Purge Pending

Today I went back through all of my posts that are in "Edit" version. For whatever reason I never published them, so today decided to go back through and purge everything that remains in unfinished form:

Date - 8/28/08
Title - Another one bites the dust

Today I made a list of all the people who have left the bank since the beginning of the year.

Date - 11/30/08
Title - Thanksgiving Thoughts

While Thanksgiving was fabulous, I don't particularly care to document things that I'm thankful for at this time. Instead, I'm feeling random and in need of bullet-posting:

We do not have turkey at my family ever. Instead my Dad BBQ's ham. Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

Date - 1/7/09
Title - Blah

I had hoped that 2009 would be a fresh start. Bring new motivation and spirit, a renewed sense of peace and contentment in my life in general. I am sad to report that it seems to be the exact opposite. I find myself bored, unmotivated, and wishing it was time for a vacation from work already. Forgive my negativity:

--I hate cell phones. Texting is the absolute worst and is a serious waste of time. I am very annoyed by people who treat their phone / blackberry as an appendage, as if life will end if 1) they don't immediately check to see who sent a message or 2) they stop surfing the internet long enough to look up and have a real conversation. I realize that I sound like a crotchety old lady, but there really was a time that cell phones didn't even exist. Yes, they are convenient, but in my mind should be used for emergency purposes only.
--I hate TV's. Don't hate them, but hate over-use of them. I lived in Uptown for 3 1/2 years without cable and rarely watched TV. It forced me to get out, do things, volunteer, read a book that made my brain work instead of vegging out into nothingness. Now I waste so much time watching stupid shows like The City or Jon and Kate Plus 8 or Rob & Big. How fulfilling and meaningful. If K weren't addicted to the Military Channel I would love to tell ATT U-Verse to get out of town in a heartbeat.

--The Mavs logo was way better when their color was green with the cowboy hat. The 'new' blue horse thing is hideous.

Date - 2/10/09
Title - Prayer

I love this bench:

Not because it's a bench, but because of what it says across the top: "He answered their prayers because they trusted in Him." I took this picture a couple years ago on a retreat to Sky Ranch. Such a simple reminder of the power of prayer.

I have not read this book recently, but it impacted my life in a way that caused me to document the main points in my journal. It's called Too Busy Not to Pray by Bill Hybels. The most common causes of unanswered prayer according to the book are:

1) Prayerlessness – James 4:2 – “You want something and do not have it; so you commit murder. And you covet something and cannot obtain it; so you engage in disputes and conflicts. You do not have, because you do not ask God.”

2) Unconfessed sin – Isaiah 59:2 – “Rather, your iniquities have been barriers between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear.”

3) Unresolved relational conflict – Matthew 5:23-24 - “So when you are offering your gift at the altar, if you remember that your bother or sister has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother or sister, and then come and offer your gift.” 1 John 2:9 – “Whoever says, ‘I am in the light,’ while hating a brother or sister, is still in the darkness.”

4) Selfishness – James 4:3 – “You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, in order to spend what you get on your pleasures.”

5) Uncaring attitude – Proverbs 21:13 – “If you close your ear to the cry of the poor, you will cry out and not be heard.”

6) Inadequate faith – James 1:5-8 – “If any of you is lacking in wisdom, ask God, who gives to all generously and ungrudgingly, and it will be given you. But ask in faith, never doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind; for the doubter, being double-minded and unstable in every way, must not expect to receive anything from the Lord.” Mark 11:23 – “Truly I tell you, if you say to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and thrown into the sea,’ and if you do not doubt in your heart, but believe that what you say will come to pass, it will be done for you."

There. All clean.