What I Learned in October

Emily Freeman is a writer and an inspiring woman of faith.  She is also the soul and the brains behind her Chatting at the Sky blog, where she hosts an engaging, entertaining, and insightful linky party on a monthly basis.  The focus: what we've learned.

The teacher in me loves this.  We are never done learning.  The child of God in me loves this—taking the time to reflect on how the Holy Spirit is working in me and stretching me.  And this November, as I aim for a bigger and better gratitude attitude, I'm relishing the opportunity to lift up these learnings with praise and thanksgiving.  So, in no particular order, here's a random collection of what I learned (or relearned) last month.

1
It's dangerous to be a clumsy runner.  Tearing a hamstring hurts.  Limping home afterward does not produce my most positive prayers.  But God does not back away.

2
Injury aside, slow and steady physical therapy is a gift.  A good workout does not have to involve sweat to induce progress.  Patience, my young Padawan.  Hmmmmm.  I think this has applications beyond exercise and into spiritual stretching.

3
Shifting my mindset from blogging as competition (which left me feeling inferior and redundant) to blogging as online conversation and connection (which fills me with encouragement and insight) is something I should have done a long time ago.  Better late than never!

from ellierayne.wordpress.com, but Blondie's looked and tasted every bit as good.

4
My daughter is a better baker than I am.  I couldn't be more proud (and eager to sample)!

5
That said, I don't need to eat so much sugar.  Consuming sweets makes me feel like crap.  After a 14-day cleanse, I've learned I can live without sugar, caffeine, grains, or dairy.  In fact, I can live much better without those foods.

rotten to the core zombie costume — yikes!

6
Gone are the days of my cute little BallBoy dressing up like a sport-o or a super hero or a pirate.  He's into full-blown creepy gore.  I wonder if he's trying to get me ready to be the parent of teenagers?

7
I'm terrible at building a new habit.  Unless — I go public and have this foreboding sense of accountability hanging over me.  The answer to my sporadic daily quiet time with God?  Being still for 31 days straight, and publicly posting about it.  I love what doors this is opening in my conversations with my Heavenly Father.

8
Once I get a new habit going, I have a hard time letting it go.  Hence three updates to this blog today!



Lord, 

Thanks for all the ways you help me learn and grow.  Thanks for pointing out the positive in what first looked like setbacks, for pointing out the humor in what might otherwise seem horrible.

Amen.

Monday Meditation | A Season of Gratitude

Hello, brand new week in a new month.  Come in and sit down, fresh November Monday.  Let's talk about all the opportunity you bring with you.

I feel like you are handing me a brand-spanking new notebook with scads of crisp pages.  I can let my thoughts roam anywhere about anything.  After blogging daily on one topic (31 Days to Be Still) in October, I am thrilling in this November no-agenda.

And, at the same time, I'm a little freaked out.  No agenda?  Anything goes?  However do I decide where to begin?

So after consulting with the Big Guy in the Sky, I'm starting this new chapter in regular-but-not-rigid writing with a general plan.  I welcome your prayers that it will be fruitful and I will be faithful.

Mondays you can swing by for a weekly warm up.  I'm calling it...

Part stillness (gotta keep that habit going!), part reflection, part intention-setting for the week ahead.

I'll also have a little something for our faith-filled conversations on Wednesday and Friday.  But I'm not leaking that yet.  You'll just have to stop back later in the week!

So, dear reader/cyber friend, this is what's on my mind this Monday...

Cruising through the aisles at Target last week, I balked at the "welcoming" display of — aaaack! — Christmas decor.  Hello?!  People!  I haven't even purchased my Halloween candy!  I still have a panda costume to create!  Stop rushing us with all this fast-forward consumerism.  Target, darling, you are freaking. me. out!

So I squeezed my eyes shut and blindly steered my cart to the slightly more sane section of the store, where Halloween was still the current calendar item.  (Yes, I go to Target often enough that I can navigate without my sense of sight.)  I aimed for the section where all the normal people were, grabbing their fun-sized sugary bribes to keep the local kiddos happy and stave off any tricks.

And in transit between fast-forward-future and eleventh-hour-present, I breathed a sigh of relief that between the sugar frenzy of Halloween and the present frenzy of commercial Christmas, we have the gratitude of Thanksgiving.  (Granted, it's another holiday of over-indulgence, but as long as pecan pie is involved, I don't really see a problem with that.)

iheartnaptime.net

Thanks-giving.  Giving thanks.  Now there is a delightfully sugar-free, finance-free, feel-good attitude.  And in the giving of gratitude we also receive a happy heart (yes, that's a direct reference to Madame Blueberry of Veggie Tales fame).  Which makes Thanksgiving a holiday worth starting a little early.

Now I'm not saying let's get our undies in a bundle planning for the big meal and decorating the house and polishing the silver.  I'm suggesting we pull on a layer of gratitude this lovely Monday.  We wrap ourselves in a coat of appreciation.  We look through our November days with an eye out for how we can be more thankful.

thegirlcreative.com

Because God gives us so much to be thankful for.  The fact that He is good and His love endures forever is just the beginning.  And when we are grateful to God, thankfulness leads us along the path to joy.

You know Ann Voskamp?  The lyrical, spiritual writer I mention about every sixth post?  One of the Christian Super Heroes (in my book, at least) whose capes are compassion and whose powers all hinge on prayer?  She has an amazing book about this gratitude/joy/faith connection: One Thousand Gifts.  If you haven't read it, I encourage you to rush right out to your local library or book store and grab a copy. Or, even faster, download it on your e-reader and start reading it.  Right now.  Yes... you'll have to leave my humble little page.  But she's miles more insightful than I am, and I love her work dearly, so I'm okay with that.

onethousandgifts.com

Oh, good.  You came back!

