Good Memories, Good Parents...

I've been doing a lot of writing lately. Working perhaps.....maybe.....hopefully toward a book. To set the stage for the story I want to tell of God's hand and work in my life, I realized I needed to begin with my childhood. I was anxious about this at first - didn't think I had many childhood memories. Boy was I wrong. My fingers couldn't type quick enough to keep up with the occasions that filled my mind. Memories like.....

...the many girly games of "house" played with my older brother Andy. Though I have no clue how I managed to con him into these dramas, I distinctly remember them always containing some climactic scene where me or my best friend Ashley would have a baby.

...the day I hauled Nestle cocoa from the kitchen pantry back to my bedroom in my yellow plastic shopping cart. Somehow the cap managed to fall off, leaving dark cocoa powder all over our clean ivory carpet and leaving my little mind no other option than to clean it up with soap and water. Boy did that get interesting!

...dad's bedtime snacks! Toast and honey always took the prize. To this day I remember the crunchy-yet-soggy texture magic that happened when the melted butter and warm honey oozed down into the crispy crevices of that single piece of bread. Dad always sliced it in nine pieces, and I always saved the middle piece for last. No crusty edges – just pure, gooey, toasty perfection! 

...the night that dad was lifting weights and putting away laundry at the same time. Bare-chested, he decided it would be fun to get a laugh out of me by modeling mom's bra. Classic!

...mom's errands. Mom would often leave the house and say she was going to run "errands." Every time she did that I supposed she was going to spend time with a young lady at our church named Erin. I guess I thought they were quite good friends.

...the day I busted Andy's little slam-dunk trampoline by jumping on it in my church shoes.

...me and Andy's tadpole colonies. Every spring we would visit the nearby streams and ponds, collect tiny black tadpoles, and relocate them to our plastic, backyard kiddie-pool where we watched them turn into frogs and jump away! 

...Sunday afternoon 2-on-2 basketball. Mom and Andy vs. me and Dad. Mom and Andy always won. I found it quite frustrating.

...the day my mom took me to the principal's office! She was my first grade teacher, and we had these 

 good behavior charts out in the hallway. If we were good enough each day we would get stickers for our charts. Well, one girl brought her own stickers from home and snuck out in the hall to embelish her chart. Seeing the need to deliver justice, I also snuck out to remedy the situation. I wasn't slick enough though - I got caught red handed - and sent to the Principal's office! That was a very intimidating day for me. I think I may still be recovering :).

...me and Andy's "sicknesses." Mema had cable TV, we did not. The magic of Flipper happened on Mema's TV, it did not happen at our house. Andy and I discovered that a convincing show of puniness at school would win us at trip to cable TV at Mema's house for the day! Shh, don't tell mom.

As I've recalled these memories, I've realized afresh what incredible parents I have. Parents who filled my childhood home with love and safety and stability. Parents who were not too consumed in their jobs to spend time with me and my brother. Parents who worked through any disagreements they may have had in order to stay together and stay in love for life. Parents who, with the help of God, provided a home that enabled the wonderful memories I have today.

Though I do not have children yet, I pray that God will enable Nick and I to provide this sort of home for our children. If you have kids, of any age, I beg you to be intentional in your raising of them: that they may enjoy these sort of memories one day and that they may have a home that empowers them to thrive in our dark world.

How Great Is Our God

Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his Hand, 

or with the breadth of his hand marked off the heavens? 

Who has held the dust of the earth in a basket, 

or weighed the mountains on the scales and the hills in a balance? 

Who has understood the mind of the Lord, 

or instructed Him as his counselor? 

Who did the Lord consult to enlighten Him, 

and who taught Him the right way? 

Who was it that taught Him knowledge 

or showed Him the path of understanding?

God made the earth by His power; 

He founded the world by His wisdom 

and stretched out the heavens by His understanding. 

When He thunders, the waters in he heavens roar; 

He makes clouds rise from the ends of the earth. 

He sends lightning with the rain 

and brings out the wind from His storehouses...

He sits enthroned above the circle of the earth, 

and its people are like grasshoppers. 

He stretches out the heavens like a canopy, 

and spreads them out like a tent to live in.

