the counting of 2020
I started counting down last week, marking the days that would make up the ending of 2020. I counted to thirty-eight.
if I ever go down
If I ᴇᴠᴇʀ ɢᴏ ᴅᴏᴡɴ...may I have praise hands in the air, a song beating in my heart, and gratitude leaving my lips. Thankfulness ɪs ᴛʜᴇ ʟᴇᴀsᴛ I ᴄᴏᴜʟᴅ offer. God has given 𝒑𝒆𝒂𝒄𝒆 in my valleys, built 𝒇𝒂𝒊𝒕𝒉 in my storms, 𝒂𝒏𝒔𝒘𝒆𝒓𝒊𝒏𝒈 in my bow.
friends that love
It’s been a heavy week. It couldn’t be polished pretty or wrapped in a bow. This week, I needed to kneel.
‘tis so sweet
“𝐋𝐢𝐟𝐞 𝐢𝐬 𝐥𝐢𝐤𝐞 𝐚 𝐛𝐨𝐱 𝐨𝐟 𝐜𝐡𝐨𝐜𝐨𝐥𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐬, 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐧𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐤𝐧𝐨𝐰 𝐰𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐲𝐨𝐮’𝐫𝐞 𝐠𝐨𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐨 𝐠𝐞𝐭.”
just look up
𝐼𝑡 𝑤𝑎𝑠 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑐𝑜𝑙𝑑 𝑚𝑖𝑑𝑑𝑙𝑒 𝑜𝑓 𝑎 𝑛𝑖𝑔ℎ𝑡 𝑠ℎ𝑖𝑓𝑡 & 𝐼 𝑤𝑎𝑠 𝑐ℎ𝑒𝑐𝑘𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑖𝑛 𝑎 𝑦𝑜𝑢𝑛𝑔 𝑔𝑖𝑟𝑙 𝑤𝑖𝑡ℎ 𝐷𝑜𝑤𝑛’𝑠 𝑠𝑦𝑛𝑑𝑟𝑜𝑚𝑒 𝑖𝑛𝑡𝑜 𝑜𝑢𝑟 𝑝𝑒𝑑𝑖𝑎𝑡𝑟𝑖𝑐 𝐸𝑅. While walking her & her father back to her room, she paused at the artwork on the wall. The automatic doors 𝒐𝒑𝒆𝒏𝒆𝒅 & 𝒄𝒍𝒐𝒔𝒆𝒅 𝒂 ғᴇᴡ 𝒕𝒊𝒎𝒆𝒔 while we waited as she smiled intently at the art. Without skipping a beat, her father lightheartedly chuckled that ʜᴇ’ᴅ ʟᴇᴀʀɴᴇᴅ ᴛᴏ ᴇɴᴊᴏʏ ʜɪs sᴜʀʀᴏᴜɴᴅɪɴɢs ᴍᴏʀᴇ ʙᴇᴄᴀᴜsᴇ ʜɪs ᴅᴀᴜɢʜᴛᴇʀ sᴛᴏᴘᴘᴇᴅ & ᴇɴᴊᴏʏᴇᴅ ʟɪғᴇ along the way instead of rushing from place to place.
just five minutes
𝐈 had 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐟𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐮𝐭𝐞𝐬 could 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐞 𝐚 𝐥𝐢𝐟𝐞.
The year was 2012 and Ann Voskamp said I needed to walk five minutes of fresh oxygen into my cells each day(full disclosure: it was her blog post that told me-those daily blog posts coming to my phone were a lifeline). I’d been breathing through a cracked open window for two weeks in tiny snippets by that point and the idea of fresh air felt like a heap of timid amazing.