Recently I had the opportunity to write for The Uncommon Normal, a blog and podcast hosted by Twyla Franz.
Twyla is the author of Cultivating a Missional Life: A 30-Day Devotional to Gently Help You Open Your Heart, Home, and Life to Your Neighbors. Through her book, blog, and podcast, she encourages us to live on mission right in our own neighborhoods. Twyla admits she is a shy introvert, but when our hearts are turned towards God we are compelled to take baby steps in obeying His commands to love those around us.
Here is an excerpt from the guest post I wrote for the gratitude series Begin Within:
I find it easy to give thanks in the little things. I praise God’s glory in the warm sunshine, the bold colors in the sky, the soft grass, the gentle snow. I even see God in other people—thanking God for the friend that sends a card in the mail, the stranger who lets me go first in line, and the child who gives grace in the form of hugs even when I haven’t been so kind. I capture all of these moments with my mind, and sometimes my camera, as an act of gratitude.
But it wasn’t until I started spending time each day in God’s Word that I began to give thanks for bigger themes in my life. Faced with my own shortcomings, and God’s righteousness, I finally began to grasp what it meant to be justified, reconciled, redeemed, rescued—for myself and for those around me.
The problem with these “big” words is that we hear them over and over possibly without understanding the meaning. But when we read Scripture on our own, without reading plans, at whatever pace works for our days, we have time to pause on these words.
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