God speaks even in bubble baths!

After last night's post, I had a bubble bath to relax right before bedtime. I took my book into my bath. Wow...what a message God was sending to me! I am currently reading several books, including Elizabeth Gilbert's Eat Pray Love. While she isn't a theologian (and never claimed to be) and has some very different views on God, she is an excellent writer. I love how rich her descriptions are!

The following are excerpts from her book:
"I can decide how I spend my time, whom I interact with, whom I share my body and life and money and energy with. I can select what I eat and read and study. I can choose how I'm going to regard unfortunate circumstances in my life -- whether I will see them as curses or opportunitites (and on the occasions when I can't rise to the most optimistic viewpoint, because I'm feeling too damn sorry for myself, I can choose to keep trying to change my outlook). I can choose my words and the tone of my voice in which I speak to others. And most of all, I can choose my thoughts. ...learn how to select your thoughts just the same way you select what clothes you're gonna wear every day. This is a power you can cultivate. If you want to control things in your life so bad, work on the mind. So, I've started being vigilant about watching my thoughts all day and monitoring them. I repeat this vow about 700 times a day: 'I will not harbor unhealthy thoughts anymore.' " - Elizabeth Gilbert


I'm a school teacher. I make my living by managing other people's children, their teenage children. This is by far my greatest challenge. Another includes managing my attitude, my tounge and my train of thoughts as I stand in front of them. A few handfuls worth of students really test my patience. I'm easily flustered and frustrated when they misbehave, refuse to follow my instructions, or smart off to me. It takes everything I have to guard my tongue and resist telling them what I really think about them. I love all my students...this doesn't change when they act up. Seriously though, I'm the adult. I can control my tone of voice, my word choice and what thoughts I allow to creep into my mind.

As a photographer, I've been stuck in the middle of a really annoying situation. I didn't do anything wrong and can't really point my finger at who is actually to blame. My professionalism and credibility has somewhat been attacked. That's super hard to deal with! Most of all, its hard not to let my brain develop all these mean, hateful, full of expletive thoughts into words. It's even harder to breathe deeply and try to remain calm when my heart is racing and I want to scream. I've been so proud of the self control that I've maintained. Seriously. I typically fly off the handle and regret it later. Thank you, Lord for working in me to change this terrible habbit.

In my regular 'ole life, I can sometimes be known as a complainer or one who thinks negatively. I am sooooooo analytical and I have a sick way of thinking about the most morbid events that could ever possibly happen to me. Naturally, I'm just not Miss Positive Ray of Sunshine. I have bad days. I get down in the dumps. I'm tired a lot. I'm fairly lazy during my free time. This often sends me spiraling into a non-thought-controlled way of living. I hope to change this. I hope to overcome this. I want to pray about my thoughts. I want God to jump in them and start shaping them to be pleasing to Him. I want people to love to be around me!

I am a work in progress.