Giving Grace and Finding Discipline

Hello, readers! It is so funny how the universe operates. I haven’t been feeling particularly inspired to write lately, but something was on my heart this morning that I really needed to put into words. When I logged in to my account, I had a message saying today was my blog’s anniversary! It made me smile. Anyways, let’s refocus on today’s topic: Giving Grace and Finding Discipline.

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Grace. If you are a Christ-follower like me, this word likely has great meaning to you. Both giving and receiving grace are powerful moments, and currently, I need to both give and receive grace for myself. At the start of quarantine, I had this strong desire to use all of the extra time to grow in my relationship with God. I wanted to reach a spiritual peak or to at least find spiritual peace. However, it is now two months into quarantine, and I realize I haven’t been growing my faith. If anything, I’ve lost touch.

I haven’t been watching live streamed services, and at first, I blamed it on the content, that it wasn’t resonating with me. Then I hit a hard reality that it doesn’t matter whether the content resonates with me every week. What matters is that I continue to show up. I need to show up regardless of my spiritual highs or lows. I’ve had this nagging on my heart all through the past two months and this desire to know and love Jesus more and more. But like all things in life, desire is not enough. You can desire anything you want, but to actually reach it? To actually acquire whatever it is you’re desiring? You need discipline. And friends, discipline is challenging. It means prioritizing the things that will get you closer to your desire. It might mean sacrificing things that are getting in the way. For me, it means being extremely intentional with finding time and establishing a routine.

I am so thankful that God continues to put a little fire in my heart to know Him and find closeness to Him. But now it’s my turn to keep that fire burning. And you know what? I’m still extending myself grace. Not everyday will be perfect. Not every service will light my soul on fire. And that’s OKAY. I vow to keep showing up for Him, regardless of whether my spiritual meter is full or empty.

So if you’ve been feeling more distant from God, I challenge you to establish one concrete practice that you continue to show up for no matter what. It could be listening to ten minutes of worship a day. It could be finding a daily practice of reading scripture. It could even be committing to watching or listening to a service every Sunday. Give yourself some grace and find something that works for you. Personally, I’m devoting time each day to reading my bible. I didn’t set a specific time. Maybe it’s just 5 minutes one day, but it could be an hour the next. But every day, I want to show up by digging into the word. Right now I’m making my way through Luke, and I’ve found growth there.

The realities of the state of this world can make every day feel like I’m flying by the seat of my pants. But establishing a spiritual routine has helped bring me a spirit of peace despite the events of our world.

-Megan LouAnn

3 Memoirs You Should Read During Quarantine

Hi readers! As promised, I am going to be sharing some book recommendations. I debated between doing super in depth book reviews about one book at at time, but as I have done in the past like in this post, I will be sharing 3-4 book recommendations at a time, and I’ve decided to sort of categorize them. First up: memoirs! The reason I wanted to start with memoirs was because it’s a category of books I’ve just recently started getting into. I read these three books either in 2019 or so far in 2020. Memoirs are so great to read because a) it’s all true and b) the author’s voice really shines. These three memoirs are each so different, but I hope you give one of them a try during quarantine. Libraries are still offering online resources (I actually loaned one of these books from the library and had it ‘sent’ to my Kindle, pretty neat!), and I have a copy of Educated, so if you live in the Greater Cincinnati area, I’d be happy to let you borrow it. 🙂 Now, here are the three memoirs that I think you should read:

1. Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns) by Mindy Kaling

If you follow me on Instagram, you probably know that I really love Mindy Kaling. She’s just such a kick ass woman and super talented. The love I have for her started when I recently (yes, I know I’m behind) watched The Office for the first time through, but that loved blossomed even further after reading this autobiography. This book is hysterical, and Mindy’s voice is so clear throughout. She talks about her life growing up, finding herself, her early days on The Office, relationships, etc. She talks about all the things through with very vivid storytelling, and there are a lot of fun pictures throughout. By the end of the book, Mindy feels like a close friend, and boy, do I wish I could be her friend in real life. If you love The Office or just like to laugh, I highly recommend Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns).

