We listened to the radio as I drove my sons to school.  Between songs the voices on the radio discussed singing out sayings you would normally speak “jingle-like”.  Imagine putting song to “Now, go put your shoes on” or “Let’s cook some dinner” or “Is someone knocking at the door?”.  We laughed.  Jax, son #2, mentioned that was something Gran (my mother) would do.  He said, “Actually, Mom, that describes you too.  You know, you and Gran are a lot alike.” 

Son, you see that sometimes I’m like her?  I don’t think you realize that you just said something big to me.  She is your “Gran”, boys, and loves being a grandmother to you, but let me tell you more about this one I call “Mother”. 

My mother cooked and cleaned and dressed us and taught us.  She threw birthday parties, drove us to piano lessons, nursed us when ill, and was editor for our English papers with her bright red pen.  She loved my daddy, and together they poured their love into my brother, sister, and me. Yet she had her own life too outside of us, and it is what she did in her “spare time” that taught me the great life lesson:  how to love others.

I’ve watched my mother work countless unpaid hours preparing for Bible classes for children and women at church.  As a child, if my school ever needed to reach my mother, I suggested that they try the church building because that is where she would be.  I believe that phone number might have even been listed on my information papers.  I was used to her saying, “No, that meal/cake is not for us tonight.  I’m taking it to somebody else.”  She used her talents to make gifts for others.  Her passions for people run deep, and I have watched her eyes light up like sparklers and weep for the joy that someone else was experiencing.  I’ve seen her cry with pain when someone hurt.  I’ve also seen her cry when it hurt so bad to love someone with wisdom instead of flesh.  Dirt and filth were not deterrents in loving, yet were reasons to press in even more for they signalled deep needs.  Her life is adventure because of the people she becomes entrenched with and the stories that then ensue.  She has a lot of stories.  In her home she has hosted a wedding, countless bridal/baby showers, and fed many.  All ages……young and old came to our house.  And while she has the gift of making beautiful and warm anything she touches, she taught us that beauty is not in things but in loving and serving others for they are eternal…….not things.

Mother, you love because of Jesus.  This I know is true.  More than anything you ever wanted your children to know, you wanted us to know Christ.  It is He you have taught and keep on teaching beyond a shadow of doubt.  I might be known for singing funny things in our house like you, but I want to be someone who loves like you.  God is love, and love is what you give.  You give of yourself, but really you give God.  To Him be the glory……great things He has done. 

Yes, I arise and call you “Blessed”. (Proverbs 31:28)

Happy Mother’s Day

“For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me…….I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.”  Matthew 25:35-36, 40.

Truth

“Forgiveness is letting go of the hope that the past can be changed.” 

This quote, by someone very famous and influential, crossed my path when someone shared it as their status on facebook.  Many clicked “like” while still several others commented about how their heart had been touched and moved by the beautiful words.  It is true that there is often a wrestle with forgiveness because the past can not be changed as much as we wish it could.  But life does go on and the opposite of letting go is becoming hard and steadfast in bitterness.  At first glance, the words resonate and offer a balm for a wound. 

But wait!  I see the word “hope”.  What does it say again about hope?

It says to let it go. 

No hope?

“Let no one deceive you with empty words,……”  Ephesians 5:6 

Oh, beware of beautiful words.  Their sound is sweet and enticing.  But beautiful is not the same as truth. 

Yes, let go of the past; it cannot be changed.  But time can not be erased and to just let go does nothing but create an empty space.  Empty does not equal forgiveness.  Empty is just that……empty.  Empty of meaning, empty of reason, empty of hope, empty of life…..

“And this hope is what saves us. But if we already have what we hope for, there is no need to keep on hoping. ²⁵ However, we hope for something we have not yet seen, and we patiently wait for it.”  Romans 8:24-25

Forgiveness is not letting go of hope but rather it is full of hope.  It is when I, one forgiven of much, can let go of a  burden and give it to Jesus who is the only one who can take a huge mess and actually make it beautiful.  I may not be able to understand or even visualize how that would look, but that is why I need hope.  Hope is the belief in what you can’t see. 

