Connect With Me V2
Hi there!
I’d love to connect with you! If you connect with me, I’ll send you a letter on occasion. I’ll send information about new resources I have found (like an awesome movie or book recommendation), cool things I’m learning and an offer to pray for you. I’m seeking a two-way connection here. I want to engage with you, so I’m hoping you will email me back with prayer requests and your own news! To get an idea of what a letter might look like from me, I’ve included my first letter below.
Dear [Insert First Name Here],
Hi! I hope this letter finds you well and growing in the Lord! Here are a few resources and ideas I think you might like.
Check Out This Delightful Juvenile Fiction Book and Author
I just finished the book The Girl Who Drank the Moon by Kelly Barnhill. It’s a Juvenile Fiction and although I’m a slow reader and usually fall asleep every time I sit still, I totally DRANK this book up. It was such a pleasure to read! Magical, whimsical and lovely. One of the main characters reminded me SO much of my grandmother, which made it all the more endearing. I give it my highest recommendation for children and adults. You know, the moon reflects the sun a bit like we are to reflect the image of God. May we drink up our identity as a reflection and grow in power on earth just like the girl who drank the moon!
I enjoyed reading some of Kelly’s blog too. I was pretty unimpressed with a speech given at a recent high school graduation this year with such a condescending tone that my dear friend rammed her elbow into my arm and kept it pushed in for well over a minute in response to the pain of it, like a person biting down on a towel during a surgery with no anesthesia. So, I give you Kelly’s beautiful graduation speech calling you to BRING IT. What you have to bring is vast, wanted and needed. Please bring it: How We Bear Witness to the World by Bearing Witness to Ourselves.
A Helpful Book and The Price of Being a Peacemaker
I’m reading Ian Cron‘s book, The Road Back to You: An Enneagram Journey to Self-Discovery. My personality type is definitely “peacemaker.” In reading about this personality type, I discovered peacemaking can be rooted in anger. When I first read that, I didn’t believe it because I was TOTALLY blind to this. But in self-reflection, I can see it TOTALLY is. Further, it has dawned on me there is such a thing as artificial peacemaking. It’s really just avoidance of conflict out of lack of courage. The price I have to pay for that? Lack of intimacy with some of my favorite, closest, most-loved people. This month, I made a decision to risk a little conflict in order to reach for intimacy and shed light in dark places. My beloved was kind, light was shed, intimacy was had. Conflict was non-existent. Could my peacemaking personality perceive conflict that isn’t even real? This might be a life-changer for me. I’ll definitely be blogging about this in the future.
The Next Right Thing Podcast – I Love This and I Think You Will Too
OK, so just the main advice seems almost enough in and of itself. “Do the next right thing in love.” This podcast by Emily P. Freeman is lovely, refreshing, sweet, gentle and enjoyable. I like to listen to it while I put on my makeup. It replaces the detestable chore with a treat I look forward to. I love one of her descriptions: It’s for those who “suffer from decision fatigue.” Yes, please. Need help. Following Emily’s direction to simply do the next right thing in love has empowered me and helped plant my feet on the right path for me when the various options and turns at an crossroads seem dizzying. This may be the first time I’ve conquered that dizziness in confidence and it feels really good.
Don’t Chase Your Dreams. Don’t Rewrite the Stars
Two things stood out to me from a speech given at the recent graduation I attended. It was said, “Every morning you have a choice. You can choose to sleep with your dreams or chase your dreams.” I understand the sentiment, but chasing my dreams sounds absolutely exhausting. Further, if I catch my dream, it seems like there’s an end to it and somehow that’s depressing. If I don’t catch it, I feel like I’m always chasing. Chasing, chasing, chasing. Like I said, it sounds so totally exhausting. I actually like the idea of sleeping with my dreams, snuggling, cuddling and resting with them, eating with my them, living with them. My dreams are intertwined with the journey of life, not some end-goal I must chase. I find joy, not exhaustion, in this thought.
It was said, “Rewrite the stars!” I would prefer to tell you. Study the story in the stars. What are they saying? Write something that reveals the beauty of their ancient legend in a fresh new way!
A Perfectly Sized Prayer Box
OK, so THE MOST cool thing that happened this month. A while back, God gave me a picture of this prayer box. It was a gift to me and it fit PERFECTLY in my hands. On this box was written the word “Peace.” This box was given to me in response to my worry and fret for my children, especially my oldest. When my children were younger, I could satisfy their desires and meet their needs pretty well. Now they are getting too big for me. I can no longer satisfy their desires and meet their needs with my small self. God was showing me, I could pray.
When I do,
their big needs,
vast desires and
awesome dreams
magically fit inside this box,
which is just the right size for me to hold
in my little hands.
This was SO freeing for me! So, I’ve been praying very specifically and the Lord has answered so many of these requests!
I don’t believe prayer is like magic, where we follow some strange steps and get supernatural results. BUT I do believe prayer (bringing our requests and heart to God and listening and watching for his response) makes all those vast desires and needs magically fit into our small, limited hands in a way we can safely treasure and hold them with Him. I’ll definitely be blogging about the prayer box in the future.
Seek Progress Not Perfection
I am so living this right now. I really like the line from the Broadway musical Wicked by Stephen Schwartz, “Those who don’t try, never look foolish.” Releasing this blog comes with a silly risk of looking ridiculously foolish, but it also makes me come alive and helps me remember what I’m learning, so it’s TOTALLY worth the risk. There’s no shame in trying.
I’m learning perfection is not something to achieve, but something to overcome.
Hence, this very imperfect blog! Get out of the way perfection! We are going for progress!
Let’s leave the perfection part to Jesus – that’s his job! Woe to the one who attempts to do the work only God can do.
New on the Blog
Maybe you can stand on the surface, listen to God’s calling forth of life and try to imitate him there. (Calling Forth Life From the Surface)
You can turn your lamp off and sleep at night and still be a cool Proverbs 31 Woman. (Does the Proverbs 31 Woman Ever Sleep?)
You don’t have to worry and fret about being lost and confused with crazy, wrong thoughts. Jesus is a good teacher and will correct you. (Jesus Won’t Leave You in Wrong-Thinking)
Know why you think, say and do the things you think say, and do. (The Questions You Don’t Want to Miss)
Let the Lord use all your faculties, including your imagination. It is Biblical. (Listening With Your Mind’s Eye)
Find and use your super weapon when you begin to freak-out. (The Strength of a Six-Word Memoir)
I Offer Prayer
I would love to pray for you! Please feel free to email me back with your prayer requests (written or unwritten – God knows what they are) and I will lift them up to the Lord with you!
I leave you with the Word of the Lord
2 Corinthians 3:18 (NIV) “And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with every-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.”
Philippians 4:6-7 (NIV) “Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”
Sincerely Yours,
Amy
P.S. If you also feel the call to write and you’re not exactly sure how to go about it, the AWESOME group I’m a part of opens for new members in September. You may want to start looking into it now and I’ll keep you posted when they open up: hope*writers.
All my letters will end with a handy dandy unsubscribe link.
Mailbox photo by Christin Hume on Unsplash