The oldest ones

The store was closing and I found 4 identical tiny nativity scenes on a final clearance rack. Two of the boxes were absolutely trashed and all 4 were marked with a bright yellow sticker proclaiming them to be 75% off their regular price. I think I paid about 75 cents for each one of them.

The year was 1993. We were recently married with a new house and NO extra money…and we needed gifts for a church Christmas party. These were exactly what we needed right when we needed them. The timing was perfect and the price was right. I was a little embarrassed about the price thing, but it was what we could do, so I carefully peeled off the yellow stickers on the 2 best boxes, wrapped them up, and sent them on to others who seemed way more than 75 cents worth of excited to get them.

I was relieved. I packed the remaining 2 sets away with the Christmas stuff and they stayed packed away for at least a couple of years. I shook my head every time I unpacked around them and left them in the boxes while I made a bigger and much more colorful set the mantel focal piece each year.

When we moved again, they began to make annual appearances in our guest rooms. Small, white, and seasonally appropriate, they went with any paint color I put them against. They were decorations far more than declarations of my growing faith at that time.

Over time, they’ve grown in personal value while remaining just as small and unassuming as they were in the beginning. They’ve graced small shelves, nightstands, and the tops of silver candlesticks overlooking larger and more elaborate nativity sets.

As I unpacked them this year, 30 years from their inauspicious purchase, I was reminded of God’s faithfulness through years of feast and famine, health and hurt, grace and growth. He never changes and I am grateful for reminders large and small that He is exactly what we need no matter we are, His timing is perfect and the price to become His has already been paid.

I’d say I got way more than I bargained for with these small beauties.

Grace and Peace!

Change of pace

It looks–and sounds!–counterintuitive to add more boxes to the mayhem at this point, but it is a deliberate choice. We thought about it, did quite a bit of research, and then made some decisions…and a few purchases. Despite the “Fragile” messages on these dented boxes (and the obvious care with which they were handled! Ha!), we expect the contents to bring us robust joy for years to come.

We’ll have to wait for the unwanted guest (Covid) to leave before we can truly dive in, but I’m enjoying it even now because we decided to make a change of pace in this new place and this is just the start of that. We decided to make some changes and set about following through to make it a reality. Don’t miss that. You can do that, too.

Your changes don’t have to cost money, take up space, or even be shared. They don’t have to match anyone else’s expectations or even be impressive to those who love you best, but if there’s something you believe will help make your life more in line with what you feel God has for you, then what are you waiting for? Get busy making those changes–or at least start taking the steps to implement them as soon as you can!

Whatever changes you’re contemplating today, be sure and choose joy!

Grace and Peace!

Good things

1. Jesus still loves me–and you!
2. More boxes left my house yesterday!
3. More art found a home on the walls!
4. The sell/donate pile continues to grow!
5. Thanks to the industry of local farmers, I have fresh veggies to prepare for supper and a little extra for the coming winter when all the industry in the world won’t bring me locally grown patty pan squash!
6. A dear friend started my day off by sharing Scripture with me!
7. I have finally carved out a few minutes for art over the past several days…small steps in reality, but making progress in this area makes me incredibly happy.

This piece is a work in progress. I started it in GA, but had to pack it away for the move. I’m trying some new things in my few minutes a day and experimenting with more than just paint. Sounds like life for all of us, I think.

What are the “good things” on your list?

Grace and Peace!

Peace

Oh, this is so true! Today I emptied the final load from the storage facility. As I took the final photo below, my heart was filled with peace at what God has and is doing in our lives. At long last, all we have been entrusted with is in one location. Praise His Name and pass the peace!

May your weekend schedule be as full or as empty as you and He desire, but may your hearts be always full to overflowing with His Peace. (He adores you, you know.)

Top graphic from Country Living/Getty images.

They might have missed one

I recently read an article about x-number of things you can do to make your new space feel like home. Nowhere on the list was take a break from unpacking to put up a little bit of okra for the coming winter feasts, but I have to tell you…it worked for me.

“The power of finding beauty in the humblest things makes home happy and life lovely.“

Louisa May Alcott

Everyone has a different idea of what makes them feel at home. May God grant you the gift of being “at home” wherever you are today.

Geace and Peace!

