It's What We Do - Part 1

Before I go on with this post let me say this: my heart mourns for all of the lives lost in Newtown last week. I have debated all week if I should write a post regarding the event and if so, then what I should say. I have no words. I cannot say anything that you all haven't already felt yourself. I have done so much reading of blogs and opinions and news articles regarding the tragedy and none have given me that peace that we all search for in a time like this. All I can do, all any of us can do, is to lean in to God in this time and remember that He is still God, He is still great and He is still the Almighty. My prayers are with all of the hurting in that community and around the country.

Now - for something a little more uplifting this time of year...

I. Love. Christmas. It’s true, I do. I love everything about it. I love the tradition, spending time with loved ones, the lights and hot chocolate, coming up with the perfect gifts for all the special people in my life, the songs, and of course, more than anything, the perfect reminder of how sweet our salvation in Christ is. I don’t think the thought of my Savior being sent to a fallen and sinful world as a precious child, just so that he can grow up to be mocked and scorned, will ever cease to amaze me. It takes my breath away.

Whether you love Christmas or simply tolerate it, you can’t seem to deny that there is magic in the air. Christmas seems to sweep in and put all the craziness of real life on hold. This year though, I’ve felt that Christmas magic a little more than in years past. People seem to be a little more generous this year, a little more appreciative and a lot more thankful for their loved ones.

One of the items on my oh-so-long bucket list is to provide a full Christmas to a family that may not be able to provide Christmas for themselves. I love being able to do little things for people that are least expecting it, to spread a little Christmas magic each year. This year though, Taylor and I were the ones blessed in a completely unexpected way.

A couple weeks ago we decided that we were in need of a date night. It had been a crazy busy week and we had seen very little of each other so we got all dolled up and headed out. About a month ago we decided to take Dave Ramsey’s budgeting tips and tweak them a little to best fit our lives. We had done such a good job at following our new budget that we thought we would really treat ourselves to a nice date and began making our way to one of our favorite places in Joplin. We eat there very little so it’s always a nice treat when we do.

We got to the restaurant, had NO wait, and really began to enjoy just spending some time together. A few minutes after we had placed our drink order another couple was seated across the corner from us and we quickly realized that we all kind of know each other. The husband and Taylor have worked together through the golf business a few times and his wife and I had met a couple months ago at a work event. We had a really nice time getting to know them better and just enjoying the evening.

When it came time to pay the check Taylor noticed that ours never came. He began to tell the waitress that we never received it and the husband of the couple very nonchalantly told T that he was covering our bill. I was (and still am) blown away! Taylor told him a few different times that he really didn’t need to cover our check, that we had just enjoyed getting to know them, and he replied “not a problem, brother. It’s what we do.” 

It's what we do. What a concept. They expected nothing. They gained nothing. But oh, what a blessing they were. How better would this world be if we all lived by that simple motto. It's what we do. I can't tell you exactly what he meant when he said that simple phrase to us but I can tell you that it has stuck with me and caused me to wonder, what is it that WE do? 

For Taylor and I it boils down to this:

- We share the love and truth of Jesus Christ with all those that we do life with. Whether it be in our actions or our words, we want to make Christ famous.

- We will walk faithfully in whatever direction God calls us.

- We love with everything in us; love each other, our families, our friends, our co-workers and the strangers on the street.

- We give of our plenty because so many in this world have none. We give because Christ first gave to us. We will live within the mindset that God blessed us, not because we are special of deserve it, but so that we can pass that blessing along to others.

The whole way home that night I was practically speechless. No matter how many times I tried I couldn't find the right words to express how truly wonderful what they did was. I told T that night that THAT was my dream, to be able to give freely without concern for our own finances. He smiled and said, "I know it is."

We decided that night that we wanted to give back. I already had hundreds ideas of how and who to pass this little blessing along to. As I went to sleep that night though I began to pray about who it was that HE wanted us to pass HIS blessing along to...

Stay tuned for Part 2 - coming very soon to a blog near you!

 

Working with Excellence

Via Joy's Hope

You'll have to excuse the following post of run-on sentences, bad grammar, rambling, etc. I'm typing this on my phone as the words pop into my head. Often times I have to write things out to be able to process them. You just so happen to be lucky enough to get to bear witness this time (lucky you...)

By far, one of the hardest prayers for me is praying for God to help me focus on and commit to a task that I'm not crazy about. It's not the prayer itself that I struggle with...it's the remembering to pray for it to begin with.

We all have those tasks, in every circle of our life, that we LOVE to do and then those things that we don't necessarily mind doing but we definitely don't love them. Whether it be at work, home, school, church or some type of volunteer responsibility.

For me, I LOVE decorating, designing, organizing, planning and spending time with people. The things I'm not crazy about are dusting, mopping, data entry and waiting on others. All of these tasks find me in every area of my life. And yet in every area of my life not only are they important tasks to have done (and done well) but, they're not going away any time soon, either.

