noBOLOGNA

Blogging my every day this week: Day 1

I mentioned in my Friday post that I’ve been inspired by a lot of the 31 day posts floating around.  Although I’m not good at committing to post topics in that way for 31 days straight, I have already started enjoying life more and now I chose to blog about my everyday because this week may actually be more exciting than watching Bones and laying in bed while blogging and job hunting.

Monday hasn’t proven to be absolutely remarkable for quite a few reasons and unfortunately, my first post to blog about my everyday is rather boring and picture-less.  You see, I started charging my phone last night before going to bed.  When I woke up this morning, it was only at 41%.  It’s done this a time or two before, so I unplugged it for a bit and decided to put it back on the charger shortly.  Well, I did and now it’s only been at 39% all day long.  I haven’t been able to really leave or go anywhere because I can’t take my phone and I’ve been trying to fix it all day.  Eventually I made my way to a local cell store to get them to check it out and basically all they could tell me is to reset my settings.  I haven’t been able to take pictures of anything too exciting because even when I unplug my phone from the wall and just accept the 39% of battery life, it turns completely off and refuses to turn back on.  It has finally found it’s way to 40% but it’s been like this for way too long.  I’m getting frustrated with the stupid iphone, I’m about ready to plunge into the depths of the ocean and never look back.

Other than dealing with my idiotic phone, I enjoyed a delicious lunch at McAlisters… all by myself.  It was fine though, sometimes I enjoy a relaxing lunch alone.  Honestly, not much else has happened today because I’ve locked myself up with my phone to get it to work – I think it’s finally starting to gain battery life, but we’ll see how the rest of the night goes.

I plan on tomorrow being much more fun and enthusiastic.  I can’t wait to get outside with a cup of coffee and work on some blogging stuff + more job searching!

Hope you all are having a really great Monday!

I’ve been inspired!

Happy Friday friends!! I really feel like each day goes by more quickly than the next!

I’ve been so inspired by these posts from fellow bloggers about their 31 day experience.  I didn’t choose to participate in this month long event, but I’ve enjoyed reading everyone’s 31 day choice and the things they want to improve on in their life.  As I mentioned in this post, Brittany inspired me to enjoy life more and I created October Monthly Goals for myself in order to enjoy life during this season of unemployment because it’s hard folks and there are a lot of days that I’m plain lazy and unmotivated and in all seriousness… lacking in joy!

Well this next week I’ll be living it up in Starkville.  I came this weekend for Homecoming and then I planned on coming up next weekend to join some friends for a race in Tennessee, so I thought it was a great time to just spend the entire week in Starkville seeing and spending time with friends.  What else would I be doing?  Laying in bed watching Bones?  Yeah… probably. So again, I am being inspired by another blogger who is participating in the 31 day challenge.  During this next week of life, I have the opportunity to make memories, the opportunity to share more of my life than just sitting in bed watching TV, applying for jobs, and spending time alone with my dog.  Jennifer has been blogging about sharing her everyday for the next 31 days and I’ve really enjoyed seeing what her little family has been up to each day.  So since I’ll actually have something to talk about, I decided to use that inspiration and try to spend the next week blogging about my every day.  I have lunches planned, runs planned, movie nights will probably be planned… and of course, just enjoying the beautiful weather, spending quality time outside with myself and with my friends on campus.

Although I’m not good at the whole spend 30 something answering these specific questions or blogging about one specific thing, I do enjoy reading about it in other blogger’s lives and it has truly inspired me.  I love being able to take these simple {or sometimes not so simple} ideas and apply them in small areas of my life!

Hope you all are blessed this weekend and I look forward to sharing my everyday with you next week.  Then I’ll probably be back to my boring life of looking for jobs and watching Bones haha, but until then, maybe you’ll have something worth reading!

Being Intentional with Prayer

I will be the first to admit that my walk with God falters more frequently than I’d like.  I have a difficult time disciplining myself to do a quiet time daily or to wake up on Sunday for church.  One thing that I’ve worked on over many years and actually feel decently adequate at is prayer.  There are times I pray more or less than other times, but overall, I make a genuine effort to be intentional in my prayer life, even if other aspects of my spiritual life suffer.

{1} Keep a Prayer Journal

I think one of the best ways to be intentional with prayer is by keeping a prayer journal.  I keep a list of all the prayers I want to make sure to cover throughout the week.  I’ll also keep track of praises, when those requests have been answered.  It’s great because I don’t have to pray for my entire list in a day, but I can always skim through and say a few prayers for people – people I would have never thought to pray about before unless I had seen them on my list because I randomly saw a prayer request for them.  I actually have a good many bloggers in my prayer journal.  If I see a blogger struggling with something or specifically asking for prayer, I’ll add them in my prayer journal and pray every so often for them and try to keep track of how things work out for them.  Once I’m done with a prayer request, I’ll cross it off my list.
{2} Use Activities for Prayer

A few weeks back I posted this photo on instagram.  I talked about how I ran with purpose on this particular day by praying.  I’m certain that we each have activities in our every day life that don’t use much brain power or focus and although the time is already being used productively (i.e. running, driving, baking) it could be used for more – for prayer.  There are runs that I take where I specifically think about who I want to be praying for on that run.  If I’m driving, I’ll turn the music off sometimes just to think and it can sometimes turn into prayer.  I haven’t tried this baking before, but I thought it could be a great activity to pray during (if you’re not already using that time cleaning or prepping for the next stage of baking).  Use monotonous activities to intentionally pray.

{3} Consider your words before they’re spoken.
How many times have you heard “I’ll be praying for you”?  I’m not the only person who has said that or heard that.  The problem I’ve realized with this is that many people don’t actually end up praying for that person.  That doesn’t make you a horrible person, but there are ways to be more intentional with that prayer.  When you say “I’ll be praying for you” then either 1. Go ahead and send up a little prayer.  If you can remember to pray later, that’s great, but at least you went ahead and prayed for that person like you said you would and whether they believe you will or not, you know you did.  2. Write it down.  There are times when I don’t always pray right away, or I will say a little prayer, but I want to make sure to continue praying for them so I’ll write the prayer request down in my prayer journal.  Before you say “I’ll be praying for you”, make sure that you consider those words and do your best to fulfill your words.  If you don’t intend to pray for that person, then don’t say it.

{4} Pray God’s Will, not yours!
This is by far the most important aspect of praying intentionally.  We can pray until we are out of breath, but if it’s not God’s WILL then you’ll either get something you shouldn’t have to begin with (and therefore, regret it) or you’ll not see any response.  This is by far the hardest part of prayer too though because sometimes we don’t want God’s will – at least not at the time.  If you’re praying for healing on a loved one… it’s hard to understand why God’s will would not want healing of that loved one as well.  So instead of praying “Lord, I pray for healing and comfort during this time, but most importantly, I pray for your will to be done in this situation, whether I like the outcome or not” we pray for our own selfish desires. Believe me, I know… those words are ROUGH, but if you begin praying God’s will more intentionally, you’ll find greater peace and comfort and eventually God will reveal himself to you.

How do you remain Intentional in Prayer?  Any other suggestions for doing this?
Do you keep a prayer journal?

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