my tree

In my regular chunk of 3rd trimester awakeness in the middle of the night I recently started to dream up a little art project.  Sadly, I am not a very artistic person, but I so enjoy and appreciate great art and artistic talent in others.  

Anyways, here's my little dream.  I found this nice picture online of a beautiful tree (linked to here) and I'm hoping to find a way to print it up and label it in some frameworthy way, so that this tree could illustrate the characteristics I most want established in my life... kind of like a life mission statement illustrated.

I was really encouraged recently to think of who I want to be when I'm 80 years old and how I can actively pursue those characteristics from where I'm at now...  So here's who I want to be and honestly, it's also, implicitly, a bit of a plan for how to get there too...

The Roots:  Grace-fueled Joy in God:  my All-worthy, Beautiful Treasure

Ground Level:  Christ's uniqueness for me.   "All God's promises depend on Christ alone... only in Christ is God the Father graciously inclined towards us." (J Bridges quotes John Calvin, on page 85 of Transforming Grace.) Or another way to think of it:  In no way do I earn God's faithfulness to me.  Christ did.  It's a sealed deal-  God loves me and will always be faithful to to us who believe as He is to Christ.

The Trunk:  The Word of God and Prayer- two strands so melded together, the core pillar of my heart

The Branches:  My uniqueness in Christ.  God has made to display his goodness and mirror his image in a unique way... I want talents, passion, and service to be deeply developed in me for His glory.

Branches bearing three main types of fruit:  1) humble service,  2) faith-walking, courageous sharing and 3) passionate worship

Branches reaching into these areas:  1) my own heart, submitted to and intimate with Him, 2) my family- my amazing man and our champion kiddos, 3) our larger family and 4) our community- the world

So this is my prayer for my life... to be this kind of well-rooted, life-giving tree, to bear fruit for my King's glory.  And at this point it's all pure prayer...

Hopefully soon I'll have some far cuter pictures to post of our littlest one (and the proud bro and sis) than just a nice looking tree.  But at this rate, there just might be some more trees or maybe water gun shots or some kind of goofing around to put up before then. I'm due in 8 more days and eager as ever to meet our little one!  I'm fast approaching the "I've never been this pregnant before" mark.  We are all trying to wait patiently (which is hard- especially with painful contractions most every day for over two weeks now!)   But waiting is a good lesson- a privilege to learn.   If I would only learn it well!