Child like joy...

I am blessed to have a wonderful family. My cousin and her husband are ones we have been very close to for some time. She now has a 2 1/2 year old that I adore. I have been watching him since he was a little baby and now at the fun age of 2 1/2- boy is he such a little person that makes me smile so big. As I spend time with him I realize that I want some of his child like joy! Some of that child like faith. As the years of our lives press on and people change and our hearts get hurt, with each passing day faith can loose its luster and we can become hardened. I see him as he experiences the christmas decorations this year. The joy in his face and the faith that everything is going to be alright. I think about how as I sit rubbing my sore toe he stopped what he was doing and with such love asked me "what's wrong. I told him my toe is hurting and I am rubbing it. He put his hand on me so gentle and said, it's alright. And in that moment I felt God speaking to me. Through this kind young child.. I found myself really believing him. That everything was really going to be ok. With not only my hurting toe but my hurting heart, my broken spirit at times and my shattered faith. I found myself that night praying for his child like faith. I also find myself thinking about how as we sat at the table together, as a family, that he took the time to stop and smile and express ( in his 2 1/2 year old way) how we were to notice that we were all there at the table together. The look on his face I can not even express the joy he was feeling as we ate our enchiladas and he ate his fruit snacks. About something that we all to often take for granted in our busy, hectic, painful lives. Gosh how children are such a blessing and while we are teaching them about life and helping them grow how they can too be teaching us. Thank you to Mr Z for teaching me last night about the importance of joy.. true joy and faith that it is all going to be alright...

Gamble on faith..

As I think through my fear of a decision I have been faced with making I realize that the biggest thing in my way is money. Don't we all say this? We never have enough even at all levels. The more we have the more we spend. If only there was a money tree. I find myself always saying but then I realize that this very thing is stopping me from truly having faith.. True faith in God. I don't mean this to say that we are to be unwise with the use of our money as we should be thankful and careful with our spending and not be greedy but that we also can not put so much focus on it. So I am reminded of this verse.

Luke 16:13 (NIV) "No servant can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.

This is hard for me but I am embracing my faith in the lord with our finances. Gambling a bit on faith if you will. Praying that if you too are in a place were you find money being the one thing that is stopping you from really moving forward to a place you feel burning in your heart that you too may take the gamble.

Rolling the dice and giving it all up to HIM...

words to remember..

Rise and go; your faith has made you well. (Luke 17:17-19 NIV)

The giving of thanks is what makes us well.. Even in the dark, ugly times. We are being given a gift.. look for it.. find it.. allow it to be seen..

Eucharisteo - Thanksgiving - always precedes the miracle..

Life in between..

....It's the life in between, the days of walking lifeless, the years calloused and simply going through the hollow motions, the self protecting by self-distracting, the body never waking, that's lost all capacity to fully feel- this is the life in between that makes us the wild walking dead....

Ann Voskamp

One Thousand Gifts...

So what do YOU believe in?

I believe that it is the ugliest of places that can make us the most beautiful..

and I believe that making the ugly places shine with our beauty is a blessing because it allows us to show the world who we really are and what we are truly made of because the places we are determined to get to will be all that more beautiful once we arrive...

~ams~