Giving Thanks

“I will give thanks to my Lord

with my whole heart,

I will recount

all your wonderful deeds

Psalms 9:1

 

Giving thanks and having a thankful heart is something that my heart strives for each and every day. I have written many blogs post about this topic and God has continually shown different ways to look at this topic of gratitude.

Gratitude- is a word that fills my heart and makes me feel so warm and excited inside. This year I am so thankful for my Savior. I would not be the person I am today without Him. I still have so much to grow in and figure out, but God is overwhelming my soul with Him. I am so thankful for His grace and love each and every day. I am so thankful for His guidance. I am so thankful that He desires me. He does not need me, but He wants me. He loves me. He likes me and He calls me His own.

Ephesians 2:4-6 says “But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespass, made us alive together with Christ- by grace you have been saved- and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.”

These verses speak so boldly to my heart; capturing it and reminding me how much I need my Savior and how much He truly loves me. I am so thankful for my Savior. I can’t say it enough. I am so thankful. He carries me through all circumstances and there is nothing that I can do well without Him (John 15:5). Thank you, Jesus- there are not enough words to express how grateful I am for you and what you have done for me on the cross. You paid my debt with your amazing love. THANK YOU!

My life is full of big and little things that I am SO thankful for. Sometimes I unfortunately take advantage of all that I have, but I am ever so gently humbled by my Savior in those moments.

Thankful for… my family, the Houser’s, friends, my roommates, journaling & blogging, teaching, my students, reading, book club, prayer, shereadstruth.com, thankful list, bible reading, the season of fall, church community, earl grey tea & bubble tea, changing of my heart, homemade granola, sweet notes of encouragement, mail, being creative in the kitchen, connections, running, facetime, small group, and so many things….

Thanksgiving is a wonderful time to remember all that you are thankful for, but I challenge us to take this heart of gratitude each and every day. To live out truly in every circumstances…

Living a life of gratitude is what my soul loves.
 

Love, Daniella 

Half-way

Half-way. I am half way through my new committed time to Korea. Whoa that’s crazy to think about. But that’s not the half-way I am really thinking about these days. These days I am thinking about being half-way through living out the book Seven by Jen Hatmaker. This book has racially changed my life. It has challenged me to really think through how we do some things, how we consume so much and how much we waste and desire a lot. It is reckoning my life for the good.

In this book, Jen picked seven areas that she felt were areas of excess and made seven simple choices to fight back against the modern-day disease of greed, materialism, and overindulgence. She documented her true feelings throughout each month. I love the way she writes- it’s so convicting at the sometime you are smiling and laughing. I love it! Anyways, I have taken these seven things and have arranged them a little differently in my life to fit my schedule and everyday life. So far I have completed almost three months out of the seven and have I learned so much!!!

Month number one I practiced giving away seven things every day. Yes, you read that correctly- seven things every day. That’s 210 items, folks. It was great in the beginning, very freeing and felt so good to be getting rid of the clutter. It was a challenge at times because I don’t have that much stuff since I did move to Korea with just 2 suitcases, but it is amazing how much stuff you do collect over time. This month really helped me to put into perspective to think twice before I buy things. As the month continue on and I had fewer things to get rid of I started getting rid of time by myself (spending it with people), and writing notes of encouragement. It was just a different way to think of “getting rid of”.  The month ended well.  I have tried to continue to live out the lessons that I did learn from this practice of being careful of what I buy and getting rid of things that I just don’t need or use anymore.

Month number two I did my very best to not use seven types of media (tv/movies, facebook, pinterest, Pandora, intsgram, texting*, and using the internet.  *I did text some friends & family to keep update to on some things.

Surprising this month was not as hard I was anticipating. Not using these different types of media allowed for more space to be created for moments of quiet (which are much needed, but I rarely do it), moments of intentional time with people face to face and more time with my Savior. I have gotten into some pretty bad habits of checking facebook often, wasting time on pinterest and posting too much on instgram. Facebook is a great tool of communication, but also a very destructive tool for jealousy and comparing to others. It was hard to not be on facebook in the community that I am living in because so many rely on it for communication, but it was a beautiful month of not comparing me to others. I am still trying to figure out how to use facebook with more caution and not allow the lies of jealousy to feed me while I am on it.  The use of media is still definitely a weakness of mine and something that I need to continue to practice using in moderation…