 Letting go = empty space= spot available for hope=the Lord=His glory. 

“We wait in hope for the LORD; he is our help and our shield.  In him our hearts rejoice, for we trust in his holy name.  May your unfailing love rest upon us, O LORD, even as we put our hope in you.”  Psalm 33:20-22

“And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.”  Romans 5:5

Hope allows me to rest and does not disappoint.  Through hope and Jesus, I can forgive.  That is truth.  That is life. 

“The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.”  John 10:10

Truth 

We had officially lived in our little town for 48 hours when it was time to go to the grocery store to stock our new shelves.  It was a cloudy cold early January day, and we had just said good-bye to my parents who had helped us move and now were returning to our old home town nine hours away.  John was already busy with meetings for his new job.  We were tired from good-byes, packing, cleaning, unpacking, and everything else that a move requires.  Nonetheless, it was time to go forward, so off to the grocery store my boys and I went.  At one point during our shopping trip, I remembered I forgot to pick something up just down the aisle from where we now stood.  I left all three sons and cart and walked ten paces away to grab the item I needed.  As I returned to my sons/cart an older woman was right in my sons’ faces growling loudly at them:  “RUDE!”, she said.  “YOU BOYS ARE JUST RUDE!  RUDE!  RUDE!”  Her face shook just inches from their faces as her voice escalated.  They were shocked; I was shocked.  Apparently, my then young 5 year-old had looked questioningly at her disabled adult child, and she wished he hadn’t.  That scene was our welcome to our new community.

The bottom line was this:  while we were both involved in the same task basic to everyday life, neither one of us were having a normal day.  She had no idea of what my life was like at that time, and we certainly did not know hers.  I was beginning to understand that life for her had been hard; that I could see.

I’ve noticed if I’m experiencing something very different in life, the grocery store can be a raw place to be (no pun intended).  Everywhere you turn, people appear to be going about what is normal and mundane, yet at times life is absolutely not, and engaging in what is routine only heightens the contrast.   I remember another time going to the store the morning after a horrible accident where a homeless drunk man fell/jumped from a concrete barrier onto our car while we traveled on a highway late one night.  He didn’t survive.  It was a miracle we did.  As I grabbed milk, cereal, bread, and medication, I really wanted to grab the nearest person and say, “THIS HAS HAPPENED TO ME!  Do you know how that feels!”.  I wanted to be in their faces just as the older woman was with my children.  I didn’t say those things.  Instead, I just carried on appearing as normal as the next guy.  A few days later I returned to the same store perusing the carts and the other customers wondering if they were family to the deceased man.  I wanted to tell someone I was sorry…….that we were hurting too.  Life for me was not normal, but I was surrounded by everyone who appeared to be just fine. 

Appeared to be…..

We rub shoulders with all kinds of people day in and day out, and we don’t know their stories.  What might be the mundane task for me today might be the thing that is causing another’s open wound to sting and burn.  Will I see them or just the bag of apples I need for the week?  Will a smile….a “hello”….an acknowledgement even mean anything to them?   I don’t know.  I don’t know their story.  What if something so simple though would mean much to them?

Photo credit

May we see people not things.  May we be open to the fact that our lives are not their lives and vice versa.  May we see that everyday in our ordinary we are given opportunity to be extraordinary to someone else.  May our eyes see and our ears hear. 

 ”Jesus looked at him and loved him.”  Mark 10:21

Truth

I think my first born was in kindergarten before he learned how to sleep through the night.  I may be serious with that statement, but it also might just feel that way.   Sleep deprivation muddied the clarity of those memories.  Those were the days and years when I was needed for every physical need of my three little ones.   Whether it was morning or night, their needs did not respect the time; I was on-call 24/7.

The days came when they were able to do some things on their own:  dressing, going to the bathroom, getting a drink, preparing for bed, etc.  I must admit, these changes were sweet relief for this mama.  But while my physical body was able to rest a little, other needs began rising to the surface.  Mothering changed from handling the physical to navigating and teaching the heart, equally demanding and exhausting.

