Finish the Sentence Friday - What am I Passionate About? My FRIENDS..

What am I passionate about?  Or who? (Spoiler Alert: Friends)

To say you are passionate about something means to spend time on it.  Even if it is gardening and you do not know it, people measure your passion by what you spend your time on.

SO what do I spend my time on?

It certainly is not my house, although I wish it were sometimes.  Not that I do not like a clean house.  In fact, I wrote a whole book on how I am trying to have a clutter free house and heart.  I really do like to have clean and welcoming home.  It sounds as if I spend a lot of time on my home with the amount of time I talk about doing stuff to my house to my sister, but am I really spending that much time on it? Hmm..

The first would be MY FRIENDS. I need to say my extended family is very much included in this bit of friends, because they were my first friends and they have been with me for life.  My mom, dad, sister, and brother, as well as all of their families and all of my husband's side have places in my heart that will never change. Now, if my blogger account or my goofy computer were working how they should, I could add some great pictures of my family and friends.  But for now, you will have to trust me, because they rock. They stick with me through more than I want to live through.  Through pain, questions, anxiety and fear.  And they are there to cheer, to laugh, and to say they like my new profile pic. They love me no matter what!

I would also say my husband (MY BEST FRIEND), because I adore my husband more than chocolate covered strawberries. I love our date nights.  I love watching him with our kids.  I love him, and I love how he makes me laugh, but do I really spend a lot of time planning for him, serving Him, and just being with him?  Not as much as I should or as I would like. Or as much as he would like I am sure...

My kids would be one that I would say, for sure, I am quite passionate about and I would have to put it right up there with time since I home school and am with them almost 24/7. And as far as love goes, it is never ending and always filling.  They are my sweetest friends who I love for life. Take tonight for example, when my little one prayed to Jesus and said, "Thank you for making my Mommy who never says, 'No," when I ask her to snuggle." It doesn't get much better than that! So I would have to say that my kids are my passion, although I reminded when I hear prayers like that that I have been created with a hole that can only be filled with my Jesus.

I know He should be my passion. MY VERY BEST FRIEND! My first love. My consuming thought.  And on those sweet days when I do come to Him and ask for His wisdom, patience, and strength. When He becomes not only my God, but my true passion...Ahhh, those can be some good days. Because some days can be hard.  Some days I get so tired.  When one hurtful comment is said to me. When one more person lets me down.  When I mess up the same way again and again. My body hurts. My spirit is weary. God should be my passion, for  I am His beloved. His daughter. His princess. I am His Friend. I am His passion.

And that makes me want to change the way I spend my time...

What is your passion?  Where do you spend your time? I would love to know...



Link up here with others and read some funny, some serious, but always real life stories from some great writers for Finish That Sentence Friday.


And here for Five Minute Friday for some amazing, authentic, and sweet stories on the topic of FRIENDS.

Tacos in the Tub Equals Perfection

 

 

 

I am linking up with Finish the Sentence Friday from Kate's super funny blog.

 

 

Every Friday you finish the sentence with some humor, words of wisdom, or the first answer that your seven year old gives you and you find a good picture to go with it.

 

I think this is my first.  I was a little nervous. But, from a recent group that I just joined, I found a community where people are open, encouraging, and quick to be helpful.  They make you want to join in the fun and write!

 

 

And today's Finish the Sentence is...

 

If I could live anywhere, I'd live...

 



photo credit

 

 

...in my bathtub.

 

Is this one mine?  No, I totally wish it was, although I did look up other ones and there was another one I was wishing to make my own...in the kitchen! 

How perfect would that be?!

A little sudsy time, a homemade pizza, more suds, and pie.

 

My bathtub is THE happiest place on earth, excluding Disneyworld.  Although one of the last times I was at The Magical Kingdom, I was nursing the ENTIRE time and
 missed almost everything good.

 

My glorious bathtub has sweet candles to set the mood for some fun in the tub. 
And by that, I mean a glass of Pepsi, some Twizzlers, and a really good magazine
that I just got from Costco.

 

And, I even have bath salts from Hawaii!  One of my girlfriends goes there with her family EVERY year.  I know...Who does that?!  She is a kind sweet mama whose kids are the only ones around who can ever finish the license plate game in less than a LIFETIME! 

 

My bath tub is a also bubbly one. A whirlpool one.  Funny how I have no problem sitting in a hot tub at some random hotel pool where fifteen thousand other people have done who knows what
and I get totally grossed out when my husband takes a bath and says,

 "You can use my water if you want."

 

UGH. NO WAY!

 

My bath is where I dream, rest, read, and if I could pull of eating a late night snack of Taco Bell while watching The Office and still somehow remain in the tub, it would be as close to an earthly living place perfection as it could get.
 

