Gratitude

Have you ever stopped and taken a moment to think about 

how much complaining you do in a day? Sometimes from the moment that alarm goes off (like 25 times if you hit snooze as much as I do) to the moment we drift off to sleep at night, our entire existence revolves around complaining. We tend to live in self-centered, self-serving little bubbles, and are so vocal when things don't align with what I want or how I think it should be. 

I was recently reminded through the book that we are studying at Bible study that I am not the center of the universe. There is so much more to this world than me. Which got me thinking about how much I complain about things, because complaining is, essentially, me saying that my comfort, my ideals, my everything is the most important thing in this world.  

The opposite of complaining is gratitude. Being thankful for things that we so often take for granted.  With these thoughts swirling around in my head, I found a Pinterest post called "30 days of Gratitude." Each day is a simple question to answer about something you are grateful for.  I texted my girls and asked if they would want to do this exercise with me. Each morning I text the question of the day in our group message and all four of us answer it.  It's such a great way to share things that we are grateful for, to spend a few moments each day connecting on a deeper level. These questions can be used as a journal prompt, as a group discussion like we are doing, as personal reflection, as prayer.

In case any of you are feeling the same way I do, that I complain way too often, and am not nearly grateful enough, here are the 30 days of Gratitude questions. Feel free to answer any of them here; I would love to hear some things that you guys are grateful for! My friends and I are on day 5, so I will share my answers for the past few days, too. 

30 Days of Gratitude

#1. What smell are you grateful for today?

Clean laundry. 

#2. What technology are you grateful for?

Grocery stores/refrigeration, so we don't have to hunt and gather on a daily basis. 

#3. What color are you grateful for?

The fiery oranges and pinks of a sunset. There is just something so magical and peaceful in the colors of a sunset. 

#4. What food are you most grateful for?

This one isn't most grateful like the one food I love in life more than any other food, but for the moment of answering this question, I was most grateful for a healthy cereal that I found that was really good and also really good for me. 

#5. What sound are you grateful for today?

My dad singing.  Going through treatment after his cancer surgery, a radiation pill got stuck in his throat and damaged his vocal chords.  I grew up hearing my dad sing, but after his vocal chords were damaged, there were several years where he could barely preach an entire sermon, and singing was out of the question.  God miraculously healed him about 2 years ago, and he could/can sing again.  I choke up every time I hear him. 

#6. What in nature are you grateful for?

#7. What memory are you grateful for?

#8. What book are you most grateful for?

#9. What place you most grateful for?

#10. What taste are you grateful for today?

#11. What holiday are you grateful for? 

#12. What texture are you grateful for? 

#13. What abilities are you grateful for?

#14. What sight are you grateful for today?

#15. What season are you grateful for?

#16. What about your body are you grateful for?

#17. What knowledge are you grateful for?

#18. What piece of art are you grateful for?

#19. What touch are you grateful for?

#20. Who in your life are you grateful for?

#21. What song are you most grateful for?

#22. What story are you grateful for?

#23. What tradition are you grateful for?

#24. What challenge are you grateful for?

#25. What moment this week are you most grateful for?

#26. What form of expression are you most grateful for?

#27. What small thing that you use daily are you most grateful for?

#28. What small thing that happened today are you grateful for?

#29. What friend.family member are you grateful for today?

#30. What talent or skill do you have that you are grateful for?

Let's practice more gratitude, and less complaining. Let's practice acknowledging that Me is not the center of the universe. Let's work on this together. 

-AA 

The Beauty in Openness

My inner (non-family) circle consists of 3 amazing girls, without whom I seriously would not survive. Unfortunately, one of them lives several states away right now, so we aren't as connected as we would like to be. (Love and miss you!!)

We actually sat on this bench right here.

Last night, the three of us who still live in the same town got together and just shared our hearts; being open and honest about things going on in our friendship, things that we've kept bottled up for various reasons, things that needed to spoken, but that we had been avoiding like it was our job.  And while not everything shared was easy to hear or easy to speak, it was a beautiful time in our friendship, and all three of us walked away feeling refreshed, renewed, and like a heavy load had been lifted off of our trio.


Now I'm not sharing this to puff myself up. I am a bottler by nature, and in fact one thing I shared I had kept bottled up for the past 6 months. Other things shared were a little more recent, but all were necessary and important to be spoken and released.

