Practice how you will Play

I played basketball when I was in high school. To this day I love basketball. My dad instilled in me a discipline that I practice today and that I have handed down to my children. As a freshman I moved to a new school and of course I wanted to play basketball! But none of the coaches at this new school had seen me play before and tryouts were a week long process. I was scared that I would not make the team since the coaches had never seen me play previous to try outs. My dad wisely instructed me to practice/tryout as if I were in the actual game - playing. "Practice how you plan to play" meaning go out there and practice as if your team depends on your performance for the win! Give it 110%! I can honestly say I had the most energy and hustle of any girl that tried out that week and YES I made the team - Jr. Varsity since I was a freshman but I got to sit on the bench as an extra/just in case for Varsity! Practice how you plan to play. Today as I train for a half marathon - I want to stop and rest while I am training, but I don't plan to stop and rest when I actually do the official half marathon so why would I practice that way! Today this principle is just as valid as it was over 20 years ago in my life. Last week I blogged about Norman Vincent Peale and I have been practicing more positive thoughts, living and imaging. On Sunday my husband came home with some pretty scary financial news. The kind that your mind instantly goes to worse case scenario type scary! I will admit at first I feared and was in a bit of a panic. But I had been practicing positive thoughts, living and imaging so now it was time to play! Remember all these thoughts, living and imaging are hand in hand with Gods word and require belief in God and His word - good old fashioned FAITH. Let me tell you I felt calmer very quickly and by Monday afternoon God was showing that he was in charge of our finances - and that we needed to FEAR NOT in a big way! As Christians every single day we have to live our faith - most days its pretty easy, but if we don't pay attention and purposefully live it on those easy days - come true game time we won't be prepared! Practice how you plan to Play! D. J.

Positive Positive Positive

This will just be a short one today. I am on my Norman Vincent Peale reading kick again! Man he was sure wise! I am rereading The Power of Positive Imaging and recently finished The Power of Positive Thinking and The Power of Positive Living. These 3 books really cover every area of our walk with Christ! How we think, how we live, and how we see ourselves as God sees us and as how God created us. I became aware of some thinkings that could be potentially harmful, I became aware of how my positive attitude has fallen back over the years since I first read these books. Everything he discusses is really biblical! I love this! I highly recommend you read anything he has written! These are the only 3 books of his that I own. I think I am going to either purchase more or head to the library to check out some!

That's my tidbit for today!

D. J.

What's up with chaos?

Have you ever noticed how we are just bombarded by chaotic unpredictable events and everything, even the mundane stuff, we had a grip on just grabs on to the proverbial rolling stone and goes down at an alarming rate! It is amazing when we can finish one simple task, like cooking dinner, or getting the bed made. Sometimes as it just begins to hit, we brace ourselves, knowing if we keep our cool and stand strong that we will weather the storm and it will soon be over. But then, another storm comes and we haven't quite recouped from the last one. Well, that's where I am at. It's not necessarily a bad place, but not a place I enjoy either. I get frustrated with myself for not being able to stay on top of things better in spite of the chaotic unpredictable madness. As I type this though, I wonder, is it really that I have been bombarded or am I always bombarded I just haven't been handling the normal bombardment well this go around. I don't know.

I think it started when I fell in the snow and hurt my wrist. I am getting good use back now and think I will even try doing dishes tonight. This happened 3 or 4 weeks ago. Then Brandy broke her finger about a week later ~ which led to frustrating interactions with doctors ~ which led to making calls to the Shriners. There is still a lot of activity in the broken finger storm going on. Add a case of strep throat for Brandy ~ diagnosed on Monday. Add a federal report at work that was due Friday ~ couldn't complete because I had put it off too long, had to leave early Friday to take Brandy to PT, and had to request information from another department for the report and it had not been returned yet. Planned on completing Monday but stayed home with Brandy due to the Strep. Tuesday had to play catch up before I could touch the report. Report is done today! So I think the brunt of the storm is over, but now it's time to clean up and to not let anything else get messy or behind. Have you ever had so much that needed to be done "Right Now" that it was just easier to do "Nothing". It's just too overwhelming to even try to figure out where to begin? Yep ~ that's where I am. I know I am a good planner/organizer/prioritizer. But at this point, I have no confidence in my abilities...well no confidence in all but one ability. My ability to pray.

To some it may seem silly to pray about getting caught up, about staying on top of what you do get done, about getting a plan of attack ready, and to pray for help just getting started. BUT, I am hear to tell you God is eager to jump in and help in any capacity we need him to. He is eager for that interaction with us. He is eager for us to reach out, for us to include Him. He is eager to pour out blessings of calm, of focus, of hope. He is not overwhelmed at all by the daunting tasks that we see before us. He may even giggle that we are so distraught by it. But never the less, he sees it bothers us and is ready to jump in at our request.

As we go through this together I can already see He is working the past few weeks to my good. He is opening my eyes to some areas that need improvement that I can easily change and that could have a very positive impact on future bombardments. It's all good. Just in typing this I have calmed down a bit and am getting excited to go to Him in specific prayer with paper and pen in hand as we hash out a plan. If you think this sounds silly, perhaps you should sincerely try it. You will be amazed!

Lots of love to all!

D. J.