things i do

I’ve been reading Bittersweet by Shauna Niequist (alert: expect several excerpts from her book to come in future posts), and it’s come at an incredibly convenient time. There are several things she has spoken to my soul about, but the first is her list of “things I do/things I don’t do.” I thought for good measure I would make my own list of “things I do,” and “things I don’t do,” after her inspiration, of course. So, here it goes…

Things I Do:

I am making my best attempts to keep my faith in Christ the center of my life, the center of my marriage, and the center of my relationships. I actively pursue the Spirit’s guiding in my life… especially during a season where I feel like I’m grabbing at the dark.

I am getting better at giving the best part of my day to my husband. I’m not there yet, but it’s something I know I need to spend much more intentional time fostering. He is the most important person in my life, and therefore, I don’t want him to have the leftovers of my day.

I work hard at my job. I desire to serve people well and love them fully. With that said, I’m not perfect. I recognize that I am not God and that I cannot be God for people. However, I do pray that God would use me as a small part of a much bigger story.

I am serious about living in community. I don’t take this lightly because I know that without it, I will dry up like a raisin waiting on the curb to be ground into the dirt. No that metaphor didn’t make sense, and that’s because life without people doesn’t make sense. That, and I couldn’t think of any other way to describe it. But seriously–I refuse to live life in an isolated state of loneliness. Therefore, I spend the majority of my free time with people that I can pour life into and vice versa. I love laughing and having real conversations that go beyond the surface.

I do the grocery shopping. Grocery shopping relaxes me, and I have no idea why. At the beginning part of our marriage, due to schedules, Kyle did most of the grocery shopping. No more. I love going through aisles, looking at brands, smelling ingredients and watching families shop together. There may come a day when grocery shopping is not relaxing, but for now, grocery shopping is on my list of “things I do.”

I rest to live, not live to rest. I purposefully take Thursday as a day of rest/relaxation. If you were not standing beside me on my wedding day, chances are slim that you will hear from me on a Thursday. And please, take no offense to that. My husband, my parents, and my best friends are the only ones that do not fall into this category–so do not feel in any way, shape, or form that I don’t love you if I don’t answer your call on Thursdays. It’s just that I’m probably answering your call every other day, and so–in order to have a real, honest, intentional conversation on that day, I have to take Thursday to unplug, relax, and reenergize myself for the other days.

Now that I’ve come up with my things I do list, I’ll have to spend some real time thinking about “things I don’t do.” This list might take a little longer… but I know that “gardening” will definitely make that one.