do's and don'ts.

Things I do:

Above all else, I try to keep my faith in Christ at the very center of my life, the heart and source of everything. I trust God’s voice as my guide and Christ as my comforter. I pray, I practice confession and forgiveness, and I seek to see the world through the eyes of its Creator, believing everything can be redeemed. I’m part of my church community, volunteering on its behalf, and working to make a better city and a better world because of our church community.

I live in daily, honest, intimate community with the people at the Ranch. I give my time and energy and prayer to my immediate family and close friends. To a slightly wider circle of people, I give them my love and friendship through intermittent e-mails and very occasional visits.

I work hard to become a better writer with each page. I want to tell the truth as best I can, to tell the story of God and who he is and what he does, both through the way I write and the way I live. I write and read, in airports and coffee shops and book stores and on the dock by the creek. I read novels and magazines and children’s books and blogs and the Bible, and I couldn’t live well without those things.

And then there are, of course, a few other things I do, just for being a person in America who does not have a personal assistant and is not, say, the president. This list includes, but is not limited to: trips to Walmart and the bank, laundry folding, and occasional flossing. Even if I did have a personal assistant, I would stipulate that I still do my own flossing, because I’m just that grounded.

So those are the things I do, things I believe in or feel called to, or just things that fall within my area of responsibility on the planetary chore list.

Things I don’t do:

I don’t garden. As much as I like the idea of having my own garden, it’s not something I am willing to put the time and energy into right now. Gardeners talk about the spiritual implications of new life springing from the earth, or the deep communion with God that they experience as they lovingly tend to their herbs and flowers. But I’m going to have to miss out on all that, because, at least for now, no gardening.

I don’t always change my clothes just because I’m leaving the house. I wear sweatpants 95 percent of the time, and I pretend that other people don’t notice I’m wearing my pajamas in public.

I don’t always make my bed in the morning, standing firm on the adolescent belief that there’s no sense in doing something you’re just going to undo at the end of the day.

I don’t cook extravagant meals. I have recipes, and I follow them. I don’t try new meals all the time, because I love to bring food to the table with people I love gathered around, and it doesn’t need to be a stressful time for me. There’s a main course, a side dish maybe, some bread and salad. Throw in some iced tea and there’s a well-prepared meal, my friend!

Scrapbooking and photo album making are both on hold until I have my own family, although I do take pictures with family or friends and will hang them on my mirror or wall.

I don’t spend time with people who routinely make me feel like less than I am, or who spend most of their time talking about what’s wrong with everyone else and what’s wrong with the world, or who really like to talk about other people’s money.

I don’t go for runs. It’s bad for my knees, and I’d rather not have knee replacement surgery at 35-years. My forms of exercise are biking, swimming, playing on the ball field with the Ranch kids, or those fun little exercise videos.