Quotes!

Each day comes bearing its own gifts. Untie the ribbon. ~ Ruth Ann Schabacker“Any fool can criticize, condemn and complain but it takes character and self-control to be understanding and forgiving.” ~ Dale Carnegie

“People, even more than things, have to be restored, renewed, revived, reclaimed, and redeemed; never throw out anyone.” ~ Audrey Hepburn

“And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.” ~  John 1:14

“The moment you put a deadline on your dream, it becomes a goal.” ~ Harsha Bhogle

“You don’t necessarily have to execute them right away- or ever for that matter- but it is important to think of your ideas as little gems.” ~ Marion Groot (On overcoming creative overwhelm.)

“In normal life we hardly realize how much more we receive than we give, and life cannot be rich without such gratitude.  It is so easy to overestimate the importance of our own achievements compared with what we owe to the help of others.” ~ Dietrich Bonhoeffer

“Love is the crowning grace of humanity, the holiest right of the soul, the golden link which binds us to duty and truth, the redeeming principle that chiefly reconciles the heart to life, and is prophetic of eternal good.” ~ Petrarch

“If I were your enemy, I’d magnify your fears, making them appear insurmountable, intimidating you with enough worries until avoiding them becomes your driving motivation. I would use anxiety to cripple you, to paralyze you, leaving you indecisive, clinging to safety and sameness, always on the defensive because of what might happen. When you hear the word faith, all I’d want you to hear is ‘unnecessary risk.'” ~ Priscilla Shirer

P.S.  Hey friend, want more encouragement in your life?  I’ve started a Dear Wednesday encouragement crew and if you’d like to be a part of it (and not miss out on the Wednesday post!) make sure to leave your email below or sign up here!  I’m excited to send you mail on Wednesday!

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Posted on September 9, 2016 by |

Quotes!

You'll miss the best things if you keep your eyes shut. Dr. Seuss“Bravery is born in the quite and ordinary moments long before it’s seen by anyone else.” ~ Sarah Bessey

“Relax.  You will become an adult.  You will figure out your career.  You will find someone who loves you.  You have a whole lifetime, time takes time.” ~ Johanna de Silentio

“I learned vulnerability is a bit like those Russian nesting dolls, the ones that get smaller and smaller in size when you twist the top off and pull another one out.  In the end, you’re left with the tiniest dull, that one nugget.  No more layers to take off.  Nothing left but a surprise, the surprise of finding out the littlest doll is the most solid of them all.  It doesn’t hide inside of itself.” ~ Hannah Brencher

“Nothing about my birth – or yours – was random or accidental.  I was born for this time – and so were you.  We were each chosen for a particular, cosmically important task that can be done by no one else.” ~ Christine Caine

“Our time frames are not in touch with ultimate reality.  Our perspective on timing compared with God’s is analogous to a two-year-old’s with an adult’s.  God has good reasons for making us wait a long time to see some prayers answered.” ~ Tim Keller

“Don’t you love New York in the fall?  It makes me want to buy school supplies.  I would send you a bouquet of newly sharpened pencils if I knew your name and address.” ~ Nora Ephron

“Habits matter because: habits are the spine of our self-control.  You change your life when you change what you do everyday.  Habits are small gears that leverage your life — and the habit of hope can resuscitate anything.” ~ Ann Voskamp

“I don’t understand it any more than you do, but one thing I’ve learned is that you don’t have to understand things for them to be.” ~ Madeleine L’Engle

P.S.  Hey friend, want more encouragement in your life?  I’ve started a Dear Wednesday encouragement crew and if you’d like to be a part of it (and not miss out on the Wednesday post!) make sure to leave your email below or sign up here!  I’m excited to send you mail on Wednesday!

Posted on September 2, 2016 by |

Unplugged

Unplugged | Misselainious blogThere I was lying in the sunshine on the outside lounge last Sunday trying to get some rest.  My phone kept buzzing and my mind kept racing thinking of all the things I should be doing.  And then I sighed and realized that I didn’t even know how to rest well.  Inhale, exhale, breath in and out.

