We’ve made it to July 13th which seems equal parts miracle “we’ve survived thus far without siblings killing one another” and equal parts “where in the world has summer gone”?
Every weekend is full of friends and family visiting or taking trips of our own and I am starting to feel like we are careening on a roller coaster that won’t slow down.
Being a girl who not only wants but truly needs a lot of margin in her life, I’m feeling a bit unraveled by all this busyness.
Despite my best intentions to fill our days with minimal cost activities and trips to the beach, we’ve actually spent most week days being very lazy at home.
Just us in our pj’s. Reading books. Getting messy with science experiments. Making lego princess castles.
Now, don’t let me fool you that it’s all roses and peaches while we lounge around.
Our house is quite messy, sibling squabbles abound, and made beds are a thing of the past – as if they were ever even in existence in my house.
You may look at these pictures and see joy & fulfillment or you may never see further than the dirt, grime, and mess.
How you look at my pictures – how you take in your own summer – your own spot in life right now,
it’s all in your perspective.
Isn’t that what joy and gratitude are really all about?
They are a choice you make every moment of your life.
You can focus on what you don’t have or spend your moments being thankful for what you do have.
When I can’t find contentment, I pray for God to show me what to give thanks for. There have been days, months, years when all I saw was darkness, anxiety, and fear. All my life didn’t turn out to be.
But when I pray for an eternal perspective, when I beg on my knees for Him to show me what I do have right in front of me that I never fully appreciate…
He whispers back and nudges me to find the beauty found within the dirt, grime, and mess.
There is beauty all around you.
I hope you find some today.
happiness cannot be traveled to, owned, earned, worn, or consumed.
happiness is the spiritual experience of living every moment with love, grace, and gratitude.
~ spiritual gangster