Lessons from auto complete....

So FINALLY after months of John nagging me (I'm not kidding MONTHS) I got a new phone.  It wasn't until my trusty old Blackberry was broken in three ways (o and p keys were dented from falling through the chair... roller ball got knocked out and even a new roller ball kit couldn't fix it) that I caved.  Didn't hurt that new phone was the same cost as the new higher insurance deductible either...  Regardless I keep telling people, "Old people should not get new technology!"  It's not that I can't use the phone. It is that I am SLOW at using it.  And we ALL know that Jami canNOT afford to be slow!

One part that is REALLY slowing me down is this dang-nabbit auto complete function.  First of all the phone has a touchscreen and I have pudgy fingers.  That is not a good mix.  So when I'm trying to type a word and I hit an errant key or even when I don't, the SMART phone completes the word for me... but it isn't always what I mean.

UR keeps coming up IRS
Kiah is kosher
pls is plastics and I keep asking Noah to "Plastics let the dog out."

It is VERY frustrating. But here's the thing.... it's kinda teaching me something about life. This phone is pretty darn smart, but it can't read my mind. It misunderstands my pudgy fingers all the time. It is FORCING me to slow down and I don't like it. However, I think it might be God that wants me to slow down.  I am SO fast!  I bet I'd make your head spin.  I do more by 6 a.m. then most people do all day: get John off to work, do a load of laundry, therapy exercises, read Bible.  I type fast.  FREQUENTLY, when I'm taking a reference people will say to me, "WOW!  You type really fast!" I talk fast, walk fast, cook fast, work fast, LIVE fast... only (here's the catch) all that fast is making me TIRED.

So as irritating as this new smart phone and it's haughty little auto complete feature is... I'm glad that it is causing me to SLOW DOWN and I promise I am trying to submit to the harness.  I just have to admit I'm a bit more like a mule than a horse.  Guess this stubborn girl just needs a little more time.

The Gentle Leader.....

I have a new personal trainer.  Her name is Kiah.  She is AWESOME at her job!  She has only had the job for twelve days, and  in spite of a holiday and a 2-day stay in the ICU for my hubby, I have only missed walking with Kiah ONCE!  She is an incredible motivator.  (FINE!  I will admit the real motivator:  $$$$$.  The vet told us the more she walks on asphalt the less often she will need her nails clipped.  Since we're a little nervous to clip them ourselves and I am a HUGE penny pincher, the motivation of saving money is what has me out there walking that girl nearly every day!)  And as long as we're being truthful here, I might as well also admit, I'm not walking her... SHE is walking ME.  It is actually getting a little irritating because she pulls TOO hard on me!  I mentioned this to my cousin (my resident animal expert), and she offered to bring me her Gentle Leader when she came for Thanksgiving.  Well today I used it for the first time and WOW!  She was right!  It is a WORLD of difference!

Kiah wearing her Gentle Leader

The basic idea here is:  The Gentle Leader allows me to control Kiah's head and once I control her head, I am IN CONTROL!  I wonder, do they make a Gentle Leader for children???  How about husbands???  I digress...  So this morning my walk with Kiah was nearly perfect!  (Except for the part where I realized TOO late that the dogs at the end of the cul-de-sac were out...  it took ALL my strength to get that girl turned around and I was PRAYING the whole time that the owner of the other dogs would realize what was going on as they had left their property and were slowly but LOUDLY approaching us.  YIKES!)  Other than that she walked without pulling and there was slack in the leash the ENTIRE time!  Brittany's wisdom of, "If you control the head, you control the animal." kept running through my head and it got me to thinking... then praying... any crying a little too...

I started praying, "God, please be my Gentle Leader!  I want you to control my head so that you are in control of ALL of me."  See I started to realize that this whole thing called life... A lot of it is a head game... If Satan can get into your head and make you worry, doubt, or fear... If you give just an INCH of your brain to worry, doubt, or fear... It is over!  The worry, doubt and fear control you.  However, if you give God control over every inch of your brain, peace flows in... the peace that passes all understanding.

Now according to my cousin (and she hasn't been wrong so far), after a while Kiah will get so used to the Gentle Leader not allowing her to pull that she will forget to pull without the Gentle Leader and eventually she will even walk by my side without a leash.  We'll see about that.

But, I think that happens with God too....  I think initially we might pull and tug at our Gentle Leader...  I think initially we have to surrender to Him over and over and over again.... but after awhile, we get used to it... we stop even trying to pull away towards worry, doubt and fear.  We stop even trying to leave His side when the going gets tough.  We just surrender and the peace floods in.