The Journey of 1000 Gifts

I'm sitting on the grass in Coronado overlooking the city I live in. {I really need to do this more often.} 

In this moment, I choose to be thankful.

- Thankful for the two puppies happily lying on the grass in front of me.

- Thankful for the cool green blanket of grass I'm sitting on.

- Thankful for the crisp blue water, calm in front of me.

- Thankful for cultural music playing in the distance.

- Thankful for the people working hard in the buildings high in front of me.

- Thankful for a couple hours on a Thursday afternoon to sit and be.

- Thankful for black and white frappuccinos and hot dogs with pineapple relish.

- Thankful for the vastness of the ocean to remind me how small I am and how big God is.

- Thankful for what God showed Ann Voskamp and her vulnerability to share with the rest of us through her book, One Thousand Gifts.

- Thankful for the scattered clouds in the sky and the tweets of the birds soaring high through them.

- Thankful for a thankful heart.

- Thankful for the freedom to trust Jesus.

- Thankful for grace when I forget.

- Thankful God's vision is far more perfect than mine.

- Thankful my Savior is not trapped by time. And thankful He knew I needed to be.

In One Thousand Gifts, Ann Voskamp shares about her journey to a heart of gratitude through the initial simple concept of keeping a list of 1000 gifts, great and small, good and bad. In doing this, she learns the concept of thankfulness, among other things. I highly recommend this book. I've started my own list of 1000 gifts. I'm on #70. I keep waiting for the moment my mind will change and I will suddenly be thankful for everything and trust The Lord in each moment.

Then I remember I'm human and my tendency is to doubt and to stress and to be less than thankful for circumstances. 

But moment by moment, I will choose thanks. I will choose gratitude. I will choose to remember the gift of salvation my God has given me so completely.

I don't understand why bad things happen. I make mistakes. I sin and I doubt and I am anything but perfect. And I have a less-than-thankful heart too often. 

But in this moment, I will choose gratitude. I will choose to be thankful. I will choose to trust The Lord and I will choose to remember His gift. 

{ps: I'm blogging from my phone for the first time, using an app called BlogGo, so I have no idea how this will look on a computer or how long this will take to publish!
update: It published kinda weird looking, and it published twice, and it needed wireless to publish, which I didn't have... all that to say, I'm trying to make it look a little better. I'll have to practice with the app more before giving it a good or bad review.}

The Body

{disclosure: I am typing this so excitedly and having a hard time articulating this post appropriately... so hopefully this makes sense and isn't just a bundle of jumble. if so, sorry. maybe soon the Lord will show me how to better write the words. for now, it just makes sense in my heart.}

"Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ. From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work." Ephesians 4:15-16

I think the Lord showed me something tonight.

He created his children to grow into maturity as we grow in Jesus. We grow together. We are one body, even though we are many bodies. He uses each of us in a unique way to bring glory to His kingdom. And within the one body we make up when we join together in worship of our Lord, there are many parts. The body is joined together by every single supporting ligament. Each part of the body has a purpose. Each of us represent a different part of the body as each part does its work, but the body must be one to function as it was created to function.

The Lord God created the body. He created Adam and from Adam he created Eve.

I wonder if when he created Adam, he knew his plan for this creation. This creation was to work together and become one body. As he created one body. He knew the purpose of every part of the body in one person to live. And he knew the purpose he created each part of the body of Christ to be in order to truly live in Christ.

He knew about the body of Christ at the beginning of the world. Because he is all knowing. And he is Christ. The Lord God created the human body when he created Adam and Eve. He knew how he would use the human body to symbolize the body of Christ later. He knew he would use the parts of the body to symbolize the members of the body of Christ doing their respective work. He knew people would understand this symbolism because of how the parts of a body are dependent on one another to function appropriately and effectively.

The body is SO important. I had never thought of how important the body is. To every human life. To Life. And to the kingdom.
And God surpasses my understanding. He is all knowing, all present. He had a master salvation plan before he even began creating.

God seriously blows my mind.

3-Day for the Cure: Day Two

Day Two began at about 5:00AM when Mom and I began to try to get ready. 

Come to find out, it's pretty challenging to do all the prep necessary in a little tent.

Our goal was to leave at 7 with our team for the route.

For some reason, it took us longer than ever to get ready.

At 7:27, we rushed out of our tents to the sound of blowhorns and a lady driving a golfcart yelling 

"3 MINUTES TO GET ON THE ROUTE OR YOU WILL BE BUSSED TO LUNCH!!!!!"

Needless to say, our poor feet ran us to the beginning of the route and we started at the back of the line.

But hey... we made it and didn't get bussed once!

Despite a crazy morning, it was a wonderful day and

a truly beautiful morning on the bay.

There were typically long lines to take pictures in these little booths, but we caught this one!

Just a few more of our police friends. They really showed themselves to be awesome today.

What quickly became our favorite snack: half bagels with peanut butter!

The 3-day national spokeswoman and our newest hero, Dr. Sheri Phillips!!

After hiking up Narragansett in Point Loma, it was so fun to watch SDPD toilet paper the paramedic girls' ambulance in the rain. They went back and forth all three days :)

But what really made our day was SJPD dancing around us with their radio in the bathroom lines at one of the pit stops. We couldn't stop laughing!

I love Point Loma!!

Ocean Beach!

