it's the little things.

I love when those usually normal days, are just the best days for no real apparent reason. They just are. So thankful. The little things, they're so precious. Love that even the busiest of days the Lord will make me take a second to be thankful. 

Morning Coffee, in these oh so wonderful mugs -  I love that my roomie, Becbee, collects :).

Afternoon Coffee with my sweet sisters - Morgan, Mal, Katie, and now sweet Sarah. I am so thankful to the Lord for these times. And we just love our table. These are something I will always cherish.

passing beautiful Samford Hall on the way to work, and catching the light between the trees.

Coming home everyday and seeing my next door neighbor working on restoring a truck that looks just like this, and seeing how far he has come. Also, thinking about this picture every time and how badly i just want to fill the back of it with pumpkins.

Seeing these wonderful people when I come home. SO MUCH JOY & HAPPINESS. [Just can't wait for the marriage of Lauren and Stege on the right, going to be such a celebration!]  

Taste and see that the LORD is good. Oh, the joys of those who take refuge in him! Psalm 34:8

sinking in.

Make a careful exploration of who you are and the work you have been given, and then sink yourself into that. Don't be impressed with yourself. Don't compare yourself with others. Each of you must take responsibility for doing the creative best you can with your own life. [Galatians 6:4-5 msg]

Oh how this verse has just been sitting on me the past couple of days. First of all, how sweet and creative is the God we serve??? Wow. He continues to blow me away every single day. He is NOT a God who just sits on the throne throwing out lightening bolts and speaking in a booming voice. He is LOVE, GRACE, SWEET MERCY, and not to mention so desperately wanting to be involved in the very details of our lives. He understands pain. He understands trial. He also understands PEACE, ABUNDANT LIFE, and JOY. One thing I have so greatly learned lately is that God is so meticulous. He literally does not skip a beat. So precise and involved. 


In the same precise sense, He made us so incredibly unique from each other. Each one with special gifts and personalities, but so greatly adding to the body. I love in the verse above it says make a "careful exploration of who you are"; assess your strengths and weaknesses, take ownership of who you are and "the work you have been given" and SINK into that. SINK, that word really stuck out to me. Sinking involves total surrender, there is nothing you can do accept let yourself go, and let the Lord take control. Getting comfortable in who you are and what you have been entrusted with, which is so incredibly beautiful and such a gift from the Lord. Seeing someone in their element and doing what they are absolutely called to do and are gifted at is one of my most favorite things. People are called to different things, and it takes DIFFERENT people to do those things. However, we fall plague to the spirit of comparison all the time. Spending our efforts on trying to be something we simply aren't and can't. The enemy can deter us right there. The sad thing is, some people never make it past that point, thinking they can't amount to this or that, when in all actuality this or that wasn't for them in the first place. 


The Lord calls us to "take responsibility for doing the creative best you can with your own life." Does that mean you have to be perfect? Absolutely not! The Lord, himself, came off the throne to be perfect among us so we didn't have to. He knows we are limited, but He also knows that we have the power of the Holy Spirit in us. And with that, NOTHING is impossible.

"For we are God's handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do." {Ephesians 2:10 NIV}

So let us not get distracted or deterred from what the Lord has put us here to do, but press in & press on - focused towards the sweet day we meet our beautiful Maker face to face. He has intention in all of our lives, a mission. Time to get to it.

Jesus take the wheel, but really.

As I enter this new season of fall (my favorite), my life definitely looks a bit different than I thought it would this time last year. For starters I thought I would be in Birmingham in Occupational Therapy school, not in Auburn, and definitely not the person I am now. Then I went on to not going to grad school at all and moving home - things I thought would happen didn't and things I didn't think would happen did and that's where I have greatly embraced, on a less serious note, Carrie Underwood's lyrics as my great (and slightly cheesy) new motto, "Jesus take the wheel"...

