A true story

Two week-ends ago I grabbed breakfast with a dear friend. After that, I ran to the mall for some mostly "window shopping." I enjoyed leisurely walking around the mall and people-watching. When I got back in my car, I noticed that someone had stuck an advertisement or something under my windshield wiper.  Hmm, cool. I thought, and I drove home. I forgot that it was stuck there until later when I was running errands with Rob. After getting out of the car, he grabbed the flyer to see what it was. It appeared to be a coupon for Green Acres snow tubing. 

"Wait, there's some writing on the back," I said to Rob, as I turned the coupon over.   To my shock and horror, someone had taken the time to scrawl this message to me about my parking job.

"Who takes the time to write such a message, and how did I park that was so offensive?" These thoughts were going through my mind a mile a minute. "Has anyone even seen the yellow parking lines in the past 3 months?  Minnesota nice? I think not. This kind of thing would never happen in South Dakota" and on and on my thoughts went.

But, the story is not over yet. Someone in my small group had already previously arranged for our group to go sledding at the very place this green coupon was for the next week-end.  And so, that following Friday I passed the coupon off to my friend, and she saved $1.00 on the evening of sledding.

I think I got the last laugh on that one.  

Deep thought post with pictures

Today the pastor talked about searching for God's will for your life. Of course, Pastor Peter said that to know this answer we need to continue reading the Bible and praying about God's plan for our lives, but he also went a step further and gave 3 practical questions (borrowed from the book From Good to Great by Jim Collins) that can get you closer to seeing how God's plan for your life might look.

These questions are as follows:

1. What are you genetically gifted to be the best in the world at?
(Basically, you're good at this talent. Real Good!)

2. What are you most passionate about?
(He talked about the curse of competency that some of us have. We can do the task just fine, but we have no passion to do it.)

3. What skills or actions bring in the greatest revenue or fruitfulness?
(This is the practical component of God's plan for your life. You are going to need revenue; you are going to feel the blessings from fruitfulness.)

The next step is to answer these 3 questions and look for the places where the answers overlap. This is kind of your "God idea" for life. You hopefully can see some common or compatible answers that include your gifts, talents, and passions.

I wrote in my journal for a bit this afternoon and answered the questions. I was surprised to see that the things I am good at are not necessarily things I am passionate about. Likewise, the things I am passionate about are not necessarily the things that are fruitful or bring in revenue for me. Nonetheless, there were some common, overlapping factors that I think have me pointed in a good direction. I am encouraged.


And then I saw these ducks.

Can you believe this is a real place not a mile from where I live?

One thing I will never tire of. . .

. . . blue skies and green grass.

Refreshment.