SUR-PRIZE!

For those who do not know: I really, really, really, really like surprises, like a lot. I like surprising people AND I like being surprised. I like that feeling of anticipation when someone is about to experience a secret surprise I have given them, whether it is a random note of encouragement, or even a surprise visit! My life has been very surprise filled lately, and it continues to be so.

Two weekends ago I arranged a surprise trip home for the weekend. My mom and my grandparents AND my church family were ALL surprised.


Yesterday I received a supercool notebook in the mail. 
It combines six of my favourite things: 

notebooks,
crocheting,
puns,
homemade items from Etsy,
mail,
and SURPRISES.

I think the thing I enjoyed most of all was the anonymity. Not knowing who sent a gift gives me these butterflies in my stomach that tell me that I am loved. I am loved by someone, somewhere in the world, who cares enough to send me a personalized gift. How cool is that?!?

After an exhausting week of leading a Bible Day Camp this summer, I checked my church mailbox and found this anonymous note. It has been pinned up on my wall ever since. I wasn't running the camp for a reward, but this tiny piece of encouragement was the best thing I could have received. Even writing about it brings a few tears. 

Surprises and Encouragement are reciprocal acts of kindness. I learned this through the letters of encouragement I sent anonymously to an old friend who was on a longish-term mission adventure two years ago. I unintentionally ended up being changed by the words I wrote to her. 

I know that I still have some surprises to receive. I have no idea where I'll be working this summer, what school I will be attending next year, or where I'll be living in seven months. I'm choosing to look at these as surprises, not stresses, and I hope you do too!  

I have titled this post "Sur-Prize" because I think that random acts of kindness, and encouragement are really the prizes that are over and above all the rest. I'll leave you with a bible verse that I usually sign at the end of notes and letters.

"Therefore encourage one another and build each other up,
just as in fact you are doing" (1 Thessalonians 5:11).