Hi friends, In these posts, I talk about some of the things going on in my life, set some goals for the upcoming week, and talk about what I’m learning. In this post, I’m talking about the foundation of a beautiful life: God’s Word.
Do Not Despise These Small, Beautiful Moments
I’ve been focusing on consistency – which is not easy to do when your life is constantly being pulled in a million different directions. I wrote about this feeling in this post here: When we are moms, our lives often revolve around other people. And, that’s okay.
The trick to planning, setting goals, and achieving our dreams is to make steady incremental progress. We are in the business of ‘plodding along’ towards our goals. And, just like the turtle in the turtle and the hare, that plodding progress may even lead towards larger progress than the hare, who dashes forward yet burns out and falls asleep.
“Do not despise the small things,” God tells the Israelites when building the second temple.
I’ve been trying to listen to that truth. When we are doing ministry, we want BIG, we want BETTER, and we want FAST GROWTH. But I know that consistency over the long haul is more important than a flash, crash, and burn.
I firmly believe I’d rather be a campfire, that draws people in and keeps them wathanthen, a wildfire that burns bright.
In my last post, I mentioned that I was attending a conference held in Pigeon Forge called Christian Workers Seminar. I had a great time meeting with like-minded people and teaching a workshop called Digital Discipleship: How to Create a Thriving Online Ministry. While we were there, we went hiking, and of course, we went to Dollywood. (You really can’t miss it – it’s so great for little kids… and big kids too!)
After we got back, we had a week full of being outside, doing school, and winding down with end-of-the-year events. (My son got to dress up as ‘Old King Cole’ from the nursery rhyme at one of his end-of-the-year school parties.) We rounded out the week with a camping trip to a local state park – the perfect way to spend Mother’s Day.
A Beautiful Life Begins With God
Since I began writing years ago, I have always asked myself, “Where am I going?” More specifically, “Where am I taking the people reading this?”
The original name of the blog was a little bit of a happy accident – a combination of something somewhat related to what I wanted the blog to be about, but at the same time, not already currently taken.
Over the years, it has become a guiding focus of my life. I have constantly been thinking about how to make my life more beautiful. How to create a life I love while also cultivating my heart for God.
That being said, these past few years have not been easy. (You can read more about this here.) When I look at my house – with crayon on the walls, my bank account – way too low for comfort, and my days – spent with a lot of character training and disciplining (for my kids and myself), I just don’t feel like I could say it’s beautiful.
I know what the ideal of beauty is. A life filled with good living books, training my kids at home, movement, nature, friendship, and faith. A life lived with purpose and intention. But that ideal seems so out of reach from the life I am actually living.
Related: Becoming the Woman that You Want to Be
But then, I realized that I had fallen prey to the same thing that I would encourage a mom not to. I was looking at social media too much. I was spending too much time being discontent rather than grateful. I was measuring myself by the standard of the world, rather than the standard that mattered.
We must seek the Kingdom every day. And that means we frame our decisions based on how they are building God’s kingdom now.
It was at Christian Workers Seminar that I realized that, though all these areas of life we focus on here at A More Beautiful Life Collective – habits, homemaking, stewardship, reading, and learning – all of these habits are good and important, they will just make you a slave to something else if you are not rightly ordered.
We see this in the ‘crunchy mama’ lifestyle pages. When crunchiness or ‘trad-wife’-ness or parenting or anything else is based on anything other than God, it just becomes an idol. And, idols are toxic.
I knew this from the beginning of this blog. But, it’s easy to look at what other people are doing and focusing on and decide that I need to do that too – whether that’s planners, homeschooling helps, business binders, or beautiful magazines.
But the truth is, I started this blog because when I was 15, someone took a chance and said yes, we would love you to help others study the Bible. And ever since then, God has been calling me back to that.
A beautiful life begins with God. And, a beautiful life begins with a strong foundation on his word.
Where I’m focusing this week: God’s Word
Over the next few months, I’m going to be returning to this foundation of God and his word on the blog. I still will write about other topics as I’m learning about them, but the thread that always runs through everything is the Bible.
When I got home from Christian Workers Seminar, I finished up the final touches on the Faithful Disciple Collection, a method of spiritual disciplines that is designed to help you grow closer to God.
This summer, I am going to walk with a cohort of women using this collection as we read the gospel of John. If you’re interested, you can comment on this post, and I’ll add you to the list!
I’m planning on working on developing this cohort this week while also writing some posts that go more in-depth about what this method includes.
My Goals for this Week
- Writing 2 blog posts
- Cleaning out our camper
- Finishing out my son’s homeschool year
- Finalizing some workshops for an upcoming conference.
- Get our garden planted
Until next time, keep creating a life you love and cultivating your heart for God.
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