Beautiful, Beautiful ~

These last two weeks I have just been overwhelmed with gratitude.  I'm sure some of it's just the season we are in, but I think a lot of it is just God moving in my heart in an amazing way.

I have been feeling so grateful that I am brought to tears, overwhelmed, with God's goodness in my life.  I am telling you, every time I even begin to think about it, I am just awed by what he has done in 2014.

If you had asked me a month ago if I would have been feeling this way about the year 2014, I probably would have replied that I am grateful that this year is almost over.  Now, don't get me wrong, it's not that I haven't been grateful, but only in smaller ways.  Not in this big, overwhelming, all-encompassing way that I am feeling now.

In some ways this year has been difficult.  Hard.  Maybe a little discouraging in some areas.  Not just for me, but for many of my friends and family as well.  I have been a little overwhelmed at times.  About halfway through the year I had one of those "grit my teeth" moments where I thought-- If we can just trudge through this year-- it will get better.  Experience has taught me that you can make it through, it just sometimes takes a lot of hard and messy work to so.

And so, that is where I found myself the other day while praying over issues and problems surrounding my life and the lives of those dear to me.  And the more I prayed, the more I felt a sense of sorrow.  And then I just stopped.  I just stopped and sat there and listened.  And this verse came to me:

"I am still confident of this:  I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.  Wait for the Lord;  be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord."  Psalm 27:13-14

I will see.....I will see....  That's what it says.  Not I may see,  or once I'm in heaven I will see it.  Nope.  I WILL SEE.....in the land of the living..... That little verse began to worm its way around my brain and into my heart.  And I began to call out my thanks to God for the good I have seen, and the good I will see.  I started softly, slowly at first.  Unsure.  Hopeful, yet doubtful.  And slowly it built into shouts of praise and thanksgiving to a good and merciful God who works together all things for my good, for the good of my dear ones.

And now, even 2 weeks later, I can't even sit here and type this out without weeping tears of overwhelming gratitude and whispered sentences of praise.  And nothing in my messy life, nor my friends and families lives have changed yet.  it's still messy.  We are still facing hard issues.    And yet, everything has changed.

"Always be on the lookout for the presence of wonder."  E.B. White

"Choose to be married to amazement."  Ann Voskamp

So, if you are finding  yourself in a "grit your teeth" moment, get ahold of this verse.  Repeat it.   I WILL SEE....... I WILL SEE........ I WILL SEE the GOODNESS of the LORD in the LAND of the LIVING.   In fact, turn it into a sort of prayer.  I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.  I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.  I am confident of this:  I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.

And now, "Wait for the Lord;  be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord."  Don't give up.  Keep going.  Be grateful.  Look for it with expectancy.  Look for the goodness.  Be on the lookout.  Choose to be amazed.  It's there, and it's coming.

I hope you have a wonderful, joy-filled, grateful, memory making, Thanksgiving.

Words Have Power....

You all probably remember the saying, "Sticks and stones may break my bones but words can never hurt me."  And I think that we all know that's not true.  Words have power.  They have the power to uplift.  They have the power to discourage.  They have the power to motivate.  They have the power to inspire change. They have the power to tear down and destroy one's spirit.

My son has recently experienced this with a teacher who repeatedly tells his class that they are dumb.  Often.  And as I listen to several of the students who are in the class describe how they feel when this happens, my heart breaks for them.  And I am reminded to watch what and how I say things.  To remember that my words have power... and that I never, ever, want to make someone feel torn down by my words.

I've done similar blogs like this before, but I am feeling like people need to desperately hear these words again.  So, with this thought in mind, I want to share with you some powerful words that I hope make you feel loved, uplifted, encouraged, and inspired!

"God doesn't love some future version of you, God loves you as you are right now."

"You are loved beyond measure.  Though we are incomplete, God loves us completely.  Though we are imperfect, He loves us perfectly.  Though we may feel lost and without compass, God's love encompasses us completely.  He loves every one of us, even those who are flawed, rejected, awkward, sorrowful, or broken."

"I have too many flaws to be perfect, but I have too many blessings to be ungrateful."