Here is where I struggle: I don't love doing some of these things but I WANT to do them with absolute excellence.

Colossians 3:23-24 says this, "whatever you do, work heartily, as for The Lord and not for men, knowing that from The Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving The Lord Christ."(ESV)

I LOVE this verse. It was a constant encouragement to me throughout college and all of those wondrous college jobs. You know, the ones you hate and that have nothing to do with your field of study but have everything to do with paying your bills? I would get so discouraged while folding shirts at Macy's. I remember telling my dad one day, "This is so dumb! This has nothing to do with ministry! People are so unappreciative!" And in his wise (old ;)) age he reminded me of how many years he worked two (or three or four) jobs just so that he could AFFORD to do ministry. What a concept, huh?

So, as I go through life, performing these tasks that don't feel very important, I continue to pray through Colossions 3:23. I pray for The Lord to help me focus and commit my everything to these jobs. I don't care if I'm cleaning toilets, I want to be the most excellent toilet cleaner in the state. I want to do everything I do with excellence but sometimes I forget that between the day-to-day tasks. Thankfully, God has his ways of convicting me when I haven't made that a priority ;)

Whew! I hope that made some sort of sense.... Hopefully it did and it can minister to you in someway, too!

Thanks for stopping by!

Target Practice

Hello there, friends! Happy Wednesday to you!

My goal had been to write at least one blog a week. BUT, life has gotten a little busier than I had planned (doesn’t it always???) SO, I haven’t quite stuck with that goal yet. I do have two really great posts in the process that I cannot wait to share with you but until then, I thought I would share some hilarious insights into our life the past couple days. Hopefully this will tide you over until I can get to the good stuff ;)

First, I walked into my office yesterday to find that it had been vandalized by a good friend of Taylor and I. His wife and I work together and apparently he thought the picture of T and I on my desk needed a face lift. So, a face lift it got….

I died laughing as soon as I saw it. And truth be told, I haven’t even taken the time to change it back yet. But who wouldn’t want to look as those handsome faces all day?? 

Melissa (MJ) and Aaron are some awesome, awesome friends of ours. We are so thankful for them. I am sure you will hear their names many many times in the future.

So then, after a long but great day at work, I came home to fix dinner and watch some Prison Break with T.

**Sidenote: We are LOVING this show! We’re only half way through season one though, so no spoilers please :)

While I was standing at the kitchen sink rinsing some dishes off while waiting for dinner to cook I got pegged in the back with something.  I turned around to see that Taylor was using me as target practice with some of his little foam practice golf balls. Let it be known, Taylor practicing inside is a normal occurrence at our house however, I’m not usually what he practices aiming at.

I believe I had told him I didn't think he could hit me right before this picture. But, he did.

Well then we decided to have some fun with it while we waited on dinner and Taylor started calling out specific places he was aiming for. For example, he would say “I’ll bounce it off of the cabinet into the sink” or “on top of the fridge” and so on.  Which led to this beauty:

It was hilarious. And so much fun.

We’re lame, I know, but I love it.

Have a lovely rest of the week, friends! Be on the lookout for another post soon!

Second Chances

Well, well, well.....guess who is going to try and jump back into the blogging world, for a third time?? That's right. It's me. I wonder how you knew....

One of my New Year's resolutions last year was to write more, which was why I created this blog. I thought that it would be the perfect outlet. And, while I did actually end up writing quite a bit last year, none of it seemed to make it's way to the interwebs. It's that I didn't have things to write about; I had plenty of thoughts/ideas/revelations/exciting things happening...I am just absolutely awful at making the time to put my fingers to keyboard.

The longer we're married, the more convinced I am that Taylor and I are housing some geriatrics inside of us. A couple weeks ago we got home from dinner with some friends and the plan was to make some homemade popcorn (T's specialty), pop in a Redbox special and enjoy a quiet night together. Well, we went into the bedroom to change into some comfortable clothes and ended up sitting on the bed for almost two hours just talking. Talking about our lives, our dreams, our plans...
**Sidenote: can I just say how wonderful it is that after almost seven years of being together we can still get completely lost in conversation with one another?? It's the best.

December 2012

Okay - now, during the course of this talk we agreed that we both really feel as though God is calling us to commit to Joplin for four to five years. Those of you who know us well are probably as shocked at this as we are. This most definitely was not in our plan. OUR plan was to get married, get me graduated, get a couple (two at the max) years of professional experience under our belts, and head South. And we're not talking just for the winter. South for good. South for golf. It all made sense and we were ready. We were excited. Yet, in the past year, God has really changed that plan. And we have complete peace with that. Isn't it wonderful when you can FEEL that God is in the middle of something? Taylor and I, in our selfish and human ways would never have WANTED to stay in Joplin for five years. We had no interest in it. Yet God has come along and slowly molded our hearts to HIS mission, His purpose, His plan. And it is wonderful.

