DoAheads! How ARE you? We’ve been a little shy on posts the past two weeks. Mostly yours truly! A minor medical issue caught me off guard but all is well.

It will be a bit more quiet around here until the New Year. Christmas IS coming is it not?! We’ll keep posting s few fun recipes that may serve you well if you’re entertaining (I was in the mood for snacks…go figure!)

And I’ve got an awesome give away next week (A three month subscription to Fortify My Faith! Details to come!) In the meantime, I hope you’ll enjoy this beauatiful “Christmas letter” from contributor Dana Boyd. I’ve always known she was a lovely human being. Her words and pictorial narrative confirm it. 🙂

Blessings dear ones. I’ll be back on Monday!

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Somehow, we are turning the page on 2016. It will soon be our yesterday. Nationally, contention dominated the months. I imagine, in the years ahead, a glance in the rear-view mirror will reflect, for many, memories eclipsed by the dark and the ugly.

The controversies and struggles of a nation, the resulting unrest that crept into relationships.

The vulgarities and criminalization that lost their scandalous impact, sadly becoming commonplace and accepted…if not expected.

The outrage, faux and genuine, and division that hearts embraced as they chose hostility over souls.

But that’s not where I will allow my spirit to settle.

As I prepare to pen in the blank pages of a new chapter…a fresh year. I wonder if you’ll join me, sisters, by closing this year with some positive reflection.

Not on headlines and trends.

But on the little things that made up the moments and filled the hours that formed our days throughout 2016. The little things that are, in actuality, the big things. Because they are the very things that kindle the flames of gratitude and humility in our hearts…and this world could use more gratitude and humility.

Will you walk by my side as I wander down memory lane and share some of the little big things that shaped my 2016? Perhaps your year was molded by some of the same.

As the song goes: “These are a few of my favorite things…”

The endless summer days where imagination blends with reality, and make-believe makes us all believe again. Reminders of the power of play, the inspiration of simplicity and the importance of innocence in the formation of young souls.

The melting heat and thrilling rides and pressing crowds and off-road derbies of small town carnivals. Where all walks of life mingle and the exhilaration of spinning, swinging, dropping and laughing, outshines dissimilarities.

Softball at sunset. Baseball from the bleachers. Music all the year through. Medals and trophies and chair competitions. Losses and disappointments and flops and fails. Perseverance. Second chances and sometimes not. Learning to accept the things we don’t like, but can’t change. Learning to inspire change where we can.

Sunshine and bare feet. Popsicles and crazy canines. Bee stings and berry picking. Bike rides to grandma’s house. Water balloon battles. Kickball in the cul de sac.

Reluctant farewells to summer’s waning days as the air cools and tinges of color creep into the green.

Walks in the woods as autumn’s ambers and ochers float and swirl and drift downward from treetops shedding beneath the blue.

Campfires and s’mores and fireworks and costumes and capture the flag and “ghosts in the graveyard” after dark.

[Photo credit: Mikayla K. Boyd]

Class trips and the Mighty Mac. And finding independence.

Last days of junior high that lead to first days of high school. The end of elementary marking the journey into junior high. And the baby of the brood bounding into grade three.

Concerts and recitals and programs. Horn performances that brought us to our feet. And all the practice that goes along with creating and refining and perfecting that music. Banging, clanging, strumming, blasting, blowing, plunking…until it starts floating, swirling, swelling, sounding—melodious and sweet.

Surprises that tug at my heart…and the corners of my lips. Evidence of imagination and creativity and childish fun. Each treasured more than the last, as this stage of childhood plays out its last days in our home.

Lives lost to us…celebrated and mourned and remembered and wished farewell…for now.

Life brought to us…a little girl in Thailand, whose picture grabbed our hearts. Whose story we now share as we swap pictures and talk about favorite colors and send stickers and learn about the rainy season and love on her from a distance. Showing Jesus and seeing Jesus in a Compassion International connection.

More life celebrated with birthday cupcakes. Whipped cream for breakfast. Dinner of your choosing.

Sand in our toes. Seashells and palm trees and ocean breeze. Good books and flip flops. Relaxing and relationships away from the routine.

Tire tracks and red noses and motherly hollers of “Slow down!” and gleeful squeals ebbing with each pass of the growling quad.

Bright crisp flakes crunching under the fall of each footstep. Trails of boot prints punctuated by the telltale dimples of primitive walking sticks.

Bare branches painted white, a colorless wintery scene—best viewed through a windowpane with a buttery soft throw snuggled around your shoulders and a mug of liquid warmth cupped to your lips.

Sunsets and sunrises and skies with colors too lavish to be captured by a lens. Magnificent masterpieces that can only be processed in the heart…perhaps the closest glimpse of God’s glory our faces can handle in this life.

These (and so many more) are the “little” things that loom large in my mind. Simple things that on the surface may appear insignificant. But are the priceless gifts and perfect pictures of God’s grace and mercy and blessing.

And when we take the time to notice God’s hand in the details, we can begin our tomorrows from a place of gratitude and humility…and peace.

A place unshaken by the circumstances of the world around us.

A place open and ready to be filled and moved by the needs and hurts and joys and blessings of the image bearers all around us.

From my DoAhead family to yours——–

Merry Christmas!

May we each find ourselves focused on the eternal, wrapping others in grace, choosing joy, and living our convictions. And if you have not found Jesus, may this be the season that leads you to open your heart to God’s great Gift. Blessings!

Your DoAhead Friend,