We’ve been trained to go, go, go and to accomplish as much as we can in as short as time possible.  I mean I get impatient if my computer takes longer than 6 seconds to load a page!  We’re always on.  Now days most people don’t even turn off their phones at night.

Yet as I tried to relax on Sunday I began to realize that being able to turn off sometimes is really important.  We need to figure out how to just be.  At least I do.  Do you know how to just lie down and look at the sky?  I hurt my back really bad last week and I wasn’t able to sit.  I had to stand up or lie down and since I was hurting lying down was the best option.

Since I turn my phone off every night I decided to leave it off for the next day even though I wasn’t able to do anything.  Yes, I was tempted to look at social media or text friends.  Instead I stared at the ceiling and felt my heart beat.  Later I moved outside and as I watched the pure blue expanse above me a hawk drifted into view.  It soared simply by being.  It didn’t flap its wings for minutes at a time as it floated on the wind currents.

With my phone off and lying on my back I rested.  I disconnected and unplugged and it was so peaceful.  My mind wasn’t racing and I simply was able to notice what was going on around me.  It made me think of this beautiful quote by Anne Lamott.  “Almost everything will work again if you unplug it for a few minutes, including you.”

When was the last time you unplugged even if just for a few minutes?  We’ve come to view rest and simply being as so negative in our fast paced, instant world but I think we’re missing out on the actual living part a lot of times.

“Rest is not idleness, and to lie sometimes on the grass under trees on a summer’s day, listening to the murmur of the water, or watching the clouds float across the sky, is by no means a waste of time.”  John Lubbock

Are you always feeling like you’re running?  Do you feel like you can’t turn your mind off from feeling like there’s always more to do?  Maybe just unplug your phone and stay off your computer for a bit and go lie in the grass.  You won’t miss anything important on your phone but you might miss the important aspect of rest if you don’t unplug every now and then.  Maybe if we’d just stop flapping our wings so much we’d actually soar.

“Technology can be our best friend, and technology can also be the biggest party pooper of our lives.  It interrupts our own story, interrupts our ability to have a thought or a daydream, to imagine something wonderful, because we’re too busy bridging the walk from the cafeteria back to the office on the cell phone.” Steven Spielberg

P.S.  Hey friend, want more encouragement in your life?  I’ve started a Dear Wednesday encouragement crew and if you’d like to be a part of it (and not miss out on the Wednesday post!) make sure to leave your email below or sign up here!  I’m excited to send you mail on Wednesday!

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Posted on August 29, 2016 by |

Quotes!

_If you board the wrong train, it is no use running along the corridor in the other direction._ ~ Dietrich Bonhoeffer“Raise me above the smiles and frowns of the world, regarding it a light thing to be judged by men.” ~ Valley of Vision

“I have been loving you a little more every minute since this morning.” ~ Victor Hugo

“There are flowers everywhere, for those who bother to look.” ~ Henri Matisse

“Suffering has been stronger than all other teaching, and has taught me to understand what your heart used to be. I have been bent and broken, but – I hope – into a better shape.” ~ Charles Dickens

“God appoints people who do disappoint to point us to a God who never disappoints.” ~ Ann Voskamp

“I watched as she turned her wounds into wisdom.” ~ Sean McClam

“I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” ~ Maya Angelou

“Love is a wonderful thing, but when it is secured in Christ, it is a glorious and redemptive story that never ends.” ~ T.B. LaBerge

P.S.  Hey friend, want more encouragement in your life?  I’ve started a Dear Wednesday encouragement crew and if you’d like to be a part of it (and not miss out on the Wednesday post!) make sure to leave your email below or sign up here!  I’m excited to send you mail on Wednesday!

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Posted on August 26, 2016 by |

Fun, free encouragement postcards!

Fun FREE encouragement postcards 2 | Misselainious blog Fun FREE encouragement postcards | Misselainious blogHello friends, as you probably know by now one of my favorite things in life is to encourage people.  There are so many great things that come from giving encouragement.  A) You make someone’s day better B) You get more joy yourself and C) it’s free! (or in this case only a few cents for the stamp). 🙂  I’ve made up some fun and FREE encouragement postcards for you to brighten someone’s inbox with.

