i wish my car was 4-wheel drive

Well, everyone back home seems to be posting on blog and facebook all about the miraculous Texas snowfall, so I might as well talk about snow too. :) The past week or so, it's been sunny and warm here in Reno. It's felt like spring, and I was loving it! I got to go on long walks outside instead of working out in the gym (which I sort of detest, but do anyway cause I feel good when I'm in shape). Saturday morning I went on one of these delightful walks. Then by Saturday evening it was getting chilly and thick clouds were descending, covering the nearby mountains. I went to a service at a church down the road from me, and by the time I left to go home there was about an inch of snow on the ground. I didn't think much of it, having just spent 3 months in Colorado. But I didn't realize that it would just continue to snow harder and harder throughout the night. It was still snowing hard when I got up at 5 the next morning to get ready for work. Despite the new tires I got on my car in Colorado, it still tends to slip and slide a little, and I really hate driving in snow and ice. I left about 20 minutes early, waded through at least 6 inches of the stuff to get to my car, and crept along at about 20 or 30 mph on the highway to get to work. People around here might be more used to driving in the stuff than Texans, but I passed quite a few cars stranded in the ditches. I finally made it to work, where nobody had thought to plow the parking lot, and somehow managed to park my car. I waded in to the hospital, thanking God I'd survived and hoping that everyone scheduled to work that day would make it. I guess they did, cause it was a pretty decent day. Every time I looked out the window I saw more fat flakes coming down, and tried not to think about when I'd have to dig my car out of the parking lot in the dark after work. By that time, thought, the parking lot had been plowed, and the roads weren't too terrible. I did pass 2 accidents on the highway, and even more cars stuck in the ditch. Sometimes I wish I could have experienced snow when I was a kid, back before it would start giving me heart failure. :) Needless to say, I'm looking forward to spring.

pictures

here are a few of the snapshots i took on my drive from Colorado to Nevada. they're not exactly in chronological order.

this was the view from a rest stop in Utah

i think this was the most trees i saw in one place the entire time. most of the landscape was just dirt and rocks.

this was outside of Salt Lake City. it's hard to see the mountain because of the fog, but it was beautiful. the ugly smokestack was a stark contrast.

cool rock formations in Wyoming - or maybe in Colorado, right before Wyoming.

my wonderful driving buddy. this is from the balcony of my new apartment in Reno.

and a couple of pictures from our costume party, about a week before my road trip. there are some more pictures on Hannah's blog.

Learning How to Pray

I have lots of pictures to post, from the costume party and my drive from Colorado to Nevada. However, I'm not on my own computer at the moment, so for now I'm just going to share something from my Bible reading/journaling today. It's kind of long, and scattered and random, but there are about 5 more pages of scattered, unwritten thoughts banging around in my head. Just wanted to share some of the ones I actually wrote down.

"When you pray, say: 'Father, hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come. Give use each day our daily bread. And forgive us our sins, For we ourselves also forgive everyone who is indebted to us. And lead us not into temptation'...So I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you." Luke 11:2-9

Jesus' disciples had asked Him how to pray, and that was his response. Here are some observations I made on it. Components, or guidelines, of prayer include:
-Acknowledging the holiness of God
-Hoping for His kingdom to be established
-Asking for what you need right now - daily bread, not weekly bread, or monthly, or yearly
-Asking for forgiveness - realizing your sinfulness and need for forgiveness
-Forgiving those who are indebted to you, or have wronged you
-Requesting help to avoid temptation, in order to prevent future sin
-Be persistent - in the ask, seek, and knock verse, my Bible had notes expanding on that, to say "keep asking, keep seeking, keep knocking." He didn't say how long to keep asking - He just says (or implies) to not stop. "Somehow, I think he [Aslan] likes to be asked" (one of the Narnia books)
-A reminder that our heavenly Father loves to give good things to His children (vs 11-13)

How much my prayers would change if I followed these guidelines every time! I praise God through song at church, but seldom do I verbalize His holiness in my prayers. And I don't often think about His kingdom, or how I am to help establish it. Often my prayers mostly consist of requests, I'm sorry to say. The concept of asking only for what I need right now, today, is hard to grasp sometimes. I love security too much. I want to know that I'm taken care of today, and tomorrow, and next week, and next year. I think that while it's wise to think about and plan for the future, I often rely on my own plans more than I rely on God to take care of me from one day to the next. Asking Him only for what I need today would help me to focus on the moment, to live for whatever is happening right now, instead of always thinking about the future. I don't even know for certain if God is going to give me a tomorrow - all I know is that He's given me a today. Asking for forgiveness - I do include that one, but not on a regular basis. Although I know I am forgiven without even asking, sometimes if I don't adress my sins specifically before God, I end up dwelling on them and becoming overwhelmed with feelings of guilt, which then get in-between me and God. Forgiving everyone - now there's a tough one. "Love keeps no account of wrongs" (1 Cor. 13) - but I do, all the time. If I were to forgive people daily - either tell them or tell God, or both - I think I would end up with a much greater capacity to love. Anticipating future temptation, and realizing that I will need the Lord's help to avoid it, would definitely help. So many times I look at other people who have "sinned so greatly," and I think "what an idiot. I would never do something like that. I'm above such things." I forget that we are all sinners, and I am just as capable of doing hideous things as anybody else (not to mention my pride in thinking I'm better than anyone else). God promises not to let me encounter any temptation I am not equipped to deal with (1 Cor. 10:13), but if I don't even acknowledge that I'm capable of succumbing to temptation, then I'm just setting myself up for failure. Persistence is definitely something I struggle with. When I pray for someone and don't see any evidence of change, after awhile I often give up and stop praying altogether. I say, "what's the point? They're never going to change. They've resisted God for so long - what can He do about it?" How quickly I forget my God's power! He is the God who softened Pharaoh's heart, the God who holds this whole crazy world together, the God who used a brutul killer to write most of the New Testament and spread the gospel throughout Europe! I also forget His love. I forget that He is my Daddy, and he loves to give good things to His kids even more than my earthly Dad loves to take care of me. So...lots of thoughts about prayer. I'm going to try to change the way I pray. It'll take some time and persistence I think. We'll see how it goes.

Bravo to you if you actually read through this whole jumbled mess. :)

on the road again

"The Road goes ever on and on

Down from the door where it began.

Now far ahead the Road has gone,

And I must follow, if I can.

Pursuing it with eager feet,

Until it joins some larger way

Where many paths and errands meet.

And whither then? I cannot say."

~Bilbo Baggins