I hope that you and the people you love are having a wonderful Christmastime!  In the church calendar, the season lasts until the last moment of January 5, so keep the celebration going. Of course, within that time frame comes the beginning of a brand new calendar year, sweetening the season even more. I don't know about you, but one of my favorite things to do during this season is to look back at old pictures of Christmas celebrations and enjoy the memories they contain. It is so much fun to see how all of the children and grandchildren have grown and changed over the years, and to reflect on the different eras of life each photo represents. It is so good to remember.

Today is an absolutely gorgeous day to begin a fresh, new year. The sun is shining, the birds are singing, and there is such a crisp feel to the air. But as tempting as it is to start marching ahead into the newness of a new year, what an opportunity the slower holiday season affords to spend at least just a few minutes looking back.

Somehow, so many of us are wired to look back and focus primarily, and much too deeply, on the things that we regret, or that disappointed us, or that we got wrong. When we turn and look back, we too often see the negative or the not-enough, and concentrate on our own failings. Sadly, we neglect to see the many ways God met us in so many situations.

So today, many of us might be relieved to start again with a new year, really ready to leave 2025 in the dust. We might look backwards and see frustrating relationships, or unmet expectations, or unresolved conflict. Frankly, there is always plenty of that no matter what the calendar year is.  Of course, at least part of the problem is with who we put at the center of our lives—ourselves, or God?—and how we look back is quite telling. When we can only see the negative, it is a sure sign that we're putting too much emphasis on ourselves and our own abilities or lack thereof. If we think the entire burden of life rests on our own shoulders, we are sure to be disappointed, year after year. But if we put God at the center, and train our eyes to see that, it can absolutely revolutionize our faith moving forward.

Focusing on only the negative in life would be like keeping a photo album of the worst days of your life, or constructing a shrine to purposely remind yourself of something awful. Strangely, there actually seem to be people out there who do this very thing, and then wonder why they are always miserable and bitter. But in His wisdom, God asks us to remember the beautiful, joyful, victorious things—and there are so many wonderful things that God in his faithfulness does for us, all the time!

And this is where I will round out my musical theme of this year with one more song that has been a heart song of mine, "Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing" . The verse that I am particularly thinking about right now goes like this:

Here I raise my Ebenezer;
hither by Thy help I’m come;
and I hope, by Thy good pleasure,
safely to arrive at home.
Jesus sought me when a stranger,
wandering from the fold of God;
He, to rescue me from danger,
interposed His precious blood.

The word Ebeneezer refers to a remembrance stone, and this idea is found throughout the Old Testament, most specifically in 1 Samuel chapter 7. The Lord loves for us to purposefully remember! I hope that there is some sort of enormous photo album room to go through with Him someday, when heaven comes down. So often in the scriptures He encourages, even commands, His people to build something or to make something so that every time they pass there again, they will remember His great faithfulness.

So what better day is there to take a look back at the recently departed year than today? Eli and I have allotted ourselves sometime in the afternoon of January 1 to spend some time together reflecting on the highlight reel of this past year. Together, we hope to compile quite a list of the many beautiful things that God did for us,  showed us, or spoke to us in 2025.

You might not have time today, but I encourage you to let this thought lodge in your mind, and sometime this week take at least a bit of time to compile your own list. We know in our hearts and would even tell others that God is always there, that He really never leaves us or forsakes us. But too often we neglect to actually believe this. Our thoughts are too crowded by the many disappointments life brings. And those heartbreaks are what comes to the forefront, even when we’re looking forward to a new year. We’re left sort of bracing ourselves for what awful things might happen this next year. 

But instead of beginning this year with that outlook, taking a backward glance specifically to focus on the faithfulness of God can give us such a different vantage point as we march into the new year. Take the time to at least think of them, better yet write them down. What wonderful things happened in your life last year? Think of the...

-Relationships that were mended

-Miracles of provision

-Healing in your own body

-New experiences, new friends, and all of the new things God led you into

-Moments of peace and contentment

-Any of these things in the lives of people you love

-Or fill in the blank!

The point is just to look back and look for the wonderful things, which are surely manifold. The enemy wants you to focus on the negative, on the lack, on the frustration, and to fool you into thinking that you ought to really live in despair and hopelessness because so many things go wrong, surely God can’t be as good as He says He is…  

But God IS as good as He says He is, and you can trust Him!  All of those frustrating things are just part of wading through this broken world. And, guess what—God uses and redeems those frustrating experiences to make us stronger and more full of faith.

The wonderful news is the fact that Jesus is making everything new, and those encouraging points in life where we see that in such a real and powerful way can propel us and sustain us and encourage us through the dark bits. Don’t let the negative things of the past be your point of reference. Instead, let God and His faithfulness be your north star as you walk into 2026.

A few posts ago, I mentioned how in our church gathering we’ve been learning that faith is looking backward at how good God has been in the past, love is realizing all of the amazing things He is doing right here and right now, and hope is resting on both of those things as we look forward. We can be sure that He is going to be just as good as always as we move into the new year. 

So sometime this week, I encourage you to take time to remember His faithfulness. Build your own mental photo album or memorial with God and share some great memories together. Let Him build your faith, let Him fill you with his love, and may you be absolutely full of hope throughout the new year!
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A blessed Advent to you! As the scripture says, "The people walking in darkness have seen a great light..." and this is what Advent is all about. The darkness and despair of the world was absolutely invaded by the bright and shining light of Emmanuel—God With Us—and this season reminds us that His brightness is what changes the hearts of men even still. His light is ever-growing and ever-spreading, just like the candles we light each week, and we are reminded that nothing can or will overcome His light. 

I'm exploring a theme this year of songs that have impacted me deeply, and would love to launch today's thought from a beautiful poem by Christina Rossetti called "In the Bleak Midwinter". It was set to music at some point in history and is now a beloved Christmas carol, and I encourage you to listen to this sometime today, by your favorite artist, as you reflect on the following thoughts...

