the wonder in the everyday

 you've got to find the wonder in your everyday.

you've got to fight to find it.

--especially in a day and age where we so easily, so greedily, so almost helplessly are constantly observing and digesting and applauding and/or bemoaning the wonder in *other* people's days... we have GOT to make sure we find the wonder in our own, or else we will be longing for someone else's while so devastatingly missing our own everyday wonder.

I did (as I semi-often do) a deep-dive into someone else's online presence recently. Well, 2 someones - one famous, one not. One an extremely talented, multi-award-winning (I'm sure), world-renowned/world-toured electronica artist (cough*Owl City*cough), whom I have loved (his music anyway) for years, ever since I heard "Fireflies" on a school bus in 1st grade, and whom (his music anyway) I have only more recently dove into headfirst and become entirely enamored with.

The other Internet deep-dive was one into the online presence of a wife and homeschooling mother.

Both - Owl City (Adam Young) and this mother - boasted old lovely blogs full of old lovely things: memories, life events, blessings counted, stories told, even a few poems written and/or shared -- glimpses (often big ones) into their own unique, individual, personal lives.

I loved the loveliness.

But I also freaked out a little... and started veering toward jealousy, covetousness, despair, insecurity, discontentment...

"That is a lovely life," I thought, as I read through their respective lovely lives. "I wish I was a talented singer/songwriter/musician/producer/artist. I wish I was a mom/homeschool teacher/wife/homemaker/liked-and-admired middle-aged woman. I wish I was happy and successful and financially care-free and productive and content and settled in my identity, my work, my calling, and my purpose."

I wish.

I wish.

I wish.

But then I took a small step back (begrudgingly -- blessedly -- not entirely of my own accord) and realized -- I have my own lovely life. I have so much to be thankful for, so many blessings to count, so much to be happy about, to find meaning in, to celebrate and love and NOT take for granted.

I am who I am for a reason and a purpose.

I am not someone else.

I do not have someone else's calling, or job, or life.

I have my own. My own work to do, my own gifts/talents to develop and use for God's glory, my own responsibilities, my own duties, my own passions, my own calling, my own relationships, my own possessions and finances and circumstances...

God has placed me where I am, and made me who I am, and given me what I have, for a reason. And that reason is to glorify Him, if nothing else. To find my utmost joy and contentment and purpose and love and freedom and satisfaction and peace in HIM -- nothing else, no one else.

There is no better set of circumstances for me. There is no better life for me than what the Lord has given me. There is no better place to be than in His will, loving Him and knowing His love, serving Him and not myself, glorifying Him and not myself, doing what He has called me to do, and doing it well, with a cheerful heart.

I am not rich. -- But I have enough money.

I am not famous. -- But I am known enough by the ones I love.

I do not have as much free time as I would like. -- But I have enough.

I am not as talented at ___ as so-and-so. -- But I can always improve my own God-given talents.

I am not (yet) a girlfriend -- or a wife -- or a mother -- or a homemaker -- or a homeschool teacher.

But, I am what I am right now for a reason -- a daughter -- a sister -- a granddaughter -- a calf feeder -- a seasonal park attendant -- a Sunday School teacher -- a friend -- a writer -- a singer -- etc.

God has placed me where I am for a purpose, and probably just for a season. After this season -- which will last only precisely as long as He intends it to -- there will come another season. There will be changes -- no, not all of them particularly pleasant to me -- and He will be constant and unchanging amid them all.

In the wise words of Darryl Worley: "sounds like life to me / it ain't a fantasy / it's just a common case of everyday reality"...

That's just life, according to the will and good purposes of God, which I will never perfectly understand, but -- I don't need to.

I have only to leave my cares, dreams, and future in His hands, cling to Him in faith, and do the work He has given me, in cheerfulness and contentment.

He is good. 

Life is good.

And I choose to find the wonder in my everyday. 💚✝