Do You Want a Sound Heart?

       Contentment.  A daily struggle.  I wake up each morning and walk through my day with blinders on.  I want to look forward.  I am determined to make it through a week of midterms, a day with back-to-back classes, or ten hours at work.  I know when I wake up each morning what I have to do to make it through each day.  But does that really bring me contentment?
       I am slowly learning, but nevertheless learning, that contentment comes with a heart of thankfulness.  I was truly challenged when I started reading "One Thousand Gifts" by Ann Voskamp.  Most of the time I think of thankfulness as the "big things."  However, this couldn't be farther from what the Father intended for us when it comes to having a thankful heart.  For example, here in Tennessee it has been beautiful for the past couple of weeks.  And I am so thankful that I got a glimpse of spring.  I was able to ride around with my windows down and the wind whipping around my hair, as music blares in the background.  Yes, that is something to be thankful for.  
       As I read this book, my view of thankfulness shifted one hundred percent.  And honestly, I was shocked that I had never realized that every single good thing here on earth is a gift from my heavenly Father.  A gift that not only makes me thank Him and invite Him into my day, but a gift that makes me content.  Let me tell you a few of the things on my list that seem so menial and insignificant, but bring me satisfaction and a moment to draw closer to the Lord.
       1. Walking behind the dorms and smelling the air filled with a fresh laundry scent from    the output
       2. Lemon water…seriously it is one of my favorite things to drink
       3. Being smiled at by a random person walking around on campus
       4.  Burning a vanilla cookie candle
       5. Coffee in the morning, piping hot with the perfect amount of creamer
       6. A song on the radio that just makes you want to dance and sing at the top of your     lungs
       7. Holding my newborn cousin
       Try it, y'all.  Write down every moment today that peaks your happiness.  Even if you don't think it is a huge "God moment."  Trust me, it is.  He loves to give us good gifts because they make us thankful.  Read this verse from Proverbs 14:30, "A sound heart is the life of the flesh: but envy the rottenness of the bones."  
       Think about it.  You can't fill up a bucket of water with something else if it is already full.  You have to dump out the water to fill it up with something else.  Fill up your heart with thankfulness so there isn't any room for envy.  Thankfulness empties you of envy.  
       Here's the challenge.  Write down each moment that makes you satisfied, content.  Write it down because it makes you consciously aware of the many gifts you have been given each day.  It tunes your heart to sing the praises of the King.  It doesn't leave any room for envy.  When those feelings of envy sneak back in, pull out your list of things you are thankful for and trust that the Lord is providing even the littlest of moments each day for you to thank Him.  You just have to look for them.  
     By the way, the sky is really blue today without any clouds in sight.  That can be the first thing you write on your list if you live here in Nashville.  

Held

        The other day I grabbed my old iPod shuffle off of its charger and took it to the car with me to play on my drive to Belmont everyday.  I got this iPod when I was 13 and I don't think I have ever taken any music off of it, I have only added new songs.  As I was driving home after a particularly long and hard day, the song "Held" by Natalie Grant randomly came on shuffle.  I thought to myself, "Oh, I remember this song from middle school."  And as the words started to play, I knew I was about to be reminded of some of the promises that God has given me.  More than that, promises that I need to be holding onto right now.

        The first line that hit me was this, 

        "We're asking why this happens to us who have died to live, it's unfair."

        The song then goes on to say this,

        "This is what it is to be loved and to know that the promise was that when everything fell

we'd be held."

        A couple afternoons ago I was meeting a sweet woman to talk about my decision to go to Belmont, and how I have connected on campus with the ministries at the university.  We were put in touch by a mutual connection and she is trying to start a new ministry on campus.  I sat down with her in the university ministries office on this big, yellow leather couch and I had no idea what was coming, in a good way.  I shared my experience with her on the struggles of transitioning into Belmont and finding friends with common values.  After an hour of talking back and forth with her, she just looked at me and said, "You look and sound weary."  

        Whoa.  I sat there for a second and I took it in.  I'm sure my face registered shock.  That was a bold thing to say. But for some reason, I felt no anger.  I remember myself consciously letting breath out that I was holding in, and relaxing.  Letting her in.  Letting those words sink in.  Not in a "pity me" way, but in a way of letting myself say, "It's ok to be weary, Maddie."  Some sort of validation of what I was feeling, but scared to admit.  It's ok to be weary because that's when believers around me, and more importantly, my Savior, step in and give me the strength to continue on in faith.  

         More often than not, I think God owes me an easy life.  I want a pain-free, easy, just generally good life.  However, that's not His promise to me as one of His followers. BUT, His promise is better.  His promise is that His grace is sufficient enough. 

         Here's the promise, y'all it's so good…

         "But he said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.' Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong." ~2 Corinthians 12:9-10

         There is so much good in those two verses.  Words and phrases that stick out to me are…"my power is made perfect in weakness," "boast all the more gladly,"the power of Christ may rest upon me," and "content."  

        After she told me I seemed weary, she began to speak the truth of the Gospel over me.  And then she asked if she could pray over me.  I thought, "Can you pray over me?  Yes!  Of course."  This woman I have known for 2 hours.  This blessing.  This moment to be held.  To be reminded of the promise that relates back to Natalie Grant's song.  God's promise is that I would be held.  His promise is that I would know strength in Him, even when I feel weak.  

        Friends, if you are weary, rejoice in the promise that you are held.  Stand firm in the promise that His grace is sufficient and rest.