Skip to main content

Halfway through August


August 10: 3 hard eucharisteo
  • #250: Celebrating my youngest brother's marriage while I keep waiting for my own
  • #251: Choosing to praise God anytime the feelings of longing or jealousy come
  • #252: Trusting God when people I love really hurt in the face of unanswered prayers
  • #253: Believing that both the good and the bad really are God's goodness and love for each one of us today
August 11: 3 gifts of metal
  • #254: The espresso machine at Starbucks
  • #255: Patrick and Haley's wedding rings
  • #256: Roller coasters at Cedar Point! (This was technically from the 12th, but I can't resist counting it here)
#257: Singing and dancing along to the Rio love song at the end of the wedding

#258: A new sister

#259: Chipotle, followed by a chocolate dipped cone from Dairy Queen and then the hot tub

August 12: 3 gifts half-hidden
  • #260: Roads that we would never see if the GPS didn't warn us to be watching
  • #261: Quality time with family, found waiting in line
  • #262: The moment when the coaster crests the hill and starts down the other side, leaving me feeling weightless as I lift up in the seat and the cart plunges down
August 13: 3 gifts in green
  • #263: Highways signs giving us the Chicago countdown from Ohio
  • #264: Grass starting to grow again along the road
  • #265: The body pillow, fluffy across my bed at home, inviting me back at the end of a weekend away
#266: Dinner at Chick Fil A on the way home. Yum!

August 14: A gift in a ring, curve, sphere
  • #267: Serving steaming hot sausage gravy from the big ring of a metal pot to hungry people in need
#268: 7 clients in the same day

#269: 2 new clients who didn't come, giving me extra time to comfort someone else who was in great need

#270: My "on" week with every-other-week clients and celebrating their wonderful progress

August 15: 3 gifts ugly-beautiful
  • #271: My clients who are struggling to manage their emotions and suffering
  • #272: The hurt of divorce
  • #273: Trusting God when you can't see or understand what He's doing
  • #274: Comforting those who mourn
August 16: 3 gifts of family
  • #275: Mandy's birthday lunch on the 15th and special time to connect
  • #276: Sitting around the table playing Scooch and playful teasing
  • #277: Making coffee for Patrick in exchange for a soft pretzel he made for me
  • #278: Dinner where we all cram around the table, sitting close to one another and talking loud
August 17: 3 gifts in the morning
  • #279: Runs with Lily in the forest preserve and how excited she gets
  • #280: Being surprised by another yellow lab on a walk
  • #281: Cooking breakfast and savoring every bite while I sip coffee and read the paper
  • #282: Meeting a friend
  • #283: Driving with the windows down and the fresh air streaming in
  • #284: Coming home to a house full of family and friends
#285: When I forgot to pray for my client at the end of our session and they asked me, "Aren't you going to pray for me?"

#286: "Yes, I am going to pray for you. That's my favorite part. Thank you for reminding me."

#287: Being able to pray authentically over a client in pain over an unfulfilled longing with a deep empathy from my own experience with unanswered prayers.

#288: My part-time job in full-partnership with God that gives me great joy

#289: My life so rich and so blessed

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

3 weeks ago today

I got married three weeks ago today. I’ve been thinking a lot about our wedding since that day. This was my first week back to work, which meant that I got to talk a lot about that day and show pictures, because everything is still fresh and new and people are anxious to know how it went. I have missed writing. Several times during our honeymoon, I almost grabbed my laptop because I had the urge to write. I never did, but I wanted to. I think that it felt too intimate to record in some ways. And, in others, I was just enjoying being lazy and carefree. I plan to write about what I remember from my wedding. (Maybe even some things from our honeymoon. We shall see…) I don’t know what I will share, but I want to make a record of my memories and experiences from that day. Just three weeks later, but the feelings are less vivid and the mental pictures are less crisp. Fortunately, our photographer did an amazing job and I am thankful that I have those images to remind me....
2 comments
Read more

Praying is what I do

Isn't it encouraging when God reminds you of who you are and what it is that He has called you to do?! When I was at Fire in the Night, I prayed a lot and I loved it. I realized that I really have been created as an intercessor and that is my primary mandate. Now, I am also really gifted in counseling and helping people, but that's second. Praying is what I do first. This is what I was made for: to encounter God through prayer. I cry out to Him and He answers. I quiet myself and listen to Him speak to me too. My time at IHOP-KC affirmed this prayer calling and started me down the path to living as a committed intercessor in a HOP. It's been almost a year since I did Fire in the Night and I have started reversing my mandates again. You see, I had wrongly made counseling my primary mandate way back in graduate school. And, I had continued this way for years until I got completely burnt out. The snatches of time that I would get in the prayer room when I was home from Chi...
Post a Comment
Read more

Unfairly blessed

I have been feeling ridiculously blessed in the past week. I actually broke down when I was talking with my sister one night because it felt unfair that God is blessing me so extravagantly while other people I know and love are hard at work counting blessings because they are tempted to think that they aren't really receiving any at all. One of the things that I love about counting blessings is that it helps each of us to recognize just how blessed we really are. But, it is still painful when certain people seem to have everything come so easily to them and I think that I am continually going without. It's also hard when I have identified myself an unfairly unblessed person for so long and only recently, I have been trying to make the change to seeing myself as richly blessed. It feels awkward and scary. While it's true that my biggest unanswered prayer of finding a godly man to share my life with still hasn't been fulfilled, I have become that person who has things com...
2 comments
Read more