Exasperated Sigh

Happy Wednesday friends. You may be asking, why so frustrated? I would answer that I'm not sure. It's just one of those days. Impatience rules in Jenny's world at the moment resulting in exasperations all over th place. Why the impatience? Many reasons. Being human is the primary reason. Yes, I'm frustrated with my human tendancies of inadequacy, laziness, and mediocrity. What am I doing about it? Honestly, not much. I like to rest in the fact that Jesus has done everything for me, but I hardly take the time to put to death the earthly flesh. I read this yesterday from Russell Moore's blog: "This is the reason why self-control is a fruit of the Spirit rather than an achievement of the flesh (Gal. 5:23). We want what we want. But the discipline of God teaches us, slowly, to put old appetites to death and to whet new ones. Through the Spirit, we learn to crucify “the flesh with its passions and desires” (Gal. 5:24)." So, the Spirit is our teacher. I'm behaving like a 4th grade student who doesn't want to pay attention in class. Cue the exasperated sigh.
So, impatience along with selfishness does not bode well for The Initiative. Evidently in the confusion of my scale, I have gained back 3 lbs. Boo. hiss. I know this comes back to food because I've been working out pretty consistently. Sometimes, I like to tell myself that if I had a family to take care of, I wouldn't be so selfish with my meal planning. There might be some truth to this, but I bet my married friends are laughing at the hilariouty of this right about NOW. The other side of this is that, well, I don't have a family to take care of so tough cookies. Deal with the selfishness. I'm always so hard on myself and God is so gentle with me. His grace overwhelms me. I hope that it overwhelms me even more so that I can respond in loving obedience to Him. [insert sigh.]

Happy Friday everyone. I don't know that I've ever been more excited that it's Friday. That's probably not true. The Friday before my Disney trip probably takes that prize. Anywho, I'm thankful for the upcoming weekend. There will not be much time to rest physically, but there will be time to rest in God and His Mission, pretty much my favorite place to be. My church is having their annual missions conference: Entermissions. 3 years ago I attended this for the first time and it is what sealed the deal for me at North Wake. I've always been in love with the Missio Dei and what that means for followers of Jesus. Granted, I just became a believer but I was raised in a home where the Mission of God took priority and that has had a lasting effect on my life. Now, more than ever it is personal for me. God has called his followers to take part in His Mission of bringing people of every tribe and nation to himself, to share in the blessings and love of our Father. I think one of my favorite things about this is that the many cultures of the world reflect the character of God. God is not American or white or middle class. He's not really defined by human cultures at all, but we can learn about parts of who He is by learning about other cultures. I love this. I love that Japanese people and those from Papua New Guinea or those from Tanzania or Scotland or Brazil- all these people are made in the image of God. Brings a huge smile to my heart and a contentment that I cannot explain.
Anyway, health update: 7 lbs. lost so far. This is not so great...considering it has been a month and a half. I think I'm gonna have to take this up a notch. Last night I had an awesome workout on a fancy new machine at the gym with my friend Megan. It's kind of like an elliptical/glider. It's nice and it gets my heart rate up without as much impact on my knees and ankles. Sweat was pouring. You're welcome.

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend and take note of God's unending grace in your lives. :)

Today is Valentine's day. I typically infamously loathe this day. Blech. I still do, but not quite as much. This is my first V Day as a Believer after all. God's love is more real to me today more than ever. I'm so grateful for the grace that God has given to me and I hope that I NEVER get over it.

Healthy Update: I forgot to weigh in this morning :/ I feel I should apologize for this. I'm sorry. I will do it tomorrow! I'm thinking there may not be much change. This weekend was a doozy food wise. I went out Saturday night with some friends and indulged in some pretty rich gourmet food. Exercising has been sporadic yet existent...so who knows? I'm still working on my schedule for this. I'd like to give a shout out to my Mama, who has been walking pretty consistently for awhile now! Go Mama! So proud.

I'm going to be updating again on Thursday or Friday with more concrete results. Until then please enjoy this video:

Good morning friends. I know it's been a little while since an update... so sorry. Last weekend I went down to Georgia to be with family. It was the best of times under the worst of circumstances. Words can truly not express how grateful I am for my precious family.

Being away from my normal routine presents itself with problems. I tried to make healthy decisions about food throughout. Unfortunately, I have not had the time as of late to exercise like I want to. I'm hoping to settle back in to my routine (with a few additions taking up some time ;)) and continue exercising. I have either lost a total of 6 1/2 or 10 lbs. My scale does not know which is true. I've just decided to wait until next week to weigh again, and maybe we'll have a more definitive answer.

The Lord continues to teach me patience over and over again through this. It seems that that is something that He will always teach me. I have the perfect example of patience in Him. I think I might have mentioned before that my church is walking through Deuteronomy this year. It seems a daunting task, but our leadership is wise and knows what we need. This past week we talked about trusting the Lord (of course), and how we respond when God says no to something we want. The example was Moses not going to the Promised Land. And Moses responds with understanding and obedience. He knows that God's good plan is greater that himself. I know these truths and I think most believers do, but it's much more difficult to live out that trust in everyday life. God has a beautiful wonderful plan for my life (my dad always tells me this) and anything I can imagine will not measure up to what He has for me. It may not be what I think is best and it may seem horrible at the time, but in the end it is always what is best for me.

All of that to say that I am continually blown away by God's grace. He has given me so many blessings- family, friends, church, job, and Jesus! I hope that we can all take time to thank him for his many gifts and reflect upon on good God is.