Praise Proceeds Progress {CELEBRATE This Week: 125}

I’m glad you are here to celebrate! Share a link to your blog post below and/or use #celebratelu to share celebrations on Twitter. Check out the details here. Celebrate This Week goes live on Friday night around 10(ish). Consider it as a weekend celebration. Whenever it fits in your life, add your link. Please leave a little comment love for the person who links before you.
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I wish I could remember where I heard this phrase, praise proceeds progress, but I don’t. I just know it’s not my own and that it keeps wrapping itself around my faith, challenging me to put it to the test. The point is why would God give me more if I’m not grateful for what I already have?

Even at the end of a rocky week, I’m determined to discover and document the celebrations. I’ve found when I’m most overwhelmed it is best to look for the tiniest celebrations; they often mean the most to a weary soul.

Here we go…a list of raw, unabashed, celebrations.

  1. Andy cooked dinner tonight. 
  2. I braided Stephanie’s hair before she went to bed. I plaited two thick braids down her back and she giggled as Andy and Kate kept us company.
  3. Sam ran into the house after school and made a beeline for me. Then he jumped on the couch next to me and hugged me. “I’ve been thinking about doing that all day,” he said before jumping off of the couch and heading to the basement to play trains.
  4. Jay laughed this contagious belly laugh throughout the Minions movie.
  5. I realized I’m not too old to have besties. 
  6. I started a new book that I love and hate and makes me laugh and cry.
  7. My house is tidy. The dishes are done. The laundry is contained.
  8. Hannah has finally learned to hug real and tight. She has a gentle spirit that is real strength. Both offer hope to me.
  9. Writing allows me to make sense of the unimaginable. Writing allows me to see a stronger story.
  10. My capacity for love and faith can increase and I pray for this to happen. This prayer is answered in ways I do not expect. I’m still thankful.
  11. I really love my glasses and my typewriter shirt and my fuzzy socks.
  12. There is an abundance of love in my life.

This is the praise that proceeds progress…there is an abundance of love in my life. Instead of lingering on the rough patches, I will embrace the abundance of love. Again and again and again — however long it takes for love to win.

An InLinkz Link-up

I hope you’ll join Christy Rush-Levine and me on Sunday as we talk about teaching & celebrating writers. 8:00 EST on Twitter. Follow #TandCwriters.

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13 Comments »

  1. Do you realize that you've started a habit in all of us, to find the things to celebrate all the day and night long, and to treasure and remember them, too? It is a very big deal, Ruth, and an important part of my life, and as you can see from the posts, others. I celebrate you!

  2. “I've found when I'm most overwhelmed it is best to look for the tiniest celebrations; they often mean the most to a weary soul.” Just like Linda pointed out, you've created a habit for each of us as we gather to celebrate each week. Sometimes gritty, sometimes tiny, but always showing up. Thanks for this special community and this weekly chance to celebrate! And #7 is definitely not a tiny thing!

  3. Your celebrations may be “tiny,” but they roar with significance. I absolutely love the many celebrations about your children! I also agree with Linda's comment above and celebrate YOU for the habit you have sparked in all of us.

  4. Wise words about finding the small things to celebrate when life becomes especially full. I love your line, “the laundry is contained.” That is indeed cause for celebration!

  5. Small celebrations found their way in to my post too. I hope that your weary soul finds more to celebrate each and every day. Your presence in so many lives makes a difference, always for the betterment of those lives.

  6. love the idea of finding things to celebrate especially when feeling overwhelmed quick question: precede/proceed?

  7. #12: “My capacity for love and faith can increase and I pray for this to happen. This prayer is answered in ways I do not expect. I'm still thankful.” THAT is awesome. I Iove the idea of being thankful for surprises. That is the nature of prayer, I think, to open up to what is possible, and what might be, and what we need, even if we don't really know what it will look like, and then to take what comes with gratitude. Amen!