A Beautiful Tuesday

It’s a beautiful Tuesday.

The beauty in today, however, is not found in the weather. It’s a rainy, chillier-than-normal, cloudy, stay-indoors kind of day. Some would say it’s an ugly day. A depressing day. A day to stay in bed.

“Beauty is in the eye of the beholder,” has much truth to it. The beauty this girl sees today might not be beauty to you at all. And that’s okay if we don’t see it in the same way.

The clothes piled in the laundry basket, waiting to be folded. Without my family, these wouldn’t be here.

Same goes for the shoes in our entryway.

The tallest corn in the world that surrounds our backyard. Oh, how it reminds me of my smallness.

The flowers, the grass (and the weeds) drinking in the drops from the sky. They appear even more vibrant today.

The presence of my family, the texts from my daughter, the photos of each of them on our walls.

My favorite teal cup, filled with my afternoon coffee.

And I went shorter with my hair today in my stylist’s chair. (It’s always a beautiful day when I have a hair appointment!)

It’s also the release day of a book that has impacted my life greatly… Simply Tuesday.

“I’m paying attention to the small ways that Jesus–and his kingdom–show up in the daily ordinary, in the actual places where I live. When I think of where to find “the kingdom of God in our midst,” Tuesday comes to mind. This is the day of the week housing the regular, the ordinary, the plain, and the small.” – Emily P. Freeman, Simply Tuesday

Girl, you are speaking my language.

God has used Emily’s book to transformed my thinking, which has transformed the way I see things, which has transformed my life.

I no longer have to choose between an ordinary life and an extraordinary life, because I’ve realized they are the same thing.

I’ve learned I’ve been holding on to the wrong things, and in doing so, the wrong things have had a hold on me.

I’ve left the small moments behind, thrown them out with the leftovers, only to realize bigger isn’t better, and I’ve forgotten what’s best.

I’m taking back the long days and the short years and all the months that have come in between… because this is where my real life happens. On Tuesday afternoon. In the midst of laundry baskets and shoes in the entryway.

Friend, we may perceive our lives as being regular, ordinary, plain, or small. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Maybe, just maybe, all these years we’ve missed the point. Maybe we’ve been focusing on what we don’t have, and we’ve missed seeing what we do have. Maybe we’ve been striving to build a city, when what we needed were benches. Maybe competing has replaced connection, figures have replaced friends, stages have taken the place of stairwells.

Tuesday is a good day to begin small-moment living in a fast-moving world.

If this resonates within your soul, I encourage you to grab a copy of the book to begin your journey of small-moment living. I believe you’ll enjoy it as much as I have… and learn much about yourself in the process.

As the rain drops continue to fall this afternoon, I’m embracing the beauty, the simple, the small.  #itssimplytuesday

I like what I see.

Blessings,

Julie
Linking up with Kelly for #RaRaLinkup and Holly for #TestimonyTuesday.