Tsh Oxenreider
About the Author

Tsh Oxenreider is the author of Notes From a Blue Bike and the founder of The Art of Simple. She's host of The Simple Show, and her passion is to inspire people that 'living simply' means making room for more of the stuff that really matters, and that the right,...

(in)side DaySpring: things we love
& you will too!
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(in)side DaySpring:
things we love
& you will too!
Find more at
DaySpring.com
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  1. Thank you for this encouragement this morning as I head into another week of (not so) mundane. Homeschooling this last child of mine who is 13 and 10 years younger than his older two siblings can sometimes feel like a never ending thing, but I know it’s what I’m called to do right this very minute. New perspective always helps. 😉

  2. To be at a place of contentment where I am in life and realizing what gift the Lord has given to me personally. I am a part of the body not needing to be the whole of it and do everything.

  3. Great post,just discovered your blog and very impressed!This post reminds me a lot of John Eldredge and the way he speaks about being a part of an epic story.
    God bless!

  4. I’m in a bit of a mundane phase, but I’m completely okay with that. Mundane can be nice sometimes, especially when we have the perspective you discuss here of life as a Story. Drama and climaxes will come; just enjoy where you are.

  5. Thanks for this reminder as I live another week struggling through laying in bed watching the world pass by because of my chemo. Feeling as if I am missing the story but now realizing this is part of the story God is creating for me. I just pray I can find a way to use it to glorify Him.

    • Hi Amy – I know we don’t know each other, but I just wanted to send you a little hug and encouragement. I’m so sorry for what you’re going through. I don’t know what it’s like to be in your shoes, but I did go through many years of serious illness and I know how it is to feel like the world is passing you by. Please rest assured that you are in the hands of our loving Creator, and He is up to something even when we can’t see it. It’s only in hindsight that I’ve been able to see how God used such a hard time for my good, and that He did more in me through those difficult years than I ever could have achieved on my own. Sometimes it’s the quiet, silent, hard to notice things that have the longest impact on us and those around us. I am far from perfect, but my husband tells me I’m the first person in his life to make him feel it’s OK not to be superman all the time. I don’t think I could be that wife to him if I hadn’t first seen that God loved me so much even when I was incapable of doing anything for Him in return. Your faith alone glorifies Him more than you can ever know!

  6. I love this! It is a theme that keeps popping up in my life. I heard in a sermon a couple months ago that if in “God Time” 1,000 years equals a day, the average life would be about the length of a movie to God and elsewhere that the movies that are best loved, that win all sorts of awards and are blockbuster hits are all redemption stories. It makes me think that the world is hungry for the gospel so we go to the movies, and in the grand scheme of things, if our “movies” are also redemption stories, in heaven our life will be a blockbuster hit too!

    Thank you for posting this!

    • I am so sorry that you are going through chemo. It is hard to understand that these trials can be our story that He has planned for us. I am lying on the couch right now because I am having an MS Attack. It is my first one. I have missed several weeks of work and as a mom…….I, like you ,have had much time to contemplate my story and where it will head. I think this time has purposely made me slow.down to re-evaluate my life. Bless You . I pray that you get well soon.

  7. I love thinking about all of the lower stories the Lord is doing in my life as He is ultimately creating my Upper story. His Upper Story. I wrote about it in my blog a few weeks ago. Very interesting. I am currently in a laid back, slow moving, love story movie. I have yet to meet that love, but at 50 years old, I am waiting for the Lord to have him enter the scene. Loving my life as it is, but can be lonely at times. I do, however, enjoy contemplating just what all of these lower stories in my life are doing to help shape my upper story. College, career, kids, wife, mother, homeschooler, divorce, career woman, kids in college, cancer, healing, more cancer, more healing, more kids in college, still working, still relationship heartache. It’s all good, but can be a bit draining. A good movie, albeit a long one, and taking a LOT of winding roads; still awaiting the ending tho. If the past is any indication of the future, and I know it is, it’s gonna be AWESOME!

  8. Good post. We need to remember that real life isn’t like a reality show. It’s the ” everyday” that’s our reality. Gods love and grace is our reality. From changing diapers to changing hearts that’s our real life. Aren’t we blessed to have the “ordinary” in our lives?

  9. I teach creative non-fiction at our local college, and this is what I try and show my students: the joy in mining your own life for details, really seeing this world in all its extraordinary ordinary. Through this practice comes appreciation.

  10. I have to say that my epic story would be pretty boring, and you know what? That’s okay. He knows I don’t need the daily excitement and drama to be happy. I’m so grateful He knows me so well.

  11. I was drawn in by the picture of Mary…and couldn’t agree more with the rest of your words.
    Even the most epic of all adventures need the seemingly mundane for their story to shine and to be realized. It’s the contrast that makes for a good story.
    And sometimes when you’re in the thick of the busy! exciting! always changing! you desire the quiet everyday things.

    We do each have our own story and we are all at different parts in it. Love how you peppered this post with pictures of great stories!

