The Simple Life at Home

Updated: Thanks to Marsha for correctly pointing out that I had read this verse out of context. She's right - it is indeed a psalm written by David and speaking of the life of godliness he desired to lead, including choosing to have only those whose walk is blameless minister to him (David).

I feel terrible for not having done my research and reading the full chapter from which I found this verse. Please forgive my oversight and lack of due dilligence. I promise that I will do my best to never let this happen again. My sentiments, however, are still the same. I still endeavor to make my life be a fragrant offering to the Lord and be a source of joy and pleasure to Him.

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"I will look with favor on the faithful in the land, that they may dwell with me; he who walks in the way that is blameless shall minister to me." Psalm 101: 6

Isn't that an amazing verse? That those who walk in the blameless way minister to God? Wow! We, you and I, have the opportunity to minister to the God of all creation, to the very one who saved us from our sins, the one who we turn to for comfort and safety. That's just incredible to me.

I want that.

I want to know that I am ministering to God by my walk with Him. I want to know that I am not just sucking up His blessings, but also being a blessing and a source of joy to Him. What a treasure of a verse!

Today I have a lot to be thankful for.

• I'm so thankful for Beth Moore's Bible study on the book of Daniel. I have been learning so much about living in a world of excess and indulgence. It's something I really need to learn and take to heart and I'm so glad God led her to do this study.
• I'm thankful that God has brought forth two people to replace me in the bookstore ministry at my church. It had really weighed on me since we made the decision to leave. After running ads in the church bulletin with no response for two months, finally I decided to pray about it. Sure enough that very day I had one volunteer and the next week another one. I'm so glad God taught me a lesson about going to Him in prayer through this.
• I'm thankful that we finally have a date for shipping our belongings. It adds another layer of certainty and progress. Now we just need to find a house to put it all in once it arrives in Qatar!! Hey, there's another opportunity to go to God in prayer!
• I'm thankful for the beautiful weather we've been having. This is my favorite time of year in Miami. The temperature is low enough that you can shut off the a/c and fling open the doors and windows and enjoy the fresh air. Glorious!!
• I'm thankful for my friends who have been so good to me since Hubby's departure. Everyone is being great and offering help and company. It's been a real source of comfort to know that we are not alone.

Be thankful, sister!! Your thankfulness is joy to God. And keep your walk blameless. Minister to Him who created you.

Thanks to Iris! We are so glad she's back hosting Thankful Thursday again!

Ok, this is hard to write. But I have promised to be upfront and honest here at The Simple Life at Home. So in the interest of transparency I have to confess that I have not lived up to my resolutions.

I really do have the best of intentions. I just hadn't anticipated how Hubby's leaving would throw my world into a kink. And I'm not giving up on things - just maybe tweaking them and/or starting a little late.

So let's go through one by one and I'll give you an update:

Spiritual

• Instead of trying to "live a good Christian life," I want to just simply focus on abiding in Christ. I want Him to be the very air I breathe. I want to live a life of worship. (I think I'm doing pretty good on this. I am spending a lot more time in prayer and in just trying to really BE with God.)
• I want to read through the Bible in 90 days. I started it last year, but with my in-laws here (for six weeks!) it was hard to make the daily commitment to read for up to an hour a day. I really enjoyed doing it while I lasted. The point isn't to get deep study, but to get a "big picture" view of Scripture. (I've decided to hold off on this until after I complete the current study I'm doing, Beth Moore's "Daniel" study. There's a lot of homework in it and the 90 day plan suggests that you don't participate in any other study while doing it.)
• Once that is completed, I want to take the remaining 9 months and study one book of the Bible in depth each month. I haven't decided which books yet, but I'll let you know. (I'm trying now to decide on which books to study so I can pick up some materials to take with me when we move. Any suggestions?)

Emotional

• Prove to myself that I am stronger than I give myself credit for during Hubby's absence. (I think I'm doing ok here. I'm managing to pay the bills, deal with trying to sell the house and rental properties, taking over all the tasks he previously did and I'm ok.)
• Work on controlling my emotions, specifically not crying so easily or losing my temper as quickly. This will be a challenge for me because I am one who desperately needs time alone. Without Hubby here, there won't be anyone to provide that and take the kids off my hands for a while. (This is the area where I've really surprised myself. I've gotten the crying under control. When I feel like starting, I manage to pull myself together and breathe deeply and control my emotions. As far as my temper, I've been doing much better there as well. There are the typical frustrations, but I don't think I've really "lost it" very much.)
• Stop eating for emotional reasons and learn to turn to God for comfort. (Been doing well at this and really stopping and thinking before I eat - particularly late at night.)
  