Treasures

“Then He said to them, “Beware, and be on your guard against every form of greed; for not even when one has an abundance does his life consist of his possessions.”

Luke 12:15

I read this verse today and thought about how appropriate is for me as I work to get everything cleaned out of the storage locker. There isn’t much left there anymore. I am more excited about that than I can tell you. I am down to 2 art easels, a box of china, 2 boxes of reference material, various cartons of chemicals that seem to multiply every time I look at them, a metal shelf, my cherry-red hand truck, and a random box of NuGrape soda…unopened. It is, arguably, the most expensive thing in the pile. Don’t ask me why. I haven’t got a clue.

What I do know is that no matter how much or how little you own, you will touch each item at least 97 times over the course of a move. That alone may be enough to keep some people in place and it makes a very compelling argument for adopting a more minimalist mindset for the rest of us!

Something else I’ve been reminded of as I have touched each of these things that own me (83 times, so far, and counting!) is that some memories weigh more than you think, so it’s a good idea to only surround yourself with the happy ones. I have been grateful for my long-standing rules about 1 in-1 out and only keeping the things that perform a function, add to your comfort, or make you smile.

As much as I smile and remember when I look around at all these things, I am tired of moving them. I’m almost at the finish line–and, for that, I am totally grateful! While I have many possessions that bring me joy, this move also reminds me that the true abundance in my life is found in knowing and serving God, loving on the people He has given into my care, and being aware that I am fully defined by Christ and not by the things I have surrounding me.

May you also be so blessed.
Grace and Peace!

Let there be light!

Task of the day: organizing and assigning places to ALL the lamps and shades in my world! (And this is only part of them!) Afterward, I will tackle the great piles of pillows. The fact that I did a significant pillow downsize less than a year ago feels totally irrelevant as I see three giant bags filled to overflowing with all kinds of beautifully handstitched and feather-stuffed wonders. Following that, assuming I can still bear it, I will once again review amd cull the linens. As a light and comfort gal, this is harder than it might sound. Each lamp, shade, pillow, and quilt has been carefully chosen and has more memory than monetary value to me.

Nevertheless, they can’t ALL stay. They just won’t fit. Every house is different from the one before it, so I am sorting through what will work here and what will find a new home. I’m doing much the same within myself. Every move is an opportunity to figure out what needs to stay and what needs to change in our life routines, our attitudes, and our pursuits.

I don’t take those changes and options lightly. Each new place has come with a new God-assignment. Some of them I have absolutely adored. Others, I have absolutely abhorred.

Regardless of my reaction, I have been certain God had a plan and a point even when I couldn’t see it. The same is true today, so as I wander about the house finding new homes for old things and saying “goodbye” to others, I will also be praying the age-old words, “Let there be light!” As I do so, I will expect God to shine His light on those opportunities He would have me pursue and be with me throughout the entire process.

“For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God’s glory displayed in the face of Christ.“

2 Corinthians 4:6

Grace and peace…and light for your path today!

I had no choice

This is not an ad for this publication, but it is an hysterical (to me, at least!) reminder that God truly is El Roi, the God Who Sees Me.

My previous post contained a photo of a tin with newly planted flowers. What it didn’t contain was the fact that the tin was extremely cheap because the bottom was all bowed out and I had to “stomp it back in place” several times before it would sit and be level. I shared that info with a friend and told her I wasn’t sure I was “city enough” for this place.

Yesterday, on a grocery run, I saw this magazine on the rack–and the featured article title gave me NO choice. I HAD TO BUY IT!

Written and published well before I left our forested Georgia acreage on a quiet dead-end street and took up residence on a corner lot in this bustling little town, God knew I would enjoy the laugh. As always, He provides EVERYTHING I need…and His timing is impeccable!

Well played, God. Well played.

Grace and peace and laughter from the God who see YOU today, as well, dear one!

“O LORD, you have searched me and you know me. You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways….All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.”

Psalm 139: 1-3, 16 NIV

Stopped in my

I took this picture yesterday of my “treat for the day” to myself: playing with soil, leftover garden center flowers, vintage mixed metals, and pure joy. (Yes, I know. I need to sweep up the fallen detritus from the nearby trees, but that’s a LOT further down my list of things to do this week!)