I’m 44 years old and have lived enough life to have learned about waiting on God, pruning, growing, relationships, forgiving, etc.  I haven’t mastered these areas, but I do know about them.  I see the questions in my children’s eyes:  “Mom, what is ‘this’?  What am I supposed to do with ‘this’?”  We sit down, and talk life.  I introduce them to terms they will forever need to know:  waiting, trusting, pruning, humility, listening.  We open the living  and active Word, and the Bible stories they were taught when little begin to take new meaning.   Someday they will be able to do all this on their own, but right now I’m walking it with them showing them “where to put what arm in what hole, what leg through which opening” so to say.  

To mothers:  May you look to the Lord as your child looks to you, and may you receive the strength He will give for the task He has also given.   May your ears, eyes, heart, and mind be open to what it is your Father would have you know this day.  Celebrate His strength in our weakness, and that ultimately He is the one directing and teaching His child.  May we cry out for wisdom to the One who gives generously to all without finding fault (James 1:5).  May we pass on truth with grace, mercy, discipline, and love that is given freely to us.   

“Show me your ways, O LORD, teach me your paths; guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God my Savior, and my hope is in you all day long.” 

Psalm 25:4-5

Truth

Last weekend two of my sons stood and preached and led worship.  They were bold and strong and had worked hard in preparing and presenting.  Affirmation was received in what they are learning and in gifts that are being developed in them.  It was good……very good.  Encouraging.

This week following has been a time of hard lessons to learn,  injuries to body and heart, packed schedules, and discipline (have I mentioned before that we are in the teenage years?).  It too has been good (in the long run), yet draining to say the least.  I heard them get into bed last night and sigh.  This morning was quiet as they prepared to “be at it” again today.

We are told the story of one of the greatest ‘throw downs” in history in I Kings 18:  Elijah with the Lord vs. Baal and its followers.  The Lord displayed himself mightily by sending a consuming fire on a water-laden altar while the altar of Baal sat motionless.  Elijah watched as the Lord’s glory caused people to fall on their face crying out to the one true God. 

In the next chapter, we see Elijah now running for his life because he is scared of Jezebel.  Yes, this is the same guy whose God won the “throw down” in a huge way.  Elijah sits down at the base of a tree and basically says, “Lord, I AM DONE!”  then falls asleep.

“All at once an angel touched him and said, “Get up and eat.”  He looked around, and there by his head was a cake of bread baked over hot coals, and a jar of water.  He ate and drank and then lay down again.  (1 Kings 19:5-6)  The angel wakes him again and says, “Get up and eat, for the journey is too much for you.”  He ate, was strengthened, and traveled on.

(My son said this was creepy that I took a picture of him sleeping……..but I had to capture this preciousness!)

I’m planning our weekend.  My boys need some sleep.  I am not an angel, and they would laugh at the thought of me playing that part, but I will say to them, “Hey, let’s get something good to eat!”  OK…..now I’m laughing at the thought of needing to remind them to eat.  No!  I most definitely won’t need to remind them…….but I will be the one preparing and making it available. I’ve been thinking through the menu.  Yum!  It will be good whatever it is.  

This is a fun part of parenting.  Just as there are many life lessons to be taught, there is also truth in eatin’ and sleepin’……..being renewed……”for the journey is too much for” them.  This is God-breathed scripture.  Thank you, Lord.

I’m playing this story of Elijah because truth be told, it was given to me earlier in the week.  I allowed myself the time to rest, time to walk, fixed myself a glorious breakfast and in this celebrated truth.  Now I am strengthened and excited about pouring the same into my children who need it badly. 

(This picture is actually gross, but look how happy he is.  This man loves some meat!)

May this weekend you too have time to enjoy some sleepin’ and eatin’. 

Be strengthened. 

Celebrate truth. 

Then let’s journey on.

“Why are you downcast, O my soul?  Why so disturbed within me?  Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God.”  Psalm 42:5

Truth

From inside the National Cathedral - Washington D.C.

“Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life.”  Proverbs 4:23

I want to pass on to you a podcast that I have been listening to that is so good!  Andy Stanley who pastors for the North Point Community Church in Atlanta preached a five part sermon series titled “It Came From Within”, and you must hear it all.  EX-CELL-ENT! 

