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Handful of happy

When Timehopping is hard

I have a love/hate relationship with a Facebook app. You may know the one, Timehop, “your memories await.” The app collects your texts, photos, and social media posts on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. Then each morning, you can scroll down “your day in history” from one to eight years ago. Oh my.

Sometimes my Timehop includes a photo of delicious pie that I gobbled down a year ago. Sometimes it includes a photo of a friend who passed away a few years ago. And sometimes there are photos from several years back of grandchildren playing at our house.

And always it includes my Happy Day Moment #___ Facebook posts. Always my discovery of a “moment” each and every day (since #1 on April 1, 2010) when I was grateful and “living with gratitude.”

So there are those memories where I smile stupidly at my phone, remembering joys and love and happiness; and then others where I have to pause, sigh, stop the scrolling, and close the app, remembering what was and what has changed. Because sometimes everything is too achingly wonderful and too achingly sad.

That’s what this life is for all of us. Life truly is HARD.

During lunch with a girlfriend not too long ago, she asked how I was doing. “Actually, I have had a real peace lately,” I said. “Then this morning some photos showed up on Timehop, and ka-plooey, some peace-adjustment was needed.”

“You should delete that app,” my friend said, she who would win trophies for her kindness.

Maybe I should.

But then, as hard as it is to read some posts or see some photos, they are my life. They are what has molded me, strengthened me, taught me. To live with gratitude. Always.

That’s my (not-so-secret) weapon. That to weather the storms of life, the seasons of pain and the seasons of joy, the times of leanness and times of bounty, the hard and the soft, when I always lean into gratitude, I don’t just survive – I become stronger.

So I won’t delete my Timehop app. I’ll let its memories, good and sad, remind me I can’t control life, but I can control how I respond when “life” happens (i.e., still being grateful). I can decide not to spend time feeling sad about a situation and missing how things used to be, but decide to be thankful for the awareness and empathy and understanding that all my memories have given me.

These, then, are some posts from my Twitter page that will pop up next year in my Timehop memories. These are a handful of my daily tweets from the summer of 2016. May they edify you, build you up, encourage you. May they make you stronger if you also have a love/hate relationship with your Timehops.

May the power of love that holds us together be greater than the power of any offenses that separate us.
God doesn’t reject a heart that is broken and honestly regrets the past.
Reconciliation with others can be long and difficult, but it usually begins with small acts of mercy and grace.
Never stop hoping, no matter what you’ve been through, or are going through.
The world will always have brokenness and sorrow. But it will also always have God’s grace.

It takes a strong soul with real heart to develop smiles out of situations that make us weep.
The glorious thing about life is we have a daily choice regarding the attitude we will embrace that day.
You may be frustrated and tired and weary, but don’t give up.
Let’s keep loving and forgiving others even when they make stupid mistakes.
I’m not making this up: God will walk with you through this.

May the things that once irritated, or angered, or stressed us have little or no effect anymore.

Click To Tweet

Sometimes when you least expect it, God is there with answers.
Sometimes when we’re kind, we still disappoint people. It’s okay. Be kind anyway.
When we defend our opinions, let’s do it with gentleness and respect.

When we are grateful, we are stronger, and life is more beautiful.

September 8, 2016

What people need

What People Need . . .

Love. Forgiveness. Encouragement.

There’s so much sadness, so much sorrow. There’s so much controversy, so much contention.

In all the noise of news reports and journalism and everything social media, there are hard things. And so much rawness in all the words. And in so many ways we speak to and treat others.

What people need most to cover all this rawness is the softness of words of love and forgiveness and encouragement. How we speak, how we treat others – it matters. In all relationships.

In this softness, we become stronger.

That’s what people need most — words that make them stronger. We can overcome the noise, the loud. We can choose how we treat others; we can choose words that encourage, words that build up, and words that bring together.

Our words can either bring together or tear apart, and here in this space, and on this Facebook Page, I want to purpose my words for bringing together. For building up. Words that point the way to what people need: Love. Forgiveness. Encouragement.

Let’s start thinking more about how we speak, how we treat people … in all our encounters, in all our relationships:

…forgiving others and moving forward

…showing kindness and respect to others

…accepting others just the way they are

…encouraging others and cheering for them

…doing something little (or big) for others every day

…letting love be our compass

So here are my soft strong words for April, my thoughts, the tweets, which were liked and an echo of those things that people need most…..

The strongest, healthiest relationships are made up of two forgivers.
Let’s tip the scale to being more positive, more encouraging, more loving.
Thinking good thoughts about someone isn’t enough. We need to say the encouraging words.
You will be amazed how much of a difference you can make by just smiling every time you talk to someone.
Choose encouragement, lifting others up, not putting them down.
Let’s offer friendships that are generous and forgiving and guilt-free.
Treat all the people you meet that there is something worthwhile in them.
Let’s allow God’s goodness to flow through us and nourish all who cross our paths. ‪
Love the hard people, at the hardest times, in the kindest ways.
The gift of pure love allows us to bless others and accept them without condition. ‪

Let our love for others be sincere and active, without hypocrisy.‪
Make intentional time to tell others specifically how they bless you.
Let’s be less judgmental and cultivate a sense of wonder at each person’s uniqueness. We’re all a wee bit crazy in our own way. ‪
There is powerful freedom in admitting our weakness because it allows others to love us as we truly are.
Make allowances for and be patient with each other, and forgive without punishing.

