Just Another Day

“For everything there is a season, a time for every activity under heaven.” (Ecclesiastes 3:1)

 

It’s my husband’s birthday today BUT before anyone goes rushing to their Facebooks, email accounts, or cell phones STOP! He doesn’t want birthday wishes because it’s “just another day”, which of course irritated me enough that it’s all I can think about, hence the subject matter of the day: him. If you wish him happy birthday he may not join me for “just a regular day” lunch at work. So, if I don’t eat it is your fault (wait until after lunch).

 

On this incredibly normal day I will share with you how very irritated my husband can make me. In fact, I am pretty sure he can irritate me more quickly than anyone else on the planet and he is proud of how good he is at doing this. On the other hand, the better one, one smile and my husband can make me laugh and end a fight, which irritates me again! Our friendship, our marriage, and our love is not without its emotional roller coasters but I am blessed every moment he is with me. He is the man I never I knew I needed. He is my lover, my best friend, a wonderful dad, and, I believe, my soul mate.

 

He will always be the first to say that I helped him stay the course. However, I wonder if he will ever know how much his strength and love have helped me put one foot in front of the other. Those few times when my faith gets wobbly he is right there with an infusion of guidance to get me back into place. He would say I am the strong one but it’s when I am not, and I feel like everything is falling apart, he gently walks me back to the Lord’s feet. So, on this incredibly normal day I want to praise and thank God for the man He has so graciously given me to walk with on earth. I am blessed, I am loved, and I am….probably in a bit of trouble!

 

“Place me like a seal over your heart, like a seal on your arm. For love is as strong as death, its jealousy as enduring as the grave. Love flashes like fire, the brightest kind of flame. Many waters cannot quench love, nor can rivers drown it.” (Song of Songs 8:6-7a)

I want to Live a Verb

“I love you, Lord; you are my strength. The Lord is my rock, my fortress, and my savior; my God is my rock, in whom I find protection.” (Psalm 18:1-2a)

 

I am a nerd. Actually, I am the nerd of my entire family. Being a nerd I like schedules, budgets, numbers, and routines. However, I don’t do so well with commands and rules because I am also defiant and a little mischievous (go figure). For example: I like to wake up in the morning to pray and read my Bible. I don’t read my Bible and pray because God commands it though. I do those things because I love the Lord and I want to know Him better. I love going to service on Sundays. I don’t go because it’s the law but I go because it’s incredible to worship the God of the universe and be surrounded by so many people who are in love with Him as well. I enjoy teaching and serving on Wednesday nights but it’s not because Jesus requires acts of service. I go in to my classroom on Wednesdays because I want to encourage a great group of awesome kids to be excited and in love with Jesus.

 

I want to live the verb of being in love with Jesus. I want my faith to be moving and living. I never want to sit down for a second.

 

+        I want to reach out into the community

+        I want to love the people in my life unconditionally

+        I want to give and then give some more

+        I want to trust and know that I am free

+        I want to be a good wife, mother, daughter, and friend

+        I want to live running and basking and all these things with God in the center of me because I love my Lord….because I love Jesus.

 

I want to bring God with me everywhere I go. Sometimes I leave Him here in this seat after I get done with devotions and for that I feel terrible. He doesn’t want just my mornings. Our Lord wants our everything and I want to give it to Him. I have let go of me and let God in and some days that is hard.  Walk with me, please, as I endure this challenge not because of some rule or ritual but because of  love and devotion to our Father.

 

“Praise the Lord! For the Lord our God, the Almighty, reigns. Let us be glad and rejoice, and let us give honor to him.” (Revelations 19:6a-7a)

Ready to Rest

“There is a special rest still waiting for the people of God.” (Hebrews 4:9)

 

A friend from California asked me about this cold weather we have getting in Iowa. Coincidentally, my husband and I were talking this morning about how it was only four degrees out but we are so used to the cold that it doesn’t feel so bad anymore. And even more weird, since the weather has been so bitter, is that all I have wanted to do is go for a bike ride. As we drive by the trails daily I look to see if they have been cleared. On the warmer days (25 degrees or more) I stare out the window at the mess on the roads and know I would still just slip and slide. I am restless.

 

In about two weeks there is a ride in the country called BRR (Bike Ride to Ripey). I have only done it once and it was brutally cold and long. I am all ready for it this year though. I have face masks to block the wind and “Hotties” for my hands and feet (thank you Sally). I haven’t been able to bike this winter but I have been working out so my only fears are the wind and the temperature. I am determined to do something and get out to somewhere.  Between juggling family, sports, work, kid’s schoolwork and my own homework I feel a stirring in me to do something crazy. Right now, the craziest thing I can think of, that I have time for, is a bike ride in this arctic winter we have been experiencing.

