Grateful

Ever since Women's Bible study on Wednesday night (aka last night lol), I've been feeling like I need to really let go of the past, stop letting myself get in my way, and really, truly, turn to God. Something about watching the video for next week really opened my heart to what I feel God was trying to tell me and show me. I know that it was Him, because even after I got home, I kept getting that feeling of "Hey, go write these down on your mirror so everyday you see the positive affirmations I want you to know." So, now they're on my mirror. I'm playing catch up on the bible study we're doing, because I got lazy and didn't go last week so now I'm doing two (three?) weeks worth of bible study readings before next Wednesday. Anyway, I was doing my bible reading, and before I started I prayed. It was a long prayer, but I was able to get what I was feeling out to God. All of my concerns, my genuine requests that I felt prompted to ask Him for without feeling guily... I felt so different doing those bible readings. I could comprehend things I probably wouldn't have understood before. I felt God speaking to me throughout the reading, and now I think I know what He wants me to do with my life. I'm still praying on it, but at the same time I'm stepping out on faith and taking those steps to accomplish what I feel He's placed on my heart. I'm actually excited about it, too :) I'm looking forward to finishing some more of readings tonight, and hopefully I'll be all caught up by next Wednesday.

But I digress. I'm just feeling so grateful today. It was a good day, and I honestly believe it's because I prayed this morning and throughout the day. When I woke up, my first thought was "This is the day that the Lord has made; I will rejoice and be glad in it." I don't usually think thoughts like that. Usually I'm hating that I have to get up and go to work, but today and last night it was different. I think it was because of what I prayed for last night. I'm not sure if I should keep praying for those same things, because I know that God doesn't like repetitive prayers, but I feel like if I don't keep asking, it won't happen. Hm. I'll have to ask Him about that one, and do some reading on that. But anyway, I'm just grateful that today was a good day. I  was patient and kept my cool whenever Arianna wouldn't listen to me, I just stuck to my usual warning tactics to let her know that I meant business (and I think I'm getting pretty good at it too, she's not waiting until I get to 2 most of the time before she does what I asked her to do in the first place). I didn't feel bad when I had to put her in timeout today, and the times I was happy, I was genuinely happy. I didn't have to force it. At work, I wasn't overly sarcastic, I was in a fairly good mood.


Something that I'm REALLY grateful for though, is that He was with me when I went grocery shopping, and I didn't venture too far off of my shopping list (which is a bad habit that I have... I'm an impulsive shopper sometimes). I was able to get everything on my list minus the oranges, because I forgot, and still stay under budget thanks to rewards coupons and having a rewards card. I am trying REALLY hard to be better about how I spend money, because I'm pretty skilled at blowing it all very quickly on things that I don't remember spending money on. So I was VERY happy that I was able to have money left over from grocery shopping. And even though I couldn't get cash because the ATM was broken (thank you, bank employees for letting me sit there for a good 10 minutes wondering why I wasn't given an option to take out cash -_-), thinking back on it, I believe that God planned it that way so that I could have that opportunity to really test myself to see if I could stay within my grocery budget, knowing that I could go over it and still be covered by what was in my bank account. I trusted Him to guide me through every item choice that I made, and in the end, His guidance left more money in my bank account for other things. How do I know that it was God, and not me? I went to the Vegetarian food aisle to see if they had a brand of meatless product that one of the Youtubers that I follow eats (I'm trying to eat cleaner, and she had high reviews for this brand), and lo and behold, they did (along with some other things that I will need for a recipe that I want to try next pay period). Now, if it hadn't been for God, I would've gotten almost every product under that brand name (sad, but true). But God reminded me of my budget, and I stuck to the items that were on sale.

Not only did I save money on my grocery shopping for the next two weeks, the food that I bought has a purpose! Usually I just go through the circular and build my list from what's on sale, but I got a premium lifetime membership to a  weekly meal planning service online for free, and picked two recipes that I wanted to try. The site built my grocery list off of what was needed for those recipes, and I was able to take out the ingredients that I already had (I had completely forgotten that I had tilapia in my freezer, and that's the main ingredient in one of the recipes I'm trying!), and that's what I stuck to. I added a few things to that list though, but still I stuck to that list. Because I was under budget, I was able to get the things I needed for a third recipe that I wanted to try, but wasn't sure if my budget would allow it. But now I can, and I'm really excited to start making these this weekend (one of the recipes is a crockpot one!)!

Basically, this post is a complete 180 of what my last post was... It's amazing what going to bible study can do. And to think, I almost didn't go this week either. But I'm glad I did :)