"We are all in need of mercy."  Dieter Uchtdorf

"A beautiful day begins with a beautiful mindset.  When you wake up, take a second to think about what a privilege it is to simply be alive and healthy.  The moment we start acting like life is a blessing, I assure you it will start to feel like one."

"Unexpected intrusions of beauty.  This is what life is."

"Think of all the beauty still left around you and be happy."  Anne Frank

"Just be yourself.  Let people see the real, imperfect, flawed, quirky, weird, beautiful & magical person you are."

"I am an imperfect person loved by a perfect God."

"I will lie down and sleep in peace, for you alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety."  Psalm 4:8

"But you are a shield around me, O Lord; you bestow glory on me and lift up my head."  Psalm 3:3

"Although the world is full of suffering, it is also full of overcoming."  Helen Keller

"Broken crayons still color."

"Failure is a bruise, not a tattoo."

"Always be on the lookout for the presence of wonder."  E.B. White

"If you can't feed a hundred people, then just feed one."  Mother Theresa

"You are not defined by your mistakes.  You are defined by God.  He loves you no matter what."

"I'm absolutely convinced that nothing-- nothing living or dead, angelic or demonic, today or tomorrow, high or low, thinkable or unthinkable-- absolutely nothing can get between us and God's love because of the way that Jesus our Master has embraced us."  Romans 8:38 the Message

"I don't know your story but I can tell you God is faithful."

"But I trust in your unfailing love;  my heart rejoices in your salvation.  I will sing to the Lord, for he has been good to me."  Psalm 13:5-6

"There is more mercy in Christ than sin in us."

"May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight."  Psalm 19:14

"The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you;  the lord turn his face toward you and give you peace."  Numbers 6:24-26

Be encouraged this Thanksgiving.  If you find yourself feeling downcast, return to these words.  Let these words speak powerfully in your life.  And be grateful for powerful encouraging words.

You Can Do Hard Things... It's supposed to be hard

"We can do hard things."

I've been giving this quote some serious thought lately.  This quote is at once empowering and terrifying.  As I was pondering this quote and my reaction to it, I remembered a series of commercials for a certain office supply store that were centered around people in difficult situations simply hitting the "easy" button to solve the problem.

And doesn't  that longing for an "easy" button sum up parts of our current culture?  If there's an illness or disease-- we want a pill or medicine that will quickly take care of the problem.  The fact that there are many illness out there where this isn't the case (like Ebola) make us uneasy, fearful, and vulnerable. We long to win the lottery to solve all our financial problems.  We want our food fast and easy.  We want a raise at work without doing any more work.  We want our children to quickly come up with an answer instead of critically think about what the best solution would be. We want to lose weight now by taking a pill instead of actually doing the work to sweat it off.  I would say that our quest to make life "easy" is probably one of the driving forces in todays world.  And, I'm not knocking that quest entirely, because I just absolutely adore inventions and discoveries like electricity, gas heat, and google -- for they all make my life easier-- and I enjoy greatly their benefits.

However, the problem is that in our quest and desire for easy, we find ourselves shaken when things in life come along and remind us that life, in general, is not always easy.  In fact, often when we come up against the hard stuff, we become paralyzed because we don't think we can do hard.  We find ourselves discouraged.  It sometimes shakes the very foundations of our deepest held beliefs.  Sometimes we lash out in anger, believing that someone  has let us down (often that someone we blame is God).  We look for places to lay blame for this seemingly insurmountable wall that has suddenly arisen in our life.  We pace at the bottom of the wall, cursing (or at least grumbling) about this wall and it's placement-- unwilling or unable to search for harder solutions because we mistakenly believed that everything should be easy.

Well guess what?  I'm hear to tell you that there are times when it's not easy.  That life doesn't always revolve around easy solutions.  Life is not a flat, straight, perfectly smooth road.  It's bumpy.  It is full of potholes that jar your teeth every time you run over them.  There are times when the pavement ends and the way forward is on a steep, rocky, painful,  hard to conquer pathway.

