Desperate Giveaway Post

Kind Friends!

Yes, I know. It isn't Tuesday or Friday - but I need to let you in on a fine giveaway going on this week....

Remember my post a few weeks ago? About Titus 2? About Mama's and mentors?

Right after I posted that - a friend (hello, sweet Kelli Jo) suggested I check out Sally Clarkson, Sarah Mae - and their websites. That very same week - other random sources led me to them, too.

Weird.

I've only been following their blogs for a bit - but I've been so blessed by them already. These ladies have written a book together entitled Desperate - and this is their launch week.

They are giving away some cool things over the next few days. Head here and here to check it all out.

And because I like for things in these parts to be real and transparent - the reason I'm posting today about all this - is because 'posting on your blog about the giveaways' is one way to enter :)

Yep.

I plan on being back tomorrow, loves....with my Tuesday post.

Hugs all around.

The View from Here

Fence and rooftop.

That's all I'd have seen if I would have opened the blinds in our room.

As I stand at the edge of our bed and fold laundry...I glance at the window and long for fresh light to pour in. But as I move forward to shift the blinds open.......that's when I remember.

I remember that I don't live in wide-open space anymore.

I don't have a field, a garden, and trees out back. I have a tall, faded, wood fence and....neighbors....everywhere.

I don't look out my window and see lots of green. I look out my window and see lots of granules and asphalt - the tops of other people's houses.

When we traded pine trees for palm trees - we also traded five acres for just about five inches.

I feel all claustrophobic.

And my kids. Oh, my land-loving kids.

The oldest refused to go outside for the first month. Because after moving in - he attempted to play kickball...only to have the ball almost go into someone else's yard every time he kicked it. He tried to play t-ball...but the same thing happened. And the distance between bases? Centimeters. He tried to fly a kite - only to get it stuck in the neighbor's fence. And then he tried to just run around - but the pots and dips, holes and fire ants in this rented, untended backyard - made it annoying and...dangerous.

The look on his face when the kite got stuck.....it made my mama heart just about implode.

He and I...and the others too - we long to fully, slowly, breath in open air. We long for the freedom to wonder.

Not much of that will be happening here, however.

This is a house farm. A home sits every few inches...row upon row.

I could try to muster up some sweet and spiritual analogies here. I could write about how I have so many people right at my doorstep - that I get the opportunity to witness to and serve, daily. I could hash out how this could be a little lesson in gratefulness. I could talk about some perks of living in the city. I could show you some lining in silver.

But I'm not there today. Me and my miss-matched socks sprawled across my bed - we just aren't feeling it this Friday.

I miss the dirt clad feet the most, I think. I actually miss scrubbing dirt from the sole of a little foot....

Because bare, dirty feet on country clean ground - make for happy, content little children.

I do not know why the Lord brought us all these miles away to live in this mess of concrete. I do hope (and trust, yes) that it will unfold and faith will waft out of it all - but as for now....

I'll open my back blinds and stare at fencing and shingles.

And I'll consider how we make a mistake when we think that what God calls us to is always ideal. It usually isn't.

And with a husband who would move us to Africa and live in a mud-hut tomorrow - and a God who calls us out of comfortable and into the harvest....

fences and shingled rooftops might be something I look back on...

and actually miss someday.

Kinda like those happy little dirt clad feet.

2013

Ah...starting anew.

There's nothing so sweet.

While it may seem cliche to talk about fresh beginnings and recommitments and determined focus..... I think it best we do.

Because...the turn of the year - it can really ring in some good, good things - some healthy, needed change.

While there are....oh yes....many areas that could use some starting over in my life...I'm honing in on one this year - that needs some wild tweaking...

Homemaking.

Talk about fence sitting. This is one of those areas I just couldn't fully embrace - confused on the role of the woman - confused by different voices saying all manner of different things....

And listen....if I'm being totally honest - I considered myself above all this homemaking stuff....for years. It was too quiet...too non-applauding...too little of an audience for this attention-wanting woman to seize.

But then God started speaking all manner of crazy things into my heart. Things about.....

being quiet
being clean - inside and out
really living all our days
the need and importance of mentors
the dangers of sitting on the fence


So tenderly, gently...the Lord has been speaking to me about this role - about the gigantic positive a healthy home is for a child.... about how this is my assignment in this season - about how these hearts that live right along side me? They are to be my focus...shepherding their hearts for Him.

I'll be sitting under many good teachers in this....but I'm mostly receiving my instruction in book form...

...meaning that fine quotes and helpful hints just might find their way on a post or two? :)

So, this next trip around the sun....

