Choosing Joy

“Gratitude is truly my life preserver. Even in the most turbulent waters, choosing gratitude rescues me from myself and my runaway emotions. It buoys me on the grace of God and keeps me from drowning in what otherwise would be my natural bent toward doubt, negativity, discouragement, and anxiety. Over time, choosing gratitude means choosing joy…” – Nancy Leigh Demoss...thanks for posting this Claire, I needed it close by so I had to share it here too!

This quote rings true. Runaway emotions, yes this is me. Gratitude, gets me back on track. I am less focused on the difficulties of life, which only drain me. Instead, I am free to focus on the good, the hopeful, the joyful, the grace of God. I am refocused, because life is good. Why? Because God meets us here. His love encompasses us in the small and seemingly insignificant and in the large obvious ways. In obstacles, he is there. Mostly gratitude gives me perspective on life. Takes me out of my lust, self focus, and pity parties and brings me to a place of, well, JOY. The word is so fitting.

And so I am yet reminded by my little one's who teach me daily about God's grace and joy in my life. Because it is in the grace of God we cling and in such find much joy. I love you girls.

How To...

My husband and I had a lovely converstation today when we went for a winter walk. It was picture perfect. Nice and warm. The girls were simply enjoying the scenery.

I have more of this to digest. But we were pondering our attitudes of late. Mostly they've been 'how to' attitudes. How to deal with tough relationships (bound to happen when you live close to family I suppose). How to parent effectively. How do love others. How to renovate your home. How to be more frugal. How to live more green. How to be a good wife, or husband. How to be a person of faith. How to, how to, how to...and not enough real living! The 'how to' is important, but it's not the true thing that matters. When you live your life in constant analyzing there's little room for romance, and really living and loving.

Jesus is a Living God

I had an interesting experience yesterday. I have new perspective of my discontentment. I sat around the room with some trusted fellow Christian ladies and we shared stories. Perhaps I should say, they shared stories. The passion for Jesus was evident. Their faith was refreshing. Could it be that in my struggles over the past few months that I have become jaded? Thinking that God was not active and moving? He provided sure, for that I am grateful...but could it be that this was all part of His plan. That God will do good through it? That this is not merely a burden that was saved from catastrophe, but will eventually be a blessing and a beautiful plan unfolded? I think I lost sight of this possibility. I think I might have just believed that God loved and cared, but He wasn't moving. This perspective saddens me. For I know of the intimacy with Jesus. I have felt His presence and love. I have witnessed the miracles and beauty of His tender workings in my life and plenty of others. So today, I thank my Wednesday night lady friends, for sharing your stories, your passion, which has reminded me that my faith is about much more than 'knowing' there is a God and I am saved, but has reminded me to 'live in the spirit'. Reminding me that Jesus is a living God, and is among us.

"So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature." Galatians 5:16

My Lenten Journey

It's a discipline I have tried to keep with.
It's a discipline that gives me joy and peace and perspective.
However, it always becomes last priority.
For Lent I will focus on being thankful. First and foremost for Jesus and all he's done for me.

I've been reading "Sex God" by Rob Bell and chapter 4 has been instrumental in why I know I need to focus more on gratitude. The chapter is about Lust. He looks at lust in a broad sense not just sexual. He talks in more of wants and desires, and cravings. It comes from not being content with our present situation, for me, that's mainly because of the 'if' factor. "The if means we have become attached to the idea that we are missing something" page73. Really, I love my life, and any lust is really lieing to me, that life could be better. "Until we can centre ourselves on what we do have, on what God has given us, on the life we get to live, we'll constantly be looking for another life." (74). He goes onto say that that's why God commands us to remember who we are in Christ. "If we stop remembering, we might forget." Too often in my day I forget who I am. Then as Paul, I do what I do not want to do, and I feel dissatisfied.

Bell quotes 1 Co 6:12 "I have the right to do anything - but I will not be mastered by anything."

"If I want something to the point that I can't conceive of being content without it, then it owns me....Freedom is going without whatever we crave and being fine with it" (75). This is my journey, to discover what has a hold of me. To experience freedom from these lies.

I am replacing any 'cravings' or 'wantings' with gratitude. Also to think on good desires, such as the fruits of the spirit.

"Be at rest one more, O my soul,
for the Lord has been good to you." Psalm 116:7

Some Frugal Inspiration

Some of the resources giving us some insight into our frugal journey so far:

Go Green, Live Rich by David Bach. I wasn't seeking this book out, it found me at the library the other day. The 'green' suggestions aren't anything new. But what I haven't put together is how going green can actually mean saving dollars. This is something exciting for me.

David Ramsey. Some women were talking about him at GCM. So I had to check it out. I really like his Gazelle Lite Calculator. Makes it really easy to see what percentage of your budget you are using for each budget category. I also really likes his "Free Cars" clip. I have totally changed my ideals about car buying.

Reset

Finally, a moment of peace. Daddy is putting the girls to bed. A ritual he quite enjoys. I have to say, I am glad he does, it's not my favourite time of day to be patient. I get pretty tired by day's close. Anyhow, finally a moment to ponder the happenings of the past few months. Life for us was pretty stressful. The details are not necessary. But the time, and energy were overwhelming and taxed our family life and my personal life quite a bit. The past few days I have even thought to myself, what now? What do I do with my time, my energy? Time to reset and refocus on my actual 'life's work'. My life as a present and intentional parent. It means back to some normalcy when it comes to routines with the girls. It means, back to play dates, fun outings, and our fun home school program. It means family time. Today, we did just that. It was great. So much fun.

My parenting and spiritual pondering have been the focus of this blog. I am happy to continue with this. However, for 2010 my husband and I are on another interesting adventure. We are seeking to be frugal! We want to spend less, buy less, and live on less dollars. Why? Mainly because we've gotten ourselves into some debt with a cross country move and a job career for both of us. My wonderful work now brings in a whole $500/month compliments of the government. My husband's pay has been drastically reduced due to a career change. But we are happy with our choices. We just weren't anticipating how hard it would be to adjust to our lack of cash flow. Those who know us are probably thinking, you've been living this way for 1.5 years now. True. It's taken that long to realize we need to make some changes. A lot of things were also going on for us financially in that time, selling a house, buying a house, renovations, investments. Now that has all settled and we can see the dust settling.

Our plan for 2010 excites us, and scares me. But I think it will be a challenge that will really help us in the long run. So here's to a year of living frugally. It'll be challenging. It will have sacrifice. Here's hoping we have some new discoveries and insight along the way leading us to a healthier perspective on finances and money and set us up for a future where we can focus on other better things in life.

From the Mouths of Babes

Here's our dear 15 month old saying grace! At first you'll hear her saying 'cheese', a natural response to the camera appearing. We're not sure what she was saying, but I'm sure it's music to God's ears. The whole story: We asked Grace to say 'grace' at dinner time tonight and her response 'Joy will say grace'. Ok, we thought, and asked Joy to say grace. To our amazement she scrunched up her eyes really tight and began uttering sounds in her baby language, I'm sure God understood. Sooo cute!
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