comprehension

I have never been great at retaining information. I admire people who can read a book, hear a sermon, or listen to a song and can retain and repeat the information. I am that person that makes up words to songs and my husband constantly asks, "what did you just say?" I have been reading a lot lately, and as I read I sometimes get distracted because I don't think I will remember the words or stories. So, I have started writing down words and phrases that stick out to me in a journal. I am in hopes that this will help me retain what I felt was important. I wish I had photgraphic memory....

So here are the words that have stuck out to me in my Donald Miller book....

"If you aren't telling a good story, nobody thinks you died too soon, they just think you died."

"Good stories don't happen by accident"

STORY- a character who wants something and overcomes conflict to get it

"God feels as he writes the world, sitting over planets and placing tiny people in tiny wombs. If I have a HOPE it's that God say over the dark, nothing and wrote you and me, specifically in a story and put us in with the sunset and rainstorms as through to say...enjoy your place in MY sotry. The beauty of it means YOU matter, and YOU can create within it even as I have created you."

"...all comes down to relationships"

...point of story is character transformation"

"stories we tell ourselves are different from the stories we tell the world"

Do you ever go to a party with great people and get in the car and immediately think..."what did I say? Oh no, they are gonna hate me." I have a difficult time at parties, I love people, I am an extrovert, but I typically have conversations in my head about conversations I should have had, including things I should have said or not said. Then I can't remember if I really said those things, and if I did, surely those people won' t invite me to their party again. Is that crazy? I am overthinking....I am not living in the real at that point. I need to walk in to a party and just enjoy the people, the relationships, and their stories. I am not the central character...half the time the things I think I say or do say, if followed up by a conversation, the person doesn't remember me saying it. I am very selfish.

I love that I am ultimately living God's story. He is the main character, not me. I am happy to have a part in his story, and pray that I am in the proper role from day to day. I am thankful for the characters he has surrounded me with. I just have to remember it isn't a story about me...it is a story about Christ in me and what he can do through me. I just need to stop being so selfish and try to remember the words to songs so I don't drive people crazy...