Lift your eyes and look to the heavens: Who created all these?

He who brings out the starry host one by one, and calls them each by name.

Because of His great power and mighty strength, not one of them is missing...

Do you not know? Have you not heard?

The Lord is the everlasting God, 

the Creator of the ends of the earth.

He will not grow tired or weary, 

and His understanding no one can fathom.

Isaiah 40: 12-14, Jeremiah 10:12-13, Isaiah 40:22, 26, 28

How Great is our God. How tiny am I.

Enough said.

What Are You Hungry For?

 Job 23:12 (NIV)

I have not departed from the commands of his lips;

I have treasured the words of his mouth more than my daily bread.

Job’s desire for God’s words was greater than his desire for food. Think about that. Wow. I wonder how many of us can say the same.  How many of us honestly have a stronger appetite, a greater desire, a louder craving for the Word of God than we do for necessary, daily food?

One of my favorite bible teachers, Chip Ingram, says he lives by this rule: “No Word, No Bread.” He has established a personal discipline where he does not eat breakfast until he has first met with God through His Word. He is more concerned with feeding and filling His spirit than with pleasing and catering-to his flesh. We see this same priority structure woven all throughout scripture. From cover to cover God longs to be our chief appetite: “Let me be first. I want to be most important to you. Don’t let anything become more important than me, please! You cannot imagine what your life will become if you will only make me truly first. Do whatever you need to do and rearrange whatever you need to rearrange so that I and my Word will be your utmost desire.”

It is so easy to become enslaved by our appetites - for food, for money, for possessions, for relationships, for power, or for sex.  There exists no shortage of worldly pursuits to which we can devote our time. There exists no lack of pleasures that distract us from a daily craving for the Word of God, a daily priority of seeking Him through His Word.

God’s Word is a timeless supply of wisdom that knows no bounds, a wealth of riches beyond our comprehension. It contains all that we need for the living of life! It will teach, correct, and guide us[1]—but not if we don’t read it.  Not if we are so full of the things of this world that we have no room to hunger for Him.

May we be as Job and understand that the appetites of our flesh must not come before our appetite to know God through the pages of His Word!

---

[1] 2 Timothy 3:16, Psalm 119:105

Eve... Proven by Science!

Recent genetic study and discovery has led scientists to conclude that all human beings are descended from the same mother. Proof of this, they say, is in the  shared mitochondrial DNA of all humans. Time magazine recently printed an article by a scientist named Michael Lemonick. In "Everyone's Genealogical Mother," Lemonick writes:

"If family trees were charted indefinitely backward, they would eventually converge on a small  group of ancients who were ancestors of us all. Now biologists suggest in a report to Nature that a single female living between 140,000 and 280,000 years ago* in Africa was the ancestor of everyone on the earth today. Inevitably - and to the probable delight of creationists - many scientists are calling her 'Eve.'"

How awesome! In our DNA, we literally all have a genetic link to Eve - God's first woman!  

Though Eve was God's first created woman, she unfortunately did not prove to be God's first spiritually obedient and submitted woman. In the Garden of Eden, Eve discovered that she had options other than God's will and God's design for her life. She discovered she had choices. She believed the lie that there were things more fulfilling, more pleasing, and more self-promoting than what God had commanded. God had assigned to Eve the packed-full-of-divine-potential tasks of being a helper to her husband, a bearer and nurturer of life, and an advancer of God's Kingdom on Earth. Yet, in a moment of her selfish desire and Adam's passivity, she ate the forbidden fruit. She abandoned God's plans and chose her own plan.

How awesome that we share Eve's DNA! 

How unfortunate that we share Eve's struggle!

Like she, we struggle with wanting to be in control of our lives, our plans, and our ambitions rather than submitting to God's scriptural design and trusting that His ways will produce the best results.

*Though I support the truth that we all have a connection to Eve,  I do not support the evolutionary timeline that formulates Earth to be hundreds of thousands of years old.

Trust and Obey

In the past year, God has led me in wonderful ways. I have sought Him sincerely, He has answered me clearly through His Word, I have stepped out in faith to obey what He said, and my husband and I are now reaping the wonderful, abundant-life rewards of having trusted Him.

