Wonder

A couple of weeks ago, a friend asked me to share my testimony with the staff of an amazing retreat center where she works. Specifically, she asked me to talk about living life reflectively. The format was to be more of an interview style, so there were no speech notes to prepare. Instead, I spent the last week really praying about what God would have me share.

This weekend when we arrived at Windy Gap we realized the camp speaker (and special music) was an old friend from my hometown, Allen Levi. His topic? Cultivating wonder in our daily lives and living life reflectively. It is clear this is a message God wanted me to get!

Allen's perspective and insight was such a gift. I left encouraged to OPEN MY EYES to what is going on around me. This is what I was alluding to in the previous post about 'missing the blessing.' When I tune in and look for God in my daily life, I find Him everywhere! The converse must also be true. When I am tuned into other things at the expense of being tuned into God I miss the blessing of seeing Him at work and knowing He is real and present in the 'mundane' parts of life.

Does that make any sense?

I really believe God wants us to know Him and experience Him. Why else would He go to all the trouble to pursue us so relentlessly, including the sacrificial death of His Son?

We are the ones who fill our lives up with so much stuff. We crowd Him out.

Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened. Matthew 7:7-8 (NIV)


Life is so much more fulfilling when I am looking for the lessons and the meaning throughout the day. I want my life to be characterized by growth, not stagnation. I don't want to just survive, I want to thrive.


I believe John 10:10. "The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full."


People (myself included) often talk about motherhood as if it were a 'derailment' moment, where we put life on hold to raise children. I disagree. Life doesn't come to a screeching halt as a Mom. If anything, it is the time when it becomes even more important to keep growing so we have life to share with our children and life to breathe into our spouse. I have found one of the greatest gifts of motherhood to be rediscovering the wonder of life from my children's perspective.


I am not just a laundress, a cook, a nosewiper, a bill payer--and neither are you. We are image bearers of the Almighty God. We were created on purpose and with a purpose. Let's live like we believe that!