Saturday, March 29, 2014

{my happy}






when is my soul truly happy?

when i am home with my husband.
when i am lost in a great story, be it book or movie, or even a song.
when i get compliments on something i've made.
when i am with my family.
when i am in the word, and it speaks right to my heart.
when i complete a new challenge, no matter how big or small.
when i am dressed like a lady, and treated as such.
when my home is clean and full of delicious smells.
when a guest feels comfortable, safe and loved in my home.
when my hands have prepared a meal for us.
when i see a beautiful bird or a lovely flower and can stop to appreciate them.
when i am able to bless a loved one...or even a total stranger.

on these things i will focus.
i will stop trying to FIND my happy, or even CHANGE it.
it's already in me. it is enough. i am enough.

Saturday, March 22, 2014

{God's not dead.}

click here to watch the trailer.
I am so very glad that I got to see this last night.
Seriously.
My heart wouldn't be where it is today if I hadn't.

It made me laugh. It made me cry.  It gave me goosebumps...more than once.
Mostly, though...it simply made me think.
I know that it is a fictional story, but it was written based on real events happening in our nations schools.
this truth breaks my heart.
I want to believe that if I am ever challenged as Josh is, I won't back down. I will share my faith in the Lord with as much conviction as he does. With so much passion, and determination and strength.
As deeply as the film touched me, it was what happened while the credits rolled and the theater emptied that has inspired me. Shaken me to my core.
We were on the very top row of an almost-sold-out showing and as we were gathering our things, I glanced past my friends and saw a girl, in her late teens, maybe early twenties, barefoot, on her knees and with her hands outstretched in prayer. 
I'm not usually one to approach a stranger, especially when they are right smack in the middle of a very personal moment...but I was pulled to her. 
I knelt beside her and without a word, put my arm around her shoulders. Startled, she opened her eyes and looked over at me. Without even asking who I was or what I was doing, she wrapped her own arm around my back and simply explained that she wanted to thank the Lord for His anointing on that film.For it's message and for it's truth.
We knelt like that for a few minutes while she prayed aloud to Jesus.
We said "amen" and gave eachother a gentle squeeze. I whispered for her to have a good night and stood to rejoin my friends (who were patiently waiting for me at the end of our row.)
I never got her name, but my soul got so much more. 
Everyday of my life, I will aspire to live with her amazing, unabashed, simply beautiful love for my Lord and Savior.

God is alive.

Tuesday, March 18, 2014

{30.}

  • more music
  • more dancing
  • more art. period.
  • more coffee sipping
  • more herbal tea
  • more laughter
  • more love
  • more flowers
  • more star gazing
  • more delicious foods
  • more reading
  • more writing
  • more foreign films
  • more confidence
  • more gratitude
  • more of a servant's heart
  • more listening
  • more seeing
  • more faith
  • more travel
  • more passion
  • more compassion
  • more dreaming
  • more doing
  • more romance
  • more living
  • more moments
  • less gossip
  • less envy
  • less taking this life for granted.

Sunday, March 16, 2014

{the eve of my 30s}

Today is Sunday.
Not just any Sunday...
...the last Sunday of me as a 20-something.

I look forward to the next decade of my life with (slightly overwhelming) anticipation.
Why shouldn't I?
My twenties brought me the love of my life, a marriage that gets better as the days go by, several new nieces and nephews, new family, new friends, reunions with old friends, clarity, new hobbies, interests, memories, love, LIFE.

They also brought me closer to the woman that I am meant to be.
We haven't been officially introduced yet, but we have some mutual friends and are traveling in the same circle.
I am certain that when we do finally greet each other, she will be absolutely delightful.



{on sundays}




feast for the eyes, the soul and the body.

Thursday, March 6, 2014

{for Lent}

I am not Catholic, but I do like to participate in the "giving something up during Lent" tradition.
 This year's goal: to give up bad-for-me foods and to choose productivity and growing over being lazy and stagnant.

Day 1 (yesterday): had bad salmon for lunch and ended up leaving work a couple hours early and staying home today, miserable with food poisoning. C'est la vie.
Once I managed to keep some plain jane, oven baked fries down, I started a pot of (fresh, from scratch) beef stew and got part of the pantry cleaned up...that's about as productive as I'm gonna be today, and I'm okay with that.

Last year's goal wasn't to give something up though, instead it was to spend those 40 days reading through the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. I succeeded and then went on to read through the rest of the New Testament.
I recently started reading through the Old Testament, picking up where I had left off a few years before, with the Book of  Ezra. I am now on the last chapter of  Nehemiah.
I sat down this afternoon with my planner and mapped out how long it will take me to read through the rest of the Old Testament, averaging about 10 chapters a day. I should finish on Easter Sunday! I think that's a pretty cool coincidence.

Here's to goals that grow us and teach us and make us better than we were yesterday.

Monday, March 3, 2014

{"just keep living." }

"There are three things that I need each day," he said as he came to the stage after kissing his wife, Camila Alves, and hugging his costar and fellow Oscar winner, Jared Leto. "One of them is something to look up to, another is something to look forward to and another is someone to chase."

McConaughey continued with a heartfelt speech about his faith, family and his motivation to "just keep living."

"I want to thank God because that is who I look up to. He has graced my life with opportunities that I know were not of my hand or any other human hand. He's shown me that it's a scientific fact that gratitude reciprocates," he said. 
"To my wife, Camila, and my kids Levi, Vida and Mr. Stone: the courage and significance you give me every day when I go out the door is unparalleled," he continued. "You are the four people in my life I want to make the most proud of me."

And then he thanked himself – in a way.

"To my hero, that's who I chased. When I was 15 years old, I had a very important person in my life come up to me and say, 'Who's your hero? I said, 'I've got to think about that. Give me a couple of weeks.' … I said, 'I thought about it ... It's me in 10 years,' " he said. "So I turned 25, 10 years later – that same person comes up to me and says, 'So are you your hero?' and I'm like, 'Not even close, because my hero is me at 35.' "

Continued McConaughey: "Every day, every week, every month and every year of my life, my hero is always 10 years away. I'm never gonna be my hero. I'm not gonna attain that. I know I'm not and that's just fine with me, because it keeps me with somebody to keep on chasing."

"So whatever those things are," he said, "whatever is it we look up to, whatever it is we look forward to, and whoever it is we're chasing, to that I say, 'All right, all right, all right.' To that I say, 'Just keep living.' " 





Sunday, March 2, 2014