Beauty from Ashes - A Continual Process

Waves.  The ocean.  Ever been out just enjoying the swell and role of the water out beyond where the waves crash in?  Then all at once you find yourself rolled up in one of those waves, your spinning, salt water is going up your nose, your cheek scrapes on the sand below,  your swim suit gets all twirled around as you are tossed up onto the beach!  You spend a minute quickly collecting yourself, fixing your suit, wiping your eyes, and trying not to stumble as you toss your hair.  You catch your breath and try to act like nothing happened.  As you walk towards the beach, the slowed wave sweeps on ahead of you onto the beautiful white sand and begins to trickle back out to sea.  The foam flowing backwards is now quiet.  It tickles your toes.  In a moment you've gone from a fast, furious tumble to the peace of the ocean salt air breeze and sounds of surf.   What just happened?  For a while you felt peace out beyond where your f...

This morning I was welcomed into the day with one of my favorite Psalms.   Psalm 16 says, "1  Keep me safe, O God.  For in You I take refuge..."   5-6 "Lord, you have assigned me my portion and my cup; You have made my lot secure.  The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places, surely I have a delightful inheritance..."  7 "I will praise the Lord, Who counsels me;  even at night my heart instructs me.  Because He is at my right hand, I will not be shaken." I just want to praise Jesus today!  I want to thank Him for all that He is!  I want to thank Him for all that He created!  I want to thank Him for my family!  I want to thank Him for the trials and the lessons of love.  God's story in my life follows the pattern set in Psalm 40. I think that's true for a lot of us.  That's why David is so relatable!  David talks about the healing God had brought him, and how he was willing to share it with everyon...

I fell in love with the Hillsong song Oceans a year ago.  I knew it would be a year of great change, and I knew every time I sang along I had to mean what I said as I sang “your grace abounds in deepest waters, your sovereign hand will be my guide…so I will call upon your name…my soul will rest in your embrace for I am yours and you are mine…Spirit lead me where my trust is without borders…take me deeper than my feet could ever wander, and my faith would be made stronger in the presence of my Savior.”   I sang it with great anticipation, a desire to grow in faith, and I knew that it would cost me something.  The things that I thought would be big were met with abundant grace.   Seeing our firstborn off to college, letting her go to Honduras a third and fourth time, and going to Honduras to embrace her calling, all met with a supernatural peace.   It was not easy, but there was peace.   Watching our son tear his ACL, and walking alongside h...

Last night in Girl’s Group, a group of high school girls who meet in our home , our lesson 2 helped us process 6 ways that we minimize sin or struggles i n our lives.    We are studying  The Gospel-Centered Life  by Robert H. Thune and Will Walker.  I love this book !  I am learning great things as I prepare for our group time.  But I was not looking for ways that I "pretend."  I was immediately interested and open, but looking?  No.  I often pray for a teachable heart for my family, myself especially!  So I was primed for a "teachable" moment!  I want to insert right here that I am just a Christian, rising and falling and testifying to the miraculous grace in my life.   If I encourage just one person that there is hope in Christ, then glory to God, because it sure isn’t about   having it all together.   It’s about God having it all together and sharing Jesus with us.   Proverbs 24: 16 says, “ for thoug...

I remember the white bunk bed, I got top bunk because I was the oldest.  My little sis would ask me to hang down my arm and hold her hand until she went to sleep.  We had a code knock with our brother who was in the next room.  3 knocks for "I love you,"  and one final knock for "goodnight."  That's a picture I'll always hold onto.  I loved that time of the day.  Sometimes we would all get the giggles and not be able to stop.  It's still fun to get the giggles.  It's so rare as adults, but so fun when you collapse on the floor, tears streaming down, laughing so hard you can't breathe!  For a moment we let ourselves be little kids again. Well, that little girl in me would crawl up into that cozy spot and say my prayers.  I would confess my sins to God.  Then I would lie there in bed,  restless, until finally I had to get up and go confess my sins to my parents.  They didn't tell me to do this, I just didn't believe G...

This is just going to be a short ramble about safety.  I don't claim to have the answers, but I do claim to ramble!  But, if you've struggle with fear for a good portion of your life like me, than the topic of  safety is important to you!  Is that a person with whom I can safely share my struggle?  Is that a group with whom I can safely hang out and be real?  Is is safe for me to share what's on my mind?  Or on a different note, is that a place where I'll be physically safe living?  Is it safe anywhere?? The only safe place to be is in the center of God's will .  That is why it is super comforting to pray this verse, as Paul prayed it for the church in Colossae: "we have not stopped praying for you.  We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will  through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives,"  Colossians 1:9a It is far more dangerous to stay tucked away behind locked doors, than to l...