a time to rest, breathe and eat salt?

I can't believe how quickly time has passed over this past month! Craziness! This recent season has been one of different challenges, but the Lord is always up to something amazing and His faithfulness never fails :) What a huge blessing and hope to cling to!

I can't help but think of Him throughout it all and how intricately He intertwines everything in our lives for His divine, mighty purposes. I saw a cardiologist today and, as I'm waiting to have some tests done, the doctor ordered that I take a time of rest from everything, even if just for a few days, that I monitor my breathing and that I eat more salt. Salt?? Yes, salt. Haha, that's right :) Salt by itself can be very dehydrating to the body, but when it gets stored in the kidneys and a person's water intake is high, the kidneys will retain more water in the body (to flush out the built-up salt) so that person actually becomes much more hydrated. Regardless of the medical understanding, I can't help but think about all of this in a spiritual way as well :) It dawned on me this evening that the three things the doctor ordered me to do perfectly capture what the Lord's been speaking to me lately.

He's been calling me to really REST in Him each moment- not do; just rest- something that doesn't always come naturally or easily to me. Resting in Him means knowing Him more, feeling His presence, and spending all of my time with Him. He's been showing me how to truly breathe in His goodness and His light burden. To lean into Him with all of my weight and to lay my doubts, fears, burdens and hurts at His feet- not trying to carry my burdens or the burdens of others on my own, or cling to my worries. Finally, He's been teaching me about being flavorful salt to this incredibly dark world, ready to be persecuted for His name and longing to share Him with others. That's my biggest desire at work and what my prayer has been since starting there. I just want people to see and taste Jesus through my life. And it's amazing to think of how the Lord designed it so that our souls are refreshed, alive and hydrated when we're in His will of being His salt and light in the world (just like how we need salt to keep hydrated- I actually thought the opposite was true until today :)).

It may seem kind of weird to make a connection between what the doc told me and what Jesus has been asking me to do, but I love the creative way that God works! It's almost comical, but amazing how uniquely He reminded me today of three of His desires for me in this season :) A time to rest, breathe and eat/be salt.

the simple things

I love the simple things in life! The things that may seem tiny or basic, but that bring such joy and are treasures from Jesus. So I thought I would make a list of a few of the simple things that I'm thankful for lately :) I also have to include some pictures, because I'm a total shutter bug! I'll probably be doing that in as many of my posts as possible :) I LOVE photography and being able to capture the beautiful moments in life that can't always be described in words. So anyway, "these are a few of my favorite things"! (I'm feeling in the Sound of Music sort of mood :)).

I'm so thankful for the sweet times that I got to have with my family this past week over Thanksgiving! We went to the mountains for a few days, which was such a blessing! I love them more than it's possible to describe! I don't think there's even a dictionary word that I could use to sum up HOW incredibly much they mean to me. No matter what we're doing- whether it's driving in the car, all singing and dancing to Christmas music, poking fun at each other, getting competitive in some crazy card games, cooking destroying our turkey haha (that's a story for another day!), doing puzzles, skiing, sitting by the fire in the condo and talking about the Lord, walking through the snow to get to the heavenly Starbucks (joking :)), or any other random thing you can think of- I absolutely treasure our time together! We also went up with our close family friends, the Pearnes, who we adore! We have so many fun memories together :)

a walk around the gorgeously lit village with my momma

before a beautiful day of skiing with the boys

let the games begin!

Sorry for the blurriness/graininess in some of the pics. They were taken with my mom's camera in somewhat dim lighting.

some proud double-hand solitaire champs :)

team caffeine all pumped up (I wonder why haha :))

after a day on the slopes

I'm thankful to hear my precious cousins' voices over the phone (who now live in California and who I miss like crazy!).

Aren't they beautiful? 

I'm thankful to be able to see my best friend's smiling face for 10 quick minutes in between class twice a week. She's amazing!

I'm thankful be able to cry out to God for a miracle with another beautiful friend whose family just received a very difficult diagnosis.

I'm thankful to spend time with the most awesome group of jr highers each week at church and to see how they're growing in Jesus.

I'm thankful for the beautiful, quiet, snowy days (like today) when the Lord slows my pace.

I'm thankful to be able to write letters back and forth with one of my other amazing cousins/sisters in Oregon (both who I miss dearly!).

I'm thankful to even have a home, food to eat and clothes to wear (things that I can so easily take for granted while others throughout the world live in absolute poverty). 

My heart is filled with complete gratitude for so many things, starting with the simple ones, that I couldn't possible list them all. Let alone you want to read them all :) But the Lord knows and sees my heart. Oh what an incredible life with Him!

what if...

