Check Yourself.

So I will be honest...I haven't been updating my list of good things daily. I write a few in one day to cover three or four days. Not sure if that's defeating the purpose or if it's still worthwhile. I would argue with myself that it is still worthwhile, as it challenges me to find 40 different things. However, since I am not daily updating my list, I decided to "up the anty."

This morning, I read the blog written by this talented author and focused particularly on two posts: this one and this one. (I know there are a lot of links in the previous sentence, but you should definitely check each one out!) Reading Shauna's blog posts on Lent inspired me to take a different spin on her Lenten commitment. I know it is a little late to change the game, but I figure it's better late than never, right? 

I am adding to my Lenten commitment of finding one good thing about myself for each of the 40 days that I will improve my language about myself. This can translate to: I am not going to speak words of negativity about myself to myself or others aloud. Talk about a challenge! Jake will be rejoicing when he reads this...as well as challenging me to keep my word.

Think about this seriously. How do your daily words affect your view of yourself...of others? Are your words used to uplift, encourage, and brighten? Or are they used to speak negativity, bring down, and discourage? I challenge you to check yourself and think about your words. How do you use them? How do they affect others, as well as you?

I sometimes wonder why I get so down on myself about different things. In reflecting on why I feel the way I do about myself, I realized that speaking negativity about myself for years has given those negative words power over me and I am not particularly pleased about it. Our words truly have power, particularly when spoken in my opinion. If I do not learn how to change the way I speak about myself soon, I could spend my entire life speaking negative words or thoughts and never improve how I see myself. I know God sees me as his own beautiful daughter and that my boyfriend, family, and friends all see beauty in who I am and how I look. I want to see what they see in me and appreciate the body, mind, heart, and soul the Lord has given me. 

I know it is important that I do this. The way I speak about myself influences others' feelings about themselves and me. I do not want to continue making my love feel badly that, no matter what he says, I still have moments where I do not understand what he sees in me. I do not want my children someday to feel badly about how they are made because I speak words of negativity about myself around them. This is important. Not just for me, but for those I love and surround myself with. Hopefully this will end up being a longer-than-Lent challenge. For now, I leave you with one of my absolute favorite verses...

"You're beautiful from head to toe, my dear love,
   beautiful beyond compare, absolutely flawless."

            - Song of Songs 4:7 (The Message)

With love,
Amanda

40 Days of Good Things

So I decided that part of my Lenten focus is going to be improving how I see myself. My goal is to list one thing each day that I like about myself.  It can be physical or otherwise, but I have to list one thing per day. I've already started the list in a Word document, so hopefully I will remember to write one thing per day.

I also want to start limiting the number of times I head for the drive through and drink pop. I'm not cutting it out completely, but I could definitely stand to benefit from setting boundaries in how often I indulge. 

Today we went to a large flea market and looked at several shops full of antiques, Southern attire, and delicious homemade Mennonite goods. I had a productive day, picking up small gifts for my family members, as well as some delicious banana butter (don't knock it until you try it!) and a beautiful ring at an antique shop. It's gorgeous. 

We also went to a glass blowing art shop. We were able to catch one of the glass blowers making a vase...what a great experience! We were almost completely mesmerized watching the artist work the glass. I find myself wanting to learn how; how cool would that be?!

We grabbed a snack/linner at Five Guys burger joint...always order the regular size fries...because you shouldn't eat even a regular size order of fries by yourself! After that, we packed up and headed back to Massanutten Resort to relax and do homework.

I'm currently sipping a margarita and doing homework by the fireplace in our condo, surrounded by some of my best girlfriends and a wonderful woman who chose to hang out with us. I am so grateful for this opportunity to be here on break. It's been wonderful to catch up with these ladies and see where life has and will be taking them. I love these ladies and pray the best for them. 

It's a movie/homework/junk food chat night. =) I'm excited!


With love,
Amanda

The Cheerful Heart

 “The cheerful heart has a continual feast.” - Proverbs 15:15

I subscribe to daily e-mails from "Girlfriends in God," a daily devotional from Crosswalk.com. I am terrible at remembering and actually doing devotionals every day, so it's been rewarding to have my devotional sent to me daily. 

Today's message was from Mary Southerland and was entitled "Laugh it up!" In reading through the devotional, I realized its topic was finding joy. Great timing! It was such a blessing to read today.

You can read the entire devotional here but I wanted to give you a few highlights.

Some truths about Joy:

1.  Joy heals.  

Proverbs 17:22 - “A happy heart is like good medicine, but a broken spirit drains your strength.”

2.  Joy makes us strong.
Nehemiah 8:10 - “The joy of the Lord is your strength.”

3.  Joy makes the ordinary special. 

As we learn to celebrate the ordinary things in life, we build a life of joy because it is against the backdrop of the ordinary that God’s work becomes extraordinary. 

So tonight, K's mom arrived to join us on our trip. =) And there was a surprise (I had an idea this was going to happen)...G showed up! I haven't seen G in a lonnnnng time and that's sad, as we used to live together. I've really missed G and I am happy to have this time to catch up with her!

That's about it for now. Goodnight all!

With love,

Amanda 

Rejuvenate

Spring break has arrived...finally! I am so thrilled for the week that awaits me! I was blessed to have the opportunity to spend the week with some of my best girlfriends from undergrad. We're all fighting our way through grad school, med school, or undergrad and this is a much needed vacation from the "real world" for awhile. We're leaving for Virginia Saturday morning and from there on out, we plan on relaxing, reading, spending time together, giggling, jacuzzi chats (there is one in our condo!), and even homework time (unfortunately). It has been so long since we've been together and I am excited to share with these ladies what may be one of the last opportunities for us to do something like this. Prayers for rejuvenation, safe travel, and a wonderful time are appreciated!

I need this time away. Away from school, work, and a few other things as well. It's been increasingly hard to find joy some days with all the stress (sometimes self-inflicted), frustration, and work I experience. Life has had a way of getting me down sometimes and it bothers me when I let it overwhelm me.

As I sit writing this second portion of the post, I am in Mcgaheysville, VA. It's a bit rainy here but I am absolutely loving being here. The road trip here was eventful (with this group of ladies how would it not be?) and we made it here safely at 11:30 p.m. I drove the last portion of the trip and fought the darkness and rain while driving the Astro, heretofore referred to as Gavina. It was a challenging trip, not without some casualties in time and keys, but there was a lot of laughing and giggling. It's been so wonderful to catch up with K, B, and S. These ladies make every day an adventure and it's been great to be reunited with them.

Last night, I was able to enjoy the jacuzzi in our condo before bed. It was incredibly relaxing after a long day of driving. Our resort is in the mountains and it's just gorgeous, peaceful, and exactly what I needed this break. I am so excited to post the pictures at some point. Already I am feeling less stress over the things of my everyday life.  

As Lent approaches, I am debating over what to do. A friend is making the commitment to work out every day and I like that idea. I also had the idea of writing one post a day, each day focusing on something else I like about myself. This would be a big challenge for me because it's so much easier for me to find something I don't like about myself than to find something I do like. Thoughts on Lent ideas or suggestions are welcome!


My thoughts are prayers are with the Campus Ministries spring break teams. Jake is on the trip to East Palo Alto, CA. I'm missing him, but thankful for this opportunity for him to go and serve with friends.


I'm signing out for now. To everyone on spring break, I pray you get what you need out of this time. As for me, I'm still trying to work on finding the joy in everyday life and appreciating what God has blessed me with right now. 


With love,
Amanda