you make me new

what a beautiful gift it is to be made new. to be made beautiful.

"you make beautiful things
 you make beautiful things out of the dust
 you make beautiful things
 you make beautiful things out of us"

"all around
 hope is springing up from this old ground
 out of chaos life is being found in you"

"you make me new
 you are making me new"

the words from this song are so powerful and as i listen, i allow the truth of them to overwhelm me. i hope this monday morning, you hear something in them as well.

Light at the end of the tunnel

As Thanksgiving quickly approaches, I am getting more and more excited about it. You know when you have one of those weeks and you are just over it almost before it begins? It starts out rough on Monday and all you can do is look toward the light at the end of the tunnel (in this case, Thanksgiving) and hope time will move faster toward that light? Ya, I'm there. I'm ready for a break and after Thanksgiving, Christmas is only weeks away which means vacation, curling up on the couch and reading, and yearly traditions with my family. I CANNOT wait. In the meantime, though, I plan on doing lots of baking and Christmas decorating and snowflake making :)

Monday Morning

Dear Monday Morning, I have fought with you, welcomed you, and at times slept through you. You are always faithful to arrive about a day early. The weekend passes, refreshing and full of adventures but often lacking in productivity and then you come along and remind me what I failed to do over the weekend. Overwhelmed, I roll out of bed to make coffee and soon enough I have so many thoughts and to-do lists flying around in my head that if I don't let them out, I think I might explode. And although I often dread your arrival, you never cease to remind me of the beauty of a fresh start and picking up where I left off. Today picking up where I left off means sorting through loan paperwork and trying to start my taxes and sending emails I neglected over the weekend. But, Monday Morning, you offer me grace; a few hours before my busy week actually begins, a buffer zone if you will. I'm sorry I don't often welcome you with open arms, for another week to live and breathe is a gift indeed. And you are the bringer of that gift.