Ah, after a short blogging hiatus, I am back. I had had the opportunity to spend 10 days with family and dear friends! You have to love vacation! Hours of conversation and cuddling with nephews. Amazing food, thanks to our wonderful hosts. Sleeping in,... TOTAL RELAXATION! I love my routines, but it was nice to totally let go for awhile.

I knew it was a successful time of rest because I was ready to be back at work this morning. I really do enjoy my job, but I also really enjoy sleeping in. :)

I love what Elisabeth Elliot has to say about hard work and rest!

Work is a blessing. [YES! A BLESSING!] God has so arranged the world that work is necessary, and He gives us hands and strength to do it. The enjoyment of leisure would be nothing if we had only leisure. It is the joy of work well done that enables us to enjoy rest, just as it is the experiences of hunger and thirst that make food and drink such pleasures. - Discipline: The Glad Surrender

Haahaa. As I look ahead to this week and the catch up work I will have to do, may I broach it with the same spirit as Elisabeth! I guess perhaps that is one of the secrets to finding refreshment and joy in rest... working hard and working well.

It almost makes me wonder if the joy that we find in rest directly parallels our work ethic and the amount that we give on the job, what I mean is... no matter how easy or complicated the job do we, do I, approach it with the same energy and vigor as if to give it my all? Hmm, I will have to add that to the lists of questions to ask God someday,

The Spirit Gives Life :: The Flesh Counts for Nothing

I read that phrase, "The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing" this morning and was struck by it. I thought about the constant state of decay that our bodies begin at birth, there is nothing we can do to stop this progression, it is inevitable.

I can spend hundred of dollars on creams, take time to exercise every day... but on my last visit to the nursing home, not a single person there was physically fit and every single one of them had wrinkles. :)

Here in America we spend tons of money and time on our outsides and very little time and money on our insides. Quite ironic really, spending all our efforts to preserve something that has one constant, death. When it comes we know not, but one thing is certain, it will come. Our spirit; our soul, is the thing that can live for ever and what do we give it? 30 minutes in the morning, maybe a few more before bed?

In John Chapter 6 when Jesus shares with his disciples this very thought, that flesh counts for nothing and the Spirit is what gives life, many of them... all but the 12 left him. I got to thinking about today's culture... the bold and the beautiful. The message that what is on the inside is what makes a person is not very popular. When is the last time you saw a commercial or a TV show that had people on it because they were rich in character and had beautiful spirits... We as humans are drawn to what is easy on the eyes, and we trick ourselves into thinking that those things are what are important and that they will last for ever.

This morning as I shower and use my anti-aging face wash and my moisturizer... then get "fixed" for work I will be pondering this:

*How to feed my spirit with the same care I show my physical body... how to find balance.

Why are you down cast, O my soul?

Have you ever just had one of those down in the dumps kind of days? Today was that kind of day for me. Last night I went to bed, knowing again for the 60+ month, that I was not pregnant... It seems like when my hope is the highest, dejection and self loathing hit the hardest.

I got up today, got ready for work, and it seems on these kind of days I try to do everything that screams "I'm not worthy". I didn't put on makeup, just wore jeans and tennis shoes to work (and I am not normally and tennis shoes to work kind of gal).

I also wore my class ring, I realized today, I only where my class ring when I am down on my self. It is not beautiful. In fact, it is rather plain and worn looking. It is not tied to an overly joyful period of my life.

Well, I read through some scripture and went off to work, still feeling dejected.

I am grateful for Oswald Chamber "My Utmost for His Highest"... one of my favorite readings... I have it posted on the bulletin board in my office.

The Discipline of Dejection
But we had hoped... and what is more, it is the third day..." - Luke 24:21

Every fact that the disciples stated was right; but the inferences the drew from those facts were wrong. Anything that savors of dejection spiritually is always wrong. If depression and oppression visit me, I am to blame, God is not, nor is anyone else. Dejection springs from one of two sources - I have either satisfied a lust or I have not. Lust means - I must have it at once. Spiritual lust makes me demand an answer from God, instead of seeking God, who gives the answer. What have I been trusting God would do? And today-the immediate present-is the third day, and He has not done it; therefore I imagine I am justified in being dejected and blaming God. Whenever the insistence is on the point that God answers prayer, we are off track. The meaning of prayer is that we get a hold of God, not the answer.

Oh how I hope to get to this place someday. Each month is another opportunity and each month I fail miserably as I jealously view all the pregnant people around me.

Somehow I need to wrap my brain around the fact that this life and all that it is is not about me... oh how hard it is to write those words!

Why are you downcast, O my soul?
Why so disturbed within me?
Put your hope in God,
for I will yet praise him,
my Savior and my God.

March 5, 2010
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact:
Mike Landry, (918) 431-4310
randy@alexanderforsenate.org


Alexander to officially file to run for U.S. Senate

Springdale, AR - University of Arkansas Housing Director and former Tea Party Vice-Chairman, Randy Alexander, will file papers to run for the U.S. Senate with the Secretary of State's office on Monday, March 8th at 9:00am. Alexander is seeking the Republican Party nomination in the primary election to be held in May.

"I am not going to Washington looking for bi-partisan solutions, I'm going to Washington looking for a fight," Alexander said. "The people of Arkansas are have had enough of politicians who continue to compromise on core issues like health care and cap-and-trade. I will fight for Arkansans and their freedoms."

Recent polling shows that 60% of Americans believe we are headed in the wrong direction and over 75% of the people disapprove of the job congress is doing. "Sen. Reid and his allies have been put on notice, we're not going to take it anymore. I stand firmly with the majority of Arkansans who believe parliamentary trickery has no place in the U.S. Senate," Alexander added.

About Randy Alexander:
Randy has directed campus housing services for universities for 31 years most recently at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville. In 2003 he started Alexander & Associates which that provides housing master planning services to colleges and universities. He has been active in grassroots groups and most recently served as the Vice-Chairman to the Washington Co. Tea Party. Randy and his wife Pat have a grown son and also a daughter who born with spina bifida and passed away at age 24. They live in Springdale, AR and have been active in organizations providing services to people with disabilities. Randy and Pat are active members of Fellowship Bible Church in Rogers.

For more information, visit www.alexanderforsenate.org or call 479-283-5531.
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Wedding Bells for Tony & Kristina!!!

Clint and I had the pleasure of traveling to Tulsa this weekend to celebrate the wedding of my good friend Kristina to Tony. It has been fun watching Kristina and Tony's relationship grow. I am so happy that they have found someone to spend the rest of their lives with! I had the honor of standing up next to them as they said their vows. (I also had a great time eating some fabulous, mouth watering meals... steak & Cheesecake Factory, shopping with the girls and parading around the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino all decked out in the wedding attire.)

Marriage is a grad thing that is for sure! I know it has its ups and downs, just like anything in life... It is a joy for me to see friends get married. I am so very grateful to have a spouse that takes time to grow me and grow our marriage. I know I have a great capacity to love and I regret to say I do not always take advantage of it... I am truly thankful that I am truly loved! Marriage is work but it also brings great amounts of joy into my life.

"Neither a lofty degree of intelligence nor imagination nor both together go to the making of genius. Love, love, love, that is the soul of genius." ~ Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Here is to love! Love that truly is patient and kind looking out for the best interests of the other... may it be with Kristina and Tony as well as Clint and I for a lifetime!