Don’t you love getting mail?  I know I do! It always makes my day better to receive a little note at my door.  Sometimes though I get stuck in a rut and don’t send anything for far too long because in my head it’s always going to take longer than it actually does.  But a postcard takes even less time!  Plus postcards just remind me of summer.  You don’t have to be on a trip to send one!

These fun encouragement postcards have simple sayings like, “Hugs & Besos (kisses)” or “You are my luce del sole (sunshine)”.  There’s also one that says, “Cheering you on.”

So friends I hope you’ll take second and print one or four of these out, write a little note, and stick it in the mail for someone you want to encourage.  If this isn’t on your summer fun to do list then it should be!  You can get these cheerful postcards here. 🙂  And if you’re already part of the encouragement crew I’ll send you the link on Wednesday!

(Just as a side note you’ll want to make sure you use card stock to print on and once you’ve printed the front of the postcard you’ll need to flip it over and stick it back through the printer to make them double sided.)

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Posted on August 22, 2016 by |

Quotes!

Great necessities call out great virtues. ~Abigail Adams quote

“Our heads may be small, but they are full of memories as the sky may sometimes be full of swarming bees, thousands and thousands of memories, of smells, of places, of little things that happened to us and which come back, unexpectedly, to remind us who we are.” ~ Alexander McCall Smith

“I never could have done what I have done without the habits of punctuality, order, and diligence, without the determination to concentrate myself on one subject at a time.” ~ Charles Dickens

“Creativity takes courage.” ~ Henri Matisse

“Our prayers can go where we cannot…there are no borders, no prison walls, no doors that are closed to us when we pray.” ~ Brother Andrew

“If I have ever made any valuable discoveries, it has been owing more to patient attention, than to any other talent.” ~ Isaac newton

“If you do one good deed your reward usually is to be set to do another and harder and better one.” ~ C.S. Lewis (The Horse and His Boy)

“Do you wish me a good morning, or mean that it is a good morning whether I want it or not; or that you feel good this morning; or that it is a morning to be good on?” ~ J.R.R. Tolkien (The Hobbit)

P.S.  Hey friend, want more encouragement in your life?  I’ve started a Dear Wednesday encouragement crew and if you’d like to be a part of it (and not miss out on the Wednesday post!) make sure to leave your email below or sign up here!  I’m excited to send you mail on Wednesday!

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Posted on August 19, 2016 by |

Running away

Running away | Misselainious blogYou know how you can read something over and over and enjoy it but then you read it later and something sticks out like blaring neon lights?  Well that happened to me last week when I was reading in Jonah.  It may only be four chapters but there’s a lot there.

God tells Jonah to go to Nineveh. Jonah instead gets on a boat going the other direction.  It’s rather comical if you think about it because while we try to run, God is everywhere so we can’t really ever get away from Him.  Jonah is essentially saying, “I’d rather go anywhere but there even if it means I run as fast and hard from your presence as I can.”

I have to admit I’m a lot like Jonah.  God tells me things and sometimes it sounds unpleasant or I’m just being stubborn and I don’t want to do it.  I run but when we disobey God we are the ones that loose.  We miss out on the presence of the God of the universe and the very One who is love Himself.

Jonah tries to change the outcome of the story God is writing but thankfully he can’t.  You see God wants to make His love known to people that are running as fast as they can from Him.  He’s a God of mercy and grace.  He has a plan to rescue 120,000 people in Nineveh.  Yet Jonah runs.

Here’s what struck me this time.  Not only does Jonah end up going to Nineveh and rescuing thousands of people (because he gets swallowed by a huge fish and repents) but the people on the boat Jonah is fleeing in see the awesome power of God.  “So they picked up Jonah and hurled him into the sea, and the sea ceased from its raging.  Then the men feared the LORD exceedingly, and they offered a sacrifice to the LORD and made vows.” (Jonah 1:15-16 ESV)

God saw those men on the boat and he cared about them.  If Jonah had obeyed they wouldn’t have seen God show up like He did.  They wouldn’t have had an encounter with the living God.

