Make Our Heart Your Temple

I promised myself not to share daily excerpts but there are so many I'd like to share....

A prayer from Soren Kierkegaard...

Lord! Make our heart Your temple in which You live. Grant that every impure thought, every earthly desire might be like the idol Dagon - each morning broken at the feet of the Ark of the Covenant. Teach us to master flesh and blood and let this mastery of ourselves be our bloody sacrifce in order that we might be able to say with the Apostle: "I die every day." Devotional Classics, page 353.

This goes is such a perfect mental image of where I've been the past year...Deny Self, Take up the Cross, Follow.

Choosing Joy!
©2009 D.R.G.

~Coram Deo~
Living all of life before the face of God...

Paper or Electronic?

Windy has a Kindle. Several of you have mentioned Kindles to me, but I'm a "must see" type of shopper. Windy's is not international and so she was very happy to be able to download books while we were in Hawaii and she graciously explained the features of her Kindle to me.

I LOVE READING. I like the feel of a book in my hands. I like turning pages. I like marking pages. I like writing notes to myself in the pages. I like loaning books. I like books.

I travel with books. I always have a Bible, devotional, some sort of fiction and non-fiction....and am always teased by how heavy my carry on is. It occured to me that it would be easier to travel with a digital reader.....

However....when I check prices the books are really not THAT much cheaper than buying the paper books. I'm not sure I'd enjoy reading from a screen.

I'd love to hear from those of you who have taken the leap to digital readers...how do you use them. Is it your main source of reading material or supplemental? What do you love and what do you hate? I don't want to buy another techie thing (as my PDA/ MP3 reader) that I end up never fully utilizing or using. ::snort::

Would you recommend something like the Kindle - must buy books from Amazon....or Sony's reader, which I believe could read any ebook/digital book format (but not Kindle's)? The promo for Kindle sure makes it seem more appealing...$20 cheaper, able to hold way more books (but they have to be purchased from Amazon), can read my PDF and documents sent to it....

I know the Kindle allows you to bookmark, add notes, highlight passages and download newspapers etc.

Please tell me what you've discovered - either by owning one or researching.... I just don't know....it seems it would be a kick for my upcoming trips....but will it give me the same leisurely pleasure as reading a book does? Will it feel like meeting an old friend when I pick it up?

Choosing Joy!
©2009 D.R.G.

~Coram Deo~
Living all of life before the face of God...

Things That Have Me Wondering....

HOW do places such as Oriental Trading, Terry's World etc find new APO addresses and send catalogs....whilst Healthing Cooking, Taste of Home, State of Alaska... can't find a person even with change of address cards?????

Why did all but ONE photo album show up when the boxes are unpacked and where could it have gone?

Why do computers connect to the Internet at some times and not at others?

What happens when you reach 100% of your photo capacity with blogger? I've been using Photobucket but HATE their ads. I'm at over 90% of my limit on blogger....do some of you like Picasa? Does it have buxom women laying across the top of your screen?

Choosing Joy!
©2009 D.R.G.

~Coram Deo~
Living all of life before the face of God...

Prayers - Fort Hood

I had planned to ask for prayer for the PWOC I Central Region and South East Region which both begin regional conferences this evening. I find myself really missing Central Region this week. They'd offered to bring me to conference as I am on their board until Sunday a.m. but I knew it would be too much traveling, too soon. It hasn't stopped me from praying for those planning, the speakers, the ladies who will attend....two of our board members are from FT Hood....

I woke up this a.m. to see the news about FT Hood in my inbox....praying. Please pray with me for safety, for peace, for healing, for comfort....and for those ladies who may have already left for conference and whose families were on post when this happened.

Choosing Joy!
©2009 D.R.G.

~Coram Deo~
Living all of life before the face of God...

Purity of Heart is to Will One Thing....

I've wasted 40 minutes trying to find a clip of the song running through my mind "one thing" and I KNOW it's a song, I KNOW I've heard it on KLOVE or Air 1 and it's not the one that keeps showing up. ::snort:: Forget the song.

In Sunday School we've been reading, "Devotional Classics". I've been surprised by how much I enjoy it. I tend to be a, "teach me the Word and the Word only" sort of gal. ::snort:: But WOW.... In this book the editors include quotes from "classics" built around eight topics: Preparing for the Spiritual Life, the Prayer-Filled Life, the Virtuous Life, the Spirit-Empowered Life, the Compassionate Life, the Word-Centered Life, and the Sacramental Life. There are over 50 excerpts. We'll not cover them all. Honestly, I would like to consider one a week with Jared and Mike. We'll see if that happens. To give you an idea of the variety of authors we've read from C.S. Lewis, Henri J.M. Nouwen, Gregory of Nyssa, Madame Guyon, Soren Kierkegaard and Martin Luther.

