Big Joy in Little Things

Dear Readers,

I just want to start out with a thank you- thank you for reading and being a part of my journey through my blog. I’m so excited about this and your excitement brings me motivation, thanks.

-- Every good and perfect gift is from above --

James 1:17

The world we live in today is far from fair, and it is so hard to find the things and hobbies that define us. So often what we enjoy doing is defined by our culture and not our personalities. We’ve forgotten the meaning of happiness and accepted the world's definition of happiness instead. When reaching for simplicity, we have to be reaching for the kind of simplicity that makes us happy.

While I was in school, I remember my second hour, AP U.S History, being the hardest class I’ve ever taken. Read a chapter each night, take notes, analyze what you’ve read, finish eight worksheets over the material the next day, and take a test worth pretty much all of my grade by the end of the week,and then repeat next Monday. My history class was stressful, tear provoking, overwhelming, and created doubts and priorities I didn’t want. It became the thing I did every morning, afternoon, and night, and quickly my number one priority for school. Now, doesn’t that sound appealing? I was beginning to lose a part of my identity and wasn’t making time to do what made me happy. I hadn’t written a journal entry in weeks, hadn’t taken time to sketch something out, or even get through a chapter of a book that wasn’t about American history. It was a quite depressing and unhealthy time for me. I knew something had to change. Going back to my square one opened my eyes to the things that truly made me happy.

I’ve taken the time to realize the things that put a smile on my face. There are the big things, such as: my family, seeing God work miraculously or answer a prayer, a blessing, my best friends, and inspirational and motivational talks. But what about the little things? There are so many little things in our everyday lives that also put smiles on our faces. Things such as: packing for a vacation I’ve been waiting to go on for weeks, getting my braces off, staying up late, waking up late, homemade pancakes, and cool weather in Arizona ( which is rare for those of you who have yet to experience Arizona). One of the key elements to a simple life is finding joy and happiness not only in the big things but also in the little things. We have to be present in every moment and find joy in every moment. Why should we do this? When we live simply and indulge in things that bring smiles to our faces we see that they are important and we feel more productive. We become a solution to this ongoing problem which is the world stressing us out by telling us what we need and want. When I realized what I wanted and what made me- Emma, and not anyone else -truly happy, my perspective and attitude changed. I choose to see the goodness in all things and the joy in even the little things. It has changed my life, I feel my eyes are wider and my opportunities more open. Just realizing the things that are important to my life and make me who I am is more important than anything a history book or social media site could tell me.

When you’ve identified those little things that just make your day, hold tight. And having something so small like homemade pancakes put a smile on my face puts me one step closer to the simple life because I’m focusing on what makes me happy and not others. We have to be present in every moment because every moment (even the little ones) goes to the glory of God and when we cheerfully live in the moments He’s blessed us with we gain a whole new perspective on life. Every gift, every good gift, is from above, hold on to that thought through out this week.

I have thought of the top ten little things that put a smile on my face every time. So, here are a few of my favorite things:

1. Writing in notebooks with No. 2 pencils
2. Big hugs and smiles
3. Massive clouds of varying colors
4. My best friend’s laugh
5. Taking pictures
6. Hand writing a letter
7. Day-dreaming
8. Roadtrips
9. Breakfast
10. Sweaters

These are only ten out of many more things that fill my tank. So, for our challenge this week, I encourage all of you to stop for a minute and look around you, find the top ten little things that fill your cup of tea. Write down your list (Don’t just stop at ten- keep going) and put it somewhere where you can see it as a daily reminder to find big joy in the little things. I would love to hear what puts smiles on your faces, so let me know your number one little thing in the comment section below. Remember friends, don’t wait for your joy to appear, go looking for it everywhere.

XOXO-Em

P.S.- If you want updates on my blog you can follow me on either instagram (emma_surrett) or pinterest (Emma Surrett)

Square 1

Dear Readers,

For a while, I've been feeling the urge to start a blog so I can share bits of my life with you and I hope you can grow and learn through my experiences and words the same way I am.

