When Miracles Don’t Hide….

… and the very hand of God reaches into your life; you know you have been with Him. You have seen His favor. You have felt His love.

Often we experience the unthinkable and our world feels shattered. Dreams crumble and mountains feel as if they cannot be moved.

But, there is that place where His miracle’s don’t hide.

Do you look for it? Your miracle. His Favor.

What if we did?

Would our weary hands that feed, find simplicity in our process; would souls be enriched by the extension of our gratitude?

Would homes be changed by grace and our differences shape a hopeful generation? All because we gazed upon our miracle that didn’t hide!

It’s there. Your miracle. His favor.

What we cannot understand He crafted with scarred hands. One day we will. We will understand!

Until then, we will choose to see through His eyes and find our miracles that don’t hide…

May I invite you into our miracle, where He has graciously lavished favor upon us…

Meet Topher, he is 10 yrs old and has Down syndrome. Feel free to indulge in the gift of him!

Shhhh….

Sometimes we NEED a Holy Hush to come over our tongues and let our DEEDS feed the eyes of others!

People CRAVE authentic. They DESIRE the real. They ACHE for hope!

They receive HOPE through our HOPE!

Our HOPE can’t be their HOPE; but, they can see His Hope through our Hope!

In high school, a pastor of influence in my life, said repeatedly, ” If you SEE a NEED then MEET that NEED!”

I loved it when he said that. It did something to my soul. It somehow made the hopeless, lonely that I saw around me swell with a hopeful answer! It was a call to ACTION!

It was a visible ACT of HOPE. It put feet to words and joined our HOPE with God’s HOPE!

It is a Holy concept that I’ve aspired to follow.

I’ve had quiet moments where God spoke LOUDLY through my life.

I’ve had humble moments where apologies freed others from bondage.

I’ve cheered on miraculous cures and was FOREVER changed when GOD answered.

I’ve watched in silence and given in time.

I’ve trampled through the fears of others despair and held hands with their HOPE.

In each NEED that I’ve sought to MEET, God showed us that His strength is made perfect in our weakness.

That a shameless attempt to extend HOPE where the darkness is closing in, is all He asks of us.

I often long for that Holy Hush, where my words are silenced by the out-pouring of my deeds!

After all, His Hope IS our only Hope!

Good Pain

 

“God is still God in our pain and God is still good in our pain!”

Read more about my discovery of this here…

Tough…

…Where does your soul turn when mothering gets TOUGH?

Being a mama, it’s a beautiful reward delivered in a package of fear. It wears tired like an old, comfortable sweater and exudes JOY beyond the linger of a first kiss…

We wrap them in protection as they enter our life and we push them into the world that tries to swallow them whole…

All they have is a Savior! The only hope they can cling to is His promise!

Nothing changes quite like time and nothing lasts quite like a Father’s love…

Do you tell them?

Do they know Him?

When all of this life fails them do they know to RUN to Him?

Whispers fall short but our walk speaks loud. The void of Christ in a moments glimpse is the tragedy when crisis hits; and the endless reminder of hope lost glances back at us.

Nothing is worth that loss. Tough rolls in with the tide and washes the pain along this shore but heaven’s time will come…

… and where our soul turns when mothering gets tough, will not shift with the sand.

Don’t Miss This…

It’s easy to get distracted these day’s. To get hopefully lost in the what’s to come.

Nothing leaps farther than the days turning into years and time suddenly stops long enough for us to catch our breath in between decades that have flown by.

If we’re not careful we will MISS the MISSION.

Our families will move on before we create the memories, instill the values and share the Savior.

Our neighbors will bury spouses and diseases will take-over aged bodies much too soon.

We will find ourselves aching over lost opportunities and somehow future generations will scurry to make up for our lost time.

Today is our chance. Today is our difference. Today is our mission.

Do what you’ve been putting off, pondering over, sighing about. Step out of your comfort zone so someone else can be comforted.

Be the voice in someone else’s silence. Create joy in another’s sadness. Extend hope into your neighbor’s disaster.

Be Jesus to those looking for Jesus!

Today…..

Don’t MISS the MISSION.

“Therefore, GO and make disciples of all the nations….” (Matthew 28:19, NLT)

Well That’s Not Fair!

LIFE isn’t fair!

Plain and simple!

The last few days God has highlighted the magnitude of fairness for me! Ezekiel had a CALL to HARD! From start to finish, he received divine prophecy followed by HARD obedience! God chose Ezekiel to exemplify His discipline to a rebellious nation! Front and center, Ezekiel was charged with a that’s not fair task.

