What I learned in August

We spent the bulk of August at the beach in North Carolina.

Only two weeks, really,
but when you figure that they were the middle two weeks,
and we spent the first week getting ready to go,
and the last week unpacking and recovering,
August was consumed by vacation.

Vacation is good.
We were able to disengage from the normal routine.
Now that our kids are older and don't live at home,
it was an incredible blessing to spend time with them.

I learned how to play some new games --
Dominion and Carcasonne, for instance.
The brain, she can still grind into gear for fun.

I'm not sure whether it counts for learning,
but I saw my first shooting stars
and my first baby sea turtles.

I am becoming sensitive to proper adverb placement,
realizing that misplaced adverbs are epidemic.
I knew not to split an infinitive (although I mess up sometimes),
but I am becoming very particular about how adverbs are placed
within sentences that have compound verbs.  It's tricky.

Clearly, I am loosening up about the use of passive voice.

I learned some things I'm not sure I wanted to know --
and some things I'm sure I didn't want to know --
about how digestive issues are handled during a triathlon,
and lab results that don't bode well for the progression of my lupus,
and unsavory details about bad life decisions someone is making.

It is an exercise of faith each day
to trust that God is working to shape me
through every experience He brings my way.

Feeling crushed is good for me;
it turns my eyes to God for help.

Experiencing beauty is also good for me;
it fills my heart with gratitude and hope.

I am learning a great deal about hope.

Hope deferred makes the heart sick,
    but a dream fulfilled is a tree of life.

~Proverbs 13:12, NLT

And we believers also groan, even though 

we have the Holy Spirit within us  

as a foretaste of future glory, 

for we long for our bodies 

to be released from sin and suffering. 

We, too, wait with eager hope 

for the day when God will give us 

our full rights as his adopted children,  

including the new bodies he has promised us.

~Romans 8:23, NLT

I pray that God, the source of hope, 

will fill you completely with joy and peace 

because you trust in him. 

Then you will overflow with confident hope 

through the power of the Holy Spirit.

~Romans 15:13, NLT