Month number three has found me wearing a certain amount of the some clothes all month. Confession- Jen (the author) only wore seven pieces of clothing all month, but I just couldn’t do it with my currently lifestyle of being a teacher, running and such. So I picked out 15 pieces of clothing that I have been wearing throughout the month. It hit me this weekend that I am starting to get sick of my clothes, but I have learned a lot through this practice. (I only have one more week to go… yay!) One, nobody even noticed. I asked my roommates- they didn’t. I asked the Houser’s- they didn’t. And these are people that I see almost daily! Oh, my! It has helped me to realize that people really don’t pay attention to what you wear. People don’t really think “huh, didn’t you just wear that last week?” Moral of the month: you don’t really need a lot of clothes to live each day of your life.  I have decided that the money I spend on clothes can very well go to something else that is much more need in someone else life. This month has taught me a lot about being less selfish and more about being humble.

There are four months to go in this journey of learning what it means to conquer excess, greed, materialism, and overindulgence. I am both excited and anxious about the different practices I will be learning from! J  What a beautiful journey it is taking me of looking deeper into my heart and allowing God to show me areas that I need to work and change!

A challenge for you… read the book Seven by Jen Hatmaker! It is a great read!

                                                                                                                        Love, Daniella

the decision

The long awaited decision of what’s next in my life has been made. Through countless hours of prayer, seeking wisdom from others, stressing (I tried not to, but was not very successful), reading God’s word and learning oh, so much I now know where I will be in a year from now. It is such a relief. Through this whole process I have learned so much: 1. I am a horrible decision maker and I need to work on getting better at this… 2. I have learned more about what it means to follow God’s will (my perspective has changed in this area for the better). 3. God loves me and has the perfect plan for me. He does care about the desires on my heart. I just have to trust Him with them. I need to surrender- all of me. 4. Joy in all circumstances is a must. 5. I live by emotions and feelings which isn’t always bad, but isn’t always a good thing either. 6. Seeking wisdom is great and needed, but seeking God and His word is way more important and much needed. 7. God’s true word is so powerful. 8. There are not going to be signs of confirmations painted across the sky like I would love instead it’s trusting and walking in faith. 9. Fighting what God wants is never the easy or right thing to do and once you bind your knees your life is filled with JOY and PEACE. 10. Praising God in all things is so worth it even when your heart is overwhelmed and you can’t hear God’s voice. In those moments you cling to truth that He has given you an anchor to hold onto during these times and He will love you no matter what. I am His and He does have a purpose for me in all things.

Walking in peace in what God has for me this next year...

It has been a beautiful messy journey in making a decision of what’s next, but my journey is not finished yet God is still working in me and I will continue on in this journey of faith. Are you ready to know the decision??!! Drum roll please…. This next year you will find me in South Korea teaching and loving on the students that God places into my life. Yes, you read it right I have decided to stay in Korea another year for round 3.(Three always a charm, right?!)  I just don’t think my time here is over yet.  I don’t want to leave with regret or unfinished work. Am I anxious about this decision- a little bit for a few reasons, but I know with all my heart that God knows the desire on my heart and I can trust Him in them. Am I excited about this decision- yes, I am! There were many amazing options that I was seeking out, but as I was pursuing them I just didn’t feel peace about them. Some of them I would love to do someday so I have definitely tucked them inside in my heart for another season in life maybe?! How did I finally make this decision? Peace. I was fighting the idea of staying in Korea for a number of reasons, but as soon as I allowed the idea to sink in I was overwhelmed with a peace that only comes from God. The smile and joy that I had been missing from my life this last month came flooding back.  Joy in all circumstances is what I am learning these days and I am sure I will need a lot of it throughout this next year.  My prayer is to not allow the circumstances in my life take away from the deep love and joy that my Savior overflows me with daily. To not allow myself or this world to get in the way of God’s will.

Romans 12:2 says “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.”

Truth. I don't need this world. I need Him. My Savior

 

Well, there you have it. I will be in Korea another year! I will not be in the states for Christmas, but I will be home with my family this summer! J Thank you so much for all your prayers. They were much needed and I felt so much support from those around me. Thank you!