 

With the busyness of life pounding down on us some people may think that I just need to rest or take a nap. But I have found rest comes in many different forms. Some days relaxing means reading a book or taking a nap. Other days rest is defined by taking the kids for a hike around the lake or going for a long bike ride. I have learned that rest is really whatever brings you peace and whatever refreshes you. Rest could be a mission trip that brings a smile to a child’s face or helping a friend through a tough time. Relaxing could be playing board games with friend and/or family or sitting on a beach watching the sun set. Refreshment could come from a cool swim on a hot day or from volunteering to clean up neighborhoods in the inner-city. In the craziness of life I think we may all be surprised of what will bring us relief from the chaos. It’s often not what we don’t do but what we do.

 

“In His grace, God has given us different gifts for doing certain things well. So if God has given you the ability to prophesy, speak out with as much faith as God has given you. If your gift is serving others, serve them well. If you are a teacher, teach well. If your gift is to encourage others, be encouraging. If it is giving, give generously. If God has given you leadership ability, take the responsibility seriously. And if you have a gift for showing kindness to others, do it gladly.” (Romans 12:6-8)

Superstar

“There are different kinds of spiritual gifts, but the same Spirit is the source of them all.” (1 Corinthians 12:4)

 

Today my thoughts are heavy on my daughter. She had auditioned for a children’s musical a couple months ago and ever since then we have been shuttling her to her four practices every week. She has always filled our house with music but this fall it has been constant. I have been tired for weeks but by the end of last week she was tired too. Last night we received our relief from all her hard work, and my driving, as the cast took the stage for opening night. The entire musical is amazing, and you can see the wonderful talent of every child, but I will admit having trouble watching anyone but my little girl.

 

Have you discovered a gift or talent God has given you? Some days I feel I have and some days I am not so sure. As long as I can remember our daughter has been singing and dancing everywhere she went. In fact, on a trip with my parents my dad came back saying that she sang the whole time and he didn’t feel right telling her to stop because she was singing about God. So, seeing her on the stage, dancing and singing, was a joy to my heart because she shines up there. I can see her smile, her confidence, and her loving heart and I am so blessed that God made my daughter to be exactly who she is….although we can tell her stop singing if we want to.

 

God gives everyone special talents and desires of the heart. You could probably guarantee I won’t be in front of people anytime soon but I love to play with my calculator and look through financial reports. You wouldn’t find my husband operating on someone’s heart but he could change your breaks or oil on your car if you needed him to.  You are talented. There is something you do that makes God smile and fill up with pride and joy like I did last night watching the musical. God has created you and loves you just the way you are with the gifts you have. If you let Him, he will give you the opportunity to bask in those gifts and use them to bring glory to Him and build up the Kingdom.

 

“Now all glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think.” (Ephesians 3:20)

Relief

“Praise the Lord, who is my rock. He trains my hands for war and gives my fingers skill for battle. He is my loving ally and my fortress, my tower of safety, my rescuer. He is my shield, and I take refuge in him.” (Psalm 144:1-2a)

 

In an effort to prove my husband wrong I have tried my best to get on the exercise bike as often as possible. See, he doesn’t think I will so I will prove him wrong. I like challenges. I fell in love with bicycling during a gruesome February ride and I suddenly couldn’t get enough. I rode whenever I had a chance and I went on my first RAGBRAI ride (one day) that summer. That was 2.5 years ago. The last two summers have not seen me on the bike nearly as much as I wanted to. So, as I have tried to get on the stationary bike the last couple of weeks I have found that my addiction is slowly growing again. I have tried to get on the bike everyday, even if it is for just 15 minutes. It’s not the same as riding on a trail or into the wind but it’s still great.

 

As I have been riding, without having to pay attention to where I am going, I can read, listen to music or podcasts, or just think. I realize I listen to my heartbeat a lot. I can feel the muscles in my body working and the moisture dripping down my back to prove the effort I am putting forth. Surprisingly, I feel close to God in those moments when I am focused on what is going on inside of my body.  It’s like a vale is lifted away from me and I can see clearly. It’s a relief that I can only compare with a refreshing drink of water after being very thirsty or being able to lay down in bed after a long hard day. It’s not so grand I am overwhelmed but I definitely feel blessed and relieved by the experience.

 

I actually don’t know what the lessons are that we can pull from my thoughts this morning. I know when I am exercising I experience a sense of relief and peace but I realize that not everyone is going to experience the same things I do. However, I do know that God has an abundance of grace and peace and we should make efforts to seek them out. I get a release from my workouts, where do you get your release? Everything you do can be an act of worship and God will meet you everywhere you are. He will meet you in a sewing circle or the golf course. He will meet you on your commute to work or in physical therapy. He wants to be with you in everything and I pray that sometime today, or this week, you find the relief you are looking for.