The question now is, "Will we continue to trust and obey?" You see, as I prioritize my relationship with the Lord through honest prayer and careful study of His Word, it seems that God is pointing out another area where I need to trust Him and obey Him. I have to admit, this area is uncomfortable. It is not what was in my plans, I cannot see how all the details are going to work, and there's a little part of me that's afraid that trusting and following His way will cause me to miss out on something. A great book I'm reading says, "The truth is that if we truly trusted Him, we would be able to let go of our fears, do what we know He wants us to do, and believe He will work it all out - regardless of what it looks like."

Once we hear from God, we have to make a decision to believe and trust, regardless of how we feel or whether we understand why. If we know we need to do something, we cannot wait until the fear is gone. God's Word is clear: Believe Him - not your feelings. After we take the step of faith that He asking, we will most likely see the next step becoming clear, and then the next, and then the next... Before long, God will have accomplished amazing things in and through our life; things far surpassing what we would have accomplished by staying on our own comfortable, common, reasonable path.

Not convinced? Well, don't take my word for it, take God's Word instead! In Joshua chapter 3, there is an incredible story of what God did for His people in a seemingly impossible situation because they chose to trust and obey Him. It was time for the Israelites (hundreds of thousands of them) to take possession of their Promised Land. But, in order to get there, they had to cross the Jordan River. There were no bridges back in those days, and the river was in full flood stage! As they got closer and closer to that river, I wonder what fear and doubt must have been screaming in their hearts?!?! Still, they were determined to obey the seemingly impossible command that God had given them: cross the river.

So the people left their camp to cross the Jordan,and the priests who were carrying the Ark of the Covenant went ahead of them. It was the harvest season, and the Jordan was overflowing its banks. But as soon as the feet of the priests who were carrying the ark touched the water at the river's edge, the water above that point began backing up a great distance away....And the water below that point flowed on to the Dead Sea until the riverbed was dry. Then all the people crossed over near the town of Jericho. (Joshua 3:14-16)


My book points out, "It wasn't until the people actually stepped into the water that God actually moved. The same will often be true for us. We act, then God moves."

I'm closer to the Lord than I've ever been in my life. I'm coming to know Him deeper and deeper through the pages of His Word. Still, though, I must admit - I am really wrestling with the life and the steps He's asking of me. I know in my head that the life He has to offer is more magnificent than any I could ever imagine. I know that His plans for me are so much better than what even the best of my mind could comprehend. I also know, however, that the attainment of that life will come only as I choose to trust Him. Just like the Israelites, I will embrace my Promised Land as I push aside my fear and cling to the truth that after I step into the water, God will deliver! My and your experience of His great abundance will occur proportionate to our deliberate decisions to obey Him, making what will feel like risky and costly decisions, regardless of our feelings. Our feelings are completely irrelevant. The execution of His Will is all that matters. Will we have the courage to trust and obey?

My Deliverance From The Rain

Yesterday I wrote about the rain. I hope you read it. I have experienced first hand how the rain and storms of life are invaluable tools in the hand of the sovereign Lord for the chiseling of our lives. If there's anyone out there struggling under relentless rain or chains of oppression or addiction, this story is for you:

Though I was raised in a Christian home with a “normal,” stable childhood, I was fully invested in the lies and compulsions of anorexia by the age of 12. My body and image were of utmost importance – an idol – and therefore food was an enemy. Anorexia morphed into bulimia once my low weight began to cause difficulty in everyday functions. I lived in a world consumed with self. I knew nothing other than food, exercise, calorie counting, and the torment of the scale. My weight went up and down numerous times; between 88 and 180 pounds. The cycle of bingeing and purging robbed me of a normal or enjoyable high school or college experience. These years were marred by deep depression, loneliness, isolation, and the destructive relationships that logically result when a person lives in disgust with himself and looks to others for love and fulfillment. I was utterly unable to undertake the vital task of investing in and studying for my future because of the chains that enveloped me – from age 12 to age 22. In the latter years, food simply became my best friend. In my thwarted perception, it provided the friendship, satisfaction, acceptance, purpose, and intimacy for which I longed. I desperately needed and wanted freedom from the bondage that was controlling my life, and I even spent over a year in different Christian treatment facilities. During these times, I grew to know my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ in increasingly deeper ways, but the freedom and deliverance that I saw promised in His Word continued to escape me. Each time I left a treatment program to return home, I walked right back into a lifestyle of destructive eating and destructive relationships. I didn’t want to. I desperately didn’t want to. But, I had to. I craved to. I was hooked. Many people tried to help and intervene, but my life remained only and always a battle. I was defeated and hopeless.

