okay, so I have been pretty busy (& sick) for the past week and consequently haven't kept up to date posts...

but my point today is that I am taking a break from the posts for now.

In words that have HIT me to the CORE ( from a very wise person in my life..)

you need to sop thinking steph, and start living.

I need to actually think and reflect about what this means, what this looks like .... better yet- I don't need to think about it. I just need to stop trying, start living in the moment of now...

until later.

x

Day 30.

Seed grace...

I feel like God had used this idea, this image,  planting and flowering and sustaining and nourishing and feeding... this idea of growing in my life, on my journey.

I think where I am right now, in this season- its all about growing, healing...taking time to grow beauty.

Ann share's words on seed's today. How God gives us seeds. And when he Gives them to us- do we believe He will feed us?

"When what He gives doesn't look enough...When it looks like less than a handful instead of a plateful, a year full, a life full. When it looks inedible.."

But the beautiful grace is this;

He gifts with seeds as small as moments, grace upon grace, and the unlikely here and now, it shall sustain you, feed you. 

Do not disdain the small.

The promise of feast is within the moments.

Our enough is always in the now, because He never leaves us.

All feasts began as seeds.

To be honest, I have struggled in the past days to be thankful. I have been busy or distracted or too self-focused and worried to open my eyes and heart just that bit wider to see the seeds God has planted in my life. And I know they are there. From the walks near the beach with a friend....to the laugh with my sister in the evening...even in the one flower that smiles back at me from my vase. The seeds of joy are there. I just need to see, learn to see God's grace. And most of all, be reminded of His grace in Jesus- the freedom and life He grows in the hearts of His children.

Thank You God for the seeds that grow into moments, experiences and memories. Thank You that Jesus grows them for His glory and I can be joyful in His love.

My prayer is that I continue the next 30 days with a heart, mind and soul wide open to His love and grace.

days 27, 28, 29...

So, after having a busier week starting back at uni, doing work + friends + family... I have been a bit slack in writing my daily reflection on my journey reading Ann Voskamp's 1000 gifts... 

So here is a catch up on the past few days of grace... 

This-Moment grace...

Today. Now. This moment- it will never be again like this.

Now is not a forever grace, but amazing grace...

Small grace...

In the words of G.K. Chesterton...

"How much larger your life would be if your self could become small in it."

Humble grace...

"Expectations can kill joy. The joy-filled humbly don't have expectations. And are surprised by the fullest life."

Day 25 & Day 26

Here are some words that I have been given from the past two days...

Count blessings and discover who can be counted on.

Trust is the bridge from yesterday to tomorrow, built with planks of thanks.

Remembering and giving thanks...is what causes us to trust- to really believe.

The dark can give birth to life: suffering can deliver grace.

God is always good, and I am always loved.

Day 24

Beautiful grace...

Every moment I live, I live bowed to something. And if I don't see God, I'll bow before something else.

God within me, is the One seeing God without.

I want to see deeply, thank deeply, feel joy deeply...

To be united with beauty, to pass into it, to receive it into ourselves, to bathe in it, to become part of it. in the words of C.S. Lewis.

Day 22 & Day 23

Perceiving Grace...

This devotional showed me something very clear- If I really realise everyday, that I am in His great debt because of His love and forgiveness .....then doesn't all, everything....becomes a gift?

It is something I need to remind myself...in every moment God is there and somehow we can be thankful for everything. We can. We can because He has given us everything in Christ alone. And everything else- is a gift that we do not deserve. 

We deserve nothing but He gives us everything.

I deserve nothing, death. But He gave me everything, life.

That is grace. 


Hunting Grace...

Being empty, like an empty container- makes us seekers, hunters of glory, of beauty, of grace. 

I need to hunt, find grace- beauty to fill the emptiness.

I want to be a beauty-hunter.

"For those who can see, the worlds beauty outweighs its burdens. Its grace greater then its grime."

I need to ask myself;

"What will I look for to outweigh everything? Who will I look to, to outweigh everything?"

The answer is Jesus. He is who and what I look to to outweigh everything.

Lucy and beauty

C.S. Lewis. You know our hearts so well. 

Watching Narnia today I was confronted with the scene in which Lucy uses the beauty spell in hopes of becoming more beautiful, like Susan. The conversation between her an Aslan that follows is an amazing, and eye-opening reminder of my value and your value...in the eyes of God, and how much we are worth to Him...

1. Lucy Pevensie: That was awful.
2. Aslan: But you chose it, Lucy.
3. Lucy Pevensie: I didn't mean to choose all of that. I just wanted to be beautiful like Susan. That's all.
4. Aslan: You wished yourself away, and with that, much more. Your brothers and sister wouldn't know Narnia without you, Lucy. You discovered it first, remember?
5. Lucy Pevensie: I'm so sorry.
6. Aslan: You doubt your value. Don't run from who you are...

Let us not doubt our value or our worth. God doesn't want us to seek a beauty that is not our own. And with seeking a worth in beauty, (or what we think defines beauty) we loose so much of who we are, the true woman that God fearfully and wonderfully made.

Thanks Lewis that even the simplest  of  words can hold the greatest truths.