 

“Keep on seeking, and you will find. Keep on knocking, and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives. Everyone who seeks, finds. And to everyone who knocks, the door will be opened.” (Matthew 7:7:8)

 

 

Jobs I Wouldn’t Want

“All the women who were willing used their skills to spin the goat hair into yarn.” (Exodus 35:26)

 

A few months ago my friends and I decided to spoil ourselves with a beauty day. We headed out to the Iowa School of Beauty and got pedicures and facials. I asked the girl working on my feet if she was planning on specializing in nails. You should have seen the look on her face. She is definitely not working on hands and feet for a living and I laughed with her at her reaction. I know I couldn’t work on people’s feet. However, I did tell her that she should gleam one moment of triumph that day because she was bringing joy to me through the service she was offering.

 

I have gotten to know my new dentist quite well this month as I have been there almost every week, sometimes more than once a week for the past for or five weeks. I have an extreme fear of the dentist but he is wonderful. After my first visit I assaulted my kids with a verbal rampage of how I didn’t know why anyone would want to stick their fingers, and spend all day looking, into someone’s mouth! I even asked him what drives a person to want to go into dentistry. He told me it wasn’t something he necessarily thought about growing up but it was obviously somewhere deep within for him to where he is now. And although no one brings me greater fear, anxiety, stress, lack of sleep, or the experience of hearing noises that give me nightmares than the dentist I must say I think he, and his entire staff, are awesome. Dental professionals are another set of people who do an extreme service, as gross as I think it is, and help heal people.

 

There are a huge number of jobs that I would and/or could never do and as I think about it they are jobs that almost always place someone in the servant/healer/teacher roles like serving in restaurants, teaching kids, medical professionals, or cashiers, just to name a very few. I could never do any of these jobs because it’s not who I am but I thank God everyday for the people who, for a living, make other lives better. I believe it is in people like these who we can see Jesus in everyday. These are the professionals that make a difference and can change the world.

 

“Just as our bodies have many parts and each part has a special function, so it is with Christ’s body. We are many parts of one body, and we all belong to each other.” (Romans 12:4-5)

 

 

An Intimate Conversation

“You parents—if your children ask for a loaf of bread do you give them a stone instead? Or if they ask for a fish, do you give them a snake?” (Matthew 7:9-10)

 

Here is the phone text conversation:

 

“Oreos”

 

“LOL. Reg or DBL?”

 

“U Pick”

 

I had been having a craving for Oreos. I had an Oreo blizzard thing from McDonalds a few days ago but that just wasn’t cutting it. I felt like it had been years since I had good few moments of dunking and I couldn’t resist any longer. So, while my husband was about to get off of work the other night I sent him the above text. Imagine my delight when he brought the Oreo cookie package to me that night along with a glass of milk. Not only had he brought me what I wanted but went above and beyond to give me more! What an awesome example of what God does for us all the time: give us more than we asked for.

 

Talking with God should be as easy as talking to your best friend or your lover. Simple conversations are what God wants with you. There needs to be nothing fancy. There needs to be respect, love, and yes, even some fear but no big haughty language or things like that.  God knows you so well that you really don’t need to tell Him anything because He already knows but He still wants to have a relationship with you so He is always ready to hear.

 

Talk with God. Go to your Lord with your joys, sorrows, celebrations, and disappointments. Ask to help you. Thank God for saving you and blessing you with the people in your life, the material blessings you have, and the struggles you have gone through. Ask God to be with you today; to walk with you through this world. Ask God to be with your family and friends and they go through their days at work, school, looking for jobs, and dealing with finances and health issues. Simply go to God and watch Him give you so much more than you could have possibly asked for. Go to God in love and faith and watch your relationship with Him grow.

 

“Keep on asking and you will receive what you ask for. Keep on seeking and you will find. Keep on knocking, and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives. Everyone who seeks, finds. And to everyone who knocks the door will be opened” (Matthew 7:7-8)

What Do We Know?

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understaning.” (Proverbs 3:5)

 

There are going to be times in our lives when we feel anger. There are going to be times in our lives when we even feel that the anger we are feeling is righteous anger. There are going to be times in our lives when we feel so adamantly about something and, at the same time, we struggle because it will not go that way. Shut your mouth, open your heart, and then maybe God will move. Otherwise we may just need to practice that patience the Bible keeps telling us we have and wait for God’s wisdom to shine through.

 

There are going to be times in our lives when we don’t know which way is up and which way is down. We will experience such great pain that it is unimaginable. We will have to walk through obstacles that seem impossible. We are going to have faith that God is in control when we head out blinded by our grief. Our faith in God—our trust—is what we are going to need to see God’s plan in our lives.

