Life isn’t always champagne wishes and caviar dreams…
(Hah – do you hear Robin Leach’s British voice from Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous?)
but every couple has good stuff to celebrate!
How do you document & celebrate the good stuff?
Pictures
I imagine you take photos of monumental moments – do you display those photos? Many people have scrapbooks or photo albums or use computer/online mediums to store their photos.
When I was a child, I remember my parents having “slide show” evenings with friends. A large screen was set up in our living room, and the lights were turned off. The projector was turned on and like magic these huge pictures of happy events or beautiful sunsets (my Mom couldn’t pass up taking pictures of sunsets) appeared on the screen.
It was a real social time where the group would gather, enjoy food and an evening filled with happy memories. Often those in the room were in the slides and exclamations of laughter and stories about the events were bantered back and forth. Pictures became the way to remember the good times – the good stuff of life.
Today we have online resources – Facebook being a very popular way to share photos of happy events with friends and family.
And then we display our photos in our homes. Some homes have more photos than wall and table-top space. If you’re a fan of Pinterest, there are many ideas on how to display photos…
- Here’s one about using rocks & wire to hold up single prints
- Using a photo frame lined with wires holding single prints
- Vintage photos in bottles
- A wall with “you are my sunshine” and photos
- And on the wall, but with an interesting design for the frames
Journals
Someone once said that
If life is worth living, then it’s worth recording…
Do you keep a journal? There are many resources and ways to journal:
- Online blogs chronicling families and their journey of learning
- Scrapbooks that include blurbs about events, and even essays
- Beautiful notebooks just for the process of keeping a journal
I’ve written in a journal since my kids were small. It’s fascinating to go back to those first pages and visit that young woman I was to reminisce over all the joys and frustrations of a time long ago.
Every now and again I read to Robert something that I wrote about years ago. Journals have become my way of seeing God moving in our life through circumstance and answered prayers.
On our 25th Wedding Anniversary
We celebrated our 25th Anniversary three years ago. At that time I made up an 8-page photo journal highlight of our life: family, where we lived, our kids, our churches, our professions, our friends etc. It made for an interesting journey down memory lane. As I write this blog post it’s sitting on the table next to me.
Looking back builds HOPE
By documenting the good stuff of life, we have the opportunity look back and celebrate our blessings.
Most times looking through our photos and journals promotes happy smiles and laughter. However, photos and journals can hold bittersweet memories of loss: loved-ones who have passed, friends no longer part of our journey, or places/things dear to our heart no longer in our life.
Regardless. Everything can still be celebrated.
Our lives are a gift from God.
Where He has blessed us in the past, He will give new blessings in the future. He has a plan.
For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.
~ Jeremiah 29:11
God – the creator of heaven and earth – is a God of Hope. Our hope lies in Him.
Take time today to revisit your past.
Sit with your spouse and look through old photos. Or tour through your home with your spouse to really see each photo. (Sometimes the stuff on our walls becomes part of the scenery & ignored.) Create a commentary. Talk about the celebrations you shared – and focus on the good stuff.
From that looking back, start a conversation to imagine all the good God will do in your life in the future. The future doesn’t have to be viewed years forward – it can be in the next few days, or weeks, or months. Every day (if you look and document it) you’ll see God’s blessings.
Build your hope for a good future – together! Be inspired with hope.
Start recording all the good stuff NOW.
Lori,
Having our photos/videos organized on our computer at home makes it easy for us and the kids to scroll through the past. We’re recently on a kick of watching old videos that we had converted to DVD’s. At times, yes, it can be bittersweet too. Thanks for your lovely reminder that Christ is present with us faithfully, past, present, and future.
Blessings!
I’ve been less-than-organized with our digital pictures these last years. I’d love to find an easy and do-able way to both store and display them. Our son and daughter-in-love have one of those digital picture frames and I think maybe that might be a solution…
Thanks for commenting, Ann!
I love your ideas. Once again, you prove to be a wonderful encourager. Maybe I’ll just get our wedding album out for part of our anniversary time next month.
Thanks, Bonnie! Happy (almost) anniversary!
Well, I prefer photos to videos, I have a wall in each room for that. Like my for kids birth We have a wall dedicated to her. For our marriage we have wall dedicated to that. I just try to make a large collage. It really help when ever I am a bit down, looking at those pictures on the wall just help me in cheering up!
SO cool! I love your how you’re being so intentional, Molly! What a great gift you’re giving to your family. And you’re right – looking at photos are a great way to cheer ourselves up.
I also prefer photos. Maybe I’m just an old romantic:-)
Hi Lori, I wanted to update my email information for following your site. How do I do that?
Hey Robyn – I think the best way would be to just fill in the box to your right (again) – this time with the new email…
I haven’t explored any other ways – so sorry. I really value your input and comments, so thank you for wanting to stay connected!
Great ideas here, Lori! I really think we need to be intentional about celebrating the “good stuff” or it gets easily covered up by the “bad stuff.” And I love the Pinterest links. BTW, thanks so much for RT my post on Twitter the other day too. I’ll have to tweet about this great post! 🙂
Thanks for your kind words, Beth. It’s good to connect!