I don’t know about you but being tied up and mute, constrained to laying on your left side for 390 days and your right side for 40 days, having to eat in an unclean manner and not being able to mourn the death of the one you love is a difficult state to be in! Only to be followed by a statement from God, “Ezekiel, NO ONE will listen to you! Do it anyway!” (paraphrase)

HARD!

All throughout Ezekiel’s journey I see a continuous action on his part, OBEDIENCE! He was OBEDIENT IN HIS HARD!

I am challenged by his obedience.

I am humbled by his call.

I’m NOT envious of his HARD!

How often do you feel  life is not fair or this is too hard?” More often than not, we fail to consider that God CALLS us to HARD. His design for us is not a perfect, seamless life BUT an abundant, grace-filled life. When we seek the “simple” in life we often MISS OUT on His “favor” from our obedience.

No walk of HARD is easy and often times the step into obedience can be painful. Can I encourage you that His grace IS sufficient for your HARD. The will of God won’t lead you where His grace can’t sustain you. The HARD He CALLS you to, He has EQUIPPED you for!

BUT, you CANNOT do it alone.

You NEED Him to do your HARD!

I pray we recognize HARD is in HIS plan. And, to follow His plan, we CAN’T do HARD alone!

Invite Him into your HARD! He wants to extend grace into your situation and carry you through it. Life, even the unfair-hard parts, He NEVER intended for you to do it alone.

” He will keep you strong to the end………” (1 Corinthians 1:8, NLT)

It’s OFFICIAL!

…In every aspect of the word, it is “OFFICIAL!”

Today we begin our first day of the homeschooling adventure! Guess what? We are EXCITED! Everyone is! We did not twist anyone’s arm nor did we force anyone’s hand, this was a unanimous decision. Yes!

Our journey is beginning later in my children’s lives. With a rising 10th grader and 4th grader, we elect to maintain Godly and parental influence throughout their day. We will be sending our rising 5th grader to public school for now as we pray for further confirmation.I have been and remain an advocate for private/public education and one day may even return to that avenue for educating my children; BUT for this season of their lives we CHOOSE to home school!

I am so thankful that we have a CHOICE… can you imagine if we didn’t?

The freedom to choose gives freedom to faith!

Faith is the hope of what is unseen!

Without Faith it is impossible to please God!

A wise pastor (Pastor Chris) reminded me that, “You can’t participate in the things of Faith without Faith!”

I don’t know the CHOICES you’ve made when it comes to educating your children and I don’t know what other Faith Choices you’re being called to; But, I know that with God ALL things are possible! Even the hard, load bearing, risky, unseen, FAITH ventures He may asking you to take!

DO IT! It’s worth EVERY step of FAITH to follow God’s plan for you!

“Because you are not yet taking God seriously,” said Jesus. “The simple truth is that if you had a mere kernel of faith, a poppy-seed, say, You would tell this mountain, Move, and it would move. There is nothing you wouldn’t be able to tackle.” (Matthew 17:20, MSG)

Summertime {and the livin’ is easy}

This time of year my family hums and sometimes belts out the George Gershwin tune, “Summertime,  and the livin’ is easy…”

EASY! Is it?

Continue reading here…

I Do {so why don’t I}

 

 

 

 

 

 

I do LIKE to catch fireflies and walk in the rain, I do LIKE to run through open fields and roll down gigantic hills, I do LIKE to read inspiring novels and chatter with old friends, I do LIKE to dance to the beat of a different drum and watch the sunrise welcome a new day!

So why don’t I; why don’t I do the things that I do LIKE to do?

Certainly life happens! Hours become filled with the efforts of succeeding and the years fly quickly by; and every now and again, God allows our time to stand still. Flashes of where He’s carried us to and what He’s covered us from appears. And in the moment of standing still and my heartbeat fluttering, I wonder… “Why don’t I?” Allow myself to walk in the rain, roll down that gigantic hill, not question my dance to the beat of that different drum?

Why don’t you?

“This is the Lord’s doing: it is marvelous in our eyes. This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.” (Psalm 118:23-24, ESV)

Are you Poor and Needy? {a humble prayer}

“Incline your ear, O Lord, and answer me,  for I am poor and needy. Preserve my life…

There is none like you among the gods, O Lord, nor are there any works like yours…

For you are great and do wondrous things; you alone are God…

Teach me your way, O Lord, that I may walk in your truth; unite my heart to fear your name…

I give thanks to you, O Lord my God, with my whole heart, and I will glorify your name forever…

For great is your steadfast love toward me; you have delivered my soul…”

{Psalm 86, ESV}