Day 2 in Review

Prayer: Yes. Kept asking God to use me today.
Scripture: Yes. This morning bright and early...on the computer.
Silence: A little, in spurts, I'd say.

The Day/The Deed:

Well that was...different.

(Is this show still on anymore, btw? Sister Wives, now that is bottom of the barrel TV.)

OK...So, Today. Wow. Today was a whole lot different than good 'ole Ash Wednesday.

Let's just say today's deed-doing was not quite as pronounced as yesterday's. It started with a phone call from my doctor who told me I have "the sugars." Uggh. I had gestational diabetes with Marley (which is why she's so sweet by the way) and was recently tested during an annual exam. I suspected something might be off. This year, for example, I made a very conscious decision to leave Samoas off my Girl Scout cookie order. Last year, I inhaled a sleeve and LITERALLY felt like I was going to DIE with all the glorious caramelized coconut-flavored sugar pumping through my body.

The nurse told me all I had to do was tweak my diet, no problem. I'll tell you what that means. That means eating a lot more meat, eggs, cheese and whole lot less of all the things I enjoy — cheese puffs, chocolate and chardonnay included. God has his own plans for me this Lent, obviously. I choose to take on something, he prefers that I give up something. Figures.

Today I had three opportunities to be out of the house (where I work) and potentially deed someone BIG time today: 1) a trip to chapel at the kids' school 2) a quick Publix run and 3) a visit to the Gate River Run expo to get race packets. Surely, I thought — surely I will seize a tremendous opportunity. Surely there is a deed out there with my name on it. After all, I've been real prayerful today and I have an amazing track record! I smiled at everyone I saw, I scrutinized every situation like a 007. Private eyes...they're watching you.

I begged God to use me.

And he didn't.

Instead, he let me run into a familiar face in the produce section — a friend I'll call Always-A-Bright-Spot. She reminded me that a woman who I admire greatly was recuperating from surgery.  Could I be a bigger goat, I thought to myself? I hold the woman AABS spoke of in very high regard. She is without a  doubt a real angel on earth. Angel-on-Earth blesses everybody with her generous, loving, embracing spirit. She's a sparkling mother figure to many, me included. Her surgery was on my radar, yet I had done nothing — nada — about it. Pitiful.

And here's the worst part. I was scared to act on it now. When I got in the car I dialed her cell phone then stared at it. That "voice of reason" in my head gave me 100 arguments why it would look dumb to call her now, quite possibly even disingenuous — maybe even embarrassingly fake, especially given the fact I was blogging about such encounters. And I admire this woman so much, I shuddered at the idea of her wondering why the heck I was calling now.

Fret. It sure does breeds evil, right?

I called. Checked in. Connected. It felt — right, again. Not to mention, it was a treat to hear her voice for a minute. I'm not sure if that was a "deed" or not. But I felt like I had my listening ears on.

Words of encouragement:


Friend-I-Wish-I-Saw More sent me this today from Rick Warren. Sometimes, I just wonder how things can be so...coincidentallly perfect:

"If I fly over a country in a plane, I miss all of the details. If I take the train, I see a little bit more. If I take a car, I’ll see a little bit more. If I walk across the country, I will see a lot of details. The faster you are going in life, the more you miss.

When we live hurried lives, God gets shuffled off into the spare minutes and he is short changed with our time. We say, “Lord, speak to me but do it quickly.” Skimping on our time with God leads to a life that becomes more and more shallow. We don’t go deep because we don’t make time for it. We aren’t spending enough time alone with God, if at all. He needs quality time to change us."

Final thought: Don't fret. Don't even think. Just do it. But anyone who gets "the sugars" easily should not eat Samoas, just more bacon.