I just realize that it's been a couple of days since I posted. No particular reason why, really. Just laziness I suppose! It's another beautifully glorious fall day here in Atlanta, although it certainly doesn't feel like a late October day. Not that I'm complaining, mind you! I'll take sunshine and blue skies and warm weather over rain and dreariness any day of the week! But I am longing for days with a little bite to them - that briskness in the air that usually accompanies the falling leaves. The tree outside my office is still predominantly green. Wonder what it will look like when the leaves are all gone, or when snow covers its branches? Time will tell, right?
I went to 7-22 again Tuesday night. Once again, I was totally blown away! I love the music there. Worshipful rock - how cool is that! And once again I couldn't resist buying a CD and a book. The CD I bought because the last song we sang during the worship service was absolutely incredible and so I picked up every CD in the bookstore until I found the right one: "Free" by Todd Fields. He didn't lead the worship that night, but he was one of the guitar players there (I know that because one of the sales clerks who verified that that was the same song we had just sung mentioned it). He wrote all the songs on the CD and from what I've heard so far, they're all fabulous. Actually, until this morning I had the CD in my car and every time I got in I would hit track #3 and play it over and over and over and over... This morning I decided to bring the CD into the office with me and so have actually listened to the whole thing. I like the first song on the CD a lot, too. It's called "You Alone are King".
The book I bought tied into the lesson - it's called "The Purity Principle" by Randy Alcorn. This was week #2 of the "pure" sermon series and was about pornography and sexual addictions. Two guys from California were the guest speakers. They had started a ministry called xxxchurch.com (their tagline is "the #1 christian porn site on the web") that is awesome! They even have free accountability software on their site for people struggling with the issues of sexual addiction and pornography. It was cool to hear their stories and hear how God is using them to minister to people across the country. But back to the book - it's a fairly small book, but God is certainly using it to call me to a deeper walk of purity with Him. I think He's really just continuing the work He's been doing in my heart these past few weeks about drawing closer to Him and passionately pursuing Him as the lover of my soul. But He's also dealing with me about things I've let seep into my life that shouldn't be there. This will not be a news flash, but it's tough to stay pure as a single adult living in this day and age! Temptations abound and the media certainly doesn't help matters. Everything from billboards to TV shows to commercials to movies to whatever else you can think of! Sex sells - and everyone's using it to sell something it seems. Being newly single again after many years of marriage, this is suddenly a huge deal to me. Suddenly I'm confronted with this issue of purity like it's a new thing, when in actuality it's probably been an issue my entire life! I mean, I've never been diligent about watching what I view on TV or not going to rated R movies or censoring where I go on the web or being careful about what types of books I read or whatever. Now suddenly God is dealing with me on so many levels about so many things! Everything from my favorite TV show (Smallville) to my preferred type of novels (cheesy romance novels) is under scrutiny. And I'm not liking what I'm finding out about my habits. This book is so right about how our minds get seared to the bad things we see until we don't even bat an eye at things that should give us great pause. I was talking to my friend Angi yesterday who is one of my "accountability partners" and she mentioned something from a sermon that she had heard years ago. Her pastor was watching TV and suddenly had the thought that the scene he was watching on TV was one of the sins for which Christ died. The scary thing is that often when we're watching something like that, it's like we disconnect our mental capacities for a bit and turn off our consciences. We veg out, in a sense, and just let the images in to roost where they may. Sorry - didn't intend for this post to be about my resolve to walk in purity before the Lord or to be a rant against "the evils of TV"! So let's change the subject to . . . . .
Fish. My friend Reba bought me the coolest thing for my upcoming birthday: a little starter fish tank! It's quite tiny and so adorable. Now the only thing left to do is go pick out my new little friend and bring him to his new home. I've decided to name him Fred. Don't know why, but I think it has a nice ring to it - Fred the Fish. Nice and simple. I'm going to get a Betta fish, whatever the heck that is - those are just the instructions Reba gave me with the tank: "Go to the fish store and get a male Betta - they're prettier." to which I replied (like everyone does with Reba) "Yes, ma'am!". I can't decide when to get the fish, though. I'll be gone for a week and don't want poor Fred to end up floating on the surface, know what I mean? Of course, my wondrous co-workers say they'll feed him for me, but how irresponsible would that be of me, to bring poor Fred home and then desert him before he gets over the emotional upheaval of a move and a new home and all that! Sheesh! The poor thing would be traumatized for life, I'm sure. At least I don't have to worry about Fred peeing on the carpet or chewing up my shoes or anything like that. I mean, what's the worst thing a fish can do? Even if he were an exceptionally athletic fish that could hurl himself from the tank and over onto the carpet (which would also make him an exceptionally suicidal fish) I mean it's not like it's going to be as bad as the messes a little puppy or kitten would make. Eventually I may get a puppy or a kitten. I don't know. It was really really hard to leave my dogs with my ex-husband. But since he was keeping the house with the huge yard and I was moving into a tiny apartment, it was the wisest thing to do. I do miss those dogs, though. They were my babies! Abraham was a St. Bernard - such a cutie! And such a wimp to be such a big dog. He whined more than any creature I've ever known. But he was so adorable that you let him get by with it regardless. And Corey - man, was she smart! She definitely ruled the roost. {{Wow! On a totally unrelated side note, I just realized that I just used what I thought was a homograph in my blog (word that is spelled the same but pronounced differently) with the word "roost"! How cool is that!! But unfortunately after rereading this post, I realized that I actually am using the word the same in both sentences. But nevertheless it isn't a word that I use often in my everyday conversations... well, at least I don't think it is. I'll have to listen to myself over the next few days to see...}}
Ok - time to go. I hear a diet Mountain Dew calling my name from down the hall...
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