Hope
Think of the dreariness and hopelessness of life without Christ...what if He had never come? There would be no churches or all of the loveliness that they stand for, no hospitals or soup kitchens or pregnancy care centers, no loving and forgiving your enemy, no redemption or reconciliation or restoration, no Christmas, and no Easter.

But He DID come, and now we live in the amazing place of HOPE. Jesus was born as a sweet and helpless infant, to a young couple who delivered their special child on the road, and from that momentous night, the world has never been the same. With His coming came all of the promise of a renewed Eden—for God so loved the world that He made, that He gave His only begotten Son to save it. And one day we will all live together in the Garden, with God among us, as it was meant to be.

Hope is filled with Resurrection power. The enemy thought he was winning when he enticed the powers-that-be to kill Jesus to save their precious status quo, and when he enticed Judas to betray such a wonderful friend with such a treacherous kiss. Yet how wrong that wily rebel was: Jesus' death brought all of us life! JESUS DEFEATED DEATH! Death no longer has the final word. Now we can actually live—hope is alive, and flowing through the heart of everyone who believes in Christ. 

​Peace
A common understanding of the word PEACE is simply a time without war or conflict. But there is so much more to it than that! The Biblical understanding of peace means making things complete and whole, as in a complex system fitted together and in perfect working order. When such a system breaks down, peace is lost...but when it is restored, peace is a strong and flourishing reality. 

One of my favorite psalms is Psalm 133, written at the special and unique time in history when all of God's people were actually getting along. 

Behold, how good and pleasant it is
    when brothers dwell in unity!
It is like the precious oil on the head,
    running down on the beard,
on the beard of Aaron,
    running down on the collar of his robes!
It is like the dew of Hermon,
    which falls on the mountains of Zion!
For there the Lord has commanded the blessing,
    life forevermore.

Please note the last verse: it is there, in peace, that God COMMANDS the blessing of life forevermore! When we choose to forgive one another, to think highly of one another, to believe the best about one another, there God commands His beautiful blessing of life. What a lovely ideal! May God help us to allow the resurrection power of peace to flow through our relationships. 

Joy
There are so many things in the world that claim to bring a person joy, yet none of them deliver: money, status, power, position, substance, education, acclaim...all are found wanting. There is no way to artificially manufacture real joy. 

But in Christ is found true joy. Furthermore, that joy in Christ is our strength to face the world each and every day. 

I am reminded of a time long ago that my boyfriend and I spent a semester apart. I had gone ahead and moved on to Texas, and he had remained for one more semester of athletics at the university where we met in California. I am sure that all of the people in my new church just rolled their eyes every time I brought up my wonderful boyfriend that would be moving our way at the end of the semester. I couldn't help but talk about him, often—he was the person that I thought about all the time, and that I centered my life and future upon. 

Of course, that boyfriend is the man who became my beloved husband, now of thirty-three years of glorious marriage. He has been such a godly husband, a wonderful father to our children and grandchildren, and a superior best friend. Yet, as much as I have put my faith in a man, how much more can I put my faith in my Savior? 

Each and every day spent waiting on Jesus is a joy. He is our strength, and gives us so much excitement for what is to come. One day soon, there will be a new Heaven and a new Earth where He will dwell with us in person. There will be no more death or sorrow, and life will be as glorious as God intended it to be when He created this world! This same joy fills our hearts today, and with its resurrection power can change every conversation we take part in. 

Today is the first day of Advent 2025, and I wish you and yours all of the blessings and peace of this lovely season of anticipation. This first Sunday of Advent actually marks the beginning of a new year in the Church calendar. I love that our annual rhythm starts fresh with the most hopeful and amazing occurrence in all of history—the coming of the Savior of the world in the most unlikely scenario of all! No person could have dreamed up the plan for redemption and restoration that rested in the heart of our Good God from the beginning. He is determined to have a huge, loving family to join Him in the tending of His beautiful garden, and this season of Advent commemorates the worth-the-wait longing in all of our hearts for that dream to reach its fullness. For we wait with HOPE: Jesus really did come the first time, and He really will return to make His blessings known far as the curse is found. 

I am very grateful that my husband and parents and I were able to attend my sister‘s  birthday party this year. We may live states apart, but our hearts are forever intertwined with so many memories and so much love. One thing that happened at this birthday party was a little karaoke, and it was amazing! We have a hilarious family memory of a vacation in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina decades ago when the beach strip first had a recording studio for passers-by. So what did the teenaged sisters of the mid-80s do? Why, we promptly made a fabulous recording of ourselves singing the theme to Flashdance, which was all over the airwaves at that time. The funniest part of the story is the fact that my father, a submarine officer at the time, took this absolutely atrocious recording with him on deployment once, so if any one of those sailors is reading this, I would like to extend my deepest apologies for the damage that might have occurred to your eardrums during that tour.


I guess I didn't learn anything from that original performance, because I still love karaoke, and my go-to song is Don’t Stop Believin' by Journey. It just so happens that Steve Perry and I sing in a very similar range, and it just so happens that that song is one of my favorites of all time—for myself and all of the other optimists out there, it is a kind of anthem! No matter how horrible or dreadful life might seem, don’t stop believing—hold onto that feeling that things can be better. I have spent some time this year talking about my love for music and how it has played an important part in my life, and I hope you can relate with your own meaningful songs. Music can carry such powerful memories and ideas, and it with this particular song that I would like to launch a few thoughts about spiritual warfare today.


This subject is met with widely varying opinion in Christian churches today. It just so happens that the flavor of church I have been associated with for the last few decades loves this topic. And I love it too. I will never forget the day that the first Frank Peretti book fell into my life, and I stayed up all night long finishing it. It gave imagery to something that I really suspected was true—there is a spiritual battle, and we are in it whether we know it or not, and whether we like it or not.


