Reset the Play Clock: The Weekly Digest

 Looking out the window....

I caught this robin at Green Mountain Community Center just before he/she flew away.

Though echinacea does grow in Alabama, I've seen more of it in Colorado.
These were in pots for sale at the King Soopers.

 

I know that some people don't like them, but Ive been enjoying
the magpies around the apartment complex.

 
Saturday I visited with a friend from the quilt group and had the pleasure of enjoying all the gorgeousness in her front flower beds.

The bees are enjoying the Ice Plants

 

The caterpillar is having a happy chat with the Shasta Daisy.

I do believe that this Day Lily may be the subject of my next painting.

Favorite quote(s) of the week...

While a head full of information divorced from a heart filled with passion is a great danger, the truth is, Jesus himself exalted the role of the intellect when he urged us to love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength (Mark 12:30). -  Gary Thomas, Sacred Pathways, p. 208.

 

If we develop these habits [of virtue], we will have the interior spiritual and moral resources with which to respond righteously when we are faced with temptations of any and every sort, as Jesus was in the wilderness. - Richard J. Foster, Streams of Living Water, p. 8.

 

[Spiritual formation is defined as] the process that takes place in us, as he life of the Spirit of God transforms out life through deepening love and intimacy with Father Son, and Holy Spirit, remaking us in the likeness of Jesus Christ, in His love for the Father and the world. - R. Thomas Ashbrook, Mansions of the Heart, p. 32.

 

The sin God rebukes is not trying and failing, but failing to try. Trying, failing, and trying again is called learning. Failing to try will have no good result; evil will triumph. God expresses his opinion toward passivity in Hebrews 10:38–39: “‘But my righteous one will live by faith. And I take no pleasure in the one who shrinks back.’ But we do not belong to those who shrink back and are destroyed, but to those who have faith and are saved.” - Cloud & Townsend, Boundaries, p. 102. 

 

If money is to enhance your happiness, it must be used to support aspects of life that themselves bring happiness to you. Money. It’s a good servant but a bad master. - Gretchen Rubin, The Happiness Project, p. 190.

 

I'm thinking about...

 

My crafting mojo: I know that I haven't posted on my craft blog for over a year.  However, I have been posting photos of my current projects on my Pinterest page, so I haven't been idle.  Keeping my hands busy has kept me sane and away from the kitchen (for the most part).  However, I'm a little burned out at the moment, especially on quilting.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Calm down.  Let me explain.  

 

Since I started with the Loving Stitches group more than two years ago, I've been creating with fabrics mostly within the same color families unless I buy something myself and go off the rails.  I kid you not, I've made at least four quilts and/or quilt tops containing the same fabrics.  Yes, I have a method for processing scraps that "gets all the goody" out of a piece of fabric, but I'm ready for something new.  I'm ready for some brighter, happier colors and I'm willing to go buy them myself.  

 

Throughout the next week, I'm giving myself a reset.  I'm going to put everything away, not craft for several days, then start again.  

 

I need it. 

.   

What I've read since the last digest...

• Sacred Pathways by Gary Thomas ✮✮✮✮ (Category - Glorious Reread)  
• The Dieter's Prayer Book by Heather Harpham Kopp ✮✮✮1/2 (Category - Glorious Reread):  Please see my review here. 

I'm currently reading...

• Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
• Mansions of the Heart by R. Thomas Ashbrook 
• Streams of Living Water by Richard J. Foster 
• Boundaries by Henry Cloud and John Townsend 
• On Reading Well by Karen Swallow Prior
• Faith's Checkbook by Charles Spurgeon
  
• The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin
  
• Celebration of Discipline by Richard J. Foster
• The New American Standard Bible
  

Recent blog posts...

• My previous digest, "Tis or Taint'" is here.
  
• First Line Friday #38: The Divine Conspiracy by Dallas Willard is here. 
• Food and Whine:  The Weekly Hodgepodge is here. 
• My "25 for 2025" challenge is here. (Updated regularly)
• My "I Can Only Blame MyShelf" reading challenge is here.  (Updated regularly). 

From the Workshop... 

Reset!

I am thankful for...

• A good report at my last eye doctor's appointment.
• New athletic shoes.  My old ones were worn slap out.
• More days lately where I feel good rather than not.
• Online tutorials for regular stuff I don't know how to do.
• A great therapist.
• Inexpensive journals.
• Flowers
• Birds
• I'm thankful that our apartment's leasing office warned us about the water being turned off for maintenance.  They didn't tell us anything last time and it wasn't pretty. 
  
  

 

 

 

First Line Friday #38: The Divine Conspiracy by Dallas Willard

Thanks to Carrie at
Reading is My Superpower
for the Link-up

 

 

Title:  The Divine Conspiracy
Author:  Dallas Willard
Genre:  Christian Spirituality

 

    〰First Line〰

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Recently a pilot was practicing high-speed maneuvers in a jet fighter.  She turned the controls for what she thought thought was a steep ascent--and flew straight into the ground.  She was unaware that she had been flying upside down.

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Synopsis:  (From Amazon) 

The Divine Conspiracy has revolutionized how we think about the true meaning of discipleship. In this classic, one of the most brilliant Christian thinkers of our times and author of the acclaimed The Spirit of Disciplines, Dallas Willard, skillfully weaves together biblical teaching, popular culture, science, scholarship, and spiritual practice, revealing what it means to "apprentice" ourselves to Jesus. Using Jesus’s Sermon of the Mount as his foundation, Willard masterfully explores life-changing ways to experience and be guided by God on a daily basis, resulting in a more authentic and dynamic faith.

 〰First Thoughts〰

Like C. S. Lewis and Richard J. Foster, Dallas Willard is one of those writers whose total body of works I hope to finish.  I thoroughly enjoy his unique way of presenting theological concepts.  From the description of this book it seems as though Willard is teaching the believer how to initiate the discipleship phase of belief, rather than depending on someone else to initiate.  I don't believe he's advocating a do-it-yourself Christianity,  but more of an exercise in maturity.  This one will prove to be an interesting read.

 So, what's the first line of the book you're currently reading?