Here’s what I think we need to hear.  We need to hear that our mistakes, running, and yes, even sin, is being worked for good if we’re in Christ.  “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.” (Romans 8:28 ESV)  Did you read that?  ALL things.  Not just some things but all things work together for good for those that love Christ Jesus.

Jonah straight up sins and runs from God (and he should and does repent), even so we get a glimpse of something amazing.  Jonah was in the belly of a huge fish for three days and nights.  He got buried but God brought him back to accomplish the work he had for Jonah.  He rescued Jonah from running so that a whole city could find mercy.  Hundreds of years later Jesus would choose not to run.  He stayed so that we could stop racing away from God’s presence.  You see Jesus was buried in a tomb for three days so that we don’t have to run from God anymore.  Jesus was in the belly of the earth for three days so that all things will work together for our good in Christ Jesus.

You haven’t gone too deep or run too far for God’s love and grace to reach you.  God displays his glory and mercy even through our mistakes.

P.S.  Hey friend, want more encouragement in your life?  I’ve started a Dear Wednesday encouragement crew and if you’d like to be a part of it (and not miss out on the Wednesday post!) make sure to leave your email below or sign up here!  I’m excited to send you mail on Wednesday!

{Photo by: Paige Whiting}

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Posted on August 15, 2016 by |

Quotes!

One sees great things from the valley; only small things from the peak. Gilbert K. Chesterton“Places had echoes- and if one were sensitive, one might just pick up some resonance from the past, some felling for what had happened.” ~ Alexander McCall Smith

“Piglet noticed that even though he had a Very Small Heart, it could hold a rather large amount of Gratitude.” ~ A.A. Milne (Winnie-the-Pooh)

“What you do makes a difference, and you have to decide what kind of difference you want to make.” ~ Jane Goodall

“It is not the strength of your faith but the object of your faith that actually saves you.” ~ Timothy Keller

“How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.” ~ Anne Frank

“When one does a thing, it appears good, otherwise one would not write it.  Only later comes reflection, and one discards or accepts the thing.  Time is the best censor, and patience a most excellent teacher.” ~ Frédéric Chopin

“Often times we feel like either we can’t make a world of difference, or we feel that it’s not going to change anything anyway.  The truth is you can change someone’s day, you can change someone’s life, but you have to show up and do what you got to do to actually see any fruit coming from it.” ~ Nick Vujicic

P.S.  Hey friend, want more encouragement in your life?  I’ve started a Dear Wednesday encouragement crew and if you’d like to be a part of it (and not miss out on the Wednesday post!) make sure to leave your email below or sign up here!  I’m excited to send you mail on Wednesday!

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Posted on August 12, 2016 by |

Quotes!

Mexican Proverb

“Pretty much all the honest truth-telling there is in the world is done by children.” ~ Oliver Wendell Holmes

“He said, ‘You become. It takes a long time. That’s why it doesn’t happen often to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept. Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in the joints and very shabby. But these things don’t matter at all, because once you are Real you can’t be ugly, except to people who don’t understand.” Margery Williams, The Velveteen Rabbit

“For a seed to achieve its greatest expression, it must come completely undone.  The shell cracks, its insides come out and everything changes.  To someone who doesn’t understand growth, it would like like complete destruction.” ~ Cynthia Occelli

“Fill your paper with the breathings of your heart.” ~ William Wordsworth

“When His purposes are more important than your desires, when His glory is more valuable to you than your temporary moments of glory, and when His agenda activates you more than your plan for you, you will be freed from your bondage to self-love and be freed to love others.” ~ Paul Tripp

“Cupcakes are muffins that believed in miracles.” (Haha I found this one on pinterest and it made me laugh… 😉 )

P.S.  Hey friend, want more encouragement in your life?  I’ve started a Dear Wednesday encouragement crew and if you’d like to be a part of it (and not miss out on the Wednesday post!) make sure to leave your email below or sign up here!  I’m excited to send you mail on Wednesday!