I don’t know about you, but I’ve gone through some things that really defy all of my understanding about how the world works. Why do terrible things happen to really good, moral people? Why are there so many stumbling blocks and seemingly insurmountable walls in life? Why is there so much division and dissension and hatred floating around everywhere? These are difficult questions with an ever-present reality to be faced.

Sadly, for many of us, an unrealistic idea of a relationship with Jesus enters our thinking that looks something like this:

If I do/don’t do A,B or C, then God will ______________.

​This is simply not true. But when we hold that belief and encounter something in life that challenges this thinking, it can be really disconcerting and devastating. If we think God owes us something because of our actions, we are going to be surprised. 

I have recently been through something that challenged my beliefs to the core. And frankly, all of my understanding of spiritual warfare sort of flew out the window, and I was left looking for some new answers to questions I had assumed I understood correctly. I’m so grateful that God is so generous with answers and knowledge when we earnestly seek Him, and I’d like to share a few things that I have learned lately about engaging in the spiritual battle of life.

2. We live in the upside-down world.  In this world, it’s you versus me, and scratch all you can out of life because there’s not enough for everybody. If you are against me, I am against you. If you hurt me, I’m going to hurt you even worse. The world is tough and mean and unforgiving.

But then, in the fullness of time, along came Jesus, who showed us exactly what God is like, which is so unlike anything we could have come up with on our own. The kingdom of God is so unlike the system of this world! God‘s kingdom is totally opposite the thing we are always building for ourselves—it is forgiveness, and love for people who hate you and are against you, and self-sacrifice, and turning the other cheek. It is allowing yourself to be wronged rather than fighting back in the world’s ways; it is absorbing the blow of injustice. God's Kingdom arrived with Jesus' first coming, and grows with everyone who believes in Him, and is absolutely subverting the empire of the world by moving in the opposite direction with faith, hope, love, and so much forgiveness.

So as believers in Jesus Christ, it is our privilege:
-to bring order and peace into chaos
-to bring truth against deception
-to bring beauty where there is ugliness and despair
-to bring forgiveness into every relationship
-to bring God's love everywhere we go

3. Don't Stop Believing. There is an amazing interchange between Jesus and His disciples recorded in John chapter 6 that we've been marveling over at church for a few months...

Then they said to Him, “What must we do, to be doing the works of God?” Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.”

All I have to do is believe God? Awesome, no problem. This sounds way too easy, and way too good to be true…until you realize how challenged your faith is each and every day of your life! 

Wait, someone I thought was a dear friend seriously betrayed me...now what?
There’s illness, there’s division, there’s brokenness, there’s hurt by people we love, there’s so much trouble and chaos and confusion in the world, and literally everything on earth is conspiring to make us doubt God‘s goodness.

Remember the enemy's old trick, “did God really say…?” That trick gets used every day, several times a day. And circumstances in our lives are sometimes so difficult that we are challenged to believe that God is as good as He says he is. Yet this is our job, to believe Him.

There are two times Jesus marveled at people’s faith in the Bible. Once He marveled at a woman’s amazing faith, also known as belief, and another time he marveled at a whole town‘s lack of faith, lack of belief. And at that latter place He could not do any miracles. This should startle us into paying attention. Jesus could not do miracles somewhere? Sadly, yes, when people don’t believe Him. This does challenge me. I want to open up channels of hope and healing into everyone I’m around...

-into my town that I love so much
-into my church family that I love so much
-into my own family that I love so much!

I want to believe God, no matter what. So the thing we’ve been discussing lately in our gathering is that there are three powerful things that serve to make our belief strong and flourishing:

Faith is looking back into the past and recognizing all of the amazing things that God has done and How faithful He is. Our belief grows when we place our faith upon Him alone, as He never fails.

Love is right now. We know that God is moving right now because He fills our hearts with otherwise inexplicable love. The world does not have this, but God absolutely overflows with it, and His kingdom overflows with right-now love. God loved us when we were sinners and His enemy, and He gives us the incredible ability to love our own enemies and this just astounds me, every time. He helps us overflow with love everywhere we go because He is so good.

Hope is looking forward into the future with the strength of faith and love. We can march confidently forward into the future with real hope, no matter how wild or terrible or devastating our circumstances seem, because God is with us and He really is as good as He says He is.

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So this season, as the people around us are engaging in our holy days with us, may God help us do a little spiritual warfare everywhere we go. Let's pray for those we encounter each day—who knows if anyone else is praying for the people God lays on our hearts? Let God use our lives and choices to right some of the wrongs in this world. And let's determine each day to BELIEVE that God is as good as He says He is, because it's true.  This season of waiting for the Christ is such a beautiful time to let our own faith and light shine in the darkness, and may the Lord's peace and joy fill our hearts as we choose to believe Him! 

Well, guess what? My little book has won an award! Friday Night on the Frio River was a finalist in the 2025 American Writing Awards category for best Young Adult Fiction! If you're looking for a wholesome, fun mystery for a someone in your life, look no further—click this link to order your copy today! Also available on Amazon, or anywhere online books are sold...

It's the most wonderful time of the year! The air is cool and crisp, the nights are growing longer, and the season of celebration is upon us. Those of you who know me or who have read this blog for a while know that one of my favorite themes in life is that of the four seasons. Recognizing this, my beautiful mother spent hours and hours of her time making me a gorgeous embroidery celebrating the seasons, a treasure I view and contemplate often. I truly love the so-named concerto by Vivaldi, and have since I was quite young. I truly love the turning of one season to another, and have delightful childhood memories of the beauty of New England season changes. I love how God built all of that into creation—new life to fruitfulness to rest and recovery, so it can all happen all over again in a type of death and resurrection. I think He must love the four seasons, too! And I know something else that God loves...

The Creator of All Things loves to celebrate and be with His family! As we enter this season of special days, it is good to pause and reflect on God's own recommendation for a healthy rhythm of life. 