-- TURN MY EYES FROM WORTHLESS THINGS AND GIVE ME LIFE IN YOUR WAYS. -- PSALM 119:37

My name is Emma, but I so often go by Em which is something I adore. I adore a lot of things like my Savior, CCV (which is my church),  Kate Spade, Audrey Hepburn, coffee, a good book, and simplicity. I’m actually quite fond of the idea of a simple life. I think a live a semi-simple life. My Daddy is the pastor at our church and that can be crazy and it also makes me the pastor’s kid, so there are high expectations there. But personally I see it as a way to grow and strengthen myself. My dad is the leader I’m always striving to be like. My mom stays home and takes care of the home front. She is so supportive and encouraging, I couldn't ask for anyone better in my life. She’s also pretty much my closest friend. I tell her everything and lean on her for support. She’s my granola and my twin, and I’m her applesauce and her mini-me. (We’re a little weird). Then there’s Jill my 12 year old little sister. She is amazing even though we easily get on each nerves at times, I wouldn’t trade her for the world. Whether she knows it or not I do rely on her as much as I do my parents. She is so uplifting and encouraging and handles all her problems in such a mature way. We, the Surretts, are 4th generation native to the hot and lovely state of Arizona and have recently began homeschooling again.

One of my biggest goals in life is gaining simplicity. I feel that so many people try to gain simplicity but ironically just over complicate things. In my opinion I think to reach simplicity you need to go back to square 1, but you also have to identify what it is too. Recently we have discovered ours as a family- Homeschooling. 1st through 7th grade I was home-schooled and during those seven years, I grew in my faith differently and grew up differently then many of my friends had. In the 8th grade we were sent to public school. My sister and I were thrown into that environment because we felt that is where God was calling us at the time. We recently realized we were standing too close to God’s big picture, so we did the natural thing to do- we stepped back. When we did, we didn’t like what we saw. Jill and I were sent to the public school environment to change the culture and make it one more honoring to Christ, but the culture ended up changing us. Our personalities had changed to. I was lacking motivation to do the things I loved, and worst of all my priorities were out of order, and by that I mean God wasn’t first. September 18th, 2015 was our last day, I’m in 10th grade and am home-schooled once again, and nothing ever felt more right. The reasoning behind that is because homeschooling is my square 1 and my start line for this amazing journey God has put me on to find and gain simplicity. We were patient and trusted God along with his process, which resulted in a marvelous blessing. God is great that way.

Gaining simplicity is a tricky thing in my opinion, it requires commitment and also determination. It takes a lot of effort to constantly strive for that lifestyle especially in the world we live in today. In our world we care too much about what people say and think. When I began sophomore year people’s opinions slowly became my number one priority, which isn’t healthy. Now, I’m pretty sure anyone who is reading this has felt what I’ve felt and has been where I’ve been at some point in their life or is currently in that position. Well, I’m here to encourage you that there is way out of that unhealthy predicament. I’ll be honest, it’s hard to totally drown out everyone around you including everything they think about you. People’s opinions have easily taken over the minds of people. We have all decided to put away who we are in order to put a smile on the faces of those we don’t truly care about. Once upon a time there was a generation that lived out the simple lifestyle that I dream of to return. Their lives were beautiful, there wasn’t media to tell them how to live, if they wanted something they actually worked for it. What happened? Well I think I’ve figured out a pretty logical answer. Pride become more dominant and insecurities flourished which caused the judgement of others. You’re probably asking how this applies to my philosophy of simplicity- you and I cannot pay attention to what others say about ourselves. God made us unique and beautiful because he thought about you when he thought about Eve. So when we put God first and go back to our square 1 we are already on our paths to simplicity. I’d rather focus on the next chapter of a book instead of focusing on the opinion of the person next to me, trust me the latter is not worth it. 

What my goal is for this blog is to make this relatable and applicable to you, so that you may grow and grasp the simple life as I am doing. So I'll be issuing challenges each week for you to think about and help you accomplish simplicity as well. For our first challenge, I'm asking you to identify your square one, understand it's importance, and to go back to it and start your simple life from there. If you feel comfortable doing so, I'd love to hear about your square 1 in the comments below! Remember, the simple life isn't out of reach or forgotten, just simply over complicated.

     

XOXO- Em