Get Your Square

Ever had something special to you that you tucked away for awhile, knowing that it would have great purpose at some point?

Let me introduce you to  "my squares", as Nate has precisely named them.

With our recent move, I re-discovered all twenty of "my squares". Just simple pieces of cloth, in my favorite color(purple), with the letter "E" initialed on each one. Absolutely nothing special about them to most eyes, yet I refuse to get rid of them. All twenty of them!

I promise I'm not a pack-rat, but when certain items hold value to me, I find it hard to get rid of them so easily. With these particular "squares", I've held onto them since my wedding day. They were used in the center of each table at our reception for the centerpieces to sit on top of. Again, even then they had no great purpose and they haven't been used since, but they're just special to me! In fact, they had very humble beginnings. They started as a bed sheet that I found on clearance, at a thrift store. (The cheapest of the cheap, yet I saw beauty!) Then, as a wedding gift, my aunt cut the sheet into twenty small squares and embroidered "E's" onto each one! Talk about a wedding on a budget...that was my wedding!

Almost seven years removed from that great day, they have been packed away, unused. All because I just knew I would use them someday for something fabulous!

With a husband who hates clutter, I knew I had to find use for them when I found them recently, or he would send them out the door!

What to do?

It never came to me! I don't know that there is anything fabulous to do with my twenty "squares".

But while I'm waiting on the grand idea to knock me off my feet someday, I've put them to use with my children, for the protection of my new dining room table! We've never had a new, and nice dining room table until now. What possessed us to buy a new one NOW, given the ages of our children, I'll never know, but it's gorgeous, I love it, and I want it to stay in good condition!

This is where my lovely squares come into play! They stay in a drawer in the dining room. When meal time rolls around, I no longer say "Time to eat!". All I have to say is, "Come get your square!", and the kiddos come running! They run and grab a "square from the drawer, place it at their spot at the table, and anxiously await for their plate of food to be placed on top!

Not exactly how I anticipated they would be used seven glorious years ago, but hey, it works for me!

Today as a read a post from a fellow blogger, I couldn't help but think of "squares", and then ME!

Lisa used this verse,

Do not despise these small beginnings, for the LORD rejoices to see the work begin.

Zechariah 4:10

 

My squares had VERY humble beginnings. So did I. But all those years they just sat in storage, they weren't serving even the smallest of purpose! Do they have an extraordinary purpose now? Nope. They semi-contain the mess of my children at meal-time, but that is a HUGE deal to me, because I really value my new table. It's also kinda cute seeing the little squares in their little hands!

What about me?

 

What about you?

Do you have an EXTRAORDINARY purpose?

In my own fleshly eyes, I don't! I'm a girl with humble beginnings. Raised on a sawmill in Dacusville, SC. Raising my own little family now, not far from there. I just know that God has called me to something BIG, but I just haven't got it all figured out yet! So what will I do while I wait? Just sit on the shelf until the big day of my EXTRAORDINARY purpose? I choose to answer, "NO!" (Not exactly the way I'm tempted to answer!)

I want to be used for A PURPOSE! No matter how big, or small, God take me, and use it ALL! All for Your glory! It may be serving others, even the "messy" people! I'm all Yours, Lord!

I hear HIM rejoicing at the work beginning! How about you?

You hold "value" to HIM, just like my little squares and my table! HE won't get rid of you, but He does desire to use you for a purpose of bringing glory to His beautiful Name!

Please take a few moments to check out Lisa's blog, A Moment With God! You will always be encouraged by her Spirit-filled words! Her post genuinely encouraged me today! Thanks, Lisa!

In Reach...

I recently was privileged to join my daughter, Bella on her field trip to the apple orchard. I hate to admit that I have lived in the upstate of South Carolina my entire life, yet THIS was my first trip to an orchard. We walked through the orchard that spanned for acre upon acre and picked as many apples as we could fit in our bags. We found that we had to walk out pretty far to make our way to the trees that Bella and her friends could actually reach the apples from. The trees toward the front part of the orchard had been picked over so much, that the only apples remaining were at the very tip top and couldn't be reached by the small Kindergarteners! Quite a walk through the orchard, but thankfully we had some yummy fruit to snack on for the long walk back to the playground, where their energy suddenly spiked once more! We had so much fun that day! We loved it so much that we decided to take the entire family back with us. A couple weeks later, we packed up the entire family to head up the mountain for some yummy apples. We happened to bump into a problem though....we went a few days too late! The produce stand was still open, but apple picking season had already ended. What a bummer!

