Amazing statements

You’ve always given me breathing room,
a place to get away from it all,

A lifetime pass to your safe-house,
an open invitation as your guest.

You’ve always taken me seriously, God,
made me welcome among those who know and love you.

Psalm 61:3-5 MSG

How incredible to be able to make these statements to the God of the Universe! How grace-filled! How humbling. And how true.

Gratituesday

In my world where everything is maximized, evaluated and perfection is too often attempted, I am extremely grateful for hobbies.

My hobbies are my freedom to create for the sake of creating, to try something without the pressure of needing to perfect it.

I'm all over the place with my hobbies. I love photography, home decor, bicycling, scrapbooking, cake decorating and even golf.

Actually, I took up golf awhile ago simply because of how dreadfully bad at it I am. It was thrilling just to whack away at the ball and laugh.

What a gift it is to be able to do something just for the sake of doing it.

So,what have you done lately just to do it? I'm thinking I need to dig my clubs back out and head to the driving range.

Gratituesday

I am one of the very few people I know who can say that I do for a living what I love to do.

I get to spend the working percentage of my week using my gifts and strengths to create services and communication pieces that try to communicate to others the incredible love that God has for them.

The tools of my trade are Planning Center, CCLI, my mac, YouVersion, YouTube, lots of things Adobe, a flip chart, Blogger, Excel (gotta track your budget in an arts department... at least that's what my Exec. Pastor keeps trying to tell me) and Entourage (can't think without it.)

I am constantly faced with new challenges (for the past month I've been trying to learn web maintenance using Joomla - not sure yet where that falls on my gratitude list. :) ) And, as a person who loves starting new things my job keeps me far from bored.

On top of all of that, I get to work with incredibly talented people with huge hearts for God and for the people around them. People who regularly sacrifice their time and resources to do what they also love to do - share Gods love.

And while, in today's economy, I should be grateful for my job regardless, I'm not just grateful to have any job, I'm grateful to have the one I have.

How 'bout you? What are you grateful for today?

Have you ever felt like this guy?

Maybe your attempt to find "happily ever after" didn't end on a nationally televised sporting event. Maybe it happened in a middle school classroom or at a college party or maybe, like me, you got past the proposal, past the wedding even and you found your heart broken in the privacy of your own home looking into the eyes of the person who would later become your ex-spouse.

The truth is, most all of us can tell our story of a time when we were hoping in, believing in and trying for a love that lasts forever and coming up way short of forever.

That doesn't stop us from longing for a forever kind of love. I believe God designed us to long for this kind of love. But I also know that it can't happen outside of His help and guidance.

We're all broken. We all bring our stuff into each of our relationships. So how, on earth, do we figure out how to be a part of a love that lasts forever?!

Cypress Meadows is going to take a look at this question over the next four weeks as we host a series called "Staying in Love". Because falling in love is easy... but staying in love is a different story.

If you want to join the discussion and figure out what we can do to find a way to stay in love, come and be a part of our series.

Gratituesday

Seasons

I am not a person who gets all amped about change. But, I do get amped about new things, fresh starts. Because of that, I love the changing of seasons. Of course, living in FL, it's all that much more to get excited about because that really only happens here twice a year. We go from blistering hot to mild and lovely. That's pretty much it. But it's enough for me to take notice.

Last week we had our first "cold front" of the season. Our temps dropped to 80s during the day and high 60s at night for about 24 hours. That was just what the doctor ordered for me. I loved it. I swear the sky was blue-er the grass was greener and I was thrilled to see the first hint of a new season.

So, what about you? What are you grateful for today?