curate and celebrate
- striveandflourish
- Mar 5
- 4 min read
AWAKEN AND RENEW
For we are God's masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do good things he planned for us long ago.
Ephesians 2:10 NLT
TWEAK AND NOURISH
BIRTHDAY GIFT: FOOD DEHYDRATOR. For my recent birthday, my husband surprised me with an amazing gift: a food dehydrator! He knows just how much I love munching on dried fruit without any sulfites. Every time I hit the grocery stores for dried fruit snacks, I get frustrated by the limited selection due to all those unnecessary ingredients and preservatives. But now, with this dehydrator, I can make the perfect all-natural dried fruit snacks right at home!
CREATE AND EVOLVE
MONOGRAMMED PROJECT: LAVENDER MINT SACHETS. If you have been a regular on my site, you may have noticed that these sachets have a different design. I wanted to add pizzazz so I tied a ribbon around the top. You can check out my other designs by clicking the category CREATE AND EVOLVE.
ENLIGHTEN AND IGNITE
BACKYARD HARVEST: LAVENDER BUDS AND MINT LEAVES. I am absolutely thrilled to have enjoyed an abundant harvest before my lavender bush withered after the winter freeze! With every hint of bad weather on the horizon, I've been eagerly gathering mint from the garden and prepping the leaves for future use. The whole process—sorting, washing, drying, and storing the leaves—is such a rewarding experience!
REFOCUS AND DELIGHT
A CALL TO AWARENESS AND ACTION: THE BEAUTY WITHIN US. As God's masterpiece, highlighted in Ephesians 2:10, we can absolutely embrace the incredible beauty within us—the beauty that God sees, not the one defined by the world's standards. This assurance ignites a powerful confidence in our self-worth, rooted in God's perception of us. We are uniquely crafted and Spirit-filled, eliminating any need for comparison or envy. In Galatians 5:25, Paul writes: Since we are living by the Spirit, let us follow the Spirit's leading in every part of our lives. Let us not become conceited or provoke one another, or be jealous of one another. David, in Psalms 139: 13-18 states, "You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother's womb. Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous-how well I know it. You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion as I was woven together in the dark of the womb. You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed. How precious are your thoughts about me, O God. They cannot be numbered! I can't even count them; they outnumber the grains of sand! And when I wake up, you are still with me!"
Having an awareness of God's love fills us with the exhilarating realization of the beauty within us! We'll start to feel an incredible sense of security, knowing we are cherished as beloved children of God, deeply loved and highly favored. With this newfound hope, we'll look forward with confidence, trusting that no matter what has happened in the past, we have a gracious God who redeems and transforms lives! In Isaiah 64:5: And yet, O Lord, you are our Father. We are the clay, and you are the potter. We are all formed by your hand and in Philippians 1:6: And I am certain that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns, we are reminded that God is continuously working in our lives.
What do we do with this awareness? The scriptural text in 1 Peter 1:13-16 is a call to holy living. It states: So prepare your minds for action and exercise self-control. Put all your hope in the gracious salvation that will come to you when Jesus Christ is revealed to the world. So you must live as God's obedient children. Don't slip back into your old ways of living to satisfy your own desires. You didn't know any better then. But now you must be holy in everything you do, just as God who chose you is holy. For the scriptures say, "You must be holy because I am holy."
One of Jesus' teachings in Matthew states: Your eye is like a lamp that provides light for your body. When your eye is healthy, your whole body is filled with light. But when your eye is unhealthy, your whole body is filled with darkness. And if the light you think you have is actually darkness, how deep that darkness is! How do you see yourself? How do you see others? How do you view God?
May this first day of Lent be a profoundly moving reminder of God's unfailing love. Let's take a pause and have moments of gratitude.
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