....it will include much study in the way of a woman in her home - the schooling, the tempo and flow, the nutrition, the organization, the expectations, the discipline, the relationships, the budget, the traditions, the celebrations...even the decor - the general atmosphere.

I won't be striving for some perfect ideal...but I will be striving to bless.

So while I'm learning how to really grow and serve and encourage the ones that have been entrusted to me....

what will you be focusing in on?

Let us all take courage in your bold quests!

May the Lord yield much fruit from your efforts this year, friends.

Happy, happy new year.

Uncommitted

Satan wants you to straddle the fence.

Sitting there...perched on the in-between...indecisive...incapable of fully committing.

Because he knows that if he keeps you in the middle - your life will journey toward nothing - and your life will count for nothing, as well.

It's safer for him and his agenda - if you simply sit on the hedge.

Many of us live stationary lives. Not because we are called to it, but because we are caught in it. Whispers from the enemy make us waver between this and that, here and there. This teeter-totter continues and we end up spending all our days smack in the middle - withholding from total engagement.

And this renders us useless.

Satan knows it. And Satan likes it.

If he can just keep us from full devotion - he can keep us from all fruitfulness.

Want an example?

Take motherhood. I unexpectedly entered into this arena 6 years ago. And while I love my children and I love what I do - I've wavered.

And I've found myself thinking these thoughts:

"What if I'm really suppose to be out in the workforce? What if all this is a mistake? What if I should actually be a working woman?"

But in the depths of me...I know.

It's been spoken over me and clearly seen - that yes - this is what He has called me to. Yet - these questions rise to the surface. And they are just loud enough for me to take a pause. They are just enough to make me hesitate. They make me question what I know.

And they cause fence-sitting.

I've discovered that these wanderings keep me from going all out as a mother. They keep me from going all in as a house-wife.

And the result? Half-hearted efforts and piecemeal offerings.

And this kind of floating - takes place not only in motherhood, but in ministry (Did I hear him right about this service opportunity?"), in marriage ("Did God really want me to marry this person?"), in moving (Did God really say to go?"), in relationships ( Did He really want me to befriend this individual?").

If all this sounds familiar....it should. It's a tactic the enemy has used from the beginning:

Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, "Did God actually say, 'You shall not eat of any tree in the garden'?" (Genesis 3:1)

And the fallen angel knows that all this questioning makes us discontent.

It makes us 'kinda sorta' people.

It makes us......lukewarm. Not hot. Not cold. But gross in-between.

All this...it's been heavy on me these last few weeks of the year. So this weekend - I'd love for you to join me in wholeheartedly asking the Lord:

"Where am I caught.....coasting in the middle?"

"Where do You want me to fully commit?"

"What lies am I believing about my life?"

Ask Him to pinpoint and highlight just a few areas. He'll show you.

And on Tuesday - we will reconvene. And I'll share what I feel like He's wanting me to focus on in this new year.

And together - we will dive in........COMPLETELY.

2013? I'll see ya then.

Christmas 2013

Today. It should be a sacred celebration.

Hovering all around the Christmas tree and through the baked goods - Simmering around every hot stove and in each gift given - With every door swinging open to welcome kin - Shining in every lit bulb - And most certainly sitting in the beating hearts of all the people recognizing this day......

.....the Spirit of God should be thick present.

The way He hovered over the face of the waters at the very beginning - He should be settled over the faces of His people this day.

(And everyday we inhabit this earth.)

Yet, our hearts and therefore our faces - they can become so gnarly twisted around these days of observance....

Family spats, hurt feelings, loneliness, sickness, forgotteness, traveling frustrations, doubt, annoyances - all these things can turn a warm heart cold.

If this is you - pray fervently all this whole day.

I will be.

In the midst of the chaos or even the lack of it - ask for His Spirit to be ever present. Ask for healing. Ask for grace-filled words to sit on your tongue. Ask for calm and peace.

And ask for the ability to remember what all this hoopla is about, anyway:

Christ's sacrifice. Christ's gift. Our salvation.

Through and Through

Standing at the kitchen sink today - washing the inside of a bowl.....He lays it all out on the counter:

"Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and the plate, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. You blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and the plate, that the outside also may be clean.

(Matthew 23:25-26)

 

And it's nothing new....Him speaking to me about the inside and the outside and how, really, they should match.

 

And how in all reality...they don't.

 

So I drop the dish rag in the suds and right there in the middle of rinsing down stuck-on cereal....

 

I repent.

 

Because when the heart doesn't match the mouth - when our exteriors are shiny clean while our hearts are filth-ridden....when our lips are speaking sweet flattery while our motives are for self-gain..... that's just false living. That is deceit. That is hypocrisy. And it's so unlike Christ.

