1. Lots of supportive friendships and good memories!
2. Betsey Johnson. Waiting for Black Friday or Cyber Monday sales would've been a smart call, but I love my new pink purse and heart sunglasses - and I'll love the glitter boots when they arrive in my actual shoe size! ;-)
3. Cody getting a perfect 40 score in his final freestyle dance, which was so much fun to watch live with the Peloton crew! Thankful for his "fun and flouncy" energy and the way he makes working out a joy!
4. God-given rest and peace.
5. All God has done, all He is going to do, all He has promised, and all that He is.
6. A lovely afternoon of baking peach cobbler and chocolate cake for our family Thanksgiving tomorrow! ("Nom nom for us, David!")
7. My family... past, present, and future! ;-)
*In the midst of waiting for an answer, God has confirmed some major things for me this week, and I'm feeling grateful and hopeful (even if the answer in this particular situation is no). While the timeline is largely out of my control, I'm gaining more faith and confidence about the adoption process... that motherhood is something I really do desire and feel ready for, that it was worth the risk and that birth moms might connect with and eventually choose me, that my family and friends are ready to rally to help and support and celebrate with me, that the financial side of all this is not as intimidating or scary as the enemy wanted me to believe, and that God is in every step of this… with me and for me, working everything out according to His will. I'm feeling a new level of peace and trust about it, and that’s exciting. God is good and He is faithful, and His will and timing is what I want most! ❤
*Song of the Week = The Thanksgiving Song by Ben Rector, a lovely and sappy song for this holiday that I considered making a through-the-years slideshow for... but I didn't have the time and emotional energy and bandwidth for that at the moment. So here's the music video, and you can all play your own mental slideshow of holiday memories!! ❤
Or you can substitute this silly food-themed song from Carrie Underwood if that goes better with your current mood! ;-)
Happy Thanksgiving, friends and family!! And thank you for being here and caring enough to read... sincerely, it means a lot. ❤
Friends, tonight is the Dancing with the Stars finale. If you happen to catch this post between 7:00 and 8:00 today, then please text the word "Cody" to 21523 ten times!! Totally serious request. =)
The DWTS judges are mostly superior and obnoxious to me, and I typically fast-forward through everyone but Cody, but it's been really fun to support him this season! And entertaining to watch other fans get upset and call his fans the "Peloton Cult" or the "Biker Gang," a label that made the #BooCrew and the plethora of other Peloton groups supporting him proud. lol
Anywho, I'm glad it's over after today, but for reals, vote if you can!! I would love to see him holding the cheesy mirrorball trophy during his Black Friday ride!! =)
P.S. The juxtaposition of this silliness and my serious spiritual post this morning feels very on brand for me. lol
Just a quick post to say I'm ahead of schedule on choosing my word for 2022:
Manna.
The bread from heaven that fed the Israelites for years. What it means to me (and why it's been on my heart for a bit) is that God provides the correct amount of grace that He knows I will need DAY BY DAY. They took enough for one day's food, and if they took extra, it would rot and mold. They had to gather daily, but God gave them extra before the Sabbath so that they didn't have to work that day. It was divine provision for their practical needs, and it was measured out in daily portions according to what He knew each person or family would need. I LOVE THAT, both the reality and the metaphor. I don't have to look far ahead into my future or panic or feel anxious about gathering extra energy and strength for what might be coming months down the line. God already knows and will be there with me, and to quote Jesus, "today's trouble is enough for today." God's grace will be sufficient for my needs through every joyful celebration and every hard moment along the way.
That promise is such a gift! But the other part of what this means to me is that God is offering me this daily gift, but He's not force-feeding it. I have to choose to seek Him daily in order to receive it. The Israelites had to go outside, gather the manna from the ground, grind it into flour, then boil it and make it into cakes or pastries that they would eat and enjoy (Numbers 11:8). There was a very clear divine gift, but there was also work involved on their end.
So Jesus is obviously the bread of life, and His presence is what will sustain me and keep me in peace and joy day by day. But if I don't make time for Him (prayer, Scripture, worship, generally turning my heart to Him throughout the day), then I will be spiritually starved and lack the grace I need to love Him and myself and others well!! So as I move toward a new chapter that may include some overwhelming moments through the adoption process and navigating life as a single mom, this is a tiny word that says a lot to my heart. It obviously won't be perfect, but to the best of my ability, I want to choose to stay in peace and trust in God's daily provision of grace to always be enough for me, one day at a time, doing nothing apart from Him! ❤
Here's our lovely group pic by the Wilson's "Harvest Tree." It's filled with paper leaves where we've all written things we're grateful for. ❤ I'm glad we found this spot and glad I pushed for the group photo - I love it!
(*The Bowling fam left early for an OSU watch party, and Tate's not in this pic for some reason). =)
Since this was the 10th annual Friendsgiving celebration, here's a super-quick look back through the past decade...
#1 in 2012, the year Chet bought his first home on Willow Avenue!
#2 in 2013, the year Chet and Karli were married!
#3 in 2014, the year they got Lucy (the kitten)!
#4 in 2015, an Italian feast + our random potholders pic!
