be kind.

The girls have had so many cross-cultural experiences these last few days, and such a good time with Grandpa, Lisa, Adam, Evie and today, Uncle Don and Aunt Brenda!

If someone sends us a precious can of olives in Haiti, Lily and her dad pull it out of the box, sit on the kitchen floor and devour the can together with glee.  So Reading Terminal Market was Lily heaven.

The girls also think Haiti needs a train line and pigeons.  

We miss Matt :(

While Grandpa isn't ready to move to the big city with toddlers, it's been so good to have him here this weekend and the girls have LOVED all the grandpa time!

I don't know HOW this is the only picture I took today, but we had an AWESOME afternoon after church at Don and Brenda's!  Lunch was fabulous, catching up was a gift, the pool was freezing, the kids loved having other kids to play with, and being with Don and Brenda was GREAT.  So thankful for them in our lives!

This is no devotional, but I was reading Mundane Faithfulness a few days ago and something has stuck with me.  Yes, Kara passed away a few months ago, but her friends and family are posting blog updates from her past writings, and of course, for perspective and a good bawl every few days, I've kept on reading.  

A few days ago she posted on chemo and pain medication and the sickness....a few months ago she posted on marriage.  In both, she wrote about how very difficult it could be.  In both, how tempting it is to let illness or anger, emotion or misery act out.  

And she shared her obsession with kindness.

Shared that her first question coming out of days of medication fog was, "Was I kind?"  Shared that her greatest and only marriage advice to friends is "BE KIND, no matter what.  Speak it, handle it all, always address each other with KINDNESS!"

As I've thought about all of my excuses to choose a less kind route than kindness-- fatigue...humor...irritation...exasperation...hurt...my rights--

they feel so of me.  

What a simple but powerful thought for me today : to insist upon kindness, REGARDLESS of how I feel, who the recipient is, or however justified I may feel I am, from myself.  

for His glory, that He might be made known through the small and significant corners of my life