Okay, so this still isn't a weekly blog... Oh well.
I bought fresh mozzarella today for the first time! I've been intimidated by it before, but today, today, there was a coupon at HEB. I could buy cherry tomatoes, which I love and will eat anyway, and get the mozzarella free! So I did, and had the tomatoes and mozzarella tonight with olive oil, balsamic vinegar, salt, and cracked pepper. Yum!
This shopping trip was on my dinner break between office and rehearsal - somehow an extra day on a weekend doesn't mean more time. I started rehearsal tonight for Emma, which is very exciting and also a lot of pressure, since I'm supposed to play the heroine herself. I think the first rehearsal went well. At this point in my career at the Players, I know all the actors pretty well, having played with all of them before, and it's nice to have that level of comfort and commitment from fellow actors right from the start.
Rehearsal ended, and as Hannah and I were driving home on Westheimer, I took a closer look at a sign on a now empty building in Highland Village shopping center. There was a new classy construction barrier in black wrapped around the front. At first I wondered if it was somehow tied to Restoration Hardware going in just across the parking lot because of it's similar color and font style. And then I saw the lettering a little closer, BHLDN, and it clicked: Anthropologie's new wedding line! Yes! Their new wedding dress line that unveiled in February was going into Highland Village!
Hannah can bear witness to all the excitement and shrill noises that ensued as I grabbed her hand and shrieked. I'm not exactly sure why I'm so excited. I don't have a wedding coming up. I don't have a friend's wedding coming up. I'm not even exactly sure that the style of the dresses I've seen so far fit my style. But, they are beautiful. Really beautiful. The whole existing Anthropologie shop a few doors down is beautiful, and BHLDN is sure to be even more beautiful.
Beauty thrills my soul like few other things. I think God meant it that way. Those things that are beautiful draw us in and nourish a part of us that sometimes we didn't know was starving. I find beauty in many things: music, nature, children, the written word, a tender hearted woman, a strong protective man.
In all these things, we can see a reflection of God: who He is, what He loves, and what He intended this world to be. It also gives us a glimpse of our future with Him. The beauty here on earth must pale in comparison to being in His presence. I'm so glad to have His promise of someday being there with Him.
We've been going through a sermon series on death the past couple of Sundays, and the pastor said a phrase that has stuck with me this week. "Look for the promise after the storm." Like Noah, look for the rainbow, the beauty that is God's promise. He is with us. He will never leave us or forsake us.
I am thankful for the promises of God - for the beauty that speaks of His love for us, whether it be mozzarella, a wedding dress, or a rainbow.
Tuesday, May 31, 2011
Thursday, May 5, 2011
living the not now
Okay, so it's been far too long since my last post. I meant for this to be a once a week at least blog, but it's turned into a once a month and that just won't do.
I've had many things to be thankful for and several blog topics to post about, but I just haven't sat down to write. I've let intimidation get the best of me. I didn't feel that a short, three sentence paragraph was sufficient and haven't wanted to make myself write more than that.
The two posts I'm been ruminating on this week are "living the not now" and one on Mother's day and my mom, heretofore untitled. Hopefully I'll post that next week.
"Living the not now" came about as I was listening to a radio broadcast of a sermon on prayer, and crystallized when I read a devotional about thankfulness in prayer. I, as many others, am still waiting on answers to several specific long term prayers and am in the midst of some "not now" answers. What caught me about the devotional's response to unfulfilled prayer requests, was the idea of prayer becoming frustrating. We ask and ask and ask, and don't receive what we ask for, and so we lose heart, become frustrated and if we aren't careful, bitter.
Now, God doesn't promise to give us just anything we ask for. The Bible gives us some parameters on that which would take too long to go into here. But what do we do when we are praying Biblically, persistently, and are in the "not now?" How do we keep from being frustrated and bitter? Thankfulness.
"Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thankfulness present your requests to God." Philippians 4:6
I usually thank God for what He's already given me in prayer and for who He is, but I never thought before to thank Him supplying the answer. We have His promise that He hears and responds to His children, that He gives us good gifts, so we should thank Him in advance of our seeing the answer for His provision. Really, it's praying in faith.
Praying with thankfulness refocuses my attention where it should be, on God and His character. Then I am free to go about my day, knowing that God has heard me, and, in His good and perfect time, will supply the things I've asked for. My faith is put into action.
Thank you God for hearing and answering my prayers, each one. Help me to put my faith and trust in Your timing and be patient until their fulfillment. Amen.
I've had many things to be thankful for and several blog topics to post about, but I just haven't sat down to write. I've let intimidation get the best of me. I didn't feel that a short, three sentence paragraph was sufficient and haven't wanted to make myself write more than that.
The two posts I'm been ruminating on this week are "living the not now" and one on Mother's day and my mom, heretofore untitled. Hopefully I'll post that next week.
"Living the not now" came about as I was listening to a radio broadcast of a sermon on prayer, and crystallized when I read a devotional about thankfulness in prayer. I, as many others, am still waiting on answers to several specific long term prayers and am in the midst of some "not now" answers. What caught me about the devotional's response to unfulfilled prayer requests, was the idea of prayer becoming frustrating. We ask and ask and ask, and don't receive what we ask for, and so we lose heart, become frustrated and if we aren't careful, bitter.
Now, God doesn't promise to give us just anything we ask for. The Bible gives us some parameters on that which would take too long to go into here. But what do we do when we are praying Biblically, persistently, and are in the "not now?" How do we keep from being frustrated and bitter? Thankfulness.
"Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thankfulness present your requests to God." Philippians 4:6
I usually thank God for what He's already given me in prayer and for who He is, but I never thought before to thank Him supplying the answer. We have His promise that He hears and responds to His children, that He gives us good gifts, so we should thank Him in advance of our seeing the answer for His provision. Really, it's praying in faith.
Praying with thankfulness refocuses my attention where it should be, on God and His character. Then I am free to go about my day, knowing that God has heard me, and, in His good and perfect time, will supply the things I've asked for. My faith is put into action.
Thank you God for hearing and answering my prayers, each one. Help me to put my faith and trust in Your timing and be patient until their fulfillment. Amen.
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