy to put yourself out there for the entire world to see. I say it’s an amazing outlet.
People might say it’s crazy to make friends with people over the internet. I say if they only realized I’ve meet a lot of people through the blog and they are some of the most amazing friendships.
I’m not going to lie, blogging can bring out insecurity. Easy to get caught up in the numbers.. who is reading, commenting, following, blah blah blah…
I would like to think that if that follower number read 0 that I’d be perfectly content. But the God’s honest truth is that this whole blogging experience has been so much better with each and EVERY single one of you in it.
The emails I receive every now and then that you take the time to write speaking words of encouragement over me and letting me know that a particular blog post really resonated with you and the stories that you share with me… Now that, that is what it’s all about.
I feel like God has given me this blog for a reason.
I want this blog to be all about him, and very little to do with me. If even one person has been blessed by this little corner of the internet, then I could shut this blog down and be a happy person. I honestly mean that.
I don’t know who all reads this blog, but my prayer is that this blog has somehow encouraged you all to allow God to walk with you through your own journey in life, and along the way you can finding great meaning that can only be found in having a relationship with him.
With that said, again, don’t know who all reads this blog and I know there are new readers. If you’re a reader and you’ve never commented, delurk for a minute would you and introduce yourself? Would love to “meet” you :-)
I was driving along this morning..... Watch this. (Don't mind my voice, ha).
Yes, I was that crazy person that pulled over into the parking lot of an office complex so I could video this, ha!!
It simply took my breath away.
On this Monday morning this just made my heart smile. I'm sure the tons of people driving by noticed it too, but I like to believe it was placed there just for me, ha! There's something comforting about a rainbow, don't you think?
I would hope that when I look back on my life that I can look back with great certainty that my purpose was served here on earth. That I loved God with my whole heart, loved people, and loved well. I love blessing others. It's much better to give then to receive. I know that there's an amazing God that loves me and will never leave me nor forsake me. There's alot of peace in that when this world can let us down. He's my constant, the one thing that remains the same in this ever changing life of mine. I look towards the future with great hope and expectancy. With hope that God has an amazing path for me, and just pray that my every step will be guided and directed by him as I walk this journey called life!
Thank you for coming by. My hope is that through this page you will find some kind of enjoyment and inspiration. Tell others about it and keep checking in. If you want to contact me my e-mail is LaurenBella6@hotmail.com :o)
