Alphabet for the Soul--N is for Navigate
Happy Monday, friends!
I'm a beach girl through and through. I want to live at the beach. In fact, it's one of the places that I really do live. Not physically own a house there, but a place where, when I'm there, I'm all there. I'm truly living. Do you know what I mean?
Living Distracted
We often go through life distracted. At least I do. So distracted. I'm always thinking of the things I haven't done or the items still awaiting me for the day. I hardly ever just stop and enjoy the moment. Enjoy the warmth of the sun on my skin or the feel of granules of sand slipping between my toes--but at the beach, I do. I stop and bask in the moment. I live. Really live. I enjoy my grand babies' laughter as their feet slosh in the sea's spray and feel the sand squish beneath my feet as I chase after one of them running headlong down the open stretch of surf before us. I sit with my daughter. Just sit and chat or stare out at the ocean.
I eat lunch in my beach chair. Have you noticed everything tastes better at the beach? Fresher? The flavors popping in contrast to the salt lingering in the air. Or, perhaps, I've just worked up a health appetite. I hold my husband's calloused hand as we go for a walk, the sun warm on our backs, the horizon never-ending before us. I love those hands that hold me close. I love him. And at that beach I slow down enough to realize the beauty of all the gifts I have before me.
Trusting God as We Navigate Life
I have a new gift. If you can look at Lupus as a gift. I just got diagnosed this week, but I know God doesn't allow anything in my life that hasn't passed by Him, that He doesn't have in His hands, that isn't for my best. How could Lupus be for my best? I don't know, but I'm not God. I simply trust. Trust that He has me through all that's to come.
Trust that the One who made the sand, the sun and the sea and keeps them in their space--the sun rising every morning and setting each evening, the ocean tides like clockwork, the sand--so lift and fragile--still lining the beach that I ran on as a child. If the God who controls nature, the rotating of the earth, the passing of each moment of time has me in His capable hands, I will rest in that. I will trust that the One who knows the hairs of my head knows exactly what's going on in my body and will carry me through this new path to navigate, and you can bet I'll be wearing flip flops the entire way.
Where are you most fully alive? In the woods, at the beach, or hugging your children tight? I'd love to hear.
Thanks for sharing your Monday morning with me. I look forward to it all week!
Download today’s Coloring page
“N” for Navigate
If you have not already, you can also download the front and back cover below:
To see all letters and download all coloring pages, go to the Alphabet for the Soul page.
Blessings,