Bigger Picture Moments: Playing Favorites

 

Each Thursday, we come together to share the harvest of intentional living by capturing a glimmer of the bigger picture through a simple moment.  As a farewell to 2011, we're playing favorites and picking one Bigger Picture Moment from 2011 to share. Head over to BPB to share yours!


Share a picture, words, creation or list; just come to the table with thanksgiving in your heart. 

Live.
Reflect on the blessings that were apparent to you this week.

Capture.
Harvest them!

Share.
Link up your favorite moment of 2011 at BPB this week. Please be sure to link to your post, not your blog. Your post must link back here or have our button in your post or the link will be deleted.

Encourage.
Visit at least the person linked before you and encourage her in this journey we call life.

Here are a few of my favorites from 2011:
Broken from Diet Coke on the Rocks
God Gave Me You from Girl of Grace
On Not Living Numb from Tasting Grace
Faded Colors by Achieving Clarity
Inside Out by Michelle Pendergrass

There are a dozen others that I absolutely loved reading, too, but the boys are not readily cooperating with giving me a few minutes to compile any more, so I'm off to snuggle and build log cabins.

Head over to BPB, share yours, encourage others and enjoy! Happy New Year!

Beyond Resolutions: Patience {#OneWord365}

About this time last year, I chose to focus for an entire year on being rather than doing.

Building character rather than building my resume.

Becoming more of the me God intended me to be rather than more of the me I intended me to be.

Had I known last year what being results in, I might have been too nervous to choose such a powerful word to commit to focusing on.

Because the word being is actually a more subdued version of the word grow.

And, boy, has it been a year of growth -- spiritual, emotional and mental growth.

While my body actually shrank -- which last year I wasn't sure I would be able to make and keep such a resolution -- the other parts of me have been stretched and opened and grown through thanksgiving, through grief and through choosing joy.

It's been a ride ... a ride I'm glad to have taken but am now ready to exit.

I readily admit that I'm ready to usher in a new year with its freshness and possibility and newness.

And in that newness stretched out like the deep dawning of a new day, I'm embracing a new word for 2012:

Patient -- embracing a wait, contentedness, willing to choose joy despite circumstances, tolerant

"God doesn't come and go. God lasts.
He's Creator of all you can see or imagine.
He doesn't get tired out, doesn't pause to catch his breath.
And he knows everything, inside and out.
He energizes those who get tired, gives fresh strength to dropouts.
For even young people tire and drop out, young folk in their prime stumble and fall.
But those who wait upon God get fresh strength. 
They spread their wings and soar like eagles,
They run and don't get tired, they walk and don't lag behind." Isaiah 40: 28-31

So I will wait upon God. 

I will be patient with myself -- with the healing of my scars, with the limits of being human, with what is out of my control, with the time structures in which I live, with the expectations I set for myself.

And I will pray for patience to run deep and wide enough to spill over my heart and flow from my tongue.

Patience enough to allow for the space it takes for passion to burn.

And burn well.

A group of writers have come together to take a step beyond standing in stalled resolutions instead vowing to pick one word that will help guide them through the year. I'm joining formally this year after having had such a wonderful experience of focusing on one word during 2011. #OneWord365

2011: Be