Love, Daniella

Heart & Mind Attitude

My soul feels so so full as I sat down to write tonight. This weekend has been wonderful. It started out with the consummation of s’mores and worshipping my Savior with my community Friday night. Saturday morning I went on a short run where the sunlight shined perfectly on the rice fields making them glisten with dew followed by slipping on my fav, earl grey tea latte at Starbucks while facetiming with my dear parents then holding a sweet baby at a lovely baby shower and eating tons of carbs for my big race day. And then today was the day I have been waiting for for a long time; my half marathon race in Korea- 13.1 miles or for those of you living in Korea its 21.0975km. (That’s right! That’s exactly the number that is on my medal I got today. I love it!!!) I finished the race, felt a little sick and totally exhausted, but my soul was happy. I have spent the afternoon refuelling my body that is crying for carbs, sugar and water so of course I had to get some bubble tea at my favorite little coffee shop as a treat and spend the afternoon reading there. It was lovely. I got to skype with a dear dear friend and I just finished eating my dinner (carbs) and watching God paint a beautiful sunset before my eyes. It was just stunning and breath-taking. Anyways, you probably didn’t need to hear about every detail of my weekend and I am sorry if you didn’t want to know, but this weekend just filled my soul up to the brim and I can’t stop smiling tonight and I haven’t felt this way in a long long time.  And I have point to make with all this information! J

So I decided to reflect upon why. Why does my soul feel so happy? What is different about the last couple of days compared to other days I have been living? How can I continue to feel this way?

This past week I have been thinking a lot about how easy it is to wander. Wander away from one that my soul loves. Wander into fear, into doubt, into striving, into taking control. It seems to be so much easier to wander into these things even though they are so unhealthy for you and full of sin. Instead my soul longs to wander into joy, into love, into peace, into contentment, into trust, into being still and not striving.

How can this been done? Well, it can be done thru surrounded, lots of prayer and choosing. Choosing. The reason why I think my soul felt so happy this weekend is because I choose to be content in each thing that I had the opportunity to do. I choose to look at the small things and find joy in them like the glistening rice fields, slipping earl grey tea, facetiming with my parents, holding a sweet baby and running a race that I have been training for.

What is different? The attitude that I chose to have. I was skyping with my dear friend today and this exact thought came across my head as she was asking me about teaching. Folks, a couple of weeks ago I lost my passion for teaching. I was going through a funk and decided that I didn’t want to be a teacher anymore. I was researching and looking up other jobs that I would love to do. Although there are some other jobs that I would love to do (be a hall director, wedding planner and full-time orphanage worker). I know that God has me in teaching for right now.  Anyways, all this to say since that moment of freak out I called out to God to help me gain the passion back for teaching if it was still His will for my life and He laid this on my heart that I have a choice to make each day. I can choose to embrace where He has me or I can wander and be miserable. Of course I don’t want to wander and be miserable so I bent my stubborn knees and allowed God to give me the desire to choose: to choose each morning to have joy as I walk into my classroom; to choose to have a good attitude; to choose to invest into my students and to choose to give them my very best as their teacher. It has not been easy since I have started choosing. I actually have had only had a couple good successful days because I remember about half through the day that I need to choose my attitude. Oh, dear! But on the days that I have chosen the day goes by so much more smoothly. I see through new eyes. I have better judgements and reactions to things that happen. I connect better with those around me and I feel joy. Choosing in the mornings makes a world of differences. I know that my heart is “ponder to wander Lord, I feel it,” but like the beautiful hymn Come Thou Fount says so perfectly “prone to leave the God I love. I say here’s my heart, o take and seal it. Seal it thy courts above.”

 

How can I continue to feel this way? I want my mind to be focus towards heaven and to never take for granted the days that I have on this earth. I want to be able to wake up in the mornings ready to embrace the day that Lord has made. And today I am choosing to take this risk of committing myself to this standard for each day: choosing my attitude in the mornings. Hopefully choosing joy, peace, love, contentment and not striving for something that I am not. To help me with this committed I am going to commit to writing down each morning the attitude that I want for the day and then be prayerfully about it. Would you like to join me?

Love, Daniella

Christmas Decision

This year is filled with a few important decisions that I need to make. Decisions that will impact what’s next in my life. Decisions that scare me, but also give me excitement. Decisions that overwhelm me, but also allow for God to give me peace that He is in control. Decisions are hard for me.  I mean I have a hard enough time deciding what to eat at a restaurant or what to wear to church on Sundays. Making decisions about what’s next is over my head. My mind can’t stop thinking about it and I just want to know. I just want to have a peace about what God is leading me to do whether that’s staying in Korea another year or going somewhere else or doing something else with my life…

I know that’s God is in control and that He is faithful and that He has a plan for me, but why don’t I know it yet?! IT’s a question that has continually gone through my head this past week. I just want to know what’s next. I just want to know what to expect. It’s hard for me to just pause and wait. To pause and listen ever so carefully to what God is whispering to me. Am I missing it? I need to remind myself to pause. I need to remember to seek God and ask for confirmations. I need to open my mind and heart and allow God to do His work. Humble myself. Bend my knees and lay down my expectations.

