Summer, Winter, And Dirty Laundry

As September continues to provide amazing weather, I've realized that with the cooler night temperatures, winter is right around the corner. This summer was nothing short of awesome as Karilyn and I had a lot of new experiences together in Montana. We whitewater rafted, hiked many beautiful places, and spent lots of time camping together. Our relationship has grown tenfold and provides love in ways I never imagined.

Winter is coming and it doesn't take much to feel the chill in the air at night. I'm hoping to snowboard my way through Montana's harsh winter. We've been blessed with some great friends and an amazing church. Hopefully we'll get lots of opportunities to work for the future, both here on earth and the best yet to come in Heaven.

While we aren't a hundred percent certain of things to come, an interest in going to school for vet tech has Karilyn and I tossing ideas up in the air. My biggest thing is to continue to encourage her to do the best in everything she does and be supportive when she's not feeling up to the task. I'm thankful that she is constantly lifting me up in times of need and helps inspire me to do my best.

I still have ministry on my mind and a desire in my heart to help troubled youth. I'm really thankful that I now have an opportunity with my church to help out at a juvenile detention center. So far a lot of things have opened up my eyes to stark realities that I often try to ignore. I'm hoping to pull the dirty laundry out, get a fresh perspective, and begin a new direction.

My lack of humility at times hinders my ability to be engaged in opportunities set out before me. I'm too often trying to be "correct" rather than just being an ear. In reading about Jesus's ministry, I can see that He was quick to listen to people, even those(Pharisees) who were too busy trying to throw Him under the bus. My pride does not allow people to throw me under the bus. In fact, I find myself ready to knock someone out who does try. If I'm going to one day work with troubled youth, I'm going to need to practice and exercise patience and love in situations that require a maximum amount of humility and a tender approach.

My lack of persistence can and does lead to an overwhelming amount of complacency that lays the groundwork for bad habits. For example, I've tried multiple times without success to change my eating habits. I've noticed that my problem has been to try to change everything at once. Taking smaller steps means to continue to do what I've been doing, replacing soda with water at work, always grabbing good(fruit) with the bad(cookies), and hopefully cooking at home more often than eating out. Along with the dietary failures comes a lack of effort on my part to remain active everyday. I was doing well for a bit but got lazy and simply fell apart. Hopefully I can get back to baby steps with finding one activity each day.

Lastly, my lack of monetary concern creates a huge instability in both my marriage and my life. I'm a spoiled brat, simple as that. I grew up pretty much with anything I wanted, thanks to an amazing grandma who loved me. But, that provides challenges as I am older with zero understanding of how to save money. I used to spend more than I made but I've gradually pulled out of that habit realizing the dangers. Thanks to Karilyn, we're not completely in the ground. However, if I want to continue to lead a life that doesn't involve phone calls from crazy credit collectors, I need to begin prioritizing my needs and wants while eliminating excessive waste. In other words, I need to be the exact opposite of the government. Baby steps on this one simply mean putting more money away than I spend(on wants). Hopefully we can make this happen.

Thanks for reading and feel free to ask me how this is going. Accountability is better than anything else. I've got a lot of things I want to do and I've come to realize, without health and some kind of wealth, there will be much needed miracles. So it's probably better that I use the brain God blessed me with and get things in order to make big things happen for His glory.