Advent, christian living, faith walk, forgotten, God first, life experience, perseverance, Prayer, relationships, spirituality
I remember when my husband and I first moved to Portland, Oregon: Lush evergreens flanked our drive; the Cascade mountains, covered in snow, surprised us at every gap in the forest and two large rivers made its bridge city nick name obvious. I remember asking him if he thought our new views would ever feel commonplace – familiar.
Author, Paul David Tripp challenged me with these words: “When we become familiar with things, we begin to take them for granted… we quit examining them… we quit noticing them. We tend to not celebrate them as we once did. Familiarity tends to rob us of our wonder.”
As a believer in Jesus Christ, his gift of salvation through faith alone, I never want to lose the awe and wonder of what these words mean:
- My faith means I trust even when I can’t see.
- Believing goes beyond physical senses and includes a spiritual connection to truth.
- The word salvation implies a need to be saved from something to something better.
I talk and write about it, but do I stop in my tracks at the wonder of it all? Do I examine and ask: “Has the reason for the Christmas season become such a familiar tradition that I no longer celebrate with awe and wonder, the Shepherd of Truth that walked among humanity, teaching, loving, giving, and calling us to follow Him?”
So how does one ignite the wonder in their heart, mind and soul? They focus on the One who placed the stars in their heavenly orbit and the seabirds along the shore. The One who calms the storm with a word, speaks from burning bushes and parts deep waters for dry land passage. The One whose love caused Him to send His only Son from heaven to earth for us.
Lord, our Savior, help me slow down and gaze at your holiness. To stand in awe of your mercy and grace. To tell others the peace you freely give. Remind me to celebrate the hope I’ve found in knowing you. May I be ever thankful for your perfect gift of love this Christmas.
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.” John 3:16-17 ESV
“In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him.” 1 John 4:9
Light the 4th Advent candle.
Sing: Joy to the World
Ask: How do I ignite the wonder of this Child born to save us?
faith walk, forgotten, parenting, perseverance, relationships, resilience
Celebrated days are messy middle days–joy for one, heartache for another.
Looking for the right words to express both-and.
Deep love and appreciation. Humbled by grace and hardened by grief.
Mixed Feelings. Raw emotions.
Loss. Longing. Joy and thanksgiving.
Empty in one relationship. Full in another.
A scale that isn’t balanced.
Expectations. Emotions. Decisions. High mountains. Low valleys.
Mom, daughter, sister, auntie, step-daughter, daughter-in-law, grandma, and the generations go.
Not all celebrated relationships are direct relations.
Embrace what you can.
Sometimes, in the anguish of reality, a brightness warms the night.
Be a light. Walk in the light, it brings hope to darkness.
An experience or individual that shapes us, love of another–
a mother: by choice, by circumstance, or by heart.
From a distance, in your dreams and wishes, in reality and in loss.
Whatever place your mind dwells, on this day of celebrating motherhood,
may you find peace in the imperfection of this life. Joy on your journey,
And grace for the hard, the healing and the hopeful.
christian living, faith walk, forgotten, friendship, life experience, relationships, resilience, spirituality
I didn’t know “seasonal” could describe friendship or that not all friendships last a lifetime.
In my mid-twenties & struggling to understand recent friendship shifts, I observed my mother, a time-tested military wife. She had moved many times, and didn’t have a bestie or a group of gal-pals she reached back to as she was transplanted again. She started where she was, propagating new friendships and cultivating hospitality.
At first, I was sad for her. But my feelings didn’t match her emotions. She wasn’t sad. She had learned to embrace the changes that came with the military lifestyle. Settled and friends took on new meaning. She inwardly mourned the loss of what had been and outwardly embraced the now. She welcomed unfamiliar faces into every home in my memory.
She lived Ecclesiastes 3: There’s a time for every activity under the sun. Like the illustration of planting and harvesting, my mom planted seeds of friendship in the soil of each location.
Do these thoughts about friendship and seasons stir emotions in you?
Have you worked the soil with little to show for it?
For too many years, I carried guilt for friendships that seemed lost in the past, feeling as though I had “failed” to maintain a connection across the planting and harvesting of life.
If you’re in a time of friendship shifting, can I suggest my mom’s habit of tilling the soil of acquaintances?
Reach out and extend hospitality.
- Be the person others can gather with.
- Be patient with the in-between times. They can feel awkward and lonely. Lean into the God who created you. He knows your need for connection. Tell Him how you feel, then keep working the soil. Watch Him provide.
- Be careful that friendship isn’t where you find your security and identity, find it in your relationship with Christ.
- Be a thanksgiver in every season. Send a note or text of appreciation to a friend that enriched your life in a previous season.
