Pedometer Steps.....

My cousin showed up this morning with a mocha and a chai...both for me. I am so spoiled. (I have both in the refrigerator and have been sipping on them throughout the day. Of course I am making sure to drink tall glasses of water as well. Hopefully I will make these yummy drinks last through the weekend.) Out of her pocket also came a pedometer for me. Though drink gift had nothing to do with the techie gift in her mind, I had to laugh. A pedometer is one of those little foot step counting gadgets that I have always wanted but never gotten. There is a catch to keeping it however. I must accompany her next Saturday for the hospital charity walk. Actually I forgot to ask the distance we will be walking but I can't figure it to be too long. It will be fun just to be out and doing something productive.

I put the pedometer on about 1.5 hours ago and it says I have gone 296 steps. Somewhere in my mind I have the notion that a person should shoot for 10,000 steps a day. Somehow I get the feeling that even though I am up and down with Daddy and doggies....I have a long way to go to hitting that mark.

I wonder what it would have measured yesterday.
When I last wrote I commented on my back being a bit sore from our carpet removal shenanigans. You would think that would make me be a good girl and keep still but ......nope. Yesterday Daddy was sleepy after all of our doctor visitings and I seemed to have ample time to myself. I felt antsy and just knew that if I didn't find a project to occupy myself I would do something drastically unproductive like sit and emotionally eat.

I must be a glutton for punishment because I armed myself with a spray bottle of cleaner and scrubbers to settle into the sun room where everyone goes to smoke. I started with the ceiling and worked my way down one wall and a portion of floor. Yuck! I did maybe a 1/4 of the room before my shoulders cried out and I had to give up. The clean difference is drastic but I don't think I have it in me to do the rest of the room.

But other things only require brain and heart so that will have to work for me now.

Just a couple of nights ago my brother had called and was asking me if had any idea before I came here of all the things that God had in store for this trip. I confessed very quickly that I knew not and liked it better that way. Without my plans to get in the way, I can simply do my best to listen and hope that I hear right.

For example there are a couple of family members that I have been loving on. They are both young adult women who come from a broken home. Both were emotionally and intimately abused by a step parent. One has chosen to hold the world at bay with denial and hostility while the other seeks solace in same gender relationships. Neither have confidence in themselves to take positive steps into being successful and both have a serious confusion about who God really is. But for whatever I am able to do with them by attitude and grace, they are both coming around more and more for hugs, encouragement, and advice.

Recently I held the younger one in my arms as she cried while the older (standing a safe distance away) watched on with something that was mixed in wonder, fear and longing. She even made comment in saying, "Wow Aunt Julie. You are just like Mary Poppins coming in here and making everything better for everyone." I just keep feeling that by the things God is having me do with them in relationship, it will fill in the gap for them so that they can see Him clearly.

Then there is also a different family member who seems to take great thrill in picking my brains on my beliefs. He does it partly for the thrill of debate but mostly as a desire to know more. Our discussions have become quite a regular thing, sometimes planned and sometimes out of the blue. Just a couple of days ago one of those spur of the moment times happened. He didn't set out to pick my brain at the time but quickly became engrossed in wanting my thoughts on a particular subject.

He had seen one of those bumper stickers that refer to God as being a woman and he commented that God can't be a woman because women are smarter and never would have made man. He laughed at his own joke and then kept spinning off comments about men being dumb, worthless, and having no good qualities. I felt it all rather odd considering he is a man. At the same time, I could also feel my spiritual foot rising up to enter my mouth in what I felt to be a conversation too big to ignore.

"Actually," I said without being sassy, "God is referred to in the Bible as He but I think He is so much more than what we can comprehend. If you want to examine characteristics then He is the true reflection of both man and woman."
Yes that got a perplexed look but I continued. "Man has primal instincts of being a protector and provider. I think that we both agree that those are characteristics that belong to God. No matter what part of the world you look to, woman is portrayed as being nurturing and tender. Those are also mirror images of God's heart to us. God says that in joining man and woman that the two shall become one. It take both man and woman to unify and make a complete representation of godly characteristics. Both have strengths that fill in for the other's weaknesses."
The conversation went into more detail than what I wrote here but it was a good and thought provoking time for us both.

Woops, I should stop writing for now. There is a guy on the way over to take a look at Daddy's truck bed cover that I have for sale online. Hopefully it is what he is looking for.

Take care and God bless!