All this to say a decision that I have made this week has been one of the hardest decisions that I have made in a really long time and that is that I will be staying in Korea for Christmas this year. It is just not realistic to go back to the States this Christmas with ticket prices and such. My soul is saddened that I won’t be with my family over Christmas, but I feel that God has something very special for us all during this time. It scares me a little to think that I will spending Christmas alone, but at the same time I have such a peace about it. A peace that Christmas will have a new meaning for me this year. I have no idea what it will look like, but I trust in my God who loves me. Who likes me. This decision has definitely caused some tension in my soul. Tension of sadness of not spending this beautiful time with my family, but also a sense of excitement to spend a Christmas in Korea. I am looking forward to long cozy days reading, drinking hot chocolate and maybe a little traveling around Asia?!  So, yes one of my two decisions is made. Yes, I am still having a little doubt as write this that this decisions is the right one (because who in their right mind would chose to not be with their family at Christmas when you are single?!?) I love my family so much and I miss them so much,  but I am trusting God. I am trusting that He knows what’s best. He will be with me no matter where I am. That’s what I am clinging to. My Savior is always with me!!!

 

Love, Daniella

 

Sabbath Day

Rest. Exhaustion. Rest. Exhaustion. Rest. Breath. Exhaustion. Rest. This is what life is like lately. I tried to “rest”. I tried to create time to rest, but then somehow I find even the days (Sabbath days) that I have set apart are filled with a little check list of things that I would love to have completed by the end of the day. My life is seriously run by check-lists- overall this awesome because it keeps me organize and on top of the things that I would forget to do if I didn’t have a check-list because I am literally feel exhausted all the time causing my mind to not think clearly and forgetting whatever I needed to do so a checklist makes sure that I at least think about and try to get it done. Anyways, that was way too long of a sentence explaining something that can be summed up in six words… I DON’T KNOW HOW TO REST.  I tried. I really do, but my life is run by a check list of things that always need to get done.

Then I have the small little problem of not being discipline in keeping a Sabbath day truly a Sabbath because I get caught up in helping others, or there is an event I should go to or something for school needs to be done or who knows what else pulls me away from practicing a Sabbath day. It’s something that I want to have as an importance in my life. I just struggle in being discipline in it…

A Sabbath day is meant to be a day were you set apart time to rest, be refreshed, to seat in the presence of the Savior and allow God to renew you. The most important thing in a Sabbath day in my opinion is to practice constantly having your mind focus on the Saviorl. To be still and hear His voice. To be still and soak in His word. To be still and sing praises to Him. To be still and sit in awe of whom He is. To be still. To not let the distractions of the world rule your life.

One of my goals for my twenty-third year of life was to practice a Sabbath day. So far it has been a struggle each Sunday, but slowly I am making progress. Slowly I am realizing what my Sabbath should look and feel like. It should not be a day that is set up with a check-list, but a day that is focus on worshiping and praising my Savior; a day that I can set apart to be refreshed and renewed by Him.  

So what should a Sabbath day look like? This is a question that I have been pondering for some time. I do think that everyone has a different opinion and way that they spend their Sabbath day according to their personalities and ect. For me I want to focus on setting apart time to practice the act of studying scripture more intently, diving into my small group bible study, reading for fun, going on walks or runs, going to church and being in community with others, baking for fun or blogging. I know you may be thinking “Daniella you have created a check-list again for yourself!!” BUT this is not a check-list this is list of things that bring me rest when I do them without an agenda! So my goal for next Sunday is to write NO check list, but to just go through the day praising my Savior whatever that may look like next week. It’s going to be hard to not have check-list, but it is much needed!! J

Some cookies made for fun today on my half attempt of a Sabbath day! :)

 

Rest is something that my mind, soul, and body are desperately crying for. It has been way too long since they have been salsify and I know that the only way they can be is if I lay myself down at my Savior’s feet and get rid of the check-lists on Sundays so that I can just focus on being renewed by Him by praising Him all day long. Rest. Renewed. Refreshed. Rest. Energized. Joy. This is what I want life to look like for now on!!

My prayer!

