Making the Most of Every Opportunity

I was ready to give up. I began thinking maybe I should just expect to eat at a table covered in math manipulatives and maps. Over a period of time and in a variety of ways, God lead us to homeschool our boys years ago. I've come to adore homeschooling my kids (most days), but we've never been able to make a "homeschool room" work for us. We somehow wind up on the living room couch or at the kitchen table. Every day. Learning about atoms and molecules Reviewing Latin Oh how the math manipulatives take over the table.  Are you getting the point that we use this room a lot? I remember reading that God has made everything beautiful in his time and thinking that I LOVE that HE's made beautiful things and places and people. It's a cool reflection of Him. I really enjoy pretty spaces in people's homes. It feels welcoming to me. I'm fine with toys everywhere, but I also love welcoming others to a peaceful, homey space. So I began wondering if...

Today my family is on a hunt. Feel free to join us. We're asking God to open our eyes, as we go about our day, to see how He is patient and kind towards us.  We're remembering His pure love that never envies or boast and is not arrogant or rude insisting on His own way.  We're thanking Him that even though we are irritable and resentful, He never is towards us.  We're talking about how we've se en His love through others who do not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoice with the truth. We're asking Him to help us live out this great love and, like Him, bear all things, believe all things, hope all things, and endure all things by His power with our hearts resting in Him. And we believe He'll do it because His great love NEVER ends. Thankful for this great love. Praying you catch glimpses of it, too. As one of my favorite people likes to say, "Happy Sappy Day"!

I can't express how meaningful it has been to me that others have cried with me, pursued me, and encouraged me in the midst of my pain and loss. It's one way I sensed God's nearness and love in painful trial. And now God has done a funny thing, He's asked me to be that for others. But not just in weeping- in rejoicing! Just as I have been encouraged by others who wept with me now I want to rejoice with them. For some I've been praying and weeping as they experience their own painful loss/trial. But others I love have great reason to rejoice. It's hard to tell a woman mourning a miscarriage that you are rejoicing because you're pregnant. I'm thankful that my family and friends took the risk and shared with me. It's giving me an opportunity to step away from myself and rejoice for people I love. I want to encourage you, especially if you are in the midst of a trial, ask God who you can rejoice with. It is NOT easy, but there's something so be...

I'm blogging about one of the most painful trials I've faced, miscarriage. You can read my previous posts here: 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 . Here's the AMAZING truth God showed me after my last ultrasound: "January 5 I had my last ultrasound this week. I didn't tell anyone i was going because i just couldn't get myself to. Once there, the technician checked me while I stared at the large tv on the wall with a live view of my empty womb and God met me there beautifully. My first response afterwards was overwhelming sadness. I wept a lot and told God i wanted to be staring at a baby but i also struggled feeling faithless that i want what He doesn't seem to want for me. He reminded me that He's able and He gives generously. It was tangible God-speak, too. Through me flashing to romans 8:32 immediately- "He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?" And then through...

I've been sharing some texts I wrote as I sensed God's nearness in the midst of my miscarriage. You can read the first 3 here: 1 , 2 , 3 "Dec. 20 We lost the baby today. "in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore." Sweet baby knows a sweeter joy, not mixed with salty sorrow, but in God's presence with full joy. God took me to Psalm 27: " One thing have I asked of the LORD , that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD and to inquire in his temple. " And then here in Psalm 73: "I was brutish and ignorant; I was like a beast toward you. Nevertheless, I am continually with you; you hold my right hand. You guide me with your counsel, and afterward you will receive me to glory. Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart...

