Category Archives: Faith

Solid ground

Posted on August 27, 2013 | Leave a comment

It’s about to be fall… at least here in the States. Friday Night Football. Saturday Soccer (and rugby in this house). Weekday school and weeknight homework. People back in the office after vacations (try as we may, no matter how old we are, there is a tendency to follow a school calendar when it comes to levels of busy-ness).

Our summer was dissected by our move – everything until July 1 (Happy Birthday to me!) was getting ready to leave our home of ten years in someone else’s hands and everything after that was turning this new house into our home. There wasn’t much time for “down” time but we still found it in the midst of all the ever-loving boxes (anyone want to come and finish unpacking for me – the wall is still hit).

I welcome the start of the season because it brings cooler temperatures and an abundance of new things (plus apples, pumpkins and an excuse for Saturday morning donuts – nothing goes better with fresh apple cider). The biggest deal is, of course, back to school – a new teacher, new classmates and (for this year) a new school. It’s exciting. It’s slightly anxiety-inducing. And it is busy. Oh so busy. But I say that about every season. Start of the new year? Busy. Spring with spring break and end of school. Busy. Summer vacation: still working, but fitting in vacations, out-of-town visitors and a multitude of fun plans. Busy. Fall (see above: busy). The holiday season* from Thanksgiving through New Year’s Eve? BUSY. In summary: Life is busy. It is ever-changing but always busy. Busy is always around, it just changes outfits.

My point – because I do have one: something (or someone?) is always always around. If you need some solid ground upon which to gather your wits or a respite in any size storm (even a drizzle) – look to God, cast your cares on Him. God is God; He is a rock – your rock and my rock. He is never too busy. He never changes. Forever and ever. He’ll get us through.

—

*Note: Costco had their Christmas stuff out last week. In mid-AUGUST. That seems a wee bit premature.

Anxiety and peace

Posted on July 22, 2013 | 1 comment

I forget to pray. More accurately, I forget to pray in every situation. I can easily pray for help and healing when I’m having a difficult time or when someone gets sick and I can give praise for new life or gifts received. The highs and lows in life easily lend themselves to prayer (for me). But life is made up of a lot of the in-between times – the every day life (which we will never call boring) or other days when I’m feeling kind of out of sorts, or sad but unable to voice my feelings, or having general anxiety about things in life… on those days, I forget to pray, or maybe I just don’t pray because I feel like I can’t adequately convey whatever it is that is weighing on me. But I don’t need the words; God does know my heart and He gets what’s going on in there and in my head. Words are not necessary but His peace is and as it washes over me, filling in the cracks and gaps… my spirit will find rest, my heart will find comfort and my mind will find quiet. God doesn’t want us to come to Him just for the big things, but all the little things (and the medium things) – He cares about all of it and offers us His peace through all of it.

Thank you, God, for this life you’ve given me and for the blessings you’ve bestowed. Give me your peace. Know my heart and mind, relieve them of their burdens. Amen.

1 Comment

Posted in Faith

Appropriate thanksgiving…

Posted on May 30, 2013 | 2 comments

We’re on a good streak right now and I’ve often heard that when things are going well, we often forget to give God the thanks and attention He deserves. We’re real good at complaining, asking for help or lifting up our anxiety and concerns to Him, etc… so I want to take a moment to give God His due in all this. Certainly His hand has been in all these things going on (which, I realize begs the bigger question of where His hand is in things when they are not going so great; the great problem with pain and evil. I’m not about to get in a theological debate here, but I will say, He’s there in those things, too.) and I am so thankful and full of rejoicing in knowing He has guided our path all along the way.

In the span of the last few days my dad has gone into the hospital with chest pains and returned home after having a stent put in, feeling way better than he did before he went in, we closed on our new house (quite possibly our forever home) and found out that all is good with the sale of our current home (the appraisal came back at value and with no additional repairs). Thank you, God. I feel overwhelmingly blessed and lucky. My dad reminded me that God helps those that helps themselves – not sure I wholeheartedly adhere to that thought since I believe He also helps those who cannot help themselves – but I do agree that we have to do our part in things (God wasn’t going to sell our house without our cleaning and packing – not that He couldn’t, just that He maybe wouldn’t; and if my dad hadn’t listened to his body and taken himself to the ER, things could have taken a very bad turn), but that without Him, it all would not have gone as smoothly and as low-stress as it has gone (despite my useless worrying). God’s timing is perfect, but it is not always ours (if it was, for sure Simon would be working first shift by now) but He sees the bigger picture and brings it all together so much better than we ever could have imagined. There are often lessons to be learned along the way and sometimes those lessons rather suck, but without lessons, we would never learn. So I’m thankful it’s not my problem to figure it all out, but it is my job to listen to His voice as best I can, give credit where credit’s due and enjoy the blessings He’s bestowed.

Our family is currently in the midst of a season of change and I know it will bring some growing pains, but it’s the trials in life that make us stronger and condition us to do the hard work that can lie ahead. We are also entering a season of thanksgiving and are able to give thanks and recognize that we are so very blessed. Hopefully we are doing that without it seeming like bragging because that is the furthest thing from how I feel… all this goodness was not of my own doing and I didn’t receive it because I did anything right but because I have a good Father who gives good gifts. And it’s a beautiful thing.

2 Comments

Posted in Faith, Gratitude, House, Life in general

Stop the cycle

Posted on May 20, 2013 | 3 comments

A friend and I were chatting (and by chatting, I mean texting) about life and I mentioned I felt guilty about Liam not being on a sports team, despite the fact that he hasn’t expressed interest in joining a team and it’s not something I want to add to our calendar of life at this point in time. She said that she had admired how I just let my kids be and don’t go chasing after other family’s activities. She (wisely) told me to shoo away that mommy guilt and “realize that while you’re beating yourself up over something, someone else is watching your family and doing the same thing.” That’s “mommy” guilt for you – we all have it – we all fall victim to it and really it’s just a vicious, ugly circle. It’s just another form of comparison that we put on ourselves; feeling bad because we do things in a different way from another family.

And didn’t I already post something about comparison on not letting it steal our joy? Why yes, I did. And yet again, I needed a reminder to be happy with myself, who we are as a family and trust that we are making the right decisions for US, for where we are in life, despite what others do.

Life is just a constant stream of lessons to be learned… thank goodness for friends who speak (or type) truth to us when we need to hear it. May we always hear the voices telling us not to be stupid.

3 Comments

Posted in Faith, Friendship, Life in general, Parenting

Multiple reminders

Posted on May 7, 2013 | 2 comments

I’m in need of multiple reminders this week that despite my worries, God is in control of everything. I have done my part and now I need to have patience and wait for what is to come. Waiting is so hard. Trusting is so hard. Having patience is so hard. Not worrying is so very hard.

But I have no choice but to wait, trust and have patience. And I can choose not to worry. It’s all good. It’s better than good.

Jeremiah_29-11

I choose to count my blessings (could you remind me of that). I choose to have faith and confidence and know that even the worst case scenario of not selling our house is still not the worst thing that could happen to us. The worst case scenario is easily something we can deal with, just not something we’d like to deal with. Yes – I hear you – it’s only been a week that our house has been on the market, but foolish me had hoped for more interest and a quick sale but I have no control over those things so what good does all the worry do me? No good at all. Second verse, same as the first.

2 Comments

Posted in Faith, Life in general