Thoughts on Thursday

"Don't be a doormat."

I've been learning lately how detrimental this can be to any relationship. If your sole purpose is to make someone else happy all the time you will fail. Then if your like most people you will be disappointed in yourself for failing at something you could never accomplish. If your walking around with a fear of failure or feeling like you have failed you are never going to giving your best to your relationship. Never forget most people don't expect perfection from us why should we?

1 John 4:18There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love. (ESV Version)

Don't forget to check out my friends "thought" as well: http://thefeldkamps.blogspot.com/

Wordless Wednesday

Off...but not really.

So you turn off your TV and then your saving electricity right? Well kinda. You are saving electricity but its not totally off. You have to unplug appliances when your done using them (not your refrigerators people;) to fully power them off.

For example you can plug your computer printer and all of your peripherals in to a power strip so that its one easy switch. I will do this once I get my laptop dock area set up, the printer and monitor will be in a power strip so that when I'm not using them they are all the way off. This is also great for your TV/DVD/X box and such. One suggestion if you use a satellite receiver or DVR keep that plugged in separately since they take forever to re-start. Another thing you can only unplugg sometiems is your garage door opener unplug it when your on vacation or away for the weekend, it not only makes your house safer but it saves energy!

Here is a list of a few things that suck energy even when they are 'off' or not in use:
computers,
multifunction printers
flat-screen TVs
DVDs
VCRs
CD players
power tools
hand-held vacuums
Microwave Oven

Here is a good study of "Energy Vampires" http://standby.lbl.gov/summary-table.html
Here is a good link: http://green.yahoo.com/blog/the_conscious_consumer/50/energy-vampires-fact-versus-fiction.html

While it's true each individual product draws relatively little standby power, the LBNL says that when added together, standby power can amount to 10% of residential energy use.

Learning some not so pretty things.

Sunday our sermon was on idols and how anything that distracts us from God can be an idol. Now obviously this can be taken to the extreme, not everything in your life is an idol. However I personally believe we all have a few. What are the things in out life that we count on to make us happy? For me its my relationships, when something goes wrong or I need a boost I call my husband, family or friend. My first instinct is not to call on God. I was reading in my "The Search for Significance book and something really jumped out at me:

"If we base our self-worth on the approval of others, then we are actually saying that our ability to please others is of greater values than Christ's payment. We are the sinners, the depraved, the wretched, and the helpless. He is the loving Father, the seeking, searching, patient Savior who has made atonement for the lost and has extended to us His grace and son ship. We add nothing to our salvation. It is God who seeks us out, convicts us of sin, and reveals Himself to us. It is God who gives us the very faith with which to accept Him. our faith is simply our response to what He has done for us.... His work through others is, in part, to serve as a channel by which we can better understand His divine love and acceptance of us. Sadly, we are all prone to miss His message and mistake His messenger(s) as the source of out fulfillment."

Ouch and at least for me so true, I can't wait to learn how to turn this back the right way. I've tried and failed so many times on my own.

Silly but very proud moment.

I'm at work and I'm trying to reduce sugar...again. I went into the break room and saw whoppers, yumm but I was good I asked myself "would you rather the whoppers now or a sucker when you get home?" Then I walked away!! Woo hoo!

Also yesterday I met my new mentee for coffee and when I got home I didn't have a sucker because I already had a sugar filled coffee! Maybe I am trainable!

Thoughts on Thursdays

"Don't make your spouse your idol"

This is so easy to do, we can become so dependent on our spouse that we forget about God entirely. This can also make problems when they make mistakes, if we view them so highly then we are let down when they make mistakes. We need to remember that they are human and can't fill all of our needs and voids, only God can.

Wordless Wednesday