I can't believe the season of Lent is upon us already. Last year, I added Praying in Color to my daily routine during Lent, a habit which I hoped would stick, but alas, I am human and do not always follow through with my good intentions. At the beginning of this year, while on a trip up to the beautiful Upper Peninsula, I decided that I wanted to take note of the small blessings that I saw each day of the year. I didn't do a whole lot with that until last week. Earlier in the month, I thought I would do better with remembering my commitments if I wrote them in a calendar rather than the calendar on my phone. So, I broke out my National Geographics from years past, my ever-useful jar of Mod Podge, and decorated the cover of a pocket notebook I bought in Paris when I was 13. I sectioned off each page and wrote the date in each box and after making each mark so precisely and arranged the pictures and words on the cover just-so, I smiled with pride at my small accomplishment. I set it down on our living room coffee table and there it stayed. For 4 weeks. So much for using it to stay organized. Last week though, I was talking with a wonderful friend from camp and she told me about her gratitude journal. She writes down the ways God blesses her each day in small ways and I burst out "That's exactly what I wanted to do!" She encouraged me to do so and the next morning, she sent me a text that read "Keep an eye out for God's many small blessings :)" I took up that notebook I had decorated and marked off every day of this year, and started a gratitude journal.
Among other things I have found to be blessings, one is the way that prayer and support keeps coming in to send me back to France. I am just shy of $1,800 away from having the outgoing expenses covered and have about 17% of the monthly support pledged. Oh how good God is to me, even when I don't see it at the time.
I have a minor obsession with Pinterest (if you haven't caught on, typically when I use "minor" to describe an interest or a hobby, it means significant) and due to the addicting fun that can come from that, I have allowed myself one hour each day to go on. I know, I know, "Abby, one hour is a long time to be on a website!" But when you think of it, if you spend 15 minutes on it eight or nine times a day-as most people do-that is about two hours that you have spent in front of a computer and you weren't even connecting with people. I'm not hating on any one who does this, just to be clear, because great enjoyment and creativity can emerge from finding the fun things on Pinterest. I will leave you with this gem of word beauty that I found the other day:
