Mother Love

I sit here this morning with a hot cup of coffee (decaf, since this little one doesn’t need any more energy than it already has) and watch the snow flitting around over the meadow and lake, and I think about the thing I crave. I’m not talking about pickles and ice cream or chocolate or the other things we so often want to fill ourselves with….

…because have you ever come across a phrase or quote or verse or lyric that just seems to strike you so deep in places you didn’t even know about that it almost seems to make the world stop for a few moments while you let it sink in?

Yeah, me too.

This one did it to me a few days ago: “They looked to Him and were radiant.” (Ps. 34:5)

I’ve read this verse before, because I tend to camp out in Psalms a lot when I’m reading Scripture. I love the Psalms more than any other book of the Bible because it’s a lot like reading a bunch of song lyrics, and music is my top love-language with God (if there is such a thing as love languages with God…). But somehow this little phrase hit me so hard when I read it again, and I’ve been mulling and mulling over it ever since.

This is the thing…I crave beauty. I want to be a beautiful, stunning, and radiant woman that reflects the true feminine heart of God. I don’t want attention for beauty, but rather just the peaceful confidence within myself that I am what I was made to be.

Beautiful.

And this is the other thing (of which i’ve talked about many times before)…I rarely feel beautiful. I hardly ever feel that peaceful confidence that I am a beautiful and radiant woman. Sometimes I do…but in all perfect honesty, it’s usually only when I’m all dressed up for a night out and my hair turned out like I want it to and I’m not feeling like I look fat and my face isn’t puffy and my outfit actually looks similar to the Pinterest picture I was copying from and my mascara didn’t clump up on me. But all of these things are external factors that change with each day, and if I rely on them to give me my confidence, then my feelings of beautiful will be one grand roller coaster. Because goodness knows my hair hardly ever looks like I want it to and my mascara clumps up every other day and my face gets puffy for no reason these days…

So if I can’t rely on any of these things that we women use to make ourselves feel pretty and beautiful, then where is it at?

That’s where the above verse hit me and gave me some much needed perspective. Nothing in this world can give me the beauty that I crave.

Nothing.
Nothing.
Nothing.

Nothing in this world can make me feel beautiful, stunning, and radiant.

They looked to Him and were radiant.

The only way – THE ONLY WAY – that I can ever really find that peaceful confidence in being beautiful is by looking to the Only One that makes beautiful. No celebrity makeup artist or top salon hair stylist or professional clothing designer can make any of us any beautiful-er. Because the only true radiance that all of us long to have each and every day comes from Jesus. And it’s only by looking to Him will I find the beauty I’ve been craving all along.

What about you: do you find it easier to rely on the external things to make you feel beautiful?

I’d love to hear your thoughts!

Vacation is so much fun. But there is also nothing like coming home after being away! I suppose the older I get the more the old home sweet home means to me. I love to travel and see new things and all that, but just as much I love to be in my home. It is absolutely inspiring and invigorating to be surrounded by sights and experiences that aren’t familiar to the every day, but there is something so….settling about routine and being surrounded by all the familiar things.

I love unfamiliar things like new coffee shops and quaint towns and hotels, but I really love familiar things like my own bed and my kitchen and my couch + throw pillows to snuggle up to in the morning with a cup of tea and my Bible.

Ben and I were away for the past two weeks, and we managed to squeeze a whole lot of different things into our time in the south. We were with my family for Thanksgiving, which was a total blast. We had Thanksgiving with one side of the family on Wednesday and with the other side on Thursday, so our holiday was full of lots of good food and catching up and relaxing. Best kind of holiday!

// my absolute favorite pastry from my absolute favorite coffee shop //

After Thanksgiving in South Carolina, we spent a few days in Franklin, Tennessee together as a sort of marriage retreat/getaway/vacation. One of our yearly goals is to make a time for marriage input at either a conference or retreat or some such thing, and there were a few actual conferences we would have loved to attend but weren’t able to due to schedule conflict, location, cost, etc. So we took a few days and booked a room at the darlingest Airbnb home in Franklin and created our own marriage getaway. We had a ton of conversation and did a lot of reading (this book…we cannot recommend it enough) and a lot of coffee drinking and exploring. It was the best time and I came away feeling so refreshed and inspired and more in love with my husband than ever.

// Franklin is the sweetest little town…visit if you ever get the chance! I recommend Frothy Monkey for coffee + food, The Iron Gate for browsing/interior design heaven, and The Red Pony for any special date night out //

After our marriage focus weekend, we spent a few days with Ben’s brother + family in Tennessee. We’ve missed hanging out with them since their move last winter, so it was fun to have some time with them again in their new home. Then we headed back down to South Carolina for a night out to celebrate my sister’s twenty-first birthday + a Christmas dinner for Ben’s work + my old roommates wedding. So much fun stuff!

It was a super great two weeks of family + vacation, but like I said, it was so good to walk in the door to my home.

What about you: do you find yourself ready for the routine of home after a while on vacation?

I’d love to hear your thoughts!