I Set My Mind To . .

Welcome back!

Funny how I’ve always been taught, “you can do whatever you set your mind to.” Yet, in doing even the simplest of things, namely taking care of my home, I struggled.  The truth is, my mind nor my heart was in it.  I was focused on other things, good things mind you, mostly ministry and creating an income for my family, but nonetheless my mind was elsewhere, and we all know where are thoughts are there is our heart.

For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. Matthew 6:21

I am grateful for how quickly things can change, for the fact that I can set my mind to changing and I can do it. For the fact that I can call on friends to pray, they do so and I feel their prayers. My heart and my mind and my treasure are in a much different place than they were a few weeks ago and for that I am grateful.

Thank you Lord for being a God of second, third and fourth chances and thank you for allowing me to do. . . whatever I set my mind on.

So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.

An Honest Look

I have to be honest.  If there were any New Year’s Resolution that I needed to adopt, it would be to spend less time online.  Yes, I know I work from home and that involves being online quite a bit, but I know if I were honest with myself that if I spent 2-4 hrs of focused work time I could get way more done.  Also, I keep feeling God telling me, nudging me to re-prioritize and saying to me “Alyssa, put first things first.” Meaning put being a wife and mom before my work, which I must admit I don’t do all of the time because of the money. I worry about the money that I could be bringing in.

And, as we all know money involves work, so that’s when my work is put first, because money is what pays the bills.  Then, there is this belief and this knowledge deep inside of me that knows, money is not your provider, God is your provider dear child.  So, why can’t I just follow that and instead focus on my family, always?

In this new year this is my personal goal.  FOCUS on my FAMILY.  Focus on my home, my kids and my husband, not necessarily in that order.  This means I must keep my computer and work time down to 4 hours.  Any ideas how I can make this easier?  I’d love to hear from you!

Good Friends = Good Life

When I was younger, my momma always told me “enjoy your friends now because when you get older they disappear.” I believed her, for a long time.  My mom and dad weren’t the type of people when we were growing up to have friends over, have get togethers or anything.  Sure, we had family over all the time, but my mom and dad’s friends, not so much.

When I graduated high school, it hit me, I am going to lose all my friends.  That hit hard and it hurt.  I had this fear that it would come true.  Sure, I haven’t seen most of the people I graduated with since graduation or a random run in at the local Walmart, and my best friend from high school and I rarely talk, but when we do it feels just like old times.  Even still, my best friend from elementary and junior high, who moved away, and I still talk regularly.  Though we rarely see each other. I was in her wedding in 2005 and she came to see me after both baby #1 and #2 were born.  #1 the night he was born carrying flowers, because she’s just that type of gal.

When I married the summer after my freshman year of college, I had this tiny hope inside that I’d make new friends in my new town.  That didn’t exactly happen over night.  But slowly, it has happened and now, I’m surrounded with a great big circle of friends.  I call them “my girls” and they are so special.  Each one hand picked by God to be a friend to me.  What makes them even more special is many of them have children my children’s age and they too are friends.  We have get togethers with the kids, we go to church together and our children attend school together.  We do A LOT together and that’s why good friends = my good life.

The photo is from our 2nd Annual Weenie Roast held a couple weekends ago.

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