The Lord will work out His plans for my life....Psalm 138:8

I begin this cold Wednesday morning by finishing my Bible study lesson. We are in Genesis this year, and in chapter 27, Esau is moaning to his father Isaac about Jacob getting his birthright. Poor Esau. He gave it up for a good meal a chapter ago, and now he wants it back! I am totally unfamiliar with how this story ends, but so far the lesson is a good one: Be careful what you give up; you might want it back later, and it will be too late! Well, with God it is never too late, so I am not looking ahead, but I am hopeful that Esau ends up with something satisfying rather than going away with his head hung low for the rest of his life. I am familiar with the Psalm that assures us that God has a plan for our lives and is working it out one day at a time. So my prayer today is this: Thank you for creating my life with purpose. Bring clarification and renewed confidence when I get off track or fail, and creativity when there's work to be done.

Speaking of work to be done, I am writing a song, a jingle-type that tells about our church's upcoming No Fish Fish Fries during Fridays in Lent. I am on the "party committee" at church now, and when I went to the meeting of this already formed group, I just told them that if you want young families to come to the Friday evening social gatherings which precede the Stations of the Cross, you've got to have something else on the menu besides fish. (just thinking of Carrie's family here and what her gang would eat) From there, we discussed that the fish from past years has actually been pretty bad, and attendance has gone down each week. So we all brainstormed and came up with theme nights....Mexican night, Italian night, American night, etc., and County Market would provide foods that fit with the theme of the night. We are officially "pardoning the fish" like the president pardons the turkey on Thanksgiving. So we hope the idea takes off, and families will want to socialize a little on Friday evenings of Lent in the lower level cafeteria, then go upstairs for Stations at 7. We'll see if this works. I am writing the Catholic Trivia game, and also some family discussion topics for the tables that have a Christian theme. So creativity....get going! There is work to be done!

It is official....Jan. 31, 2009, is Tony's birthday party. I got the room reserved, and Tony will arrange to get a DJ and karioke machine. If you were already gone at the end of my birthday party, you missed the discussion with those remaining that we should do this every winter at the end of January, helping with the winter blahs, the post-Christmas downer time....so I was saying outloud who else has a birthday or something we could celebrate in January. And from the karioke area, I could hear a faint voice.....ME....I DO....Oh yes, Tony, January 31 is your birthday. Well that settles it, and we're on, so mark your calendar and plan to bring your family for more fun.

So today is my bible study class, interdenominational group that meets at the Presbyterian church near my old house on Curtis Creek. Then lunch with the Faler girls if they make it on this cold morning. This afternoon I hope to bake my chocolate chip cookies for the couple of parties this weekend. And work on that jingle...let's see, the creative side of me already has a few lines in my head....
No fish sticks, or crab cakes or bass for me,
No catfish, or carp YUCK!, They're history!
My fish friends are on a Lenton holiday,
Friday No Fish Fish Fries before we pray.

Now just put a few chords together and add another verse, and I'm a songwriter! Silly girl.