Fun Fact Friday

I'm not a people-person.
I'd love to live in a place like this:

 

 Maybe wander around the woods like this:



 

But only if I can look like this; cane, oil lamp, and all:

 

More Money?

Listening to the country radio station at work, the announcer states to the other and to us listeners: "More women would rather receive this than a wedding proposal...the answer, of course, is...a promotion." The two continue to discus how this makes sense because "More money, I suppose!"

Me?

 

 

 

I'd rather get married, thank you.

Chapter 7; The Third Question

Making my way through Rediscover Jesus, chapter 7 was one of the first to make me pause and think.
Backstory:
I'm working with two of my good friends to lead a young women's retreat for a mutual friend of ours. The outline of the talks are as follows:

Who am I?

 - Our identity as Daughters of God -

What does it mean to be a Woman?

- How our identity effects our womanhood -

What does it look like?

- Mary as our model for the dignity we have as Women of God -

"What am I gunna do about it?" ~ Lo

- How to live as a Woman of God -

 

The captions are my own interpretations of what the talks will be about; we will be going over our outlines next week to see what we've come up with. The three of us are giving a short testimony for the first talk and my main talk will be: What does it mean to be a woman?

This was on the forefront of my mind this morning as I sat down to pray with Matt*. Mo encouraged us all to pray about how God has shown us our identity as His daughter. It was very fitting that today's chapter was about "The Third Question". Jesus asked his disciples: "Who do people say that I am?" and "Who do you say that I am?". Matt offers the third question of: "Who does Jesus say that you are?"

 

-He says I am a child of God.

-He says that I am infinitely valuable.

-He says that I am free.

 

"Our identity is inextricably tied to Jesus (45)."

 

This all gives me more to chew on... If Jesus is the core of my identity as a child of God, what does He specifically teach me about my identity as a daughter of God?
 



We'll keep walking along this Journey with Matt together, as I have more to share with you from his writings!

 

Lord, help us to see Your workings in our day today.

 

 

 

*"Matt" here refers to author Mathew Kelly.

Chapter 1; New Beginnings

My plans...foiled...yet again.
First, I had opened Rediscovering Jesus with the intent on reading right through it. After all, I thought This will be an easy read; it's about Jesus! Low and behold, Matt says - only 5 pages in - "There are two ways to experience this book. The first is like with any other book: Read it from cover to cover. The other way is to use this book as a guide to a forty-day spiritual journey, reading a chapter a day. This second way is a perfect way to begin (or nourish) a habit of daily prayer. (17)"

Well. There goes that plan. This will be quite the unexpectedly-extended journey!

In other news, it is a perfect time to read this book. The chapters are short, sweet, and to-the-point. Chapter 1 sets the stage for the meeting of the Main Character. Matt writes how he loves Mondays because they bring us a new beginning every week. I read chapter 1 on a Monday, so it was very fitting. But all day I was bogged down with this distaste for all things "new beginning".

*A whole week later and I still have yet to finish this post.*

I'm trying to work out of my head that this is "just another one of those books for amateurs".

 

re·dis·cov·er

ˌrēdəˈskəvər/

verb

1.     discover (something forgotten or ignored) again.

I need to rediscover Jesus, too.

The Elephant

Let me take a quick moment to address that web elephant you might notice in the corner of your screen...

the best picture Google provided...that poor painted elephant!

I almost made it a year without blogging.

Intentionally? Of course not.

"Junior year" of college was full of coursework, new friends, five roommates, cooking, discovery, adopted family, dancing, babies, drinking (in moderation, but often enough that it's worth mentioning), and renewal - constant renewal. Maybe, and probably, I will expand upon these things when I run out of topics to elaborate upon...Stay tuned!

I won't make any summer goals for this web journal, but I will most definitely utilize this marvelous platform for processing the pebbles, rocks, twigs, dirt, flowers, and insects that I happen to find while hiking through the journey of life.

See you soon, dear readers, and here's to Summer 2016!

Lord, let all we do glorify you!

My Journey with Matt

...Matthew Kelly, that is.
The Catholic churches in my hometown have a strong liking for this man and his ministry, Dynamic Catholic. So much so that they'll purchase hundreds of copies of books like The Four Signs of a Dynamic Catholic, Rediscover Catholicism, and Rediscover Jesus. Since I have an addiction to free things, I am all about collecting these. However, I also suffer from procrastination and a new diagnoses, Reader's Block, during my time in school. Because of this, the situation usually goes like this:

*sees stacks of free books after church*
Oooh! A new one!
- Liz, you haven't even touched one of the copies you picked from the last book they gave out.
But this one looks good...
- They all look good.
Well, even if I don't read it, it's still good to have these on hand for the day that someone comes to me with questions...I can direct them to an author who knows what he's talking about...it's the gift that keeps on giving, right?
- ...
Right?
*grabs a copy, adds it to the collection on the bookshelf*
And that is how I end up with 3 copies of Dynamic Catholic.

Well, the vicious cycle is coming to an end because I'm going to start reading Rediscover Jesus: An Invitation.

The inspiration came from a priest's homily this past weekend. He has quoted the book multiple times, and it got me thinking that it's time I read it too.

This marks the beginning of my journey with Matt.