Sonic Diet Vanilla Coke, Jacey and Prophetesses :0)

So there are some things in life that when you have them at the right time and place are just wonderful... kind of like the diet vanilla coke from Sonic. I had to take my car in today to have the oil change and get the inspection done, plus my lumbar is broken and blah blah blah... but I picked up one of these delicious drinks on the way and mmm so good! It just hit the spot! So I dropped my car off and waited around for someone to drive me back home instead of waiting at the dealership, and those rides are always a little weird to me... much appreciated though, my living room smells MUCH better than their lobby. Although, they have free wi-fi there and I had a good book so I probably would have been ok. I think Jacey appreciated me coming home though because then she could hang around the house rather than her kennel. :0)

             

Jacey smells like lavender flowers right now because she got a bath today. :0) I have never had a dog who got excited about taking a bath but she does! When she sees me getting her shampoo and towels and gets so excited and runs straight upstairs to the bathroom and jumps into the bathtub. It just cracks me up! I never imagined that when we got her last November that I was getting a dog with such a cute personality. She has definitely made a place in my heart. :0)

So usually around this time of the year I start getting a little grumpy because I know I am about to have to go back to work... which means... working... and on frequent occasion, sassy adolescents. My feet start getting depressed because they know they will have to go back into shoes soon rather than being free in flip flops. (Nice image, eh?) But this week at our ladies' Bible study (also affectionately called LBS) we had a great lesson on using our talents, and it was such an encouragement to me. Ready to hear about it? Hope so, because here it comes!! ;0)

Two weeks ago I did a lesson for LBS called "What We Can Learn from a Prophetess", which focused on Miriam, Deborah and Anna (all prophetesses) and how they used their other talents for God. (Which by the way, if you haven't read about Deborah before, she is absolutely incredible in my opinion... Look her up... Judges 4-5) One of my friends followed up that lesson this week with practical uses of our talents. I have to say, these lessons were good timing for me and my moments of grumpiness that have started creeping in, because it reminded me that in whatever I do each and every day, I need to be using what God has given me for Him and for the "profit of all." (1 Cor. 12:7) I have a lot of frustrations at work, but I have a lot of successes too and sometimes those are overshadowed by rude comments and the constant disrespect I battle everyday. But God says that we are all blessed with different talents and that we are to "take pains" (1 Tim. 4:14-15) in using our talents and in developing our talent, which is something I can think about on those frustrating days, because developing talents take time, effort and experience. Is that something that we are all truly striving to do? I honestly hadn't thought about it much until this week... 

So instead of feeling overwhelmed at the hundreds of things you could do, just focus on one for a while and take pains in doing your best at it. Those things we focus on can change throughout the year and throughout our lives. This summer, my talents have been used differently than they will be a a couple (waaahh...) of weeks. ;0) But, that is a good thing for me to think about, and a good perspective to take. Do all in His name, with all your might!!

I think it's a neat thing to think about... what it would be like if every single person was striving every day to use their talents for God, taking pains to do so! Can you imagine how powerful the church could be?? But sadly, I feel we can neglect them sometimes and get distracted sometimes, and those are things we need to guard against! I have been so encouraged to be looking out for neglect and distractions, and to strive to use my talents and I hope by reading this you can be too!!

"God has placed the members, each one of them, in the body, just as He desired." 

(1 Cor. 12:18)

"As each one has received a special gift, employ it in serving one another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God."

(1 Pet. 4:10)