Here's hoping that today is a "normal" day....

So...I am really craving a "normal" day. You know, normal routine, normal activities, a mind that can concentrate on work for more than a few minutes at a time. I am hoping that today will be a day like that. My mom is home from the hospital and resting in her own bed. My dad seems pretty stable right now. Maybe today can begin a return to normal for a while...I sure hope so.

I am missing my morning walk to work. I love walking and listening to bible teaching or praise songs as I walk. It's just such a great way to begin the day. Right now though, I don't want to be without my car at work. I want to be able to run out to my car and be at my parents house in a matter of minutes if need be...so for today and tomorrow I will drive myself to work and pray that next week can be a return to all of my normal routine.

Lately, especially as life has been so crazy, I have been taking great comfort in this passage of scripture...

Psalm 139:1-18
1 You have searched me, LORD,
and you know me.
2 You know when I sit and when I rise;
you perceive my thoughts from afar.

3 You discern my going out and my lying down;
you are familiar with all my ways.

4 Before a word is on my tongue
you, LORD, know it completely.

5 You hem me in behind and before,
and you lay your hand upon me.

6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,
too lofty for me to attain.

7 Where can I go from your Spirit?
Where can I flee from your presence?

8 If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.

9 If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
if I settle on the far side of the sea,

10 even there your hand will guide me,
your right hand will hold me fast.

11 If I say, "Surely the darkness will hide me
and the light become night around me,"

12 even the darkness will not be dark to you;
the night will shine like the day,
for darkness is as light to you.

13 For you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother's womb.

14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful,
I know that full well.

15 My frame was not hidden from you
when I was made in the secret place.
When I was woven together in the depths of the earth,

16 your eyes saw my unformed body.
All the days ordained for me
were written in your book
before one of them came to be.

17 How precious to me are your thoughts, God!
How vast is the sum of them!

18 Were I to count them,
they would outnumber the grains of sand—
when I awake, I am still with you.

I am especially comforted by verse 16...that all of the days of my life, and the lives of those I love, were written in God's book before one of them came to pass. Before I was ever born God knew what my days would be and He has not left me to go through them alone. He is always with me, guiding my steps, comforting my heart, having nothing but good intentions and thoughts toward me.

As I think about all of this I am reminded of the "dream" I had not long ago. I posted this HERE on April 9th

I woke up at some point in the pre-dawn hours with this thought. It's hard to put into words because it was more of a mental image thought type of thing...but anyway. I saw myself picturing God waving His hand and sort of scattering the stars into the heavens, kind of like one would scatter grass seed. But then I felt myself realizing that this wasn't an accurate picture. Then I imagined God carefully placing each star in exactly the right place in the heavens and giving each one a name. It was one of those amazing moments when it felt like God was speaking to my heart. I'll be meditating on that one for a while. It was just such a cool moment that I wanted to share it.


Psalm 8:3-4
When I consider your heavens,
the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars,
which you have set in place,

what is man that you are mindful of him,
the son of man that you care for him?



Psalm 147:3-5
He heals the brokenhearted
and binds up their wounds.

He determines the number of the stars
and calls them each by name.

Great is our Lord and mighty in power;
his understanding has no limit.

I've been thinking about this "dream" a lot lately as well as thinking about the fact that my days are already written in His book...and I am comforted by the knowledge that none of this is random, none of it is coincidence or chance or the luck of the draw. God has an ordained plan for my life (and for the lives of those whom I love) and he is carefully placing everything exactly where it needs to be, at exactly the time it needs to be there....every circumstance, every crisis, every blessing...it all comes through His hand and into my life. And it's all for my good and for His glory. What an awsesome God! As the psalmist says...."such knowledge is too wonderful for me!"

I am encouraged and comforted today in the knowledge that I am going to go and live a day that has been ordained by God. There's no reason to worry. He placed the stars in the sky and He calls them by name...and He knows my name as well. It's going to be better than a normal day...it's going to be a day ordained by God!

As for my menu...I ate on plan yesterday. I didn't take photos of all of my food. I ate yogurt, an orange and Fiber One cereal for breakfast. I had a wrap, some snap peas ond an apple for lunch. Dinner was a yummy concoction of chicken, vegetables, shirataki noodles and fat free sour cream and cream cheese. I DID take a photo of this!



I ended that day with yogurt and banana. I stayed within my points range.