fill me up, pour me out.

When I think about my friends or loved ones, I find that I never imagine them in the mundane parts of their day. I think of them in the thick of the good stuff, doing the things that they do best, really capitalizing on their strengths. But it's funny, because so much of our lives is the day in and day out routine and pattern of living. Dress the kids for school, do the dishes, drive to work, make the bed, fix the rug for the six hundredth time today. I know there is such a campaign in our current culture to find the beauty in the ordinary, but I'll confess it's hard for me. It's not because I don't love the ordinary or love rhythms, I do SO much. Making coffee, twice, maybe three times a day, is one of my favorite rhythms. We have a new percolator and I love the whole process of laying out a tea towel, taking it apart, cleaning it piece by piece, refilling it, then listening from the other room as it brews. 

I love the mundane even when I don't see some sort of glittery beauty just beneath the surface, but I am practicing something new in asking the Lord to help redeem the time of the mundane. I'm a physical and visual person so I've started just breathing little breath prayers that pertain to each action I'm doing. Fill up the coffee pot - Lord fill me your Spirit and help me to look to You alone. Put the laundry in the wash - Father, Wash me with Your Word and give me a pure heart. Put the chicken in the oven, Lord, how can we help the hungry? The physically hungry and those hungry for you? Driving the same route I take every day - Shake me, up Lord! Don't let me just go the direction that is natural and in my flesh. Direct my steps!

I think God loves the ordinary and the mundane because it's what our world of made of, but I think He wants to redeem all the minutes and hours we have too. So this is my start. And now it's time to make the coffee. Fill us up, Lord and pour us out for Your glory. 

It's day two of our #12daysofNTD promotion! Each week day from now through December 18th, we'll give away one prize to a customer who spends over $30 in our shop. Today is a $20.00 Starbucks card (woohoo!) and yesterday's winner of 15 prints was Jennifer C!