One word description: light-hearted

2. Becoming by Michelle Obama

I just want to begin by saying regardless of your political views, this book is fantastic. It is split into three parts: Becoming Me, Becoming Us, and Becoming More. Michelle takes us to her very early childhood, where she grew up in Chicago, and she does so with excellent description. You’re really able to place yourself inside of all of the different locations she describes, and she does a fabulous job of being raw and honest. I felt many emotions while reading this book. It’s incredibly empowering to trace Michelle’s journey from where she started to where she is now, and it was so interesting to get a unique look into the love story of Michelle and Barack, as well as what life was like for them before, during, and after the White House. The way Michelle wrote this memoir really makes you feel like “a fly on the wall”, and it makes you ponder your own growth and goals.

One word description: empowering

3. Educated by Tara Westover

Phew. I just finished this book on Saturday night after a four hour reading spree, and I’m still not over it. This book will rock the very foundation of how you pictured our world today, as if corona hasn’t already rocked it enough! Tara recounts her life of how she got from a survivalist family in the mountains of Idaho to earning her Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge. Throughout the entire book, I had to keep reminding myself that I was reading a true story, not some crazy fiction novel. I don’t want to give too much away with this one, but it has Tiger King level twists and turns. It was maybe a bit slow in the beginning, but trust me, this is one you want to read the whole way through. Trigger warning: there are several retellings of physical abuse, so if that is a trigger for you, I recommend choosing one of the other two recommendations.

One word description: shocking

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Have you read one of these three books? If so, leave a comment down below of what you thought! I love discussing books with others. Also, if you have any great memoir recommendations for me, let me know in the comments as well!

Happy reading,

Megan LouAnn

Easter 2020

Hello readers! It’s been… almost three years since I’ve made a blog post, but my dad encouraged me to dust off the cobwebs being that quarantine has left me with more time on my hands. Yes, quarantine. *sigh* Maybe I will write a post with more specifics about how I’m processing everything going on with the corona virus, but for this post, I’d rather focus on some good news: Easter! Yes, Easter looked different this year. I didn’t attend church in a physical building, and I didn’t physically see my family, but I would like to focus on what I was able to do: celebrate the day with the love of my life, safely at home.

We made Easter baskets for each other but ended up opening them two days early because we were too excited! J got me a Nintendo-themed chess set and lots of yummy chocolates, and I got him two Mandalorian/Baby Yoda shirts, peeps, and x-box controller thumb grips (he’s been gaming quite a bit in quarantine, lol).

The night before Easter, I started some preparations for our big Easter lunch! I readied the bread dough, made hard boiled eggs, and baked the pie (more details on the pie to come in a later post).

My dogs got baths so that they were all cleaned up for the big day. They weren’t too keen on Easter photos, but we tried our best, and they were awful precious in their Spring shirts.

Easter morning (more like afternoon, we’ve been sleeping in a lot!) I listened to Crossroad’s service while getting ready and then got to work on our Easter meal: deviled eggs, green bean casserole, mac and cheese (the real star of the show), fresh baked bread, and strawberry glacé pie. It. was. so. good. and we have so many leftovers, yay!

After lunch we watched Black Panther (we’ve been watching all of the Marvel movies in order!) and then went on a nice walk before the rain moved in.

Albeit being very upset that we missed a “normal” Easter with family, I’m thankful we were still able to celebrate and have a special day just the two of us. I’m just really thankful today. Thankful for a safe, beautiful apartment to stay in, thankful for all of the food, thankful for FaceTime so that I could still “see” my family on Easter, thankful to have a partner in life who made the day special, but most of all thankful that Jesus came to save us. One thing is for certain, it’s been hard to cope with all of the devastation happening in the world, but remember this: Jesus has overcome the world.

I hope you all were able to celebrate Easter today while in quarantine, whatever that looked like for you.

I’m excited to be writing again, and I will be sharing some book recommendations and recipes in some upcoming posts! If you would like to be notified when I post, go to my home page, scroll to the bottom and enter your email!

-Megan LouAnn