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The Purpose Driven Life

The other night I was watching one of my guilty pleasure, the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, and one of the ladies was moving. I saw her pick up the book The Purpose Driven Life and pack it into a box. I had not thought of this book in years and yet it sat right beside me in the bookshelf in the living room. As soon as my quality TV program went off I picked up the book and blew off the dust and took it to bed with me. (Does this remind anyone of how I found out about Choosing to See?)
I don’t remember how long I’ve had the book or if I bought it or if my mom got it for me but I do know that I got in college. I remember wanting to read it and find out what my purpose was. I’ve never been the type of person that has a clear dream or desire about what I am suppose to do. Several thing interest me but I’ve never had a passion. Unfortunately, I never made it through the first chapter. It was just asking way too much of my selfish personality and I wasn’t ready to receive its principles that I never finished it.

This time I am committed. I am on the 11th day out of 40 consecutive days. I even made myself sign the commitment page to hold myself accountable. In the past 11 days, I have really learned some amazing lessons. All I can think about is how those lessons could have really impacted my life if I had been willing several years ago. Yesterday, I attended a conference where in a room of 50 or more women only two women raised their hands to show that they felt they were doing what they were meant to be doing career wise. I have the want it all mentality just like these other successful women whose hand wasn’t raised and I am not satisfied. I still find myself thinking all the time just like that younger version of me that I still don’t know what my purpose is for my life. But when I think purpose, I think career path. When in reality my purpose and my career path are two separate things. But I have learned some valuable lessons about my dissatisfactions.
1. My identity is in eternity and my homeland is in heaven. When I grasp this truth, I’ll stop worrying about “having it all”.
2. The fact that earth is not my homeland, explains why as followers of Christ we experience difficulty, sorrow and rejection in this world.
3. It also explains why some of God’s promises seem unfulfilled and some circumstances seem so unfair. It is because this is not the end of our story. Our story as Christians does not have an end because we have eternal life.
4. Our dissatisfaction helps us from becoming too attached to earth because we know our longings will never be fully fulfilled here.

I know these are lessons that I will have to remind my earthly brain often but I am so thankful to have received them. I have been less concerned about figuring out what I am supposed to do because I know my purpose. My purpose is to glorify God.

Only My Dog


We found out on Monday from our veterinarian, who also happens to be our brother-in law, that our sweet Libby most likely has a dog food allergy. More specifically she probably has an allergy to either chicken, beef, or corn, which are the main three ingredients in most dog foods. She’s had a serious of health problems and behaviors that have led to this assumption. We are now having to buy her lamb and rice dog food in hopes that she is able to eat that but if she is allergic to the lamb and rice than we will have to go to more extreme measures like making her food. So far it looks like the lamb and rice might work and she actually likes it more than she did her old dog food.
This isn’t the first time we’ve dealt with allergic reactions with Libby. Her last set of vaccinations a month ago resulted in a trip to the emergency vet clinic in town because she broke out in hives and her entire body started swelling once we got home. It was horrific. We found out after a serious of steroid shots and dosages of Benadryl that Libby is one of the small percentages of dogs that develop allergic reactions from vaccinations. And now it seems she is among the even smaller percentage of dogs that are allergic to dog food.
Greyson keeps kidding me that only my dog would have all these allergies because I also have a long list of allergies. It’s almost like she is my child who has inherited these things from me. Let’s just hope she doesn’t get all my other bad qualities. Ha ha!

Our Weekend with John




Last weekend, my mom and John came up to visit. John is my great-nephew. (No, that wasn’t a typo. He is my half-brother’s son’s son.) We started the weekend with spaghetti for dinner and then a visit to not one Target but two. John was on a mission for the perfect toy and I was on a mission for a dress. Both missions were accomplished. John picked out two Nerf guns for him and Greyson to play with. Then the night ended with reading books and then off to bed. On Saturday, we had a lazy morning with a great breakfast. John is not a great eater so whenever I am with him I try and get as much food in his belly as possible. He ate a plate full of whole wheat pancakes. Then we headed to the Avenue for some more shopping but this time it was just for John’s school uniforms. We finally found some pants that fit his small waist and were long enough for his long legs. Thank you Old Navy for making a size 5 toddler. Then we headed to Old Fort Park where John ran around nonstop for over 2 hours. He wanted to go to Chuck E Cheese but we promised him the park would be a lot more fun. And thankfully, we were right. He met up with 5 little boys and they played so hard. From there we went to “Longhorns” aka Longhorn for dinner. And this little boy must have really worked up an appetite because he ate a grilled cheese, fries and several ounces of steak. He even said the steak was better than Papa Billy’s. So it must have been really good! We came home and played some more until Greyson got home from work and we took him to Sonic for ice cream and stayed up until 11 playing with him. He was so exhausted from Saturday that he slept all during church and then cried when Greyson took him to ride go carts because he was so tired. It was a great weekend full of great memories.