Author Archives: 365 days of marriage

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About 365 days of marriage

I started this blog in April of 2011. At the time, Bret and I were wedding photographers and it was a way to share how marriage is more about the day to day and so much more than the wedding day itself. For about 5 years, I blogged about the joys and sorrows of the Christian walk, marriage, work, family and friends. I’ve blogged every day since a few weeks after I started. In May of 2015, we photographed our last wedding. Now, I have become passionate about simplicity, particularly in marriage, Christianity, business, travel and life. For a number of reasons, we have become minimalists. I’ve found that having simplicity makes life so much deeper, refreshing and joyful. I hope that this blog will help others see the benefits of living simply.

Day 2581 – When To Quit Or Pause Your Goals

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When I got home from our road trip, I was fed up with my health. I was eating like crap and not working out. So I decided to do a 5K training program through Runkeeper. It has been a fantastic plan so far! I love that I don’t have to keep track, the app does it for me AND gives me indicators while I run. Two days ago, I was on a run and thought I felt shin splints. I almost immediately stopped running. I walked most of the rest of the workout. I went again today, thinking maybe the other day was a fluke. I had been doing a lot of squatting and moving around the day before the last run, so I thought maybe that was part of it. Sadly, it wasn’t. I felt a little bit of pain today and had to make a decision. Stop the plan. I’m really bummed out by this because I was about a third of the way through. I had a 5K all picked out too. But, I’m a big believer in listening to your body and slowing down if you need to. So, I’ll take a week or two off and try again. Hopefully it was more about me working out that much after not working out for about a month.

Have you had to let a big goal go recently? How did you deal with it? lol, because I just want to curl up in a ball and go to sleep. 🙂

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Day 2580 – Working Heartily

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“Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ.”
Colossians 3:23-24

This has become my cornerstone for what God says about work. We can learn a few things about work from this.

God wants us to work.
There is a theme throughout scripture that God wants us to work. You can see God’s plan for man and work way back at the beginning.

“The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it.”
Genesis 2:15

We were created for work. It is a blessing to work. Lest you be tempted to see work as a result of the fall, note that this verse takes place before the fall. Work is a good thing.

We can do whatever we want
I love this verse mostly because it starts with “whatever.” How many times have you found yourself in a stressful situation, thrown up your hands and said “whatever!”? I have purposed to memorize this verse, so almost every time I’m tempted to “whatever” a situation, I’m reminded of this verse.

But we can also look at “whatever” as a very open field. God didn’t say – if you’re a pastor, doctor or lawyer, work heartily. He didn’t limit it to farmers or writers or ice cream truck drivers. Whatever you do. That gives us a pretty open market on work! I would recommend knowing all of scripture and not doing work that goes against scripture – while lucrative, I would assume that robbing others as your profession doesn’t fall under “whatever you do.”

Work heartily
This is another great reminder about work – don’t be lazy. One definition of the word heartily is “in an enthusiastic and energetic way.” This is an encouragement to us to give it our all in our work. With great joy too (my inference). We shouldn’t drag our feet when we go to work. We should approach each new work day with vigor and energy. Why? That leads us to the next thing we can learn from this verse.

As for the Lord, not man
This work business isn’t for us and it isn’t for the man. (ha ha, see what I did there?) It is for our Lord, first and foremost. I think when we focus on working for the Lord and not man, it helps us to be enthusiastic and energetic. I think that God has gifted all of us with unique gifts that we can use for work. When we are doing what He gifted us with, we can find amazing energy.

We work for rewards from God
Another source for our strength in work comes from knowing that we will receive our reward from Christ. Even if you’re in a job that you hate, God has you there for a reason. It could even be just to build your character more into the character of His Son. God’s ways are not our ways and His rewards are not our rewards.

Reflection
What about you? What is holding you back from working heartily? Are you focused solely on getting “attaboy’s” from your boss (even if that boss is you)? Have you ever thought about work in this way? Spend some serious time considering how heartily you’re working and remembering who you’re working for.

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Day 2577 – Heartbroken

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Today, my heart is so heavy. Last night, the amazing historic Ellicott City was flooded and experienced extensive damage. I mean, unbelievable damage. A quick search online will show it. I am filled with many emotions about this for many reasons. We live just under 2 miles away. It is crazy something like this happened so close. I took a walk around our apartment complex this morning and there was some minor evidence of flooding last night but mostly just displaced garbage and grass against cars. As I started this post, I tried to find photos I’d taken in my many visits there….I had none. Not even plates of food. I may have some buried and not tagged well on this blog but it was still a sad thing. I’ve had coffee at several places, had drinks and tacos. So many memories. It also brought up memories of our very near death experience in the Gunpowder River. I’ve watched videos, looked at pictures and just wept.

As I was scrolling through my Facebook feed as well, I was struck by all of the other tragedies people are experiencing. Some far away, some as close as two miles away. It reminded me how many hurt and broken people there are and reminded me to be kind when someone has an attitude with me. When someone doesn’t return your smile or your wave, just remember, you have no idea what they’re going through.