So, here we are. Committing to Joplin for four to five years. And we are so excited about what these five years will hold. Who knows, God could change that plan somewhere along the way, and we will willingly follow, but for now, Joplin/Carthage is going to stay our home.

Which - leads me to the blog! Ta Duh! See, as we were discussing all the things that the future holds, I had this (somewhat dumb) realization that this is going to be a fun and crazy ride. From enjoying our lives as young adults without children, to the journey of creating and raising a family, God has big plans for the Griffith clan, and what better way to capture it all than right here? The chances are high that Taylor and I will eventually be moving a good distance away from our families, and our careers have the possibilities to take us all around the world. This is a way to stay connected with friends and family, no matter where we end up (and it's more personal than stinking facebook or twitter.)

The world of blogging has gotten somewhat complicated in the last five years. With sponsorships and link parties and badges and buttons and who knows what else, it can be kind of daunting to jump in, so I'm going to keep it pretty simple. Just me, documenting our lives and all the craziness that is right around the corner. We'll track all of the adventures we embark upon: my journey to becoming a domesticated wife, T's crazy career track and our spiritual journey as well. More than anything else, Taylor and I's one goal in life is to live so that those around us see Jesus. Hopefully this will be just another way to share His love and glory.

So be patient with me. My goal is to start with one post a week. That seems reasonable, right? We shall see... Right now I have so many ideas in my head for posts that I am literally straining to keep this one simple!

Thanks for tuning in! Can't wait to live life with you all!

So...I have to stop saying so

Why, hello there! Two posts in two days? Who am I??? I hope you all are having a terrific Tuesday! Now, I must warn you: if you are hoping for some sort of deep, inspirational post - stop right now. Sorry dear friends but that unfortunately isn't the topic of today's discussion. I used to fear that I couldn't post a blog until I had some sort of really great topic that was perfectly thought out which led to my massive lack of writing. So, I'm trying a new approach this time. I'm just going to write. Anything and everything. And hopefully, that will lead to some really great posts with some really fantastic writing. So hang with me through some really boring posts and we'll get to the meaty stuff eventually.

So, this is my last ever Christmas break. Woah. Big-kid world is right around the corner. Literally. So (I say that a lot, my apologies) before Christmas break I decided that I was going to make this the best break ever. I made a pretty lengthy list of things I wanted to accomplish and set out to have a grand ol' time. This list included many cooking, crafting and cleaning/organizing tasks (thank you, wonderful world of pinterest.) Now, while I have had a pretty fantastic break, I am not sure that I have accomplished a single thing on that list. However, one thing I DID do this break (that wasn't even on my list) was make new year's resolutions for the first time ever (hence, the blog.) It was a pretty big commitment but, I feel up to the challenge. SO (there it is again...) the point of this post? You guessed it! My new year's resolutions. Ready? Here we go!

1. Complete my 365 picture project - I attempted this last year and failed so, here we go again!

2. Write more - ta daaaah!

3. Land a professional job

4. Read at least 12 books (not school related) - I better get crackin' on this one....

5. Maintain my weight

6. Run a 5K

7. Pay off credit cards - Yeaaa....not proud of this one but it is what it is....time to get these suckers gone for good!

8. Read the entire bible - Again, I started this last year and didn't complete it so, beginning today I will again work to read through the entire bible in a year!

WHEW! Just reading through these kind of wear me out but, I think they are definitely achievable. And, now that they're out there for all of cyber world to read, maybe y'all can keep me accountable to them? :) Did you make new year's resolutions? Any tips in keeping mine?

Well now that I have taken five years to get all this out there, I believe I'll go work on being productive in other ways for the rest of the day. Thanks for stopping by! See you SOON!

Jordynn Dyann

A new year, a new journey.

I've been toying with the idea of starting a blog for awhile now. First, I hate how cliche "blogging" has become. It's the new trendy thing to do apparently and while I have no desire in being trendy (at least not in this way), I do have a desire to express my thoughts in a way that is more public than my journal. Also, I have a tumblr (which I love; jordynndyann.tumblr.com) but one of my new year's resolutions was to begin writing more/again and I thought that maybe a new year and new writing project would be best with a fresh, new blog. So, here we are. Be patient with me as I attempt to post on a regular basis. I don't promise to always have exciting posts with the most fascinating writing ever, but I do promise to be as real with you as I can be. 2011 was the most unbelievable year of my life up to this point and I have a feeling 2012 will be full of it's own exciting adventures as well. I am 6 months married and 18 weeks away from my college graduation. Needless to say, life is just now beginning and I hope to capture all the excitement of the months to come right here in my own little corner of the interwebs. Thanks for stopping by and I hope to see you again soon :)