Memories

A few weeks ago I received the news that Creative Memories, a scrap-booking company, was declaring bankruptcy and may no longer produce the wonderful albums and supplies I have used for years. I LOVE scrap-booking! It is one of my favorite hobbies. It brings out my creative bent, but it is for a deeper purpose that I scrapbook.

Memories. Some are good, some are not-so-good. Some are downright exhilarating, some still cause a knot in our stomachs. But all are of times through which we have loved, shed tears, laughed, been silent, never wanted to end, or maybe want forgotten. They are the minutes we have LIVED. And life is precious. Every moment is one to be thankful for.

Many times we don't realize the value of a moment until it has passed. In the hum of life, the days flow one into another. When I began scrap-booking, it simply was to have fun and get my pictures organized and into an album. As the years passed, my children began looking at the albums I had created saying, "Oh, I remember that," or "That was so much fun." It was then something began to stir in my heart. Memories....

My daughter drew our home.....

Our dog that died and left a hole in our hearts.....

My daughter's first garden and she grew an 80lb. pumpkin!

A first spelling test....

Memories are not meant to be worshiped, but to point to the One who is. Joshua 4:20-24 reads: "Joshua set up at Gilgal the twelve stones they had taken out of the Jordan. He said to the Israelites, “In the future when your descendants ask their parents, ‘What do these stones mean?’ tell them, ‘Israel crossed the Jordan on dry ground.’ For the Lord your God dried up the Jordan before you until you had crossed over. The Lord your God did to the Jordan what he had done to the Red Sea when he dried it up before us until we had crossed over. He did this so that all the peoples of the earth might know that the hand of the Lord is powerful and so that you might always fear the Lord your God.”  Jesus also told his disciples to carry on the practice of the Lord's Supper "in remembrance of me." God wants us to remember. He wants us to look back and see how He has guided us. To thank Him for His goodness. This gives us faith for the future.

Scrapbooks are just one way the memories and stories of life are preserved. I also have saved a few items that have meaning to me: my baby booties are bronzed and sitting on my shelf, my grandmother's teacups are in the cupboard, a poem my sister wrote for me graces a wall, and my husband's great-great grandmother's rocking chair has been refinished and sits by our bed. Pictures, words documented, special objects....they all carry a story. 

A story of the past and God's faithfulness.

I have some numbness on my face from brain surgery three years ago. I hope it never leaves. It reminds me of how God worked through a situation "more than I could have asked or imagined." It is my "stone" of remembrance. :)

I have learned the value of a memory....and to Whom to give the credit.


p.s. I do hope Creative Memories comes back....if not, I will still find a way to document memories. :)

Life Is

I came home from the antique mall with a simple little purchase....



















My family asked me, "What is this?" I told them I am learning that life just....IS.

It is what it is.

Do we say thank-you for what we have, or do we wish for more? Or wish for less, as in not wanting the circumstances we find ourselves in, or not liking those who have been planted around us. I tend to analyze life....well, if you were to ask my family, I over-analyze life. I needed a reminder that life simply IS. To accept that which I have been so graciously given and trust that God is working through all.

I recently came upon the full version of the Serenity Prayer. Most of us have heard the first few lines, but I was blessed reading it in its entirety.

Serenity Prayer  

God grant me the serenity
to accept the things I cannot change;
courage to change the things I can;
and the wisdom to know the difference.

Living one day at a time;
Enjoying one moment at a time;
Accepting hardships as the pathway to peace;
Taking, as He did, this sinful world
as it IS, not as I would have it;
Trusting that He will make all things right
if I surrender to His Will;
That I may be reasonably happy in this life
and supremely happy with Him
forever in the next.
Amen.

~Reinhold Niebuhr

Trust = Serenity

God IS always working for our good.
God IS always loving us.
God IS always beside us.
God IS moving in ways we can't even begin to imagine.
God IS God.

Be still and know that I am God. Psalm 46:10

I am learning that Life IS. Or....maybe that God IS. It is He who brands himself on our hearts. (The rod hanging in the above picture is a branding tool with the word "is" on the end.) My life IS His.

The Discovery of Blessings

I love reading H. Jackson Brown Jr.'s Life's Little Instruction Book(s). In his introduction to Volume II, he writes, "Life is a process. We are all works in progress--green tomatoes ripening on the windowsill of life.  As I experience more, learn more, and contemplate more, I often think of what use my discoveries might be to my son, Adam."

So, begins my journey of blogging, the discoveries that God has revealed to me. Psalm 23 in the Bible states that "His goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life." God's goodness and mercy, His unrelenting grace, can be seen in the everyday and the ordinary. My goal is to chronicle what He has shown me and what I have learned. As these words hit the page, may my heart say "thank-you"....for everything. I thank you for coming along on this journey with me. May the words and thoughts that follow bless you.

I discovered Ann Voskamp's book One Thousand Gifts a little over a year ago. It will revolutionize a life. It is a book about finding the blessings that are so abundant in our every day lives. A friend challenged her to find one thousand "blessings" and write them down. Yes, write them down. She challenges her readers to do the same. I smile as I look over the entries in my "Blessings" journal....giggling, recipe for my grandmother's hotdish, stoneware mugs, calculator, a kind nurse at the clinic, scrapbook sale, warm shower, encouraging words.....and the list goes on. I have jotted over 1,600 "blessings" for 2013, and I continue to write more. Contentment (simply being thankful for what we have) is so missing in our culture today. By simply stopping, breathing, and becoming aware of the blessings in our life, we start to become aware of the goodness and mercy that God has placed in our lives. I often wonder what would happen if, when we turned on the nightly news, we only heard about the good in the world?

The unthankful heart discovers no mercies....but let the thankful heart sweep through the day and, as the magnet finds the iron, so it will find, in every hour, some heavenly blessings. ~Henry Ward Beecher

I am learning to be thankful.....