She is one who radiates the inner grace which only comes from the      

confidence in being a woman of God.

Yes, I did in fact tweet this quote last week sometime. But pretending that you have never seen it before now, it actually goes in correlation with my last blog post. I wrote “Underestimated” about my mother…one of the most Godly influential people I have in my life. I will never be able to properly thank her for the sacrifices she’s made for me, but I hope one day I can impact my children the way she has impacted me. As extremely different as the two of us are, I have just recently realized how much of her I hope to embody as a mother one day. (One day: years from now).

But to pertain to all readers of this, not just my nine female followers, the former quote applies to us all. Woman/man/child/adult/student/teacher/friend/sibling/guardian/every person of God’s elect. The first time I read this quote I thought of my mom, I then thought of the Proverbs 31 woman (which I think can be over examined and eventually lose its meaning, but that’s not for me to question), but I then thought about what this quote actually means. It ultimately doesn’t have anything to do with being a woman..it’s about a child. The only beings able to obtain “inner grace” are children of God, but what good is this grace if we don’t recognize it? And better yet, what is the purpose of the Lord giving us grace if others don’t recognize it either? So then comes confidence..

 I will never boast about anything except the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. Galatians 6:14

This past Sunday, the minister talked through Ephesians 4:7-12. In these verses Paul tells us that God has granted all of his people the gift of grace, which is to equip us in using our spiritual gifts to advance the kingdom. Without our recognition of grace, we can do nothing for the good work of the Lord. There it is. “…inner grace which ONLY comes from the confidence in being a [child] of God.” Grace, ultimately, is supposed to make us feel secure and confident-not for our own pleasure, but for the advancement of Christ on a wasting earth.  

Underestimated

She is elegant.

A small town girl, but atypical. Determined to use every tear she’s given.

On happiness, harm, joy, love, and sorrow. 

She hates goodbyes more than winter, change has never done her well. 

She has an unexamined heart, one that she is scared to search, terrified to uncover. 

But she loves more than anyone could ever love her back. She cares and doesn’t realize it. 

She sacrifices and still sees herself sinful.  She sleeps in silk pajamas, and dreams for the ones she loves. 

She wakes up and leaves her pride. 

She knows her Father, she knows Him well.

She drives the same roads because getting lost would be…unacceptable. 

She sees things as practical rather than creative, because she can’t make sense of the unexplained. 

But she is elegant. 

She will always be elegant. 

Five Inches

"It is in the compelling zest of high adventure and of victory, and in creative action, that man finds his supreme joys."

     Antonine de Saint-Exupery

I have some pretty terrible memories because of rain. One of the worst is when I was nine, my mom made me sleep in jeans, sweatshirt, and tennishoes because we were under a slight tornado watch. I guess she didn’t want me to be naked if a tornado took our roof off. The other memories tend to pile up when I think of having to trudge through campus in a downpour, because college professors don’t have souls and they never cancel class. And I think they just find it amusing to see us walk in drenched, and pull out our laptops with water damage, and make us sit through an hour and fifteen minutes of freezing note taking that could easily be better accomplished over a podcast.

All this to say, yesterday a flash flood came across Tupelo.. but it was much more entertaining than walking to class, or miserably laying in bed with my entire wardrobe on. The weather channel said that we got five inches of rain yesterday, and I embraced every drop. Disregard the complaining I did in the previous paragraph, and believe me when I say that I love rain. There is something so…attractive..about a dark sky and the sound of water pounding against a roof. But yesterday, rather than laying in bed and listening to that calming sound, I put on my rain boots from ninth grade, went to Walgreens and bought a disposable camera, parked my car in downtown Tupelo, and began shooting. I literally ran around downtown, across Tupelo’s railroad tracks, through people’s backyards..all in the lightning and rain.

Before I make myself sound like one of those cool people that does cool things every day, I must be honest and say that this is the most exciting thing I’ve done in weeks.  But it was quite fulfilling. Even though they are no Keegan Gibbs (urban photographer) piece of brilliance, this project made a great new memory for a rainy day. 

P.S. I apologize for the amount of commas I always use. I have an obsession with clauses.

Fruit Tea and Things

I just got home yesterday from a much needed week in Nashville. Obviously i was with Anna (Jamieson, for those who aren't blessed to know her), and we stripped the town all week long. Literally, we took an accidental hour long detour one day into the country side of Nash. We ate amazing food everyday..since Tupelo has such a wide variety of great restaurants to compare to. But since being home, I can't stop thinking of two things. One being how blessed I am to have incredibly influential people in my life, and also a delicacy called fruit tea. At a local restaurant called Sam & Zoe's in Nashville, we enjoyed fruit tea..Nashville's version of sweet tea. Today i looked up a recipe and made a pitcher, but it's not the same drinking it in my backyard in Tup rather than in one of my favorite cities in the world. But back to the more serious thought, so far this summer the Lord has consistently illuminated one verse: 

God proves to be good to the man who passionately waits, to the woman who diligently seeks. It's a good thing to quietly hope, quietly hope for help from God.

Lamentations 3:25-26

I've been home alone for the most part this summer, which hasn't been the most entertaining way i can think to spend my time. But through this time I've been slowly learning that we are called to rest, and this is my season. We are called to be quiet, and we are presented with time alone for a reason. We are to be alone, but never feel lonely. So far this month the Lord has given me countless opportunities to be alone and intimate with Him. In my ignorance i don't always take hold or appreciate those times..but it's comforting to know that in my unfaithfulness, he remains perfectly faithful. And the time in my day i see so precious, was actually never mine in the first place.

Highlights of the Sun

My sweet twin cousins

World's greatest grandad. 

what else do you do in summer besides read, write, and eno?

...and create

enriched with a loving mom and sister with a weekend on the beach

Love you all

I asked myself yesterday what in the world I would do to keep myself occupied while in Tupelo for a couple of weeks..so as summer begins, so does the season of writing. 

Gravity: A natural force that gives weight to any object with mass. In middle school, we learned gravity to be the reason that everything that goes up must, eventually, come down.  So try to plunge yourself into the mind of a metaphorical thinker, and apply gravity to more than physical matter. What if our emotions, attitudes, spirit, and even faith..was affected by gravity. That would mean that we are always being pulled back down. To the world. 

  "Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to it's level of      immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you, so you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect." 

Romans 12:2

In a way, for myself at least, this puts into perspective how relentless the world is, as well as how reluctant I can be in resisting it. Because of this "gravity", there is a constant force always working against us. 

          

           but,

how glorious of a Savior we own that already crushed that agent of weight that we, as ignorant beings, view as so impending.  A lesson I am vividly and humbly learning right now is that I am free from this gravity. So i choose to sing.

"I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh..and I will be your God."

Ezekiel 36:25-28