A New Year Resolution

I don't normally hold to making New Year Resolutions.

They are kinda pointless... I rarely keep them...

...past the third or fourth of January...

But this year I have one, but I don't think I made it.  You see, it is something that has begun as just something I noticed, to something that bugged me, to something that now I can't control... I know it must be coming from something inside of me, because it goes against my natural personality.

So my New Year's Resolution is Speaking out when things aren't right.

It hasn't always been easy for me to do this - my natural personality is to blend into the background and cause as little offence as possible, but as I said it's becoming something I can't control.  Something is rising up inside of me and quite frankly, I'm scared of it.

But what I have been seeing is that we live in a society that reflects my natural personality.  Inoffensive, silent, and to an extent, lethargic.  We don't condemn what is wrong, and we don't stand for what is right.  We blend into the populous and are of the belief that everyone is entitled to their own beliefs, so long as those believes are not imposed on anyone else.And it is really getting to me.

Yesterday I was in a take-away cafe getting some lunch.  (I'm such a sucker for potato wedges with sour cream and sweet chilli sauce!  :P)  Waiting for the food to be cooked, I noticed the place mats on the tables - laminated pieces of paper printed with jokes.  The jokes were disgusting.  They had language and references to adultery and other inappropriate subjects.  Needless to to say, I was disgusted.  There was another sign in the shop that said, "Please leave your school bags outside."

I'll admit, I was sitting there fuming.  Obviously, children came to this shop, and yet they blatantly allowed content that was offensive to adults to be displayed where everyone could see.  I debated with myself whether to confront the lady about it or not.  I had almost decided not to when I heard my own voice talking to her about it.  Do you know what she told me?  She said - and this shocked and saddened me - You are the first person who has spoken to me about this.  She then assured me that the kids never read the place mats, and people complimented her on having a joke.  She was really quite dismissive about it all.

 Blame it on my world-view studies, if you must, but I have decided that it is no longer good enough to disagree with what is wrong.  Disagreeing never got anyone - or anyone else - very far.  We need to make a difference, to stand up for what is right.

Who will join me?

The Best Laid Plans... Are in His Hands!

The best laid schemes o' mice an' men Gang aft agley

Or so they say... and so it would seem at times.  How often we have had to cancel a much anticipated visit for a child who got up sick; or the times we have had to scrounge up dinner from who knows where because someone (no names mentioned!) left the food unattended and let it burn to the point of no return.  And some days just go so completely haywire, you wonder why you even bothered getting out of bed that morning.  

As unbelievable as it may sound, the Lord is in charge of those days too: just waiting for you to lean more into Him, to ask for His peace and strength.  But that is not what I was going to write about.  I was going to focus more on life plans and how sometimes they just don't go the way you imagined, planned, and even wrote down they would.  

Spend ten minutes in the company of a young child, prod them with a couple of questions, and you will get the full run down of what they plan to do when they are grown up.  Oh!  Far distant blessed day!  Will it never come?  I remember planning my entire life what I would do after school - the options were widely varied from year to year, month to month - dare I say... day to day... ;)  I remember a few of those options: a florist (hay fever galore!), a map draw-er (I HATE art) and a professional tennis player (I can't think where I even got that idea from!  Asthma!)  Needless to say, none of those options were long term commitments.  A friend of ours once said that kids change their dreams as often as they change their underwear, and I am inclined to agree with her.  ;P

   A man’s heart plans his way, But the Lord directs his steps.  (Proverbs 16:9)

I love this verse - perhaps because I have experienced it in my own life... It is so comforting to know that everything we do is in the Lord's control, and if we are in sinc with Him, He will guide us wherever He wants us to go.  The Lord's will is not based on whim.  He has planned our ways before the age of time, and has woven our story into the tapestry of eternity.  The right opportunities will arise, the right people walk in, the right words spoken exactly when we need them to.  Why?  And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.  (Romans 8:28)  We are called, and if we follow, He will orchestrate our lives to bring about the best for us, and we will live a blessed life on earth and an eternity in heaven.  This is not to say we will never have hardships in our lives - of course we will!  That is the result of sin, and just because we are saved does not exclude us from them either.  It just means that when we face hard times, we will have hope and a source of peace from which to draw daily refreshing strength.  And we can be sure that the best will result from suffering, although we may not know what that is this side of heaven.  Who knows how many lives we may touch without us even knowing?  It is an exciting thought... Enough so to make me want to trust God with the rest of my life forever!  :)

