Monthly Archives: February 2011

Look Up!

This past year has been one of loss, hardship and uncertainty for our family. During this season, I have learned to yield, to trust, to seek and to find. I have learned to have hope in the face of adversity. The dictionary defines “hope” as a feeling of expectation and desire for a certain thing to happen. Over the last year, there were many days where I felt hopeless. I was looking at my life through foggy lenses, unable to see beyond my circumstances into the promises of the Lord for my life, and that of my family. I had lost my sense of expectancy.

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Break My Heart for What Breaks Yours, but . . .

Although I know that I wrote how important winter is in our lives a month or so back, I sure look forward to the springtime emerging.

I see glimmers of hope in the green grass that has recently sprung out of the ground in Arkansas. I know this post is relative to where you live, and some of you are still experiencing the tundra like-conditions of the winter, but please know that green grass and daffodils are on their way!

While I usually just find the closest cave and hibernate in the winter, this winter has been very different. I think I finally realized that I can survive winters and that I am not an animal.

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Rejoice in the Lord Always

This last month has been challenging.

My son, Samuel, has been sick. Terribly sick. He’s finally been diagnosed with Celiac Disease, but we’re also seeing other specialists to determine any other underlying causes.

My heart hurts.

But this devotional isn’t about sickness. Rather, it’s about joy.

Yes, joy.

I’ve discovered that in the deepest and hardest places of life, there can be profound joy. Here’s the secret: it’s not from one’s self — it comes only from our gracious Father above.

I felt it.

My days of washing dishes and changing diapers and correcting papers and being a normal every day mom will return.

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The Blessing of Scars

Scars. Most of us have them. Physical ones. Emotional ones. Some minor. Some painfully deep. They serve as reminders of our past wounds and can hold the ability to stir up powerful emotions. Bitterness. Anger. Regret.

Take my simple scars. On each of my ears I bear the evidence of multiple piercings. Those tiny outer marks cannot even begin to hint at the massive inner scars I accumulated during that rebellious season of my life. I am not saying having my ears pierced over and over again was a sin. But they do serve as a reminder of a time when I had turned my back fully on God.

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Use Me, Lord

My grandmother changed my life. Not by teaching me to crochet, although she did do that. Not by showing me how to can fig preserves or roll up cinnamon rolls, but she did that, too.

My life wasn’t changed when she taught me the value of saving pie tins, bits of fabric scraps, Cool Whip cups, the bags from the outside of the newspaper, milk jugs, or even butter tub lids. Grandmother helped to change my life with three little words.

Use me Lord.

For as long as I can remember, my grandmother got up every morning and uttered those three words to God.

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Mistaken Identity

Princess (EXPLORED)photo © 2010 Courtney Carmody | more info (via: Wylio)This week, I have been purposeful in reminding myself of who I am. There are many things that I DO that I have allowed to become such a part of me, that I sometimes lose my way.

It is true. I wear many hats. I am wife, mother, sister, friend, administrator, blogger, counselor, cook, dishwasher, laundress, housekeeper, caregiver.

And the list goes on.

I interact with people on a daily basis who ask me what I do. And I can give any number of answers to this question. Why is it that no one ever asks me “who I am”?

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5 Ways to Avoid Wintertime Blues

Do you ever find yourself in a bit of a funk during the months of January and February? I never seem to mind the cold and snow in December, but now I’m ready for warm weather to return. It doesn’t take long for me to find my mood plummeting right along with the temperature.

Thankfully, I’ve learned that a cranky attitude doesn’t help anyone, especially me! So, I’ve developed a list of five things I use to help myself overcome the wintertime blues. 

1. Movie Night – Having something to anticipate with enthusiasm always helps my mood. Watching a movie at home with a fire in the fireplace, cuddled up under a cozy throw, munching a little buttered popcorn.

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Open My Eyes

“Wow! Look at that! Can you see that, Mommy?”

“Oooooh…look over there!”

I smiled as I listened to the joy-filled exclamations coming from the back of my minivan. You would think we were driving through some exotic locale or past a squeal-inducing theme-park. But we were just driving down a normal, everyday road in our hometown.

So what was all the fuss about?…

Two little girls with their first pairs of glasses could finally see! With the lifting and lowering of her bronze-colored frames, my oldest began a little chant, “Fuzzy…not fuzzy…fuzzy…not fuzzy…”.

As a fellow farsighted one, I totally get the wonder my girls have been feeling.

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