#5 in 2016, our first Farmhouse celebration + a fun game night!
#6 in 2017, a Mexican food dinner with a large group of friends!
#7 in 2018, baby Tate's first Friendsgiving and our last one at the Farmhouse!
#8 in 2019, Ellie's first one + celebrating Laura's birthday!
#9 in 2020 - an outdoor lunch gathering with a socially distanced small group pic! lol There were four young kids there with us (Tate, Ellie, Sophia, Harvey) and three babies on the way (Parker, Kate, and Zealand) that day!! ❤
And finally, #10 in 2021, a fun dinner gathering that included eight couples + eight young children + me! I'm so grateful for the Wilsons being willing to host and keep this tradition going for a full decade now, and I'm guessing many more years to come! I'm grateful for the personal growth and the family growth and the faithful friendships represented here, especially for my dependable friendships with the Wilson fam, the Moss fam, and the Fulton fam!
I got there a tiny bit early and grabbed this pic with Miss Parker before the rest of the crowd arrived.
The Fultons by the Harvest Tree!
This year and last year, we did traditional Thanksgiving foods... Chet smoked a "life-changing" ham that Mom would've loved, Jeffrey smoked and brought a turkey, Sarah Elizabeth made a verrry full crockpot of buttery mashed potatoes, Sarah Young brought extra-cheesy mac and cheese, others brought plenty of other sides and desserts, and I brought all-white-chocolate Oreo balls - yay!
So yay for Friendsgiving, and yay for giving a little extra thought to the things we're grateful for this week!! We went around the circle and talked about that for a few minutes, and it's always nice to hear and celebrate the things God has done, the things He is doing, and the things He will continue to do in and through our lives! I'll reflect on that and write more later this week. Hope you have a fabulous Thanksgiving week ahead!! ❤
"We give thanks to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
praying continually for you,
for we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus
and your love for all of God's people."
~Colossians 1:3-4
Today, I am thankful for:
1. A fun Friendsgiving this weekend with the Woodlake group... fun times catching up with everyone and sharing about my life and future plans... plus lots of laughter over tasty Mexican food and peach cobbler!!
2. The air fryer and convection bake features on my new oven... I made air fryer chicken parmesan and asparagus... both good! And chocolate chip cookies (with kosher salt on top, as Sarah Elizabeth recommended) - yum!! So basically, I'm thankful for good food and cozy movie nights!
3. Finding this picture in an old email from Sarah... it's one I've thought about but thought was lost forever... us at the Coldplay concert of 2006, which was really great, as you might expect!
4. Cody Rigsby. And Peloton. And all the added fun of being part of this community right now!!
5. Finally being reunited with my car... exactly 2 months after my wreck, and a month and 2 days after I took it in for repairs!! When I went to pick it up Tuesday, it wouldn't start, so they gave me a second loaner car... but called yesterday afternoon and told me it was ready! Huzzah!!
6. For the daily opportunity we have to spread God-given love and joy and hope and light as we go through life!! ❤
7. For these precious pics from five years ago this week!
Happy Monday, friends! Hope you have a wonderful week ahead.
So can we just talk for a tiny minute about the buh-rilliance of Taylor Swift!? lol
She did not own the rights to her own music with the past label, and rather than sitting around being upset or feeling powerless about that, she is literally releasing new versions of her first five albums (Taylor Swift, Fearless, Speak Now, Red, and 1989). And breaking all manner of sales records and Spotify streaming records in the process. Very same songs, newly recorded with a stronger new attitude behind them! It's fantastic and making me very happy to watch her success. There's something particularly funny and hopeful to me about the level of success these songs are having in round two... I don't know of any other artist that's attempted something like this, but her belief in herself and her music and her story (which is the lyrics to her music) is inspiring, and it's clearly paying off!
There are a few songs thrown in that didn't make the cut on the original album release, and she's making playful new music videos and has directed a short film... and she broke records by performing a 10-minute version of a 2012 song on SNL this weekend.
I just love that she is pulling this off!
*And I love that she released her version of Better Man on this album... I have loved the lyrics of that song by Little Big Town for years but had no idea Taylor actually wrote it!! Makes lots of sense why I connected with it now.
**And I LOVE that these new (Taylor's Version) recordings have been contracted for use with Peloton!!! #yusssplease #tswiftartistseries #butnotwithCody
Some love her and some hate her for it, but her songs are all written about personal experiences in her own life, and there's something really beautiful and cathartic about taking the opportunity to go back a decade later and look closely at those things... throwing in some stuff you didn't find worthy before and putting a more fierce and resilient spin on anything that felt sad or hopeless at the time. SO GOOD.
It makes me want to do a (Lindsey's Version) edited re-release of some of my own past thoughts and writing. lol Over the past week, Taylor re-released the Red album, including an album-only #brilliantchoice 10-minute version of All Too Well, and she released a video this morning for I Bet You Think About Me. She is currently in what appears to be a happy, long-term relationship... and she is absolutely raking it in with snarky/sad breakup songs she wrote ten years ago. And the fans, including myself, are here for all of it!!
