These have been my thoughts...

I can never think of titles for my blog posts. I don't know why it's so hard. "Just pick something and name it", I always tell myself. Unfortunately telling myself that does not make me do it. As is my attitude with many things in life. "Get your running shoes out before you go to bed, set your alarm clock for 5:30am and go running", is another thing I tell myself on a regular basis. In fact, I get my running shoes out almost every night but usually end up going running twice a week. And I wonder why I never seem to get anywhere.
I always have a "To do or not to do..." list for the weekend. This is what it usually looks like,

To Do...Or Not To Do...
Laundry
Sew blocks
Clean room
grocery shopping
exercise!
read
homework
call Mom
write Justine back
go to the lake

Sometimes I get it all done, sometimes I don't. Usually it's the latter. This past weekend I happily gave up my "To Do...To Not To Do" list for a weekend of fun. On Saturday my friends and I decided to go shopping in Springfield. I needed to get a stencil for my quilt and they needed to get some shoes for weddings coming up. We had a great day. They finished it off with the lake and I finished it off by my sewing half of my quilt together. And as I was sitting there, sewing away, I was thinking about that verse that says to glorify God in all that you do. And I was trying to think of how sewing could give glory to God. I sew because I like it, because I like what I produce from it. Is that completely selfish? I got the thought in my head the other day, maybe I should start making quilts and donating them. But it takes me entirely too long to make a quilt, especially with school and working 40 hours a week. So that idea was soon gone. And then I thought, well, maybe I shouldn't sew if I don't glorify God with it at all. But I love to make quilts. I love seeing the design come together and the peices fit together. I'm making something that will last longer than I will live and there's some sort of pride that goes along with that thought. I wish there wasn't.

Sometimes I get caught up with myself. Let me rephrase that. Usually I am caught up with myself and my problems. Sometimes I think about my reason here at school and I think, I have so much going for me. I could do anything. But then God reminds me with some humbling experience, "You are here because of Me, Christi." And I'm like, well God, it feels really good to know that Dr. Williams picked me personally to take care of her children. And He's like, "Christi, you got that because of Me. You may think you're all high and mighty, but you're here for My glory. You're here to praise My name."

Yesterday Emma and I went to First Baptist Church Branson. The message was really good. It was on denying yourself and following God. The pastor used twitter as an example. It was a "Who Do you Follow?" type of thing. It was a really good reminder. Sometimes I get so caught up in my daily routine... I get up, get ready for work, eat breakfast, go to work at 7:15, work until 11:25, go to lunch, come back at 12:15, work until 4:30, go back to my room and clean up, dinner at 5:00, and then the evening is somehow taken up with random things. That's what I do, 5 days a week. It's really boring. Then I remember that that's what my life will be like once I'm graduated and have a job. It was kind of a wake up call. I HAVE to remember that I am here for God and not to make myself happy. I get so discontent when I don't remember God's purpose. I get so unhappy and question my life and forget why I'm even alive. I'm always trying to come up with fun things to do at work so I don't get bored. But I've been realizing how nice the quiet is and how God has given me that time for a reason. And it's not there to sit and complain about how there is nothing to do. Every moment is from God. There's an opportunity to glorify God in every moment if you know how to use that time. God is good like that. He gives us that opportunity because he knows that we need every moment possible. We are constantly failing in some way or another but God is always supplying opportunities for us.

I feel like this is just a bunch of rambling. It's taken me all day to write this. These have been my thoughts today.