giving of thanks

Reminiscing on Thanksgiving day 2012. At 4:00am I woke up inside the Hilton New York, curled my hair, slabbed on makeup and proudly put on my maroon Texas State University Strutters uniform. The cold, dark subway tunnel led me to one of the greatest experiences of my life. After my little sister and I got interviewed and my team missed our cue for the parade.. I walked (ran) the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade route in New York. Most people have watching the Macy's Parade in New York on their bucket list, I got to be in it.. how blessed am I? I continuously thank God for that day and that trip because it happened all because of His favor and provision. I had been offered a trip to be in the parade since the summer after my freshman year of high school and it was never a possibility for me to go, God orchestrated it so that years later I would transfer to a University that had a known dance team, I would soon make that team and that year we would be the first performers in that parade .. all the same year that my little sister had the opportunity to go. After making the team I found out about the trip and had already said that I was unable to go, but my director made sure that every single one of us was able to go and I am so thankful for her, my family and for all of the people who made this dream of mine come true.
This year on Thanksgiving I am in Greenville, South Carolina with my family, newest nephew Carson Allen asleep in my arms. Tomorrow we fly back to Texas..as a whole family. My sister and her little family are moving from South Carolina back to Texas with us which is something to be thankful for!



I've been reading the book One Thousand Gifts by Ann Voskamp and it has changed my prayer life and the way I view the world around me, it teaches/ reminds you to give thanks in all of the little things, which could easily be made into the big things. There's a "joy dare" for each day of the year and today's joy dare is to give thanks for gifts in community; on this day I am super thankful for the community that helped get me to New York last year, my CBC community (even though i've moved and don't really go there anymore, growing up this is where i spent most of my time and got influenced the most), and my Young Life community who constantly pushes me out of my comfort zone and teaches me how to be a better Jesus follower.
I dare you to join this joy dare by finding this month's joy dare list from One Thousand gifts and verbalizing what it is that you are thankful for.

I pray that you all find something(s) to be thankful for today, I'm thankful for YOU!

click here to see a video of our performance!

Worship Post Wednesday

Worship [according to the dictionary]

noun ; reverent honor paid to God 

                                       

While that definition is totally true, I'm not sure it does enough justice to the greatness that is worship.

I was at a night of worship with All Sons & Daughters a few weeks ago where they referenced worship as "giving God His breath back" ...woah. LOVE that! I love looking at worship as a way of reminding myself of His goodness and celebrating Him, who He is and what He has done. 

Some have a mindset that singing songs at church is the only form of worship we have, and I would strongly beg to differ, but I also don't want to neglect the importance of praise and worship songs because those are such a great part of my own personal worship life (I'll probably write a separate post about that later). I think that everything can be worship if you are focused on giving the Lord glory and honor with what you are doing in that moment. Prayer can be your worship, the way you live your life could (and should) be a form of worship -- the list goes on!


 I was blessed to grow up in a church where they welcomed my ability and passion for dance and gave me opportunities to use that gift in our church services to "give God His breath back", to show that He is the one who gave me this ability and that I choose to use it for Him so that if anyone sees anything good or admirable in me or my dancing that they are seeing what is good and admirable in my Jesus, to show that sometimes I'm so full of joy that I can't help but dance and leap and just smile (because that's what I do!), to show raw emotion (even sadness) in response to His story or what He is doing in my life. Dance is just one of many forms of worship, and every form of worship touches His heart the same, "not one style of genuine worship is superior to another, the ground is level at the foot of the cross". Don't for a moment believe the lie that your unique gift / form of worship is not good enough. Worship is not a performance and it's not about how talented or "good enough" we are -- it's about the condition of our heart. It's not confined to a church building, it should be something continuous, it should be an attitude! I know I personally need that reminder.. a lot! 

I'm no expert on worship, but I have been poured into a lot lately in this area of my life and it's something I become more passionate about as time passes so I thought I'd sit down and take a breather and type out some thoughts :)  

Hope this finds blog finds you well, love you all!