The One who died for all

I've been toying with the ideas of writing devotionals. Not a book, not to try and publish something or make fist-fulls of money. Just because I want to make my spiritual life more of a priority, and I can's seems to make that happen. So in my head, if I'm writing a devotional, I'm probably getting more out of it than if I'm reading one. And who knows, maybe someone else will get something out of it as well.
I was moving some dressers this evening, and after I got the first one off the porch and into the bedroom, I stopped and stood still for a second. I thought to myself, "Red (I call myself Red), you have more important things to do. Go pick up your Bible." I'd taken a walk on my lunch break this afternoon, and tried to just talk to God. You know, like in the country song I've been watching you, or whatever it is, where the little boy kneels down and "talks to God like he was talking to a friend". Now if a 3 year old can do it, I darn well should be able to. It's not like I don't have enough going on to ask His advice about. One of the things I asked today on my walk was that God show me how to fix my relationship with Him. It's not where it needs to be, it's not where i want it to be, and something needs to be done about that. This seemed like a logical place to start. Anyway, back to this evening. I grabbed a bookmark that our awesome neighbors gave me at Christmastime, which has verses listed by topic. I flipped to 2 Corinthians 5:17, which is listed under "salvation". It sounded like a nice topic to start with. That particular verse says "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new." I read it a couple times, let is marinate, and decided it wasn't quite what I was looking for tonight. I scanned the rest of chapter 5, and came across verses 14 and 15, which say "...that if One died for all, then all died; and He died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again." Now THAT'S what I was looking for. I'm pickin up what Paul is putting down. I'm paintin what he's priming right there. I spend so much time stuck in the "not good enough to get into Heaven" mindset, focusing on what I need to change, what I need to do, who I need to convert, all the stuff that really, when it comes down to it, is just icing on the cake of your relationship with the One who died for all. Did you hear that? ALL. Every. Last. One. Of. Us. On. This. Earth. He wants all of us to come home with Him when He comes back. He died for all of us. To save all of us. All we have to do is accept that. I want to live for Him. I want to share Him, I want to take care of His people that aren't as crazy blessed as I am. There's a song by Casting Crowns called Until the Whole World Hears, and two of the lines are "I wanna be Your hands and feet, I wanna live a life that leads" and "and I pray that they will see, more of You and less of me". That's the life I want to live. Starting today. I want to shrink into the shadows and let Him shine out, to live for Him and not for myself anymore. I suppose the hard part will be figuring out how to do that.....any thoughts?
I know this was super stream-of-conciousness style, and maybe some day I'll come back and edit this to make it read like an actual devotional. But for now, it works for me. :)   

Refrigerator Redoux

Well, apparently the whole blog thing didn't make it into my list of top priorities, since it's been over a year since I've written anything!! I think between not knowing what (or how!!) to blog, getting busy with work, Hubby being in school and working, sprinkle-land just took a backseat. But I've heard that the only way to get back into something you've totally thrown aside (sorry bout that...) is to just do it! So.....for my first post of 2013....*drumroll please*.....I re-did the front of my refrigerator!!! Cue the confetti and applause, right? I know, I know....kinda lame. But I figure if I start with a little post, maybe I'll actually get the hang of this blogging thing and keep coming back for more!!



Before: Clutter Central!!

My fridge, like many fridges I've seen, was a catch-all for every scrap of paper I deemed important, cards from friends, invitations to various events, photos, a magnetic "fridge farm" that made lots of noise and music while trying to teach my god-daughter the alphabet.....you name it, it had a spot on my fridge. The only problem was, I couldn't stand the clutter. It was like tetris, always trying to fit the next invitation on there, deciding which one was coming down, the massive guilt attacks I suffered from taking anything off of it, because what if the person who sent it to me comes over and notices it's gone??? They would think I didn't think their invitation/card/photo/etc was important enough for a coveted fridge spot!! Not that anyone could find anything on that happy little magnetic disaster....but no more!! I pinterested a solution for that mess. Yup. A trip to the dollar store, some paint, some maganet stickers, and BAM! A color coordinated, organized, beautiful fridge door that I can stand to look at now. Sometimes I just stand in my kitchen gazing dreamily at it, imagining that the rest of my house is that organized. And color coordinated. And then I trip over a cat toy and fall onto a pile of laundry, knocking over a stack of dirty plates on the way down, and that dream is shattered. Loudly. But oh well.

After: giant ball of purple and green awesomeness. 

Hubby thinks that the photos should cover a longer period of time. I beg to differ. It's not like I can't change them out, and right now, the photos on there represent our life at this very moment. And I'm all about living in the moment. I think the oldest photo on there right now is from April. And I'm okay with that. I have so many photos in various stages of display all around our tiny little apartment, and I like the thought of the refrigertor, the first big honking thing you see when you walk in the door, being kind of a snapshot of where our lives are at right now.