Saturday, June 30, 2012

100 Days of Worship- A Challenge


Lately, I've been feeling God pressing on my heart the challenge of spending 100 continuous days in worship.
As we all know, worship is not just singing songs or hymns at the beginning of a church service, but is a way of life. That's where the challenge lies. And I felt I should share this challenge and encourage you to join in with me.

Does this challenge mean singing worship songs all day? No. It just means spending some point in the day in worship with songs, or hymns, or even Psalms, and letting God work in you through it. Making full out worship part of your God time, as well as reading your Bible.

What if my day is really busy? All the more need for worship, I'd say. And it isn't hard to fit in. If you have a regular daily Bible time, include it in that. It's also something you can do while doing daily tasks, such as the dishes, or cleaning, or (as I tend to) getting dressed in the morning. Just pop in or put on some worship music (it can be an old cassette tape, a CD, some mp3s, or even youtube videos), or just  pick your favorites out of your head. You can sing out, or hum, or just silently worship in your head (this is best if you are out in public). The point is just to do it and do it wholeheartedly. You could even read a Psalm or two, as those are songs of worship and praise.

Any songs you worship to don't even have to be strictly of the Praise&Worship category. It could be just a normal Christian song, and you find yourself in worship listening to it, and find God speaking to you through it. Awesome!

Do you have to listen to a new song each day? No. A single song could last for a few days- even a week- or more! The point is, the attitude and lifestyle of worship, not the act, and not how many songs you listen to or how many God speaks to you through. It's not even about doing the act every day. If you miss a few days, it's okay. Even if you don't stay in an attitude of worship all day, it's okay- we're human, it happens. There is no condemnation. This isn't a rigid, legalistic challenge. This is just a personal growth challenge- something to encourage yourself and others in.

Do you have to post every day telling which song you worshiped to/God spoke to you through, and how He spoke to you? No, but if you want to, that's great! It encourages others participating. On that note, it's great to see a post once a week, giving testimony, but again, it's not the point, so it's not necessary.

I guess all this is to ask- Will you join me in worship, basking in God's love for us and letting God speak to us and work in us through it on a daily basis?
As tomorrow is the first of the month (July 1), I'll be starting then. If you want to, jump in any time!

Wednesday, June 27, 2012

Miss Dashwood Contest!

Miss Dashwood, of Yet Another Period Drama Blog, is having a contest to win an autographed copy of her newly published novel!
To enter, just go to her post on her blog!

Wednesday, June 13, 2012

2012 Book List- Six Month Check-up

My Worlds 
Back in January, when I posted my goal reading list for the year, it was a list that I had carefully whittled down to what I thought would be reasonable. My list has since expanded to 60 books! As I have just finished my twentieth book on my list (one-third through!), I thought I would make a check up post  and list all the books I have accomplished so far.


  1. Darby O'Gill
  2. The Invention of Hugo Cabret
  3. A Christmas Carol, The Chimes, Cricket on The Hearth
  4. The Mysterious Benedict Society
  5. Men of Iron 
  6. Tuesdays at The Castle
  7. The Gammage Cup
  8. Wonderstruck
  9. Out of The Silent Planet
  10. The Mysterious Benedict Society and The Perilous Journey
  11. Cat Among The Pigeons (Poirot #32)
  12. The Mysterious Benedict  Society and The Prisoner's Dilemma
  13. Back Home (re-read)
  14. Lisa and Lottie (the book The Parent Trap is based off of)
  15. The Night Circus (ok, I didn't finish that one)
  16. Perelandra
  17. The Extraordinary Education of Nicholas Benedict
  18. David Copperfield (Ok....I actually took a 2 1/2 month break after the first half of it, in which most of the affore mentioned books were read....but I did finish it!)
  19. The Murder At The Vicarage (Miss Marple #1)
  20. The Wind In The Willows


Having a Nook (and now also a Kindle app on my phone) has really expanded my library! :-)
But just to prove I haven't completely given up on real books, 12 of the books above were real, hard copy books. ;-)

Sunday, June 3, 2012

Festival!

My parents and I went to our  city's Festival of The Arts today, and it was great!
The weather was beautiful, albeit a bit windy, and we got to see some great art and some wonderful Irish Step dancing, plus some good oldies music and worship music. :-)

I also got a bit fried...mostly on my arms. :-/
It was worth it, though! :-)

My reading for the day is shot, though. :-P

There's also a couple photos from Festival up on my photography blog. One of them is of the Irish Step dancing.

Saturday, June 2, 2012

Day 2 and Writing Blues

It's day two of my photo 365 at my other blog. Check it out! Today's photo is for my fellow cucumber lovers. ;-) Just my favorite cucumber snack.

And don't worry. I haven't abandoned doing my normal sort of posts on here.
It's just that I haven't written anything new in the last couple months (I've been doing a lot more reading), so I haven't had really anything to share. That's how it seems to go for me. I write a little, just to get started, and then I don't get any more real ideas for months, so my writing just sits there for months.
I'm really starting to think I should have attempted to join Camp NaNoWriMo this month, just to get one of my new books down. (Most likely it would be The Not-So-Secret Hideaway.) Well, the next session is in August, so maybe I will join that one. Maybe.
I do know for sure that I want to save So She Dances for the actual NaNo event.

I may still do May's Beautiful People...though, it will be late. Doing one for villains does sound interesting...but I've been tossing back and forth which villain to feature, which is the main reason I didn't get that post done before  the end of the month. :-P

On the up side of everything, I returned to David Copperfield after an approximately two month break, and am now more than half way done with it! I'm requiring myself at least 30 pages a day, and at that rate I should be done by the middle of the month. :-)

I shall strive to keep you posted on all things!

Friday, June 1, 2012

Photo 365 On My Photography Blog! And more...

I decided to start doing the photo 365 challenge today!
I've got my first day's photo up!
Check it out on my other blog (click here)! :-)

On another note, the weather lately has been quite bipolar!
Monday was rediculously hot, and then the last couple days it's been cold enough for me to wear a sweater! On the first day of June! It was also rainy today, so it felt like a Fall day. I liked it. :-)