I originally planned to write once a week to update my progress with organizing and gaining control over my life. Now, five weeks later, I am finally getting around to it.
The day after my last post, my life was hit with an unexpected glitch. My husband took our son up to the mountains and our van's engine basically blew up. It's kind of ironic that the night before I wrote of God's faithful provision, because I have needed to reread my own words countless times in the past month. My faith has ridden a bit of a roller coaster of ups and downs. I found myself riding to the lower dips of my faith often at first, but every time I found myself down, I reminded myself of the truth of God's word and that process has bolstered my faith to new heights.
God's word says in Hebrews 6:11-12 And we desire that each one of you show the same diligence to the full assurance of hope until the end, that you do not become sluggish, but imitate those who through faith and patience inherit the promises. Faith and patience work hand in hand and I have definitely learned some patience this month. I prayed for God to help us find the right vehicle immediately, but he chose to let us look around a lot and find many wrong vehicles before finding the right one. We were very discouraged by the high miles and lack of quality in many of the vehicles we looked at. But, God miraculously provided a quality vehicle within our meager price range. The whole time we were looking, God impressed upon us that we should consider our decision to purchase a vehicle very carefully and not rush. Everything in me wanted to just buy something and move on, but if we had rushed, we would not have ended up with nearly the quality, cleanliness, or low miles for the price we paid. Also, God allowed us to sell our van for more than anyone thought we could get for it with a blown motor.
Due to the amount of time it took to find a new vehicle, my plans to tackle my organizational problems had to be put on the back burner. I have continued to work to sell the few things on craigslist I had originally posted. I have only sold one other item to date, but I am trying to be patient in this as well. The book I read from the library said that patience is necessary when selling certain items that are not in high demand. So, I re post and hope that the right person sees it and contacts me.
I also bought a notebook formatted for list writing. I used be a diligent list maker. I have lost that over the past few years and have noticed that I am decidedly less organized without them. I am finding that my mind simply cannot be depended upon. I am constantly forgetting things at the store because I don't write them down. Hopefully, I will keep shopping trips to a minimum by writing these things down as soon as I realize I need them. Also, when I visit specialty stores or thrift stores for one item, I later realize I could have looked for another item or two while I was there. I also plan to keep a running to-do list because (I know this sounds crazy) sometimes when I finally have a moment to get some things done, I forget what I need to do. My mind literally goes blank and I spend too much time going through things in my mind and then prioritizing them. With a running to-do list, I can already have the prioritizing done and can tackle my list with just a few spare moments.
All in all, I don't feel like I've done a whole lot in the last month, but I am as determined to gain some control as I was when I began. I plan to provide regular updates through this process and please, if anyone has any ideas for me, please comment.