I've been sharing about my miscarriage, mainly through texts written in the midst. You may want to go back and read posts 1 and 2 for the full story. God met me in some crazy ways (just wait for my ultrasound "empty" aha!). This post is mainly a revived perspective on suffering learned as I endured suffering. "Dec.17 I'm seeing 2 corinthians 4 with new eyes right now. This chunk just matches up so perfectly with the emotions i'm experiencing and truth i know in the midst as we walk through this pregnancy God joyfully surprised us with yet seems anything but normal and healthy. We're waiting and not entirely sure what for, other than God Himself. but we trust Him fully in it. So we wait, feeling just like Paul described: "We are afflicted... but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair" It's perplexing and confusing. The sense we had from God and what we're experiencing don't match.  Yet suffering feel...

I'm sharing about how God met me in the midst of my miscarriage in this series. You may want to read my first post and then head back to this. Here is a series of text messages I sent updating when bleeding started and as we waited, not knowing whether I'd heal or we'd lose the baby: "Dec. 14th In hospital for an ultrasound. Listening to praise music as we wait to stay our hearts on Christ. Scary situation, but faithful God. ... Just left hospital. Definitely still pregnant. Glimpse of underdeveloped baby shows that I could be "pre-miscarriage" or we miscalculated my due date. On bedrest now. Will get more bloodwork monday to ensure the baby's # rises and then prob. another ultrasound in a week or so. Not super hopeful news, but thankful the Lord does know and trusting Him in the emotional roller coaster of it all. "I wait for the LORD, my soul waits, and in his word I hope; my soul waits for the Lord more than watchmen for the m...

Oh wow, this is hard to type out. Forgive the blubbering as I type through tears. Here goes: I miscarried about a week before Christmas. Actually, I'm still physically and emotionally in process. Apparently natural miscarriages can take a long time.  I'm blogging about it because we listened to a recording of John Piper's last sermon at Bethlehem a few weeks ago. You can imagine my emotional roller coaster as I listened to this (incredible) sermon  about how the world needs to see people cherishing God while suffering .  You can check it out here:   http://www.desiringgod.org/resource-library/sermons/sorrowful-yet-always-rejoicing Even though my miscarriage is still fresh and raw, i sense God telling me to blog and live it openly now, not down the road. I want others to know someone has been there.   One morning during communion, my Pastor read Jesus in the garden saying, "Father, if you are willing, take this cup..." it was like he spoke...

My weight. A battle in my life for years. I have a desire to honor God, to look/feel good, and an inability to do it. Most of the time. A friend once shared her own struggle to seek Christ first in it as a struggle between two false gods of pleasure and vanity. That's SO me.  Pleasure-I want whatever food I want, when I want. It's to please me and I look to cake/cookies to satisfy what I know only God can. Vanity- Yet when God gives me the ability to honor Him in daily eating, I lose weight. And i LOVE that I've lost it. I may not brag openly, yet my heart is the same. I still hope people will notice and that becomes my god.  But what is amazing me in my daily battle is God's grace. He knows this about me and as He shows me daily, He's offering a way out. Himself. I'm bouncing back and forth from the path of vanity/glory to the path of pleasure/gluttony and He just keeps gently guiding me back to His path of life and freedom. It's beautiful. I'm so th...

Last year Jimmy asked to start a new Easter tradition. He wanted us to put up a paper cross. Then he cut out black circles for nails. He asked me to write "Jesus died for our sins". But the day of Easter he lead us in a sweet time of confession and forgiveness with that cross. He wrote our names on it by the nails and had us write specific sin near our name and then he stuck the nails over it to show that Jesus' death covered that sin. Wow. Love him and the lessons he teaches me. Jimmy by his cross our sins covered by Jesus the finished cross to remind us in Him is forgiveness of sin

I'm so visual that I knew using candles with lent readings at home would be meaningful to me. But I had no clue how powerful the lenten light readings John and Noel Piper made would be. Wow! Amazing. We use them the week leading up to Easter and place small tea lights from the dollar store on a plate. Each night Andy reads the devotional printed off from desiringgod.org and we blow out a candle each day through Good Friday until Easter Sunday when we light all of them again to show that Jesus beat sin and death and rose again! Andy reading A light is snuffed out after each reading Jim was fascinated Jesus is alive. The tomb is empty. Light of the world has come!!! close up of candles next to our homemade tomb Here's Noel Piper's intro explanation: “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it” ( John 1:5 ). But for a while it seemed as if the darkness  was  overcoming—for a  long  while. Your seven candles symboliz...

