Couldn't Wait...

[Okay... I couldn't wait until next week. I promise the next post will be more exciting (pictures, some humor, a little color).  But I figure you need a preview before the "big show" starts].

I want to start this blog by sharing something my Grandma Sullivan told me not long before she passed away: “Life is too short not to eat what you like and love what you do.  No person should control your joy.”  

Her passing combined with some other unforeseeable tragedies has stopped me in my tracks.  Friends… I must admit… I have not been doing my monthly grocery shopping, or meal planning, or abiding by my strict cleaning schedule.  I’ve been living “free” from all of that.  And you know what? I am a woman who lives and dies by having a plan.  

So, I have this “list.” It’s all the things I want to do this summer. Yes I know it sounds a tad childish but I promise some grown up goals made this list (plus I could use a little “childishness”).  I haven’t finalized it but here are just a few items on the agenda:

1.       Eat somewhere and order something different (that’s daring for me folks)!

2.       Show my kids that I can still do a back handspring!

3.       Stretch (so that I can do the aforementioned back handspring).

4.       Rollerblade.

5.       Have my sister and nephews down for a week of fun in the sun!

6.       Start a blog (if people say they will read it).

While the above list may seem insignificant, it’s actually a huge step forward for me.  Let me share the list I had made for myself this past October:

1.       Get all A’s through my first year at Regent

2.       Never allow my schoolwork to affect my home life

3.       Stay on the path God intends for my life… don’t mess it up this time

All I can say about that list is that I managed to not really do any of it.  I got a B+, my kids seemed to grow needier (especially when a quiz or paper was due), and I continued to doubt that God could use me to do much of anything.  All of the “failure” mounted around me and then blow by blow life was handing me dreadful circumstances.  I was so low that an ant couldn’t have crawled under me. 

So, don’t be fooled by the not-so-serious content of the list.  It’s hope. It’s allowing God to come into the cracks of my broken heart and restore joy. This summer I am trying to do what my Grandmother did.  What she “did” was live, and what she “loved” was life.  And sweet tea.

“Surely there is a future, and your hope will not be cut off.” –Proverbs 23:18

 Blogging, praying, and reading my Bible, it’s cheaper than therapy and less complicated.