Thoughts for the day:

Today I was trying to decide what to write, but felt like I should maybe write SOMETHING. The problem often times, as in the case of today, is that I have so many thoughts running through my head and I don't know which one would be good to write about. Today I'm a little tired of that dilemma, so I decided I'd write several thoughts. So here goes. Good luck my friends. Hopefully something I have to say will be interesting to you.


First...the picture is of me with Crystal. I honestly don't know how she puts up with me! Poor girl had to listen to me rant twice this morning. Bless her God! She's great and I'm glad she can handle me or sharing this office would be pretty difficult!

The next thought of the day is "Man, I really love you God!" Seriously. God has been so incredibly awesome to me...and if I started telling you all the things He does in my life it would take forever. I was listening to a song earlier and the lyrics from the bridge say "You are my deepest longing and so I see You everywhere. It's You I'm chasing after. I am captivated by who You are and how You move. I'll follow You forever..." Yep...I feel like that! I'm chasing after Him more and more all the time. So awesome. Here's the song:

 

I'm thinking about my awesome grandparents today. Grandpa Charlie and Grandma Bonnie Rhoades are so awesome. They have blessed me my whole life and recently did something that I can't even begin to describe how amazing it was. They have always only spoken words of blessing and love over me and I'm so incredibly grateful for them. Always have been, always will be.

My next thought: Man alive these birds are so loud today!!! We have mommy and daddy finches in our office that had one baby from their first batch (who is named Timothy and he's sitting in a cage pretty much next to me) who LOVES to talk/sing to us and is singing along with the music playing from my computer. Cute...but SO loud, lol. Mommy and Daddy birds have another set of babies (pretty sure it's four, though I'm beginning to wonder...) in their cage and they're all pretty loud too!

I keep thinking back to a conversation that I had with a guy at work the other day. He started asking me what I thought about the Bible...do I think that the WHOLE Bible was actually what God meant to say. I mean, people have changed it to suit what they want, right? Well, in asking this question he went on SEVERAL different tracks trying to explain his point. So...I answered each track separately in order to answer his first question. I won't get into the whole conversation, but my bottom line was something like this: "Well, let's go back to your original question...yes, I believe that God wrote the whole Bible. That's what He meant. If you compare today's main translations with the Dead Sea Scrolls, which are the oldest scriptures they have found, they're pretty dead on accurate. The problem is that there are things in the Bible that are hard for us to take because we don't want to follow those parts. We can't pick and choose scriptures. 2 Timothy 3:16 says "All scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, correcting, rebuking, and training in righteousness." This means that if we believe one part of the Bible, we have to believe the WHOLE Bible. This always brings up the question about cannonization of the Bible. It was a panel of theologians that got together and decided what would and would not be in the Bible. Several things didn't make it in, such as the book of Enoch, but it wasn't just one guy writing down a bunch of things, it was several authors over a 1500 year period of time and then a panel of guys that decided what would be in the actual book. Frankly, if our God is big enough to create the universe, He is big enough to keep the writings accurate and cause what He wants to be put into His word and what He doesn't want in there, right?" Yeah, it pretty much sounded like that. And it pretty much satisfied what he was asking, though I'm pretty sure it (and the rest of the discussion that came with it) didn't exactly make him happy. It's ok. Truth is truth and he needed to hear it and he is always very willing to hear what I have to say, even when it doesn't agree with him so well. 

Are you bored with my thoughts yet? Hope not. I have so many more...not going to share all of them, no worries there. Hmm...I'm a little sad and frustrated today. I'll be fine...but you know, if I'm being honest I would have to say that friendships are really difficult sometimes. Sometimes you don't have the kind of time you want/need to have in order to continue cultivating a good friendship with someone. That gets hard. Other times something happens and your relationship snaps and you just have no idea why. That's pretty hard too. Well, all I can do is keep moving forward and trust that God will take care of the rest...because I don't have the strength, ability, or energy to fix it myself.

Oh, ok, I'll end with a little story. I was talking to Crystal this morning and I had been telling her all about some things that have irritated or frustrated me this weekend (she was gone all weekend). She left to use the restroom and I started thinking "Man, I have been so whiny and gripy all morning. I need to stop that! God, please set a guard over my mouth. I know that's a scripture, I should look it up today!" Then I decided to do my Bible reading, so I opened to the Psalms that I am scheduled to read today (141-145) and I started reading...then I started laughing really hard. Right there in Psalm 141:3 it says "Set a guard over my mouth, O Lord;  keep watch over the door of my lips" Yes, Lord. Point taken. So I repented and then I put that scripture as my status on facebook and added that this includes anything I might type/text today as well! God's pretty funny sometimes. 

Well, I hope you enjoyed the little glimpse into my thought patterns. Have a great day and feel free to share YOUR thoughts with me as well!