This conversation prompted this blog post for one reason: I was reminded last night that being open with the people who truly love and care about you is a beautiful thing.  As I said, I am a bottler. I am independent to a fault. I hate admitting that I need people, and I hate having to lean on others for things. The very thought of letting someone know that they hurt me (aka that I'm not as tough as I pretend to be) makes me cringe.  But our conversation last night reminded me that we are meant to live this life in community. We are meant to be open and honest with those who treasure our hearts, and to bring beauty to each others' lives through that openness.

After our conversation, we spent the next two hours grocery shopping for our weekend away with our larger circle of friends. Nothing exciting or spectacular, yet you could feel the sense of peace and renewed energy in our little trio.  I am so thankful that these girls pushed us to be open with one another and share our hearts.

I feel like I'm rambling a bit today.  Maybe that's because I'm watching the clock waiting for vacation weekend to officially start. Maybe that's because I run on caffeine. Maybe it's some of both.

Regardless, my point is this.  Openness is beautiful. Being able to share your thoughts and feelings, your hurts and joys, is a beautiful and necessary part of our humanity.  Now, I think we definitely need to be careful about whom we are sharing those inner parts of our heart with.  But when you have people that you know without a doubt have your best interest in mind and are helping to guard your heart, openness and vulnerability are so beautiful.



Even when you're a mess.

Even when you know you're being dumb, but it's the way you feel, anyway.

Even when you don't know exactly what to say so you just word vomit for a while.

Even when you feel like you're the broken friend in your group and everyone else has there crap so much more together than you.

And that openness is so difficult.  We build up walls to protect ourselves. We bottle up our feelings and hurts and emotions and make ourselves our most likable versions to present to others. We pretend that we are made of armor and that we don't get hurt or have emotions. (Please tell me I'm not the only one that does that...) But living like that is exhausting. Always being in defense mode. Always feeling like you are on your own.

Life is not meant to be lived like that. We are meant to live in community. The very God who created us imago dei has community within his personhood of the Trinity.  We are not meant to be alone.

And an integral part of not being alone is being open with those who hold your heart.

There is beauty is openness. Embrace it.

-A.A.

Beauty in Brokenness

When I think of something that's broken, beauty isn't the first thing that comes to mind. Usually when something shatters into pieces, that item gets tossed out. It is no longer useful when it is fragmented. 

But when it comes to us as human beings, brokenness can be beautiful. 

I was reminded of this concept of the possibility of beauty in brokenness earlier this morning. To make a long story short, I was looking at pictures of mosaics, and thought about how amazing they are. All of these tiny pieces of broken material, shaped and formed into something beautiful. And as I was looking through all of these gorgeous pieces of art, it hit me. We are mosaics. Sure, we are broken and fragmented, but those pieces are forming together to make a masterpiece.  We might not see it; looking up close at the pieces in a mosaic doesn't show you the true beauty formed by those fragments.  But when you step back and see all of those shards and pieces put together, beauty unfolds.  

You might be in a season of complete brokenness, as I am.  There are days when all I can see is a single, fragmented piece of glass, and I have no idea how things are possibly going to get better or work out. I may be broken, but that brokenness is beautiful.  

Sometimes that beauty is brought by those in our lives.  The more people to whom I open up about my current season of brokenness, the more I am surrounded by love, help and hope. And that is beautiful.  

Sometimes that beauty is intrinsic in minor victories. Those moments where you can clearly see yourself fighting; you can see your own strength. And that is beautiful. 

And sometimes that beauty is in external things. a thought that hits us at just the right time, a song that we needed to hear, a quote that gets us through the day. And that is beautiful. 

There is beauty in brokenness. We may not understand it, and we may not always see it, but our broken pieces are being formed into something spectacular. 

-A.A. 

Companies I love: Unlock Hope

"Without access to education,

[young girls in Uganda] often marry young,

have large families that they are unable to care for

and are forced to work difficult jobs for very little pay." 

There's a popular feminist clothing company that has a shirt which reads "girls just want to have fun....damental human rights."  As a Jesus Feminist [if you haven't read that book, you can borrow mine. Gave me LOTS to think about] at heart, that statement resonates with me when it comes to things like eradicating the pink tax and ensuring equal pay for equal jobs.  But for young girls living in Uganda, fundamental human rights means something entirely different. 

