Resting On Laurels

Wanting to get all caught up is always a desire, but what to do with yourself when it happens is another thing entirely.

My full privileges have been reinstated, I graduated from Carrington last Friday, I took my final test through the school on Monday, and I went for jury duty, but wasn't placed on one. Whew!

My certificates from Carrington will be coming in the mail in 4 to 6 weeks, my NFPT results won't come in for two weeks, I need to get letters of recommendation from my extern site and have two dental appointments in November. I can't really look for a job in Oregon until I have my certificates and letters in hand, so until I get myself a temp job to save up for moving, I am pretty much just sitting on my ass. Bleh. 

For a while now, I've been doing well with informal witnessing and have made several placements in the past couple of months, but I am still just as bad about getting to the hall for service as ever. I've been praying about it and reading over the new tracts and the accompanying brochure so I am at least prepared. Now I just need to force myself to actually get out and do it.

Next month, on the 22nd, Jacob and I will be married a year! We are doing very well, better than I expected. He has been such a champ, sticking with a job he hates in order to provide for us and support me while going to school. Now it's my turn. I'm going to find a good job in Oregon and Jacob is going to take classes on whatever he decides.

We have good plans and the means to carry them out. I'm just not good with waiting.

When It Has Past

I have been reinstated. 

When the elders said they would sit down and speak with me, I didn't think it would happen. I was sure they would say I needed more time. I prayed to Jehovah over and over again to help me endure and keep my eye on the goal if He thought I needed more time. I was so worried that they would say: "We think you need more time."

Before I even went to the meeting, I asked Jehovah, that if there was anything I needed to work on, that would prevent me from being reinstated, to make it clear to me what it was so I might work on it. Nothing was made clear to me. Not in a big way, just some little things I need to work on, the way anyone does.

When they told me that I was clearly repentant and sorry for hurting Jehovah, that they were going to reinstate me and it would be announced on Thursday, (this coming Thursday) I didn't know how to react. I think I smiled and tried not to cry some more. Damn my girl eyeballs!

I still don't know how to react. I keep going back and forth between trying to go about my day and almost crying again. I feel anxious and limp from having a load removed from my heart. The elders told me to lie low until the announcement, that I would remain on restricted privileges for now, (no commenting or being on the school) but I was welcome out in the field service as soon as this coming Friday. I'll have to prepare a presentation and acquire a KM, been a while since I've had one of those.

I'm not going to tell anyone that I am reinstated until they announce it and is official. I worry about how some people will react to the news. I imagine it will separate those who truly love me from the ones who have some kind of hang up, if any react that way at all. I imagine ridiculous scenarios that will never come to pass, like I do about most things. Need to write more or something, my brain is starting to clutter with the nonsensical and dramatic. 

While meeting with the elders, I told them about the one time I wrecked a car when I was a teenager and how I haven't even had a fender bender since, that this disfellowshipping is my one car wreck in my life, (that I caused, anyhow) and that it was never going to happen again. 

I'm going to hold true to that.

The First Story

          What is a story? It is a telling of events, whether fictitious or true accounts. From the Bible to Grimm's Fairy Tales, from the newspaper to Facebook, storytelling has taken many forms.

Can we even document the number of tales the human race has invented or recounted over the millenniums? And as our knowledge of everything continues to grow, only more can come. 

Has anyone ever considered what stories would be told by the Angels? Or of the times before the Universe, when only Jesus and Jehovah were about? (Times, technically being incorrect, since the concept of time was created for us.) Or even before Jehovah decided to create anything at all?

What did Jehovah contemplate before his Son was there? Could we even fathom such a way of being?

What was Jesus' "Childhood" like? Did he play? Was the beginnings of creation his "Play"? Like a child learning from block letters, did Jehovah hand over to Jesus the raw materials of the Universe and slowly teach him how to build?

Like an only child yearning for brothers and sisters, did Jesus rejoice in the coming about of the angels, as a child does when such a wish is fulfilled?

What adventures did Jehovah, Jesus, and the angels have before we came into being? Did the angels help with the creative process of things in the cosmos? Did they help to shape and perfect our beautiful home world?

Have their adventures been put on hold during this time of duress? Or do they continue with the ones going on in their plane of existence? Would anything really need to be put on hold since their experience of time is probably nothing like our own? 

Since restrictions had to be put on the angels, due to Satan's influence, I think it is possible that routines established eons ago may have been disrupted in some ways.

Were the faithful sons of God angry at the ones who came down and took advantage of the women of Earth, thus banning the going back and forth between our world and theirs? Did they miss the association with man?

