18 Little Things

Well, old friend. It's been a while. If anyone's still out there, here are 18 things you should consider making time for (via Thoughtcatalog).

1. Writing things by hand. Letters to friends, lists for the store, goals for the week, notes for lovers, thank you cards and memos to coworkers. Digital communication is easy and convenient but ask anybody: there’s a huge difference between texting someone to say that you love them and hope they have a great day and writing it on a note and leaving it next to their bed.

2. Savoring time to do nothing. Taking a cue from pre-industrialized society and cultures that enjoy siestas and long, drawn-out, sit-down teas that serve no other purpose than to spend time enjoying the time you have.

3. Thinking before responding. We’ve become too conditioned to require things immediately. Someone asks a question, and we have to respond that second. Such was not the case before instant messaging and comment threads. A sign of true intelligence and confidence, I think, is someone who takes time to consider the question at hand in a little more depth, and then offers a response.

4. Cooking a nice meal just for the sake of doing so. It really trains you to defy your need for instant gratification and of course puts you in touch with something that’s very human and can be lovely if done right.

5. Getting really dressed up for no other reason than just wanting to.

6. Books. Actual hard copy books that you can scribble notes in and mark off sections of and smell ink through and hear the sound of turning pages and bending spines while you read.

7. Making phone calls to relatives for no other reason than to just say hi, and to ask how they’re doing.

8. Disconnecting from technology frequently enough that we won’t be anxious and feeling like we’re missing something when we try to do so for an extended period of time.

9. Celebrating things with long, multiple course dinners that we hold for people as opposed to just drinking ourselves into an oblivion and being belligerent (that has it’s time and place, of course, but having thoughtful, celebratory dinners is a dying art).

10. Cleaning because it’s satisfying and doing things like painting walls or getting fresh flowers just because it’s therapeutic.

11. Spending time with kids, and doing kid things with them. They just know what’s up.

12. Answering things in a timely fashion, not putting off invitations and requests just because we can.

13. Making sure relationships are actually based on time spent with one another. People seem to be sustaining them through only digital means with increasing frequency and I can understand how that’s important if it’s temporarily long distance but in general, physically being with people is the only thing that will give you that sense of human connectedness.

14. Just sitting and listening to music. We’ve made music background noise in our everyday lives, but now and again we should just sit and enjoy it like people used to.

15. Traveling by train, or if that’s not possible, at least exploring places that you pass everyday. Especially if you live in a big city, there are always little hidden gems around that you won’t believe you lived without seeing while they were a block away from you all along.

16. Putting personal health and well-being first, as it often falls to the wayside in importance. This means, aside from the obvious, taking those personal days and using them to just relax. We’ve made such a quirky commodity out of enjoying napping and relaxing, as though doing so makes us boring and old. It doesn’t, it’s healthy.

17. Planning something, especially with someone else, as simple as dinner or as grandiose as a long vacation next year. You always need something to look forward to.

18. Stopping to talk to people throughout the day. Connecting with them genuinely, as such interaction is really important but is becoming increasingly less common. Turning our phones off when out to dinner (who even turns them off anymore?) and learning to not spend all of our time documenting whatever we’re doing for social media. It often takes away from the experience itself.

P.S. if you're interested at all, my Freshman Comp class has a blog where we all write weekly. Check out the freshopotami here.

I will delight myself in Your commandments

I know "coffee and the Word" has become a vastly overused, typical "Christian girl" phrase. But, when it comes down to it, is there really anything sweeter?
It's a delightfully slow summer morning here at home. The locusts, crickets, and birds hum their morning tunes outside my window, creating a summer symphony. As I sit in my room with a warm red mug of, yes, coffee in my hand and the living Word of God in my lap, I am overwhelmed with thanksgiving.
Who am I to hold the words of the living, powerful Creator and Sustainer and Ruler of all things?
Yet He has chosen to give these words to men--to us--to me.
Why? I don't know, except that He has chosen to do so. All we can do is read and live. In light of this living Word, how shall we then live?

Psalm 119 is full of thanks to God for the gift of His words and commandments. The Psalmist writes in Psalm verses 10-11:

"With my whole heart I have sought You;

Oh, let me not wander from Your commandments!

Your word I have hidden in my heart,

That I might not sin against You."

In verses 47-48:

"And I will delight myself in Your commandments,

Which I love.

My hands also will lift up to Your commandments,

Which I love,

And I will meditate on Your statutes."

