Freedom

When you look at a huge oak tree with it's leaves waving in the wind, what do you think of?

If you're like me you probably are not thinking about what it takes for that oak to have branches strong enough to support the bending and swaying that it must withstand on a daily basis.  And some days bring not only wind but rain and storms as well. 

“For he will be like a tree planted by the water, that extends its roots by the stream and will not fear when the heat comes, but its leaves will be green, and it will not be anxious in a year of drought nor cease to yield fruit.”

— Jeremiah 17:8

It was a warm summer day in 2010 that I sat in my home office with windows overlooking beautiful Lee Creek from the bluff high above and questioned why I felt something missing in my life - a lack of fulfillment.  My husband and I had recently found out we were pregnant with our second girl and, from the world's perspective, had a perfect life - the American dream. 

Over the next few years God's overwhelming love would answer my question.  Through a journey of heartache, disappointment, and loss I would come to realize that my roots didn't extend down very deep.  They didn't extend down deep into the rich soil of Christ because as the years of my church-going childhood had come to pass I had wrapped my roots around the things the world had thrown at me - a nice house, security in the form of money, self-worth in the form of busyness, and a very shallow relationship with my Creator.  But while walking the dark road of losing a child, God, through his reckless love, was going to show me the things I needed to release my roots from so that I could extend them deeper into an eternal relationship with Him.

The survival of the oak tree depends on if it's roots extend down into good soil.  Our survival depends on if our roots extend down and embrace the ultimate sacrifice that Christ made for us on a tree at Golgotha.  The oak has the freedom to wave it's branches in the wind on a warm spring day and the power to bend instead of snap in a dark storm.  Christ died for us so that we could be free to experience the joy and peace that comes with the knowledge that we will be with Him throughout eternity.

Hot Cross Buns for breakfast this Good Friday morning to celebrate the sacrifice made for us.

“It is for freedom that Christ has set us free.”

— Galatians 5:1

My heart is for you to know the love of Christ and to experience the joy and freedom that comes from being rooted deeply in Him!  Come join me at Heritage Church in Van Buren, Arkansas on April 27-28 for the Rooted Women's Conference - I am so excited to share more of my heart with you about finding freedom in Christ!  You can get more information about the conference here.  See you there!

Silent

Do you ever have days when you feel like you can't hear God?  Maybe a few weeks?  A few months or years even?  Maybe your life is moving along with no major catastrophic detours but the connection you had been enjoying with your Creator has seemed non-existent.

I've said before that I have no words to write unless they come from Him.  So even though I know I am called to share with you I have to rely solely on my Creator for words to share.  That can get rough because the world has created it's own rules regarding blogging and social media stating how many times a week I should post, when I should post, and what I should post to be the most effective and successful.  

But sometimes my Creator is silent.  Which means that I am silent.  And in that there is a lot of freedom.  But also a lot of responsibility.

You all have stood with me in the #wordbeforeworld challenge that I wrote about here.  As we accelerate through each month I find my covenant to be in the #wordbeforeworld becoming increasingly crowded out by the world's frantic pace.  I find myself mindlessly scanning Instagram more and more to combat exhaustion instead of spending time in prayer.  I find myself tuning in to Savannah and Hoda on the Today show before I've been in the Word.  Before long I begin thinking there is no way I can share about what God is speaking to me because I haven't heard from him in two weeks.

The world is very loud.

“Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.
Romans 12:2”

Is God not speaking or have I just been turning up the volume on the world's radio player and drowning out His voice?  How can we be expected to hear the voice of our Father if our mind is stuck in the noisy rut of the world we live in?  Romans 12:2 tells us that God desires to show us His will for our lives - if we can keep our thoughts on Him. 

The enemy would like nothing more than to give us a gentle nudge off into that dark rut filled with the mud and crud of busyness (defined by dictionary.com as lively but useless activity btw), noise, and distractions.  And this is where our faith must rush on the scene - we must have faith in God's word and believe that He means what He says... 

“The Lord himself goes before you and WILL BE WITH YOU; HE WILL NEVER LEAVE YOU or forsake you...
Deuteronomy 31:8”

Our God never goes away or stops desiring to speak to us and reveal His perfect will to us.  I will not be conforming to the world's standards for social media and blog posting here, but I will make sure that I am spending time EACH DAY listening to what God wants me to write. Friends, let's continue to move forward together and be disciplined in deciding to tune out the world's noises and jump out of our rut of busyness (or whatever it may be) to hear our Father's voice.

Just as we don't doubt that the trees will produce green leaves in the spring, so should we not doubt that our Creator will be ready and willing to reveal himself to us when we listen.

Community Table

Just sitting here this afternoon jotting down a few things I want to share with you guys Friday evening at Community Table!  I am so excited!

Have you been considering coming this Friday evening but didn't know exactly what Community Table was all about?  Well, wonder no more - here ya go!  This can also be found on their Facebook page:

Community Table is a vision for ladies from all churches to come together to share fellowship and a meal together. Our prayer is that church's will join together and take a turn hosting Community Table and by us joining together in unity we will be able to reach our community for Christ. God is calling us to stand together as one body of Christ in the soul purpose of reaching souls and encouraging each other in our race. We will meet every 10 weeks to share vision, fellowship and a meal. Please join us as we unify for purpose.

Wow!  I am excited to experience this - and how true is it that we, as women of Christ, need to be meeting and encouraging each other in our own races?!  Let's do it.

God placed a message and a passion on my heart a few years ago that was born out of pain but is now my greatest joy.  It is a message of hope for ALL women.

Come join us this Friday evening at 7pm at the Alma Community Center in Alma, Arkansas - I can't wait to share with you what God has done for me AND what He wants to do for you!

Just You and Me

I struggle daily with a thought process that becomes jumbled and confused as the activities of the day begin to unfold.  Even if I begin my day as I have planned in the #wordbeforeworld mode (read about the one New Year's resolution I can stand behind here), ideas and thoughts and plans and exhaustion seem to come between the conversation that should be constantly going on with my Creator.  As women who are seeking to be more like Christ, I believe (if you are anything like me) that the constant struggle in our thought process to regain control of our life-plan is hurting us more than what we are actually DOING! 

We DO great things.  We take our kids to school, clean the house, make sure the family is fed, take our worn-out clothes to the salvation army, go to church on Sunday, make sure the pets are fed, tithe 10%, cook dinner, and, man, have we mastered Random Acts of Kindness!

But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.  Matthew 6:33-34

Where does your mind wander while you are moving through your day? 

Yesterday I was running errands, and although the traffic was barely moving, my mind was racing.  I was planning my week like a boss.  How am I going to fit all of this in?  Eliana needs to be at two different places precisely at 6:30 tonight.  The bills need to be mailed.  I need to run in Walmart because Eliana despises having to use almond milk in her cereal.  She also needs some new basketball shorts before practice so she doesn't look like she's playing in the 80's when the style actually WAS to have the shortest shorts possible (btw - she doesn't WANT to wear short shorts, but she does have a mom that can't keep up with her growth spurts).  I need to get that blog post written.  I need to go ahead and take back a little control of all of the things to make sure everything works out like I want it to - because I don't trust You with it.

Those last words were painful but true.  When I allow all the planning and scheduling of all the good things to interrupt my conversation with my Father, I am telling Him that I don't trust Him to work it out.  And then...

"Just you and Me - Me and you.  You already have everything you need."

The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.  Psalm 23:1

Every.  Time.  There was no scolding - just love and "Let's try again".  It was The Voice that lights a fire of hope in my soul and melts away all daily concerns in an instant.  It restores my purpose.  It restores my peace.  It restores my joy. 

For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.  Jeremiah 29:11

This is where I re-establish The Relationship.