In the series “It Came From Within”, Andy talks about how we are taught so much about behavior modification, but we overlook the underlying factor responsible:  the heart.  While it is noble to control your behavior, a time will come when the heart will outrun any effort you make in trying to live life right.  That’s why so often we say, “I can’t believe I did that!” or “I don’t know what I was thinking!” or “I’m not sure what got into me!”.  It is why so many apologies are given for actions done when guards are let down………like when you’re tired, stressed, hurried, hurt, etc.  It is why we have watched others do things we just didn’t think they were capable of doing.  The Holy Spirit through King Solomon, the wisest  of men, the one who the gave us Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Song of Songs, says about the heart. “Above all else, guard your heart…….”  Above. All. Else.

“Enemies of the heart” are identified as being guilt, anger, greed, and jealousy.  In the five part series, Andy gives an overview and then dives into each of these areas.  Maybe you don’t think you have any of these issues.  Hmmmm.  You might want to make sure!  Again, excellent teaching.  Convicting.  Life-giving messages.  Listen to them.

The sermon series can be found through iTunes and then through North Point Ministries.  You may also click here for the link to the site.  Again, the series is titled “It Came from Within”.  It was preached in September of 2011.  Google can also help you locate it. 

Just passing on to you something that blessed me.  I would love to know if you have any tidbits that have touched you as well. 

“The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart.  For out of the overflow of his heart his mouth speaks.”  Luke 6:45

Truth

Seventeen years ago I visited doctors, grew, decorated a nursery, took childbirth classes, and grew some more.  Time clicked away on the calendar as the birth drew near.  Pains started happening.  At first the contractions would come and go signalling something physically was happening, but it wasn’t quite time yet for birth.  As nature took its course, the pains became more and more frequent, harder and harder…..then focused breathing, pushing, and finally birth.

 My beautiful baby boy.  A life.  Complete joy.

He has been my son given to me by God to have and to hold……to love and to train……..to play with and to teach.  I love being a mother.  I love nurturing.

My job is also to launch. 

Time clicks away on the calendar again this time not just in months but also in years.  It has been seventeen years to date.  I’m looking ahead on the calendar and realizing that I don’t have much longer. 

This is another birth……..years later.  We are currently in the beloved teenage years.  What I’ve experienced so far is that these years can be a little crazy like people say, but really for us they are a joy just sprinkled with occasions of pains…..”contractions”, if you will, signalling that something is changing in life.  We work through giving more independence, authority, responsibilities, discipline, but his “time” is not yet here to be fully launched even though occasionally….actually frequently…. he wishes it was.  Hence, the pains.  Sometimes these contractions hurt, and I drop to my knees and pray and “breathe”.  These occasions are coming closer and closer, sometimes harder and harder, but this is not to sound negative for this is how it is supposed to be.  He is not a rebellious kid at all; these pains are just a part of me letting go.  My son is in the process of being on his own……..to live the full life God has planned for him.  Something is being birthed here.

There are times between the praying and breathing when I catch a glimpse of who my son is becoming.  I see his gifts, how he is using them, his strength, how he is being refined, and it gives me the energy to “push” for this birth will be a joy to see, I know.  He will be beautiful, I know.   The Lord has been and is at work.

I am the mother.  This life was created in me, but I was not the Creator.  Seventeen years ago I held a baby and was in awe of the Lord’s handiwork.  Surely that is what is happening again.  I am the mother, but the Lord has been the one at work.  Being a mother is humbling…….seriously humbling.  One day, I know I will behold my son again and once again be in awe of the Lord’s handiwork. 

Oh, yes!  Something is being birthed.  A life.  It will be beautiful.  It will be complete joy.

Happy birthday, my son.

“For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you and asking God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding.  And we pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, and joyfully giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light.”  Colossians 1:9-12

Truth  

In 1990 we had a 10-15 minute drive between our apartment and the building where our church family met.  Not a bad drive at all…….unless you are fuming mad at the other person like I was one night.  I have no idea now why I was so upset at John, but I remember this specific occasion just being livid! We drove to the church building, sat through the worship service (OK……let me confess right now for attempting to worship while seriously having something against my “brother”…..my husband, that is), and then headed out to grab pizza with a few other young couples from church.  We sat around a table and ate and talked and shared life stories and all laughed hard.

