On Stickers
There are two people in my life who are always passing on to me some precious treasure or two. When they say, “I have something for you…” I smile wide in anticipation because I know it’s going to be good. One happens to be my mother-in-law. She always arrives with bags filled with wonderful and extraordinarily random items that I love. Tulip bulbs (already planted in soil inside beautiful pots (!), saran wrap, a coffee-grinder and an unusual vase that she assures I can give to Goodwill with no hard feelings. I rarely do because I love what she gives. If you ever see anything in my home that you think is lovely you can rest assured it comes from her hand. She has an eye for ordinary beauty and redemptive decorating. Taking what another tosses and creating, truly, a treasure. I love learning from her.
My other giving friend does much the same. Her gifts have included hand-me-down-still-in-perfect-condition Uggs, sourdough starter, parenting books, Chia seeds, gorgeous patio planters (with flowers in them!), and an entire basket filled with assorted tea. Tell me,what could be better?
So recently this friend opened up her purse during our 6am prayer meeting and announced to the other six of us, “I have stickers for you!”
Stickers?
My mind went straight to the Thomas the Train ones that Dutch sticks all over his face. Hmm… But she opened up a stationary box and pulled out a stack of small matte sheets of, yes, I suppose you’d call them stickers.
But they were beautiful. Vintage-inspired takes on flowers and birds. Matte, textured, think Anthropolgie. To call them “stickers” seemed offensive. They were art! I received them gladly and tucked them carefully in my Bible to await an occasion special enough to merit their use.
They soon found their use.
Prayer Cards & Scripture Memory Cards.
I’ll share more on Tuesday about my love for prayer cards and simple ways to make them work. But what has struck me recently about them is this:
Beauty fosters discipline.
I am, as you maybe be able to tell, experiencing a shackle-shaking revolution in my little heart of once again learning to embrace beauty. To love beauty. To value beauty as inherently valuable because all that is beauty points to He who is Beautiful.
Our God is Beautiful.
Perhaps it sounds overly dramatic, but it is a keen enough conviction in my heart that I even have felt led to repent of this–this departure from pursuing beauty. I had, in the past dozen years, sterilized my life in order to squeeze as much productivity out of it.
I had raped the soil of my own soul in a selfish striving to produce some supposedly spiritual product.
Fruit?
Fruit doesn’t grow from barren soil.
Fruit, real fruit, only grows from soil that is rich. And could it be that seeking beauty–as a way of seeking the reflection of our Great and Glorious God–is one of the ways that we cultivate this ground, one of the ways that we add nutrients and then watch the fruit grown, ripen …
... that a world may taste and see that the Lord is good.
So I slid those precious stickers out of my Bible and got to work on my new prayer cards. I used a smoky blue color marker for the titles and sharp black ink for the names. Then, of course, I finished them off with the beautiful stickers. They are simple, but exquisite to me. And you know what I’m finding?
Their beauty fosters discipline. I find so much delight in how beautiful my prayer cards look, I take care of them and cherish them and love to pray over them. I pull them out each morning like little treasures to behold. I touch those textured stickers, thinking of my friend (who is beauty), of this new pursuit, of cultivating rich soil, of my Great and Glorious God. My stickers are beautiful.
Just like prayer is beautiful.
My heart grieves for the years I have spent sterilizing my life so that I can produce more shriveled, dried up fruit that no one in their right mind would want to eat. One bright red, ripe, delicious juicy strawberry from the garden is worth ten tasteless ones shipped from who knows where. Perhaps our lives are a little like that. Less fruit, but better. Real. And maybe that has something to do with beauty.
Maybe it has something to do with stickers.
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Do you see Him in the details of life? He is so beautiful.
Where have you seen Him today?
Day Without Shoes: Results and Winner!
Amazing. You guys are awesome! I got up early this morning to count and sat there in awe at the number staring me in the face. Your generosity is such a blessing. When I hear all the stories you have shared about going to the bank, getting strange looks, going to work, school, church events, I am so inspired. Last night at Adorn seeing all of you lovely ladies setting up tables and chairs with your beautiful bare feet. You’re amazing.
Wasn’t this fun? We should do it more often!
So here are, total shoes, our grand total raised, and the winner:
::Total shoes:
Together, all of us that commented, own 722 PAIRS OF SHOES. Yikes! You guys, that’s a lot of shoes. Isn’t it crazy to take such an objective look at all we have? 722 pairs, an average of 30 pair per person (some of you rounded up or included your spouse’s, so it’s likely a little less, but still!) I love what one commenter said (who herself had 34 pair), “You’d think we were all centipedes!” 722 was also the year (BC) that Assyria conquered the northern 10 tribes of Israel. I wonder if our shoes are what will conquer us? 🙂
::Total given to World Vision to provide clothing and shoes for those in need: Altogether, including the $10 per comment and the generous 11times multiplication through World Vision and all that we each gave on our own, together we raised, in one day:
$11,297.00
What?! ELEVEN THOUSAND two hundred and ninety-seven dollars. And actually I know some of you gave a lot more than the number of shoes you had, so it number is actually more, but I hope this is encourages your heart! I know it does mine!