To put any uncertainty in your mind to rest regarding my "Random Acts of Kindness" comment earlier, we should strive to do as many kind and loving acts throughout our day as we possibly can!  But the truth remains that we can do every act of kindness that there is but if we don't constantly nurture our relationship with our Creator we will not be fulfilling the reason we were created - to be free to worship Him and keep our minds on eternity.  

You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.  Psalm 16:11

Second Chance

Often God wakes me up in the middle of the night with a word, an idea, or a thought.  So yesterday when He had me thinking about New Year's Resolutions and then woke me up early this morning with it again, I stumbled over my red and green Rubbermaid storage boxes (that are begging to be put back up in the attic) into the living room and opened up my computer to write a bit about it.  

My sweet friend, Shannon Holmes, wrote this post two years ago about struggling to keep resolutions on January 1st each year.  She gets me.  That's why we're friends.

All over my social media are posts and blogs and stories about things people are going to change on January 1st.  And it is inspiring!  What a great opportunity to reset our minds about our health, our spiritual life, our habits, and the list goes on.

I love the idea of being intentional about a discipline that will impact my life or my world in a positive way.  But there is something else that threatens to steal the excitement of change for the better... 

Pressure.

Remember that God never required us in His Word to make a positive change on January 1st and keep it for 365 days without fail.  Not that it wouldn't be a great accomplishment and something we should strive for!  Each morning without fail we begin to see a dark sky change ever so slightly.  Black is replaced by a dark blue haze and then a tiny glow can be seen across the eastern horizon.  As the light spreads our world is illuminated by the light of the Son, and we are reminded of our second chance.

The view from my back deck this morning around 7am!

And that happens every 24 hours.

New Year's Resolutions are great when our lives are gliding along smoothly, but when bumps are found in the road (and they are sure to come), the commitments we made on January 1st can get lost in tragedy or just simply a tired and worn-out spirit. 

And that's when I'm glad to have my second chance every morning instead of having to wait for another big New Year's milestone to come around.  God cares too much about us to make us wait that long! 

My mind is sometimes overcome with so much pressure about making a big change on January 1st and not stumbling for a whole year that I decide not to even try.  The good news is that if we fail we don't have to wait until January 1st to fix it.  God has given us a reminder of His steadfast Love each morning when His grace and mercies are new and available to us again.  

The steadfast Love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; They are new EVERY MORNING; Great is your faithfulness.

Lamentations 3:22-23

Legacy

Seven years ago four women that were only acquaintances of mine were so moved by the life of Glory Danielle Morton (allowed themselves to be moved by Jesus Christ) that they decided to get together and sell t-shirts to financially support our family through a crisis.

Then another woman used her skills as a graphic designer and designed a super-cute "Fight Like a Glory Girl" tshirt and together they raised roughly $8,000 - which is why the Glory Girl Foundation exists today!

This is Nora Glory Gwin.

Nora Glory was born this year on July 18th in Little Rock, AR to Chad and Amanda Gwin.  Her middle name carries on a Legacy of Love.  Amanda was Glory Danielle's nurse at Arkansas Children's Hospital during 2010 and 2011.  Amanda loved Glory as her own child - what a perfect picture of selflessness.  Now Amanda partners with the Glory Girl Foundation by leasing her apartment to the Foundation which is in turn offered free-of-charge to families with children at the hospital.

This legacy was started seven years ago all because a group of women (and so many others along the way) allowed themselves to be used by the Father.

What are we doing to continue lasting legacies of God's Love?

We are excited to offer the t-shirts with the original Fight Like a Glory Girl design with all of the proceeds going towards the monthly costs (rent, cleaning fees, cleaning supplies, food, etc.) of keeping the Glory House available to our families!  The tshirts are now available in the original "Glory Girl Pink", dark purple, jade green, and navy blue!  You can order online here on the website by clicking the "SHOP" button above (please note that one graphic is for the youth sizes and one is for the adult sizes).  You can also fill out our order form and either mail payment or return to Stirred Catering and Coffee in Van Buren (see details below).

Please help us continue this Legacy of Love and purchase one of the original Fight Like a Glory Girl tshirts!