Oh, Happy Day!

I know I haven't been on in a while, but I haven't had much to say from the readings. Not that I haven't had many thoughts, just nothing I care to post cuz they're just questions. Anyway, what I really wanted to get on here to say is that MY HUSBAND GOT A JOB! We have been praying and praying and finally after 2 months, he was hired as a Security Guard at a museum. Thank you, God! He doesn't start until January 4th but at least it's coming. We just need to make due until then.
There has been a lot of happiness lately. My sister-in-law took me shopping as my Christmas present after I'd just been thinking to myself that I wish I had some new clothes. Then my friend gave my husband and I three candles and two gift cards to go out to eat. That was wonderful. I'm so tired of mac and cheese and hot dogs. Blah. I've also had quite a few patients at work give me either a card or a present. That is so sweet of them to think of me. Most of it is sugary foods, but at least they're thinking of me. I may go backwards on my inch-loss plan, but I will catch up. It hasn't helped that I dislocated my shoulder over the weekend so moving, let alone exercising, has been off my list of things to do. But my shoulder is much better now so I will be exercising soon. I did jog yesterday for a bit.
Anyway, I love Christmas more and more every year. I've even listened to Christmas music most of the month! That's not usually me cuz I get sick of hearing how many ways people can sing the same ol' songs. But this year I don't mind. Even my husband's getting into Christmas and he didn't get into it at all last year.
So that's the update for today! Thanks for reading!

Genesis 8: More on the flood

I'm still reading about the flood (I know, I know...still? Yes, still) and I had a deeper thought than just the questions that come from the reading. Noah and his family were on the ark for about one year. I didn't know that first of all. That's a long time to be on the ark. There are 8 of them and tons and tons of animals so... do you think their faith was tested through any of this? My first thought would be, how could they think anything less than how awesome God is when he saved them and nobody else from the flood, but sometimes my own faith is tested when I'm in a good place. I don't know why that is, but I'm sure it could happen for Noah's family too.
I love my family, don't get me wrong, but a whole year with them on a boat and no chance of going anywhere else? I hope for their sakes it was a big enough boat that they felt like they were getting away just to walk to the other end. Haha. And if you got in a fight with them, would you go to the stables and talk to the animals about it? Genesis never says what happens on the boat through that year. I hope none of the wives got pregnant at that time.
And then there could be a conflict with God. I would get so restless being on the ark for that long and never seeing ground or even mountains. Just lots and lots of water. And then the Bible says that 5 months after the rain started, the flood receded enough that the ark rested on a mountain. Now, I don't know if it stayed there and if it didn't how long it did stay there, but they didn't get off that ark until the land was completely dry and God told them to get off. I personally would want to run off the ark screaming, throw myself to the ground and kiss it over and over again when the dove brought back the olive branch...but they just waited for God's ok. Wow! That's commitment and trust. I hope I can be in that kind of relationship with God some day.
How's your relationship with Him? Could you wait an entire year for the floods to go down and the ground to dry up before you left the ark? Could you keep waiting 3 months after you see signs of a dry ground before you just walked out of there saying "Sayonara!" and praying you never see another ark again? Or could you patiently wait for God's ok? I know I have a hard time waiting for God to do something for longer than a week, let alone a year. But that may just be me.

Stress is a killa

I am stressed. I am utterly stressed. I am so happy I have God in my life or I wouldn't be able to take this stress. My whole spine feels like it's in a vice grip because of the tension caused by my stress. I often get easily irritated. I've been known to snap at my husband and almost at the patients at work. I am a sinner.

But God has blessed me. I am blessed to work at a chiropractor's office where I can get free adjustments and advice on what to do next. I am blessed to have a good boss who listens to my personal problems and wants to help. I am blessed to find recently that I have workout videos on Netflix so I've been able to work out as often as I need to (which has been every day for the last 3 days!). I am blessed to have past the worst in my relationship with my husband so now we get along really well and apologize quickly when we snap at each other because of the friction of our stress. (He even played a few of my favorite love songs last night when I was upset over something he did that I really shouldn't have been that upset at. It was sweet and melted my anger.) I am blessed to have a God I fully believe in and trust to talk to about my problems and know that He's taking care of it even if I don't always see productivity. He is definitely taking care of us. I wish I remembered to read my Bible more often. It's not that I don't want to or don't have time, I just remember at inopportune times.

Anyway, I'm at my breaking point, but I keep telling myself that God will not let more than I can handle happen to me. If my husband doesn't find a job soon though....I don't know if I can take this. I don't know how to fix the problem since I can't find a job for him. And it's not like he's not looking. It sounds like he's looking very hard, but nothing is coming of this as it is the holidays and I'm sure many people are looking for jobs/second jobs. I just wish this would come to an end. I'm not so prideful I can't ask for a little help with our finances, but I'm tired of asking. I think I've drained everyone who has the ability to help. And no, I'm not asking for your money. I'm just venting. God will provide.

I miss the days when we could pay all our bills on time and have extra for other needs and maybe even a few wants. That day will come again. I just hope God doesn't make me pregnant quite yet cuz you never know when that could happen, but I don't think I could handle it right now. Some day I want kids, but right now is not the time. Whew! I'm glad I got that out of my system. :) Thanks for any and all prayers. I hope you feel as blessed as me! Have a wonderful day!

