Out my Window: feels like an ocean beach day, breezy, humid, sunny…
Enjoying: starry nights, the moon, cut flowers from my garden, my sunflowers are opening up, flowers blooming everywhere, cooler nights, fresh corn
Listening to/Watching: I listened to the Holy Post Podcast. https://www.holypost.com/holy-post-podcast Listening to the second book in the Lord of the Rings Trilogy: The Twin Towers. https://www.audible.com/pd/The-Two-Towers-Audiobook/B009ABHTF4?qid=1598033985&sr=1-1&ref=a_search_c3_lProduct_1_1&pf_rd_p=e81b7c27-6880-467a-b5a7-13cef5d729fe&pf_rd_r=6KR21Q0934XX42SAEX7KI am thankful this epic story has captured me for this season.
Reading: By my bedside: The Pursuit of the Holy: A Divine Invitation by Simon Ponsonby. I am reading and slowly digesting Beautiful Resistance: The joy of conviction in the culture of compromise by Jon Tyson. I finished my advanced copy of Love Has a Name. The book is now officially launched and available everywhere. My Goodreads review is here https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3459480667?book_show_action=false
Love is a lot like a coin. It has two sides- grace and truth. When you flip it, it can land on heads or tails, but you need both sides in order to flip it.
Most of our coins are weighted, though. For some, our coins always land on grace, while others always land on truth. When we lean toward grace, everyone know they can push us around. We become the people everyone seeks out when they want to feel better about themselves. There are certain things we should say, but we never do.
The rest of us are truth tellers. We speak our minds too often. We live by law and pretty much see it as our duty to call people out when they cross the line. We’re like hall monitors, except not for hallways of elementary school but for life.
Thankfully Jesus is both grace and truth!
I also finished my review for Susie Larson’s new devotional coming out September 1, https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3459477819 I think I am going to use this devotional starting in September. The encouragement I have found just jumping around the book has been refreshing to my soul.
Book Study with my Ladies’ Small Groups: The Good Life: What Jesus Teaches about Finding True Happiness by Derwin Gray. It is a study on the Beatitudes.
Rambling Thoughts: What a year, or is it? Does it just feel that way because we are slowing down and feeling it deeper. I was thinking how life continues to bring deep heartache, so much unknown, deaths, undoing of many expectations, so much aggression and foolishness, but it also brings so many new joys and unexpected gifts, so much beauty. I have noticed that kindnesses feel so much more precious this year. They feel bigger and more meaningful. Even watching other people be kind makes my soul well up with emotion. I am not sure that would be true for me if the kindnesses were not painted on such a dark background. Every act of kindness feels like an act of defiance against the darkness. Tolkien’s words spoken by the great Gandalf resonate in my soul, “The world is indeed full of peril, and in it there are many dark places; but still there is much that is fair, and though in all lands love is now mingled with grief, it grows perhaps the greater.” May we not grow weary in doing going for in due time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. (Galatians 6:9)
Fitness and Mental Health: Pondering what my fitness goals and structure for September will be. August didn’t really work out quite the way I thought. Mental Health: Exercise is key and continuing to look for beauty. Writing the date and day and a brief list of the events of day has been very helpful for my mental health. Numbering my days…I have been reading through the gospels this month. Jesus continues to amaze me and challenge me.
Home: Mostly keeping up with the basics. Caught up on the bathrooms, dusting, vacuuming…
Giving Thanks For: my home, provisions, rest, laughter, vegetables and flowers growing in my gardens, walks and hikes, so much beauty in this world, praying friends, serving with a friends, Census job, good books, challenging thoughts
Inkblot Life 