I wish I was a great story teller. I admire those who can tell a great story — to get the sequence of details just right, build suspense and deliver the punch line with great gusto. I’m just not very good at it. But, I want to get better! So when I was asked to review Scott McClellan’s new book, Tell Me a Story: Finding God (and Ourselves) Through Narrative, I said “Sure!”
We were talking the other day how Rooney is going to be such a cool person. Eric even went so far as to say that she will be the coolest 80-year-old. Lemme tell you, it kind of blows your mind to think of your daughter as an 80-year-old, because you know that you probably won’t be around to see it. But, hopefully she gets there some day!
And it just sort of got me thinking about what I wish for her in her life. I jotted a few things down here, and hope that I do everything I can to help her achieve these dreams — but only if they are also her dreams.
We’ve been praying for more than a year for a new job for Eric. He likes the company he works for, but doesn’t feel like his strengths and passions are being used as best as they could.
We know God is better at authoring our lives than we could ever be, but at times it is hard to not ask Why is this taking so long? Have you forgotten about us? Are we not asking the right way? Do you care about the details of our lives?
It can get very weary to continue to pray the same thing, over and over, for an entire year. At times we were hopeful, at times we were frustrated, at times we just wanted to ignore the problem.
I’m not sure if it made it harder or easier, but we really had very few leads…few opportunities that seemed promising or exciting…very little to get our hopes up for.
This is a tough question. I’m not a theologian or a biblical scholar, so I kind of feel under-qualified to answer this question. But I do have personal experiences with tithing, so I will discuss the topic from our point of view.
Tithing is the biblical principle that we should give 10% of our income back to the Lord. Back to the Lord, you ask? Yes, he is the one who has blessed us with income in the first place, so we should be giving back as an offering of thanks and to help build his kingdom. For me, tithing is more of a discipline than a requirement.
Do I believe and trust God enough to faithfully give 10% of my income no matter my circumstances?
This was the question that presented itself when we sat down to do our very first budget. We had been rather ho-hum about tithing. We’d tithe if we happened to be at church that weekend, but not if we were out of town. When we did, great! If we missed a few, no big deal. Needless to say, it was random.
But when we were diving into Financial Peace University and at a crossroads financially, we decided that if we were going to get serious about being intentional with our money, the first thing we needed to do was to be giving a tenth away.
I wanted to give a few more details on how my new job opportunity came about and how I’ve been feeling as a working mom for the past five months.
When I went back to work in May, Rooney was only 2 months old. Things were OK for a couple weeks. I welcomed the break from taking care of a newborn full-time that work provided.
But after a few weeks, I was heartbroken. I would cry almost every night when I finally got to see and hold Rooney. She was changing, and I was missing it. I was distracted at work, which I felt terrible about and wasn’t fair to my employer. I was constantly thinking about Rooney and wondering if we could afford for me to cut hours.
I started to resent my job.
My mind was made up that I needed a change, but the details of how it would all work out weren’t clear.
At all.
