November: A month of Gratitude

I've got a confession to make to you.  I love perfume.  I've always loved fragrance.  I remember my mom wearing White Shoulders, Wind Song (Can't you just hear the 80's commercial for this perfume...cause you're wind song stays on my mind), Estee Lauder's Beautiful, and then her favorite White Diamonds.

I remember when I got my first perfume set for Christmas when I was aound 7 years old.  It had a huge powder puff with TinkerBell perfume.  Here's a picture.  Gotta love Google Images.

  I'm sure it smelled great!

My love of perfume continues...this is one of my faves.

What does perfume have to do with gratitude?  

When I think of gratitude and prayer to God, I'm reminded of Psalm 141:2 "Let my prayer be counted as incense before you, and the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice."  

This month I am starting a gratitude journal for at least 30 days (hopefully longer as this will become a habit).  I want my gratitude prayers be a pleasing aroma rising up to heaven. (no pun intended)

Daily my goal will be to make at least one entry of something I am grateful for that day.  

Here's a pic of today's entry.

Join me, will you?  If you wish, leave a comment on something  you are grateful for today?

Things I learned in October

I've wanted to do this type of post and link up with Emily Freeman (Chatting at the Sky) for a quite a long time and now tonight's the night as Rod Stewart would say. 

Every month Emily invites those who wish to participate to share what they have learned in October both serious and silly.  So here goes...

1.  October is a beautiful transitional month. The weather is a mix of warm and chilly.  The fall leaves are beautiful as they change colors like a chameleon. Below is a picture taken one morning this week right before I left for work.

2.  I love stories.  I love to tell stories and I love to hear other peoples stories.  I got the opportunity to co-lead a retreat where stories were shared and celebrated.  I was so blessed by the snippets of the stories shared.

3.

Morgan Harper Nichols (Jamie Grace's sister)  has a great song called StoryTeller.

4.  Awesome article that explains extroverted introverts.  
19-real-life-examples-extroverted-introvert-you-dont-get-confused?dgs=1

5.  I am coming out of a busy season from the start of the school year through the end of this month. I have felt a little like the rat on the wheel.  Keep going on and on to the next task.  Although all the activities, assignments, and tasks are all for good, I still feel worn out. In this process,  I am continually learning Ecclesiastes 3 "For everything there is a season and a time for every matter under heaven" is right.  I can have seasons of business, but I also must pull back and let myself breath and refresh.  If my well is dry, then I have nothing to go give.  So I plan to enter the month of November with a deep breath of gratitude and tune into Christ to refill my well.


Please join me for a month of gratitude in November.  

O the Deep Deep Love of Jesus

Last night, this song kept coming to mind.

Love the lyrics.

We all need consider the words and take to heart the truth.

Just a little about me

I'm writing this blog to help me process life and the lessons that I am learning on this journey.  I am not a writer but a sporadic journaler.  In this crazy, wound-up, busy, 10-second sound bite world, my soul craves authenticity, self-reflection, connection, and meaning in life and relationships.  I am learning that writing helps me to pause, think, and reflect on all the things going on in my life.  

Now to a few things about me:

• I've been happily married to my husband, Deane for 16 years. God knew what He was doing when He made Deane for me.  

• Meyers Briggs Personality: ENFJ 

*Slight caveat:  I am an extrovert with introvert tendencies. I would describe it as the following: love people, parties, talking, etc and gain strength from being with people, but I also enjoy time alone to recharge and reflect.

• Occupation: Assessment Specialist for a school division in Virginia

• Favorites - not in any particular order:  Chocolate, the color green (all shades), black eyeliner, reading, perfume, peace that is only found in Jesus, purses, card making, prayer, 80's music, pizza

• Dislikes - not in any particular order: fish (especially Salmon), phony people, traffic (NOVA traffic is horrific), Satan and the effects of sin, anxiety and fear

My goal for this to be a place where you'll find glimpses of real life, joy, Christ centered spiritual disciplines & practices and other anecdotal things thrown in along the way.

Thank you for joining me along the way.  Please comment, I'd love to hear from you.

Attention



As I have been reading Anatomy of the Soul by Curt Thompson, he writes this:



I suspect that God really enjoys the attention that he gets from us.  The degree to which we pay attention to him affects not only us.  It affects him.   God was pleased enough that Moses was paying attention to him that he went further than lighting  a botanical candle.  He decided to talk with him.  When God talks and we attentively listen, wonderful, beautiful, and terrifying things happen.

The first and last sentence of the above paragraph stop me in my tracks.  God enjoys the attention that He gets from me.  I have not thought of that before.  Of course it makes sense.  Jesus came to earth to save us and of course he loves us.  John 3:16 tell us this, but I have not boiled it down so far to me.  That God enjoys the attention He gets from me.

I understand this on a human level, in that, one enjoys the attention received from loved ones or friends.  But the God, the Creator of the Universe, seeks, even craves the attention He receives from me.  We do not need to have a theological discussion about how God does not need us or the attention we give him.  That is true.  He does not need it.  But as His beloved children, he wants to talk and engage with Him all the time.

Over the past few years, I read and heard this quote from American Poet, Mary Oliver.

Instructions for living a life.
Pay attention.
Be astonished.
Tell about it.

So pay special attention to God, be astonished by the amazing things He is doing and tell about the things of God.

Small disclaimer:  I wrote most of this post in January 2014, but it still holds true today in August 2015!







Sunshine and Reminders

Well, I guess I have not been writing on the blog as I had hoped, but tonight is a new night, right?

August is not my favorite month of the year for many reasons.  Some suffer from winter blues.  I suffer from summer blues.  August begins several busy months at work and as the days and weeks carry on August continues to mark the passing of my mother and grandmother.

This is not a downer, but a reminder.

So as this month gets underway, I challenge myself to be joyful and to be the light of the world that I am called to be in this dark world.


Jesus reminds us in the Gospel of John, "I am the light of the world.  Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life."


Several years ago, a friend gave me this lovely necklace of a gold sunshine face.  I love it!  I wear it especially on rainy days (which I also love), but I also wear it on days when I need the reminder of light and of joy.

So the past two days, I've worn it and it serves as constant reminder to me of the words of the Apostle Paul in 1 Thessalonians 4 "And now, dear brothers and sisters, we want you to know what will happen to the believers who have died so that YOU will NOT grieve like people who have no hope."

This August is the fifth anniversary of my mother's death.  It has been hard in the changes and transitions of life, but God has been so faithful.  He has demonstrated his love, care, correction,and constancy to me.  He has been teaching me that this HOPE that I have seeps into all area of my life not just some.  I cannot go around encouraging other to have great hope and faith and dependence on Jesus, when I do not encourage myself.

So my humble prayer is "You are the light of the world.  A city set on a hill cannot be hidden.  Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand and it gives light to the whole house.  IN THE SAME WAY, JOY let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.

Shine On!