This week I've been reviewing some prayers from Soren Kierkegarrd that we talked about last week. This one speaks to intimacy...

"What is all our striving, could it ever encompass a world, but a
half-finished work if we do not know You: You the One, who is one
thing and who is all!

So may You give to the intellect, wisdom to comprehend that one thing; to the
heart, sincerity to receive this understanding; to the will, purity that wills
only one thing. In prosperity may You grant perseverance to will one thing; amid
distractions, collectedness to will one thing; in suffering, patience to will
one thing. (in time of repentance) may you give the courage once
again to will one thing." From "Purity of the Heart is to will one thing by Soren Kierkegaard"

This is what I've been praying (though not as eloquently the past months)....the ONE thing in my life is HIM...intimacy with Him, relationship with Him.... the title alone gives me much food for thought: Purity of Heart is to Will One thing.....

May you blessed today as you pursue the One who is truly the one thing worth pursuing.

Choosing Joy!
©2009 D.R.G.

~Coram Deo~
Living all of life before the face of God...

WOW - finally got three of the computers working on the Fiber Optics and they are FAST....now to get the wireless working so I can Skype.

The day began with a chaplain spouse breakfast at Anette's, our Wing Chaplain's wife. Thanks again Anette...what a wonderful way to begin the day.

Home by 9:45 for school.

The kids walked to the pond with jars to collect water for Jared's science experiment. Arielle took a video "clip"....5 min long so I won't post it....but I'm dying to try clips soon. Maybe I'll do a home tour for y'all next week. LOL

Tried to sort through lots and lots of email.

Tried to get the other computers working - no luck. They KNOW Mike's touch.

Nice afternoon visit with Windy.

Ordered some things from the TX co-op. Set up pay pal, offered to let other locals order with me....

Drank a couple gallons of water and took lots of cranberry tablets.

We have a home phone now. I'm not sure it is working but we have a phone and a number...Mike is deciphering the hiragana directions. ::snort:: Our prefix is different than everyone else we know (except Rodney and Windy).

I'll try to catch up on a few more blogs before I go to bed....maybe just Cindy's as it is FULL of new updates since I was on.

That's a day!

Choosing Joy!
©2009 D.R.G.

~Coram Deo~
Living all of life before the face of God...

Language Discoveries

Akikosan came for our Japanese lessons today. She wants us to learn both Hiragana and Katakana - AT THE SAME TIME. Zander and Stacia basically opted out. I may have to officially excuse Zander. These two will pick things up from listening...but I think learning to read two new alphabets is a stretch. It is nice that there are only 5 vowels in Japanese and they make one sound each.....nice.

We figured out how to spell all of our names in Katakana. Each Hiragana and Katakana symbol represents a sound. The problem is that several of the sounds in our names ARE NOT in the Japanese language. "Jared" gave Akikosan trouble as there is no "r" sound in Japanese - or it's different. Alex was a challenge as there is no "x" sound....Stacia was interesting as there isn't a "st" but there is a "tsu"... When we take the symbols and phonetically pronounce them....

Jared becomes Jad (a as father)

My name is a good Japanese name...they have a De E and Ta sound. LOL

Michael becomes Ma i ke lu

Alex is a hoot - A le tsu ku su - he's not very impressed.

Stacia doesn't sound like Stacia at all and I think we'll need to revisit it. Its the Tsu te i si a (tsute e see a).

We are all working on writing our names in Katakana by next Wed. The good news is that once we get some Hiragana and Katakana under our belts we should be able to figure out the traffic signs. ::snort:: If you want to try your name in Katakana this is a fairly good spot to visit. They don't have De'Etta or Jared...but their explanation of sounds is good....just remember "ru" is pronounced more like "lu".

In others discoveries.....remember I mentioned that Pimsleur taught us to say "Cha mata" (See you) for goodbye. On our first trip to the Nursing Home I said this. Over and over. The lady was perplexed and told me no, she didn't know what I was saying. I gave up and said, "Goodbye".

Today, Akikosan taught us "Cha Mata" for see you. I told her about my experience at the nursing home...she smirked, she smiled, she explained, we laughed. It seems that Cha Mata is less formal, almost slang, "See Ya", used by youth, families, close friends...and not a phrase you would expect to use with elders at all. Hmmm....and we learned that there is a word for "me" that Nolan and Alex can use, but the rest of us can't...gender and age....The adventure continues.

Choosing Joy!
©2009 D.R.G.

~Coram Deo~
Living all of life before the face of God...