The Old Testament is a deep look into the way sin separated mankind from God. It details the way God made a covenant with Abraham and his descendants to bring mankind back into fellowship with Himself, and from that union, to invite all nations into that same fellowship. The problem of sin and separation from our holy God is real and cannot be ignored, but God generously and lovingly brought the terms of friendship to His people through the giving of the law on Mt. Sinai. Of course, much sacrifice and obedience were necessary at that point for us to be able to even be in God’s presence, and the regulations were strict and specific. But alongside the parameters for sacrifice were the instructions for a godly daily life and for numerous regular celebrations. The law is filled with them, and this is so wonderful! God wants to be with us all the time, and He wants us to celebrate life with Him and with one another. 

Deuteronomy 6: 1-6 gives clear insight into God’s heart for healthy, thriving homes and families. It clearly paints the picture that our relationship with God does not consist of just occasional large gatherings in a temple. Worship of God is central in our hearts and homes...
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These are the commands, decrees and laws the Lord your God directed me to teach you to observe in the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess, so that you, your children and their children after them may fear the Lord your God as long as you live by keeping all His decrees and commands that I give you, and so that you may enjoy long life. Hear, Israel, and be careful to obey so that it may go well with you and that you may increase greatly in a land flowing with milk and honey, just as the Lord, the God of your ancestors, promised you.


Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.
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Further, Leviticus chapters 23-26 give real insight into God’s heart for regular communion for the people of God. 


•    Every Sabbath day is holy and set aside for special rest, reverence, and offerings. This is one day in every seven.


•    Every year there were to be seven holy times of fasting and feasting, called festivals. These were not just momentary pauses in regular life. They were significant times of reflection and gratitude built into the yearly rhythm. 


•    Every seventh year was to be a Sabbath Year where the land and fields got a whole year of rest. 


•    Every seventh Sabbath year begins an entire Year of Jubilee. This is fascinating and involves not only letting the land rest but everyone and every place being restored to their original owners.
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God wants us to remember Him, and He wants us to let Him help us keep our priorities straight. He is not an egomaniac who demands that we drop everything and pay attention to Him because He is desperate for our attention and affirmation. He simply knows what we will get into without Him being the center of our hearts, homes and calendars. He sees our sinful nature and knows that when we forget He is the creator and sustainer of life, we begin to think all kinds of wrong and delusional thoughts. We will forget about the sanctity of life. We will forget about treating each other well and watching out for others. We will begin to do things to take advantage of one another and even to take advantage of the land. God knows that regular rhythms of acknowledging Him in all of life keep us sane.

This is also why the law requires so many offerings and acts of remembrance. When we do not stop to give thanks and to give back to the One who gave all the blessings, we lose perspective and begin to think that we have done everything ourselves. We tend to forget God, and then make ourselves the center of everything.

So as we move into autumn and winter this year, let's take ample time to remember God. How amazing it is to celebrate with God on this side of His once-and-for-all sacrifice on the cross! We can look back and recognize His great faithfulness in the past, and look forward to all the future holds in hope. What a tremendous joy it can be to turn away from the anger and bitterness of our culture and to focus instead on the goodness of God. What a beautiful opportunity to slow down and savor the most lovely things of life: family, friends, forgiveness, the many gifts and blessings God has given to us, and most especially the gift of His Son—Emmanuel, God With Us. 

Let me encourage you today; God loves you so much, and wants to be with you. And He wants to move in your life in such a way that the world will see how good and pleasant it is to walk together.  All Saints Day, Thanksgiving, Advent and Christmas—Pull up a seat at His table of feasting this season and celebrate with Him! 

Part of this post is an excerpt from my devotional book called Living Stones, a look into walking with God in healthy community. The three sections are Understanding Church, Elements of a Strong Community, and Building Healthy Culture. If you're looking for something fresh for personal or group study, consider ordering a copy or a few! Follow the link below:

The most wonderful thing happened to me the other day! I was spending some time with our grandchildren, and on this particular day we were reading some books together. One story we read had a character who mentioned something about hearing what God said to them. It was a sweet story, and we finished that and several others before book time spilled over into another game, but our eldest gran remained on the couch beside me. With beautiful honesty and sincerity he asked, "Grandma, how can we hear God's voice?" 

What an amazing question, and we had a terrific start to what I hope will be a long and fruitful conversation in his life, with his parents and siblings, with all of his grandparents, and with our local community of faith. And I pray more and more of us will pay attention to this beautiful possibility. There is such a constant cacophony of voices trying to catch our attention, and it is vitally important that each of us learn to hear the most important voice of all.  I posted about this in September of 2018, and would like to repost that today with minimal updates...

​I met my husband when I was all of seventeen years old.  We were both freshmen on our college aquatics team, and pretty soon we were dating.  We spent some time together that spring semester before we both had to go home for the summer—he to Texas and me to Virginia.  I remember calling his house one day that summer in the days of landline phones, and talking to his prankster brother on the phone for ten whole minutes before I realized it wasn’t Eli!  Their voices seemed so similar that I did not recognize who was on the other end of the phone.

Now Eli and I have been married almost 33 years, and I really know him. We have spent far over half of our lives together.  If you do the math, that means we have shared about 23,200 pots of coffee—imagine how many thousands of conversations that time represents, how many major life events!  He has called me from remote villages on the other side of the world, on the crackliest of connections, but I still know his voice.  I can walk into a room with hundreds of people, but I can pick his voice out of the crowd any day.  
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Not only that, but when anyone announces that my husband said this or that, I know right away if they are telling the truth.  I not only know his voice after all these years, but I know his heart and the way he thinks, too.  I know just what he would say and what he wouldn’t say--I know him.    

