July Reflection

This has been an up-and-down summer, as the pandemic stretches on and on. We got out of town a little and started to enjoy some more activities before cases rose and our masks came back on. I have worried about school for my kids. 

It is always easy for me to let worry overshadow everything, to focus on the bad or difficult. These end-of-the-month reflections, inspired by Emily P. Freeman, help me remember more clearly and notice the beauty even in a difficult season. They help me see where love and joy are threaded through the very fabric of my life, woven into every single day.

Here are July’s reflections.

Where did you see God?

I saw him in mask mandates and in the way he heard me and comforted me in the confusion and sadness of the approach of a new season. I’ve been reading the Lectio 365 app, which helps me be quiet and pray every day, and I saw God in the things he brought to my mind from those prayers. This month, my heart felt full of worry, but God consistently lifted my fears. 

What made you laugh?

This summer, Joe and I started rewatching Friends after the kids went to bed, on my old DVD sets. It is my very favorite show, and I had not watched it in ages. We don’t watch every night, so we’re only midway through the second season, and I have watched them so many times that I know all the gags and can quote the lines before they say them. But it doesn’t stop the show from being funny, and I laugh at every one. Watching with Joe brings me back to our favorite apartment when we were first married, the TV beside the giant front windows with their long white curtains, and the laugh track from these DVDs echoing off the high ceilings. We were young and in love, and we sat close on the couch and laughed at this show. It always makes me smile.

What is one thing you learned?

This month, I have started learning a deeper appreciation of what it means, looks like, and feels like to know God really does love me, and there is nothing I can do to change that love, or to stop it. The beauty of that makes my heart skip, and remembering it helps me see him more clearly. 

 These are not new lessons, but they feel really dear to me right now.

If you join me in reflection, let me know--I’d love to see what you thought.