Scale: January's Zero Spending Challenge

I keep ruminating on one of my guiding words for the new year:  Scale.  Into my head pops the image of my ever friend and foe, the bathroom scale, and then an image of an old-fashioned balancing scale, and then a photo that illustrates proper balance and scale from my how-to photography book.

After the images, come the words:  scale back.  The practical side of me (and my husband's gentle admonishments) point to the need to have a January spending freeze after a couple of months of loose spending.  Ruth at Living Well Spending Less blog has a 31 day challenge with lots of ideas and encouragement. It's not exactly zero spending, but the ground rules are to only spend money on essentials.  

Today I'm starting with Day 2:  Inventory the Pantry and Freezer.  The calendar is clear, I've printed her cute inventory sheets, and I'm ready to see what is hiding in the hinterlands of my 3 pantries and 2 freezers!  The real challenge will be creating meal plans using only what I have, instead of my recipe caches.  

Another challenge will be resisting temptation in the stores.  My children all received multiple gift cards to mall stores, Kohls, and (oh dear) Savers.  They will want to go shopping and they will need an escort.  I will have to think of willpower like a muscle that gets stronger the more you use it.  That concept comes from a self-help book I listened to on a long drive to see family over Christmas called The Willpower Instinct by Kelly McDonigal, PhD.  It contained many ideas to help develop focus and restraint based on current brain research.  I'm a sucker for books about brain research, even though I realize it is a new frontier and all science is tentative (thank you for that reminder, Apologia Science!)

Time to get to work.  Let me know if any of you want to take the Zero Spending Challenge with me.  See you next year!

Covenants and Vultures

Several of my friends have been choosing words to guide their new year.  One of my favorites is Kathy's word:  Sabbath.  Chris chose one word:  Dance.  I continue to reflect on my 3 words:  frame, scale, and aperture.  

This morning, as I read the story of Abram's aching heart in Genesis 15, I realized something.  Vultures await.  Abram was desperate for a son and scratching his head that God had not given him one yet.  

God said: You WILL have a son.  Now make a covenant with me. 

So in bloody Israelite-style, Abram carved some creatures in half as a sign that he would trust and honor God with his hopes and dreams.  

Then the vultures came...  Gen 15:11

We split open our hearts in an attempt to trust God with our deepest desires, and the scent of covenant draws the vultures.

Vultures will scavenge from Kathy's Sabbath rest.  Vultures' slow-winged descent will keep Chris from dancing.  Their hunger will keep me from living in the spirit of my three words.  They will gather and circle above us as soon as they see opportunity.  They are carrion-eaters disguised as negative voices, unchecked appetites, over-scheduled days, fatigue, illness, apathy.  

But they can be chased away.  They must.  

Then the vultures came, and Abram chased them away.  Gen 15:11

My prayer for the covenant-makers, for those of us who are always striving to live holier lives, is this:  that we will spot the vultures gathering, and we will chase them away.  

My Three Words for 2014

December is always the pinnacle of juxtaposition for me.  My right hand indulges in too many sweets, too much spending, too much activity penned on the calendar, and too little Bible page-turning.  My left hand stretches toward God in a long, sorry reach.  I read the Christmas Scriptures and wonder how this simple story came to revolve around my own appetites and priorities.  Mea culpa.

Every December I pause to meditate and select three guiding words for the new year, while evaluating my three words for the past year. 

My words for the new year all pertain to photography, and the interests of the photographer.  She is not primarily concerned with her own needs.  She is outward focused, looking for beauty and a meaningful story to tell, bringing things into balance, determining correct speed, and always searching for Light.

Frame prompts me to savor moments and capture them in words or photos.  It is a reminder to blog regularly, keep in the creative song writing mode, make intentional memories with the family (both special and daily,) and carefully say what I mean, framing my words in love and earnestness.  It regards being intentional with my time, and organizing my day with borders and margins, while not expecting to control everything within the frame.   Tools:  prayer, camera, blog, google calendar, parenting, homeschooling, and marriage resources

Scale emphasizes regular evaluation of the quantity and balance of things in my life.  I want to be aware of my unhealthy appetites, both for food, activity, and other indulgences, and bring them back to their proper scale.  I will be mindful that exercise is the counterbalance to eating, and giving is the counterbalance to greed.  I will weigh the needs of each person in my family and other circles of concern, and make adjustments as needed. Tools:  prayer, scale, health club, menu planning, family meetings, good communication with Dave

Aperture means letting in light.  I want to be Light-sensitive and keenly aware of the Holy Spirit’s guidance.  I want to see people through God’s lens of love, concern, and discernment, and to move when the Spirit says move.  Tools:  prayer, daily Bible reading, church, small group, community service opportunities

Anyone interested in selecting three of your own words?

Eyes Wide Something

Ever since Adam and Eve sampled the fruit and their eyes grew horror-movie wide with everything they never wanted to know, altering the future for us all, we have tried to clamp ours shut.  

When I read news articles, I often find my eyes literally, compulsively closing.  If they are closed, then God's definition of marriage will not morph into the new word I learned today:  polymory.  AKA:  anything goes.  It's coming, people.  And historically no nation has survived it.  Chuckle if you want, but then read your history.