So Ann (yes, I'm still talking about Ann), challenges us to this fabulous thing called #joydare where we count up our God-given blessings and aim to reach #1000gifts. I've dabbled in this on and off and off and on over the past few years.  When I take the time to reflect on my day or week and document the richness of little details or the delight of big moments, I start to float.  My spirits lift.  My grin comes bigger and faster, my laugh erupts quicker and louder.  And I float over the little bits of bitterness that try to trip me up.  (It is a little bit like having a super power, endowed by the Holy Spirit).

allisonkimball.com

But I'm human.  I get distracted, and the habit falls to the wayside, lost in the daily detritus.  I get bored, and the notebook list gets abandoned for slips of colorful paper in a box which gets pushed aside for a digital document.  I get forgetful and can't remember if I'm on gift 42 or 37 or 61 and so I simply give up.  Just look at the gap in my 1000 gifts page.  Gifts 72 to 92?  They are scattered in a box and a book and a glitched, lost list on my phone.

Yet I'm capable of change.  By the grace of God I posted 31 Days to Be Still, so I know if I trust in him and pray to him and make the time and space...

I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength.  Philippians 4:13

With that in mind, I'm going to pray for God's help to put thankfulness in my heart and on my tongue every day this week.  Care to join me?

amywestermanphotography.com

Lord, 

You give me so much to be grateful for.  As we move into November and the weather turns a bit bleaker and darker, I ask that you make my heart brighter and lighter.  

Help me to see the little gifts in each day.  Gifts in relationships.  Gifts in work.  Gifts in nature.  Gifts in my church and in the universal church.  Gifts in my neighborhood and gifts across the globe.  Gifts that come in pretty packages and gifts that seem a bit dingy on the outside, but carry true love and caring nonetheless.

Like a little kid on the hunt for a dropped penny, keep my eyes open for bright bits of shininess.  Remind me to pick them up, to hold and observe them, and to praise you for them.  For in savoring the unexpected, I will find the good fortune of a more joyful heart, a more trusting faith, and a more generous outlook on life.  

simplyvintagegirl.com

Lord help me to be intentional and faithful in marking these moments of gratitude.  I want to make my praise public and glorify you.  I want this for myself, so when I doubt your deliverance, I have concrete evidence of all the good that you do.  I want this for my kids, so that they witness firsthand the blessings of gratitude.  I want this for my community, so that we can push back the carping and the criticisms in the media and crowd them out with positive attitudes and pleasant moments.  I want this for you, so that more and more your good news is known, in ways big and small, in the hearts of all humans.  

That last part freaks me out a bit, God.  The idea of being public in praising you stretches me past the edge of my comfort zone.  But I know that's where the greatest gifts happen — when you nudge me into a new and challenging place.  That's when you show me how you can fill in the the distance between my comfort and your better way.  That's where my faith grows and my heart fills and my soul sings.

So I'm not editing that soul stretching part out.  I'm sending this prayer up.  And I know you will provide.  Thank you for always providing.

Amen

Gratitude Attitude

How is it that we are sitting on the midway mark of November?  It has been a busy month so far.  (Aren't they all?)  The first week of this month (and much of the previous month) always finds me in apoplectic production of all things faithfully crafty for our church's holiday bazaar.  The second week usually finds me in a less frenetic but still fruitful flurry of fulfilling special orders from said bazaar.  This year it also found me fulfilling jury duty.  And delving into the beautiful, inspiring world of Pinterest in my spare (ha ha!) time.  And prepping for our monthly Bible study.  And raiding my kids candy bags from Halloween.  And missing 31 Days of Prayer, the joy of immersing myself in conversation with God.

All good things.  I am grateful for each.  And as I make "Give Thanks" banners I am praying thanks for God's gifts.  And I am praying to focus less on feeling busy and more on feeling full.  Of the good stuff.  Of God's love and peace and grace.  Of the Holy Spirit.  Of life on Earth and the promise of eternal life in Heaven.

Dear Lord,

You are the God of all goodness, Giver of glorious gifts.

I am so humbly grateful...

1. for my relationship with you which sustains and saves me every day
2. for my husband, darling and funny, loveable 99% of the time (especially when he calls just to say I looked cute this morning)
3. for my daughter, grinning and giggly, so in love with her world of music and friends and cartwheels and books and math; oh do I love how she loves the challenge of math!
4. for my son, snuggly and warm, comfortable in his own skin whether he's quietly reading, rambunctiously supplying sound effects in some warrior pretending, playing with the dog, bubbling over with pinewood derby eagerness
5. for our home, complete with crafty messes, dirty baseboards, things to do, laundry to wash, dishwasher to empty; the walls are solid, the rooms are warm, and the mood embraces our family and friends and our Lord
6. for my friends who laugh with me, craft with me, pray with me, play with me, sip coffee and commiserate and listen and encourage and brighten my days with their thoughtful caring
7. for my parents and in-laws, for everything, but most of all for generous love and solid foundation
8. for our church that gives much and asks much, providing meaningful opportunities to help others and enrich worship and be God's hands and heart in this world
9. for our neighborhood and community, for the ways we are knit together and the ways we reach out to those who are less fortunate
10. for the sweet delight of a Reese's peanut butter cup, and for the rare and precious occasion when I am content to eat just one!

Thank you for being such an awesome God — omnipotent and omniscient, yet tender and loving, too.  All goodness comes from you.

Amen

Start your list today.  Find ten gifts from God that make your heart sing, your eyes delight, your day bright.  Warning: you may not be able to stop at ten... and that's okay!

Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; his love endures forever.

1 Chronicles 16:34