Simple Pleasures

Yesterday was a rough day. I had nightmares all night about Visa stuff. I had fears all day about every worse case scenario. I had to admit to God that I had faith that He would do what was best but I am having very little faith believing that what He will provide is what we actually want, that's to be in Belfast.

In times when I'm upset, I just want to hide. I want to hide from people but not from my things. This part of me is like my father. I just want to go sit in a room full of my gadgets and just tinker for awhile. When I become upset it is because out of the thinker and the feeler scheme I am definitely a thinker. Am I emotional? Yes. It stems from not being able to think through an issue or to logically solve an issue. I rarely just make a decision on an emotional whim.

It struck me as odd today about how much stock I put in my belongings. It wasn't a conviction that I should value my things less, but a realization that the Lord has built us to surround ourselves with things we enjoy, in moderation of course. All things are given to us by God. I have different items from different years and places that I have lived and they are now in boxes sitting in my mother-in-law's garage. The other night I pulled out a box of objects that my parent's had brought down to San Diego before we left. It was full of odds and ends from my childhood. As I looked through it, I was struck by one simple little object.

This:

This button is from the American Girl catalog circa 1999. Kirstin and I used to collect them. I put so many things back into the box to go into storage but I just couldn't put the button back. It was such a sweet reminder of what great fun Kirstin and I would always get into and somehow that simple memory brightens my day everytime I see it sitting here on the desk.

For some people, it's not objects but experiences. After a whole morning of being pretty much inconsolible, I drove to one of my favorite places on earth. Montevallo. After hours and hours of being so tightly wound, there was one moment as I was turning a corner down by the SAC that I had my window down with 'She and Him' on the radio and the perfect fall breeze was pushing beautifully colored leaves across the road. I instantly felt relief.

I just thought to myself, "How odd"

All the ways I've tried to calm myself down logically had failed. But a moment of a simple experience that the Lord provided was a pivotal point in my day.

How many times do I ignore those little moments and decide to press on in my attitude anyway?

There isn't some huge point that I am trying to make here. Just simply that we need to open our eyes more to the simple pleasures that the Lord provides that our busy American selves decide we don't have time to slow down and enjoy.

I challenge you this week that when you go to grab some expensive gadget of yours or go out to do some fun expensive activity to stop for a moment and purposefully enjoy something simple around you. Whether that be the view from your front porch or the old photo that has been framed for years that you've come to ignore. Think about when the Lord placed those things in your life the first time and the way you felt then and the way that they can continue to bless you now.

Soli Deo Gloria,

Sarah