"Summing it all up, friends, I'd say you'll do best by filling your minds and meditating on things true, noble, reputable, authentic, compelling, gracious~ the best, not the worst; the beautiful, not the ugly; things to praise, not things to curse. Put into practice what you learned from me, what you heard and saw and realized. Do that, and God, who makes everything work together, will work you into His most excellent harmonies."
Philippians 4:8-9 (The Message)
Ever have those days when you're hit again and again with things you need to be doing differently, or something you missed, or realized that there was something really fantastic that you know you need to do? That was last Sunday for me. Serious revelation. Times 2. Between that and the sermon (that I SO needed to hear) Dr. Stanley preached, it was quite a Sunday. Made my heart full. And my brain hurt. ;)
I keep thinking about how bad things have seemed the past few months. It's something that could be blown off, explained away with the excuse that I'm just getting older so I'm more aware, or maybe that because of social media I'm just hearing about a lot more bad. Those two things might be true....but do you know what else? For all the bad and yuck I've been reading/watching, I'm starting to see just as much happy. So many people rising up and deciding to do something about the hurt they are seeing. It's pretty amazing. :)
One of my favorite blogs to read is Enjoying the Small Things. If you haven't discovered the greatness that is this girl, her sweet family, and her perspective on life, then do yourself a favor and hop on over there. After you're done here, of course. ;) What I love about Kelle is how positive and happy she is....even if things aren't. She's the poster child for making lemonade out of lemons, and I love it.
Ever since I was little my friends and family have lovingly teased me about my "everything is rainbows and sunshine" ways. I've been called "Pollyanna" (which was, and still is one of my favorite movies--remember The Glad Game?;) or Polly Sunshine at different times for as long as I can remember. Usually it gets on my nerves a little, but lately? Lately I've embraced it. Happy is good. Happy is fun. Happy helps make the bad a little less bad. It changes your perspective. It helps you find the good when there doesn't seem to be any anywhere. It takes the focus off the yuck and forces you to think differently. Is it always easy? Of course not. And there are many instances when it is very difficult to find anything good in our circumstances. Please know my heart here: I'm not trying to make light of anybody's troubles. People are hurting and broken and suffering everywhere. Everywhere. They need help. They need love. They need to know that things are going to be okay. That someone cares. That they aren't alone. At the same time, encouragement doesn't come from adding to the dark clouds...it comes in the sunshine.
Last week I was inspired by another blogger and something really cool that she did with her friends for her 40th birthday. I encourage you to read it yourself, but to summarize, she and several friends spent an entire day doing 40 random acts of kindness all over her town. They got really creative and I loved reading all of their ideas.
So that got me thinking about my life and what I'm doing with it. Wondering what kind of difference I'm making, what my kids are learning from me, what else we could be doing....and my brain went into overdrive. It kept me awake the next several nights, which if you know me and how much sleep I require to function, was bad. ;)
But it turned into a great thing. I'm jumping on the "Kindness Inspires Kindness" bandwagon. Right now it's in the planning stages....I shared the idea with my Bible study girls and they're all in as well. We're talking through the details, making it our own, and we're going to extend the challenge to anyone who wants to join us.
Because I want these 3 loves that God has so graciously (and undeservedly) blessed me with to know what it's like to actually be the hands and feet of Jesus. To serve, to love, to help. To give hope when there seems to be none. Because it's up to us. It's what we are here for.
It was about a year ago that I wrote this post. Yes, it's about my buddy, SpongeBob. ;) If you didn't read it back then, I ask you to read it now, if for no other reason, so you can confirm that I am indeed not crazy and have a reason for why our family watches this yellow guy on tv. And for why he was the beginning of this Kindness Inspires Kindness challenge that is currently in the works.
While I'm working out the details of our kindness challenge, I want to encourage you to do a couple things. First, pray about whether or not you should join us. I sincerely hope you will. :) Second, think about what it is that inspires you...that is, what helps motivate you to reach out and encourage others.
What inspires me?
Love her work.
Piglet totally gets it. ;)
Think about inspires you...what makes you feel happy and content. And then decide how you can use that happiness for good. For others' good. That's the challenge.
Below is the artwork for our kindness challenge. We're going to give it our own name, continuing our "Be the Good" theme from a previous post. This will soon be available to save and print, but I will explain the how and whys in the next post with all the other details.
I'm going to need your help to make this happen....to make it great. And I'm believing that if God has called me (us?) to do this that He is going to show up in a big way. He will. :) A quote from the service last week, "Obey God and watch Him work" (thanks, Dr. Stanley!) has stuck with me this week. I've been challenged in new ways to have a faith like never before. I'm trusting God to do just this, to work....because He will.
Excited about what's to come...the details post will go out this week.
"Love is breaking through."
~Chris Tomlin
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