Today I’m posting about last Sunday — about spirit and the Word and worship. About joy and gratitude.
That’s a bit of a change: So far the majority of my blog posts have been about hair. One of the reasons? Besides the obvious reason that my hair demands almost daily attention, it’s because I’m loving the science, adventure, challenge, creativity, and fun of pursuing my hair goals. And to be honest that is a bit strange to me! I never would have thought that HAIR — of all things — would be such a large part of what makes life so enjoyable.
I so have never been that girl. When I was relaxed, hair was simply about my look. Now as a natural, I immensely enjoy caring for my hair. And the very way of my hair, for lack of a better term — actually captures my interest. I love where my hair could go were I to continue on my current hair journey, and I respect the gift, blessing, beauty, and effect of hair in a way that I never registered before. I now experience my hair as a lovely gift from God, and that’s absolutely ticklish to me, being less “girly” of a girl than most. 😀
But today I will pivot away from the topic of hair to reflect about Sunday. 🙂 It was a WONDERFUL Sunday, and it deserves a post. 😀
My Dad, Amazing Food, Amazing Drink
My dad came over to spend Sunday morning with the boys. He allowed me to call him at the last second. And he dropped everything, asked if he should bring anything, and came over and enjoyed us while we enjoyed him.
He came bearing gifts, too! He brought donuts, organic and regular strawberries (since he didn’t know which we preferred), and both Simply Strawberry Lemonade and Simply Raspberry Lemonade (since he didn’t know which we preferred). My dad is so generous. Words cannot articulate how BLESSED it is to have grown up with a generous father. It has shaped EVERYTHING about my life.
I’d made blueberry muffins that morning (our eight year-old LOVES them 🙂 ), so with Dad’s contributions and since he was looking after the boys, I was able to BASK in the most amazing-tasting breakfast. The whole time I was eating it I was uttering unconscious “mmm’s” and “mm!” (my husband finds the unconscious nature of this HILARIOUS, and I find it a little embarrassing because I literally don’t know that I’m doing it and can’t hear myself doing it). I just kept thinking about how God made humans and taste buds and strawberries and the inspiration for strawberry lemonade . . . and on and on and on. The sun was streaming into the kitchen through large blinds, and I’d eat a bite, give an unconscious “mm,” look out at my dad and the boys, look up at the sun, and my heart just was swelling from the felt love of God. Woooo. 🙂
Monday I put some of the Simply Strawberry Lemonade into Little Man’s new water bottle, and he took a sip with such pleasure. It’s God who makes this pleasure possible. I thanked God for my dad, for fruit juice, for the sweetness of healthy fruit, for health itself, for the sun, for love.
NOTE: I could write in a similar way about my husband, my mom, and my brother as I have just written about my dad. 🙂 I will aim to do so in future posts for sure. 🙂 Everyone in my life blesses me immensely, and it’s important to say so. 🙂
Sunday’s Really Good Sermon
This Sunday’s sermon was EXACTLY about the concept I just illustrated in the preceding paragraphs: We need people.
The sermon was amaaaaaaaazing (it’s linked below). The preacher was in his element. You could just see it. *nodding my head up and down*
Here are some of the thoughts from the sermon that particularly stayed with me:
- We are meant to do life and church with others: God himself said “It is not good for man to be alone.”
- If you want to THRIVE, you need people! There was an experiment done a while back, and in that experiment newborns were deprived of conversation/talk. The result? They died!!! Think about that: They died from lack of communication. We were MADE to function in community.
- Life with others is messy. That’s just the way it is. If you want an unmessy “table” (i.e. life, situation, company, etc.), then don’t invite anyone to your “table.” But if you want a full “table,” understand there will be messiness.
I could write pages and pages about what the sermon was about, what I thought about it, how it felt to hold my husband’s hand during worship and praise, how joyful it was to watch a woman’s joy as she dedicated her life to Christ and got baptized . . . and on and on. Instead, I will just add a link to the sermon (it’ll be available for free for a short while before being moved to the archives, after which it will be available for a very small amount — proceeds to be invested in people).
Here is a link to the sermon (and the video is embedded below): https://vimeo.com/showcase/5323962/video/268413421
LifeHack Bible Excerpt on “Antifragility”
On the car ride back from church, I flipped through my bible (the very awesome LifeHack bible) to see where it would land. It landed on a write-up about “Antifragility.”
Here is the very interesting definition of antifragility presented in the excerpt:
Nassim Nicholas coined the term “antifragile” to describe people, organizations, or systems THAT BENEFIT from obstacles, unexpected events and change. (emphasis added)
Wow.
Let that definition SINK IN for a minute!
As I read the excerpt, I thought deeply about the concepts and how they might apply to my life, circumstances, and experiences. Below are the antifragility skills/strategies discussed in the excerpt. To become (more) antifragile, some things we can do are to:
- Diversify
- Expect failure and disappointment
- Make lots of smaller investments
- Simplify
- Create redundancies
- Have a long-term vision
Of course, after applying the content to my life, I then found myself applying the principles specifically to HAIR CARE. (Diversify? Simplify? Have a long-term vision? Expect failure and disappointment? Make lots of smaller investments? I see how all of these apply to hair care. I feel a blog post coming on! 😛 Create redundancies!!! Yesssss!) LOL. Smh. Oh well. What are you going to do? 😀 Hair is a passion. 😀
Well, I hope you enjoyed this post. As always, please feel free to comment. I’d love to hear from you. 😀 Thank you for visiting the blog, and many blessings to you and yours!
The Blossoming, Fit Natural 