The Flood

First of all, let me say, that in watching my "figure", I worked out last Thurs, Fri, Sat, Tues, and Thurs. I am super proud of myself. To keep track, I measure the area around my gut because that's where I gain the weight first and I don't look at my weight because I hate the numbers I see right now. I was always really super skinny through my entire life until I was 23 1/2 and about to get married. Not that I'm fat, but I weigh 30 lbs more than I did in high school so I would rather feel like I look good than worry about the numbers. Now, just so you know, the only reason I worry about how I look is because I gain weight around my midsection first and it doesn't appear to go anywhere else and so for the past 1 1/2 years, the patients at my work have thought I am pregnant. I'm not, but there's no harder thing to hear that when you want it, have had a miscarriage, and haven't been able to convince your husband that it's a good time to try for a baby. (He's warming up to the idea, but I think women usually want it first ;) He melts around children, really.) Ok, so anyway, I am now in the area of where I want to be inches wise and I am so happy. I have one inch left to go and then I will decide if I will set a new goal or just try to maintain where I'm at.

I can't believe it took that long to say that. Haha. The real reason I'm writing is to talk about more of my findings in the Bible. I'm not reading every day, but I think I'm doing pretty good considering. :D So I'm in Genesis and before I talk about the flood, I want to mention Genesis 4:4-5 which talks about Cain and Abel offering what they have to God. Abel tended the flock and Cain tended the soil so they each offered some of what they had. But God didn't find favor in Cain's, only Abel's. I have to wonder why? Did God expect Cain to take some of Abel's flock? Was fruit inappropriate? Was it bad fruit? Was in not wholehearted giving? Why did God not find favor in Cain's offering? I'm sure there's a good reason, but I just don't understand. Especially since the Bible doesn't mention any set rules at this point. Thoughts?

Second, off the flood subject, subject. Gen 6:1-3 say "When men began to increase in number on the earth and daughters were born to them, the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were beautiful, and they married any of them they chose. Then the Lord said, "My Spirit will not contend with man forever, for he is mortal; his days will be a hundred and twenty years." Now my question is, what does men marrying women and having daughters have to do with God shortening our lives? Haha. I mean seriously. How does the thought that His Spirit won't stay with us forever because we're mortal come after seeing people reproduce? Now I know that there are things which we are not meant to understand, but can anyone give me any insight to either of these things?

Now on to the flood. Let me just mention...How cool would it be to see all these animals come to you for safety?? Wouldn't you feel super awesome knowing you are saving these animals and your family from a flood that's about to destroy the world?!? Ok, so Gen 7:2-3 say, "Take with you seven of every kind of clean animal, a male and its mate, and two of every kind of unclean animal, a male and its mate, and also seven of every kind of bird, male and female, to keep their various kinds alive throughout the earth." To me that looks like there are seven kinds of clean animals, but Noah is taking in two of each kind. But my friend opened my mind to think that meant seven pairs of every kind. What do you think? I've always thought it was only two of every kind of animal. I don't know what to think now. Have I been misguided or did I misunderstand all these years?

Last small topic. Gen 7:20 says the waters rose 20 ft higher than the highest mountain! Wow! How cool is that? God sent so much rain and opened up the "springs of the great deep" to flood the earth this much. I don't know how high the mountains were back then, but they still must've been really high! God is amazing what he can do! Ok, there's my excitement for the day. Thanks for stickin with me thus far. I hope these aren't boring reads. :)

Not a happy blog

I am stressed. Everyone has stress in your life, and I care about your stresses too, but today, I need to vent about me. For almost 2 months, my husband has been working really hard at his job which is fully commission and unfortunately hasn't made much money from it. So he has been looking for a new/secondary job which hasn't produced any results. I don't care much for the job market. (I don't like to use the word 'hate'.)

Well, today I hit my breaking point. Somehow it didn't come last week though I wouldn't have made rent had I not had  a really awesome boss who gave me an advance on my pay. Well, I thought I could make my bills this week, but I can't. I am very, very short on what I owe. This sucks. I am so stressed that I am in physical pain. My boss told me to exercise to relieve my stress. I did. It helped for about the 20 mins I exercised plus maybe 10 more mins and then left. I broke down in tears again. It doesn't help that my stomach keeps getting bigger (no, I don't think I'm pregnant) so I am going to exercise as often as I can so that I can relieve stress and make my stomach smaller.

My husband is going to reapply at his old job where we were making more than our bills added up to per month if he doesn't find something else by Monday. He left on good terms so it's a pretty good chance that he will get it back. I am so utterly grateful for all the help I've had from financial loans/gifts to prayers to hugs. Being moneyless is hard. I understand why it breaks marriages apart. Thankfully, we are happy otherwise. We have good times together and he really, really loves me as I do him. I'm glad this ended on a happy note. My eyes are tired though so I might go to bed early. Thank you for reading my sad sob story. I'm good now.

Reading through the Bible

Hello friends! Welcome to my blog. I can't promise it will be interesting, nor can I promise I'll keep up on it, but I'll do the best I can. I want to mostly talk about the Bible. I have read through it two or three times, but it was mostly just to say I've read all of it. Well how boring. I want to get into the Bible, not just read the words so this time I'm taking my time and reading bits at a time knowing there is more for me to find inside. I'm going directly through it so I am in Genesis right now. Interesting thing to think about, when God was making the earth He had to grow the plants quickly so Adam and Eve could eat. Can you imagine the excited little kid smile on God's face while he watched the plants grow. Genesis 1:12 says, "The land produced vegetation: plants bearing seed according to their kinds and trees bearing fruit with seed in it according to their kinds." And Genesis 2:9a says, "And the Lord God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground-trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food." I love that thought. Just to watch the vegetation grow in, what, a few seconds maybe?
In Genesis 2:21 it talks about how God created Eve from Adam's rib instead of the dust like everything else. Why would God do that? Maybe it was to make a closer connection. One of my absolutely favorite quotes goes like this:  "Eve was not taken out of Adam's head to top him, neither out of his feet to be trampled on by him, but out of his side to be equal with him, under his arm to be protected by him, and near his heart to be loved by him." by Matthew Henry. It's the one I thought of when I read this part of Scripture. I will leave you with that and come back another day to give you my thoughts about something else.