bread and water

The other day my husband and I were meeting with a couple in our living room and we had the doors open so we could hear the kids outside. As we were talking we heard a certain cry (or yell) and we knew it was our 8 year old. My hubby got up to go check on him. He was fine. The young man that was with us said, “Itʼs funny how he knew that that was your sons voice without looking.” I said, “Oh I could tell it was my son also because of how he sounded.” It made me think of how our Heavenly Father hears our cries and knows our voice because we are His child. Romans 8 4 For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. 15 For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. 16 The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: 17 And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be...

I was young and madly in love when the guy I was courting asked me to eat at Gyro Wrap in downtown Athens. He said he had some things he wanted to talk about. We sat down at a tiny table together and he pulled out a piece of paper with a list on it. He began to ask me questions. I didnʼt know it at the time; but if I wouldʼve said no to those questions he wouldn’t  have proposed. One of them was, “Are you going to be okay when all of your friends are buying houses and we arenʼt because Iʼm called to the ministry?” I was blinded by love and said, “Yes, Iʼll be fine! Iʼll live wherever God wants me to...even if that means in a box on the side of the road.” And I really meant that. I was passionately in love with Jesus and wanted to serve Him above all else. Fast forward almost 15 years...now we have 4 kids (one is a baby) and we donʼt have a home. We live in a 3 bedroom apartment on the third floor with no garage or basement to store bikes and basketballs galore. Did I mention all ...

Recently I’ve felt overwhelmed. Part of it due to trying to buy a house and going through the whole process and then the Lord stopping us. (That may be a whole different blog post!) Or it might be due to lack of sleep with a four month old baby and trying to declutter and switch winter/spring clothes out while tripping over all the baby stuff crammed in this little apartment. “Lord why do you still have us in this little space?!”  Or it might be because my day went like this: I’m in the middle of cooking and placing my Kroger clicklist order and the boys say, “Mom he broke the picture!” I calmly say, “Which one? Show me the picture.” John David walks me to the short hallway (the only hallway). I see glass broken all over the carpet. “Guys I don’t have time for this mess! Take the glass to the dumpster and vacuum.” Then we load up and go get groceries. Elijah climbs over the seat and falls on top of the bread and all the bags of groceries and I yell, “I told y’all...

Sometimes following God is hard.  Sometimes following God doesnʼt make sense.  Sometimes following God makes you feel stupid and look stupid to others. Sometimes following God doesnʼt look right on paper. Sometimes following God doesnʼt follow along with the American dream. But when you hear that still small voice speak to you and you know itʼs the Lord you must obey.  There was a time when my husband and I did not obey that still small voice.  The Lord was whispering to us to stay in Kentucky but we moved out of state to Georgia against what we felt the Lord was telling us. And that following year was hard and miserable.  We were disciplined by the Lord. I ended up having postpartum depression during that time. We did not have a lot of money during that time and I would have yard sales just to make ends meet. One day my husband was out deer hunting and he was sitting in a deer stand in a tree and he heard a loud crack.  He looked above him and saw a tree...

Lately Iʼve been thinking about the topic of holiness and what it means. When I was a teenager in youth group there was a song that was often sung at youth events that went like this: “Holiness, holiness is what I long for. Holiness is what I need. Holiness, holiness is what you want from me. So take my heart and form it. Take my mind, transform it. Take my will, conform it to yours, to yours oh Lord. Righteousness, righteousness is what I long for. Righteousness is what I need. Righteousness , righteousness is what you want from me. Brokenness, brokenness is what I long for. Brokenness is what I need. Brokenness, brokenness is what you want from me.” What is holiness? I was taught that the word holy meant set apart. Separate. Clean, so that youʼre ready to use for the Masterʼs Will. You wouldnʼt want to drink out of an empty cup. We need to keep ourselves (our own vessel) clean for the Lord to use. We do this by repenting of sin and putting away sin and fi...