 

Feel free to link up and read some other writers and all the places they would want to live!

 

 

 

Finish the Sentence Friday is hosted by:

Janine’s Confessions of a Mommyaholic (Twitter, Facebook)

Mommy, for Real (Twitter, Facebook)

Dawn’s Disaster (Twitter, Facebook)

Can I get another bottle of whine? (Twitter, Facebook)

  

 

iPad Giveaway and Lead, Momma Lead Webcast Event

  Enter Today - 3/25- 4/16!       I have been blessed to be able to read, review, and share this AMAZING book!     What would Jesus do is a question everyone asks.  But how about...   What Would Jesus Do with Your Kids?
This book will not only give practical suggestions to become the heart, hands, and feet of Jesus, but Lead Your Family Like Jesus will share twelve priceless parenting principles based on  the Savior's life teachings.
I am taking one book challenge for the next fourteen days.   For those of you who know me well, you know I LOVE my sleep.  Yet, this book has encouraged me that solitude is not just a good idea, but needed for my relationship with God and for me to be refreshed in Him.  And along with that solitude comes a sacred time to pray.
So for the next fourteen days,  I am taking the challenge to pray intentionally for my children early in the morning.
I am going to get up just fifteen minutes earlier and pray for each of them  with a specific verse for each.   Might you  you take the challenge with me?  Maybe it is praying for your child.  Maybe it is reading the Bible.  Maybe it is just getting quiet before God. 

Fifteen minutes.

I will keep you posted!

Now if you have not yet done it...please click on the icon above to enter in an awesome giveaway!

Be Still and know that I am God.

Psalm 46:10

After ~ The Best Part

 

 

A few of us love to write so much, we do it without thinking and with (little) editing.  Find out all about it here.

 

Here is my Five Minute Friday thoughts coming and my little fingers typing:

The topic for today: 

 

AFTER

 

 

It was after the egg hunt.

After the little legs scurrying for colored pieces of love left by the Easter Bunny all over the yard.

It was after the lunch of too much ham and just the right amount of not-the-dense-kind of too-thick cheesecake, but the just-right-fluffy tasty kind that Grandma makes.

It was after the sliding down the slide and hugging Papa for a photo.

It was after all that, that I saw this.  This sweet face of contentment.  This sweet face, resting in the shade, weary from a day well spent.

Her white dress reminding me of the fresh life of grace that we get in every new day because of what came after those three days.

I thank God for the after.

Only Seven Things To Wear

"What's wrong with being pretty? I just want to look professional.  

I want others to take me seriously. I like fashion. 

How my family dresses is a reflection on me as a provider. 

I want to look good for my spouse.

Almost all of these arguments are rooted in someone else's opinion. 

Somehow the exterior dressing

 is elevated over the content of my character.

Jen Hatmaker, The 7 Experiment

 How often do we look to others for self actualization... for affirmation...for a "Well done" or "Nice job," and when it is coupled with a, "You look beautiful" while doing it, it somehow makes it even sweeter.

Is it possible that we care more about what we are wearing than the lives of others?  When one pair of jeans would fund three child sponsorships, and we shop as a habit? (Hatmaker, 60) What are we really saying about the state of our heart?

In Isaiah, God makes it pretty clear where he is looking or more so, where He is not :

^{3:16 - 23}

¹⁶ The Lord said:
Because the daughters of Zion are haughty
    and walk with outstretched necks,
    glancing wantonly with their eyes,
mincing along as they go,
    tinkling with their feet,
¹⁷ therefore the Lord will strike with a scab
    the heads of the daughters of Zion,
    and the Lord will lay bare their secret parts.

¹⁸ In that day the Lord will take away the finery of the anklets, the headbands, and the crescents; ¹⁹ the pendants, the bracelets, and the scarves; ²⁰ the headdresses, the armlets, the sashes, the perfume boxes, and the amulets; ²¹ the signet rings and nose rings; ²² the festal robes, the mantles, the cloaks, and the handbags; ²³ the mirrors, the linen garments, the turbans, and the veils.

Oh man, why did he have to include scarves and handbags? I was fine with nose rings and amulets.

I am convicted.  I am guilty.  I have way more scarves than I need and one of my purses sold on ebay could feed a child for a year.  

This is not for the light hearted.  This really is not for me, but I have to do it. And He will help. In my quest for simplicity.  In my desire to not be a hypocrite with a book dealing with clearing out my heart and home, I will try this experiment.

I will dress simply this week.  Seven items.  That is it.  And make less of me and more of Him.

I will take Jen Hatmaker's challenge. 

And I will pray for a heart to be clear with a closet a little less full, and hopefully find even more of me to give to others. 

What is one piece of clothing you think you could NOT live without?