finding joy in the simple things

during my final week of camp, one of my six-year-old campers had a loose tooth.

(her very first loose tooth, i might add!)

it was extra wiggly one day, and she kept playing with it, so i took her inside to pull it out.

she grabbed it and tugged. when she saw it sitting in her hand she just started giggling!

she then proceeded to skip around the church singing "i lost my too-ooth! i lost my too-ooth!"

i was filled with joy watching this little girl laugh and sing and be so happy about something so simple as losing her first tooth.

words

i had an english professor tell me once:
"you are an english major, so there should never be a time in your life when you say, 'there are no words to describe this.'"

i have realized this summer that this statement is ridiculous.
i have seen beauty in the ordinary and the extraordinary and i have felt feelings of sadness and joy so strong that i just cry and/or smile because i have no other way of expressing how i feel.

although words are wonderful and can usually express how i feel in the most perfect way, it is such a beautiful thing to know that God gave us other ways of expressing ourselves and that He placed people in our lives that we can share these feelings with and they just know how we feel without actually having to say anything.