And again in verses 103-105:

"How sweet are Your words to my taste,

Sweeter than honey to my mouth!

Through Your precepts I get understanding;

Therefore I hate every false way.

Your word is a lamp to my feet 

And a light to my path."

You can either choose to neglect or delight yourself in the Word of God today. Which will it be? 

The Psalmist cries out,"My soul faints for Your salvation, but I hope in Your word. My eyes fail from searching Your word." He was so much in the word that his eyes literally began to grow weak from searching it! Do yours?

About the Scriptures J. C. Ryle says,

"I want people to fill their minds with passages of Scripture while they are well and strong, that they may have sure help in the day of need. I want them to be diligent in studying their Bibles, and becoming familiar with their contents, in order that the grand old Book may stand by them and talk with them when all earthly friends fail. From the bottom of my heart, I pity that person who never reads their Bible. I wonder how they expect to draw their consolation in their time of need."

What is Love?

An interview with musician Josh Garrels. Listen to his music here. Read their blog here.

Josh Garrels IN:5 // Love from IN:5 on Vimeo.

Do you ever wonder what life would be like without the internet?

It has become such a huge part of my daily life that it's hard for me to even think far back enough to a time when I didn't use the internet. Of course, you can't forget the dial-up days. Anyone who has ever used dial-up will have the familiar sound ingrained in his mind throughout all eternity. Even now I'm trying to think of how to type out or even make the sound with my mouth. I can't do it. Imagine trying to describe it to your grandchildren . . . without sounding like a dying rooster. Impossible.

My point is: I'm aghast (I love that word) at how much I waste--yes, waste--on the internet, and more specifically, social media. 

This begs the question, why?

Why Do We Waste Time On Social Media?

Pride. Pride says 'I am so great that I want the whole world wide web to know it.' So whether it's my clever statuses, pictures I feel are attractive, or things that make my life look awesome, I'm striving toward one goal: self-worship. We want to put our best foot, face, and whatever else forward, whether we have to lie about our lives or photoshop our faces to do so.

Before you post, ask yourself why. And more importantly, Does this glorify my Heavenly Father? Is my life truly consumed by Him--even my social media?

What If There Was No Internet?

 It just makes me wonder how much I could actually accomplish if it were never invented.

I'm tempted to glorify the past. I envision the Good Old Days: those sweet, simple times long ago when everyone was well-behaved, worked hard, completed all that they intended to do, and even had enough time leftover to leisurely rock back-and-forth on the front porch rocking chair with a good book in hand while they gingerly sipped on their sweet tea. Oh, and as they lived and moved, there was an ethereal golden glow over everything and everyone.

But life wasn't like that. Men, women, and children still found ways to waste time. They still found ways to feed the monster Pride that dwells in every heart.

I'm writing this for you, dear reader, so that you would not excuse yourself from sin simply because you live in highly-technolgically advanced world, as if your generation were an exception. 

We have no excuse. Although sin may look outwardly a bit different than it did 50, 100, 200+ years ago, it is still at its very core sin. And yes, even time-wasting is a sin.

Does This Mean That I Have To Delete My Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr, etc.?

I am not commanding you to delete every social media account you have right this very minute. 

I am asking you to consider how much time you spend on each and every social media account you have.

I am asking you to be careful that you, as a Christian, are putting off the aroma of Christ both on and off the internet.

I am asking that you would beg God to be captivated--wholly and completely caught up with Himself. 

Christian, strive to be true to the character of Him whose name you claim -- Christ's.

"Look to Jesus, believers, and that will keep you true to Him!" - Horatius Bonar

'You are My people'

I woke up to a dark, cloudy sky that made me want to stay in bed forever, which is how I feel basically every morning a feeling I never, ever experience, I assure you. Mornings like these remind us how lucky we were to have a day like yesterday. . .

The sun was shining, the birds were whistling, and I was driving home with the sun roof open and the Punch Brothers singing. I couldn't resist a run in this blissful spring, slightly sweltering warm weather. Still huffing, puffing, and gasping for breath breathing hard, I crawled walked onto the back porch to see Jer shooting his bow, Jonathan slowly, rhythmically swaying in the hammock, and Macy close behind, her tail wagging violently.
I had to pause and thank the Lord - for the chance for my boys to just be boys (something so many boys completely miss out on these days); for the good old south in April; for days like today; for God's overwhelming love in every little thing, even when I am ungrateful and presumptive. His blessings are all around me and continue, whether I have thanked Him or not.
Can you imagine such selfless love in a human? Just think of it: a man or a woman who continues to pour out love even when that love is not the slightest bit reciprocated? That is surely a rare thing, if not an entirely impossible thing. Picture the greatest, kindest, most selfless human being ever to walk the earth. Observe as he not only cares for the dirtiest, scummiest, most self-absorbed human being that ever lived, but he takes him into his home, adopts him, and loves him as his own son - even when that son goes about his business and forgets this man's unspeakable kindness. Now multiply that x 100 and you'll get some faint idea of God's love for us.