Mr. Superior thinking, do you have all the space that you need? ...It turned out I'm harder to forget than I was to leave. And I bet you think about me.
I am an Enneagram 9 with a 1-wing, which puts me in the "anger triad" on that personality scale... along with Type 1's and Type 8's. I've written more about it before, but to make a long story short, they say that 8's tend to vent their anger on behalf of themselves and others, 1's tend to feel righteously angry and express that in the face of perceived major injustice, and 9's stuff their anger, feeling deep resentment but trying to hide it because they fear the destructive effects anger could have on others.
Since I learned about that, I've tried to be more in touch with the anger I feel and to allow myself to vent and express it sometimes, wanting to lessen the corrosive internal effect on my soul. God says He wants truth in our inmost being, so I didn't want to be hiding things or always living with a fake smile and a people-pleasing mentality...
But God's Word also says, "Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Get rid of all bitterness, rage, anger, harsh words, and slander, as well as all types of evil behavior. Instead, be kind to each other, tenderhearted, forgiving one another just as God, through Christ, has forgiven you." ~Ephesians 4:30-32
Earlier in the same chapter, it says, "Therefore each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to your neighbor, for we are all members of one body. Be angry, yet do not sin. Do not let the sun set upon your anger, and do not give the devil an opportunity [to lead you into sin by holding a grudge or nurturing anger or harboring resentment or cultivating bitterness]." ~Eph. 4:25-27
The phrase "get rid of all anger" doesn't seem to jive with "be angry, yet do not sin." Tim Keller's podcast on The Healing of Anger (video of that sermon below) was really helpful for me in understanding how to move forward here. He says it is a sin to constantly vent our anger or let ourselves lash out at people (that was clear to me)... but he says it is also a sin to never get angry (which is what I've fruitlessly tried sometimes). When you truly love someone, you will naturally and appropriately be angry about things that are hurting them. He emphasized that the attribute of God that we need to imitate and cultivate is being "SLOW to anger." That is literally how God describes Himself to Moses, and how He tells us to behave. (Exodus 34:6, James 1:19-20)
It is disordered love and disordered rage that gets us into trouble. When our own wounded ego or pride is the main driving factor in our anger, that's a problem. When our anger goes past the sin to the sinner... from addressing the specific problem to hating the whole person or seeking vengeance, that's also a problem.
It helps me to know that a lot of the things I feel angry about are things God feels angry about, as well. He handles it with more grace and wisdom and patience than I do, but He is absolutely NOT indifferent when the people I love are suffering because of the hatred, passivity, jealousy, or entitlement of others. And He's not indifferent to my pain either. If I'm being honest, so much of my anger comes from feeling unheard or unseen... the idea that others are never really paying attention when I speak or share my heart, the idea that what I have to offer is overlooked, not valued or appreciated or even acknowledged. There are a million things that factor into that perception for me, but my point here is that I want to work with God on this... I want to take some "Anger Management" classes from the Holy Spirit. lol I need more wisdom to understand when the anger I feel rising up in me is justified and right vs. when I'm just cultivating bitterness, which is really not something I want growing in my heart. And I want to work on being more patient and slow to get angry... less abrupt irritation and prideful impatience.
The older brother in the prodigal son story feels angry that his dad is so focused on the younger brother who treated their family poorly, made selfish choices that hurt others, and generally messed everything up. The sullen older brother has tried to do things right but feels overlooked and unseen, and it stops him from being able to celebrate the good things and the restoration happening in the life of someone close to him. All of this bitterness and resentment and comparison floating around in his mind have blinded him to the treasure of having his own unbroken, consistent relationship with his father. In more ways than one, that resonates for me.
And then his dad (aka God the Father) tells him: "My child, you have always stayed by Me, and everything I have is yours." (Luke 15:31) I mean, seriously, I need to add that verse to my wall somewhere. I have an ever-present, continual relationship with an all-powerful God who always sees me, hears every word I speak, cares about everything that concerns me, is actively working out His will in my life, and promises to be with me at all times. He is for me, and He is not withholding any good things from me. No matter how others view or treat me, I'm covered by His grace. I've seen His faithfulness to me play out repeatedly - am I really going to sit around being upset when He is especially generous to someone I view as less deserving? When Peter is comparing his future path to John's, Jesus tells him: "If I want him to remain alive until I return, what is that to you? You follow Me." I think the same idea applies here... we each have to run the race set before us, and we won't get all the details on what He's doing in the lives of those around us because it's none of our business. We're just called to follow Jesus.
All of this to say, there are real injustices in the world, and there is real undeserved suffering happening right in my own little world and family... but I do believe that the majority of my petty, comparison-based anger would disappear pretty quickly if I could learn to keep God's love for me at the forefront of my mind.
"Everything I have is yours." ❤
Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me!
Anyway, all of this will factor into my word and focus theme for 2022. I'm truly thankful for God's faithfulness and for the treasure of having an unbroken relationship with Him since childhood! And I'm thankful to keep learning and growing with Him. So I'm celebrating all the good things He's doing in my life... and I'm celebrating all the good things He's doing in the lives of others, and especially His love and grace for every repentant person who wants to be closer to Him!
