A shout out

First I want to acknowledge my friends. It seems that many are having a tough couple of weeks. To Brandon (a guy I work with) his 6 year old nephew died tonight during an operation, that really puts things into perspective for me; to Candyce, you rock, we have had similar occurrences this last week, it has been tough, but you will make it through, and you will be an amazing DTS staff, I love you; Brad I am so sorry for how things went down, we did not have near enough random conversations in random places man, hold on to Him, He has a plan; Mindy I love you, you are amazing, hold on and fight through this, you are stronger than you think!!!

So I was given a devotional book for Christmas (thanks Melissa), and I have actually been using it. Now maybe I am ripping myself off by using a devotional, but it is a place for me to start, and it has really been hammering me. The last three days that I have read have been about STRESS! I have been so busy and stressed out, and things just keep happening to add to the already tense situations. My back, neck, and shoulders hurt from the tension due to the stress, I need a massage. So these devotionals have been speaking to me, if I am too busy to start my day with God then I need to set boundaries so that I have time for Him. God does not intend for His children to live busy and stressed out lives, which means that somethings have to go. God does not drive His children, He leads them and this starts by spending time with Him. So I find myself wondering what is it that I can give up. I thought that most of what is consuming my time was lead by God, but I am tired and drained, so much so that everything feels like a burden and tough, my patiences, especially with people is thin, too thin. I don't like what all of this is turning me into. I should not feel so drained, and my patiences should not be short. So now that I will be having some more free time for a couple of weeks (maybe the only good thing that comes from Christmas), I have decided that I will take some time to evaluate my life, what I am doing and if this is the right path that I am suppose to be on. I knew this path would not be an easy one, but I did not think it would be like this. So I am sure that things will be changing, change is never easy, but it will be for the good. Now this is not that my life calling will change, but how it is carried out may look different, or maybe it is just my perspective that needs to change, who knows. This is going to take a lot of work, it does not take much time to establish a habit or pattern, but it takes a lot of work to break it. I find that I struggle with this a lot, the pattern is usually set before I ever realize what has happened. I am going to take the time to look at my life, it is a good thing to do at the end of every year and beginning of a new one anyways, and then I will work hard at following and creating healthy lifestyle patterns, that include starting my day off with God(from more than a devotional) and with less tasks and stress. So stay tuned for what that will bring!