We can either harm by the selfishness of our silence or diminished praise, or we can heal by the selflessness of our encouraging words.
Today give others precisely what you may think they deserve least. Grace.
If you really fulfill this royal law: “Love your neighbor as yourself,” you’re doing well.
The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.
Let our gratitude be awakened; let our love be quickened.‪
We all need to learn to communicate without blaming.

Above all, let’s keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins. ‪

May 11, 2016

Handful of happy February 2016

God has called us to settle our relationships with each other.‪

For this handful of posts from my Happy Day Moments Facebook Page, this one sentence had people sharing and commenting “Yes!” and “Amen!” Seems we’ve all got relationship issues. 🙂

God forgives us; we gotta forgive others.

It’s as simple {as hard} as that. Or is it?

Others damage us, hurt us, and when we’re stung by betrayal or rejection, our natural bent is to think “I’m justified in feeling this way. I’m going to hold onto this a while longer.” We think we’re entitled to some kind of emotional justice.

However, we express His love when we seek reconciliation, even in the place of raw anger and pain, because, seriously, it’s hard to forgive jerks and rapscallions. And it’s a challenge to reconcile our pain with God’s command to forgive.

So if we desire to love like Jesus, we can’t keep score of the wrongs people do against us, we can’t catalog offenses and grievances, we can’t maintain an inventory of grudges.

Sure, it may be pretty awful what they did, what they said……but …

Let go.

Step into forgiveness.

Because forgiveness isn’t about agreeing with those who’ve hurt us. It’s not condoning their conduct or sanctioning the terrible things they’ve done or agreeing with their motives or their methods.

Fix the situation, the one who hurts us? That’s God’s job.

Forgive them? Ah, that’s what we’re to do….. We forgive.

We have choices when we’re offended. We can surrender our hurt or hold on to our hurt. We can extend grace or harbor bitterness. Let’s make the gracious decisions that model Jesus.

Let’s forgive, let’s throw all that detritus, all that junk, all that weight and wreckage behind us, and let’s become freer, moving forward into a journey of grace, a pathway of love.

Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.

Don’t be angry with each other, but forgive each other. If you feel someone has wronged you, forgive them. Forgive others because the Lord forgave you.

This is grace. This is love. This is what God says.

And then there are these….

the rest of the handful of the Happy Day Moment Facebook posts from February. The other ones that had the most likes, the most comments, the most shares.

At all times – and regardless of circumstances – we’re called to love others.‪
Let’s marinate our hearts in gratefulness. ‪
Those who dare the most shall win the most. ‪
Let’s believe that goodness and intelligence and bravery will win the day.‪
God uses those who raise their hands and volunteer to take on someone else’s problems, who step out of comfort and into impossibility for the good of others. ‪
Let’s not seek our own good, but the good of others.
If you keep your eyes open, you’ll discover that kindness is all around us.‪
Speak your love. Speak it again. Speak it yet again. ‪
Today, choose somebody you want to be creatively kind to.‪
Wherever you are, remember, it’s temporary.

March 9, 2016

Handful of happy December 2015

Kindness = life’s glitter. Sprinkle that stuff everywhere.

We gotta do it.

We gotta be kind.

And we gotta sprinkle it all around.

Kindness. And gratefulness. And looking to the good. In ourselves. In others.

Follow me on Twitter and my Happy Day Moments Facebook Page as I think and post about these good and kind and grateful things of life.

Here is the handful of posts from December that had the most likes, the most comments, the most shares.

Nothing is more powerful than God’s love.

Click To Tweet

Most journeys are easier when someone holds your hand.‪

Life will always have obstacles. But you can decide to be happy anyway.

Sometimes being a kid is hard. Sometimes being a grown up is hard. Let’s all be nice to each other.

May our spirits be filled with God’s courage and our hearts with His love.

We often feel most grateful when we use our lives in ways that lift another person.

Hope doesn’t come from people or circumstances or situations. Our hope comes from God.

Focus your thinking on something you’re grateful for. Over and over again.

Be humble. Be gentle. Be patient. Tolerate each other in an atmosphere large with love.

Smile and speak kindly when you’re working, when shopping, when meeting strangers, when seeing friends.

We don’t repair fissures in relationships by ignoring them; we repair through forgiveness and communication.

Extending mercy and grace helps heal the tangled heart.‪

Blessings upon you in the new year! #happydaymoment

January 4, 2016

Handful of happy November 2015

Let’s pause and appreciate the things we have, not the things we don’t.

When it comes to the month of November, the moving from one season to another, the grasp of Thanksgiving, let’s hold fast to that thought … appreciating What. We. Have.

And the blessings of …

Love. Grace. Calm. Encouragement.

Here is the handful of posts from my Happy Day Moments Facebook Page and my Twitter feed from November that had the most likes, the most comments, the most shares. {Go ahead, tweet the ones that touch your heart.} 🙂

Love will always have the last powerful definitive absolute word.

Click To Tweet

Love and kindness have transformative power. ‪

Communicate your love and appreciation while others are still around to hear it.

There will be water poured on your thirsty land and there will be grace for your desperate need.

Although you cannot calm the storm, you can remain calm in the storm.‪

Choose to be an encourager. A win for others. A win for you.

It’s not our job to change who we are in order to become someone else’s idea of a worthwhile human being.

Don’t wait for some special day; celebrate each day as special.

Relationships are what matter most. Not possessions. Not pursuits.

Life is tough, my dear, but so are you.

Do not be arrogant and unconcerned; and do not neglect the poor and needy.

***

And approaching Christmas, let’s hold onto this …

The evidence of a grateful heart is generosity and unselfishness.

December 4, 2015

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