Philippians Friday's and an americano please

This morning I found myself thankful... 

Sometimes thankfulness is a choice, and other times I feel it in my soul. I'm reading a lot about thankfulness these days. I'm learning how to choose it by verbalizing the things i"m thankful for in prayer and by writing down things I recognize I should be thankful for as a daily discipline,  but its the most wonderful thing when you choose it and you feel it all together. 

Just over a month ago, the girls and I decided to study through the book of Philippians together. We did it as a way to connect during the week and make sure to see one another amidst the craziness of our schedules, we did it because we were so excited to all be in the same city for the first time since college, but mostly we did it for the purpose of setting aside time to talk about things that really really matter. We did it to challenge one another to growth in the Lord. We did it so we could sit around the table and pray for one another. 

"Philippians Friday" starts at 6:00 a.m. We just finished the book, but I'm still going to call it "Philippians Fridays" I think. The original plan was to meet at a new coffee spot each week, but we happened upon the best americanos in the most quaint and adorable coffee shop in the heart of one of my favorite Denver neighborhoods and it stuck. The tables are often off balance and the chairs and seating change so we pick a new spot inside or outside every time. We sit outside on the patio and watch runners go by as we sip our hot coffees from giant mugs on warmer mornings and we watch commuters and moms and dog walkers flow in and out for their morning cups. We unload our bibles and journals and breakfasts of think thin bars and yogurts and overnight oats and bananas and we  call it fellowship. It's good. So good! 

I love being a part of this fellowship. I love coming with questions to discuss. I love the authenticity and vulnerability of this fellowship. I love the different histories and backgrounds and memories that come together around this table. I love the wounds and the joys that each of us bring and the stories of the ways we've seen God move and work in those wounds and joys. I learn a lot from these women. I feel comfortable and uncomfortable all at once. Comfortable for who I am and uncomfortable as they push me to who they see God making me to be. 

Sometimes its hard to choose to be thankful and sometimes when you're sitting and staring into the 4 faces of beautiful people that love you no matter what you're going through and where you are, thankfulness smacks you in the face and knocks you to your knees to thank God for loving and caring for you so well. 

Today I'm thankful. 

A letter to our readers!

A letter to our readers seems fitting for the last day of the "Blog Everyday In May" challenge...

Dear readers, 

The "core four" blog kick off was about a year and a half ago around Christmas time. December of 2011 was an intrusive and funny time in our "core four friendship" when all 4 of us seemed to be running in separate directions and living very detached seasons of life. Lauren was married and living in Denver with her brand new husband and learning new roles as wife and career woman working as a proposal coordinator at a construction company. She was doing the 8-5 desk job with benefits thing and coming home to make dinner for her husband. I couldn't believe how grown up she seemed. Gaby was about 3 months away from being engaged and very in love with her sweet soon-to-be. She was job searching and living at home in Colorado Springs. I traveled down to see her often and listened as she was getting all her ducks in a row and dreaming about a future with Mitch. Her life was dreamy and full of newness. Erin and I were living together in Fort Collins, but our lives and schedules looked a lot different. She was waitressing and working at a women's shelter and we would sometimes plan to eat breakfast together in passing as I was getting ready to leave for class and she was coming off a long night shift. Sometimes we would try and meet up at the gym before she would go home and go to bed during the day and I went to school. Her hours were insane, and I watched as she look for sanity among a crazy sleeping pattern and sought more stability in her career, but she was happy and life was exciting and ever changing. I was doing the student thing. Waking up and going to class, working at the same restaurant Erin was at, and praying desperately for some direction on my quickly approaching future. 

A few highlights of our friendship during that crazy year! So thankful for our intentionality in such a busy season....

Nick and Lauren's wedding 

Gaby's surprise engagement party

My birthday in Breckenridge weekend getaway

Denver day!

Erin's birthday dessert night at D bar

Linger bathroom photos... every time.

