All must be well February 25, 2014

What promises, what confidence we have.

Through the Love of God our Savior, All will  be well.

Free and changeless is his favor, All is well.

Precious is the blood that healed us.

Perfect is the grace that sealed us.

Strong the hand stretched forth to shield us, All must we well.

Though we pass through tribulation, All will be well.

Ours is such a full salvation, All is well.

Happy, still in God confiding.

Fruitful, if in Christ abiding.

Steadfast through the spirit’s guiding. All must be well.

We expect a bright tomorrow. All will be well.

Faith  can sing through days of sorrow. All is well.

On our Father’s love relying.

Jesus every need supplying.

Yes, in living or in dying.

All must be well.

.

Valentine’s 2014 February 14, 2014

What a strange week it has been- snow, sickness, valentine’s day. That means a lot of kids at home, a lot of messy house, and a lot of thwarted plans.

But tonight we are getting things back together and we celebrated Valentine’s by doing what we always do…dinner, fun foods and our love notes to one another.

This dinner I was thinking about all the cute valentine ideas out there that I didn’t get to use and I decided to serve food that we could use some of those fun valentine wishes… like a tableful of candy heart messages.

We ate ribs and caught up on everyone’s valentine’s parties and social life.

We finished by sharing the things we love about each other- Getting to tell Cord how proud I am of him for praying to receive Jesus this past Monday- and how much I love his wrestling that turns into hugs and how proud I am of his effort at school and during homework time. Getting to tell Lucy how much I love our times at pick up when she climbs in my lap and we laugh and sing together and how funny she is and how much I love her optimism. Getting to tell Emma Frances how proud I am of her for doing her best at school, how much I appreciate her work on honesty and how much I love how she processes every situation, how creative she is and how much fun we have cooking together. Getting to tell Olivia how proud I am of who she is becoming, her sensitivity to the Lord’s work in her life, and all her help that she provides for our home. Getting to tell Eric that I am so thankful for how he makes me coffee every morning and unloads the dishwater and keeps children so that I can see my friends, how he pursues truth and learning and how he is so faithful and obedient in the mundane- the real stuff…And I get to hear my little ones tell each other how thankful they are for each other.

I have to say one of my favorites this year was when Lucy told her daddy,”Even though you are you, I still love you.” classic lucy line.

Pushing back the fall February 3, 2014

I. Hate. the. Fall.   Not the season that welcomes my Auburn Tigers to the field and encourages us with its rich colors and cooling breezes. I hate the fall. Of man.

The ushering in of sin- both the kind we commit and the kind done to us. Sin that separates us from the Father and that separates us from one another. Sin that freezes our hearts and makes them cold, and sin that fires up our hearts and makes them burn with anger. Sin that discourages us and so easily entangles us and sin that deceptively woos us. The fall had such enormous implications in our lives. Eternal ones and crushing ones. It complicates our communication. It hinders our love for one another. It lies to us and tells us that being isolated is better than being with others who love us and love the Lord. It enslaves us with promises of personal freedom and knocks our feet out from under us when we discover that we have been tricked by our idols.

The gospel, that good news, saves us. From our sin, from its power over us, from our thoughts, from ourselves, from death.  And this gospel- this good news is that through Jesus’ perfect life and substitutionary death we have ACCESS to the Lord. That by the Holy Spirit we are united to Christ and we have freedom from those things that enslave us. There is power in the blood- and I don’t mean that lightly or colloquially… We are able to now see sin for what it is and we are able to choose to pursue holiness and we are able to hear the lies that we once believed and we are able to act differently than we once did. Not because of us, but because of HIM. He pushes back the effects of the fall in me and in you. He pushes back the effects of the fall in our churches and in our relationships.

What will that look like? Instead of running from one another- or hiding from one another, we will run to each other and repent and listen. Instead of “winning” in arguments, we will seek where we are wrong and apologize as far as it depends on us. Instead of making our own kingdoms, we will lay it down and work for His. Instead of pleasing ourselves with as much as we want in all areas of our lives, we ask Him where do you want me to be and what do you want to do with the money you have given me and how do you want me to spend my time and who do you want me to befriend? Oh the possibilities if we would welcome the nudges that the Holy Spirit gives us.

I just got back from seeing WICKED with my oldest two and my college roommate. You know the great song “defying gravity”. The words,”I’m limited.” “Together we’re unlimited” are ringing through my mind. The possibilities of what His Kingdom can do are unlimited- when we work in tandem with the Holy Spirit. We aren’t defying gravity- we are defying the effects of the fall. Rising above them, so to speak.

And the discouraging patterns of the world will be pushed back and we will be encouraged- with man, this is impossible, but with God all things are possible. And such great healing will happen…the deep, beautiful, spiritual healing of all that He created.

**Writing for my own encouragement to work in tandem with the Holy Spirit and not against it. As is true in the Kingdom of God, it will be the opposite of the way the world teaches to handle any situation.