We’ve Orbited the Sun Again

Where did 2018 go? I honestly feel like we were just at New Years and I was just reflecting on 2017, but here I sit thinking back and a lot has happened in 2018 (although not as much as 2017…thank goodness). My word for 2018 was GENTLE and I am not sure if I achieved what I had hoped but I am not going to dwell too long on what I cannot change now. My word for 2019 is DELIGHT.

I saw this on a friend’s Instagram feed (thanks for inspiring me Jessica) and it has stuck with me ever since. I am going to focus on DELIGHT. Being delightful, taking delight in others, sharing the delights of my life with all of you! More than any of this, I want to delight myself in the Lord and refocus my eyes onto Him!

“Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.” Psalms 37:4

Do you have focus word or resolutions? What are your thoughts entering a new year?

Oh Church Camp

Oh church camp…you leave my mind in a constant Tug-O- War match. Should I go to camp, or stay home? Will I be able to spend time with the teens, or will my daughter need all of my attention? Will God move, or will the Word fall on deaf ears? And the questions go on and on… But in our ministry (yes our ministry because although my husband is the youth pastor I choose to be in the ministry with him) I constantly remind myself that God will prepare me, God will give me wisdom (I do have to remember to ask for this) when I need it, God will speak, move, and show up, and God will get all of the glory!

At the beginning of my husband’s ministry we were young and fully committed to sharing our lives with teenagers. Our house was open 24/7 and my weeks off were spent with young people between the ages of 11 and 18. As our life changed and our daughter was born a lot of my ministry opportunities changed. Now my home is open, but noises have to be kept to a minimum after a certain time. My breaks are spent with teens, but a two year old is coming along for the ride as well. It has been a difficult balance to find, and by no means do I think I have it perfect, but this trip has been the best one since miss priss came along.

The girls rode in the car with us this year while the boys took over the bus. We laughed and cut up throughout our six hour journey. We watched movies and napped (well not me, but most of the others). I felt like I actually was able to continue to build relationships on the car ride instead of either A) focusing on the drive with a toddler screaming for mommy throughout the trip and wishing I had my husband to help or B) feeling like my husband was being kept away from the teens on the bus so he could drive his family to camp.

I haven’t made it to all of the small group sessions because mommy does have to put a sweet little girl to bed, but she has played quietly while we have done several bible studies. It has been incredible to get to help teach these young ladies and listen to them grasp concepts that may have alluded them before. This is the part I have missed the most in the last few years. It is so exciting to open God’s word alongside teenagers and help them take away something real.

Listening to Kyle preach is always one of my favorite parts of it being our ministry, but especially this time. He wasn’t sure he had the sermon right or made an impact, but I was in the room. My ears were listening, as little girl colored in a Dollar Tree coloring book, and I know what I heard. I heard a lesson that was relatable, real, and a little cut throat (learning about struggles and how God sometimes allows us to struggle is never easy to hear). I was able to encourage him afterward and remind him of how God uses preachers to speak into the hearts of the listeners in ways the speaker could not have possibly done.

Watching the teens love my little one and her attach to them is so encouraging. These teens will possibly be her small group leaders, teachers, coaches, and hopefully role models as she grows up. I want them to love her (because if mommy comes then baby girl comes too) and I want her to love them! These students play a HUGE part of our family’s life!

The best part of church camp winning the game of Tug-O-War in my mind is being together as a family. Spending time with our youth and serving alongside each other. Neither of us was raised as a preacher’s kid so we don’t really know what we are doing as our little one comes along but we do know that we are better together!

The Word has Captured Me

Do you ever read the bible just because you know you are supposed to? Truth be told, that has been me for awhile now. I read. I read often, but I was just reading to check it off to the “Good Christian” To-Do List. I was reading because I knew I needed to, but as I helped some teenage girls understand today, I was approaching the Word with a hardened heart. I was not intending to have a hard heart, but I definitely wasn’t looking for some life changing truths to come at me.

After my daughter was born, I experienced so many changes that I wasn’t reading often at all. I was teaching a new grade level, figuring out how to be a good mom, and we began a very slow transition to a new church, town, job, and house. Then it took me awhile to settle into all of the new. In 2018, I made a point to read my bible regularly, but that’s just it. I was just reading. I wasn’t opening my heart and expecting anything to happen when I would open God’s Word.

About a week ago I made a conscious choice to read and look for something, anything to speak into my life. I decided to begin in the beginning with Genesis. I read and reflected for 3 days without anything truly impacting me in a big way, but on the fourth day as I was reading Genesis chapter 4 the very last verse jumped off the page at me. I must have read it ten times.

At that time people began to call on the name of the Lord.

Call on the name of the Lord…it had me captured. I followed a footnote to Psalms and then another Psalms then to a few of the prophets and before I knew it I had been digging into God’s word for an hour.

An hour!

After two years of feeling like I didn’t have the time, energy, or desire to put in the effort. After two years of knowing I should dig but not having the zeal for it. After two years I was captured by the living Word of God!