Greatest surprise: J popped out from behind some random bushes and surprised us on the walk, then walked for a bit with us! Thanks for finding me, honey.

Flowers from a sweet lady after lunch. gerbera daisies = my favorite!

FREE ice cream cones for 3-day walkers from Golden Spoon?!?!? h.e.a.v.e.n.

Steve, Carly, Steve's mom Ellen, and Sammy came to visit us on the Boardwalk in the afternoon. So encouraging to see familiar faces! If only we weren't at the BACK of the line... we coulda visited longer. Unfortunately, the pit stop was closed before we got there, so we had to race to catch up. [how this happened, we still don't know]

Carly speed walked with us for a little bit. We love her!!

Another reminder of God's amazing goodness and creativity: sunset over the Bay

Back at camp: 40 miles down!! Just 20 to go!!

Camp that night was full of laughs with mom. I'm so thankful to have been able to share this experience with her. It wouldn't have been the same without her.

Stay tuned... day three and the big finale!!

Capture the moment

Thank you God for the joy these little ones add to my life every single day.

I'm daily amazed by the life You created.

Diving in

"Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, 
let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. 
And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, 
fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. 
For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, 
and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God."

[Hebrews 12:1-2]

The race is ready...

Enough watching.

It's time to dive in

  and trust that the God of the Universe who holds the world in the palm of His hand

will lead and carry me the entire way.

because even though it looks smooth...

it's actually pretty rough.

February love: I love Sunsets in the Sky

I am daily awed by the beauty of the sky.

Most frequently and obviously, I see it in the sunsets.

Mostly because that's when I'm outside looking at the sky.

I know sunrise is beautiful too, and the daytime and the nighttime. 

But the relaxing feeling of a new sunset every night is just perfect.

It's like there's a master artist painting the sky...

oh wait... there IS.

I love:

Sunsets and Skies

These are a few over the last week and a half from my iphone, so they aren't perfect, but you get the idea...

 A-ma-zing.

"Have you not known? Have you not heard? 

The Lord is the everlasting God,
   the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He does not faint or grow weary;
  his understanding is unsearchable."

Isaiah 40:28

Checking in

So, I don't know what happened, but I haven't blogged in like a week or two, or something awful.
And I haven't read any blogs either!

Ahhh!

I'm ok though :)

I'm learning a few things.

Working is exhausting. I mean, working in general is not a fun thing. But working five days IN A ROW all day long is super exhausting. By the time I get home, figure out something for dinner, and feed and walk the puppies, it's like 7:30 at night! And dark outside. Well, it's dark a lot sooner than that. But then, the thought of cleaning or doing laundry or writing cards or being on the computer is exhausting. Especially the computer screen. Want to watch me fall asleep fast? Make me sit in front of the computer after 8pm (potentially why this blog has taken an hour to write).

I know. Welcome to the real world, Jordanna. No, but seriously. This is my first time working full time, I realized. (I've been in school for wayyyyy too long, and I don't recommend that). And it's overrated. Who in the world thought it would be a good idea to work 5 whole days a week??? I feel like work gets in the way of life.

Don't get me wrong. I enjoy my job. This has nothing to do with that. It's just the fact that you are in one place for so many hours during the week.

So anyway, all this to say that I'm just getting in the groove of this whole thing. A month in.

Not to mention Christmas is in like 8 days or something like that... I am so not ready... I hate that feeling. I love Christmas. I love preparing for things and getting ready. I love being ready. But I'm still working on the Christmas cards I've been working on for months. Which comes before everything else... Ayyy yiii yiiii.

Anyways... all this to say, blogging unfortunately hasn't made the cut of what gets to happen during my two and a half hours each night when I'm home. But I have much to show and much to talk about, and I'm trying to get better... so hopefully I'll be back at this regularly again soon :).

The lack of eloquence in this post is partially due to the busyness of my mind right now. Sorry for that! I will probably come back and recant a few things.... :)

For now, thanks for sticking with me. And remember to take a few moments to be still and remember Jesus, the true reason for the season.

Because I created this blog as a challenge to myself to thank God for the little things, today's moments included spending a few moments watching the sky - since I have a love affair with God's sky.

Happy almost Friday!!

Camping Adventures: Nature at it's finest

Last Saturday, J and I loaded up the car and the pups and headed to the mountains for a little camping extravaganza. Katie and Mark were already up there, along with Frankie, and truly made it so easy for us. 

We brought clothes, blankets, and stuff for the dogs. They brought that... and everything else.
And our cars were just as full... rookie mistake :)

We are so incredibly blessed to have such amazing friends.

We started off with a nature hike around the site.

[Disclaimer: I hope you like Emma and Baker. Because most of the pictures are of them...]

Emma and Baker loved it.

We found some cool pinecones that we filled many bags with to bring home. 

evidence of the woodpeckers

 The dogs all had fun sniffing, running, and exploring.

 Frankie had already taken a few hikes that day, so mom held him for a bit :)

I. Love. Nature. Seriously, I'm addicted. It's a new thing for me. 

Family photo time!

the McGoverns

and the Ritters

Headed down the mountain...

 Stopping for a drink. Running is exhausting!

 I can't remember if I said I'm amazed by God's creation yet. Honestly, these trees were majestic!

walking along...

 Frankie loves his daddy!

 Yes, we got to walk on trails like this.

and even see a few horses :)

Final family photo on the logs before heading back to camp

More to come of us back at camp!