Layin’ down our stones, open hands are free to hold.
-Christa Wells, “We Can Do Something EXTRAordinary”
There are a lot of things we pick up in the day-to-day.
Expectations.
Responsibilities.
Laundry.
Truths.
Promises.
Lies.
Social media.
Sorrow.
Joy.
Worries.
My plate is as full as my hands and at any moment it’s going to slip and all come crashing down. But another tiring day passes and I fall asleep thinking “What did I even do today? Whatever it was, apparently I made it and can handle it again tomorrow.”
My schedule is penciled in – yeah, even in the summer. If we’re being real honest, sometimes it can be easier to pile up a bunch of things to distract from a bunch of dreams.
Over a year ago, my bible study began counting one thousand gifts. Based off of Ann’s book
Every Monday night we would gather and share what we had counted, giving thanks all over again ourselves and praising God through hearing the gifts of another.
I didn’t know it then, but the counting was a releasing, a taking in of all the gifts and a releasing of all the things – the stuff, the worries, the lists.
Each day as my purple journal fills up, counts up, I can stand up a little straighter, a little bit less worn down by all the things of this world.
I don’t want to be about those things, anyway.
So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life – your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around-life – and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for Him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what He wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you. Romans 12:1-2, The Message
I want to release the things I daily pick up so that my hands are empty, ready to hold the hands of another and walk through life together.
That’s community. The counting of gifts and releasing of worries, the walking together every day.
I’m joining the #fmfparty tribe over at Lisa-Jo’s tonight, but I would love to extend a personal invitation to you to join the #fmfpartysnailmail girls. It’s the offline community of #fmfparty. In your mailbox, to be specific. Find out all about it here and come back Monday for a DAYSPRING GIVEAWAY! Yes ma’am. You better believe I am pumped about that! #fmfpartysnailmail + DaySpring = all the happy!
P.S. If you have written about #fmfpartysnailmail at any time, don’t forget to link up over here. I’ll be sharing your posts this week!
