Elizabeth Sands Wise

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BIG NEWS!

March 7, 2017March 7, 2017 / Elizabeth

book announcement

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amazon, daughters, first fifty letters, mothers, my book, this sacramental life, wisdom

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← The Sixty-Third Letter: How the Whole30 Confirms What I Know to Be True About Myself

The Sixty-Fourth Letter: All Y’all Be Perfect →

Thanks for visiting, friends.

You can find some free digital print downloads under the “Sharing & Freebies” tab.

My newest book project! This collection is coauthored with my husband. (Click on the photo to purchase on Amazon.)

Purchase the First 50 Letters as a paperback or Kindle book on Amazon!

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Don’t think I’m letting you off the hook. I will always believe that the Gospel calls each of us to a life of radical love, radical peacemaking, radical hospitality. And I think it will always be hard and always make us uncomfortable. Welcome to the way of Jesus, y’all. It’s messy. But. Here’s the deal. I also think that on a regular Tuesday, in the middle of a regular week, in the middle of a not-so-regularly-weather-patterned month, we are also called to normal, ordinary love. Normal, ordinary peacemaking. Normal, ordinary grace. Once I was selling a card like this, and someone was looking through my cards I had for sale, and she said, ‘Well, I like that message, but who would I send it to?’ And I thought, seriously, lady, who wouldn’t I send it to? Friends, what did your peacemaking look like today? Was it just showing up when you didn’t want to? Mediating between children or spouses or coworkers? Replying to a difficult text thread? Checking in on your neighbor whose kid was screaming in their backyard? Taking a deep breath and a hot bath and saying thank you? Was it offering grace? Or maybe just receiving it? Yes. All of the above. #itssimplytuesday #makepeace #handlettering

I promise you: There are families down your street, in your neighborhood, sitting across from you in a restaurant, at the library, in your children’s classrooms, who are dealing with violence within their homes. And yes, in your churches, too. In YOUR church. Friends, domestic violence isn’t just random statistics affecting random other people. And I guarantee you that it doesn’t manifest itself in the ways you think it does. October is domestic violence awareness month, and this topic is one that I care about deeply because it has affected people I know and love deeply. In my local town, one of my favorite nonprofits is hosting a series of events this week, an initiative they’re calling #stopthesilencestoptheviolence, and if you’re local to me, I hope you’ll get involved with some of the @elizabethsvillage events. If you’re not local to me, there are still things you can do, starting with research. Look up statistics in your own town and state. It will shock you. Find out if your local police force has a victim’s advocate. Make it known on your own social media feeds and in your conversations that you care about this issue. Find out what resources your women’s shelters need. Reach out to the family resource centers in your public schools. Just do something. Your community needs you. Your neighbors need you. And it’s possible that a woman sitting across from you in your Bible study needs you. And the first thing she needs to know is that you care. #domesticviolenceawarenessmonth #handlettering #advocacy #dosomething #lovewins #domesticviolence

Let’s talk about Thursdays. Last night, a friend said to me, “I’m so glad tomorrow is Thursday!” And I said, oh, are Thursdays good days for you? I was thinking that maybe her schedule was easier on Thursdays or that Wednesdays were particularly hard or something along those lines. You know what she replied? “No, Thursdays are just almost-Fridays!” Maybe that’s how you’re feeling today, friends. And it’s okay. But I also want to say this: I watched Mary Poppins for the first time as an adult this weekend. (And in a low-screen-time family, it takes 3 sittings to get through the whole thing!) But this little nugget is in the first third of the movie, and can I tell you a secret? It was exactly the message I didn’t want to hear. And maybe it’s the message you don’t want to hear either, but friends, you got this. On this day-after-Wednesday, second-half-of-the-week, almost-Friday Thursday: you got this. So go ahead and get started. #wellbegunishalfdone #marypoppins #handlettering #thursdayschmursday

Look what I finished just in time for our Christmas card photos! I mean, it would be “just in time” if I had actually scheduled them already, which I haven’t. Also, I had this whole family T-shirt idea back in June. So at this rate, there may not be Christmas cards at all. It’s Friday, friends. We made it. Anyone feeling some feels this week? Any other INFJs in the house? Or empaths? Or highly sensitive people? Or just, you know, normal people affected by the broken world around you? Yeah. All of the above. Plus hormones. So the “F” in INFJ is extra strong with this one. I’ve said it before, and I’m sure I’ll say it again: until my 30s, I thought my personality type was a weakness. I thought needing silence and processing time and lots of tissues meant that I wasn’t as strong as other people. I thought the fact that I noticed hurting people, that the pain of others felt like literal weight on my chest, that I don’t like to listen to music or podcasts and can’t multitask AT ALL meant I would never “achieve” anything. And because I was always smart—valedictorian, honors, etc.—I thought that I needed to Do Something Important. But what fulfilled me—silence, writing, reading, creating, loving—didn’t seem important in the scheme of things. But, friends. I know better now. I actually think empathy is my superpower. So what I wanted to say is this: if you’re feeling it this week and just can’t even, you can come here and be in my INFJ corner. I won’t even talk to you if you don’t want me to. No chatter. No TV. No background noise. Except sometimes Adele when I’m washing dishes. #infj #allthefeels #youarewelcomehere #friYAY #hsp #empath #themomwhomadethetshirts #embosslikeaboss

You know who was voted most likely to win the Nobel Peace prize of her graduating high school class? 🤚🏼 Yep. Me. You know who feels like she would rather do just about anything else other than be a peacemaker in today’s divisive, partisan, heart-breaking conversations? Also me. What I want to do is huddle. And cry. And take a nap. And start a new novel. And read with my girls. And focus on the tasks in front of me. And definitely avoid both the news and commentary on the news, and especially comments on the commentary on the news. And there is a time and a place for that. But that can’t be the end of the story. The story—the Story—is one in which we actually see others, even those with whom we disagree, as human beings made in the image of God. And that can’t happen with rants and name-calling. Trust me, nobody’s heart was ever changed by a comment you left on social media, even if you prefaced it with “With all due respect...” But you know where hearts can actually be changed? Around a shared table. A cup of tea. And that’s about the only place, it seems to me. It’s the in-person conversations where we get the opportunity to show love and also disagreement. And I mean really in-person, not private messages, looking down at our devices. Can we do that difficult thing? Invite someone who disagrees with us into our homes. Look her in the eyes. Talk about difficult things. Say something isn’t true if it isn’t true. Admit that these are complicated issues. And apologize for all the times we’ve misrepresented the other side. I don’t know if I can, but y’all, I’m so heartbroken about our country’s partisan divisions. I’m heartbroken about the lack of civil discourse, the name calling, treating others as if they are anything less than fellow human beings created in the image of God. But I figure I better get to work. I’ve got a Nobel coming my way after all. #infj #allthefeels #highschoolflashback #nobelpeaceprizehereicome #handlettering #lovewins #imagodei #sacredordinarydays

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