I can pave the road

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!

God's Great Gift Wrap

Pastor Charlotte Gambill from Life Church in the UK preaches a great sermon about thoughtfulness. Thoughtfulness is what Charlotte calls "God´s great gift wrap". Thoughtfulness is the language of heaven. God is very interested in thoughtfulness in every aspect of our lives. I love this quote by Charlotte Gambill:

"Thoughtfulness is where God gets involved. Thoughtfulness takes things that are the robotic, mundane and ordinary and magnify something beautiful that no one else saw or deemed was worthy of the time. Thoughtfulness is the language of heaven. Thoughtfulness is when God kisses something that is entirely average and makes it something beautiful."

Thoughtfulness stops us from being self-seeking and self-serving. Thoughtfulness places us in the shoes of others. The definition of thoughtfulness is "being mindful of others". When we live lives where we are being midful of others it changes what we do, when we do things and how we do things in life.

Just Be

Abbey's Christmas Story

Memories

I have a friend who works as a youth pastor and one thing he has taught me is to take a look at my past when I need hope for the future. When we find ourselves unsure about the future and worried about how things will work out our past will reveal God´s fingerprints all over our lives. If God could direct my steps in the right direction so beautifully in my past He will surely continue to do it in my future. I can have peace, hope and joy today because I know that God holds my future in His hands. I will sometimes get confused and unsure about my future but God is not confused about my future, He will continue to guide me along the right path in life with a lot of patience and grace. I can trust Him.

Today I'm in Finland visiting the town where I grew up and I decided to take a look at some pictures from my past.

Four years ago I was celebrating Christmas in Finland just like this year. We have no snow in Southern Finland this year but four years ago we had a lot of snow at the cottage.

Yesterday my husband and I took the ferryboat to the island where we have our cottgae and spent the night there. It was a lot of fun to spend time with Mom and Dad at the cottage.

I love the little island where we have our cottage.

I can't think of a more peaceful place than our cottage, it's the perfect place to relax and rest.

Nature is so magical and beautiful in the winter.

I also found some pictures of me spending time at the cottage during the fall four years ago.

Spending time in the country and nature feeds my soul.

Here's a picture from when I went on a hike in Finland with my Grand Father four years ago.

Four and a half years ago my husband and I had to spend six months apart and had a long-distance relationship. I missed him so much during this time and he sent me a teddybear in the mail that I could hug while missing him. The six months that we spent apart were hard but they made me appreciate my husband even more than I did before. I still think back at those months every now and then and feel grateful that we get to live together all the time now.

Four years ago we had a lot of snow in Finland and I wore glasses, today I don't need my glasses anymore.

This is a picture from when my husband and I went shopping at Marimekko in Finland after our six months apart were finally over, every day was awesome during this time. Taking things for granted can steal our joy, when we appreciate what we have we suddenly get overwhelmed with joy and gratitude.

Some things change. This is a picture of me at the airport before I moved to Canada six years ago. Many things have changed since then, my hair is longer and lighter. When this picture was taken I had no idea that I was going to meet the love of my life just a few months later.

Some things stay the same. Four years later black and white are still my favorite colors when it comes to what clothes I choose to wear.

Sweet memories. This picture was taken the day before our wedding in Finland.

A childhood  dream came true when I was able to marry the love of my life in the garden at our cottage in Finland. The unexpected details that life brings: I was on crutches at my wedding, but it was still a beautiful day! Life is beautiful, but it is not perfect.

Nine years ago. I was having a week of vacation in Chicago when my Mom and Dad came to visit me in the US. I was working as a Nanny in the US during this time and I had no idea that my future husband was living just a few hours North of Chicago.

That year working abroad in the US changed a lot of things in my life, I grew and matured a lot during this one year away from everything familiar. I never planned to live in Ohio for one year in my life, but it was one of the best things that ever happened to me. I never planned to move to Toronto, I wanted to move to Vancouver.

I got a job in Toronto so I took it, I never planned to stay there more than 1-2 years max. Six years later I still live in Toronto and I love it, I have met many wonderful friends in the city and I have married the love of my life. Who knew that when life does not go according to plan it can actually be the best thing that could ever happen?

My Story

Why?

Why are you alive? What´s your purpose in life? Most of us can answer the question "What do you do?" but we are not always sure why we do what we do. We live in a culture that puts a lot of focus on what we do, we are taught that our worth is connected to our work. We often try to prove our value and worth with what we do. We live in a culture that bases success on the what. What we do, what we accumulate, what we make per month, that's where we find success. But significance is found in the why.

Pastor Larry Brey talks about how we don´t need more of something to find fulfillment in life, we need to understand why we do something. The answer to the question "Why do you do what you do?" can lead us to our purpose in life. I like what Larry Brey points out: "And the beginning place of a why is a brokenness for somebody else." We will not find our purpose in life by focusing only on ourselves. My purpose in life will be connected to somebody else´s pain. If we only look within ourselves we will not find our purpose, we might find our gifts and personal interests, but our purpose is found in helping somebody else.

Larry Brey also mentions that our why is always connected to taking a who to where. God will call each one of us to entirely different things but each one of us will be called to take a who to a where. God might be calling you to:
take women in sex slavery to freedom,
take orphans to a family,
take addicts to freedom,
take the lonely to Christian community,
take the depressed to hope in the future,
or to take refugees to safety.

Your purpose in life is about helping a who to a where. What person or people group is God calling you to serve and what place is He calling you to help these people reach? There's not one person walking on this Earth right now, not a single person that God allowed to be born, that lacks a purpose. You have a purpose, but the question is do you know what it is?