I’m still unpacking boxes and searching out new places to put “all the things.” Boxes–full, empty, or broken down flat–are piled or propped in almost every room. Even so, there are a lot fewer of them than there used to be!! Praise the Lord!–in ALL sincerity!

I highly recommend moving just as a reminder to stop and think before you buy the next whatever-it-is you think you need. The realization that you will actually need to touch (and LIFT!) every single thing you own multiple times during the packing and unpacking process is a sobering one. The fact that I can write that sentence even as I have a running list of stuff I still “need” for this house boggles my mind.

In any case, although I emptied many, MANY boxes yesterday, I also made some time for play! For me, that meant I hooked up my bright, shiny red water hoses and set up a place to pot and repot plants. I hung windchimes in the front and back to compete with the beautiful church bells from across the way–and help mitgate some of construction noises going on around me. I arranged and rearranged boxes and boxes of books all while waiting on Amazon to deliver even more.

Throughout the weeks of this process, I have–over and over!–quite literally been stopped in my tracks by the grace and the greatness of God. This move, more than all the previous ones, has been an incredible illustration of the One who never changes and yet makes all things new…or maybe I’m just finally able to appreciate it in this nothing-like-I-would-have-ever-imagined and yet, quite possibly exactly-what-we-need-next place. I am surrounded by the intimately known and the totally unfamiliar all in the same moment.

I am so grateful that God has a plan for my good even when I’m still trying to find my way through all of excitement and the chaos of this process.

Wherever you find yourself today, I pray that you, too, will be stopped in your tracks by God’s loving care for you, that your heart–and maybe even your voice!–will sing for the joy of that realization, and that you will be filled with His peace…no matter what chaos might surround you.

Grace and Peace!

Control-free zone

I live in a control-free zone. I realized that just this morning. Some might say that makes me a bit slow to catch on, but I would prefer to focus on the fact that I finally acknowledged the facts. (Insert eye roll here.)

My Bible study this morning has once again confirmed the truth: mankind (and womankind, as well!!) has been trying to wrest control from God since the dawn of creation…and we’re still not qualified to do so. The Word confirms this truth throughout its pages, but I am a living, breathing poster-child for wanting to control what happens to/around me. (I have plenty of company in this, I know.)

Even now, as I type with my thumbs because the computer is packed and a good portion of this house is in-between sorted categories and packing papers, I rebel at the very idea of all this chaos, from which God is bringing order, somethings HE has been doing since the dawn of time, as well.

I don’t like living in the in-between. I realize it is part of the process and that there will come a time when I can once again walk into a room lit by lamps instead of overhead lights alone. (That is a big lesson for me on this move: I’ve discovered that I absolutely hate overhead lighting all by itself. I love layers and LAYERS of light!)

I have also realized that despite my best efforts over the years to weed out and pare down, there is still a LONG say to go. I still have too much stuff (all of which I love!!) despite my best efforts…and it is ALL my fault. I haven’t even been able to control myself. Sigh.

I will say this move is accomplishing something unexpected: it is destroying any idea that I am able to control…well, almost anything. That’s probably a good thing for my long-term sanity, but at the moment, the realization still feels a little too much. I don’t like it, but God is using it to deepen my dependence on Him.

That’s uncomfortable in ways I didn’t expect even as I know it to be absolutely necessary and beneficial. He’s teaching me to rest in new ways, to reduce my efforts to create peace and just allow Him to BE my peace…even in the chaos.

Oh, I’m not under any illusions. I realize this will be an ongoing challenge. I know me REALLY well. So does He. As much as I would love for this to be a one-and-done life lesson, I am aware that I will again (and again and again and again…) attempt to control my own unwieldy circumstances in the future.

What I do hope, however, is that as I eventually get to the other end of this move that I will also get closer to the end of the pressure I’ve placed on myself for years. You know the kind of pressure I’m talking about, right? The desire to be in control comes with a tremendous burden for controlling the outcomes, as well. That’s really where the problem lies. Our intent to make things “better” carries with it a feeling of responsibility for it to actually BE better…for everybody…and, try as we might, that’s not always within our grasp.

As humans created in the image of God, parts of us will ALWAYS seek to create order out of chaos. That’s a good thing…as long as we release the outcomes into His capable hands.

Maybe, just maybe, living in a control-free zone might not be so bad.

Grace and Peace!