  12. This was such a welcome and startlingly appropriate read for me this morning! My own epic journey/story has stretched for just about three years now as our family has weathered unemployment (both my husband and I) and all its ramifications; dealt with emerging debilitating chronic illness; prayed through three cancer treatments for family and close friends. And through it all, holding fast to God and his word: being amazed by how 1 Kings 17:14 has been answered in our lives, and sometimes, falling human and crying out with Psalm 13 and asking, “How long, O Lord?” There has been so much learning – so much character building – along the way. It’s been amazing. And as much as I’m ready to see (so, so ready) what the next chapter holds, I know I wouldn’t be half as ready for whatever comes next without going through all the valleys of what we’ve walked through. Thank you for the reminder to hold on and wait for the next amazing thing.

  13. When life gets crazy and/or frustrating, I’ve learned to stop and ask, “Ok Lord, what lesson do you want me to learn now? I ready for whatever you have.”
    Thanks for the article, because I have a hard time capturing my everyday story (and I’m a scrapbooker!) because it does seem like the same ol’ stuff and not very exciting.

  14. I feel like this message was meant for me, today, right now-thank you for being the messenger, Tsh! So totally how I feel in my life right now. Before mothering (11+ years ago) I traveled a lot and loved it a lot and now I’ve been living in the same place for 13 years – the longest I’ve lived anywhere, ever. Currently feeling a very heavy tugging to travel! move! explore the world! and the mundane seems especially mundane thanks the tug of the next big adventure waiting for me and my family. We are in the process of planning that adventure as a family, but time seems to be standing still.

    This post really touched my heart, Tsh. I need to remember to be more present now and have faith that the next adventure is being planned for me and will unfold in good time-not my time maybe but indeed – God has the BEST time in mind and for that, I can wait. While waiting, I will remember that the everyday blessings, that may seem mundan,e are all part of my movie and that I can still be the leading actress of that movie – even if it’s not yet a movie in the adventure category for me, at this moment. In the end, it will be the best adventure ever produced-for ME, directed by the big guy. Pure awesomeness!

    Thank you so much for the perspective and for your writing and sharing-pure awesomeness, indeed!

  15. I remember a friend recounting her time on a summer mission trip in college – she went with the expectation that the summer would be filled with deep valleys, encountering brokenness and poverty, and great highs, in learning to trust God’s work thorugh those situations. Instead, she found herself washing load upon load of laundry, cooking the same lunch day in and day out, and cleaning a kitchen over and over and over. Her great discovery:
    It is easy to lean on God in times of trial and easy to praise God in those “mountain top” experiences, but MATURE FAITH means drawing near to God in the mundane and ordinary days and experiences. Why limit God to just the peaks and valleys when we spend most of our days in the middle.

  16. I was just talking to a friend the other day about my 18 year marriage that started when I was 20 years old. It’s had it share of hard times, fun times, and boring times. The boring times are becoming the ones I long for the most. No matter the phase we are in, it has been the great romance that I longed for as a young girl.

  17. In this mundane life of mine I find myself surprisingly content for now, although a little Hobbit (Frodo) adventure might be nice.

    It takes faith to be content with doing mundane tasks over and over. Just remember it is God who is writing your story and shaping you!

  18. Amen. It’s the same in each season of life – even when your kids are young adults. After all you are still a mom!

  19. Life is a story, love this. Sometime when it gets hard we forget the lessons we are set to learn. As for being a mother, this is the most wonderfulo part of life. As mothers we forget that we are the teacher of this little person.

    When we bring God into the picture mothering is much more important and rewarding. All those little things we do everyday mold that little life.]

    To me the greatest blessing is being blessed with a child or children. It tells me that
    God trust us.
    Thank you,
    Debbie

  20. Love this! I have such a habit of getting super drawn into epic stories like Harry Potter and Downton Abbey. I’ve been asking God if there’s anything good that can come of that part of my personality or if I’m just way too into a good movie when I see it. This really spoke to me! I also loved what someone else said about the world being hungry for the gospel and finding that redemption theme in film. So true!

  21. Love this! I’ve just come off of a three week long badly written sitcom – one absurdity after another, and quite frankly it wasn’t all that funny at the time.

    I try to remember that *each* and *every* moment is shaping us for God’s purpose. Even the mess-ups are part of the refining process, and while the end product may not be a “masterpiece” by the world’s standards, I want to know that I absolutely did the best I could (still working on that, by the way…)

  22. Today I feel like my life is one of those Bourne Identity films where everything moves at a frenetic pace and the camera is jumping around all over the place so that the picture never stands still and you feel a little bit nauseated trying to focus. I’m longing for a mundane arthouse film from a Jane Austen novel where everyone sits around reading and sewing. Hopefully tomorrow we can return to that.

  23. Hey Tsh,
    I haven’t been to your blog in a few weeks now, but was this inspired by Don Miller’s book Storyline? Such a great concept!

  24. I realized awhile ago, that I prefered the day to day, even the the monotony of it. I don’t want the drama: Raising children brings enough, and anything beyond that might put me over the edge!
    I will take Downton Abbey anyday over Hansel & Gretel!

  25. I just love this Tsh..It’s beautiful and ever so true…I have been in recovery for almost 30 years and the first half of my life could be..a movie about sadness, chaos, the ghetto…BUT GOD
    The funny thing is..that 7 kids later and 5 grandchildren later and still being a SAHM/GRAMMY …it’s the hardest job I’ve ever had. It is sooo true that God shapes us through the mundane..the day in and day out..for how would we survive without Him.. I have always said that God gave me so many children because “I” needed so much work! LOL it’s true I admit it!
    Many blessings my sweet Sister!