John and I drove home that night and laughed hard again at whatever it was that had made me so mad earlier. 

That night around the pizza table was a sacred moment for me.  I realized that whatever was making me crazy was actually something common to newlyweds, that John wasn’t weird……we were “normal”……that was our issue!, that others understood and could help, that having like-minded/goaled friends to process marriage with would be not only essential but rather critical to the staying power of our marriage. 

We have now been married for 22 years, and I credit some of our closest friendships as being one reason why we are still held together.  They have been part of the Lord’s “glue” used on us.  Some friends are still a 10-15 minute drive away from us, but most are now 10 hours, 9 hours, and 7 hours away, and we do what it takes to get with them still. It is not just about laughing and having fun……..but running to finish a race we believe in…….a committed marriage.  We have shared, listened, cried, laughed, counseled, been honest, and have prayed together………oh! how we have prayed!  We trust our friends to not gang up and take sides, but rather with wisdom, discernment, and maturity, they speak truth from the Lord who is Lord of their lives as well. 

The children are now apart of these friendships.  It hasn’t been easy loading up the family and driving far, but when we are with our friends, we gather hand in hand, we pray, and we share life. We celebrate togetherness…….on so many levels.

In the book of Nehemiah, the people were rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem while enduring all kinds of opposition.  Nehemiah 4:16 says, “From that day on, half of my men did the work, while the other half were equipped with spears, shields, bows and armor.”  In this process, the plans of the evil one failed, and the wall was built. 

This is what it has been like with our friends.  We have been the ones hard at work, and they have been the ones surrounding with “spears, shields, bows and armor”.  The plans of the evil one have been defeated time and time again and “our wall”……..that is, our family, our heritage, is being built.  I pray we have been that for them too as they have been building their “wall”.

To the ones holding the “spears, shields, bows and armor”……….you know who you are.  We can never say “thank you” enough.  The Lord uses you to hold us together, and what is being built has not been perfect but is being made beautiful.   

“Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves.  A cord of three strands is not quickly broken.”  Ecclesiastes 4:12

Truth 

May this weekend the Easter story fall fresh on you.

It is death.

It is new life. 

It is all a gift specifically for you.

I’ll be singing with you this weekend!

{Were You There – Selah}

 (click link above for a song for your weekend.  Be sure and pause the music on this page in top right corner before listening.)

We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.”  Romans 6:4

“I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe.  That power is like the working of his mighty strength, which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be given, not only in the present age but also in the one to come.”  Ephesians 1:19-21

Truth

“Praise be to the name of God for ever and ever;  wisdom and power are his.  He changes times and seasons; he sets up kings and deposes them.  He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to the discerning.  He reveals deep and hidden things; he knows what lies in darkness and light swells with him.  I thank and praise you, O God of my fathers;  You have given me wisdom and power.  You have made known to me what we asked of you. You have made known to us the …………….”   Daniel 2:20-23

O Lord, do I look like a little child begging after her father saying, “Tell me!  Tell me!”  I know what I must look like for surely I have seen that look in my own child’s face. 

You, O Lord, do hold all wisdom and power.  I do trust you.  I hear you giving me the same questions you gave Job.  There is none beside you, Lord.  I trust you.

I have to know that your Word is true.  I am staking my life on it.  No, you do not have to prove it further.  I have to believe that you make known to us the answers we long for. 

Daniel prayed and received his answer that night.  Gideon threw out the fleece twice and received his answers overnight as well.  Jonathan wanted an answer regarding David’s enemies and received his answer the next day.  You are that same Lord. 

Yet, there are the times when waiting was involved. 

Lord, I trust you.  Hear my heart, O Lord, for all wisdom and power are yours. 

I wait for you.

In Jesus name,

Amen

“…..and they worshiped and gave thanks to the LORD, saying, ‘He is good; his love endures forever.”  2 Chronicles 7:3

Truth