Be you

Roots.  We all have them somewhere.  I love my life now in southeastern Louisiana and all the new friends and family that I have here, but my roots are in Mississippi.  I don't know about every other state, but I think the word Mississippi means something different for each person who says it or experiences it.  To some of our good friends Mississippi means the camp and hunting non-stop while you're there.  To some it means the Delta and rolling flat lanes of crops and small towns.  To others it just means home.  But to me it means my identity.  There is no place quite like east central Mississippi.  Where the towns are a little smaller, the words drawn out a little longer, the tea a little sweeter, and the people are more real.  Being real as a person and being true to yourself means more to me than any amount of riches a person could have.  I don't know what happens to some people, but sometimes people just lose themselves in the hustle and bustle of trying to keep up with everyone else.  East central Mississippi isn't like that.  Newton, more specifically, isn't like that.


Now that I am married and finally out of school and working, Josh and I find ourselves in a constant state of improvement.  There is so much we want to do to our house and for ourselves to better what Josh has worked so hard for and what we have so graciously been blessed with that we find ourselves always in motion.  I find myself getting caught up in the wants I have for the house and for our life, and as the list grows longer it starts to seem like we may never get there.  Thankfully, I have Josh to bring me back down.  He reminds me of everything we do have, and he takes me back to my roots.  Work hard for what you can, and the rest you don't really need.

That's kind of what Newton is all about.  At this point in our lives, Newton is more of a mindset than a place.  Newton is the style of thinking we use to remind ourselves what is truly important in life.  Does it matter that we still haven't built our big wooden fence yet?  Not really.  We will get there one day, and for now we honestly have everything we need.

Newton is the way of thinking that helps to keep your priorities straight.  Newton will remind you that God comes before anything else.  With the Newton mindset we know how important family is to our lives and even more than that, how important it is to stay true to your family.  Newton reminds us to count our blessings for each and every friend and to be for them on the bad days, not just the good.  Newton says as long as you have God first, your health, family and friends by your side, and a roof over your head with a nice warm bed to come home to at night; everything else will work itself out.

I have been working too much.  I have been trying to do everything I could to give us a jumpstart in life. I realized that it is really not that important.  We have already been given a jumpstart.  We should live our life with pride.

I have learned many lessons in my short 24 years, many of them learned within the Newton county line. The biggest one is this...love with all your heart, trust God for all things big and small, and be happy with what you have been given.  Trying to change yourself only makes things worse for you in time.  


Be happy. Be you.