Can you hold off on the blessings, Lord?

Have you ever been blessed so much that you think something's gone wrong?

Well, that's how my life feels all the time.

It is the strangest sensation to be overwhelmingly blessed.
Blessed to the point that you don't want to tell anyone and you don't want anything else amazing to happen to you.

I look around at so many people in the world that don't have half of the blessing that I do, and it just makes me sick of it.

I'm blessed with talents. I'm good at alot of things.

I've learned to sing, play multiple instruments, cook, draw, write, knit, crochet, tat lace, quilt, paint, spin wool, darn socks and so much more.
I absolutely love to learn, which overflows into 1) obsessive reading and researching and 2) my constant chattering on random facts and skills I've acquired.

I've been blessed with the ability to travel.
My family took a month-long trip out west in 2005
We took a two week long trip the New England in 2006.
(In total, I think we've been to 36 states)
We go skiing every year.
Last year we took a cruise to Alaska.
This year we went to Ireland.

You know what all that leads to?
I get proud and selfish and puffed-up.
I get frustrated when I'm not good at something.
I get upset when I don't know something.
I get discontent when I can't go somewhere.
People don't like me because they think I'm trying to make them feel dumb by being a know-it-all, when really, I am only excited about the things I've done and learned!
I feel like telling someone about my life is as good as a kick in the pants.
For them and me.

I'm not telling you all these things to boast.
Honestly, I'd much rather not tell people because it's so terribly embarrassing.
There's a line that comes to my mind so often.
It's from the movie "The Inheritance" when the father says
"I seem to be suffering from an embarrassment of riches..."
I never knew why that line stuck in my head until recently.
I was struck with the fact that my life is an embarrassment of riches.
How does one balance gratitude with a desire to shout "ENOUGH! I'm blessed beyond measure! I don't want anymore!"?
Can you even tell God you've had enough blessings? Is that a sin?

There is something I know I can't do, and it doesn't frustrate me.
You know why?
Because no human could possibly do it.
No one on the face of this earth can save me from Hell and my sins.
No matter how blessed or degraded we are, Christ is the only Savior.
I don't have to worry that I'm better than someone else because I'm not.
We're not saved by what we can do, or how much we know or where we've been. 
It's only by grace.

"For it is by grace you have been saved,through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast."
Ephesians 2:8-9

Kia Kaha
Joshua 1:9

There's some people that I like.....alot :-)

Sometimes I really wonder what it would be like to be my friend.

What resilience it must take to put up with me!

I have to live with myself, but some people choose to hang out with me.

I'm very grateful for those people.

I'm grateful to the people who find me worth trying to change.

They want to make me better.

Even though I really bug them, and I'm stupid and thoughtless and annoying and sometimes downright mean.

Even after all that, they think my friendship is something worth hanging on to.

To all my friends:

Thank you.

I couldn't have put up with me like you guys have.

Proverbs 17:17

Kia Kaha

Kia Kaha

Today was a lousy day. 

And I mean lousy. 

Plans that I had been looking forward to were cancelled.

The friend that I really, really wanted to see, ended up not being able to come over.
I really, really wanted to go horseback riding today and didn't get to.
And alot of other things just went wrong.

I feel like I'm the closest I'll ever be to an inhabitant of Jericho.

(I'm also feeling tired, dramatic and completely overwhelmed)

But this is something I've been thinking about.

Crushed, broken things.

Dreams, mostly.

When I first started thinking about driving and getting my own car, all I wanted was a VW Bug.

As I got older, that dream got crushed by reality.
I wanted to train service dogs and you can't carry a dog crate in a Bug.
It's a little dream, but every time I see a Bug, I tend to get jealous.
But my plain white mini van serves the purpose and I really do like it.
I'm trying to see it as one dream replaced with another.
Training service dogs is a much more selfless dream than owning a VW Bug.
And I love it.
This day will be over soon and God has blessed me with a relatively optimistic outlook and short-term memory loss which helps each new day to (typically) start out fresh and happy.
His mercies are new every morning.
One last remark.
Some time ago, I got the nickname "Kia". It's a long story of how I got it and I won't go into all of it.
Recently though Fiah (the bestower of aforementioned nickname) and I saw a picture of a copy of The Hobbit book, signed my all the actors from the movie.
One of the actors put the phrase "Kia Kaha" above his name, which, of course, we looked into because it was my nickname.
As it turns out, it means "Be Strong" in Maori (a language spoken in New Zealand) and is a popular saying over there.
Needless to say, I looked into it even more and found that there is a Maori worship song called "Kia Kaha"
I have sort of adopted it as my motto and have had the words to the song running through my head all day.
(And I'm going to be signing off with it from now on)
If anyone would like to hear it, here is a link.

Kia Kaha!
Lydia

*looks around* Hmm. It's been a while

You wouldn't believe it to look at me, but I've changed since the last post. 

In fact, looking back over the past few posts made me kind of sick. 

I'm constantly changing. 

I used to hate change and it still isn't my favorite thing. 

I like being comfortable. 

But I also like not knowing what's coming.

I like changing to become better, more like Christ, more like what I'm supposed to be.
(Strange how something as small as a blog can get you thinking about something so profound)

I guess there are several points to this post.
One is to get me back in the habit of blogging.
Two is to say that, while I'm still the goofy, crazy girl that I was and that will come out in my posts, I don't want to be as flippant and, frankly, ridiculous as previous posts made me seem.
Three is to draw your attention to the fact that I have changed the name of this blog by two words.
Less of Me makes room for Christ and others.
It's not all about me :-)
Four is to say that this weekend is going to be EPIC!
I'm spending it with one of my favorite people doing some of my favorite things.
My nephews are coming down and we're going to play pirates.
Then, we're off to fix a meal at the Ronald McDonald house
(not to be confused with McDonald's)
After that, it's the watching of "Reclaiming the Blade" and (hopefully, maybe) a little Robin Hood
(Do you think we can make it through Brothers in Arms this time? ;-) )
And somewhere in there will be the exploration of our own little piece of Middle Earth.

Well, that's it folks.
Let me know what you would like to see happen with this blog.