Glory and Grace

This week has been one of many things learned! I forget just how much changing countries is like starting over as a baby and trying to "grow up" as quickly as possible, but it really is!  You exit your comfy, familiar home and enter another world where you now need to learn what to eat, how to speak, where to walk and how to get around, how to relate to others, and generally what the set of norms is for the people with whom you now live. Learning is both fun and exhausting - I find myself wanting to sleep like a baby too!

This week I learned . . .

One of the new things I could really get used to!
Even socks and undies come back from the
lavadería sorted, folded and tied with bows.

. . . how to eat on a pretty strict 7:00, 1:00, 7:00 meal schedule.
. . . that calidad or “quality” means “cool” in Guatemala and that saber or “to know” really means “I have no idea!”
. . . that walking in the middle of the street and/or right next to moving vehicles is completely normal, expected and often necessary.
. . . how to push my way through a crowd of 200+ people in a comparatively small space and back again.
. . . that market day is Thursday, Saturday, and Monday. Yaay! (But expect to make your purchases elsewhere on Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, or Sunday! :) 

My full-length mirror, the sholders-down half...

... and the shoulders-up half!  

With the amount of energy that it takes at first to do the most basic of activities, it’s challenging to make time for other things that are more important but more easily pushed aside. After 5 hours of one-on-one Spanish school and homework, etc. for a few days in a row, I found myself wanting less to study my Bible or read a deep, thought-provoking devotional or devote serious time to praying and wanting much more to just sleep. The only problem with that is that it totally unplugs me from the only One who has the power to sustain me and keep me going! 

The view from my window - I love this indoor/outdoor house!

So, this week my prayer has been that I would find space in my life to delight in God, to revel in his glory, to bask in his grace, to lose myself in something greater than day-to-day living, to be reminded of my smallness in the presence of someone who sustains the whole world. 

Simply put, to enjoy God for who he is!  Every day. 

And as always, God has been faithful to remind me of his grace and to fill my heart with his love and to provide “all things pertaining to life and godliness” because he’s God and he can. I read this week that discipline is “making room for God to work.”  This is truth.  Nothing I can do on my own will fulfill me like making my time and energy and affections available to the Lord!  

These are just as awesome as they look, and they hang from almost every balcony I've seen... including at school and in the downstairs hallway of our house!  Beautiful!   =)

Live for His glory!

Love every minute of it.