Now I reach the point where you think I should tell you that this is where faith and belief in God comes in and takes care of all the hard things.  That it magically sweeps away all the hard in life and replaces it with nothing but a soft, fantastic, long-lasting summer of easy.  Hah!  I'm sorry, but that's just not true either.

"I thought faith would say, I'll take away the pain and discomfort, but what it ended up saying was, I'll sit with you in it."  Brene Brown

"Faith minus vulnerability and mystery is extremism.  Don't call it faith if there's no uncertainty.  If you've got all the answers, then don't call what you do faith."  Brene Brown

I sometimes think that maybe we mis-sell the truth about faith in God.  Or, maybe not mis-sell, but instead over-sell one aspect and sweep the rest of the stuff under the rug.  I can tell you now that if you  come to faith in God looking for God to be your "easy" button for life-- removing all the hard stuff--you are going to be disappointed and disillusioned.  

Don't get me wrong, there are times when God does step in and take care of the "hard" stuff.  But not every time.  And I'm not hear to discuss the whys and why nots around when and how God makes the decisions around making hard stuff easy versus walking with you through hard stuff.  Truth be known, it is often a mystery to me, this whole question of why and why not.  I simply do not know.  Sometimes, I may harbor a secret guess as to the why or why not, but I do not always know with certainty.

Instead, here is what I do know.  I do know that my faith journey requires me to openly be vulnerable. To openly admit that I don't have all the answers.  To release pride and embrace humility.   To trust God with all the parts that feel vulnerable-- easily hurt--to trust that He will work all things together for my good.  Sometimes it feels like I am blindfolded, and I am desperately holding His hand, trusting him to safely guide me through the maze of life without letting me hit a wall.  And that level of trust, at least for me, is one of the hard things in life.

But here's the other piece of news.  You can do hard things.  Really, you can.  And often, the reward for doing those "hard things" is greater, sweeter, more fulfilling than if you had simply hit the "easy" button.  Hmmmmm... do you think that God knows this about us?  Do you think He understands that part of the deep value of the human experience is encased in this work of doing hard things?    He created us, knows everything about us.  You bet He knows this.  

It is often the "hard things" that teach us the greatest lessons.  And, even though I know that to be true intellectually,  emotionally my first instinct is to run away from the hard and look for the easy button.   To stand at the bottom of the wall, grumbling, instead of doing the hard work of climbing over the wall, so that I can learn the useful skill of climbing, so that next time I can move on faster.  

Finally, what I want you to understand about faith in God is this,  that even though you may be in the middle of a hard moment, God is there with you.    He is sitting by your side, quietly whispering, "You can do it.  You can do hard things.  I'm with you.  I'm here.  Trust me."

I'll leave you with one photo today from the walled city of Dubrovnik, Croatia.   These walls have withstood many "hard" moments.  They have endured invasion and earthquakes, the rise and fall of many leaders.   

I'm Grateful and I Am Not Apologizing For It

"When you walk with gratitude, you do not walk with arrogance, and conceit, and egotism.  You walk with a spirit of thanksgiving that is becoming to you and will bless your life."

"As we discover and practice the heartfelt language of gratitude, our native tongue of self-focused dissatisfaction begins to fade."

So I've noticed lately a whole "thing" where people are kind of shaming others for expressing gratitude.  You've probably seen the little quote about welcome to November where people who have complained all year long now start being thankful for one month.  At first I laughed, but then I thought, so what?  So what if they have been a negative Nancy all year long, and now they have turned into a positive Polly.  Isn't that a good thing?

In this time, when it seems like complaint, dissatisfaction, and groaning are the dominate nature of people, isn't gratitude expressed, of any kind, a bright light in the dark?  I think so.  So why are we so cynical when it comes to people expressing gratitude?  Why are we so disbelieving and leery of it?

"In daily life we must see that it is not happiness that makes us grateful, but gratefulness that makes us happy."

"A beautiful day begins with a beautiful  mindset.  When you wake up, take a second to think about what a privilege it is to simply be alive.  The moment we start acting like life is a blessing I assure you it will start to feel like one."

"It doesn't matter if the glass is half empty or half full.  Be thankful that you have a glass and be grateful that there's something in it."

