Everything I Need

Psalm 37

Trust in the LORD, and do good;
Dwell in the land, and feed on His faithfulness.
⁴ Delight yourself also in the LORD,
And He shall give you the desires of your heart.

⁵ Commit your way to the LORD,
Trust also in Him,
And He shall bring it to pass.
⁶ He shall bring forth your righteousness as the light,
And your justice as the noonday.

⁷ Rest in the LORD, and wait patiently for Him...

A Weekend To Remember

This last Saturday was one I know I will remember forever. It was 7 hours spent with the Lord along with a sprinkling of amazing Athey Creek Christian Fellowship young ladies... and 125,000 others worldwide representing over 30 different denominations. Mostly women and a few brave men. Where was I? At a Beth Moore Living Proof Ministries simulcast. As soon as the Lord invited me to go through a wonderful friend at church, I absolutely knew it was He who was calling me there. I prepared and expected to be met, spoken to and changed and I was. When I left, I sat in my car for a long time staring at my steering wheel. I knew I was supposed to go home but did not want to. I knew as soon as I walked through the door distractions would bombard me. And trust me when I say I love the distractions that live in our home :) All 3 of them. They are my gifts from the Lord. Yet I wanted so badly to head straight for the Mountain Top Retreat Center at ACF to get away with the Lord. He and I. One on one. For at least another 24 hours. Heaven forbid even one ounce of what I learned should be allowed to blow away in a storm of distraction. Heaven forbid my own sinful nature should prevent it from penetrating the very depths of my heart and soul. The Lord forbid the enemy to be able to steal any of it at all.
I called my wonderful husband and he asked how it was. He wanted to hear all about it. And I had so little to say. He knew that was a very good thing. I am rarely at a loss for words.
So I came home and tried my best to be mommy and literally could not do it well. I had so much to pray through and to process. So my amazing husband (and yes he is literally amazing, wise, kind, incredible and the greatest man I have ever and will ever know) allowed me to lock myself in our room and do what I needed to do. I took a bath. Then I pretty much just sat there. Then I laid there. I tried to read the bible. I tried to read my notes. I prayed one of the shortest prayers in my life and I fell asleep by 8:30pm. It was pretty perfect. My eyes popped open at 5:30am on Sunday and I woke Brett up. I was ready to teach him a condensed version of what I learned the day before. And so I did. And I had a lot of tears streaming down my face through most of it. He knew that was a very good thing too.
The Lord's message to me at church was perfectly congruent with what I learned on Saturday. And I got what I most needed next, communion. It was one of the best weekends of my life.

I have been praying about what to write as the Lord has clearly re-directed the focus of this blog back to Him. I had no clue where to start. Well I have much more clarity and almost too much to say and write now. I am just going to go day by day with what the Lord is speaking to me.

Before I went to bed last night I was praying about what the Lord would have to say to me last night. He directed me to 2 Timothy. I read most of it but my eyes and heart locked on verse 24.

2 Timothy 2:24 - And the Lord's servant must not quarrel; instead, he must be kind to everyone, able to teach, not resentful....

I knew this was huge because our verse on Saturday was:

Proverbs 31:26 - She opens her mouth with wisdom; and in her tongue is the law of kindness.

I will tell you right now that there is good reason the Lord spent 7 hours explaining to me what kindness looks like, what it's defined as, what it is not defined as (nice), how it gets replaced by unkindness... irritability.. fussiness... WHO was the literal embodiment of kindness and how to strive to be a woman whose words are seasoned with wisdom and the law (the Torah) of kindness.

I am going to blog what the Lord puts on my heart each day. Really for myself. The more I speak what I've learned, write and type what I've learned and teach what I learn, the more it will become who I am.

Father, I pray with all of my heart that I would become a woman who opens her mouth with wisdom and on my tongue would be the law of kindness. In the name of Jesus, the literal embodiment of your kindness and love I pray, Amen.

New Mercies

<sup>Lamentations 3:22-23

22</sup> Because of the Lord's great love we are not consumed,
for his compassions never fail.

²³ They are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness.

I am going to quote directly from my favorite bible commentator, Jon Courson. I LOVE what his online devotion has to teach me today.

The Lord ordered our lives in such a way that every day after about sixteen or eighteen hours, we go to bed and basically “die.” To me, His plan is ingenious because I find that after about sixteen hours of living, I’ve pretty much messed it up. I’ve dropped the ball once too often and fumbled one too many times. I need to die and start over in a fresh way. So I think it’s wonderful that God lets us "die" every eighteen hours.

How I love the morning hours. Whether I spend them at church, in my place of prayer at home, or walking the streets of town on a spring or summer morning, I love the morning when it’s quiet, when I can receive a piping hot batch of mercy fresh from the oven of God’s grace.

