You would think by the sounds in my office that the end of the world was happening.  People are hurting.

What is it that I worry about in this mess?  Same thing that scares me the most - people.  People panic and do really stupid things and cause more panic, which results in a hard to break cycle of panic and the resulting stupid actions.  That is what scares me.

Me?  I am OK.  I have complete faith that God sees what I need and He will provide.  My health has been kind of a mess lately, and yet, God has provided.  I found myself being very frazzled with it all last week.  My mom came up on Friday to help me out on my day off.  She is such an amazing blessing, I can’t begin to tell you.  I started to share with her the worries I had throughout the night.  I asked her if I was doing the right thing, and why was I so frustrated.  Why weren’t things easier, and why were all these things happening?  She and I talked and she told me not to be worried about the things of the earth.  She asked me if God had never provided my every need?  He always had.  The next verse she quoted, I knew well, but it stopped me dead in my tracks.

“For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?” - Mark 8:36

I don’t know what is going on lately in the world, but the dark forces are out in full force. I think that is what was on my mind.  There is a verse that hangs on my refrigerator to remind me of something very important when the world seems so full of evil:

For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. - Romans 8:38-9

Amen.  Thank God for that.  Sometimes, you just have one of those days, and I had one Friday.  I felt so helpless, but with God, there is always hope.  I share this because I know that many are worried about many things.  I close with a verse that God was reminding me today, as others in my office were worrying about their 401K’s.

So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’  For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them.  But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.  Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.  - Matthew 6:31-4

I was listening to the radio at work today, when the reporter was interviewing a scientist on the worries about BPA.  The scientist says if you are concerned, don’t heat your plastic containers, instead use glass or stainless steel.

While concluding his interview, the reporter says something like:  So, if you are concerned about your plastic bottles, don’t heat them in the microwave, instead use stainless steel or glass.

Ugh.  I guess we are going to see a sudden spike in microwave fires.  Hurts like burning!

I wasn’t feeling well today, and missed tennis tonight with Sam.  :-(  I laid on the couch and watched The Office, and then Mike offered to help me make some cookies, since I wasn’t feeling well.  We made chocolate chip, plain (for me, the anti-chocoholic), and mint.  Yum!  I am glad he suggested the cookies.  We had fun making AND eating them.  We put the left over dough in the freezer for another time.  Now, I am exhausted and full of warm yummy cookies.

Well, I am gonna go back to watching my show. 

First of all, I realized after just reading my last post that I gave James Madison credit for what Thomas Jefferson said.  AH!  I can’t believe I did that.  I was thinking about another quote that James Madison said, and must have gotten it mixed up while typing.  Sorry about that - I feel like a huge idiot.  The Madison quote that I was thinking of was…

“We have staked the whole future of American civilization, not upon the power of government,  far from it.  We have staked the future of all of our political institutions upon the capacity of mankind for self-government;  upon the capacity of each and all of us to govern ourselves,  to control ourselves,  to sustain ourselves according to The Ten Commandments of God” - James Madison

Lots of stuff going on as usual.  This blog was mainly to express my thoughts on things, especially related to my faith, but other things as well.

I just changed the background, which is nice… especially since blue is my favorite color, but I must admit, I loved that tornado background.  I am thinking about changing it around a bit, but I am not sure right now.  I wanted to change the title, but Mike thinks “Tending to Chaos” fits perfectly.  I don’t know.  We shall see.

My dad is safely back from his trip to Louisiana.  He said he couldn’t get to the little town I grew up in, even after almost a week since the hurricane, it was still flooded.  That is kind of sad, but not surprising, since it was so far south.  My family down there are all fine.  Damage happened, especially to my cousin’s house, but everyone was fine.

Work is piling up as usual.  I am not sure if that is good or bad.  I think it is good from the standpoint that people are happy with what I have done and want more.  It is not good from the standpoint that I honestly feel like I am drowning in work most days.  I guess that is what the title Senior Engineer means.  *sigh*  I guess “with great power comes great responsibility.” 

I find it frustrating at times.  I started out as an intern, then at graduation, was a mid-range engineer.  I never really was a junior engineer, and in less than 3 years, I was promoted to the title senior.  Something that takes most almost ten years, I have done in less than three.  Freaks me out.  People in my office found out I was in my mid-twenties the other day.  I got a bunch of surprised faces.  People say I look much younger, but they didn’t think I actually was as young as I am.  Weird.

We survived tropical storm Hanna just fine.  It was actually nice to get some rain finally.  My mom came up to visit and we just unpacked some boxes and listened to John Denver (Rocky Mountain High - yeah!).  My mom was a huge help as usual.  There was a little flooding on the roads outside our house, but we were more than fine.  Unfortunately, for some of my friends, they weren’t so lucky.

School is now back in session, and traffic has become unbelievable.  Every September, it is so much worse than the previous year.  Crazy.  My 10 minute commute has gotten a bit longer lately.  :-)  I am hoping people will start learning how to drive eventually, but somehow I just doubt it.

Funny, I should mention traffic.  I have started taking the time I am stuck in traffic and just turning into a prayer/praise time with the Lord.  I find myself singing or praying out loud most mornings.  I am sure everyone who passes me and sees me talking, thinks I am nuts, but I am finding it to be such a great way to start out my mornings.

Something I am learning first hand recently is not only that a house divided cannot stand, but when there is a non-believer trying to drive a wedge into a house that has a solid foundation built on Christ, the plan always back fires.  The rains come, the rivers rise, but the solid foundation doesn’t falter.  Lately we have seen people throwing large rocks at our foundation, trying to collapse a strong faith (mine especially, has been the target) in the Lord and they have not succeeded.  They have caused us much annoyance, but they are not tearing the foundation down.  In fact, I think in a lot of ways, it is just strengthening it.

Politics is starting to get on my nerves.  One thing I have seen for certain is that many people are scared silly by Palin.  Makes you wonder why.  It is interesting.  I have watched people practically start foaming at the mouth as soon as her name is mentioned.  The other thing that just appalled me was when Biden basically said he is pro-choice because he doesn’t want to impose his religious belief on others.  You are calling murder a religious belief that shouldn’t be imposed?  Don’t even go there.  That statement opens a logical can of worms that is insane.  My question is, so why do we even have laws at all?!  Why is murdering anyone even an issue with this logic?  Disgusting and more so, frightening.  People scare me.  That is where I will leave the politics stuff, but seriously, this whole thing is spinning out of control.

Mike and I have been busy, still unpacking and organizing everything.  We have gotten a lot done.  We have got a lot of stuff coming down the road here in the next few months.  It is going to be crazy!  I am guessing that my posting will continue to be sporadic as I am just so busy.

Well, I am off to tend to the chaos of today, so I will talk to you all later.  Thank you to all those who have stopped by lately.  It is always good to hear from everyone.
The verse I close with is one that has inspired me in the past and so much recently:

Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business and to work with your hands, just as we told you, so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders and so that you will not be dependent on anybody. - 1 Thessalonians 4:11-2

Prayers go out to my family down in Southern Louisiana.   Not that they aren’t prepared, mind you.