I’m passionate about a lot of things these days:

• Poverty
• Empowering women
• Helping people see their value in God and gain confidence
• Refugees
• Immigration concerns
• Revitalization of the church
• Food deserts
• Children – foster/adoption/mentoring
• Enjoying family
• Creating community and making new friends
• Gardening

Just to name a few.

There are a whole lot of issues that I wish I could fix in the world. There’s so much good to be done. So much change needed. So much I feel like I could be doing…

But yet, I have a full time job, three young kids at home, a husband working on his second masters who is in the middle of tax season, etc…

And God and I have an agreement that my main goal right now is to learn how to rest in His peace.

Not jump into a million activities, join a committee, or lead a group like I tend to do.

Just rest, figure out how to better live in a state of peace and be more present in life.

A few weeks ago, some of my friends and I read an article that suggested you pick three things to focus on at a time. I’ve been thinking about it a lot, and I’ve come up with my three things for now:

1. Community – I have AMAZING communities of friends already, but I want to be intentional about forming relationships with the people that live around us, the families at my kids’ schools and others we do life with. I’ve always felt like I was too busy in life to really put much effort into getting to know the people around me. But just in the last few weeks, I have had parents of a kid in one of my kids’ classes come over, sit on my couch and spill their guts about what is going on in their life. We’ve met our next door neighbors for the first time who have lived there over 6 months. Their daughter and my twins now play together as much as they can, and I love watching the three of them run between our houses thoroughly enjoying being together. I took Sadie to a birthday party this weekend and made a point to talk to all of the other parents (which for an introvert, that’s a big deal!). I’ve had more conversations in the school parking lot with other parents lately. I’ve invited people over for dinner – now we just need to actually put a date on the calendar! I absolutely love that now that I’m making a point to be present in the lives of my neighbors, community is happening! Exciting stuff!
2. Gardening – I’ve been gardening for about 3 years now, and every year I make our garden a little bigger (which probably already has me breaking the HOA rules. Whatever!). For the last few years, I’ve grown more stuff than our family can eat, so I’ve given some away. But this year, my goal is to keep increasing the garden, grow even more yummy vegetables, and find ways to give them away to people who may not have access or can afford vegetables. I don’t know if that means taking them to a food pantry near us or taking them into the heart of Dallas. Either way, I figure our nutty little family can do as much as it can to help people have the food they need.
3. Loving the heck out of people – and bringing as much joy to people as I can. Who knows what this looks like. It’ll be different from moment to moment. But I’m convinced that the main goal of followers of Christ should be to constantly be looking for ways to love others. Family, friends, neighbors, coworkers, people on aisle 9 in the grocery store…everyone! No judgement, no rules, no holding back! Spreading love, kindness, joy and whimsy is different. People notice these kinds of things. The freedom Christ brings is not boring! Not in the least! In fact, it’s a whole lot of fun! And for far too long, I’ve wanted to shout from the rooftops of how cool, fun and awesome God is. A God who loves us FAR more than we will ever realize. A God who takes our brokenness and brings forth treasure. A God who isn’t just sitting in heaven watching things down here – He’s here and active in our everyday lives! Oh my goodness, I could talk about this all day!! We live in a world that is deeply hurting. There is SO much love needed! But we have a God who lavishes us with love if only we open our eyes to see it. And so, I want to be known for being one who loves and brings joy to the world – because I’ve experienced it first-hand!

So those are my three things for now. Creating Community, growing vegetables to give away and finding ways to love others and spread joy. I’m sure the list will evolve over time, but for this point in my life, I like this list. We’ll see what happens!