I really committed my life to the Lord about the same time I met my husband.  When I was a new believer, I did not know how to recognize God's voice—how to know what He really said or did not say.  But after 35 years of reading the Bible, praying, pouring over great Christian books, listening to sermons, seeking, fasting, worshipping, listening in prayer—after thousands of conversations with God, I know Him. I can recognize His voice loudly and clearly among the din of other voices competing for my attention. I know what His Word says, and will not be easily fooled by imposters.  I know His plan for my life, and will not be distracted away from it.  

God is not silent, and He speaks all the time.  He is a Father who loves His children.  He wants very much for you and me to know how to recognize His voice from the many other noises and voices we are bombarded with every day.  God created us for that very purpose—fellowship—both with Himself and with each other, and He has not just spun us out on our own. He wants each of us to know Him, and to trust Him. Down through the history of His beautiful Church, we have written accounts of the many men and women who testify to the fact that He still leads and guides His children.  And it is not some special privilege reserved for only the elite, or only those of a particular denomination or fellowship, or for those of a particular nationality, race, or gender. It is for anyone who will listen. 

How do we hear His voice?  

The number one way is the Bible, plain and simple. Another name for the Bible is The Word of God, because that is exactly what it is. Many people would try to tell you that the Bible is not special, that it has nothing to say to us in this modern world, or even that it is wrong and wicked. Some say this in ignorance, having never read it or just parroting what they have heard someone else say, but others say this because they very much wish it to be true in order to justify their own choices. 
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The reality is that over a span of 2500 years, across borders and classes and cultures, God inspired and used people to write His perfect revelation of Himself to people.  It never contradicts itself, it is filled with prophecies that have come to pass hundreds of years after they were spoken, and it is utterly true and powerful.  When you and I read the Bible, we hear God speak.  Not only does it plainly communicate God's heart through its pages, The Word also has the power to speak something new and fresh to each of us each time we read it.  There is nothing like it!  It is real truth and has real answers.  It grounds us and gives us perspective about what life is truly about. It gives up hope for today and for the future. It equips us to be people who can bring real comfort and peace and change to the people all around us. ​
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"It is important that we get still to wait on God. And it is best that we get alone, preferably with our Bible outspread before us. Then if we will we may draw near to God and begin to hear Him speak to us in our hearts.” - A.W. Tozer
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Hearing God's voice is important for all of us, but especially for our kids! They are growing up in such a different world than most of us did, and need every encouragement. This is such an important theme to me, and I've woven it into my Booksellers series. If you haven't discovered the first book yet, it's a great time to order for the holidays! It is available for order online at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Target, Walmart, or you can follow the link below...

We've made it! It is the time of year when those of you not in southeast Texas can probably hear all of us down here rejoicing, for the long summer is past and autumn is finally here! Those of you not here would also laugh at us, because to us autumn is signaled when the overnight temperatures finally fall below 70 degrees, and the winter coats come out at Walmart though we still won't need them for months, if at all.

It is also the time of year when the light begins to change; it becomes softer and more muted even as the leaves begin to change colors. The days grow shorter, the very rhythm of life changes, and the whole earth seems to be reminding us that it's good to slow down. Let's spend a few minutes thinking about this today...

​Do you like to sing? Some of my happiest memories involve music in general, and singing specifically. My grandmother loved to sing, and my mother does still, so I have many happy thoughts of standing at church to sing together, or singing at the top of our lungs in the car--Do You Hear What I Hear was a particular favorite, no matter if it was Christmastime or not. We went to lots of concerts to hear my mom sing; she was in a group called The Julie Singers, which was a fantastic group of ladies in the 70s, and I wish you could have been there to hear them harmonize. And I love to think about my sister‘s love of song. She played all of her new records on repeat before repeat was even a thing, and belted them out at the top of her lungs. And I can never forget the way the man of my dreams proposed to me in song, even getting down on one knee as he strummed the guitar and sang—to this day I still have stars in my eyes from that! 

I developed a love for music at an early age and joined the school choir just as soon as that was an option, and for me that was in junior high. This was in the very early 1980s, and again for those of you too young to have been there, I wish you could’ve been because it was glorious! Musically, this was the time of the recent past meeting a new day, as music often is. So I am quite sure in retrospect that my junior high choir teacher must have been a flower child in the late 60s, and brought her deep well of hippie music with her to my early 80s junior high school. We sang Stephen Sondheim, The Beatles, The New Christy Minstrels, Judy Collins, the Mamas and the Papas, and Simon & Garfunkel, to name a few, and it is from that last portfolio in particular that a song  is forever lodged in my memory...

​I confessed another of my earworms a few posts ago, and here I go again with one line of a song that I learned in 1983, which still impacts me so frequently.

Slow down, you move too fast… 

Sometimes life can feel so frantic. Especially that certain season of life in which so many of you reading this currently reside—I like to refer to them as the carpool years: that race to make sure that everyone gets to school and work and every single activity and church and, and, and…and on time. Not just once or twice, but every day for years on end. I must confess that I believed life would automatically slow down once the kids were grown, but this seems to have been a dream...perhaps because time speeds up as we age! 

There are bills to pay, meetings to attend, papers to fill out and file, homes to maintain, birthdays to remember, friends and family to keep up with, dramas and misunderstandings and fires to put out, the list goes on and on on. Life’s daily demands are, well, demanding! 

And, here I go again harping on our phones, but I'm becoming more convinced that these little rectangles we all hold dear are actually bitterly cruel task masters—they steal so much time and drain so much emotional energy from far too many people each and every day. Not to mention that we are all seeing in real time that too much time online is making some people absolutely insane. They aren't actually trolls, they are real people—made in God's image, and someone's son or daughter— and If not for our own sakes, then for their sakes we must make real effort to come back into the real world, as the virtual world exacts a costly sum. 

It's time for a slow down.