"Choose to see the world through grateful eyes.  It will never look the same way again."

"When life gets sour... sweeten it with gratitude."

"The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy;  I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full."  John 10:10

In looking at Facebook posts, news stories, etc... it's obvious that we, as a society are lacking something, and I think that we are lacking gratitude.  I do not believe that God's plan for us is just "get by" in life.  I do not believe that God intended us to live joyless, unfulfilled lives.  That sounds more like the plan of one who would like to destroy all good things.  That's not God's character.  In Romans it says that God works all things together for good.

And don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that you can't weep or feel sad.  That's not it at all.  Believe me friends, I have weeped for, cried over, and have felt great sorrow for many events that have happened in my life.  I still do.  I'm not an advocate of the stiff upper lip thing.  At all.  But I do know that I can't just taste the bitterness of life.  I have to look for the sweetness.   The sweetness is what gives me hope.  The sweetness is what sustains me.  There are some days that I can only find one thing to be grateful for-- but when I find it-- I hold on to that sucker with clenched fists-- because I know that a full life includes all things.  A full life contains sorrow, joy, laughter, weeping, anger, hope, blessing, loss, love, smallness, and bigness.  But a truly full life, one lived to God's high standards, must also include a large dose of gratitude.

Here's the difference between gratitude and ingratitude.  Ingratitude is self focused.  Gratitude is God focused.  Ingratitude is always lacking.  Gratitude is full and overflowing.  Ingratitude involves blind comparison.  Gratitude involves shared joy.  Gratitude is the key to living a full, joyful, abundant life.

"Being grateful for what you have doesn't mean you have to resign thinking that anything could be better.  Grateful and complacent are two different words.  Being grateful while striving to improve will allow you to be happy every step of the way."

I'll be honest with you.  Somedays gratitude is easy for me.  And some days it's harder.  But everyone has those days and moments.  When I find myself having a pity party--I make myself stop right where I am and take a hard look around me to find something to be grateful for.  For me, gratitude brings life to my bones.  Here are a few personal examples:

Ingratitude says:  My mom has terminal cancer that is spreading throughout her body.
Gratitude says:  Although my mom has cancer, she is LIVING with cancer.  We are blessed to have her still with us on this earth.  Many others have not had this privilege. Thank you God for the extra time spent with my mom.  The earth is a better place because she is still on it.

Ingratitude says:  My 16 year old son is driving me to an early grave with his antics.
Gratitude says:  I still have my 16 year old son.  At this point in their life, my in-laws had already buried their 15 year old son.  I have the privilege to laugh with, hug on, worry over, yell at, and love on my son.  Thank you God for the time I get to spend with my son-- for the joy and blessings he brings to my life and the lives of others.

Ingratitude says:  I am living far away from my family and home state.
Gratitude says:  My husband is employed.  We are very well provided for.  I have gained an amazing array of new friends who I consider family.  Thank you God for adding friends and provision to my life.

Ingratitude says:  It's supposed to be rainy and cold the next few days.
Gratitude says:  I have a warm home to take shelter in.  The rain and cold will a beautiful foggy landscape for me to view.  I will have a day indoors to do some work in the house.  And at least it's not snowing.  Thank you God for shelter during rainy days and thank you that it's not going to snow.... because  I really have no love for snow except on Christmas Eve and Christmas day.

"When thanks to God becomes a habit, so joy in God becomes your life."

And so, I am going to be one of those people who continues to express my gratitude,  and I'm not apologizing for it.  I am in deep need of gratitude in my life.  Without it, my life would not be full. No apologies.  Sorry, I'm not sorry for expressing myself.  So, in the words of one my favorite bloggers, "You can pry my expressions of gratitude from my cold dead hands." And if I notice that a certain negative Nancy suddenly becomes a positive Polly,  then I am going to be happy for them and celebrate with them.  Maybe, this will become a habit for them going forward.  If not, I think that any expression of gratitude is a good thing, regardless.

I will leave you with a few more photos from my walks around the woods near my house.  I am grateful that I've had several mornings where the weather has been nice enough for me to go out and capture some photographs.