In Hosea 2:23, the Lord says to a rebellious, stiff-necked Israel:

"And I will have mercy on her who had not obtained mercy;
Then I will say to those who were not My people,
‘You are My people!’
And they shall say, ‘You are my God!’”

It was too perfect not to soak in every last bit of sunlight. I pulled out my paints and the boys rotated to the trampoline. 

Today, in spite of the clouds, there is so much to be thankful for. Have you thanked Him for His many kindnesses? Look around you and be thankful. The true child of God ought to be the happiest being in all the world.

Happy Thursday

Life lately

Little happenings

Today my alarm went off. Silently. And when my eyes finally popped open, I jumped out of bed. 10 minutes before I was supposed to leave my house.
Once I scrambled out of the door, I scraped the ice off of my car and opened the door. Only it didn't open.
As I shivered in the cold, I realized: I locked my keys in the car (again).

Today I walked across West Main Street to eat at Subway. Crossing a "busy" street in a small town may seem like a small feat to you, but to me it was quite the adventure.

Today a man in his eighties tried to convince me to get a Big Mac from McDonald's with him.

Today I learned a new word. In Spurgeon's Morning + Evening, he says, "Let your conversation be redolent of heaven."

red·o·lent  

/ˈredl-ənt/

Adjective Strongly reminiscent or suggestive of (something): "names redolent of history and tradition". Strongly smelling of something: "the church was old, dark, and redolent of incense".

Synonyms fragrant - odoriferous - odorous - aromatic - scented

Today the whole family gathered in the living room for lovely music, laughter, and conversation.

Today I learned once again that Romans 8:28 is absolutely and completely and wonderfully true.

Today I realized . . .

. . . How much I really believe I will miss my job at the old hearing center, especially the sweet people I meet and grow to know and love.

. . . How happy little things like new knobs for my drawer can make me.

. . . And how much one new lamp can brighten up my bedside -- and in turn, my entire bedroom. I picked up this new lamp when I went to Hobby Lobby intending to come home with only lace. But when I saw this lonely little blue lamp with a shade covered in French poetry, it called my name and I simply couldn't resist.

And on another note: I was flipping through an old journal tonight (and yes, it was embarrassing) and found this entry from June of 2009:

O God, how many times have I said unto Thee, 'Take my life and let it be, consecrated, Lord, to Thee!' and not meant it? How many times have I sung it or said it unto You to take my life and let it be for Thee, but said in my own heart, 'Don't take my life, for I want to live it for myself'? Have I ever said this and truly meant it?
"Having already said,'Take my life, for I cannot give it to Thee,' let us now say, with deepened conviction, that without Christ we really can do nothing -- 'Keep my life, for I cannot keep it for Thee." (Frances Havergal, Kept For the Master's Use)
 What a freeing thing it is to learn that it does not depend on me! It is Christ, Christ -- all of Him! 

"We know nothing of religion here: we think only of Christ."

As C. S. Lewis is one the best and brightest authors, I'm going to share a few quotes from his book, The Great Divorce.

"There have been men before now who got interested in proving the existence of God that they came to care nothing for God Himself . . . as if the good Lord had nothing to do but exist. There have been some who were so occupied in spreading Christianity that they never gave a second thought to Christ. You see it in smaller matters. Did you never know a lover of books that with all his first editions and signed copies had lost the power to read them? Or an organizer of charities that had lost all love for the poor? It is the subtlest of all the snares." (Ch. 9)

~ 

"There are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God, "Thy will be done," and those to whom God says, in the end, "Thy will be done." All that are in Hell, choose it. Without that self-choice there could be no Hell. No soul that seriously and constantly desires joy will ever miss it. Those who seek find. To those who knock it is opened." (Ch. 9)

~ 

"We know nothing of religion here: we think only of Christ." (Chapter 5)

~ 

"No natural feelings are high or low, holy or unholy, in themselves. They are all holy when God's hand is on the rein. They all go bad when they set up on their own and make themselves into false gods." (Ch. 11)

~ 

"'Oh, of course. I'm wrong. Everything I say or do is wrong, according to you.  