There are many plans in a man’s heart, Nevertheless the Lord’s counsel—that will stand.  (Proverbs 19:21)

New Strategy and a Whole List of Books I Plan to Read. :D

My blog has been pretty slow lately, hasn't it?  How have you all been?  My family has had a bout of change-of-season colds.  My glands always blowup like balloons whenever I get a touch of anything, and this round has left me pretty tired and listless.  (Not that it drives me to bed any earlier.  LOL!)  I shall just have to keep at my apple cider vinegar and  Sambucol.  :D

Anyway, the subject of this post is books.  I have a terrible habit of not being able to decide what to do and not being able to motivate myself to do anything about it.  (I owe it all to being phlegmatic!  :P)  Recently I was thinking about all those wonderful books out there that I have been planning to read for years, some of them, and that are screaming at me to read them.  I have recently devised a system for myself that allows me to get things done in a school context and I hope it will help me here as well.  I have never worked well on a schedule.  Which is a pity since the curriculum my family uses is set up so that you read so many chapters of this book on this day and however so many pages of this book on that day, so on and so on.  It never really worked for me - I would always fall behind because I would get overwhelmed by the schedule (it was pretty heavy going anyway) and I would procrastinate (I bet none of you can imagine me a procrastinator - what a thought!  ;P )  Anyhow, my new way of doing things is that I have the topics I need to get through in a day - advanced math, biology, chemistry, worldview studies, history, and literature - and I spend half an hour of solid work on each subject.  Voila!  It works!  Not only has the quality of my work increased, so has the quantity.  As Mum says, if I have half and hour to do something, I can do it in that time.  But if I have all day to do something, it will take me all day.

I have decided to apply the same principle to my reading habits.  Since officially finishing school, my reading has significantly decreased and I am sorry to have let it slip.  I plan to spend 1-2 half-hour sessions each day devoted to what I want to read and being me, I will probably keep going after the buzzer goes because I am enjoying myself and can't be bothered doing anything else.  :)  Here is my current list of want-to-reads.  The ones marked with an asterisks indicate what I am in the middle of, or what I have already read, but am dying to read again.  :)

• Ivanhoe by Walter Scott
• *Anne of Green Gables by L. M. Montgomery
• *One, Two, Buckle my Shoe by Agatha Christie (I suppose this represents all my Agatha Christie books - I bought 25 of them last year and have only read three or four so far.)
• *Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen
• The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Orczy  (I didn't mark this one, even though I started it, because I read through the first paragraph, and I don't think that counts.  ;)  )
• Eragon by Christopher Paolini
• *The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
• * Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm by Kate Douglas Wiggin
• Boy by Roald Dahl (I have read some f this before, but I don't remember heaps and didn't get far with it.)
• Through Gates of Splendour by Elisabeth Elliot
• Angles in the Camp by Jan Markell
• Hinds' Feet on High Places by Hannah Hurnard
• Schindler's List by Thomas Keneally
• Hidden Art by Edith Schaeffer
• *Pilgrims Progress by John Bunyan
• *Evidence Not Seen by Darlene Deibler Rose  (One of the most increadible war stories and brobably one of the best biographies I have ever read - I HIGHLY recommend it.)
• The Boxcar Children  by Gertrude Chandler Warner.  (And yes, I am absolutely NOT serious about that one.  *shudders*  :P)

Do you reckon that's enough to start me off???  ;)  We will be going on a three week holiday in July, so I will hopefully get heaps of reading done then (around birthdays and weddings, of course  :P)  When I finish this list, I'll select another bunch and make another list!  The race is on!  :D