Effective, influencial, strong

So, to jump right in, what am I doing with my life to influence the lives of the people around me? What am I doing for other people to show them God's love? How am I raising my son to be a strong, christian man?

I want to be a woman of influence, a woman of character, God's character, His Princess. I want to be a person who doesn't crumble under the pressure or the whims of the world. I want to stir things in people, I want to stir people to do great things. I want to do great things for His glory, not for mine. I want to start so many ministries, but haven't gotten completely plugged into a church yet. I want to work with teenage girls, to help them become women of God, I want to start a food ministry, bringing meals to people who are recently out of the hospital due to pregnancy, surgery or illness, or to people whose spouses are deployed. I want to start a ministry that focuses on military spouses, male or female. I want to do things with my photography, with my art, my poetry. I want to glorify my God with the talents he has blessed me with. And I'm going to start at home. He has blessed me with family, with a home, with the ability to cook and clean. Everything that I do, is for the glory of God. Not the praise or nod of approval from my husband. I need to change my perspective, I need to change how I think, how I go about doing things.

My worst fear is being ineffective. Ineffective wife, christian, mother, woman etc. I want to be effective in my community, with my friends and family. I want to cause change, I want the people around me to be better because I'm in their lives.

So, wish me luck, and pray for me as I learn to be an effective woman of influence.

Waiting Diatribe

Ok. So. I was shopping in Walmart. I seriously only needed like 5 things. A 20 minute trip. Well was I sadly mistaken! Almost an hour and a half later I leave, what happened, you ask? Well let me tell you! I get money orders for rent our car payment and personal loan because with our debit card we get air miles for using it. So, I'm in line waiting for a the teller to open up (there are about 10 people in front of me) and after about 10 minutes they say that their machine for printing money orders is down but to check back in a few minutes. Well I go and get the things I need, check out and come back to the line. Again, they say the machine isn't working, however if we want to get a money order to use the kiosk and that should work fine. So I go over to use it, and of course everybody behind me was now in front of me at the kiosk. So I wait, then its my turn and I push all the correct buttons and swipe my card. My card goes through, it says processing. Then it says "Could not print money orders go to customer service". So I go stand in line at customer service. It takes them 15 minutes of going back and forth to the money center before I stop one of them and say "its really not a big deal to just give me a refund is it? I'll get the money order somewhere else" She looks at me like I've just spoken in chinese, then says "that might be a possibility". So while she looks into this possibility I wait. And wait. And wait. It appears the problem is that if she gives me a refund from her drawer her drawer will be short because the transaction wasn't initiated on her till. So they have to find someone who has the keys to the kiosk so they can take the cash from the kiosk. And I'm waiting again. Finally they get someone to open the kiosk, and then it takes 10 minutes to count out the cash. Granted it was something like $1200 but seriously? Anyways, so they give me the money and I say "Do you guys have an envelope or something I can put this in so I don't have all of this loose money in my purse?" Again I must be fluent in Chinese and not have known about it because I'm getting dumbfounded looks again. They look at each other, then around the counter briefly and say "ummm, no I don't think so, but I guess I could give you a piece of paper to fold around it if you want". Yes. I want. Give me. No, I did not say that, just thought it.

So I leave Walmart and drive to the grocery store, which I wanted to be at an hour ago because its the first of the month and everybody and their cousin gets paid on the first of the month. Well, the sad excuse for a parking lot was PACKED. So I circled around and waited for someone to come out, then someone did. I followed them to their car. I turned on my blinker and waited patiently for them to finish. Then she disappears. I'm thinking she's putting her toddler in the car. So I wait a bit longer, and look around. SHE'S WALKED ACROSS THE PARKING LOT TO THE LOT SALE and yes, she saw me. And No. She did not even HINT that she wasn't not in fact leaving. Hag. Then I get into the commissary and OHMYGOSH you would have thought nobody had bought food since January! The way our store is set up, produce on one side, icecream in the last aisle with the check out lanes starting where the produce ends. The line to check out was from where the produce ended ALL THE WAY TO the icecream aisle. There are like, 15 aisles from there to where I ended up. Waiting. Again.
It seemed like I was going to be waiting all day long. I know its a gross exaggeration, but a 2.5 hour trip ended up taking 4 hours. Thats a lot of freaking waiting.