​I would like to suggest that this is a fitting time to recall some ancient practices of our fellow believers from days gone by. There are so many that we could benefit from, and a wonderful book to engage with these disciplines is called Celebration of Discipline by Richard Foster. I highly recommend this to anyone seeking a season or a lifetime of spiritual growth. For today, I have in mind two of these practices that could help bring a bit of slow-down perspective into our lives. 

First is simplicity. In a world so insanely obsessed with more, newer, better, faster and shinier, simplicity makes a great impact. Living simply means choosing to not jump into the storage facility, racing-hamster-wheel culture that surrounds us. Simplicity is setting boundaries for myself, my money, and my time, using them all for God’s purposes and not for my own accumulation of wealth and power. It means not having more than I need for myself, so I always have plenty to share with my neighbor. It means choosing people and deep relationships over money. And it means carefully allotting the 168 hours we are all given in each week to aim for a healthy balance of relationship, work, prayer, and sleep. Not everything is in our control, but much more than we often notice is, and practicing simplicity can bring health and rest in place of chaos and disorder. 

Next is solitude. There are two kinds of people in the world: those who love to be around people all the time, and those who love not to be around people all the time. This discipline is for all of us, but mainly for the "people" people. Solitude is needing nothing but God. In a day where it is difficult to get away from electronic things and constant noise, we must seek solitude and incorporate it into our schedules. It is waiting in the presence of the Lord. It is being still and knowing that He is God. It is taking a break from the pressure for social media likes, from the constant need of affirmation from others, and from noise and chatter and conversation to rest quietly in God. There is a whole, beautiful world of God's creation to experience and enjoy, the beauty of which can fill your soul more effectively than anything else. 

As the year settles into autumn, I encourage you to think about incorporating a little more simplicity and solitude into your life. Let your heart be tuned to God's calendar this season—less light and noise, more softness and peace. Less hustle and bustle, more meaningful, face-to-face time with loved ones and with God. Less virtual reality and so much more natural reality, like walks in the woods and trips to watch the sunset in a beautiful spot nearby. Treat seriously the idea of a slow down and allow God to restore your heart and mind. 

I'll end with the beautiful exhortation to the Philippian church so long ago: 

Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!  Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.

* I can't resist mentally adding the word "rest!" here. Each time we rehearsed the song, the choir teacher would wave her hands and shout this, with a tremendous jingle of her bracelets, so that's the way the song goes in my mind! 

I spend a little time talking about the spiritual disciplines in my devotional book, Kingdom Minded. If you haven't yet read this, it could be a blessing to you this fall—click this link to order a copy for yourself or several for your small group...

This is so comforting and encouraging! Right on the heels of such a grand celebration, where everyone saw God's power fill the temple and remembered that He is real and near, God came to gently remind Solomon of a few things: the world is broken, the people in it are broken, and we all share the common dangers of wandering and amnesia.  The generation in which we all live has largely rejected God, but we the Church are moving that way right along with the current. We, the people of God, continually wander towards other things that promise to take care of us: money, our own intelligence, education, institutions, politics, even lawyers! And we continually walk the dangerous line of forgetting both who we are and who God is. Truly, there is a lot of turning away and forsaking that happens all the time, every day--but it is never God who does the leaving or forsaking. He promised again and again that He would never do such a thing. We are the ones who wander away and forget. We are the ones who turn our backs on HIm. 

​But we are not hopeless or without help!

God is still there, waiting and watching for His children to turn back to Himself, and He graciously invites us to join him in His great work of and reconciliation of all men and women and the restoration of all things. And now we are on this side of the cross, which is even more amazing. No longer is the temple far away, it is right here inside of us—GOD IS WITH US!

Yet still, as is evidenced by what this day stands for, and by what we read in the news every day, there is so much yet to be done. And this is the beauty of God's invitation. 

-If my people​, who are called by my name - that's us! All of us who love God and trust Him that Jesus is His Son. We remember who we are and that He is faithful and true to keep HIs promises. 

-Will humble themselves - we will stop setting ourselves in God's place as ruler and judge—He is God and we are not. We will remember to love God and to love our neighbors as ourselves. 

-and pray and seek my face -  we will pray! Not just think we ought to, or listen to sermons about it, or even just think about it—but we will actually turn our faces and hearts back towards God and let Him speak to us. We will set aside the time and prioritize true and frequent conversation with God. 

-and turn away from their wicked ways -  each of us has to do this on our own, and God is so faithful and just to forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Search us and know us, God! Once we have done this individually, we can turn away from wickedness collectively. This too requires a serious conversation with God, who  is quite able and willing to show us the way forward Himself, once we finally ask Him and listen and obey Him. 



This leads me to my proposition for all of us today: let's take God's invitation seriously, and let's pray. The youngest generation among us, my precious grandchildren and yours, are inheriting a chaotic world, which will only get worse if we continue on this current road. The time has come for a fresh dedication of the temple—our hearts. We don't need to wait for someone else to organize it or to invite the big name speakers and worship leaders to come lead us. We don't need a fancy building or a huge sound system or smoke machine. We just need to make the time and keep the date with God, not once, but regularly.

Just for example's sake, the link below gives some ideas on what a grassroots prayer movement could look like. God's special invitation is for all of us, no matter what denomination or practice, no matter what anything, to get a private audience with the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. And best of all, our special invitation to such a meeting comes from God Himself. 

The idea is that wherever you are, at home or traveling, you take some time each Friday to get right into the middle of things and pray. Why Friday? Just because you have to start somewhere, and Fridays are a great day to do something special. Why the city center? Our local business owners and neighbors would love it if all the Christians came for a meal or a coffee, and strolled the downtown as we prayed. So few of us take time to be a part of the places we are from—we don't see or know each other or know what's happening in the heart of our communities. Let's change that, and get into the middle of it all, accepting God's invitation to turn back to Him. 

Imagine if every believer in every town did this on a regular basis? We all spend so much time and energy worrying and fretting and tweeting that things are not going well in our hearts, homes, schools, cities, churches, governments—but none of that time and energy put into worrying and fretting and tweeting about it does anything at all. Instead of worrying and arguing, let's pray, and let's see what our faithful God will do in our hearts, homes, and communities.