School. Just the basic right of going to school is far too often denied to young girls across the world. Unlock Hope saw this problem and stepped in to do something about it.  Through the sale of some really cool shirts/tanks/baseball tees/etc., Unlock Hope is propelling young African girls forward and helping them step out of the cycle of poverty.  You can read their concise synopsis of how they do that here. Just scroll down the page and you will see their description of their work.  I think it's important to read companies' explanations of their mission and goal in their own words, so just in case you're too lazy to click on the link, here it is: 

"IN UGANDA, YOUNG GIRLS AREN'T GIVEN THE SAME CHANCES AS BOYS.

Without access to education they often marry young, have large families that they are unable to care for, and are forced to work difficult jobs for very little pay. 

Since 2008, we have partnered with Think Humanity, an organization that runs a hostel in Hoima, Uganda for young refugee girls from all across Africa, many of whom are orphaned. 

Solely through the sale of our products we are able to fully fund the hostel and provide everything necessary for these girls to receive an education.  Health care, food, tuition, utilities, transportation, support staff, school fees, clothing, uniforms, toiletries, school supplies, books and more are completely paid for - all thanks to your purchases!

TO A YOUNG REFUGEE IN UGANDA HOPE IS AN EDUCATION.

Beth Heckel, the founder and director of Think Humanity, explains further what this means to them.

'The Think Humanity Girls Hostel Program was developed to bring 30 girls together under one roof so that they can receive a secondary school education within the town of Hoima, Uganda.

The majority of our girls, many whom are orphaned, are also innocent victims of war. Due to this, girls are living as refugees and are displaced from different locations such as South Sudan, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Rwanda and northern Uganda.

Without the opportunity to study further, these children would likely get married at a young age, earn low incomes, have large families they cannot support, and thus continue the cycle of poverty and underdevelopment. Think Humanity’s program intends to break that cycle.

This program goes beyond simply getting access to secondary education. These children will be engaging in supplementary activities to give them the leadership skills and tools necessary to succeed in life. Additional activities and support include educational seminars, skill training, leadership development, sports, access to nutritious food and health care.

The first year of the program all of the girls passed successfully and many were top students and leaders in their schools. We believe that a big portion of this success is due to our great partnership with Unlock Hope. While most children in this region have meals consisting of a corn flour paste or porridge, our girls have been blessed with three nutritious meals a day. Nutrition is one important key to high performance in school. Unlock Hope has kept our children strong, healthy and able to focus on their studies.

TH girls want to become doctors, nurses, teachers, engineers and journalists and Unlock Hope is ready to take this one big step further by providing as much support as possible to see that these girls’ dreams come true.

Education for girls has been identified as one of the best solutions to reversing the relentless trend of poverty and disease. We believe that when you educate a girl, you can potentially educate an entire nation!

Through partnership, Think Humanity and Unlock Hope plan to impact the future of many lives through education.'"

So, here are just a few reasons why I love Unlock Hope:

1) They understand how to effectively give girls a chance.  Unlock Hope, through Think Humanity, not only helps to provide an education to girls in Uganda (many of whom are refugees from surrounding countries displaced by war), but they also provide supplemental activities to teach their girls life skills in order for them to succeed once they leave the hostel. This enables them to break the cycle of poverty.   

2) They mean what they say.  In the FAQ section of their website, Unlock Hope explains that "when we say we fully fund the Think Humanity girls' hostel, that's exactly what we mean." Instead of donating a portion of the proceeds of the sales of their items, Unlock Hope donates their entirety of the budget needed to fully fund the hostel for that year, and then use the proceeds from sales to supplement that donation. SUPER RAD. 

3) Sweatshop free.  Their clothing is produced ethically! Hooray! 

4) The designs are so cute and affordable.  Seriously. Check out the clearance section for some awesomely cheap shirts. I own a couple, and they wear well, wash well and are just so cute! I cannot wait to buy more!

So there you have it! Now scurry on over to their website and stock up on cute tanks and tees for the summer, and provide girls in Uganda what are truly basic fundamental human rights: the opportunity to get an education and not be forced into a life of poverty! 

-A.A.