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Building Those Muscles | Spiritual Lessons Learned While Working Out
A couple months ago I looked at a picture of myself and had enough. Over the course of a year after stopping breastfeeding, I had gained weight. I winced at pictures of myself, it wasn’t full vanity, it was also unhealthy…and I felt it. With vacations approaching, I determined enough is enough and dusted off the spin bike that sat in my master bedroom (I moved it there months ago to “encourage” me to work out and it just became another clothing rack #keepingitreal). Over the course of the past two months, I have lost almost 10% of my body weight. But that isn’t the purpose of this post. There…
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30 Days of Reflection | All Points to Jesus
I challenged myself during the month of April to immerse myself in the story of Jesus. I created a reading plan and everything. I wanted to still my mind and prepare my heart for Easter. On April 1st, I began at the beginning and I had no idea all that the Lord would teach me during the 30 day period. As the month progressed, I found myself excited to read the next day’s passage. The Lord began opening my mind and digging out my ears (if you read my reflections on Day 5, you’ll know what I mean). Today, I finished. And you know what made the most impact on…
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5 Ways to Prepare Your Heart for Easter {with Reading Calendar}
If you are anything like me, it’s easy to get caught up in the rush of obligations around holidays. I’m already trying to formulate our plan for Easter morning as we head to church and then juggle time with our families. But this year, I want it to be different. I want to focus on the meaning and not just the must-dos. I don’t want to just attend the Good Friday and Easter services at church and then get on with my agenda and schedule. I want to absorb it all. The purpose of it. The pain of it. The relief of it. The meaning of it. I want to press…
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Where Are Your Feet Taking You?
I get discouraged when I don’t feel like I’m being transformed, even though I’m trying to diligently study God’s word and desire fellowship with him. When I don’t feel different in the sense of experiencing this grand overarching mad-love for Jesus or when I don’t seem to feel him near, I slowly slide into the what-am-I-doing-wrong and why-do-I-feel-this-way mindset. After some time feeling this way, I picked up my pen and wrote in my journal to process my thoughts: I’ve been counting my experiences with God as successful and worth it when I get the supernatural feeling of closeness with him. I’ve been relying on a feeling to dictate whether…
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Slime Slinging and a Woman Named Damaris
My son recently discovered the joy of building blocks. He painstakingly gathers both pieces in his chubby baby-not-quite-toddler hands and angles them together to connect. Sometimes the ends don’t fit and he grumbles in frustration, but when they do, he looks up with his big blue eyes to see if anyone noticed. He’ll hold up his stack of blocks and smile, full of self pride. We cheer like any good parents…but then our hoorays turn into muffled giggles when the blocks inevitably fall apart and he wrings his hands in the most dramatic fashion to express his supreme dissatisfaction. Through the multi-colored building blocks, my sixteen-month-old has already learned a…
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This Is Advent | The Stretched Out Threads of Grace
The tree is in the corner of our living room. Its lights are bright and the ornaments are high so a certain little boy doesn’t mess with them. I splurged on embroidered stockings last year and they hang off the blanket ladder to the right of the tree. All gifts have been ordered and wrapped and are piled under and around the broad artificial branches. During this time of Advent, a spirit of uneasiness has lingered and I just can’t quite shake it. One morning I sat by the tree with the twinkling lights and asked myself the hard questions. I saw all the gifts and the unease rose to…
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Against His Chest | Experiencing the Presence of God in Motherhood
He hasn’t been an easy baby, we say. As his personality continues to develop, his stubborn streak appears. We think he’s going to be a strong-willed child. It’s a good thing God made him so cute, we say. Even in the overwhelming cuteness, our sanity dangles at times. The challenging newborn phase isn’t so far removed that we’ve began talking about expanding our family further. Not yet, but one day, we say. Of course we say all these things totally in love and absolutely captivated by the little boy who does indeed have bits and pieces of both of us wrapped up in his two-foot frame. And yet our humanness,…
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Rocking Chair Hymns
It’s 2:14am. I sit in the nursery rocking. Back and forth. Back and forth. The chair squeaks in cadence to the rhythmic movement. A half asleep son is in my arms. He slept so well during months two and three, but I’m finding myself having these middle of the night rocking sessions once again in month four. Thump. Thump. Thump. My hand pats his bottom as I rock. Back and forth. Back and forth. The room is dark, except for the illumination of a lone nightlight in the hall radiating shadows throughout the room. I peak down – his eyes blink heavy. Back and forth, I go. Back and forth.…
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“She Has Chosen What is Better”
Love is the most powerful motivator in the world. It spurs mortals to greatness. Their noblest and bravest acts are done for love. – Rick Riordan A couple of weeks ago I was driving on the way to church and happened to look in my rear view mirror. Suddenly, I had an overwhelming sense of deja vu, my mind replaying a hurtful situation. It wasn’t a coincidence. It was the Enemy. Playing games with my mind. He took that split second of opportunity to stir up a pot of raw emotions. As I focused once again on the road in front of me I felt the Lord vie for my attention. A…
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Week One
According to the calendar it has been a week since “The Farewell.” A week that has sometimes seemed to have passed quickly, and then other times seemed to have dragged into an eternity. It depends on the day, it depends on the moment, it depends on the mood. On good days, I have the proper perspective. I know that this is just a season (well more like 4 seasons) and that while at times it may seem like the hands on the clock are frozen in time, they aren’t, and this season isn’t going to last forever. It is temporary. On not so good days, or moments, I can’t stand…
