5 Things I Learned In July

1. This Blog's Tagline
​I've been praying  about what the tagline (or focus) of this blog should be. It's transitioned and changed over the years, but after a lot of prayer, God gave it to me! And the blog now reflects it. She Laughs Without Fear is about finding glimpses of God's Kingdom in the ordinary and everyday. 

I'm excited for this tagline and focus, and it will be interesting to see how it plays out on the blog from here forward. 
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2. How to Pick Green Beans and Blanche Corn
​My husband grew up on a farm, which means that he grew up with green beans and corn straight from the garden. I grew up with green beans and corn straight from the grocery store. Even though I know how corn and green beans are grown, I've never had the opportunity to harvest them until this past month. And boy, did we do a lot of blanching!

While picking green beans, I couldn't help but think about all of the times that farming is mentioned in the Bible and how green beans and corn go from being a tiny seed to a plant that provides delicious food, especially sweet corn. I didn't grow our vegetables, but I can see how rewarding farming can be, much like planting seeds for the gospel and watching them grow in the hearts of people. 

3. The Beauty of Christ Focused Weddings
July was filled with attending three weddings for friends - one wedding per weekend. I love weddings for the fact that they image the relationship between Christ and his bride, the Church. It was a delight to see our friends get married and to celebrate marriage with these friends. After attending a number of weddings over the years, I see more and more how weddings that are focused on Jesus Christ and God's glory are the most beautiful weddings. 

As an added bonus, it was a delight to dress up with my husband for three weekends.

​4. How to Pray the Lord's Prayer
Prayer by Tim Keller has been on my list of books to read for a while now. After reading some reviews, it seemed like an encouraging book to read to grow in intimacy and awe in my relationship with God. I've been learning a lot over these past few months about prayer, particularly about praying through Scripture. While I've prayed the Lord's Prayer many times over the years, I never thought about using the Lord's Prayer to guide my extended time in prayer. I'll share more in a future post, but using each line of the Lord's Prayer to guide my time in prayer has been especially helpful as I talk with the Lord. 

5. I Want to Celebrate My Smallness
In addition to reading Prayer, I've also been reading It's Simply Tuesday by Emily P. Freeman. It's a book focused on small-moment living in a fast-moving world and how to find God's Kingdom in the Tuesdays (ordinary days) of life. Reading this book revealed to me that I often live my life chasing after exciting, extraordinary, and big moments and a fast-moving life. BUT what my soul really craves is to celebrate my smallness before God and find Him in the midst of the ordinary and everyday moments of my life.  

God is using this book to show me that living for God's Kingdom and celebrating my smallness and my part in His Kingdom is more life-giving than trying to build my own crumbling kingdom. God's used this book to help change my perspective on this blog, my creative endeavors, my friendships, and how I view the small-moments of my life. 

Look forward to hearing more about this book and the thoughts that it's prompting in future posts. 
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What did you learn in July?