Beautiful Things

I've had the song "Beautiful Things" by Gungor on repeat. It's become part of my life's soundtrack lately. The lyrics are so simple, yet powerful. I mainly like the chorus and find my self humming, "You make me new, You are making me new" all throughout the day. 

It reminds me of  2 Corinthians 5:17 "Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new."

I designed the above quote desktop/screensaver. Feel free to download and use as your own beautiful reminder. I took this photo last summer while driving past a field that caused me to pull over just to capture the beauty of it all. 

My heart has been heavy for those going through difficult times. Sickness. Divorce. Death. Loss. Broken relationships. Life is hard. It's also beautiful. It's only by the grace of God that we get to experience both. 

A reoccurring truth that's been so impressed upon me lately is that He is still my Jesus, no matter what's going on in this life. It sounds so elementary. Through the good and the bad, He is God. In blessings and in pain, He is faithful. When my heart is overflowing with joy and when I can't hold back the tears, He is the same. Yesterday, today and forever. His love never fails. Never. Not once. 

We may not see or understand it, but His plans are always beautiful and always good. "All around hope is springing up from this old ground. Out of chaos life is being found in You."

Beautiful Things - Gungor

All this pain
I wonder if I'll ever find my way
I wonder if my life could really change at all
All this earth
Could all that is lost ever be found
Could a garden come up from this ground at all

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 beautiful things
You make beautiful things out of the dust
You make beautiful things

You make beautiful things out of us

You make me new, You are making me new

You make me new, You are making me new

It's May

Somehow, it's already the Month of May. I somewhat, unintentionally, took over a month off from blogging. I'm sorry friends! I'm still here. Life is moving right along. The days seem to be passing fast, yet slow, if that makes any sense. My schedule has been a bit busy lately. And I've been taking some time just to "be". 

I've been happy to be working on a few wedding invitations. I'm also a volunteer on our Church's graphics team, which is fun. I get to use my design skills in a different capacity and feel like I'm making a difference in our church community. I recently helped design the backdrop theme for a Sunday sermon, which was new for me and pretty exciting. 

Last week, I completed my first 5-day clean eating challenge. All my meals and snacks were planned out, along with LOTS of water drinking and exercising 25 minutes a day. At the end of it, I felt great, and I've adapted some new healthy habits. I haven't had dessert in 9 days! What?! I've turned down cookies, brownies, ice cream and the like. Mostly to see if I could do it and to break my need for sweets on a regular basis. I feel better about what I'm eating, I actually have more energy and I'm sleeping better at night. I'm hoping to keep it up (with some cheat days, of course). I'm not about to swear off sweets permanently, or anything like that. You should be worried if I said I was. Everything in moderation. 

We've reached the other side of a looooong winter and a not-so-spring-like spring. I was thankful that the sun was shining today, even if there still was a very cool breeze. I picked a few flowers from my yard and admired them on my kitchen windowsill. The buds are blossoming on the trees - at last! Warmer days are on the way, I can feel it. 

We went to Pennsylvania for Easter and got to spend time with family, which is always nice. On a side note, my hair is getting really long again. I think I'm about due for a summer trim to spruce things up a bit - nothing too drastic though. I'm still loving the peek-a-boo highlights I got in November. 

Besides the business of life, my blogging has taken a bit of a backseat simply because I haven't had a ton to share lately and I haven't felt very inspired. I think it's definitely good to take a break now and then. I want my posts to be meaningful, useful or interesting. Sometimes, I've got nothin'. Plain as that. Plus, I often wonder if anyone is really reading this or if it's just a creative outlet for me. 

I do want to say a sincere thank you to those of you, faithful readers (you know who you are!), who loyally follow my blog, and miss it enough to tell me. That means a lot to me! I treasure your support and kind words.

xoxo
Sarah