We still enjoyed some apple doughnuts and a day in the mountains looking at all the beautiful fall trees, but our dilemma reminded me of a quote I had once heard:

"Love is a fruit in season at all times, and within reach of every hand."   ~Mother Teresa

How true this is.

As Christians, we often throw around a lot of phrases that through the years, have somehow became part of our doctrine. One that I have recently come to hate is the comment regarding how hard it is to love certain people.  "God bless their hearts, but they are so hard to love." (That was my southern approach!) While I agree that there are people in this world that tend to shun any love we might show, it doesn't mean that loving them should be hard for us. Love is always in reach, and always in season. Love is often the first attribute that will draw an unbeliever to us, that we might share Christ with them, but how often do we tire of showing love to those we deem undeserving?

I'm so glad that Christ doesn't give up on me because I'm sometimes "hard to love". I'm also very thankful that he gave us the ability to feel and show His love to others. I want to be responsible with this ability. May I reach the unreachable with the powerful LOVE of Christ. Let my loving actions speak louder than my inexpressible words! May His greatness be evident in my life!

1 Corinthians 13

¹ If I could speak all the languages of earth and of angels, but didn’t love others, I would only be a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. ² If I had the gift of prophecy, and if I understood all of God’s secret plans and possessed all knowledge, and if I had such faith that I could move mountains, but didn’t love others, I would be nothing. ³ If I gave everything I have to the poor and even sacrificed my body, I could boast about it;^[a] but if I didn’t love others, I would have gained nothing.

 ⁴ Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud ⁵ or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. ⁶ It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. ⁷ Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.

 ⁸ Prophecy and speaking in unknown languages^[b] and special knowledge will become useless. But love will last forever! ⁹ Now our knowledge is partial and incomplete, and even the gift of prophecy reveals only part of the whole picture! ¹⁰ But when full understanding comes, these partial things will become useless.

 ¹¹ When I was a child, I spoke and thought and reasoned as a child. But when I grew up, I put away childish things. ¹² Now we see things imperfectly as in a cloudy mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity.^[c] All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely.

 ¹³ Three things will last forever—faith, hope, and love—and the greatest of these is love.

SHOW SOME LOVE! 

Messy Monday Link Up

Each Monday, we host a linkup here at The Evatt's Beautiful Mess!

Fellow bloggers may link up one of their favorite post from the previous week.

Monday's are usually a dreaded day, but our goal is to share encouragement on this seemingly gloomy day, thus making it beautiful!

If you choose to link up, please use the Messy Monday picture, or the Evatt's Beautiful Mess button to link back to our site!

Let's share from the abundance of our hearts and rejoice with one another.
If you do link up, be sure to check out some of the other linked blogs and show some love to fellow bloggers! 

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{Unexpected} Homemade Ice Cream

I've been a little quiet around here lately with Five Minute Fridays, but today I'm linking back up with Gypsy Mama and joining other bloggers in the challenge of write for 5minutes; unscripted, and (semi)unedited! Today's word for the writing; UNEXPECTED.

Go...

Our Engagement

After a full day of work at my college job at the jewelry store, I went to my boyfriends house for a date night of sorts. After being together for seven years, some weekends we just ran out of ideas(and money)! I thought a movie would be fitting, but he had other plans for this hot July day! He wanted ice cream...not just any ice cream; homemade ice cream.

Seemed to me this idea involved too much work, and I really just wanted to relax after work, but I went along with the idea because he happened to be so cute and had my heart wrapped around his little finger! We went to the store to buy our supplies, then stopped by our church, with cooler in tow, for the massive quantity of ice needed. 

I sat in the vestibule of the church as I waited for him to get the ice. Heading down the stairs toward me, he dropped to one knee and pulled a ring from his pocket!

WHAT?

Completely UNEXPECTED!

I don't remember the exact words exchanged, but I said "YES" to the man I love right there in the church we had first met when I was just five years old! I didn't always have a thing for him, but he pursued me enough over the years to win my heart, and I;m so glad he did!

We're now over six years and three kids into our marriage, and I couldn't possibly love anyone on this earth more than I love my sweet husband! He is the other side of me!

STOP.

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