Remember what He said—If my people...then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land. ​Yes and amen! 

Happy 7th anniversary to us! 

So much has happened in our home since August of 2018, and I am sure the same is true in your life. Our daughters have added quite a mighty host of incredible new people to our family tree, and the joy of knowing all of them and watching them grow is a truly wonderful experience. Eli has always teased me that I've been a grandmother at heart since he met me when I was seventeen, and he's not wrong. I know all of the other grandparents reading this will join me in encouraging you who are younger that this part of life is amazing!  

I hope you can join me in looking back over the last seven years and rejoicing in the many dangers, toils, and snares God has brought you through, and also over the many incredible blessings He has bestowed.  Life is filled with ups and downs, and with plot twists that no one could see coming, but through it all, God is faithful and good, and you can trust Him with everything you've got. Thank you so much for allowing me to share thoughts and encouragement with you each month, and I pray that this year, your heart and home are filled with the goodness and nearness of God like never before. 

Are you familiar with the concept of an ear worm? Merriam-Webster defines this little bug as a song or melody that keeps repeating in one's mind, and we can all relate to this. I cannot tell you what I went upstairs for a few minutes minutes ago, but I can still sing you the original Diet Coke commercial in its entirety, which debuted in 1982 when I was 10 years old. (You're going to drink it just for the taste of it!) My distance-lane friend on the swim team and I used to try to hum the beginning of a song just before a big set, so our brains would have something to catch onto to break the monotony of the back and forth in the pool—preferably something with a little story to it (This here's a story about Billy Joe and Bobbie Sue...).

But the champion ear worm in my life has got to be a little ditty that someone, somewhere wrote for an ESL curriculum that our school district used in the early 1990's. I was teaching a wonderful class full of fourth graders, most of whom were indeed learning English as their second language, and the unit was about clothing. One fall day in 1994, my ear worm came in and has never left. That makes over thirty years that at least two or three times per week when I enter my closet to pick out my clothes for the day, here it comes...

What are you wearing today?
What are you wearing today?
What are you wearing, what are you wearing, what are you wearing today?

I've got my red dress on, I've got my red dress on, that's what I'm wearing today...


And on and on it goes! I don't suppose this ear worm will ever leave, but my attention was caught the other day when my husband and I were listening to our morning Bible selection, and we happened to be in the book of Colossians. It was a particular passage of chapter 3 that stuck out to me:
​

We live in a world that many would call post-Christian. This means that so many of us love the advantages of living in a civilization built upon Biblical principles, but too few have ever read the Bible for ourselves to understand how Jesus radically changed the pagan world. We also live in a culture that thinks it knows exactly what the Bible says and what Jesus taught, when, in fact, they do not. Too many assume they know what Jesus taught, though they have not listened to Him. We're not far away from a culture devoid of sound Biblical knowledge, which would be a lot like the world in which the Apostle Paul first wrote this letter.

The new believers in Colossae would have been mostly Gentile, and therefore life in the Messiah would have been a new concept to them, too. People there were putting their faith in Jesus, which is beautiful and wonderful! But this letter is to help the believers understand that if we're going to be followers of Jesus, His Spirit is going to make us more like Jesus and less like the world all the time. 

The Good News is that Jesus came and defeated death, hell, and the grave, making it possible for us to be with God, now and forever! This is truly amazing news, and His grace is fully sufficient for all of us. There is no list of do's and don'ts attached to His grace--all we have to do is believe Him. 

When we do believe Him, and when we begin to walk with Him, we're going to notice some things in our lives beginning to change. We're going to start caring about Him more and more, and we're going to start noticing that there are lots of other people around. We're going to notice that we are not the center of the universe, but Jesus is, and He is always loving and serving others. We might even notice that we begin to care about caring for others, too. 

So Paul instructs us...

Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. Because of these, the wrath of God is coming. You used to walk in these ways, in the life you once lived. But now you must also rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator.

That list of behaviors is so, so terrible and hurtful and repellant...and commonplace. If you're brave enough, just look at any social media for a moment for evidence. Since Jesus has made new life possible for us, let's all take that junk off and put on something new and beautiful and magnetic! And here we return to my ear worm--what are you wearing today? As a follower of Jesus, you have a choice. 
​

Compassion - this word means to put yourself into someone else’s shoes, and to feel with and for someone else. Jesus had a lot to say about this, and reminded us many times to love our neighbor as we love ourselves. Of course, this would be more difficult to do if you loathed yourself, and perhaps that is a thought for a future blog post. But the fact remains that most of us care very deeply for our own skins and our own feelings and our own reputations, and we would do so much better if we could remember that other people also have feelings and skins and reputations, and that God loves them just as much as He loves me. In one of the greatest plot twists of all time, Jesus also encourages us to love and pray for our enemies, making the list of people for whom we should not display compassion very short, indeed.


Kindness - have you ever been in a place of utter helplessness? Maybe something as simple as running out of gas on the side of a rural road with no services in sight. How wonderful it is when someone pulls up in their pickup truck with a gas can! Or maybe you were a little kid who forgot to bring his lunch—how wonderful it was for your friend to share his sandwich with you. Kindness has so much to do with sharing, doesn’t it? Sharing our resources, including time and money and possessions, sharing encouragement, sharing kind words, most of all sharing the love of Jesus Christ that was so lavishly shared with each of us by our good Father. in this world of cutthroat vengeance, a little bit of kindness goes such a long way.