If I close my eyes, Mr. Duck Dynasty would not have to crudely express God's thoughts on matters of homosexuality and the media would not have to take up arms, while TV execs rub their hands together in delight.

Babies would be valued.  Slavery would be abolished.  Cancer would be eradicated.  

The curse, though, was that our eyes would be wide open.  Evil would enter the world, and we would have to see it, live it, breathe it.  It would touch each and everyone of us.  Some of us would embrace it.  Some would resist.  Some would ignore.  All of us would long for something else.  

I read recently that "God does not have a wonderful plan for our lives."  What?  But, but...that's what I've heard ever since I was a baby Christian.  It sounds so...wonderful.  I mean, Jeremiah 29:11, right?

No, the truth is, God has a wonderful plan for our eternity.  We can live pleasing and holy-ish lives, but we still reside East of Eden for now.  We might as well keep our eyes wide open, speak truth in love, and celebrate the hope of the final garden.  We will be laughed at, criticized, and persecuted for this hope.  But it is ours.    

2 Corinthians 4:16-18  So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light and momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.

Shaking the Dinner Table

I love hearing my husband's family talk about their family table.  It's a round, oak antique table with mismatched chairs, which stretches to a giant oval for large gatherings. I guess it would literally gyrate, as those around it burst into laughter over delicious, nourishing meals prepared by my mother-in-law, Beth.

My husband, being the youngest child of four, remembers experiencing a bit of angst over not comprehending many of the jokes that inspired so much hilarity.  I recall countless card games, mounds of food, and being warmly invited into the circle of love and acceptance over these last 20 years at this illustrious table.

Beth eyed the table wistfully this past Thanksgiving.  She and her husband are preparing to move to a retirement community in Colorado next spring.  The table won't be coming with them;  it will be going to live with my brother-in-law, where it can be a hub of new memories.  

At my home, our family table is a big kitchen island.  We do have a nice Amish-made oak dining table, but it seems to be the landing pad for an archipelago of half-done projects and various items to sort and put away.  And it is more than a few steps from the stove, so there is the convenience factor.  So, the kitchen island is where we congregate for most meals. 

Last night at the island, the kids were lightheartedly listing ways I've recently embarrassed them.  What?  Moi?  What is wrong with reading a Scottish love poem with a proper Scottish accent in front of your friends in literature class?  Oh, you mean pointing out your blushing cheeks is what really embarrassed you?  Sorry!  

O my Luve's like a red, red rose, 

That's newly sprung in June: 

O my Luve's like the melodie, 

That's sweetly play'd in tune. 

(I sounded just like Sean Connery...or maybe Shrek. I was brilliant!)

Between bites of chicken burrito and homemade guacamole, I recounted ways THEY had embarrassed ME.  Let's see, do you know, young lady, that you once pointed at a man and loudly proclaimed, "I don't like his face!"  And do you, other young lady, remember bursting into tears at your 7th birthday party because you lost the game?   And young man, can you imagine how uncomfortable I felt when you first started experimenting with your hair gel and wearing skinny jeans and leather jackets?  I think I'll wear skinny jeans with boxers hanging out the top to our next literature class!  How about that, eh?!?

Back and forth we went, in a great feat of one-upsmanship.  The table would have been shaking had it not been bolted to the floor.  And someday, when I have to part ways with this beloved island of memories, I shall be wistful, too.

All great change in America begins at the dinner table.  -Ronald Reagan

Mene Mene Tekel..Have You Weighed Yourself Lately?

"Mene mene tekel upharsin" were the mysteriously-written words on the wall in Daniel 5.  Daniel interpreted them to mean doom for the kingdom of Belshazzar.  

This morning I ponder the word tekel..."you are weighed in the scales and found wanting."  I'm not one to be gloomy or self-condemning.  I'm not one to forgo God's grace in exchange for weighing my good and bad deeds on some spiritual scale.  I know I'm lost in sin but found in Christ, and my heart sings a hearty HALLELUJAH at that!

 But it's fair and reasonable to ask the question, "Am I found wanting?"  in this season of self-examination, renewed goals, and fresh accounts.  I join the psalmist in saying, "Search me, O God, and try me."   

My kids have a plastic balance scale that we used to teach the math concepts of more, less, and equal when they were preschoolers.  We moved little blocks around to teeter the scale, then held our breath until we brought it back to even.  

I've been holding my proverbial breath lately because I know I've been teckeled.  I have traded the pursuit of God for a hundred other little things that throw the balance, but in God's goodness, He calls me back, inviting me to be again like the deer, panting for the Water.  

Let the oldest saint look well to the fundamentals of his piety, for grey heads may cover black hearts: and let not the young despise the word of warning, for the greenness of youth may be joined to the rottenness of hypocrisy...By the precious blood of Christ, which was not shed to make you a hypocrite, but that sincere souls might show forth his praise, I beseech you, search and look, lest at the last it be said of you, "Mene, Mene, Tekel: thou art weighted in the balances, and art found wanting." -Christian Classics Ethereal Library