God's Pursuit of Me
To have found God and still to pursue Him is the soul's paradox of love. - A.W. Tozer
-
Yeah. Just Like That.
Guess what family is unanimous in their recent discovery of their intense dislike for goat cheese? This family! (Was that really a hard guess for anyone?) Yes. It’s true. Our apologies to all goat-cheese-lovers reading right now. We discovered this over a recent dinner. I made a beautiful salad. And yes, I can describe this salad as beautiful. Because it was. A beautiful serving dish. Crisp, bright green spinach leaves piled high. Creamy white feta cheese sprinkled across the bed of green. Goat cheese layered across and mixed with the feta. Perfectly grilled chicken placed carefully across the salad layers. And exquisite, colorful ruby pomegranate seeds shimmering across the landscape…
-
Love Is A Verb
I heard it first said at Look Up Lodge actually. (Maybe twelve years ago.) Love is an action. Love is a verb. There is always a lot of talk about love. And how we humans can best express it, one to another. Particularly at this time of year. But even the coolest, most amazing gift, (even a Mac) cannot express our love as beautifully and as profoundly as our actions can. Even our most simple actions. Yesterday I was suddenly and inexplicably very sick. Really sick. Chills, aches. Miserable. Even my eyes hurt. It was lousy. But despite the fact that I have six children, five of whom do not…
-
What Do We Do?
(It’s another one of those this-picture-has-nothing-to-do-with-this-post-other-than-the-fact-that-this-is-my-blog-and-this-is-my-cute-kid. Apologies to all.) I just heard this line in a song . . . “If you feel it, it must be real.” That turns my stomach. This idea is absolutely pervasive. It has invaded everything. Our music. Our movies. Our commercials. Our attitudes. Our expectations. Our brains. Our hearts. Our actions. And I hate it. Because it is a lie. I’m not saying feelings always lie. I’m not saying feelings are wrong. Or sinful. Necessarily. I am saying – you cannot trust only your feelings. You cannot live from your feelings alone. You cannot base your actions on your feelings. It is a dangerous…
-
Is This A Test?
We try to learn a few verses together as a family. I write them on the chalkboard wall near the dinner table and we read them out loud together before each meal. This week I wrote out James 1:19-20 – “Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry for man’s anger does not bring about the righteous life that God desires.” And let’s just be honest. When I picked this little nugget of a verse I was targeting a handful of sometimes short tempered, angry-word-shouting siblings. I was trying to preach when I should have been quiet. And so maybe this day just serves…
-
11:00 a.m.
The alarm on my watch beeps every day at 11:00 a.m. When Kevin was in Israel we both sat our alarms to the same hour so we could remember to pray for one another and our family at the same exact time, despite the physical distance between us. Once Kevin returned, I just left the alarm setting as it was. (Not just because I don’t know how to change it either.) It has been a good daily reminder to pray for my husband. In the past when I have prayed for my husband, or any loved one in my life really, my prayers were pretty selfish. Yes, I would pray…
-
Constant
Really, this post is about chaos. And I think the photo demonstrates that fairly well. And it’s funny. And Leanne said she will only read my posts if they are accompanied by a photo. Our house is lived in. It’s comfortable. And we like that. But comfortable can ooze into cluttered faster than Bergen can ride a bike down a hill. And cluttered can morph into chaos with a speed faster than Riley’s fingers can text. Last weekend Kevin and I looked around our home. And it looked like chaos had settled in. I was tired of messy children’s rooms where a child could not play with any particular item…
-
Are You Sure?
I find myself always asking, (repetitively, yes) How can I best serve God? (Right now. In this life. In the present.) And the answer seems to always be given (repetitively, yes) softly in my mind, boldly in my life. By serving the people living at this house. No, no, no. Can’t I do something glamorous?Something big?Exciting?Cool?Highly visible?Dramatic? God,Don’t you need a writer for a really popular magazine?Do you need me to work at a theatre like Flat Rock Playhouse?Do you want me to sell all of my possessions and travel across the country with my family in an RV for you?Do you want me to sequester myself away in some…
-
What Is She Wearing?
My friend Mandy and I were on our way to our weekly Bible study. The kids were all buckled into their seats, quietly enjoying our little ride. “Mommy. I think Piper just threw up,” Bergen said. “No, I don’t think so Berg.” “Yeah. I think she did,” he said. “I throw up,” Piper announced. Mandy turned around to verify the facts. “Uh. Yes. She did throw up.” We were almost at church so we kept heading in that direction so we could clean her up there. Not to get too graphic, but it was pretty much a pure strawberry yogurt type of throw up. More than likely brought on by…
-
Words
You know how some things people say stick with your forever? For better or for worse? Words really are powerful. My 7th grade teacher once called me a “snot”. She probably does not even remember. But I can’t forget it. The truth is, I probably was being a snot. And she probably was having a rotten day with one too many junior high snide comments. But I am thirty-six years old and I can still clearly remember how those words made me feel. Words. What scary power. I know this and yet I am always speaking without thinking. I hear myself say such ridiculous things. But that’s not even the…
-
It Doesn’t Compare
Oh. Oh. Oh. I think I am just nowbeginning to understandsomethingwith new eyes. About sin.About forgiveness.About comparing.About me. I am alwayscomparingmy sin to his sin.My sin to your sin. Andwhen I compareI begin to thinkthatIamokay. Butwe cannot place our sinson some sin scaleand measure them along those lines. Other people’s sinsarethe wrong reference point. The wrong point entirely. It’s not aboutmy sincompared toyour sin. It never has been. It’s onlyaboutmy sincompared tothe costChristalready paid. (We can onlycompareourselvesto asinless Christwho diedfor asinfulme.)
-
What It Isn’t
I love my husband. I really do. But with each year and each turn and each milestone of marriage God is teaching me brand new things about love. What it is. And what it isn’t. And I have so many more lessons to learn. A number of books and wise counsel have taught me along this path, leading me to where I am now. Books like Love & Respect and Sacred Marriage. But no book teaches me more than God’s word. It strips away popular theory and is more relevant than any book claiming itself as the most relevant marriage help book on the market. Today our pastor was referencing…
-
Confession
Maybe it’s time for a little confessional. Will this make me appear self-serving in your eyes? Maybe. But I’m going to risk it. I once wrote that I blogged to gain perspective on my days and my life in general. To remember to laugh at the mundane or pull extraordinary from what feels ordinary. That is still true. But more than one thing can be true at the same time- right? I also write this blog because, well, because I really like your comments. Really like them. As in, I check my e-mail in the morning just to see if anyone had anything to say and I get happy when…
-
Wasting Time
So I’m pretty sure God doesn’t like facebook, my blog or even the internet in general. Okay. I really don’t believe that. But it might be true that God is not okay with the amount of time I waste on facebook in comparison to the amount of time I spend studying Him. And I kind of doubt He appreciates the number of times I check my blog as compared to the number of times I seek His face. Or the amount of time I spend sitting at the computer compared to the number of times I get away from the computer and actually do the good deeds I am supposed…
