Where's MY Easy Button

I'm 53...53! (gasp)  And I thought by now things would just be getting a little easier in life.  Is that too much to ask?  After the wonderful Christmas sermon series, I let God know that I wanted to be like Mary and Joseph...I wanted to be a "Yes, Lord" gal (hmmmmm...I guess that's more like Jesus...He obeyed His Father too).  I prayed and asked God to open doors for me to serve Him to show Him my love.  I committed to loving "the least of these" ... not begrudgingly and as an act of obedience like I've done in the past...but to seek out "the least" and actively love and serve them.  And the very first task that God sends my way is a little daunting.  I don't want to go into details, but I would ask that anyone reading this note would say a prayer for me.  I'm working out the details in my heart, but I know that I can't tell God I'll be a "Yes, Lord" gal and then run at the first opportunity He sends my way.  I know that in my own strength the task looks too difficult...which means that I'll have to lean on Him for His strength and that means He's going to reveal Himself to me in new, wonderful and awesome ways.  So if you're reading this, pray that I won't choose the "easy" button but that I'll honor my promise to God.

Could have used an easy button in another matter this week.  All I wanted was some new glasses...it was time for them.  My eyes have changed since I underwent chemotherapy and radiation and I've waited at least six months to see if they were going to go back to pre-cancer sight.  But, alas, there's still a lot of stress and strain on the eyes (yes, I spend too much time reading and working at the computer).  So off I went to the optometrist...who found a bleed and sent me to an ophthalmologist who found the bleed had healed but there might be something more ominous going on...and off I will now go to a neurologist!!!  Something's causing some swelling in the optic nerve of my left eye.  So if you're reading this I can use some more prayer that God will either heal what's hurting my eye or give the neurologist the wisdom to correct the problem (notice I'm assuming it can be corrected...I really don't want to think about other possibilities).  I'm handling this stress the way I entered into my cancer diagnosis...I'm not going to worry till someone tells me there's something to really worry about...but that's hard to do sometimes.  So thank you for loving me enough to pray for me.

I lost my To Do List this week.  It's bad enough that I can't remember things these days, but I was learning to cope by making a To Do List/Schedule at the beginning of each week so I could accomplish all I want to accomplish.  Now I have no idea if I accomplished it all because I not only can't remember it all, I have no idea where the reminder to help me remember it all has disappeared to!!! (sigh)  Can someone please send me an easy button?

So the first full week of January 2011 has passed by.  I do know one thing I accomplished...I completed a scrapbook challenge to find "One Little Word".  The instructions were...

1.  Take a photo of yourself.  I do not do very many about-me layouts, and often have to hand the camera to someone at the last minute to ensure it gets documented that I was in my life.  At the beginning of this new decade, take a self-portrait.

2. Put that photo on a layout, with your word for 2011.  Take this time to journal about what this word means to you, and what you hope to do with it in the following year.  Perhaps even write a letter to yourself, seal it, and don't read it until January 2012.  Take this week's challenge as an opportunity to focus on how you, in the words of Oprah, can "live your best life".

My word?????  Watch for it (with pictures) in the next post! (grin)