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Posted on August 5, 2016 by |

What is in your hands?

What do you have in your hands? | Misselainious blogSometimes it can feel like we have no resources. Sometimes it can feel like we don’t have enough to do this, that, or the other thing. Sometimes we don’t know what’s in our hand. Do you ever feel this way? Do you ever just wish someone would lend you a hand? Well I have some good news for you today my friend!

This past month I’ve been reading in Exodus and I’ve discovered some things that have made me stop and wonder. No, not the plagues. I’m talking about the part where God calls Moses. This time as I read through a few things came to light that have really encouraged and challenged me.

Moses is out tending some sheep. He’s just minding his own business when God calls him to do something pretty crazy. God wants Moses to lead His people out of slavery. If that isn’t a job upgrade I don’t know what is. Moses is terrified and I can’t say I blame him. He didn’t yet recognize who God is and how God enables people.

So how does God enable us? “Then Moses answered, ‘But behold, they will not believe me or listen to my voice for they will say, ‘The Lord did not appear to you.’ The Lord said to him, ‘What is that in your hand?’ He said, ‘A staff.’ And he said, ‘Throw it on the ground, and it became a serpent, and Moses ran from it.’” (Exodus 4:1-3)

I am learning that God often enables us with the thing we already have in our hands. A lot of times we miss it because it looks so ordinary. It looks like a shepherd’s staff, just a stick. It looks like our current job, family, relationships, hobbies…even limitations. The everyday things are what we hold in our hands. Maybe we’ve gotten stuck in moving forward because all we see is that we’re holding an ordinary stick. It is an ordinary stick but here’s where we begin to recognize who God is.

God takes what is in our hands and he does something amazing with it when we are willing to listen to him and surrender it before him. Moses had to throw it down before the Lord. It changed into something he wasn’t expecting, a snake. And Moses ran from it. Are you scared of what the Lord might show you? God then tells Moses to pick it back up and the snake returns to a staff.

See the thing is, God enabled the staff to change. God is always at work to enable us to use the ordinary things for His glory. He wants us to partner with him in the big things he’s doing just by being faithful with what we have.

“What has God given you? Moses had a stick, David had a slingshot, and Paul had a pen. Mother Teresa possessed a love for the poor; Billy Graham, a gift for preaching; and Joni Eareckson Tada, a disability. What did they have in common? A willingness to let God use whatever they had, even when it didn’t seem very useful. If you will assess what you have to offer in terms of your time, your treasure, and your talents, you will have a better understanding of how you might uniquely serve.” ~ Richard Stearns

My friends it gets better though. You see before we get to the verses in chapter four about Moses’ hand we learn about God’s hand. “But I know that the king of Egypt will not let you go unless compelled by a mighty hand.” (Exodus 3:19) God is telling us His hand will do the work. His hand will bring us freedom. His hand will accomplish great things. Many years later He’d show us again what was in His hand with His Son Jesus.

You know what Jesus had in his hands? Jesus had nails in his hands. He had nails so that we don’t have to be afraid. He had nails so that we can be healed. He had nails so that we can have resources. He had nails so that we can have help and hope. He had nails in his hands so that I can raise my hands in surrender and worship and live free. Because of what he took in his hands we can offer back to him what is in ours so that he might use it in incredible ways. What is in your hands today friends? If God can use an ordinary stick or some nails he can use what you have too.

“Oh sing to the LORD a new song, for he has done marvelous things! His right hand and his holy arm have worked salvation for him. The LORD has made known his salvation; he has revealed his righteousness in the sight of the nations.” (Psalm 98:1-2)

P.S.  Hey friend, want more encouragement in your life?  I’ve started a Dear Wednesday encouragement crew and if you’d like to be a part of it (and not miss out on the Wednesday post!) make sure to leave your email below or sign up here!  I’m excited to send you mail on Wednesday!

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Posted on August 1, 2016 by |

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