'But of course!' said the Spirit, shining with love and mirth so that my eyes were dazzled. 'That's what we all find when we reach this country. We've all been wrong! That's the great joke. There's no need to go on pretending one was right! After that we begin living.'" (Ch. 11)

~ 

"There is but one good; that is God. Everything else is good when it looks to Him and bad when it turns from Him." (Ch. 11) 

Source: pureblyss.tumblr.com via Courtney on Pinterest

The Lady of Shalott

   Part I.

On either side the river lie
Long fields of barley and of rye,
That clothe the wold and meet the sky;
And thro' the field the road runs by
   To many-tower'd Camelot;
And up and down the people go,
Gazing where the lilies blow
Round an island there below,
   The island of Shalott.

Willows whiten, aspens quiver,
Little breezes dusk and shiver
Thro' the wave that runs for ever
By the island in the river
   Flowing down to Camelot.
Four gray walls, and four gray towers,
Overlook a space of flowers,
And the silent isle imbowers
   The Lady of Shalott.

By the margin, willow-veil'd
Slide the heavy barges trail'd
By slow horses; and unhail'd
The shallop flitteth silken-sail'd
   Skimming down to Camelot:
But who hath seen her wave her hand?
Or at the casement seen her stand?
Or is she known in all the land,
   The Lady of Shalott?

Only reapers, reaping early
In among the bearded barley,
Hear a song that echoes cheerly
From the river winding clearly,
   Down to tower'd Camelot:
And by the moon the reaper weary,
Piling sheaves in uplands airy,
Listening, whispers "'Tis the fairy
   Lady of Shalott."


      Part II.

There she weaves by night and day
A magic web with colours gay.
She has heard a whisper say,
A curse is on her if she stay
   To look down to Camelot.
She knows not what the curse may be,
And so she weaveth steadily,
And little other care hath she,
   The Lady of Shalott.

And moving thro' a mirror clear
That hangs before her all the year,
Shadows of the world appear.
There she sees the highway near
   Winding down to Camelot:
There the river eddy whirls,
And there the surly village-churls,
And the red cloaks of market girls,
   Pass onward from Shalott.

Sometimes a troop of damsels glad,
An abbot on an ambling pad,
Sometimes a curly shepherd-lad,
Or long-hair'd page in crimson clad,
   Goes by to tower'd Camelot;
And sometimes thro' the mirror blue
The knights come riding two and two:
She hath no loyal knight and true,
   The Lady of Shalott.

But in her web she still delights
To weave the mirror's magic sights,
For often thro' the silent nights
A funeral, with plumes and lights
   And music, went to Camelot:
Or when the moon was overhead,
Came two young lovers lately wed;
"I am half-sick of shadows," said
   The Lady of Shalott.


      Part III.

A bow-shot from her bower-eaves,
He rode between the barley-sheaves,
The sun came dazzling thro' the leaves,
And flamed upon the brazen greaves
   Of bold Sir Lancelot.
A redcross knight for ever kneel'd
To a lady in his shield,
That sparkled on the yellow field,
   Beside remote Shalott.

The gemmy bridle glitter'd free,
Like to some branch of stars we see
Hung in the golden Galaxy.
The bridle-bells rang merrily
   As he rode down to Camelot:
And from his blazon'd baldric slung
A mighty silver bugle hung,
And as he rode his armour rung,
   Beside remote Shalott.

All in the blue unclouded weather
Thick-jewell'd shone the saddle-leather,
The helmet and the helmet-feather
Burn'd like one burning flame together,
   As he rode down to Camelot.
As often thro' the purple night,
Below the starry clusters bright,
Some bearded meteor, trailing light,
   Moves over still Shalott.

His broad clear brow in sunlight glow'd;
On burnish'd hooves his war-horse trode;
From underneath his helmet flow'd
His coal-black curls as on he rode,
   As he rode down to Camelot.
From the bank and from the river
He flash'd into the crystal mirror,
"Tirra lirra," by the river
   Sang Sir Lancelot.

She left the web, she left the loom,
She made three paces thro' the room,
She saw the water-lily bloom,
She saw the helmet and the plume,
   She look'd down to Camelot.
Out flew the web and floated wide;
The mirror crack'd from side to side;
"The curse is come upon me," cried
   The Lady of Shalott.


