Permission

We want to take a few minutes for you to pause and breathe in a bit of advice. Maybe it’s not even advice but permission. Permission to live, enjoy, reflect, and pause.

Life is a beautiful gift. There is beauty around us every day.

Sometimes the stress, the hustle, the things - ( all the things) get in the way of us truly enjoying the life around us.

Life is busy, life is messy, and the easy thing to do is to check out—to go on emotional autopilot. God never wanted you to become a robot, he made your emotions. He made you to actually enjoy life, not just survive through life.

Even in the beauty of productivity, we can forget that God wants us to live an abundant life! Years ago I made it my personal goal to get the most out of every season. The thought of looking back over my life and feeling regret was almost unthinkable. I continue to let that goal motivate me and keep me in check. Even when things seem crazy, I take a minute and breathe it all in—not to get so busy or distracted that I can’t stop and smile or take a moment to play with my kids.

Life is such a gift, and it’s so beautiful that we almost need to be reminded in the busyness of life “Don’t forget to live.”

A few months ago I was taking a train ride through Europe. As the train started to move, I had my computer and notebook in tow ready to get some work done on this 6-hour train ride.

As the train took off, I began to look out the window; the view was absolutely magnificent. We traveled through the most beautiful snow-capped mountains in Switzerland through the beautiful Italian Countryside. On the train, I began to watch and study the beauty of the people getting on and off of the train, the different cultures, and languages.

I got so caught up in the sights around me that I almost felt guilty for not doing work. I had to give myself permission to put away my work momentarily and allow myself to enjoy the view.

Would I ever be that way again? Would I ever travel down that exact path- through those snow-capped mountains again?

There was something magnificent about fully engaging in that moment.

It amazed me that others on the train were able to go on as though none of the beauty mattered to them. For them, it had become ordinary and insignificant. For them, the train was just a means from here to there instead of an experience in and of itself.

If we let ourselves we can let life just go by, day by day- year to year just putting in time. God’s plan is for you to live, and live abundantly! Life just isn’t about surviving through the ordinary and the mundane, but actually discovering the beauty in it.

I have found that when I look for it, I can find beauty in almost anything. There is beauty in every season, recognize it. Lean into life, even if it’s not exactly how you want it to be presently. There is beauty in the now, in the ordinary, in the seemingly mundane.

What does it mean for you to remember to live? To give yourself permission to live an abundant life? Abundantly— not just numbly getting by but by fully engaging in all that God has for you today!

My prayer for you is that you will give yourself permission to enjoy the view.

Put down the laundry for a minute and have coffee with your spouse.

Leave the mess of toys on the floor for a minute and play with the kids— laugh with them.

Forget about the expensive vacation for a minute and throw a tent up in your backyard.

Be encouraged that if there have been regrets or seasons that you feel robbed of, God is a redeemer! I love the scripture in Joel 2:25 that says “He will restore the years the locusts have eaten.”

He can even make beauty out of ashes.

There is beauty all around your life today. Find it, enjoy it, and whatever you do, don’t forget to live!