Thinking more and more about Jesus today. Just read this Martin Luther quote. Wow: "If we consider the persons, we ought to suffer a thousand and again a thousand times more than Christ because he is God and we are dust and ashes, yet it is the reverse. He who had a thousand and again a thousand times less need, has taken upon himself a thousand and again a thousand times more than we. No understanding can fathom nor tongue can express, no writing can record, but only the inward feeling can grasp what is involved in the suffering of Christ."

Some things in life have felt impossible to me lately. Like having all our needs met. Being able to own a home. Healing my sick baby. So as things feel impossible, I'm fighting the feelings by remembering just how possible everything is through Christ. What was impossible??? It was impossible for death to keep hold of Him. THAT is what's impossible. Everything else seems so very possible to me when I hang on this truth. Jesus who beat death now gives his own salvation and every good thing. Amazing! "But God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him" Wow! It was impossible for death to keep its hold on Him. Amen:) I love this JC Ryle reflection on Christ's suffering and resurrection: "We must not be content with a vague belief that Christ’s sufferings on the cross were vicarious.  We are intended to see this truth in every part of His passion.  We may follow Him all through...

I LOVE this post by Dane Ortlund about reading the Old Testament. Check it out here . Here's a glimpse: What are other ways we might read the Bible? The Gold Mine Approach  – reading the Bible as a vast, cavernous, dark mine, in which one occasionally stumbles upon a nugget of inspiration. Result: confused reading.  The Hero Approach  – reading the Bible as a moral hall of fame that gives us one example after another of heroic spiritual giants to emulate. Result: despairing reading.  The Rules Approach  – reading the Bible on the lookout for commands to obey to subtly reinforce a sense of personal superiority. Result: Pharisaical reading.  The Artifact Approach  – reading the Bible as an ancient document about events in the Middle East a few thousand years ago that are irrelevant to my life today. Result: bored reading.  The Guidebook Approach  – reading the Bible as a roadmap to tell me where to work, whom to marry, and what shampo...

Here's a roundup of some of my thoughts I've posted in the past on Easter . Follow the Easter link to see posts on: - our traditions to teach our kids and stay our hearts (including a playdough tomb , resurrection eggs , and a empty/full basket switch ) -good books/dvds - a link to the Lenton Lights devotional we use -my thoughts as I reflected on my sin , Christ's suffering ,  death , and His resurrection

I'm not sure if this post is me processing, confessing, or just sharing things I'm learning. Please forgive the awkward writing style that reflects the confusion. Today I was in Luke 8. I've been praying and processing through some circumstances and my heart in them. As I read Jesus calming the storm, I was struck by 2 things: 1- there was real danger. Luke didn't say it was perceived that the storm was sinking the boat. He says the boat was filling and the disciples were in danger and they knew it. That's how I've been feeling. One circumstance I often grapple through is our finances. We aren't in trouble, but our daily needs are met through churches and individuals that give to our ministry, and at times, they give less than they committed to. Some even have to stop giving for various reasons and seasons which means we need to leave the studio to go meet with more churches and individuals. Since we set our salary based on needs, I'm always trying to...

I've been sharing some of my thoughts on Jesus' command for us in Matthew 28. I've looked at the promise , the call to go , making disciples , and baptism . Today, I'll share my thoughts on teaching: And Jesus came and said to them,   “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.   Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,   teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you . And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” Ah... teaching. There is value in bringing people in our lives to hear the Word preached at church and sending them to conferences or websites of national teachers. We are certainly not all gifted teachers. BUT- Jesus called all of us to teach, not just the gifted. He didn't challenge us to do anything more than teach them to observe all that He commanded us. Teach them wha...