Language is the Music of the Soul

I've had various conversations lately about words.  Words are amazing things.  Ya know those people who use language so elegantly and beautifully without sounding funny?  I love those people.  And if they can write like that, all the better.  So when I fell across Renee's blog over a year ago, I fell in love with her writing.  Renee's beauty comes out in her writing, and I love that so much.  And then, last week, she posted this jewel of a post.  And it happened to just fit perfectly with a conversation I had recently had.

There's something about spending time with people that gives you more things to laugh about.  It's different from connecting via text or email or chat.  Because those funny one-liners rarely come from email messages.  They do, however, emerge from phone calls, skype conversations, or, best of all, talking in person.

(Don't get me wrong, I see the value of today's social media (Hello, multimedia major here!).  But the personal connection from talking goes way beyond any other type of communication.)

These types of one-liners are beautiful.  And fun.  And they tie you closer to the person or people with whom you have them.  Cases in point:

"Pinterest!"- I can't hear it (from certain people) without laughing, unfortunately.
"I heard he was cute""Brilliant!""Where's the van?""Group Dynamics!!"

These phrases draw my friends and I together.  Each time we use one of them, we are reminded of an experience that we had.  That's such a blessing, you guys.  When you re-hash a fun time or a difficult week, you are re-learning about the people with whom you experienced this, you are re-learning about yourself.  It's so beautiful, important, and crucial to your growth with your friends.

And that's how friendship turns into family.

Anchor my Heart to Your Cross

Faith, Hope, and Love.  Three little words that we flippantly say so often, but how often do we truly think about them?  

Lately, I've been absolutely loving the symbol of the anchor.  We all need to be anchored to something.  SomeONE, actually.  Our Lord is the only One who never moves, is always constant, and it is He who we can always trust in.  An anchor indicates strength, and I think it's appropriate that it's the traditional Christian symbol for hope.  When a ship is anchored to the shore, it can bob up and down, it rocks from side to side, and it can even drift a little bit, but it really can't go too far.  What a comforting thought!  If we are anchored to Christ as our rock, we aren't guaranteed that we're never going to go through troubling times.  Actually, we're pretty much assured that life is going to be difficult.  But as long as we keep our anchor of faith tied to our Rock, we can have hope that we can make it back to His side.  His strength can pull us through, so long as we keep our eyes on Him.

I'm going to be honest with you all: in the last couple weeks, I've really been struggling with these three virtues.  They all go together, and I think that when one suffers, the others do as well.  I have come to the understanding that I don't receive God's love as well as I should, that shakes my faith in Him, and then I find myself drifting further and further away from His perfect life-giving Presence.

Sometimes, I need visual reminders of what I'm working on in my spiritual life.  I guess this is one reason that I have so many inspirational quotes around my room, because I forget those fundamental things too often.  When I realized how much I really need to push myself to work on these three areas, I knew I needed something concrete.  I started with a sticky note, but that didn't stay with me all the time.  Then I started looking for a bracelet, but they were all too clunky.  I also realized that it doesn't necessarily need to be visual to everyone.  OK, I thought, I will go a different route.  So later that afternoon, I bought an anklet, and three charms (on amazon, of course...)- a cross, an anchor, and a heart.  The chain is really thin, and the charms are super tiny, just as I wanted.

I was actually afraid that I was going to regret this purchase (I am going to Austria, after all, and journeying in Europe costs a wee bit o' money), but the more I've thought about it, the more I've realized that this will help me a lot.  Visual, tangible reminders like this one will hopefully keep me on course and help me grow in my faith!

Have you come across anything in your own life that you find you need a visual to remind you of?  Share in the comments!
xoxo,

ps- last week, I celebrated 10,000 views, and today I'm celebrating 100 posts!  Let's make a deal- you help me reach 20,000, and I'll give you another 100, ok? ;)

truth

"You ask yourself: "Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?"  Actually, who are you not to be?  You are a child of God."

xoxo,