priorities

The same day the news announced “Katrina Leaves Dozens Dead,” my server’s news rotated this headline as an equivalent top story: “How did Jessica, Denise and Others Get So Slim and Fit? See Their Secrets.”

Think maybe our culture has messed-up priorities?

Want more evidence? Americans spend more than $8 billion annually on cosmetic surgery. But it’s not just this side of the Atlantic where we're forking over cash. The Scotsman reports that four in ten teenage girls in the UK consider plastic surgery.

Over a Starbucks last week a friend and I were lamenting American politics today, how it consumes more and more of our national attention and media. Sadly these discussions divide not only the country but believers as well.  No matter your personal bent or your personal loyalties, I think you would agree with me that we too often end up with more far more “heat than light.

Sometime ago a friend and I headed to a meeting and stepped into an elevator, still chatting. We stood there engrossed in conversation waiting to be delivered to our destination. Finally, when the elevator wasn’t moving, we glanced at one another thinking that perhaps it was malfunctioning. Sadly the malfunction rested with us. We burst out laughing as we realized that neither of us had pushed the requisite button. Talk about missing the obvious.

A few weeks ago, I wrote this post about the "Tired Thirties" and gave a few reasons why us thirty-somethings can get overwhelmed with life. Today, the long-awaited suggestions for surviving....

I’ve been blogging about seasons of life, different stages encountered by women as the journey of life continues.  Throughout all different stages, or seasons, there are concurrently conditions of our hearts during the various  seasons.  (I’m calling the heart that inner person in us that either serves God or self, that invisible part of us that no one but God really sees and knows.)

Diapers, late nights, early mornings, sleep deprivation…all reminders of what I called my “season of little feet.” I recall the awesome sense of responsibility that invaded my previously self-centered world when I brought my daughter home from the hospital.   A little life now fully dependent upon me, it was overwhelming.   It felt as though life’s rhythm accelerated to high speed, break dancing?

Last minute road trips, delayed vacations, August is sliding by. Signs abound that fall peeks around the corner; teetering stacks of school supplies; pumpkins appearing in shop windows and sweaters promoted in sweltering heat. Summer is almost gone. Another season breaks upon us. Daily life moves on with the expected rhythm of changing seasons.