Tag: lifestyle

when I go to the country for a holiday

When I go to the country for a holiday, I imagine I will have time for projects and books and all the things that my normal routine squeezes out. I picture myself productive in the afternoons, nestled in with coffee and computer to pound out everything that’s pressing.

When I actually get to the country for a holiday, I laugh at my imagined productivity because the days are full – too full to be productive in projects and books and lists. Full of life and laughter and people. There is never a good time to “get away” because my parents live in a very “away” place. We wake up and wander into the kitchen for breakfast, then we wander into the living room for play time, and then the day wanders along until we curl under the covers for sweet rest once again.

But the day is so full that it pushes my weekly understanding of productivity aside. The best and most beautiful thing to do with those country moments is to live them – to cheer the family football game with cousins and eat leftover turkey sandwiches in the evening, to gesture wildly with charades and chase little ones around for hide-and-seek, to curl up with blankets after everyone else is in bed and ask questions our day routines don’t allow.

The crowded Nichols house was waking up with the dawn on Friday morning and Black was more than an hour away.

When I go to the country for a holiday, the color is warm, the table is full, and the company is unmatched.

let LOVE fly like cRaZy

“Before you go out into the world, wash your face in the clear crystal of praise. Bury each yesterday in the fine linen and spices of thankfulness.” –Charles Spurgeon

Posted on by Caroline 4

good is purpose fulfilled

Unless you know the purpose of something, you can’t make judgments about whether the thing is good or bad. (p. 165 from “Generous Justice” by Timothy Keller)

Ice cream is a bad lubricant. Used in place of WD-40, I can’t think of an instance where it would be called good. But ice cream is not meant to make a door hinge turn squeak free. The purpose of ice cream is different altogether and at that it succeeds brilliantly. But without the right understanding of purpose for the frozen dairy product, we do not have an appropriate scale on which to decide its value.

Last night, I sunk into a cushioned wooden pew at a little Lutheran church in Simi Valley, California to watch my friends rehearse today’s wedding ceremony. The music accompanied delight on their faces and I let the beauty sink in. And I wondered at what made the moment magical.

rehearsing

Beauty is the observation of harmonious relationship – when colors perfectly complement or when sounds layer a story or when people are as they were meant to be. This is beauty that stirs up gratitude for gifts we don’t unwrap. We are thankful for things that are missing our scrawled name on a gift tag. These are the things in life that are good because they fulfill their purpose – they reflect a harmony only found in the Trinity.

And this is why marriage is so beautiful. It is a harmonious relationship that reflects the character of God – a partnership that puts His glory on display.

Today, I get to step into something that is good because it fulfills exactly the purpose for which it was intended.
Today, I’ll be unwrapping beauty and enjoying every delicious moment!

let LOVE fly like cRaZy

Posted on by Caroline 0