Searching for God Winks

I was reading my daughter, “God Gave us Christmas” by Lisa Tawn Bergren before bed a few nights ago. This was the first time I have read this book. Throughout the book, Momma bear took Little Cub on a nature hunt to “find God”.  It’s a beautiful book and I highly recommend you put it on your reading list with your babies if you have not already.

This month has been a difficult one for my family. The month started off with a miscarriage, (I wrote about it here) and now we are currently getting over a nasty cold. It has been really easy for me to become angry, annoyed and doubtful in a season such as this.

Reading this book reminded me how fun it is to search for God winks. It can be hard to trust His plan when it’s painful or not going according to YOUR plan. It can cause you to become frustrated and doubtful. After reading this book, I thought I would challenge myself to look for little God winks over a few days as a way to refresh and refocus my outlook. As a means to purposefully and mindfully seek out all the blessings God has bestowed on me. It was a wonderful little practice and certainly helped lift my mood over the past several days.

In no particular order, here are some of the wonderful blessings I soaked in the past few weeks. This was also a wonderful way to bring back into focus the excitement of why we are celebrating Christmas.

What is a God wink?

It’s a 60 degree day in December allowing the kids to dust off the cabin fever and see the beauty of God right when you need to.

It’s a perfectly timed nuzzle of your babies head into your cheek, while he clings to your shoulders. Letting you know, you are his person. The one who feels like home.

It’s your daughter saying something hilarious after a day of constant tension and battles with the threenager personality, albeit a bit inappropriate.

It’s watching the evening glow of the sun shine on my son’s face while he sits contentedly in the tree swing going back and forth endlessly.

It’s beautiful flowers from a friend to help brighten a dark moment. It’s your daughter painting said flowers to make them more “colorful”.

It’s your clingy baby giving you five minutes of free arms to practice a few yoga flows on the living room floor.

When you daughter says “Thank you Jesus” for the strong breeze that is helping to push her swing under the tree.

It’s an impromptu dance party in the living room to Christmas music. Watching your daughter make up her own moves, which look very similar to Elaine Benes (Seinfeld reference for you young folks).

It’s watching your “baby” toddle after his big sister while they both crack up. Laughing at how his tiny baby legs balance that big toddler head.

It’s your neighbor bringing over chocolate chip cookies to welcome you to the neighborhood and not feeling any shame when they were all eaten within two days.

It’s seeing your daughter light up with joy when wrapping presents for others. Recognizing her excitement and understanding of how joyful it is to be a blessing to someone else.

It’s being caught off guard by a beautiful sun rise when it feels way too early to be morning already. A reminder of the beauty we can look forward to in being given another day.

I’m sure I could think of a dozen more, but alas, I’m still in the hazy fog of a head cold and it’s a miracle I can write a sentence at all right now. Share with me any big or little blessings you’ve received recently!