Humility - there is so much wrapped up into this small word. We have also been listening to Proverbs each morning the last week or two, since that is just how our yearly Bible plan is falling, and Solomon had so much to say about humility. Most of the warning proverbs against a lack of wisdom, a lack of self control, or a lack of thoughtfulness are all wrapped up with a lack of humility. It is very difficult to watch a person who has no self-awareness, isn't it? Trying to blame everyone and everything else while failing to recognize one's own faults is quite pathetic, but a sad trap we are all in danger of falling into. This is where humility comes in. Allow me to point out again that Jesus talked about this so often: we need to love each other as we love ourselves. This means we must step down off the pedestal of thinking that we know better and are better, and realize that each person is made in God‘s image, not just me. Jesus died for me, yes, but he also died for my neighbor and for my enemy. Humility means understanding that I am not the center of the universe, Jesus is, and I can trust Him to set things right. I don’t need to take that mantle upon myself.


Gentleness - this word is often best understood in the confines of a nursery. Most of us intuitively grasp, or at least can learn, that the larger person must be so careful and tender with the smaller, helpless person. I love watching our daughter and son-in-law teach the older children to be so gentle around their baby sister. It is such a delight to watch a the older children learn to control their power so that their little baby sister will be safe. I think that gentleness is this controlled power. A gentle person is not a weak person at all; in fact, they are very strong, but have a wonderful grasp of self-control and a great esteem for the other person in the equation. A gentle person is one who graciously lays down their own strength for someone else. Gentleness is a strong person lifting up someone else in love and self-sacrifice.


Patience - it is so difficult to fully understand what patience means in our have-it-your-way culture. As I age, it is so strange to realize that the vast majority of the population right now is younger than me, and have no idea what it was like in my childhood or in my parents' and certainly my grandparents', especially if they never asked any questions or wanted to hear any stories from the people older than them. So I think it’s funny to remember the early '80s and how fascinated we all were by the VHS player, and the fact that you could watch a movie again anytime you wanted to, and not just have to wait for it to come out again in the theater someday. I remember how fascinated we all were by the microwave oven, and especially magical microwave popcorn, which seemed better since you did not have to heat up all that oil and make such a mess (though everyone knows now it is clearly not better!) But this is kind of pathetic because I'm a part of the first generation where fast-food culture began to erode everything that had come before. I would much rather remember the stories from my own grandmother's experience, as she was born in 1900 and really understood what it was like to live a life at a patient speed.

I was laughing with some friends the other day about the invention of the answering machine, another 1980s special. Before that you tried to call someone, and if it just kept ringing, you knew they weren’t available—try again later. Now we absolutely freak out if someone doesn’t text us back within five minutes! Patience is not a virtue that our society reveres, but it is something we can put on like a garment. We can trust God to someday make things make sense, to bring about justice, to hold each of us accountable for our actions, to provide everything that we need, and to make us in to the men and women He created us to be. More of us might consider taking the time to either plant a garden or learn a craft, to work a little bit more patience into our lives.

Forgiveness - Have you ever watched someone trapped in unforgiveness? It is so sad to witness. A friend said it is like watching someone personally drink poison in hopes of killing someone else. Jesus came to change all of that destruction and division! He gave His life for each of us, that the bitter trap of "getting even" could be broken, once and for all. He paid the price for all of the evil in the world, and now generously shares His blood-bought forgiveness with us. Put this forgiveness on like the most beautiful outfit you've ever had—because that's exactly what it is. The world is so full of outrage, wrath, lawsuits, mean comments, get-even, bloodthirsty nastiness. As followers of Christ, let's follow Him in laying down our lives and rights for one another in forgiveness. 

Love - the greatest force in the universe is God's greatest gift to you. All of the fairy tales speak of this power: the self-sacrifice of the bravest in the land. It is a power that requires another as beneficiary, and there are plenty of people surrounding us that need a visible demonstration of God's love that you and I can show them. We can put on His love each day, and as Paul wrote in another letter to another group of believers find that God's love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.  It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails

We can make a conscious choice to put on all of these things each day.

Did you wake up feeling grumpy or angry this morning? Try reaching into your heart closet and pulling out God's compassion. Wrap yourself up in it, so instead of sowing more death and destruction and division into this broken world, you can be a part of healing a little bit of it.

Are you walking around today mulling over an offense that you just can’t (aka won’t!) let go? Instead of letting that offense eat you alive, reach into your heart closet and pull out some of God's kindness and humility. The Bible clearly teaches that none of us is without sin, which means that we had better not pick up any rocks to throw at anybody else. Wrap yourself in the garments of Christ, Who gave His life for each of us when we were still His enemies.

Are you feeling frustrated and impatient? Reach for the garment of patience today. Slow down and take some deep breaths, and remember that God is absolutely in control and sees everything. Do not be deceived, God cannot be mocked, and each person will reap what he sows for good or for ill, in God‘s timing. We can trust Him to be a perfect keeper of time. We get into a lot of trouble and cause a lot of trouble when we try to take the timetable into our own hands.

The world wants us to put on its garments of impatience, hostility, vengeance, fear, and a complete lack of self control. But God has given us free access to the most glorious closet, available 24 hours a day. He has done the hard work of conquering death, hell and the grave, and now invites us into His beautiful work of restoration and reconciliation.

It’s time for a wardrobe refresh for so many of us! Our families, friends, neighbors, and coworkers are so hungry for someone to dare to be a non-conformist and break out the beautiful garments of peace. Reach to this wonderful closet today and clothe yourself in the dignity and beauty of Christ. 

Thank you so much for sharing these thoughts with me. I'd love to introduce you to a fun, wholesome mystery for the young adult or just young-at-heart reader in your life called Friday Night on the Frio River—you can read more about it on the books portion of this blog. It's available on Amazon or any online bookstore, or just click the link below to order your copy today! 

Don't just take my word for it...a real-life reader (age 12) set down the book after finishing the last page and declared, "This is going to be a best-seller!"

The recent flooding in Texas has been a disaster for so many—if you would like to be a part of relief efforts, may I encourage you to give to an organization which has proven itself trustworthy to bring help and hope in such times...