Wednesday Hodgepodge Influencing Your World

I'm so glad to be able to link up with the Hodgepodge this week! Thank you, Joyce!

1. Do you find yourself influencing your world, or is it more the other way around? 

I am hopeful that I am having an influence for good on the world around me in the way I love them, live my life, the values I have, and the way I express myself in actions and speech. But I also believe that the people around me have had a positive influence on me as well in those ways and that makes it especially good. When I step outside of my little world though, it is my hope that I am a positive influence wherever I am in the way I conduct myself and represent my Lord Jesus.

2. July 14th is National Tape Measure Day...the device was patented on this date in 1868. When did you last use a tape measure? Do you always know where to find one in your house? Tell us one way in which you feel blessed 'beyond measure'. 

I know exactly where the tape measures are in my house. The soft one was used to measure myself to order a new swimsuit from Land's End. The hard tape measure was used to measure the size needed for a retractable clothesline for the back patio. 

I am blessed beyond measure by my family and friends! So thankful for each one.

3.The Plaza Hotel (Eloise), The Land of Oz (The Wizard of Oz), Narnia (The Chronicles of Narnia), The Hundred Acre Wood (Winnie the Pooh), Wonderland (Alice's Adventures in Wonderland), or Never Never Land (Peter Pan)...which storybook land (on this list!) would you most like to visit and why? 

Narnia would be my choice if we visit after the evil witch is defeated. The Hundred Acre Wood sounds pleasant and safe.

4. Where and when do you get your best ideas? 

In the shower or while I'm driving! At least in the car I can record the thought into my phone, but the shower? No way! I have to hold that thought and find paper and pencil while still wet or lose the idea until I'm behind the wheel!

5.  So what have you been watching on TV this summer? Anything good? 

I haven't found anything worth watching, so when I am not busy or reading, or just want to chill, I turn on an old Andy Griffith show or Everybody Loves Raymond. Sad, I know. 

6. 'Don't swim for an hour after you eat', 'Dog days of summer', 'Knee high by the Fourth of July'...choose a summer saying from the list or share one of your own, then tell us what image or memory comes to mind when you hear it spoken.

Don't swim for thirty minutes after you eat is what we were told. One of the saddest things for a kid to hear when they just can't wait to jump back in the water. 

7. In a single sentence, sum up one life lesson you've learned. 

The life I've been given is too precious to waste. 

8. Insert your own random thought here. 

The past week's events have been shocking and depressing. People who have hope only in this world system are always going to be disappointed. I'm so sorry for the lives that have been lost.  Our "unity" in the US has been crumbling for years and I shudder to think of the future for our kids and grandkids if we can't turn it around. Really, we cannot turn it around. It will have to be a realization of our need for God and what is right and a mighty move of God in response to our prayers of repentance and willingness to do what is right.