I honestly do not love mornings at this point. By nature and probably by nurture I love nighttime. The boys are all tucked in bed and it's prime time for me and Brett to hang out. And then the perfect time for me to get caught up on all that doesn't seem to fit into the daytime hours. Being a mom of 3 busy boys, caring for a home, trying my best to serve my wonderful husband and starting a little side business is simply a lot. There are certain things I know I could let go a bit on. One being the attempt to keep a perfectly clean house. I heard somewhere that trying to keep a clean home when your children are little is like trying to shovel the snow off your driveway in the middle of a snow storm. So true and somehow I keep shoveling away.

Here are some great scriptures confirming the Lord's call for His people to seek Him early each day:

Mark 1:35 And in the morning, rising up a great while before day, he went out, and departed into a solitary place, and there prayed.

Luke 21:38 And all the people came early in the morning to him in the temple, for to hear him.

John 8:2 And early in the morning he came again into the temple, and all the people came unto him; and he sat down, and taught them.

Psalms 5:3 My voice shalt thou hear in the morning, O LORD; in the morning will I direct my prayer unto thee, and will look up.

Psalms 59:16 But I will sing of thy power; yea, I will sing aloud of thy mercy in the morning: for thou hast been my defense and refuge in the day of my trouble.

Psalms 63:1 O God, thou art my God; early will I seek thee: my soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is;

Psalms 88:13 But unto thee have I cried, O LORD; and in the morning shall my prayer prevent thee.

Isaiah 26:9 With my soul have I desired thee in the night; yea, with my spirit within me will I seek thee early: for when thy judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness.
Proverbs 31:15 She riseth also while it is yet night, and giveth meat to her household, and a portion to her maidens.

I am so thankful that that we get do-overs every day! Truly if you want things to change in your home and in your life, carving out the time to get yourself out of bed to spend one on one time with the Lord of the universe is key. I love what Oswald Chambers has to say:

The morning is a critically important time of day. You must never face the day until you have faced God, nor look into the face of others until you have looked into His. You cannot expect to be victorious, if you begin your day in your own strength alone.
Begin the work of every day after having been influenced by a few reflective, quiet moments between your heart and God.
Do not meet with others, even the members of your own family, until you have first met with the great Guest and honored Companion of your life - Jesus Christ.
Meet with Him alone and regularly, having His Book of counsel open before you. Then face the ordinary, and the unique, responsibilities of each day with the renewed influence and control of His character over all your actions.
Those who have accomplished the most for God in this world are those who have been found on their knees early in the morning

Every Season

Back to the foundation

When I set out and started our family blog, it was a very Lord-led decision. I was in a place where I was going to take a huge risk and publicly talk about what the Lord was doing in my life. That was two years ago. If you go back to my original posts when this first started you can see/read that real movement was happening in my life spiritually. Then it began to take a turn and become about what our kids are up to and cute pictures.
I never knew why really. I think it started because one particular person approached me in a restaurant who I didn't really know very well and told me she appreciated and loved reading my blog because it wasn't just cute pictures and stats... It was so real. I walked out and became SO self conscious about what I was writing that I just stopped that day. The enemy used the doubt and it worked. He shut me down... because I let him.
Well the Lord is moving once again and one of the things He created me to be is a writer. This little blog is my outlet to share what He's doing. And He wants my blog to get back to that. So it will. I know you all LOVE my food blog and that's all fine and dandy. I do love food :) But I love the LORD more. That's what I will be writing about. I know there may be times when one person reads it and I know there will be times potentially where hundreds could. Please be praying that I can put off doubt and fear and speak with boldness what the Lord is speaking to me. I ask for your prayers and appreciate your comments. It's okay to be lurker but I want this to be a give and take. We are created to be the body of Christ and I need all of you believers out there. Sometimes it may be video.. music... scripture... whatever it is it will be real and I will be honest. That's really who I am and all I know how to be. Thank you dear friends! Here is where I am at today... Please remember the Lord is SO GOOD. Always. Period.

Joshua's Baptism

We got to witness one of the most special and meaningful things as parents yesterday. Joshua chose to be baptized! The last few times the church has announced an upcoming baptism he has always asked about it and if he could do it. As parents this was a bit of a tricky decision. We believe baptism to be a decision a person makes when he or she is fully aware of its significance. And we weren't totally sure at age 7 if he was ready. So we talked with Josh quite a bit about its significance, relevance and who in the bible was baptized and did baptisms and why.
Josh accepted the Lord when he was just 5 and he fully understood what it meant. He has been part of our wonderful church since he was born and because of that along with what we have taught him at home knows much more about the bible and Jesus than I did when I accepted the Lord at 20.
We absolutely did not want to hinder his decision and are truly so thankful for his desire to outwardly show his inward faith in Jesus who is our Lord and Savior and very much Joshua's as well.
We are also blessed with an incredibly gifted bible teacher as our pastor. For the last 10 years we have enjoyed his guidance through the Word of God. It was very special to us that Pastor Brett dedicated Josh as a tiny baby and then baptized him 7 years later.