This may sound silly, but Jesus said we are one of the things he is most fond of. We were created to co-exist with the angels and they have been cut off from us. Though they are spirit beings, Jehovah said he made us in His image, and we have more in common with Angels than one might imagine.

And finally, even the greatest teaching tool from Jehovah himself is, in fact, a collection of stories for us to learn from.

I have little doubt that Jehovah, Jesus, and the Angels have many tales to tell. I look forward to hearing them.

I have survived yet another final and another LRA. I think I am going to get a 96 on the module because I got an A on the final and everyone thought my LRA was da bomb!

I didn't want everyone sitting around, bored out of their minds, while I droned on about some slide show I was presenting, so I made a game that got everyone involved.

This last module was Sports Injury and we were supposed to show something that had Who, What, When, Where and how we fixed the situation.

So I had ten characters:

                               Jedi, Superman, Queen of England, King Kong, etc.          

                                                                                                                          

  Ten places:

                             Volcano, Laundromat, Starbucks, Space station, etc.                                                                                    

Ten times:

                                    Dinosaur era, Bible times, 20s, Present, etc.

Ten injuries:

                           Detached retina, Bloody nose, Severed arm, Burn, etc.

And ten sports:

                                      Fencing, Ping Pong, Tug of War, Skiing, etc.

Rules:

30 seconds each to figure out who, what, where, when, and 1 minute to figure out how to fix it. Every right answer got a ticket. Whoever got the most tickets in the end won the prize. The prize being some homemade cookies.

One of the scenarios ended up being Superman, in the future, at the laundromat, with a bloody nose from playing tennis.

I acted out most of it, calling in volunteers to help me when needed and drawing the rest. One of the girls is really good at drawing, should have had her help more with that. It was fast paced and everyone seemed to have fun. The teacher thought it was awesome. 

Tomorrow, we are supposed to go into school, dressed up as rock stars. I don't have anything rock and roll themed in the least. I don't even have ripped jeans. What a dilemma. 

Jehovah is Irresistible.

In the Draw Close to Jehovah book, in the chapter under Divine Protection, there is this sentence: "He is "God Almighty"--a title indicating that he possesses irresistible power."

I looked up the word Irresistible in the dictionary and this is what it says:

ir·re·sist·i·ble

  [ir-i-zis-tuh-buhl] 

adjective

1.

not resistible; incapable of being resisted or withstood

2.

lovable, especially calling forth feelings of protective love

3.

enticing; tempting to possess

noun

4.

an irresistible person or thing.

                                   It is a word of power and love. How perfect.

While studying for meeting this Thursday, I realized something astounding:

Without going too much into the fact that Abraham and his son Isaac had the really bad habit of losing their wives to kings, (if your wife is that hot, put a bag over her head or something, jeesh!) Sarah must have been on an unearthly level of beautiful.

I say this because the first time she was taken, by the king of Egypt, she was between 65 and 70 years old, which, even by yesteryears standards, was pretty old.

Granted, she hadn't had kids yet, (you know, the whole barren thing,) and she lived a pretty cushy life. Yea, yea, she had to pack up and live in tents, but they were blessed by God in everything but children, so they were rich, very rich. 

And every time Sarah got taken by a king, they were given even more riches. So it's not as if she was having to milk her own cows or anything.

Okay, so no pregnancies and a softer lifestyle; I can see how she would still be hot enough to take by a king, got it.

BUT! When she was taken by the king of Philistine, (see that? The second time she was taken by a king. Come on Abraham, the whole "this is my sister" thing isn't working, try a new trick,) it was the same year she finally gave birth to Isaac, when she was a grand total of 90 years old.

All I have to say to this is: Damn girl!

You can argue that they lived a lot longer back then, and this is true, but she passed away 32 years after that so she was no Spring chicken. 

Even she acknowledged that she was old at the time when she overheard Jehovah telling Abraham that she would give birth to a child, laughing at the idea in fact.

All in all, this woman was extraordinary. She was an amazing example, a tough chickity, and apparently very, very hot.

I can't believe I'm a grown up. A genuine, boring grownup.

Do you know what I did today?

I sent several emails to several people, to set up several conference calls, for a committee I am on. So we can discuss an agenda for a different conference call, where the committee as a whole can discuss and vote on changes that can be brought before yet another committee that is higher up on the food chain.

I'm not even doing this for work! I'm still in school! What happened?

Or, the more important question, why do I keep saying yes?

"TJ, can you-"
"Yes! Yes I can!....Wait, you want me to what?"

I understand this is entirely my fault. But still. What happened?