Enjoy.

Enjoy is a verb.

For some people, this verb comes naturally. They wake up, and they enjoy life. For some people, this verb is a choice. A lot of people experience both of these paths of "enjoying."

But doesn't it feel good? Once ya choose it of course... To just---ENJOY. 

To wake up laughing at your two year old screaming for chocolate milk first thing in the morning. (Instead of groaning...which is what I tend to do)...

To taste food. The way it's meant to be tasted. Like you haven't eaten in 3 weeks, or if all you've been eating is potatoes. I once heard of a diet in which you pick one food and you ONLY eat that food for a week. When the week is over you start to eat healthier foods and you can taste them differently because you "reset" your taste buds. Do we need to really be resetting our taste buds? Because we have so many food options that we forgot to just taste or enjoy our food?

To stare at our children. Remembering them just as they are now, with our own eyes. Not with a camera lens. Enjoying the ability to have them, and see them grow, and be in their presence. It's one thing to feel gratitude...but is there something requiring more of us---to not just be grateful, but to enjoy?

We move around in our busy lives so quickly. And every spare second we get we are looking at our phones. Believe me this is not a chastisement for anyone more than it is for myself. But I know I am not alone in this. I often think of the way people lived hundreds of years ago, and I wonder if they enjoyed life more than we do today. Food required a lot more work. Having babies was WAY more risky and often resulted in death for either the mother or the child. Time was spent completely differently---as was money. Treasures were often small and simple.

So, whether your life is spent working to travel, or traveling to work, enjoy it. Whether you have a family you're raising, or still being raised, enjoy it. If you are living to work, or working to live, enjoy it. If you are living a dream, or wishing you could dream more, enjoy it. If you are like me, and folding another load of laundry, cleaning the same rooms over and over, and making more food just so you get to do the dishes...enjoy it. Whether your life will end in triumph or tragedy, enjoy it---because it's yours, no one else's. Each of our lives have blessings and burdens...but just...enjoy em'.

The Great Divide

Another poem by me. I actually wrote this while living in the lovely trailer last summer. I haven't written in a long time, I've been quite busy and "pondering" time doesn't happen as often when you're a mom of 3 kiddos under 4. But I specifically remember sitting in our little trailer, sick as a dog, and finding it impossible to ignore the prompting to sit and write this one down. It, like the others, is quite imperfect.

There is a day coming 

That is what we've heard

No...the day is here now

Where you must heed the words

For this is the day 

Of the Great Divide

{Where some will}

 be afraid and hide:

Unsure and rocky is the trail 

They take with no clear path in view

They search to bring others with them 

Because they're lost, and lonely too.

Happiness and Confidence

is the promise of this side

But because it isn't real, 

it only lasts a little while.

But they still laugh and poke fun

At those holding to the rod

They say, "Look at those silly folks,

Who say that there's a God"

But when they close their eyes at night 

It's fear that's in their souls

And though they say they're fine

They are yearning to be whole

So they seek the things of this world 

Hoping to fill the void

And they scoff at those who know they're loved

And relationships are destroyed

Some walk over to The Fence of Indecision

And they stay there for a time

Not knowing their decision is made

Unless they move fully to the side of Christ

They fear what those wanderers will say 

if they take a leap of faith

That fear is overwhelming--

If only they would pray.

Because little do they know

it is not really a leap at all

If they would choose the Savior 

They would be on a foundation that will never fall.

{Where some will} follow the prophet in stride

They will have watered their seeds of faith and will know of the Tree of Life

They will have their hands tight on the rod-Even whilst they experience trials and strife

They will have left that Fence, a long time ago---That fence called Indecision

With Christ they are yolked forever as they work to conquer the battle within.

They know His side is safest, His foundation is sure

With His help, their hearts and hands will have become clean and pure

Distraction- no, they stay their course as they seek for those in need

they want (because they know), for all to eat the fruit of the tree

For the fruit is God's love and the utmost form of divine

and even when the battle rages---for this fruit they will still climb

For His love for us all is endless, infinite, and true

And the atonement is the reason for doing all that they do

These are they that today choose to not let their minds float away

But instead they focus on the Lord and on His pathway

They worry not what others think and continue to press on

For they know whose side their fighting for and they'll fight 'till the battles won.

Those whose hands are securely locked in place

Following the Savior---they will continue to keep their pace

And they'll call to their friends and loved ones on the Fence or far away

And even if they're laughed at--you will still hear them say,

"Please come, our Savior Jesus Christ loves you so

We want you to be with us, we do not want you to let go,

The power lies within you to choose the path that you will choose

But the truth is truth and if you're not with Christ, then this battle you will lose."

These one's hearts will break, as they watch loved ones walk away

But Jesus Christ will heal them in the most amazing ways.

So with His strength they'll carry on, knowing they're not alone

And knowing, as all children want to know, that they are safely headed home.