Perspective Improved!

How was your Easter?  Did you spend time celebrating with family and friends?

Yesterday, my family and I celebrated Easter in a nontraditional manner. Since moving to Florida six years ago, quite a few of our holidays have landed us on the nontraditional side of festivities.  Part of that is due to not living near family. Our closest relative is my brother John and his family who live about four hours or so south of us, near Miami.

Whatever the reason for our nontraditional holiday festivities, I believe this change from tradition has brought Joe, Mike, Sydney and myself, closer.  When the holidays approach, we start discussing how we'd like to spend the day as there are no extended family dinners to attend, no in-laws to please.  After agreeing on the how, what and where, we each gear up for a day of what usually turns out to be a simple and hassle free, pure good time.  Yesterday was a perfect example of our new and improved, nontraditional holiday observance.

We've enjoyed previous Easter's, Father's Days, Mother's Days, Christmas Eve's and NewYears at various attractions like Downtown Disney, Universal Studios, Sea World, Islands of Adventure, City Walk and New Smyrna Beach, and given this previous experience with varied ways of celebrating, we knew exactly how we preferred to spend this Easter. We decided once again to forgo the labor intensive traditional big dinner choosing instead to spend the afternoon relaxing together while enjoying a casual picnic at the beach.  I'm happy to report that our nontraditional celebration of Easter Sunday was not a grain of sand less than absolutely wonderful.

I think the reason for the joy we experience in our nontraditional holidays is not so much about the lack of extended family to accommodate as it is in the decision we've made to focus on our sense of pleasure rather than appearances.  Instead of planning our holiday activities based on what is expected, we now choose  to listen to one another's particular needs for the day.  This time, before the actual holiday arrived,  I could tell that what the DeLeon family needed more than anything else was simply a little away from it all together time spent bumming on the beach, munching on our favorite eat at the beach foods while listening to the sound of the crashing east coast waves behind the bouts of laughter we would inevitably share.

By paying attention to what we really needed to do as a family to celebrate the precious resurrection of our Savior and Lord, Jesus Christ, we spent the day appreciatively basking in the gift of the life that we get to enjoy, today, and the promise of eternal life that we know we'll enjoy, later.

Dear God,
This is the final day of my thirty day journey of blogged prayer and I am overwhelmed by all that you've taught me in this short amount of focused time.  Because of time spent with you each and everyday, I believe that I have a new sense of appreciation for the little things in life, a clarity of purpose in all that I do and an unwavering expectation of the enormous blessings I know that you have prepared for me in the future.

It is hard to explain the empowerment for living a good life that I now get to sincerely call my own.  I see possibility where I once saw dead ends.  I guess I can best describe what I am experiencing through this time with you as a genuine renewal of hope.

Before this journey I was low in spirit.  I felt empty, somewhat lonely and honestly way too needy of approval and acceptance.  Now, though I am constantly hungry to know more of you, I feel a sense of fullness in my life and a newfound ability to see your hand in the simplest of tasks and, because of that, I enjoy a unique sort of pleasure in my days, which I think can be best described as peace.

Today, on this last day of my thirty day blogged prayer journey, I find that my relationship with you means everything to me and that more than anything else, your approval is what I seek.

I know that I didn't happen upon this idea of blogged prayer all by myself.  I know that you led me to this place because an intimate relationship with you is what you knew I needed.  You saw my heart and you guided me towards a 'Y' in the road where I would have to decide if I were going to seek you out in a more personal way or continue on my path of simply just getting by...

I'm thankful that you guided me to this time of prayer and even more, I am thankful that you love me so much that you took the time to see where I was at and knock, once again, on the door of my heart.

In no way do I want to belittle my previous relationship with you because I am grateful for the foundation in faith that has served my spirit so graciously this far.  I just want you to know, God, that I can tell the difference that talking with you each day, personally, using the same simple words and voice that I would speak with when talking to a close friend, makes everything in life look a whole lot greener over here on my side of the fence.   The difference I sense in my life is so obvious that I could easily do one of infomercials where they make the boisterous claims of new and improved with the ultimate promise of a money back guarantee!

The way that I've been praying is similar to the way that my family and I now spend our holidays, as now that I think about it, blogged prayer time is definitely a nontraditional way of speaking with you. But through this nontraditional method, you've given me a perspective that, left to my own devices, I would never ever begin to see, much less, begin to understand.

Whatever is next, God, I'm ready.  Thank you, so much for all you have given and as always, may this prayer be a blessing to someone else.