Rest your roots in Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 “There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens.”
faith walk, forgotten, God first, life experience, perseverance, Prayer, spirituality
I love a good story. Don’t you? Adventure, mystery, fantasy, historic fiction, memoir – all gripping styles of storytelling. Some of my favorites drop you into the middle of the action, and the writer goes back to fill in distinct details, paint landscapes with words and describe characters in colorful text.
However, our own stories happen in real time, with details we’d like to leave out. We don’t get to choose the action or the characters. I may love part of my story, but on those harder than hard days, I want to switch characters and be written into a more pleasant tale…the one with the fairytale ending.
As I learn from reading one of my favorite books, which recounts tales of heroism, crisis, and redemption, my story isn’t over until the last punctuation of the last sentence, of the last chapter is penned. I am not a one chapter book and neither are you. There is a new one coming. You may not get to choose the characters or circumstances, in fact, you might loathe that chapter and love the next, but another chapter will be written.
Life is unpredictable, but you and I always get to choose how we respond to scenarios life writes us into. If you are happy in your current chapter – I’m celebrating with you. If you are struggling with the plot line you wish was over, hang in there.You are not alone. Know that you are seen, known and loved. Jesus understands all the struggles. He can relate because he lived them. His love is real and so is the rejoicing ahead when the chapter you love is penned.
The saying says, “Don’t judge a book by its cover”, I say, “Don’t judge a life by one chapter.” Redemption can be your next chapter. Hope is real. The book that is you, can encourage others to press on, look up, rest, trust, persevere and cling to hope.
I love a good story and I can’t wait to see how your next chapters are written.
christian living, forgotten, life experience, perseverance, relationships, resilience
A family trip, station wagon loaded. Two adults, five kids, a lightning-fast refuel and potty stop. Back in the car there was unexpected elbow room. With 5 kids, elbow room is prime real estate! In the typical mayhem of doors opening, closing, all the skooching and shifting, bodies settling into travel position, one must ask, who is supposed to count heads? It might have been the prequel to the Home Alone movies. This story ended well enough- we went back for my older sister and she gladly took up that extra real estate in the back seat.
Often, we find ourselves left at the gas station wondering how God could be so unaware of our predicament. Forgotten. Unremembered. Set aside. Out of sight, out of mind. Circumstances beyond what we can bear, much less control. The questions fly.
God, why did you… (fill in the blank), Why God, didn’t you (insert thought here) When will you???? How?? What on earth were you thinking God, really? All the questions and all the feels. It takes time for understanding to settle on my heart and in my mind. In some situation’s there is no understanding, only acceptance. Accepting that we might never understand.
Hard stories, survival, observing others overcome difficulty gives one hope. Because they endured, we can too. But none of us sign up to be the poster child for getting left at the gas station, being single, raising a special needs child, having no children to raise, death of a loved one, outliving cancer, divorce, abuse and the list goes on. Life is rarely what we expect, but scripture reveals that God does not forget us, He would not be God if he did. His Holy Word tells us he cannot forget his creation.
Luke 12:6-7 “Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? And not one of them is forgotten before God. Why, even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not; you are of more value than many sparrows.”
The only hairs I ever counted were grey, and I couldn’t keep up. God counts them all: the grey, the bleached and those that fell out due to stress. He knows and he sees.
Psalm 34:18 “The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit.”
Do I believe this?
Phil 4:19 “My God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.”
Every need. It is easy to confuse needs and wants. I struggle with this one often. God is always teaching me that His ways are higher than mine. He sees and He loves.
Romans 8:38-39 “For I am sure that neither death not life nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Nothing means No thing. No one. Zip, Nada.
Deuteronomy 31:6 “Be Strong and courageous. Do not fear or be in dread of them, for it is the Lord your God who goes with you. He will not leave you or forsake you.”
He cannot.
Deuteronomy 31:8 “It is the Lord who goes before you. He will be with you; he will not leave you or forsake you. Do not fear or be dismayed.”
You might not see him friend, but he is there. He cannot be otherwise. He sees you – always.
Proverbs 3:5-7 are my life verses. Life-not my verses for a season. These are verses I will cling to until my last breath here on earth. “Trust in the Lord with all your heart. Do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will direct your paths. Be not wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord, and turn away from evil.”
Evil is not just out there — often it is in my heart, my thoughts. Thinking too highly of myself. Thinking that God’s “plan” for me should be easier than it is or has been. I do not know the mind of God, but He knows the mind of man and He calls us to trust him, acknowledge him, fear him–reverently and turn from evil. He knows us better than we know ourselves.
I do not presume to know the depth of every hardship faced in this life, but I can say with certainty that the God who designed and created us in his likeness, knows everything about us–and loves us still. Standing outside the gas station waiting for your family to return might feel like an eternity, but God knows, He sees, and He loves you and me. He promises to never leave us.
That includes gas stations.
John 3:16-17 “For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world but to save the world through him.”
