Saturday, March 31, 2012

Beautiful things.








































"I wonder if my life could really change at all, all this earth, could all that is lost ever be found? could a garden come up from this ground, at all? You make beautiful things, you make beautiful things out of the dust, you make beautiful things, you make beautiful things out of us. All around, hope is springing up from this old ground out of chaos life is being found, in you"

To be still

Oh the thoughts that have been on my mind. Recently it's been go, go, go and I haven't had time to stop and be still. I have hated this.  If you know me, I am a BIG advocate for taking time to be still.  Sadly our culture is incredibly wrapped around schedule and time. We hardly even stop to take a breather. Our culture likes to be busy and I think at times we are even scared to be still.

People don't like to be still for many reasons, some people don't want to be still because that means dealing with things on their heart- pains, troubles, etc. Other people just don't know how to or people just don't have the time. I have dealt with all of these.

Any and all of you out there I encourage you, I plead with you, stop and be still today. It's worth it!

You can be still and do many things, but when I talk about being still I mean take time to open your heart up! God wants you to open up your whole heart to him. How can a relationship work when we just take God on the go like fast food.  Also when I talk about being still I  mean thinking, pondering, and dwelling on the Lord. Let his grace invade your heart, let his power shape your mind etc.

What being still sometimes looks like to me:
Sometimes I sit and ponder and look at His Word and other times I just write down prayers to God, though usually my time includes art. I have realized that I communicate through creating. I pull out my paint, pencils, guitar, journal, camera, or music and just let God open my heart as I create. So sometimes my communicating my heart to God or dwelling on who He is is through my art.  Just today I was thinking of how this is similar to David in the Bible. I thought, wow David was an artist. He wrote his heart out in the Psalms and declared who God was at the same time. Never had thought of it quite like that.

Take time to be consistently still.
-It makes me think of the Sabbath and how God intended us to take a WHOLE day off. 


---Now this is the point where I take my own advice and go and be still....
 

Monday, March 26, 2012

The List: #2 A night of music


Item #2; A night of music

My best friend and I accomplished our second thing on the list of things to do before I leave for the summer. I am a lover of music and two of my favorite artists came to town. I was THRILLED to find this out. So a few nights ago we had a night full of listening to the most beautiful of music. I could not have asked for a better night. It was a time of worship, creativity, and beauty.  Words can not describe how wonderful it was.  Music opens up things inside of me that nothing else will. It truly was a blessing and I'm so thankful I got to experience it with my dear friend.





Friday, March 16, 2012

The List: #1 A Day at the Lake

#1 A Day at the Lake


My best friend and I are creating a list. This list is going to be full of activates and adventures that we must do before I leave for four and a half months.  See the thing is we've never been apart from each other more than three weeks and usually we spend our whole summers together...So we decided that these next 2 months are going to be full of accomplishing the things on "the list"!  On March 15th we accomplished our first task: A Day at the Lake.

This is where we encountered the "spider infestation" (as my friend would call it).
May I remind you that it is March?! It was 80 oF!!
We wrote something similar in the sand when we were at the lake in Junior High
Orange popsicles!!
We moved to find a place away from the spiders, haha. We found this log and moved it over for a perfect place to sit!
I know it's no ocean, but this lake has to be my favorite place!
Oh how beautiful!!