Wine Tasting 

Kansas weekend getaway 

Wedding dress shopping for Gaby

The four of us shared a love and passion for fitness and Lauren, Erin, and I had just finished another half- marathon. Health and wellness seemed to be our "common thread" amidst the chaotic differences in lifestyles. I knew that if I called Lauren and couldn't relate to much of what her life looked like at that time, at least we could talk about what we made for dinner or how many miles we got in that week. (Not that we've ever been desperate for things to talk about.) I knew that if I called Gaby and she was filling out a job application we could talk about a new recipe and I would feel like I was on the same track. I knew that even if I hadn't seen Erin that morning for breakfast before class because she was running around from job to job, I was sure to connect with her at kickboxing on Tuesday night. Fitness was such a great avenue of discussion, escape, freedom for our friendships. 

Rock and Roll October 2011 

It was a few weeks before Christmas and we had finished having our annual gingerbread house party at the Braverman's house. We decided to kick off a friendship/fitness blog that night. It felt like a uniting and purposeful activity for us. We did it as an avenue to talk about what we were passionate about and to hold us together as friends living completely opposite lives with completely opposite schedules. We did it for us and for growth and for our friendships. 

The night we decided to start a blog! 

Our heart was never to spit out facts about fitness because we know so much or prove anything about how close we are as friends. Our heart was not to brag about how many races we have run or tell you how many gourmet meals we can whip out in a week. Our heart was to be unified, sharing fun posts about what we are so passionate about. 

As the "core" still finds ourselves in different seasons and cities we truly have found ourselves to be unified. We share many common threads not just fitness, but an eager heart to grow in the Lord, to serve, to work hard, to love well, to walk side by side in relationship, to host, to give, to be purposeful in word and action, to challenge, to be authentic and to be humanity laid bare. I hope you have felt this in the progression of our posts and the evolution of our new blog kick off as "The Serendipitous Girls." We hope you have seen Godliness represented well. We hope you have seen hardship represented well. We hope you have seen growth represented well. Fitness is wonderful and we all really do get together and talk recipes and workouts and cooking and races, but we also just get coffee together and cry and complain and encourage and edify. We are journeying together and documenting along the way. Thanks for being our readers. For reading our helpful posts and our not so helpful seemingly "life journal entires." Thanks for being our friends, our acquaintances, and complete strangers. WE LOVE YOU and you make us feel special when you look at our little blog we have become quite fond of. 

That caps the "Blog Every Day in May" challenge. Happy June friends. Can't wait to talk summer memories with you all over the blog and lots and lots of iced coffee. 

~ Mekenzie 

A Break from Social Media

We are currently in the season of Lent, the Christian season in preparation of Easter in which many believers set aside time for the 40 days before Easter  for reflection on Jesus, his suffering and his sacrifice, his life, death, burial and resurrection. It is a time when many Christians prepare for Easter by observing a period of fasting, repentance, moderation and spiritual discipline.

Although I am not Catholic, I still like to observe Lent in some capacity in order to try to be more disciplined and re-focus my faith by giving something up. In years past I have done "easy" things, such as ice cream, coffee, desserts,etc. Things that were hard, but didn't necessarily challenge me.This year however, after speaking with my LA-actress-ridiculously-spiritually-wise friend Erin,  she challenged me to give up social media with her.My first reaction? No way. Not possible. How could I do that? Facebook and Instagram? Those were my 2 go-to time killers. At work, at home, out and about anywhere. They are my clutch. I would be SO disconnected. How would I know what was going on in the world?

An over-reaction? Maybe. But these reactions are exactly what made me realize I HAD to do this. I HAD to give up what was hard, what was becoming an all-too-time-consuming act. I HAD to let go of these things that I found myself going to daily for comparison, judgment, and self-affirmation. I was looking to these places for my self-worth, instead of to the One who I needed it from the most.

"Rather, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God’s sight." -1 Peter 3:4

 It was becoming unhealthy. And although all of this is hard to admit, I knew it had to be done. 40 days, thats it. How could it be that hard? Well, it was. And still is. It was harder at first to break my routine of instantly pulling up my Facebook when I got to my office. Checking my Instagram feed as soon as I plopped on the couch after a day of work. But now? Now I'm getting the hang of it. I don't instantly feel the need to see who's status' have changed, who's posted cute new pics on Instagram, or who 'liked' my pictures.

