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People who don’t know me well think I am a total extravert.  But the life of “Marine kid” and “Air Force Wife” sometimes leaves me feeling like an complete introvert.  So I guess I am a hybrid!  Extraverts process their thoughts externally.  Like if extraverts think it – they really, really want to say it AND discuss it with someone else.  Hey…that’s me!  Introverts process internally.  Like if introverts have a problem – they’d rather think it through and mull it over than discuss it.  Hey, that’s me too!  Thank you, dear Jodi, for reminding me about the extra vs intra -version thing again.  I haven’t given it much thought in years but, when I see it in myself and others, it totally fascinates me!

So, when I was at a writing and speaking conference last month, I was thinking about what I write and why I write [introverted moment].  And I had this sinking feeling…that maybe I am starting to write about life, more than I am living it.  I have a tendency to hide in my writing.  It gives me time and reasons to think…these are things I just didn’t have before I started blogging. I had no time allotted for thinking about anything beyond children, and grocery lists, and laundry…and that left me feeling a bit lost.

Writing about God’s Word makes memorials out of the lessons He is teaching me.  And writing about God’s Word has helped me to know Him better.  I am just starting to really connect with some of you here and that has made my writing experience so much fuller  🙂 [extraverted moment!]

But living – making memories outside of my writing – is what I am craving.  We are living in our 3rd house in 3 years.  We have come out of a really long period of trials.  I wrote about part of it in my last post.  The other major component in our difficulties has been living through a series of health crises in my family over the last several years.  I think I need to exhale.  I realized that, sometimes, I am just holding my breath, steeling myself for the next difficulty.  And that is not living at all.

Funny, my husband had said that we should set our minds on “HOPE” this year.  But old habits die hard.  And he and I have lost that mindset at times, forgetting these truths:

• Jesus said, “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly” (John 10:10).
• But, as it is written, “What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him” (1 Cor 2:9).
• For we know that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens (2 Cor 5:1).
• But they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint (Is 40:31).

I had to wonder, when did dread and disappointment move in on me?  A friend of mine told me this truth: the glass is never half empty or half full (was that you Cati?).  It is always completely full because, whether it is filled with water, or air, or a combination of the two, it always filled with something up to the top of the rim…it is never empty.  This is just the perspective change we need sometimes.  And while I know all this to be true, I need to act on it.  I am in the process of developing ACTION PLANS.

A big take-home for me from my conference was my need for ACTION.  More on that in the coming week or two.  But for now, tell me – do you have a need to take action in your life?  Or are you in a season of rest?  Is God calling you to interact more with others or to spend more quiet time with Him?  Also, just curious…extravert or introvert?

Hugs,

Britta ~ I am justAgirl…just like you!