it's about the writing

“From the fullness of His grace we all receive one blessing after another.”               John 1:16

I am a ‘words’ girl.  I treasure every encouraging conversation.  If you’ve ever looked into my eyes and breathed life into me with your words, I can guarantee that I remember the moment perfectly.  I think there is something quite powerful, courageous even, about expressing our heart in a simple phrase; something beautiful about simple black letters on white paper; and something nearly perfect about a lazy afternoon, a steamy cinnamon latte and a brand new book.

If you looked, you would see hints of my ‘word-love’ all over my home.  There is a ‘blessings’ jar on the counter of my kitchen reminding our family to notice the blessings that fill our days, to mark them down and to be grateful.  The jar, recently holding a year’s-worth of rugby wins, camp adventures, test scores, and my son’s engagement, has just been emptied and celebrated.  I look at the empty jar now in anticipation of all that is to come, and pray that my four will live intentionally enough to notice the blessings, savour them and be thankful.  More, I pray that they’ll live boldly, fueled with passion and purpose, never satisfied to stroll through a race we’re called to run. 

Just as an aside: If you have sat around the table at my home and tried to talk about, well pretty much anything, you might caution me to pray a little less for passion.  Mine are a noisy lot. Without fail, when my children are together, things get really loud (and really funny).  It's a bit like a party, and that's just fine with me.  These are our victory days. 

As a words girl, putting the messy and beautiful of life on paper should be easy.  But to be honest, I tend to step back from this, not quite ready to open my hand and hold my treasures out for judgement.  Recently, the now-adults in my home were stepping around each other in the kitchen foraging for breakfast, talking about how Mom should write a blog. The oldest says maybe all the stuff I say isn’t just for our family.  The little wise one comes and whispers to me later, “It’s not about the reading of it, Mama, it’s about the writing.”  And her sweet words change everything, as they should.  Don’t we all need reminded every so often, that it is not about the reading of it, it’s about the writing? 

So many times we wonder how others are interpreting what we do, what they think of our story and who we are, less about the Author of it all.  I choose this year, this day, to be less concerned with the reading of my story and more faithful to the writing, fully engaged in the process of what God is doing in my life.  Surrendered.  Obedient.  I am learning daily what it means to seek the Lord with my whole heart and to pray “Anything.” To make seeking Him, remaining in Him, my priority and to joyfully follow His lead.  I have experienced both a ‘full life’ and ‘life to the full’, and I know that they are two very different things.  So, I choose to be intentional about what I fill my life with, so that days are less about being busy and more about being filled.  

So, here’s to a year of living life to the full, to “fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith” (Hebrews 12:2), to blessing jars filled to overflowing, and to writing our stories well. Will you join me on the journey?

God is a story-teller. ... And I don't know if there's anything better in the world than when we lay ourselves wide open and let his story become our story, when we screw up our fists and our courage, and start to tell the truest, and best stories we know, which are always God's stories.    -Shauna Niequist