Spanish is my new skinny

When I was in high school and college, I always had these big plans during every break that somehow I would come back skinny and everyone would think I was amazing and want to be my friend. I would walk in on the first day of school and everyone would say "Is that April - wow she looks great" and all the popular people would rush up to invite me to their houses.

I've pretty much gotten over that by now. I guess six years of school will teach you something, if nothing other than that summer holidays do not lead to miraculous body changes unless surgery is involved. Now I've realized that Spanish is my new skinny.

I spent the last 2.5 years living in Madrid and trying to varying degrees to learn Spanish while living and working in an English-saturated environment. The longer you live in a foreign country, the more embarrassing it becomes that you are not yet fluent in the language. Sure, I've gotten to the point that I can order a meal at a restaurant, potentially even with flair, but I'm not really fooling anyone other than my parents. So, when we decided to move to a small town on the east coast of Spain this year, the secret little thought popped into my head "when we visit Madrid, I'll wow everyone with my newfound ability to speak Spanish."

My plan this whole time has been that I would come back fluent and everyone would think I was amazing. Before we visited in November I thought "we'll go to our friends house who speak Spanish and English and spend the whole night in Spanish." When that didn't happen, I though when we visited at Christmas "when I see Mati (with whom I usually converse in English) at the Christmas service, I'll only speak to her in Spanish and she'll be so impressed at my improvement." I'm not sure if it didn't happen because of habit or because I didn't want her to actually be unimpressed at my de-provement.

This is when I realized that Spanish is my new skinny. When I can speak Spanish fluently, I will have arrived as a social contributor. When I can speak Spanish fluently, all of life will be better, miraculously. I'm beginning to wonder if I should skip the six years of school and realize that in most instances, lasting change does not come about without quite a bit of hard work and dedication. At least, since as far as I know, there isn't a surgery that can make me speak Spanish.

Simplicity

by Heather

For the past few weeks I have been asking God what He wants me to concentrate on in my personal life and growth. In many ways I feel like I spent the first 36 years of life learning the basics; and I am just now getting to the "real" lessons. Enough wasting time. I want to start learning the important things that will really make a difference to my soul, my family, my friends, my church, my community.

I tend to complicate things. I can be all about the idea of something. If you give me a project I'm happy to color-code it, chart it, get a new notebook for it, collect colored pens and paperclips to track it and get everything all lined up.

Sometimes, I'm not so good with the follow-up.

Several years ago, before we came to Europe, I read an article about "quiet-times." The woman who wrote it set aside 1 hour every day, and she had all sorts of valuable ideas of what to do in that hour. So I found a 3-ring binder, I printed up prayer lists and Bible verses, put in dividers and all sorts of snazzy things. For awhile, I actually used it, and managed to spend the hour most days.

But the whole "system" became too much for me. It began to overwhelm me. If I felt at all like I couldn't do the whole hour, it became easier to just skip the whole devotions thing.

This is a pattern in my life; not just a one-time thing. Recently, I was working on some personal development issues. I asked a friend to give me some feedback in specific areas. One of her comments was this: " I think you often set high goals or too many goals that make perseverance nearly impossible for anyone, when you would probably be much more successful if you kept them smaller or sharper focused, really working to stay consistent and persevere on some realistic goals instead of trying to change your whole world at once."

It makes sense to me that God is asking me to simplify. For the next six months, we are basically in transition and in limbo at the same time. Although we will continue to live in the suburbs, our ministry will be in the city. That is going to be hard because we're going to be pulled in two directions. School and kids and home are going to be going the opposite direction of ministry. And my heart is already anxious to make the move.

I could make the next six months a lot harder on myself by making it too complicated. So I am deliberately going to seek simplicity. I'm going to leave the 3-ring binder wherever it is (yes, I still have it and still feel like I should use it sometimes.) Instead, I will take my Bible, maybe a notebook and only ONE color pen, and sit with Jesus and talk to Him and just work on getting to know Him more.

During these next six months, I will throw things away, weed through my possessions and ask God to help me not buy a single thing I don't really need. I will learn to sift through my tasks and find the ones that count. I will spend more time snuggling with my children, laughing with them, helping them learn about life. I will hold my husband's hand more. I will spend time with people I love, and also with people I don't, but need to. I will ask God to keep my greed in many areas in check.

I will not make New Year's resolutions. I will not make any charts to track the progress of anything. I will not buy any new pens until the ones I have run out of ink.

Simplicity. It's out there somewhere.