      Part IV.

In the stormy east-wind straining,
The pale-yellow woods were waning,
The broad stream in his banks complaining,
Heavily the low sky raining
   Over tower'd Camelot;
Down she came and found a boat
Beneath a willow left afloat,
And round about the prow she wrote
   The Lady of Shalott.

And down the river's dim expanse--
Like some bold seër in a trance,
Seeing all his own mischance--
With a glassy countenance
   Did she look to Camelot.
And at the closing of the day
She loosed the chain, and down she lay;
The broad stream bore her far away,
   The Lady of Shalott.

Lying, robed in snowy white
That loosely flew to left and right--
The leaves upon her falling light--
Thro' the noises of the night
   She floated down to Camelot:
And as the boat-head wound along
The willowy hills and fields among,
They heard her singing her last song,
   The Lady of Shalott.

Heard a carol, mournful, holy,
Chanted loudly, chanted lowly,
Till her blood was frozen slowly,
And her eyes were darken'd wholly,
   Turn'd to tower'd Camelot;
For ere she reach'd upon the tide
The first house by the water-side,
Singing in her song she died,
   The Lady of Shalott.

Under tower and balcony,
By garden-wall and gallery,
A gleaming shape she floated by,
A corse between the houses high,
   Silent into Camelot.
Out upon the wharfs they came,
Knight and burgher, lord and dame,
And round the prow they read her name,
   The Lady of Shalott.

Who is this? and what is here?
And in the lighted palace near
Died the sound of royal cheer;
And they cross'd themselves for fear,
   All the knights at Camelot:
But Lancelot mused a little space;
He said, "She has a lovely face;
God in his mercy lend her grace,
   The Lady of Shalott."

-- Alfred Tennyson, The Lady of Shalott 

Marianne

Just when you think, 'Look, I'm a grown up,' you see one of those personality quizzes you used to spend so long clicking away at on Facebook, desperate to know which TV show character best describes you, which Disney princess you're just like, or which Austen man is your best match for you. (Yes, yes, I did take that quiz.)
I saw the Jane Austen heroine personality quiz and I was a goner. But you know what? It's still just as exciting as it was when I was 13. And looking at this result you wouldn't think it, but my results have certainly improved since those I'm-really-bored-so-I'll-just-get-on-Facebook-and-complete-personality-quizzes-days. But that's another story for another time.

I thought this one was too funny not to share. Katie and I joke that she is Elinor and I am Marianne. I'm pretty sure I got the short straw on this one.

They shall sing in the ways of the Lord

I know to many of you this blog has long been dead. But I'd like to think he's only been sleeping, gone on an extended vacation; hibernating; but still very much alive.
And in the hope of awakening this old Blog o'Mine, I'd like to share a page out of Spurgeon's Morning + Evening from February 1st that I've found to be such a help to me and, I hope, to you as well.

"They shall sing in the ways of the Lord."

Psalm 138:5

The time when Christians begin to sing in the ways of the Lord is when they first lose their burden at the foot of the Cross. Not even the songs of the angels seem so sweet as the first song of rapture which gushes from the inmost soul of the forgiven child of God. You know how John Bunyan describes it. He says when poor Pilgrim lost his burden at the Cross, he gave three great leaps, and went on his way singing—

“Blest Cross! blest Sepulchre! blest rather be The Man that there was put to shame for me!”

Believer, do you recollect the day when your fetters fell off? Do you remember the place when Jesus met you, and said, “I have loved thee with an everlasting love; I have blotted out as a cloud thy transgressions, and as a thick cloud thy sins; they shall not be mentioned against thee any more forever.” Oh! what a sweet season is that when Jesus takes away the pain of sin. When the Lord first pardoned my sin, I was so joyous that I could scarce refrain from dancing. I thought on my road home from the house where I had been set at liberty, that I must tell the stones in the street the story of my deliverance. So full was my soul of joy, that I wanted to tell every snow-flake that was falling from heaven of the wondrous love of Jesus, who had blotted out the sins of one of the chief of rebels. But it is not only at the commencement of the Christian life that believers have reason for song; as long as they live they discover cause to sing in the ways of the Lord, and their experience of his constant lovingkindness leads them to say, “I will bless the Lord at all times: his praise shall continually be in my mouth.” See to it, brother, that thou magnifiest the Lord this day.

“Long as we tread this desert land,

New mercies shall new songs demand.”