Through recent circumstances, the Lord's been teaching me a great deal of perspective and reminding me to see things the way He sees them. What if I knew that I was going to soon meet Jesus face-to-face? What if I knew that my life here on this earth was coming to an end? How would I live differently? With what urgency would I desire to share Jesus with everyone who I meet? How would I change how I spend my time? And what things would suddenly become unimportant or increasingly important?

Well these aren't really "what ifs" because I DO know these things. Although I don't know exactly when I'll get to run into my Savior's loving arms (a day that I long for! :) I know from God's Word that the Lord could come back at any moment and that I'm not promised tomorrow. I live in a terminal body and will someday stand before my King in all of His glory! So it's my prayer that He would impress that upon my heart daily. It's so difficult to live with an eternal perspective. Sometimes I forget how very fleeting this life is in light of eternity... almost as quick as I can type the period at the end of this sentence. Like a vapor that's gone in a second. Yet it determines the rest of our time after this life. So there's no time to waste.

With all that I am, with absolutely EVERYTHING, I want to love my Jesus as if today is my last day.
I want to worship Him the way that He deserves to be worshipped;
to forsake all in order to follow Him;
to spend every moment with Him;
to obey Him in whatever He calls me to;
to love others the way that He does;
to share His good news with urgency and boldness, knowing that so many souls are desperately in need of Him;
and to be persecuted for His name's sake.

He is a God deserving of more than I could ever give Him. And yet, I'm so thankful that I don't have to do anything (and I can't do anything) on my own to earn His grace.

Thank you Lord for your faithfulness to gently remind me of Your perspective!

one word

So... here's a tiny bit more about my blog name :) It was inspired by something that the Lord recently spoke to me. I had been searching for answers from Him, especially concerning the direction He has for my life. For several weeks, I began feeling so overwhelmed and clueless as to what His call for my life is and what He wants me to do in this next season. Do you ever suddenly feel that way, as if it's your job to figure out every detail of the rest of your life? Well I sure do! So anyway, one night as I was crying out to Him, pleading that He would speak something to me, He put the one simple word "abide" on my heart. I felt as if He was saying, "Abide, my daughter. Abide." and He lifted the huge weight that had been on my shoulders. Although it was just one word that He spoke to me, it was more profound than a 1000 words could've ever been.

The very next morning I was reading in John chapter 15, where Jesus tells of how He is the vine and we are the branches. As soon as I hit verse 4, my eyes were practically filled with tears. He says, "Abide in me, and I in you". And throughout the rest of the chapter, Jesus continues to talk about what it means to abide in Him and how only then a believer can bear fruit. I was so amazed, humbled and blessed (yet not surprised) that the Lord would want to line up everything at this moment to be able to speak to me. It's a daily battle to keep abiding in Him and clinging to Him with all of my strength, but I am so overjoyed to be on this journey with Jesus! His saving grace in my life completely astounds me because I'm so unworthy, yet He is so holy and blameless.

I love how God-stories work, because they're always perfect! The Lord really used the weeks leading up to that night to bring me to a place of utter brokenness. I was so depleted of my own strength, so frustrated, feeling so lost and directionless. BUT God. Don't you love those two simple words that so often appear in His Word? BUT God knew it all. BUT God had the perfect plan. BUT God intervened. BUT God spoke. BUT God saved. BUT God healed. Although the story I shared above is a very simple example, it points to the power and intimacy of our Savior. He cares so immeasurably about every detail of our lives. And my one desire is to love Him back by learning to abide in Him every second of every day.

hello!

Hi!

This is my first-ever blog post and I'm very excited :)

Wow, I can honestly say that it's been a long time coming since I first wanted to start a blog. So I'm extremely happy that I finally have one now!

I am a writer at heart and I love that God has given us the sweet gift of writing. So often my writing ends up being more like journaling to the Lord, simply talking to Him or of Him. But it's so cleansing to my soul and refreshing to put things down on a page (or in this case, a blog).

Anyway, I figure that I should first explain the name of my blog a bit. Sometimes I find that the title of something I write can be the hardest thing to come up with because it defines the rest of what's written. Likewise, the name of my blog really defines my life and my walk with the Lord, especially during this season. I am simply learning to abide in Him more each day, to know Him more intimately, to trust Him more faithfully, to LOVE Him more deeply. And how can I help but do anything else when He is so deserving of all of my praise? Thank you Jesus!
I'll explain more in my next blog, but the Lord placed this very simple phrase (learning to abide) on my heart a few weeks ago and I'm so excited for this journey as I truly learn to ABIDE in Him step-by-step in this life.

That's all for now :)