I say all of this ashamed that I let it go for so long. I let life, the world, everything but the bible consume me for way too long. But I also say all of this for the teenager who thinks she has let too much time pass since she went to church. And the young mom who is too tired at the end of the day to lift the cover of her bible. For the grandmother who has read the entire bible through before and doesn’t think she has it in her today. For the husband who knows he should lead his family in a short devotional but has no clue where to start, or when. For the working man who struggles to understand what the bible is saying.

It is never too late, too long ago, or too far gone to give God and His Word our hearts. Don’t be like me and read because you are supposed to. Read expecting something to capture you.

I cannot wait to share more about what God has been teaching me as I have continued to dig into the Word. Until then, read the bible with an open heart and expect life changing truth to capture your heart while doing so.

God is at work

This Fall will bring many Friday nights of Hannah and I snuggling alone. This may seem sad to some, but it is beyond exciting for us as a family! Kyle is serving as the chaplain to the GC Warriors football team and God is at work amongst those young men!

Two weeks ago, our church honored the GC Warriors in our morning service where Kyle was able to preach the word of God, recognize a player on the team, and serve lunch to this incredible group of young men. But Kyle’s journey with the Warriors did not begin with the Fall football season. It actually began last school year.

Kyle was approached by the head coach to come into the high school once a week and teach through a book with the football players. The book did not mention God, Jesus, or have scripture. But the book focused on culture change, becoming men, and allowed for Kyle to bond with the team long before the Friday night lights were on his back.

By summer practices, I was recieving more and more phone calls where I was greeted with a voice filled with excitement. Another young man decided to follow Jesus! They call me Brother Kyle. A player shared his entire life story with me! I’ve been invited to FCA camp. Fifteen souls were saved! So many sentences filled with JOY! So many lives changed all before the season had started.

So, Hannah and I may be missing daddy on Friday nights, but God is doing a great work that is so far beyond my Friday night plans! I cannot wait to see how God continues to move through the Warriors and I am filled with anticipation for the next phone call with more exciting news!

Baby Girl is TWO!

We celebrated Hannah Marie last weekend as she turned two! I cannot even believe I am typing that number. So much of what I have shared on this blog is about our journey to having Hannah (mostly because I have not made the time to share more) and for her to be two seems impossible.

Anyone who knows Hannah will tell you she is the happiest child you will ever meet. She smiles constantly! Her laugh is infectous! We are completely in love with her and feel beyond blessed to be entrusted with the sweetest gift from God.

Happy Birthday Hannah!

Oh My Soul

It is the end of National Infertility Awareness week and I have been thinking about if I would even address it this year. This time last year I was able to celebrate my miracle baby and how her story has affected me and so many others around me, but this year it feels different. Not that she isn’t my miracle any more, because I assure you she is exactly what I prayed for. But this year my heart is crying this song, Oh My Soul.

Two weeks ago we found out that we were not pregnant, again. This would not have come as a surprise if we had not been doing an IUI treatment. As I have mourned and grieved, this song has been beyond true. I worry daily that we may never have another child. I am weary from losing control of my body and whether I can concieve another baby. I did not see a failed IUI coming at me. Our first IUI resulted in Hannah and what a blessing she is. I know my friends and family would not blame me if I cried because so many of them can relate to this hurt or hurt with me. I try to hide the hurt because part of me doesn’t want to burden anyone else with my problems. There were moments two weeks ago when I did stop believeing that I would have another baby.

But God has shown me that He is right here and I am not alone. My fear has had to face my God, and God has proven before that He is so much bigger than my fear, my infertility, and my disbelief. I know God will make a way for our family to grow. I don’t know what that looks like or when that will happen, but I know that God is faithful and He wouldn’t give me this desire if He didn’t plan on teaching me something and granting me the desires of my heart or changing that desire. My prayers are that I grow more dependent on God during this time. My prayer is that I drop my fears at the alter and let God carry me through this valley. My prayer is that God breathes on my dry bones and helps me to dance through this time in my life. My prayer is that God uses my story to make something beautiful from the ash and stone of this time.

So for today I must lay down my fear, worry, anxiety, disbelief…all of it. I know God will make a way for our family to grow. I may not be strong enough each day. I may feel like I cannot take any more medicine, do anymore blood work, have anymore procedures, but God will find me at His feet laying it all down. He will keep me from going under the waves of fear.

If you are struggling with infertility today, know that you are not alone. One in eight couples struggle with infertility. Look through the bible and see women sprinkled throughout who struggled with exactly what you are right now. Sarah, Hannah, Rachel, Samson’s mother, Elizabeth…all of them have stories like yours! God heard their cries and blessed them with precious children. Maybe your story will be like theirs and God will send you a sweet little one. Maybe your story will be different though. Maybe you will adopt in order to grow your family. Either way, know that you are not alone.

If you know someone struggling with infertility today, love on them, pray for them, and have a listening ear for when they are ready to talk about it. So many times couples struggling to concieve or maintain a pregnancy are scared to share about it, but pray for them anyway. When they do open up about their struggles, listen and continue to pray. Reassure them that they are not alone because you are praying alongside them.

