3 favorites

Things I'm favoring lately....

Prayers with my sweet little men. I love when they want to pray and lately it seems so much more. Landon is a thanker - He loves thanking God for EVERYTHING. :) Including the special people in his life. His prayers always humble me. He never asks & I know he'll learn that it's ok to ask, but he's just always content to say thank you to His God. Precious. Christopher has a more soft heart, he always wants to pray for those who are hurting or suffering, or for protection from those bad dreams... And then, He thanks God. :) I love that they're learning and growing in this area.

Worship - I'm not referring to music really - It is a part of it, but I think I just mean that I am very much enjoying making worship more of my lifestyle instead of just part of my day. Thanking God as much as I can, lifting my hands in the middle of my living room as I play some awesome praise music, praying without cease - Just anything I can give back to Him - I really have been growing in this and I'm so overfilled. Content to live in a Worship state or try my absolute hardest to at least!

Watching God take situations and work them out. Because there are an awful lot of those right now.... I just look around and although my heart breaks - I know He's got them. I can see that & it's kind of nice to just pray & know that's all I have to do. All I have to do is have trust and faith. Why don't we learn that it's more restful to trust and have faith than to question, doubt and worry? I'm finally getting there.

joy

Intimacy & Humility - Two of my favorite things....  What wouldn't be "good enough" for some is somehow always more than enough for me. I cherish closeness, unity, modesty and meekness in a way that warms & softens my heart to the most mushy of all mushness... Mushness? I don't think that's quite a word. I like it anyways though. 

I'm in love with God, but I couldn't love Him if He didn't love me first. And boy, does He love me so very much. I'm so overwhelmed with what He's doing and I'm to the point where I just kind of want to stay on my knees, hands up in sweet surrender singing His sweet name. I love watching God work inside of the ministry that He's called me to....  God is doing great things in our midst - changing the hearts of our teens and growing them. I know that it won't be easy & I know that satan will try to discourage, but I can just tell that we're becoming stronger in Him and more unified as a whole.

I have a very happy heart tonight.

One of those days.

Do you ever get the kind of stress where you're not really feeling stressed, but your body is feeling like it's stressed. I don't think I'm stressed - in my mind, but my chest is tight and I'm feeling like I could just I don't know.... :) So I'm off to try and sip on a nice hot tea and see if that helps. 

Landon broke my phone today - my screen is cracked into pieces, but luckily still usable until I can get to the phone store tomorrow.
Satan is trying to discourage me - and I'm having to say no, on repeat a lot. Not today. Not tomorrow either. Or the next. 

Yeah, it's one of those days.

I choose to smile. And thank God for what is and what's coming. And to have tea. 
Off.

Commitment {in a non-committed world.}

A challenge to myself.

A week ago today I was engaged in a conversation that consisted of other adults who were older than I am. The majority of the conversation consisted of what Christianity in the world looks like today, where Christianity and the Church will be in the future and we as a people who are the Church.

I believe I'm very lucky to be in a body where the people are actually committed to each other - We 

 truly are just like a family for the most part. I'm thankful that God has blessed me and my family in this way. When it comes down to the core of our Church I'm never concerned that I'll be without true genuine relationship, accountability and etc.

 However, when the conversation above took place we all agreed that commitment to people in general is not what it should be. Not from within ourselves because we are really great with each other. If you look at Christians today though - there is still so much of this {worldly} "I care about my self first," and then I'll care about you attitude. It's kind of been weighing on my heart a lot. We're just not doing what we should - we're simply not committed to people who need the Lord {or each other for that matter} as we should be. Oh sure, we invite them to Church once in a while, maybe send them a note via internet or text, maybe we even call them or invite them to dinner.... And then we're satisfied, as if we've actually done our job and can now check this off some kind of "I'm pleasing to God list!" It was hard for me because I know I'm a part of this - I know that in this area I fall short more often than I should. How do I fix it? 

Then of course God does His thing and pushes this in my face even more. I don't believe in coincidence and I definitely believe that God is trying to teach me through it. Maybe He's trying to help me see how important it is to be committed to Him and His work. I feel as though I'm pretty committed, but it's one of those things - I'm so humanly flawed. 
I've had a lot of issues lately with poor leadership, with trying to stay committed to people who don't seem to want that commitment anymore, and with watching others who are supposed to be committed and just aren't. I can't do much about the first one, except for choose not to be this - to rise above and be the best leader that I can be. The second one is rather exhausting. Especially lately, because I just don't get it. I hate when people just make assumptions and then you let them know their assumption is wrong and then it still remains the same? I'm just so confused. And there's no open honesty either. So you try and try and try and try - and for what? How does someone stay committed to a person who just doesn't seem to care anymore. Ugh. Very frustrating. And the last one - I'm still working through this. I want to be better and I want to help others be better too. Isn't that what God wants? For us to help each other be better? Doesn't God want us to be truly committed? Doesn't He want us to rise above the world's standards? Doesn't He want us to be on guard against our own sinful flesh? 

I know I can't change other people. So, I have to challenge myself, in hope & prayer, that I can be a better example to the ones I'm leading, to the ones who come after me. I pray the Lord shows my heart what I can work on - where I need change. I pray that I continue to try with the ones I struggle with and I also pray that I allow myself to be completely committed to the things God has for me. 

1 John 3:17-18
But whoever has the world’s goods, and sees his brother in need and closes his heart against him, how does the love of God abide in him? Little children, let us not love with word or with tongue, but in deed and truth.

Philippians 2:3-7
Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves; do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others. Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men.

 

A little of nothing.

Today was just one of those days..... 

Do you ever feel like you just need to step away? I wish there were a way to get on the outside of everything- perhaps just try and get a different view on certain things. 

I feel really over burdened lately and it just keeps weighing on me. I wish that we could change each other - for the better. I wish that when someone was doing something that wasn't good or helpful that we could just reach into their hearts and re-tweak something. That's unfortunately not how it works though.

I'm not sure what God wants or what He's trying to teach me, but I don't think I'm getting it. Or maybe I am and I'm just not sure what I'm supposed to do with it exactly. I've definitely gotten a little better at His timing, but I'm still not quite there yet. This is starting to get really frustrating. 

Jibber Jabber.