I respond under my breath to much of what happens as of late with that precious and a little bit hilarious phrase. But I mean it, and it's true. The Lord never ceases to amaze me. Just when I think I know, I don't. His plans are greater, thankfully. However, in the process of the re-route we so easily take on uneasiness and doubt. We get a little skirmy in our "uncomfortable situation", itching for a chance to get to a place where we can feel comfortable again. It takes time. Time to learn. Time to adjust. Time to embrace. Time to change. And honestly if we just sat back and learned instead of trying to find a way out, we probably wouldn't be there so long. Like the Israelites following the cloud through the desert - accepting manna for today and looking upward, knowing that He is good and faithful to lead us exactly where we need to be when we need to be there!

I am so excited and expectant for this new season in Auburn in Graduate School, and for the Lord to continue to absolutely blow my mind!

accept it.

In my sweet little devotion, Jesus Calling (which I highly recommend), I read this this morning and it was so encouraging...

"Come to me when you are weak and weary. Rest snugly in My everlasting arms. I do not despise your weakness, My child. Actually, it draws Me closer to you, because weakness stirs up My compassion- My yearning to help. Accept yourself in your weariness, knowing that I understand how difficult your journey has been.

Do not compare yourself with others, who seem to skip along their life-paths with ease. Their journeys have been different from yours, and I have gifted them with abundant energy. I have gifted you with fragility, providing opportunities for your spirit to blossom in My Presence. Accept this gift as a sacred treasure: delicate, yet glowing with brilliant Light. Rather than struggling to disguise or deny your weakness, allow Me to bless you richly through it."

In a world that is constantly telling us to be strong, move on -- the Lord is saying "son/daughter, jsut embrace it". For so long I know I pushed away weakness, it wasn't "okay" to appear weak - but the thing is, it totally is. That's where the Lord's strength is magnified. It's a beautiful place that you come to where you literally come to the end of yourself and can't do it, and the Lord says, "wonderful because I can, and have been wanting to do it the whole time!". He so desires us to release these burdens to Him. To cease striving. I listened to an incredible song the other day that definitely encompasses this and spoke to me so richly, give it a listen!

Acts 3:7 {taking the step}

"Then Peter took the lame man by the right hand and helped him up. And AS he did, the man's feet and ankles were instantly healed and strengthened." {Acts 3:7}

This verse has just recently stopped me in my tracks. I know this might seem like a verse many would pass by, but how POWERFUL is the written Word that it is so jammed packed with things we never even realize until BAM, there it is the very day we need it.

Stepping out in faith. This is a phrase we hear & say all the time, but goodness doing so -- a completely different story. In this parable, the lame man obviously could not walk. Peter saw that the man needed more than gold or silver, he needed Jesus. Can you imagine? Not being able to walk for years...getting used to the day to day of not being able to use your legs. It becomes something that you have to adjust your entire life to, you become used to it. The simple things become a task for you. Think about everything you do that requires walking, or just simply using your legs - -  then imagine not being able to do them at all, or atleast having to go to great lengths to accomplish. It's a crazy thought.

Peter was asking this man to get up and walk. Really?... If that was you, would you think... Peter that's nice and all for you to want to help, but see you don't understand... I cannot walk, and better yet I haven't even been able to stand. YET, he steps. Isn't it funny how the Lord picks the most unlikely of circumstances to move in power? [Amen, Amen!]

How many times do we hear the Lord saying, "get up and walk"... go this and that way... yet we stay on the ground because we choose to do things our way and we don't fully trust where He is leading. Perhaps, we even think, "but Lord I haven't been able to do this thus far - this is just how it is going to be". Thank Him that He doesn't think how we do. He NEVER gives up. Never.

I am guilty of this as well. Making decisions and not knowing exactly what is going on until literally the last second, and being scared in the process because it makes no sense at all. In the same way, Peter helped this man up and "AS" he did, his feet and ankles were strengthened. The man had to take the first step, he had to STEP OUT in FAITH, and AS He did the Lord strengthened and healed him. The "as" in this verse just gets me. It implies process, an action - an action on our behalf.

We have to trust and step even when we don't see the next stone underneath our feet. He will provide the strength "as" we do. Acting this out, goodness gracious. Praise the Lord He gives us strength & grace as we need it, and knows exactly when we do. He is so faithful as He has promised.

 Choosing to step, a concept I am learning to embrace and walk in - but needing so much grace and mercy in doing so.