today I am thankful.

...that I had time to finish my whole cup off coffee (not in a to-go mug) before I had to leave for school.

...that the sun was shining and I got to be outside in it.

...for an "I'll come by for just a few minutes" that turns into an hour.

...for dandelions (they are my favorite thing about spring).

...for 5th graders that miss me when I'm gone for only one day.

snow day.

here's hoping for another snow day :)

"funny the way it is, somebody's broken heart becomes your favorite song"

I guess songs, like most art, are best when they express strong emotion. My favorite songs are about heartbreak. I just love them because of how much they feel, you know?

No one writes songs about heatbreak quite like Sara Bareilles. The woman is brilliant. She almost makes me wish I was heartbroken because of how beautiful she makes it sound.

My new favorite is this one:

Bluebird

Listen to it. Please love it like I do :)

[the title is a Dave Matthews quote... love that guy]

HOME

I love being home.

I love laughing (and crying) with my mom and sister. I love talking about life with my dad. I love wrestling with my brothers. I love sitting around our living room by the fire. I love reading my Bible in the mornings while my brother reads his next to me. I even love my little miniature schnauzer named Maggie who recently had all her fur shaved and now looks kind of like a rat.

The more I've been around other families the more I realize that mine really is unusual (in a really great way). They are my best friends. If I could pick anyone in the whole world to spend time with, these people would be who I would pick.

“Oh, the comfort, the inexpressible comfort of feeling safe with a person, having neither to weigh thoughts nor measure words, but pouring them all out, just as they are, chaff and grain together, certain that a faithful hand will take and sift them, keep what is worth keeping, and with a breath of kindness blow the rest away.”

-George Elliot.

champion.

"You don't need a man Liz... you need a champion."

I watched Eat, Pray, Love over Thanksgiving break for the 2nd time & loved it even more. And that line up there might have been my favorite one in the whole movie. I liked it because he's right, we need a champion. It reminded me of this verse in Exodus...

"the LORD will fight for you, and you have only to be still." (exodus 14:14)

Because I really like looking up words and stuff, I looked up this one and thought it was really great:

cham·pi·on

 

[cham-pee-uhn]

–noun

1.

a person who has defeated all opponents in a competition orseries of competitions, so as to

hold 1st place.

2.

anything that takes first place in competition

3.

a person who fights for or defends any person or cause

4.

a fighter or warrior.

the Lord is my champion :)

I need Thee, Oh I need Thee.

"I need thee every hour

teach me Thy will

and thy rich promises in me fulfill.

I need thee, Oh I need thee

every hour I need thee

O bless me now, my Savior,

I come to thee"

So, I love hymns. Really old hymns. I think they are so wonderful and that the majority of modern worship songs are majorly lacking in the lyrics department. I'm also realizing how very much I am in desperate need of the Lord. Maybe it's because I'm trying new things and I'm failing at all of them, which has been hard. BUT, the Lord is good and gracious and faithful. Just like he always is :) I think that I need to listen to this song until it's constantly in my mind, because I forget so easily how much I need the Lord. It's like the second I get even a tiny victory I start thinking that I've got everything under control and can handle things on my own. God has to laugh at me sometimes, because I'm just like, "It's ok, God, you can take a break this time, I've got this one." And then, of course, I don't. I also really like how bold this hymn is. The author says things like "bless me now" and "thy rich promises in me fulfill". I love that we can ask God things boldly. I want to be braver in my prayer life.

P.S. I didn’t think braver was a word, but spell check tells me it is, so I’m leaving it in there.

learning how to pray.

Lately I'm realizing that most of the time when I pray, I'm really talking to myself. I'm processing. That is not the same thing as praying. In trying to readjust the way I talk to the Almighty, my sister read me this quote. It reminded me of the crucial difference between praying and processing: the person "to whom it is addressed" as Spurgeon says. May I stop and meditate on Him before I say one more "prayer" directed at myself.

"We should, before prayer, mediate upon him to whom is it to be addressed. Let our thoughts be directed to the living and true God. Let me remember that he is omnipotent, then I shall ask large things. Let me remember that he is very tender and full of compassion, then I shall ask little things and be minute in my supplication. Let me remember the greatness of his covenant, then I shall come very boldly. Let me remember also that his faithfulness is like the great mountains, that his promises are sure to all the seas, then I shall ask very confidently, for I shall be persuaded that he will do what he has said. Let me fill my soul with the reflection of the greatness of his majesty, then I shall be struck with awe, with the equal greatness of his love, then I shall be filled with delight. We would not but pray better than we do if we mediated more before prayer upon the God who we address. Then, let me mediate also upon the way through which my prayer is offered, let my soul behold the blood sprinkled on the mercy seat, before I venture to draw near to God, let me go to Gethsemane and see the Savior as he prays. Let me stand in holy vision at the foot of Calvary and see his body rent. That the veil which parted my soul from all access to God might be rent too, that I might come close to my Father."
::Charles Spurgeon