New Day - New Study

Well it did not take me long to decide. I thought about doing a totally new blog or moving to my Just Ramblings blog but decided that this was the format I have gotten used to posting a study on. For my new study I have recently received some books by a new author to me. Not a new author because she had written several book I have not read but she had recently started a new series and that was where I got interested. Her name is Debbie Macomber and the new fiction series was about a woman who had opened a yarn store. I had actually order the first two in this new series as a special from my Crossings Book Club. But also as a part of this special was her first non-fiction rendering. That is what I'm going to study next. The title is Knit Together: Discover God's Pattern for Your Life. A similar theme to the book we just finished. Of course Mrs. Macomber also is a knitter which is another interest of mine. In fact the first in her new series A Good Yarn was where I heard of Project Linus and got interested in that worthwhile organization. From which I contacted the local chapter. So now for "Knit Together":
The first thing she references is Psalm 139 in which David talks about God knitting us together in our mother's wombs. Each chapter deals with something we are created by God for. The first is that we are created for a purpose. She of course begins by sharing about herself in the part subtitled "Finding Purpose in Humble Beginnings", in which she talks about how she has always wanted to be a writer although she considered this an impossibled dream. Her reasons were that she was a poor student, she was dyslexic, she bearly finished high school and got married almost right away and then rapidly had four children. But inspite of these she became a writer and a very good one. She gives this advice for us to find our purpose by considering our passion. She asks these two questions. What is it that gets me excited? Why do I love it?
"God has a plan for your life and a purpose that fits into His master plan.
But He doesn't want you to float through life waiting for a giant bolt of
lightning to fall from heaven and point out what you're supposed to be
doing. He gave each of us a brain as well as a heart. We have to listen
to both to truly discover the pattern God has for our lives."
However, she also advises that we remain flexible and she reminds us that our lives do not end when our spouses die or our children grow up and leave home. She then shares a story of a woman who longed to be on Broadway but all of her efforts to become an actress failed. But through a chance she became a limo driver who one day her rider was Liza Minnelli. Ms. Minnelli began to regularly request this woman as her driver and later suggested that she start her own limousine service. So the woman purchased a limousine on her credit card and started her own business. She turned this into the most successful limousine services in New York City, catering to the Broadway stars as well as other famou clientele. Her dream of working on Broadway was realized but not as she originally invisioned. Next Debbie encourages us to be patient as well as passionate, and "to enjoy every step of the journey instead of being greedy for more and more." She then goes on to quote Oswald Chambers; "God's training is for now, not later. His purpose is for this very minute, not for sometime in the future. We have nothing to do with what will follow our obedience, and we are wrong to concern ourselves with it. What people call preparation, God sees as the goal itself."
For this chapter (and for me this week) Debbie leaves us with this prayer;
"It is my prayer for you that as you look to God for your purpose, you will continue along your journey by living creatively and with hope in the knowledge that God wants the best for you." [Amen.]