 

There are going to be times when we experience such joy and love that we think we are going to explode. The blessings of those moments can seem incomprehendable to us. How can anyone feel that much love? How can so much joy be in one moment or within one experience? At these times we have to look up to Heaven and thank God for creating and sharing these incredible things with His children.

 

Do you see it? Do you understand? God is there through it all and there are going to be so many things that we do no understand, good and bad. Our goal should be that through it all we understand that there will be times we just don’t understand. We have to trust that God knows what He is doing and that, through His willing children, those plans will come to pass. We will raise up onto mountain tops and we will have to sludge through the valleys, but He is right there with us. When Jesus died on the cross He died for every sin, every hardship, every experience, and every day of the lives of His people….past, present, and future. He understands everything, which is why it is okay if we don’t.

 

“Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” (Matthew 28:20)

 

 

The Stars in the Sky

“When I look at the night sky and see the work of your fingers—the moon and the stars that you have set in place—what are mere mortals that you should think about them, human beings that you should care for them?” (Psalm 8:3-4)

 

For some reason, while I was driving yesterday, I had a vivid memory come to mind. I had remembered my love for stars. I remember looking up at the night sky and feeling like I could just reach out and touch all of them. If I could just get high enough on my tip toes then I would be able to hold them in my hand. I soon realized that the stars were out of my reach, which seemed to be a common theme with any dream I had ever had.

 

I spent a lot of time settling. I settled for mediocre grades, I settled for guys who treated me poorly, I settled for working only as much as necessary but never more….I settled a lot. For some reason I was stuck in a place where I didn’t think I could reach my dreams and so I stuck with what was safe and what was right in front of me. Like the stars, my own potential simply felt out of reach.

 

I went a long time not believing I was good for anything and then God had shown me how special I truly was. But I have learned that I can be devoted to God, be the best wife and mother I can, go to work everyday, attempt to keep my house in order, and do so many other things right and I will still feel like I am grabbing for stars that are not there. However, I have also learned that these trials and hardships only make me stronger and bring me closer to Jesus.

 

I have learned that God has beautiful plans for my life. I have learned that He will equip me with all the tools I need to walk His path. I have learned that I do not need to settle for anything. I have learned that even though I look up at the night sky and I am overwhelmed with its beauty, God loves me more than that.  God loves us more than the universe that He created. God had put everything into motion yet still has taken the time to craft me and prepare a plan for me!

 

No matter the hill or the valley that I walk I can keep my eyes facing forward and my arms stretched out. I will keep reaching and working toward my goals with no fear of failing because my goals are not about me, they are about God and living to bring Him glory. When I finally come to that point in my life when I have reached God I will be assured that I have done so much better than simply holding a star in my hand.

 

 

“For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.” (Jeremiah 29:11)

 

Seeing is Believing?

“For we live by believing and not by seeing.” (2 Corinthians 5:7)

 

Have you ever driven with one eye? For me, it wasn’t terribly hard to see but doing everything with eye yesterday was tiring and I walked around with a headache most of the day. I went in to work long enough to get payroll done and then I headed back home, took some pain medication, and laid around for the rest of the day.  The only the thing that felt alright was to sit with my eyes closed listening to movies or, luckily I happened to have one, an audio book. But, you know, once your eyes are shut for so long you simply fall asleep and I did a lot of that too. Without the use of one eye my whole world seemed to pause around me and I was pretty worthless.  So, how is it that one eye caused such a standstill in my life but all of my passions, my heart, and my drive are to follow and be a servant to Jesus, whom I have never seen?

 

You would think I would have tired of this God-thing long ago with how much I try to saturate myself. I never tire of reading God’s Word, even if I don’t make the time some days. I anxiously learn and listen to hear what God is trying to teach me, show me, or grow in me through Bible studies, podcasts, and serving Him through the church. I love Jesus with a burning love that sometimes is a small flame but never, ever, stops being hot.

 

I love Jesus. I love Him so much and I feel like He is someone I had met long ago that I can’t stop missing or longing for. I patiently wait for the day when He will come and take me Home. Until that day I want to humbly serve Him.  I want to go where He calls me and do what He needs of me.  Without one eye yesterday my kids were lucky they didn’t have to make their own dinner! It is pure faith that allows me to believe without seeing and to keep going without having touched Him. We do not need all of our physical senses to live but we do need the love of Christ to make everyday worth living.

 

“Since we believe that Christ died for all, we also believe that we have all died to our old life. He died for everyone so that those who receive his new life will no longer live for themselves.  Instead, they will live for Christ, who died and was raised for them.” (2 Corinthians 5:14b-15)