thoughts from Romans

"Modern 'idols' don't look like ancient ones; images served today are often mental rather than metal.  But people still devote their lives to, and trust in, many things other than God."

This quote came from my ESV study Bible as a commentary on Romans 1:22-23, which says..."Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal men and birds and animals and creeping things."

While we think it preposterous today to worship images made of metal, I, for one, struggle constantly with putting things before God....school, work, my marriage, material things, friendships...you name it.  In my human nature, I tend to trust in these things, and in myself, first and often God as an afterthought or last resort.  It's humbling (and embarrassing) to think about the things that I "exchange the glory of the immortal God for."

In this season of thanks, I am so grateful that God has given me grace upon grace for the many times I have failed Him and for the ways He has blessed me in spite of the fact that I am completely undeserving.  Friends, please pray that I can trust and devote my life to God above all else and that He will reveal to me the idols I have set up that are standing in the way of my relationship with Him.

29 @ 29 update

I started this blog almost a month ago and somehow am just now getting around to writing it thanks at first to an internet malfunction and then to a busy rotation.  Just thought I would give an update on my 29 @ 29 list and how it's going so far.

Things that aren't going so well
#1 and #23-- These two go hand in hand for me and thanks to my last rotation, my workouts have been pretty much nonexistent and my diet has been hit or miss at best.  Looking forward to starting a new rotation tomorrow and becoming more consistent in working out and fixing healthy meals again.  I definitely miss it.
#8 -- As you may have noticed, the consistency in blogging hasn't been there, nor in journaling.  Hoping this is a step in the right direction. ;)
#9 -- I wish I could say that I've been doing better in my relationship with God and in reading His Word, but I haven't.  I finally got to go to church this morning for the first time in weeks and boy was that refreshing to my soul.  It also gave me the kick in the butt I needed to confess and work some things out between myself and God, which I think will help a lot with the barriers I've been putting up in pursuing Him.

And on the bright side...
#11 -- I have been crafting more lately when I get the chance.  I have been doing some card making, journal making and sewing.  Hoping to be able to make some gifts for the holidays and maybe even sell some of my crafts around the holidays if I can get the time to make enough.  Something else I would love to do is start an etsy shop....might be a little ambitious but we'll see.
#3 -- I finished the Warrior Dash!  My time wasn't the greatest ever, but I was just happy to make it through without breaking something or dying.  The course was WAY muddier than I expected and the second half I was mostly just trying to stay on my feet.  Check out the before and after pics below to get an idea of how dirty we all got during the race.

Here's hoping my next update will have more positives than negatives :)