Physically

• Beginning on Sunday, and until I leave for Qatar, I want to do the 6 Week Body Makeover. I've had success on it in the past (I lost 20 pounds in 3 weeks), but Hubby didn't care for the food and it is a very time-consuming with all the cooking and the eating every three hours. I'm not setting any goal for weight loss, just committing to doing the plan and whatever happens, happens. (I've decided not to do this. I just don't have the time or motivation to spend this much effort on it. I haven't been cooking hardly at all and the times I have cooked, I ate way too much of the plan food. Since my main problem seems to be portion control, I've decided to purchase lots of Lean Cuisine type meals and just use those for a while. It will help me learn portion control and keep me from having to focus on food the entire day.)
• In conjunction with the program, I'm going to go back to walking 5 mornings a week. (I've only done this a couple of times. I haven't been able to sleep well since Hubby left, so I'm either falling asleep at 3 am and sleeping late OR taking a sleeping pill around midnight and sleeping late. See the "going to bed' entry below.)
• I will do the strength-training program that is prescribed in the program as well. It uses the bands and it's very easy. (This is going good.)
• I have to start going to bed earlier. I've gotten in the habit of going to bed around 1 a.m. and waking at 6:30 or 7. That's just not enough sleep. It makes me cranky, makes my skin look tired and sallow and definitely contributes to my weight issues. I want to go to bed by 10:30 or 11 at the latest. (As I mentioned, I've not been sleeping well. The only nights I've slept well are nights I've taken some OTC sleeping pills. But I wait until I've already tossed and turned for a while and still am not getting to sleep before 1 am usually. I need to turn in earlier - 11:00 - and try to get up earlier.)

Professionally

• I want to make the separation from Hubby, and the move, as easy on the kids as possible.
• I want to make sure I quickly establish new routines and household order once we get to Qatar. It's important that we get used to the new city/country/culture as quickly as possible and get the kids meeting new friends, while still making home a familiar refuge.
• Hubby hates how I pile things up until I can get to them. So a major goal for me is to learn to deal with things at the time rather than have literal piles of stuff that falls over at the slightest breeze. (Doing so-so on this. I go in spurts, you know? Sometimes I'm really motivated, others not. But it's a learning process and I don't expect to conquer it in one day.)
• I need to really work hard and learn to overcome laziness. (I definitely see an improvement in the amount of work I'm putting into things. Yippee!)
• Once we move into our new home, I don't want to allow clutter to accumulate.

So, while my goals may have been lofty and impressive, in actuality things don't always work out how one would hope. I'm still trying to make myself into a better person, but maybe it won't be quite as dramatic. But that's ok. Life's a journey, right?

Now granted, he's only been there 24 hours, but Hubby loves it so far!

First off, he's being treated like royalty. Someone met him at the plane, took him to a lounge and got him settled as this person took care of all the customs/passport issues and retrieved his luggage. Then he was whisked away in a Town Car to the hotel, where he was given this amazing room with every possible luxury.

This morning he was picked up by a driver (who will be at his disposal for the next 30 days) and taken to work where he was given an orientation. This was done by the Human Resources Director, a Californian woman who has lived there for 5 years and loves it. He was told that his workday will be from 6:30 a.m. (gulp!) to 4 p.m. (and on Tuesday and Thursday until 2!). This will be so completely abnormal for us. He has never gotten home, on a regular basis, before 7:30. Plus he'll be able to come home from lunch on a daily basis, something I have always wanted us to be able to do. Plus, the head of the Qatar division told him that there is NEVER any overtime - something completely unheard of in the construction industry here.

Once we get there, we'll all be given a private tour of Doha, courtesy of the company. And they gave him a book to help us adjust that has information about all kinds of extra curricular activities and fun things to do. I knew about this particular book (I think it's published quarterly, so maybe it's more of a big, big magazine) and had asked him to send me a copy when he got there, so they gave him a second copy for me.