How do you practice the Sabbath day? I wold love to hear your thoughts and practices! The Sabbath day has always had a crush on meaning I have always wanted to get to know it- to be able to practice it, but  I just dodn’t quiet have it all put together. I am on my way now… I think! J

Love, Daniella

Beautifully Wrecked

Last weekend was filled with soaking in and gaining a deeper understanding of how much God love us. I feel so privileged to be teaching at a school this year where we had the opportunity to take two days to refresh our souls, to gain a deeper understanding of how much God loves us and allowed God to prepare us for this school year.

The weekend was focus around what it looks like to have “unity in community.” We pressed into God and allow the Holy Spirit to minister to our hearts as we took time to worship, pray, meditate over scripture and listen to a speaker talk on the importance of mentoring groups to foster unity in a community.

This weekend God pressed onto my heart to mediate and think about what it means to say and allow God to:  “create in me a clean heart, O God”. This is a little bit of verse from a song we sang during one of worship times. It struck me hard. There is a lot that my heart feels these days… happy, joy, anger, jealousy, sadness, selfishness, tiredness overwhelmness and confused. As you can see there are more downer words then happy words- not that life has been awful. Overall I love where God has me, but there are little things that are picking at my heart. There are little things that are bringing me down. There are little things that I am allowing to steal my joy. They are making my heart fogged over. They are crowding it and this weekend came at the perfect time to begin the process of cleaning it out; cleaning out the little things that are stealing me from experiencing all that God has for me in this life.  My week after retreat has been wrecked because of it. Wrecked in beautiful messy way- a way that has made me really press into my Savior; a week where I have had to say over and over again “I cannot do this without you God. I need you!!” I need you to show me how much you LOVE me. I need you to show me that I am YOURS. I need you to COMFORT me. I need you to FORGIVE me and help me to live in your TRUTH.

Soaking this in brings me peace!

 

This weekend as a whole group we mediate on 1John 4:7-21. We were asked to underline a word or phrase that really stood out to us as we spent an hour meditating on these verses. First, I underlined the word love and it appeared twenty-six times!!! This just spoke to my heart and reminded me again how much God love us. How important loving is to Him! Then verse 12 and 18 caught me “God lives in us and his love is made complete in us”; “There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear.” These verses wrapped themselves around my heart and tug at it. Because God lives in me and His love is made complete in me. I can feel complete in Him because He lives in me and He loves me. Nothing else matters, but this. Why do I then care so much about what this world and people think of me? Why do I allow what other say and do affect me and bring me down? Why do I get caught up in the things of this world? Because I forget I forget how my worth is in my Savior. I forget that my life is all for Christ. I have ask Him to use me and I have declared that I want to be His. I want to be complete in Him. Which leads me to I don’t have to afraid of what others think of me if I want to experience this perfect love of His which I completely 100% do! I need to not be afraid that God will never love me even when I feel selfish and guilty which I have felt a lot lately! L Instead I rest on the promise that I am His one true love. He loves me. He is calling me to abide in Him and to cling to Jesus daily.  He has called me His daughter and He wants me to walk in the truth that He has placed in my life.

 

This season of life God has so clearly called me to the word of joy. Joy is my middle name so I have always loved this word, but for some reason this time around it has a new meaning me in my life. I am not entirely sure what it looks like yet, but I do know it is what God is calling me to walk in this year. Joy. He has confirmed in multiple times throughout this past week. Joy. Joy. Joy. I just want to be overflowing with JOY! Joy that comes from the only one who can give me the true joy, my Savior; He is my source of Joy! As God continues to work through my heart and create it clean again I would love prayer. I have felt so exhausted these past weeks and very overwhelmed. I love everything that I am doing, but I have no energy. I am losing patience as I teach and I am feeling that I am not able to fully pour into others effectively right now. As my roommate summed up what she got from the weekend she said “To know God spills over into love for others…” There is so much truth in this. We need to know God first. We need to take the time to spend with Him so that we can be used to love others.

His Truth!

Thank you so much for reading about what God has been doing in my life. I would love to hear from you and what God is doing in your life. I would love to pray for anything that is on your heart. Please send me an email or facebook message!

Love, Daniella

P.S The place where our retreat was reminded me so much of “home”, Montana. I felt so at peace all weekend soaking in the amazing creation that God has created. (Psalm 148 sums up how creation praises God- it’s amazing!!) And this is what was talked about in church today- so GOOD!!



Korea's Montana! :)