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February 26, 2013

dear pen pal.......

It is a truth universally acknowledged......... that handwritten mail is becoming quite scarce throughout the U.S. :)

An article from CNN says this:

"E-mail is quick. Texting is convenient. Facebook has photos, videos and games.
But for all the fancy, multimedia modes of communication out there, nothing beats the thrill of opening the mailbox and finding a personal letter, written and addressed just to you.
"Snail mail" has been under attack for the past several decades, with the U.S. Postal Service reporting a drop of 10 billion letters in the past 20 years. Literally billions of e-mails and text messages are sent each day. And the Postal Service says that unless something changes very soon, it plans to stop Saturday mail delivery beginning next year."

Email--quick though it may be--does not portray emotion of any kind. Texting is short and and oftentimes insufficient. As humans, we crave attention--the knowledge that other people care about us. Handwritten letters fulfill this desire.  
 
"By going to the trouble of physically committing words to paper, the writer shows their investment of time and effort in a relationship. That's why we tend to hang on to personal letters as keepsakes." (from an article on guardian.co.uk)     
   
 
   In my hope chest there is a secret drawer and in it I keep all the letters I've ever received since I was 5 or 6 years old. Occasionally I like to sort through this drawer, read my birthday cards, letters from my siblings, novels my pen pals have written to me, etc. They bring back memories, they make me laugh and cry---they are full of feeling! I challenge you to begin letter writing if you haven't already.

February 11, 2013

the grace of a cheerful heart

Psalms 68:3says: “may the righteous be glad and rejoice before God; may they be happy and joyful.”

Joy is something we should experience when we accept Jesus as our Savior! Unspeakable, unstoppable, incomprehensible JOY!!
So, what does joy have to do with a cheerful heart? They are interrelated. Joy is an expression of happiness, a state of being. Cheerfulness is an action; willingness, pleasantness, and merriness. Once joy is instilled in us, then cheerfulness comes as a second nature.
How can we be happy ALL the time? There’s always something in our lives to beat us down; politics, death, work deadlines, etc. There is an answer: simply let Jesus shine through you! Give up all of your burdens to Him, communicate to Him incessantly, and openly praise Him. It’s not that hard to be a happy person when you’ve got Jesus behind you! Even if there are difficult things we have to deal with, complaining and being grumpy isn’t going to improve the situation. Instead, having a positive outlook is going to lighten the load.
So what do we get for being cheerful and joyous? People are most likely going to notice us. “Who is that person? She looks really happy. Is she like that all the time?” or “Wow, he looks like he’s full of joy. I wonder why.” This opens up an opportunity to tell them the reason you’re happy! The combination of your faith and the joy you express will probably make an impact on them. You can evangelize to others by being joyous!
Also, the book of Proverbs states that “all the days of the oppressed are wretched, but the cheerful heart has a continual feast.”  Having a cheerful heart makes our lives rich and abundant---not wretched! When Jesus gives us his unconquerable joy, Satan is unable to destroy our lives.
            “Let us seek the grace of a cheerful heart, an even temper, sweetness, gentleness, and brightness of mind, as walking in His light, and by His grace. Let us pray to Him to give us the spirit of ever-abundant, everspringing love, which overpowers and sweeps away the vexations of life by its own richness and strength, and which, above all things, unites us to Him who is the fountain and the centre of all mercy, lovingkindness, and joy.” –John Henry Newman

February 3, 2013

overlooking the small stuff

     My life is pretty routine: get up, feed the animals, do school, eat dinner, go to bed---you get the idea. So naturally, I start complaining about the lack of excitement. I have burning desires to travel, to climb Mount Everest, to meet William Fox-Pitt, to write a novel in Australia, to play polo, etc. But, until I'm ready to face one of these adventures, I have to content myself with what I have and appreciate the small stuff--the 'simple pleasures' as Mom's friend says.
    
     Seemingly unimportant things are hard to appreciate when oftentimes we don't even acknowledge them. I challenge you to become aware--take in everything around you and realize how pleasant life can be when the small stuff occurs.

 
SMALL STUFF:
  1. Receiving a letter from your good friend who wrote you 'just because'
  2. Settling down with a good book and a cuppa tea
  3. Being able to fluently quote poetry
  4. Feeling confident about your appearance
  5. Finding that one Bible verse that's been running through your head for days
  6. Checking things off of the to-do list
  7. Turning in an essay and knowing you did a really good job
  8. Making your friend laugh (and laughing so hard that your abs hurt)
  9. Successfully building a fire in the woodstove (without smoking the house up too much)
  10. Smelling bread bake in the oven
  11. Galloping across the field into the sunset
  12. Walking uninhibitedly throught the mud barefoot
  13. Using long vocabulary words frequently in your speech
  14. Making somebody at church smile
  15. Belting out lyrics to a country song on the radio
  16. Listening to elderly people tell stories of their childhood
  17. Haunting antique stores
  18. Sightreading sappy love songs out of the Reader's Digest piano book
  19. Telling a lame joke
  20. Playing full registration on the pipe organ at church--well aware that everybody on the entire block can hear you
  21. Getting a difficult math problem right the FIRST time
  22. Crying because you're happy
     Yup. I'm still trying to be content with what I've got, but it's awful hard considering how rampant my imagination runs sometimes. Living epically is such a sweet temptation.............