Bringing the Outdoors Inside

I’m always amazed by how many things Abby picks up on our short walks to the library. We may soon be making centerpieces from the treasures we find in her pockets.

Finding Fall

This appears to be the rainiest season of all time and we’re trying to make the most of it. Warm clothes, colorful boots, pecan hunting, and coffee house dates have kept us from going completely crazy inside the house. This Fall may not be the leaf-crunching, crisp weather of my dreams, but I’m determined to enjoy it.

Timing

I snicker when I hear people talking about waiting until “the right time” to have a baby. Ha! Like there’s ever going to be a day when you look at your calendar and think, “Next April looks like a great time for less sleep, more poop, and an onslaught of obnoxiously colored toys to fill our house.”

I’m such a hypocrite. While I’m laughing at those people, I’m having the same thought a hundred times a day.

Only instead of a baby, I convince myself that now isn’t the right time to volunteer. To take a mission trip. To have that hard conversation. To start a business. To be honest with myself. To travel. To forgive.

The excuses are always the same: There’s too much going on. Next month would be better. I haven’t prayed long enough about it. We need a little more money in savings to feel comfortable. If I can’t give it my full focus/attention/heart, then it’s better to not give anything. I’m not ready.

Procrastination is an art I’ve mastered and I’m trying to unlearn.

Today, I’m thankful for those who didn’t wait until everything was “perfect” to do what they’d been asked.

“Despite their fear of the peoples around them, they built the altar on its foundation and sacrificed burnt offerings on it to the Lord, both the morning and evening sacrifices.” Ezra 3:3

“On the first day of the seventh month they began to offer burnt offerings to the Lord, though the foundation of the Lord’s temple had not yet been laid.” Ezra 3:6

Inspiration

I have a confession to make.  You know those books that have a prayer written out at the end of each chapter? Those prayers that are meant to wrap up the meaning of the text and help you draw nearer to God? Well, I skip over them.

I don’t know what it is, but for some reason I have a hard time reading them and actually giving them any weight. Maybe it’s that the prayer is written by someone who doesn’t know I exist, much less anything about me. Maybe it’s that they’re usually pretty cheesy. Maybe it doesn’t feel right because I can’t read them and close my eyes at the same time. I don’t know why, I just know I don’t read them.

Except for this one. For some reason, my eyes refused to scan this one and my hand seemed incapable of turning the page until I read it. Every time I open the book, I unintentionally open to this prayer. Maybe the ink on the page is heavier than normal ink. Maybe the binding is broken. I don’t know the reason, I just know that I love it.

I haven’t stopped thinking about it since I first read it. And maybe the reason it seems different from others is that for me, it feels more like a mission statement for the taking than a prayer for the asking.

If you have any artistic aspiration, if you acknowledge the fact that you are indeed an artist regardless of your medium, maybe it’ll speak to you too. As for me, I plan on hanging it my future joy-inducing room. (I’ll explain the room soon.)

The prayer is from the end of chapter 10 in The God Who Smokes: Scandalous Meditations on Faith by Timothy J. Stoner:

“May your art be worship.

May your worship be art.

May you afflict the comfortable with jolts of inconsolable joy.

May you call forth the good, the beautiful, the eternal hope of your true city.

And when people step back from your painting, put down your novel, or leave the theater,

may they leave having been fatally stabbed,

inconsolably wrecked with a longing for home.

And may you reflect faithfully the face of your Father

who strides through the galaxies with brush in hand.”

Faith is like…

My friend asked us to complete this sentence and I finished it with “pregnancy”.

Glo- I don’t know why you asked, but here’s why I answered:

Neither exists without God.

It seems to happen so easily for some, while others have to work hard for it.

You have to nourish it.

Even if you don’t tell anyone, it changes you in obvious ways.

At some point along the way you’ll ask yourself if it’s real.

It isn’t always comfortable.

Eventually, you outgrow your old lifestyle.

It’s an act of love.

Sometimes it puts pressure in places that hurt.

Everyone has their own story, but your journey through it will never be the same as anyone else’s.

The result is always worth it.

Homecoming

Right now, we are sharing our house with the flu. It feels like forever since we last went 3 hours without checking a temperature, dosing out fever reducers, or sucking down clear fluids. But it hasn’t been. Technically we’ve only lived this way since Sunday morning.

Saturday night, we finally introduced Abby to her inherited mascot- the Mean Green Eagle. It was UNT’s homecoming and since we do live in Denton and tickets crossed our path and Abby happens to already own a UNT cheerleading uniform (which I bought two years ago, because how could I pass that up?!), we put on some green and headed to the stadium.

She loved it. The football, the cheerleaders, the hotdogs, the bleachers, the hot chocolate, the ability to scream loudly and not be shushed, and the fireworks that go off when UNT scores. Luckily, UNT did score a few times. And while our team may have lost (44-40), we taught Abby the most important rule of being an Eagle- leave while you’re still winning.

It was a great night. I don’t want to speak too soon, but I think it may be a new tradition for our family.

Hats, Hats and More Hats!

It was too beautiful to stay inside today, so we grabbed some accessories and ran for the sunlight.

It’s almost time for holiday photos so I took a few test shots of Abby in my favorite hats. I’m so thankful for digital cameras. Being able to see how something will photograph without wasting money or materials is a total blessing!

Theology Thursday

Abby and I snuggled together on the couch. I couldn’t decide which Bible story to teach her so I chose a different direction.

I asked her a simple question: “What do you know about God?”

And she gave me the most perfect and simple of answers: “I know that He loves me even when I disobey.”

Ahh, pretty soon the teacher may be the student around here.

“I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.” Mark 10:15

Living in the Moment

What is it about having an end in sight that makes everything seem sweeter?

Consider:

Every job I have ever left was immediately easier and more enjoyable after putting in my two weeks notice.

School seemed like a really fun place when I was ordering a cap and gown.

Whenever I’ve packed to move, I’ve found myself clinging to the same doors and windows that days earlier, I hated.

I craved the challenge of the mission field each time I was preparing to leave it.

Why is it that knowing the end is coming makes me feel more? More capability, more sensibility, more boldness, more strength, more enjoyment, more freedom, more love.

I’ve been having a hard time lately with our search for a new home. It’s difficult to be in the unknown stage of whether we’re going to stay here or be somewhere else. And I’ve let myself get complacent and frustrated with where we are, simply because I imagine where we’ll move is going to be so much better.

But the truth is, when that moment comes for us to move, if that moment comes, I can guarantee you that I will cry. I will tear up over silly little things like not eating on this front porch again, and not hearing Abby’s footsteps echo off the hardwood floors, and not watching the TWU students walk to their classes, and not picking pecans off the driveway. I will be a complete wreck when we lock the door for the last time.

Unfortunately, time flies whether we’re having fun or not. So I’m trying to make the most of where I am and what I’m doing. Because I don’t want my fond memories to only be snapshots from the end of each journey.

Love Language

Words are the language of my heart. Spoken, written, whispered, read. I take them in and hold them dear and worry them smooth.

They come so frequently and without warning or notice that I covet the rare moments when I feel a phrase being grafted to my soul.

Today, a flutter as my eyes read this:

“He is wooing you from the jaws of distress to a spacious place free from restriction, to the comfort of your table laden with choice food.” (Job 36:16)

Wooing. Jaws of distress. Spacious. Free from restriction. Comfort. Laden.

They are all there. On the page. In my heart.

Words of love from a man that has loved me since the beginning of time.