I can't fit into the jeans I was mending...

 I am just under 2 months from turning 50. 

image from TOAST Renewed. 

When I had the idea for this blog I think I was 46... and the jeans are not yet completely mended and I couldn't fit in them if they were.

We just returned from Guatamala. Everyone says how life changing a trip like this would be. The trip was amazing. The work Village of Hope does is amazing. And it brought back to life my 5th grade heart to help all the women on the roadside and in their stores sell all of their Mexican blankets, and the college-age me that thought she would end up in missions. And a bigger (and wiser) heart for not just the women, but the girls that don't have a sure future with their own littles once they are 18. 

What I have discovered is that mending jeans really isn't my thing. I am short on time, even though I currently don't work full time, I still have a commute, classes and small jobs on the side and we go and visit our grown kids and grand baby quite often... so I am giving myself a couple of months to try to fit back into those jeans. (I am a health coach, I do know what to do.) And I hopefully will have sewn a few more items before my 50th birthday. The jeans may not be finished, but they will be by the end of 2024.

The verse that Jake, our fearless trip leader and church's youth pastor shared during the trip went hand in hand with the book I have been slowly reading, Sacred Fire, by Ronald Rolheiser. It has been heavy on my mind and heart since last Tuesday (?) night,.

1 Thessalonians 4, v.11 "and to make your ambition to lead a quiet life: You should mind your own business and work with your hands, just as we have told you, v. 12, so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders and so that you will not be dependent on anybody."

This verse also speaks to debt... which we have, and taxes.