Refreshed

Hello 2012!!! I must say that I am going into this new year feeling very optimistic, empowered, and refreshed after a surprisingly rejuvenating winter break. It's amazing what a real BREAK can do for you mentally, physically, and spiritually. I was able to go home to Farwell for a full week and although nothing was really out of the ordinary about this visit (other than the arrival of my wonderfully cute nephew!) I found myself feeling like a new person when I returned to Dallas this past weekend. In reflecting on this time, I realized how much family contributed to "refueling" my spirit. As I shared in my last post, I had been feeling quite disillusioned and empty for most of the last semester. I have recognized that I have some people in my life that are extremely draining and although I care very much about them, they are not people who equally invest into me. As a result, I felt completely wiped out...emotionally, financially, spiritually, physically...and didn't even really realize it.

However, during my time at home I was surrounded by "givers" instead of "takers" and I am not talking in terms of Christmas gifts necessarily. I really have the most wonderful family...very servant-hearted, generous, caring. For a whole week, I was able to rest and be around people who weren't constantly needing or demanding something for their own problems or desires. I was around people who want to help, who want to care, who want to do something to make MY life easier, instead of the other way around. And I think we all need that sometimes....we all need to be taken care of sometimes too. Not only did my family look out for me, but they jumped at the chance to look out for some of the people who are important to me here in Dallas that are going through some struggles. Without even personally having met most of these people, my parents and my brother cared enough about the people that I care about to really go out of their way to do some very generous things to help. My mom hand-pieced and sewed a baby quilt in two days for a young single mom with a newborn that I know here. My brother and my parents provided financially to assist a former student's family that is going through a tough time right now (my brother who is just coming out of a very difficult farming year and has a brand new baby, mind you!). My mom sent a Christmas package to the student in the mail full of goodies. My parents insisted that I not give them Christmas gifts but instead use the money to do something to help the family out. Then I got to go to church with them and hear two very encouraging messages and further witness all the good things that they are doing for others in the church and in the community. I got to visit with my grandparents who at almost 80 years old, volunteer regularly to serve meals at the Lighthouse Mission and help with clothing distribution at the HOPE Center in Clovis, which are just small parts of what they have contributed there over the past several years. My brother and my dad took the time to check over my car for me and made a few tweaks to save me the money of having to take it somewhere here in Dallas to get it checked out. They would all probably be embarrassed to have me broadcasting all of these things but it just meant so much to me and was so refreshing to me that I felt compelled to speak on it. The result was that I came back to Dallas renewed, refueled, and inspired to be more generous, more compassionate, and more purpose-driven in the year ahead. The support and concern I received from my family this past week meant so much to me...the fact that they would do so much for people they haven't met just because I care about them really touched me. I am truly thankful for the example and quiet generosity of my grandparents, parents, brothers, and sister-in-law and hope that I can be a good steward of what they invested and poured into me in the year ahead.


"A generous person will prosper; whoever refreshes others will be refreshed."--Proverbs 11:25