Overwhelmed...

The word of the week:  overwhelmed.  Not really sure why.  Overwhelmed at my closet... overwhelmed by our school room (what a mess!)... overwhelmed at lesson planning, at the painting that needs to be done downstairs... my neck and shoulders tighten as I type the words.  The image of Julia Roberts backing down the aisle in the movie, Runaway Bride, comes to mind.  That's me!  I just want to run away from the clutter.  I think that's why my Goodwill run earlier in the week was so therapeutic.  So much to do, yet never enough time or so I think.

I'm clinging to the verse in second Corinthians, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness."  My devotions this week have been such sweet reminders of this amazing grace.  Remembering that giving thanks is an action and rejoicing is a verb.  "While I may not always feel joy, God asks me to give thanks in all things because He knows that the feeling of joy begins in the action of thanksgiving." - Ann Voskamp

I must give thanks.  For in the messes, there is life.  

Give thanks for the froggy needing to be sewn...

for the mums needing to be planted...

for the rooms almost completed...

for the ministry that keeps my man on his toes...

for the discovery of my camera charger...

for the last days at the pool...

for walks to the pond as the sun begins to set...

for slowing down enough to look through a different lens at what is really important...

"Seeing is of course very much a matter of verbalization.  Unless I call my attention to what passes before my eyes, I simply won't see it." - Annie Dillard