Then, as impossible as it sounds, my life was completely transformed in the course of four months. One September Sunday morning at church, my dad introduced me to a gorgeous, curly-haired guy named Nick.  At the time, I assumed Nick would be just one more guy whose affection would provide temporary escape from the emotional pain of my daily life. I could not have been more wrong!!! By December of that year Nick and I were deeply in love, and the freedom for which I longed had quickly become reality. Compulsions that were woven into the very fiber of my being loosed their grip with miraculous speed. The only conceivable way to explain those four months is that my merciful Heavenly Father finally looked down upon my brokenness and said, “I will not let you and Satan ruin your life any longer!  It's time to get on with the plans that I have for you!” Just like God sent Jesus (the heavenly bridegroom) to earth to save and deliver us all, He symbolically sent Nick (my earthly bridegroom) to help save and deliver me from my bondage.

Nick and I have now been married for 4 ½ incredible years, and Jesus Christ is the Lord of our marriage. I love my life! It is full of purpose. I walk in consistent victory over the sins and behaviors that once paralyzed me.

My message to anyone wrapped in chains of addiction and hopelessness is this: the power of God is available to you, just as it was to me. He is able to deliver you from bondage of any kind, no matter how deep and no matter how dark. If you want to know more, I’m happy to talk….

Let it Rain

It's raining today. As I sit and write at my kitchen table, looking out the window, everything is a soggy mess. I cannot see the sun. Constant drops have driven away the hungry birds that usually play at our feeders. Dead, brown leaves droop on their limbs, as if the weight of the world were on their veins. Puddles sit where flowers were. It seems a completely dismal, lifeless day. But, without this rain there would be no life. Without this rain the birds and animals that speak to us of God's creation would have nothing to drink and would cease to be. Without this rain, the trees would have no strength by which to flourish once more and provide shade this spring. The crops would have no impetus by which to yield and feed the earth. There would be no lush green grass on which little feet could run, no brilliant blooms to be picked by the one in love, no fertile soil to be employed by the dependent farmer. The rain is a must. It yields life. Let it rain.

I am reminded of the value of rain, of affliction, of trouble, of trial in my life.

"It was good for me to be afflicted so that I might learn your decrees." Psalm 119:71
"Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now I obey your word." Psalm 119:67
"Surely it was for my benefit that I suffered such anguish." Isaiah 38:17

When the rain comes in our lives (as God promises it will), we usually cringe, cry, complain, and seek to be consoled. I have done this time and time again. What if, instead, we embraced the rain? What if we chose to give praise and thanks to God for the affliction of our circumstance because we just knew it would turn out for our benefit? God does tell us to "give thanks in all circumstances" (1 Thessalonians 5:18). When are we actually, really going to do that? When are we going to resolve to quit ignoring scriptures such as that one? We can and should give thanks in and for the rainy, dreary, troublesome circumstances of our lives because we trust our God to utilize them in making us "mature and complete" (James 1:2-4). If the aim of our lives and desire of our hearts is really to be closer to Him, we should rejoice in the midst of our affliction! Our trying circumstances become nuggets of pure gold in our lives when we embrace them with the determination to prove ourselves faithful. This is not impossible. It merely requires a change of mind and outlook. It is good for me to be afflicted - because of the Kingdom yield it is producing in my life!!!

I can now look back and shout from the rooftops that it has been good for me to be afflicted! I would not be experiencing the hunger that I am for my Lord, escaping the lukewarmness that poisons so many, had He not allowed me to battle and suffer like I did. I'll tell you more about that in my next entry. In the midst of it, I was not thankful. Now, though, I am thankful. My rain has produced a harvest. I'd love to hear how your rain has done the same.

Rain yields life. Let it rain...