Food For Thought on Thanksgiving

November 22, 2012 ~ Emily ~ Leave a comment

Our lives are a gift. Our faith is unearned. Our prayer is given to us with no strings attached.

Why does God give us, as ungrateful as we are, so many pleasures, so many graces, so many delights?

I don’t know.

What I do know is that there is joy in giving to someone you love.

What I do know is that when we gratefully receive God and God’s way of life, we give God pleasure.

What I do know is that in gratitude we become more alive, more free, and better able to love others.

{Mark Yaconelli in Wonder, Fear, and Longing. Emphasis mine.}

Read Along The Road

November 21, 2012 ~ Emily ~ 3 Comments

Highlights from my recent readings:

3 truths of personal growth | Simple Mom

Do whatever you can to drink from the fountain of wisdom. Sometimes it will be messy. Sometimes it will be a trickle. Sometimes it will rain down hard. But if you look for mentors, start now, and choose persistence, you’ll be in the perfect position to own your life and make it grow.

Now is the time to grow, learn and be women who inspire.

{by Kat at Inspired To Action}

How Not To Miss Your Real Life Calling | A Holy Experience

A career is about the guidebook and a calling is about leaning on the Guide who speaks to you through His Book. A career is about making a plan and a calling is about trusting a Person who changes the plan. Grace, that careers can fall way to callings.

The call that thing one keeps listening for and the heart of faith is the ear.

{by Ann Voskamp}

Bricks: Final Thoughts On An Open Letter | the extraordinary ordinary

One day we will certainly all fall apart at once and with faces to the ground in our messes we will have to cry over all that we did not see. Oh no, actually, I do not mean the state of the sinful awful world around us but the state of our own hearts and minds and how did we not see?

{by Heather}

A Portion of Primitive

November 20, 2012 ~ Emily ~ 2 Comments

Primitive can be tricky. It often connotes a rustic atmosphere, maybe a setting that lacks comfort and convenience. But, the rustic qualities of primitive go hand-in-hand with the pastoral beauty of rural settings.

The same dichotomy applies to the un-paved aspects of life. Primitive can be heartbreaking and painful, full of trials and obstacles. But, the rough roads we traverse are often what yields the most abundant spiritual harvest. Primitive produces eyes that see beyond circumstance, a joy that is not bound by daily pressures, and humble spirit that could only be brought on by a bumpy path.

Because I am reading One Thousand Gifts, gratitude is continually on my mind. In the midst of irritation and frustration, I can’t help but hear the echoes of eucharisteo in my heart. Sometimes, when all I want to do is wallow in my bitterness and cross feelings, I envision Ann running across a field, her apron flying behind as she chases the moon. She is wanting to touch the beauty of creation, to feel a part of this life God made.

I know I have a responsibility to chase after my own moons, to reach out at all costs to find the eucharisteo in all life’s circumstances. I choose whether to accept or whether to reject what God has so freely given.

I’m beginning to see eucharisteo is both the rustic and rich parts of life. I see the beauty in primitive and I am thankful.

I look at rain and am thankful for the pines towering above in puddles below.

I sense the cold outside and am thankful for my cozy blankets and mugs of hot tea.

I participate in conflict and am thankful for grace and forgiveness.

We have each been dealt a portion of primitive. We choose whether it is a source of burden or beauty.

How do you respond to your portion of primitive?

I’ll be featuring A Portion of Primitive occasionally to spotlight the primitive in my life. My primitive this week is the natural beauty that surrounds our home.

Sometimes woods and trails are hard to traverse. Just last week, Tim and I had to turn back from an attempt to hike because of icy conditions. I was deeply thankful to see the trail overflowing with green this weekend, even in the middle of Winter.

Guest Posting & Crazy Connections

November 19, 2012October 29, 2015 ~ Emily ~ 2 Comments

Turns out, I guest post for people who I have random connections with. Last week it was Kayse Pratt {6 Things I Learned in 6 Months of Marriage}, who was my city-neighbor for a year, and today it’s Marie Osborne.

I connected with Marie on Twitter only to discover she is the daughter-in-law of my brother-in-law’s pastor (Pastor Larry Osborne at North Coast in Vista, CA). David, my brother-in-law, works at North Coast and knows all the Osbornes.

Crazy. Small. World.

So, I’m writing over on Marie’s blog as part of her new series called Living Out His Love:

This world isn’t perfect. We are fallen creatures struggling to learn how to give and receive this love. How to live out His love.

It’s a lifelong goal for all of us. But we can stumble along together. This series, “Living out His Love,” will be a place where we can talk this out. Share about our struggles, what His word says, what we learn in prayer and practice, really trying to live out this love. How we’ve been encouraged and how we’ve been wounded by others attempting to live out His love in our lives. Our hopes, our aspirations, our past. What we thought love was and how we learned it was different. How we strive to apply this love, in loving Him, our family, friends, enemies, community, ourselves.

My take on Living Out His Love revolves around my love of based-on-a-true-story sports movies. Thank you, Rocky Balboa!

Beyond Gaps

Aside from a hefty dose of chick-flicks and Jane Austen films, my movie collection is dominated by inspirational sports dramas. I’m a sucker for the underdog and can’t get enough of the comeback montages set to heart-moving music.

The likes of Remember The Titans, We Are Marshall, and Miracle make me cry without fail. Maybe it was the boxing factor or the endless sequels, but my based-on-a-true-story, sports film fanaticism never touched the Rocky collection.

Little did I know that lurking beneath all the blood, sweat, and punching, there were real lessons to be learned about love from the unlikely boxer. With a few short lines uttered in the company of his friend Paulie and a bunch of cold cows waiting to be butchered, Rocky perfectly illustrates the symbiotic nature of true love.

Read the rest over on… Marie’s Blog!

Do Not Pass Me By: Stay {FMF}

November 16, 2012 ~ Emily ~ 9 Comments

A furry face strains his tether purposely unhearing the command of his owner. Stay.

A little one tucked in bed cries out as the light turns off. Stay.

A wife pleads through tears as she watches the back of her husband fade into the distance. Stay.

Stay is for brokenness, fear, and disappointment. The soul grasps at what won’t remain in place. It lurches and lunges for something that is steady, that will last.

“Be still and know,” says the small voice.

Remain in Me. Stay awhile. Abide in Me. Stay with Me for keeps.

Take refuge and find sanctuary in Me. Linger in My love. Don’t be cast about by external inconsistency. Hang on to My eternal presence.

Stay is healing and safety and comfort.

Pass me not, O gentle Savior, hear my humble cry; while on others thou art calling, do not pass me by.

Let me at thy throne of mercy find a sweet relief, kneeling there in deep contrition; help my unbelief.

Trusting only in thy merit, would I seek thy face; heal my wounded, broken spirit, save me by thy grace.

Thou the spring of all my comfort, more than life to me, whom have I on earth beside thee? Whom in heaven but thee?

{Pass Me Not, O Gentle Savior – Frances J. Crosby, 1868}