“He (God) has made everything beautiful in its time.” Ecclesiastes 3:11a

Waiting

Do you find yourself waiting a lot? Waiting for a table at a restaurant. Waiting in a doctor’s office. Waiting for test results. Waiting for a pay check. Waiting on love or marriage. Waiting on a baby. That’s mine. I find myself waiting to be pregnant.

People insisted that we needed to be careful after our first arrived, because we may get a surprise sooner than we wanted. My thoughts? That would be AWESOME! I would have praised God for that gift. Time has passed and surprises were not given and now I find myself waiting. Waiting again for a baby to come from heaven, created by the only one who can create life, as a gift to our family.

Waiting is hard. Waiting is emotional (at least for me). Waiting teaches us so much. Because in the waiting we have to lean on God. In the waiting we have to rely on God. In the waiting we have to hope in God.

The Bible says in Psalm 130:5, “I wait for the Lord; I wait and hope in his word.” I know this scripture isn’t actually referring to waiting for a baby, but at the same time it is. The writer of this psalm is waiting for a redeemer, someone to correct his relationship with God. The writer is waiting on a baby who would come, a baby named Jesus.

I am so blessed to have a redeemer in Christ Jesus today. I am not waiting on someone to save me because I have a savior. But I love how this verse assures me that I can wait for the Lord and have hope in his word. I can lean on the promises of God and know they are true. I will cling to the cross, my redeemer and wait.

Waiting still isn’t easy, especially when people ask if there are plans for a second, or if we are pregnant, or trying,

but with hope in God’s word we will wait.

Treasure More Than Food

Food is a love of most people. People love to eat. We crave food. When we haven’t eaten often enough, we typically become hungry (or in my case, hangry). People plan their entire day around meals. Holidays are celebrate with food. Food is important to our lives, survival, and many times, happiness.

Today when I was reading my devotional I became stuck on this verse from Job chapter 23, “I have treasured the words of his mouth more than my portion of food” (Job 23:12 ESV). Job is talking about the words of God and how he treasures it more than food. Think about that.

I love food! I am not a girl who didn’t eat her fill on a date in order to impress a guy. I don’t skip meals or turn down a perfectly good cookie. But Job treasures the word of God more than food. Do I crave the Bible (God’s word) more than food? Do I turn to the Bible and listen for a whisper from God to fill me?

Today my prayer is that I may come to treasure God’s word, look forward to it, plan my day around it, celebrate my holidays with it more than I do food. My prayer is that I treasure the word of God and depend on it for my survival.

Thy Will

Music is a HUGE part of my life and right now Thy Will by Hillary Scott is my prayer.

God is good, and I know this. But sometimes I don’t feel good. I don’t understand His timing, purpose, or direction. God sees the entire picture when I can only see what is in the here and now. But sometimes I wonder how it is going to all come together. Days get hard and I have a hard time finding the joy in the day. I get so caught up in what is going on around me. But then I remember that He is God and I am not.

So…

Thy will be done.

Inward Struggle

Have you ever struggled with what to focus your time and attention on? I do…all the time.

As a teacher, I want to be the best teacher out there. I want to be the Ron Clark of my school. I want to show my students I care, not just about their learning, but about them. I want to engage students in rigorous tasks that they will remember.

As a wife, I want my husband to have no doubt in his mind that I love him more than any human walking planet earth right now. I want him to know I care by how I serve him, care for him, listen to him, spend time with him. I want to speak his love language so that his love tank is full.

As a mom, I want my daughter to know how much I love her and care about her. I want to teach her and support her dreams. I want to show her the way to live as a godly woman (one day). I want to spend time with her, showering her in attention and words of affirmation.

As a christian, I want to devote my every thought, attitude, and action to loving God and loving others. I want to spend time in my bible reading, studying, and applying His truths. I want to pray for others, myself, and praise God continually.

But my inward struggle is over which of these four will win. These are the big four in my life. I still want to be the best daughter, sister, in-law, designer, blogger, etc. too, BUT the four titles above are where my deepest desires are rooted. And I struggle. I struggle to put the phone down and focus on my daughter and husband. I struggle to pray continually. I struggle to engage all of my students. I struggle all the time.

As 2017 closes out and we are looking forward to a new year, new beginning I am struggling. All of the people I follow on Instagram have these amazing classrooms with fun songs and flashing lights, or beautifully put together homes with nothing out of place, or a million pictures of their families on these amazing trips…and here I am comparing myself to them. The exact thing I tell the teenagers at church not to do.

So today, as I have been reflecting on 2017, struggling with comparing myself to the Instagram world, and looking forward to 2018 I have realized where my focus must be. On HIM. On the Creator of the universe. If I focus on my relationship with GOD, He will pour into me and I will begin to overflow. These excess will only grow and benefit my marriage, my motherhood, and my teaching. I want to ooze Jesus when I am squeezed by the world.

Who cares if I don’t most ten pictures of Hannah each day? Most of you would probably be silently thanking me for not oversharing. Who cares if my classroom isn’t the most matchy-matchy? Who cares if dinner isn’t on the table at 6 and all of the laundry folded before bed?

No ONE!

2018, I’m ready. I’m ready to spend more and more time with King Jesus. Focusing on HIM so that my overflow will cover all of the other areas of me!