                                            

And I don't feel as out of the loop as I thought I would. I'm having more real conversations with my friends and husband. I have more time to get in the Word and pursue relationships. I'm not worried about getting the perfect picture and filter of the meal I just made, or how many people commented on it. Sure, I miss it. And yes, I will go back to it. But this time with a new set of eyes, and a new heart. Eyes that (hopefully) won't get so wrapped up in OTHER people's lives, but more able to look at my own and better it. A heart that won't be so sensitive to feeling less about myself because someone else posted a picture of a group of people hanging out without me, or thinking about how much better their life looks from the outside.


Believe me when I say I don't think there is anything wrong with these sites, I love them as much as the next person. But my heart needed to be checked. I needed to step away and re-evaluate myself and my motives. About halfway through Lent, I am encouraged. And I hope you are too should you ever choose to take a break from social media. I challenge you to try it sometime Take it from me, it can do wonders for you!


-Lauren


*Check out this amazing post by my Cali-friend Erin about Christianity and Hollywood here

New Year. New Resolutions.

Here we are, already the end January - 2012 is out the window and 2013 is right before us ready to be taken head on. I mean, really do we have a choice though? 2013 is going to happen weather we are ready or not, so let’s not waste a minute of it and make the most of every moment. 

Every year, I set New Years resolutions. Usually, I try to incorporate one spiritual goal, one physical goal and one fun goal. And sometimes I’ll throw an extra one in just for fun! Last year my fun resolution was to become a professional sound effects maker! Ask the girls, I am incredible at the whip (whaaapishhh!) But this year I wanted it to be different. I felt like there was more to be done and changed in my life and I was ambitious to pursue it- whatever “it” is. So, I wrote my best friends asking them to help me critically look at my life and truthfully speak into me about things I could rid my life of. The ‘not so pretty’ parts of me that I probably do not recognize but as best friends they could point out for me. This is a very challenging thing to ask of your friends; I was basically asking them to tell me my flaws. Ouch...this could get tough! But I prayed about it, and asked God to prepare my heart for what they had to say and that I would use it and actually make changes. 

Mekenzie wrote me a very heart felt challenging letter. It was full of truth and grace. It was one of the most life giving, life changing and God glorifying words I have ever read. The basis of her letter was, if you centered your life on 1 Thessalonians 5:16, what a difference would you see in your relationship with the Lord, your life and the woman God created you to be. Whoa! Yeah. Read the verse from that angle and I think all of our lives would change, dramatically. When life get tough, when cancer strikes my body, when I attend another dinner party as a 5th wheel, and when I see a girl at the gym thinner than me; what is my response. This year, I hope my reaction is to REJOICE always, PRAY without ceasing and give THANKS in all circumstances. 

My dear friend Holly also wrote me an incredible letter. A letter that I will keep for a lifetime. It was encouraging yet, very challenging. It’s ironic because the theme of her letter to me was very similar to that of Mekenzie’s. She reminded me of God’s perfect timing and that I can have a hard time trusting that. True. And that I need to be confident in that fact that God created me exactly the way he wanted me- In HIS image. I love that, but I do not do a very good job of living that. I need to seek Him more for my fulfillment of confidence and of strength and love. True, again. 

Reflecting on these letters, I realized one common thread. I compare myself in my mind- between girls who I see as more attractive, people with fatter bank accounts, and relationships that aren’t mine. I am not them and they are not me. Their life should not look like mine. I am rare- no one has my heart, my eyes or my incredible dance moves. With my new found perspective on life, I will rejoice, pray and give thanks when these thoughts and actions come into my life. It’s a very vague New Year’s Resolution but I think it’s exactly what my life needs. Newness, change and a different outlook on this amazing and great life that I have been blessed with. 

I have been encouraged and challenged by these amazing ladies letters. I am ready to cease this year. Bring it on 2013, I’m ready for ya!

“I am fearfully and wonderfully made...” -Psalm 139:14