Thank you, Jesus, for your grace and faithfulness. This was such a blessed, fun event to do with you all and I thank you so much for your participation.
::Winner:
And the random generator gives us our book winner is:
Summer Bryan!
Woohoo! Thanks so much, Summer, for participating!
Thank you thank you thank you all for participating. I hope you have a blessed day with comfy feet tucked in those wonderful shoes and that we all have just a teeny bit more appreciation for the abundance that we have.
And if you’re just now finding out about all this, you can always count your shoes (or count whatever you want!) and give HERE to World Vision and have it multiplied 11 times for those in need. Let the giving continue!!
Blessings on you!
One Day Without Shoes [Challenge & Chance to win]
{UPDATE! Even if you see this mid-day or at 10pm at night, it’s not too late to jump on board! Even if you only slip off your shoes for 5 minutes… Count, Click, Contribute and Comment–every bit counts! God bless you!}
Today’s the day! Today, Tuesday, April 5th we have a very fun opportunity to partner with World Vision and One Day Without Shoes, an awareness-raising movement by TOMS shoes. Take a moment and watch the video, then check back in because we’re doing a little different spin here today… (Video here)
Cool, huh?
My heart is that whenever we meet physical needs we meet spiritual needs as well. It isn’t enough to do one or the other. We are to give generously and in a manner that spreads the gospel of Christ.
Amen?
SO, will you join me in this amazing opportunity to raise literally thousands of dollars today and spread the gospel in powerful ways. It’s a 3-part challenge and includes a chance to win a FREE gift — something to nourish your soul.
Here’s the challenge:
1. Go today without shoes. Maybe it’s weird, but at the very least you’ll get a tiny taste of that it’s like to have a little less. Maybe it’ll be rainy, maybe it’ll be odd socially (I have Bible study and we have ADORN tonight!), but if you are able (I know in some vocations you would not be allowed, so just go barefoot before or after work!), I’d encourage you to go for it. At least it will remind us to pray for our brothers and sisters around the world who struggle every day to meet their basic needs of food, water, clothing and shelter. So slip off those shoes and bare those beautiful toes!
2. Count your shoes. Give $1 for every pair you own. This isn’t about guilt it’s about grace and gratitude. Taking inventory of what we have is healthy way to remind ourselves of the FACT that have A LOT. For example, I do not think of myself as a shoe-lover. I didn’t think I had very many at all. But when I say count your shoes I mean every pair, not just in your closet, but in the garage, in your out-of-season rubbermaid bins, the ones tossed in the corner or the dusty ones you never wear. (And yes, those satin pink bridesmaid heels you never threw away! If you can walk in ’em, count ’em!) I counted the old boots in the garage that I never wear and all the $2 flipflops in every color that I got from Old Navy on clearance. Every pair–count them. I did this and was shocked:
24 pairs.
Really? I really have twenty-four pairs of shoes?
Ok, $24 dollars. Now here’s the cool thing (Don’t miss this!): If you give through World Vision, through this specific link, the money we give specifically for shoes and clothes will be MULTIPLIED ELEVEN times over! Yes! They have generous donors who have agreed to multiply any gifts in this category eleven times over. So if I give $24 that will pay for $264 worth of clothing and shoes! WHOA!
So go count up your shoes and CLICK HERE to visit World Vision and have your gift multiplied by 11.
Last, and here it gets fun and I get scared…
3. IF you do this (go barefoot, count your shoes, and give the $ amount), leave a comment on this site (click at the bottom of this post) with the number of shoes you counted. This isn’t to embarrass anyone, it’s to share in community and get some perspective and to acknowledge how much we all have. (If you leave a comment and say “2” I’ll know you’re lying.)
Then, Jeff & I will give World Vision an additional $10 for EVERY COMMENT. And that will also be multiplied by 11, so we literally have the opportunity, together, to give thousands of dollars to help clothe and shoe those in need today! In just one day! This is a phenomenal opportunity. I know that there’s a lot of ya’ll out there, so I’m a little scared to do this, but if you’re up for it, so am I! (And yes, my husband said it was ok!)
And although the real “winning” is in giving, here’s one fun little freebie:
At the end of the day we’ll draw a winner at random from the comments and that winner will win a FREE BOOK. You choose from a list of five books, which you can see below.
Ready? Head over to the closet and with a little counting and clicking we can bless God’s children with the message of Christ and the gift of shoes. Because our God is so good.
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*Books to choose from: (or if you have all these you’re welcome to pick another spiritually nourishing book of your choice.)