right here, right now…joy.

hello week. good-bye weekend. i feel like i need another weekend. seriously i’m finding that the days and weeks keep going faster and faster. before long…i’ll be old 😉 i feel like a happy broken record coming here each week and saying that joy is everywhere and that i feel so….loved. joyful. at peace. excited. at home. seriously, y’all (i’m not southern but i just felt like saying that), God is so very faithful. months ago, one of my intern people told me about how when he was praying for me that he saw a book where i needed to focus on the page at hand rather than look ahead to the end. i think i’m finally starting to live like that and trust God like that. saying hello to the new adventure right here, right now and not trying to make another adventure happen on my own.  so, without further ado, here are some snapshots of joy…

816. knowing that people have my back

830. more swings, more swings (cute little kiddos on the playground)

871. eating brownies with a spoon from the pan with my people

876. melting into peace

879. moments where my heart stops in a good way

880. memories i want to hold onto

888. closing my eyes to soak up the moment

908. bananagrams and cribbage and laughing and fabulous people

938. watching life!

and before you run off…don’t forget to comment because it makes my heart happy to hear from you all! did you watch life? what was the highlight of your week? anything I can be praying for you about?

p.s. i’m SO close to 1000 gifts. 🙂

 

Lesson of the Day

As I’ve mentioned earlier, I’m learning and re-learning things.  Part of this includes wrestling with how things will look and seeking guidance from Him and others.  Today, turned out to be one of those days where I learned a bit more and made the lesson a little more tangible, real, and sink in.  Since I’m into those dictionary definitions lately, we’ll start there:

let go: relinquish one’s grip, allow to move, stop holding onto

To go along with this definition, there’s this little handy story to go along with it.  I have a watch that I decide to give to you.  I give the watch to you and put it on your wrist.  Except, I decide I want to look at the time so I take it back and then put it back on your wrist.  Or maybe I just hold onto the watch while it’s on your wrist or keep touching the watch while you’re wearing it.  Awkward, I know!  Basically, if I keep doing this then I haven’t really given you the watch.  We’re more sharing the watch or I’m trying really hard to get the watch back.  So, if I want to “let go” of the watch, I must actually give it up and not peek at it or take it back for a few minutes, for a second or for any amount of time.

The same thing is true with the things that we lay down at the cross for Jesus to take care of for us.  We have to trust Him with the valuable item and let Him have it completely.  He gets to do whatever He wants with that watch whether He changes it into something else or gives it to someone else or even lets us have it back some day.  We can’t hold onto the watch or try to keep tabs on what He’s doing in and for the watch.  At this time, for me, this tangibly means that I have to let go of communicating, checking blogs, asking others, and I need to genuinely and continually trust Jesus with the whole situation and lay it at the cross (He even gave me a physical reminder by leaving the outline of my cross necklace thanks to some happy sunshine).  Laying it down and actually letting go is hard, but once again worth it in the end because then I’m not focused on what I’ve “let go” at all.  I only fix my eyes on Jesus who can give me whatever He wants in whatever timing He likes.