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Tuesday, July 3, 2012

Remember and Celebrate.

Remember and Celebrate. It's something we do with the Stirring Kids. It's infused in our curriculum. It's an intentional day we pause, to remember and celebrate who God is. What he has done. What we have learned from him. How he has changed us.
I LOVE this discipline that we're teaching our kids.
Some of you know how much the word "celebrate" has shaped me.
It started a few years back, when I was in a really dark, painful season of healing.
I felt like the pain and heart ache and wilderness would never end. I felt hopeless and defeated and discouraged. I couldn't see the end, the light, the thing I was fighting so desperately for. All I could see was the consuming darkness and suffering I was in the midst of.
That's when a friend, a mentor really, stepped spoke some of the most powerful words to me. He reminded me to celebrate every thing God had done. Every small victory, every HUGE victory, every step forward, every ounce of freedom and victory I have already gained. To stop and celebrate these things. I might not be where I wanted to be quite yet, but I was no longer where I was. Does that make sense? Yes, I still had work to do. Yes, the journey wasn't over yet. Yes, it was still hard and painful and agonizing at times. But I'm not who I was. I'm not where I once was. I've taken steps forward. Maybe baby steps, but steps none the less. And when I celebrate, I am filled with gratitude. With desperate thanks for how faithful God has been to me.
This has been SUCH a powerful word for my life. I occasionally find myself once again in a familiar place of pain and hopelessness, and I remember to celebrate. To find gratitude and thankfulness for ALL that God has done in my life. I'm a changed person. And I have an abundance of things to celebrate and give thanks for.
So it excites me that we're teaching our kids this.
That we take time to celebrate what God has done.
To remember all we have to be thankful for.

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