Reflections and Highlights from my trip to Knoxville, TN

Highlights from the trip:

Muffin's birthday ;)

Blackberry picking 

Kristin's swim meet 

Pool time with Eleanor!

Being on the lake... 

 

 

Matt and Ty's baseball games, plus Matthew's lacrosse game: 

Painting with Bobby Crews 

Aunt Meg's 40th 

Ashley's visit! 

More painting... 

Father's day! 

My bird painting 

Downtown Knoxville... 

Visiting with Gramps and Grams... 

The lake :) 

Spending time with family 

Lindsay Harper's wedding 

 

Ober Gatlinburg  

Visitng with good friends (like Jac!) 

And moms.... 

Seeing my lovely girls from Columbus! 

Spending time with Grammy! 

And seeing my roomies :) Such friends! 

And being with Liz again :) 

My last day in Tennessee has arrived. It’s really hard to believe time has gone so quickly! Feels like I just got here. But like all good things, it’s time to wrap this one up so I can allow God to bless me with a new season of good things!


To start, I have found my 21 days in the Word challenge I have taken to be profitable and effective (when I am able to do them consistently!)—glad I made this literature purchase. In fact, it has really helped me pin down some topics that have been so vague in my life lately, like passion, purposeful living, inspiration, motivation and how to do community/what that means. According to the book of Mark, this was how Jesus lived his life: with passion for us, inspiration to see God move as He said he would, motivated by God’s word, and living amongst us to show us what it means to love.

And no, I am not saying now since I have read these chapters and seen Christ’s passions/work I am now blazing strong with a God driven passion. However, it has made me realize just how much my life depends on these topics in order to endure for the kingdom. God has wired us to desire more than the mundane! What a beautiful blessing!

I have struggled to get started towards this passion and purpose driven life, for I have found little motivation that captures me and lacking inspiration. My dad and I have talked a little bit about why that is. And there are many reasons why for me…

The first one being my heart: I really need to be diligent in pushing the things that distract me aside HARDER and instead pushing towards the things that matter. Another factor is my current locale and seasonal transition. Different seasons will come, and they are not bad. Yet I need to learn how to approach them with more Christ-empowered courage, diligent planning and a passionate drive. If not, you will find yourself indulging in procrastination, carelessness, undirected busyness, and little concern for living intentionally (like I have done lately). These little foxes are what make a season turn sour unless you catch it ahead of time…

Now that I have realized these problems and their effects, I need to pick myself up from this place I am sitting and ask for God’s help to find purpose, motivation, inspiration to function in community. Thus, I am going to push forward with a game plan… something I am gifted at doing (Lord, help me follow through!)

Thus, I am going to share (for my own sake) where Andrew and I are heading in this race to push forward in our vision:

1. Our overall vision: a life lived with purpose, passion enjoying life and God; glorifying Him in all faucets of life

2. Family:

a. Husband: first priority—His goals/visions, financial priorities, regular weekly date nights, regular intimacy, encouragement and challenged weekly to walk as God calls

b. Children: flexible and healthy routine, 1-on-1 quality time with each child weekly, intentional conversations, training and discipline balanced with fun and leisure

c. Extended family: keep up with in emails, phone calls and scheduled Skype dates; balance quality time with each side, keeping things fair and unbiased.

d. Dwelling place: a place to relax, be inspired and stay focused on our goals. Colors and overall feel of the house will be uplifting and fresh.

3. Church and fellowship

a. Serving: through the church, our fellowships, dinner hostings and bible study hosting.

b. Sabbaths: worship, relational, intentional family time set up for that day

4. Food: healthy, balanced, reasonably priced and planned

5. Work: (at home) begins 1 hour before and 1 hour after Andrew leaves/comes home from work; planned and attacked with diligence/balance

6. Fun: fits into everyday in some form (whether active or static)

7. Exercise: Everyday, balanced and realistic (composed of outdoor and gym)

8. Relational: make time and effort to grow, maintain and embrace; honor and serve realistically in each in their appropriate season

9. Holidays: keep a focus on the main reason for each season and tailor activities/traditions associated with each to bring a deeper meaning to the holiday season; family: keep a balance on quality time and sacrifice preferred time to be with loved ones around us.

Andrew and I will elaborate more on these as we progress, but these are the launching pad.

That's all for now. Time to get things loaded in the car and drive to the airport... I'm off to Anchorage!

Blessings! XOXOXO