He said that the city is beautiful, very similar to Miami, but not as much greenery. But everything is very modern and spacious. Traffic is not as bad as Jordan, which was my big worry, and he even went looking at cars and is considering buying a Hummer, which I guess must be pretty reasonably priced.

I'll keep you all updated, but so far, so good!!

P.S. The open house the other day went pretty well. I had three couples come through. Plus the house is not officially listed on the MLS, so we will hopefully get some response from that. Thanks for your prayers!

I'll be holding an open house today (and maybe tomorrow if the weather holds) to try and sell our home. Foolishly, I allowed the kids to each have a friend sleep over last night. I know, I know...Dumb.

Anyways, I would so appreciate it if you would pray that God would lead the right person to the house today. The sooner we sell our home, the sooner we can join Hubby.

And maybe you could pray that I could get the house ready in time, too!

So in the process of moving to Doha, Qatar there have been many questions. What will life be like there? What changes will we need to make to our daily lives?

We know that we won't need to wear any special clothing. We have also learned that most of the activities that our children participate in are also available there. Yes, there are Christian churches.

One issue that I wondered about was what types of food products would be available. My kids are somewhat picky eaters and I was hoping to learn that several of our family favorites are readily available. Hubby promised to check it out.

We spoke yesterday and he was raving about a store that is very popular in the Middle East, Carrefour. He joyously informed me that it's "just like Wal-Mart." But the most exciting part (to him, anyway)?

They have SoftScrub.

I cannot tell you how excited he was. If you recall, he recently proved himself to be quite the little housekeeper. His secret weapon. That's right, SoftScrub.

So, for those of you who have worried that we might not fare well, fear not! Life will be just fine.

Wow, Thursday has come around again so quickly this week!! It's a good thing, too, as I have much to be thankful for! Thanks to Lynn for hosting Thankful Thursday again. Be sure to visit the many women who share all their blessings. It's very uplifting!

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“Therefore, behold, I will allure her,and bring her into the wilderness,and speak tenderly to her." Hosea 2:14

I won't be doing a list today. I really just want to share something that has been on my heart for a few days now. For some reason the other day I felt led to browse through the minor prophets. I initially was searching for a specific verse, which I found in Joel, but then I flipped back a few pages to Hosea and read this beautiful verse above.

If you have never read Hosea, I'll give you a quick rundown. The Lord tells the prophet Hosea to marry an adulterous wife. She repeatedly betrays him. At one point, Hosea must even pay to purchase back his own wife. She bears him three children. Think of the humiliation. To be married to someone who, after all you have done for her, spits in your face and cheats on you, turns her back on you. And yet, Hosea picks her up out of the gutter again and again.

Why would the Lord ask one of his servants to marry someone like this? Simply put, to illustrate the depths of his love for us. We are like the adulterous wife. Time and time again we turn our backs on the Lord, choosing our will over his; desiring the pleasures of sin and self-gratification. I've been a Christian for over 20 years now and yet I still struggle with living a life that is completely sold out to God. I want my own way. I want to do what I want to do, even as I tell myself that I know it's not what God wants me to do.

But, dear sisters, regardless of this, God loves us. He picks us up out of the gutters, cleans us up, dresses us up in all the finery and looks upon his bride with love.

Oh, yes, Hosea is quite clear that there will be consequences. God is holy, after all. This is not a license to sin and go on our merry way. We all suffer the consequences of our sin.

But God doesn't stop loving us. He never will. Just like it says in the verse above, he lures us back to himself; speaking tenderly to us; wooing us. You know how it is when you've done something wrong. You are afraid to face the person you've offended - how will they react? How will they treat you? You never have to worry about that with God. With repentance comes forgiveness - complete and total forgiveness.

"For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west,so far does he remove our transgressions from us." Psalm 103:11, 12

So today I just am thankful for God's infinite mercy and forgiveness. I am such a weak and broken sinner and so in need of his grace. It is so wonderful to know that when I come to him, I will be met with open arms ready to wrap around me in love, rather than with punishment and rebuke.

If this is something you struggle with accepting, please take some time to read through the book of Hosea. It's not very long, but it is very powerful. You'll find a God of mercy and forgiveness. And you'll find a God who loves you more than you could ever understand.