 

David Guzik put it this way in his study guide for Matthew 23:

 

"Many are satisfied with a superficial cleansing, and the appearance of righteousness before others. God looks for a true cleansing, so we can be clean before God and man."

 

Doesn't that just change everything? To be clean before God and man?

 

It brings peace. Living this way - where the inside is as clean as the outside appears.....

 

.....there's no facade that goes along with that. There's no smokescreen. No cover-ups. No energy spent on mustering up a face that isn't actually felt.

What a way to live!

And God help me! Help us. We have gotten so good at fronting.

His way is so much better. When the outside of us is clean alone - that's our doing. But when the inside is clean - that's God's doing!

And when He wipes the inside - the outside naturally follows suit. When the crevasses of a woman's heart are filled with Light - it leaks out onto her person. There's no pressure on us to manufacture it. There's no shifting shadows. Do we have any idea how much more of impact this brings?...

....On the world? On our children? This is how our babes learn to be authentic. Kids get good at lying - kids are trained in trickery - kids are infinitely insincere when they live with people who are masters of these things.

Parents! Influencers! We must create an atmosphere of honest transparency in our homes - a place where our children actually see what's not good in us...but then they see it dealt with. They see it acknowledged and handed over. And they see us being okay with the world seeing it all, too.

Me and you being one-faced rather than two....this will change our children for eternity.

*When our children see us living on the inside of our home's walls - the same way we live on the outside of them.....

*When we can get to the place where the world witnesses what these pieces of dry-wall witness...

*When our children see us speak to our husbands the way we speak to our friends....

That is righteous consistency. And there is much power in that.

This is true with homes and children...this is true with churches...it's true with places of employment....and it's also true with blogs.

 Because what's being punched out on the screen needs to match what He's scribbling on the heart.

This steadfastness - it needs to run across the board.

And in doing so.... we will reap a harvest of righteousness in all our arenas.

 

*****************

 



As we prepare our homes for Christmas festivities - let's prepare our hearts for celebrating His sacrifice.

May you have a blessed Christmas.

 



Permission

"He's one-third of the way...."

"What do you mean....one-third of the way?"

"He's six years old....one-third of his time under our total care is completed. Only two-thirds to go."

My husband casually dropped this bit of information into my heart Saturday evening - and it was like all the lights in the universe popped on.

My oldest....he's one-third of his way done being a kid.

Already.

What in the world have I been doing all these six years?

And this fact - coming on the heels of those little ones losing their lives - those little ones that were my son's very age. It's rattles me and awakens me and breaks me - completely.

That question - what have I been doing? Where have I been? How is that much of it already in the rear view mirror?

Satan knows that discontentment will drive a Mama to wish away her days and lament things that shouldn't be lamented..... and he knows it will cause a woman to never really live.

He knows a lack of contentment means a lack of being all in - all present.

And when a mother isn't totally immersed - the days fly without her even noticing.

And it can't go on this way.

So perhaps, this puny little blog post can be our permission?

Our permission for life to not be perfect. Our permission to totally immerse ourselves right where we are.

Now. Today.

Not when the curtains are hanging all lovely and every body's healthy and the carpets are clean. Not when the toy bin is organized and the beds are made and the backyard is mowed.

But now.

Because out of the 365 days a year...maybe one or two of them will be near perfect. The others? Most of them will fall somewhere between the ideal and awful. That's what the pastor said on Sunday.

 Most of our days are somewhere in the middle. And it doesn't make sense to only really engage a few days a year...or on Friday's...or when the apple pie actually comes out of the oven looking like the picture. Those days are few - but the opportunity to be alive in all our days....those are many.

Ya know....one day....the pitter-patter of little feet won't echo off these walls anymore. And mud-caked toddler boots won't sit at the doorstep. And brushing tangles out of blond hair will be something of the past. That day when my kids transition into adulthood... yes, that day will eventually come. And when it does - I DO NOT want to look back and have to ask myself where it went.

Like Mary....I want to store all these things up in my heart.

All these feet and boots and tangles....all these whines and fevers and back-scratching sessions. All these arms that wrap around legs, all these trains and airplanes and stuffed bears. All these little hands helping me stir dinner. All these loud van rides. All of it.

I've just been so moved the last few days.

And torn and slapped and stripped - from those words and those news reports.

I have today. Tuesday. So here....in the middle.....is where I'll nestle in and open up and fully engage.

This permission - to live fully in the imperfect....it's what I needed.

May it meet some need in you today, too :)

Love to you all.