Created: Reflections Part 3

We are created in the image of God.  Sally shared beautifully that Jesus is the image of the invisible God, and that He is an exact representation of God.  (see Genesis 1:27, Leviticus 26:1, Jeremiah 9:24, Hebrews 1:3, I Peter 2:9).  We are created in His image and are called to reflect Him so that others may see what He is like.  In order to reflect Him though, we must understand and know Him.  The study of God through His Word reveals wisdom that impacts our lives and how we live and express Him to others.  Our heritage is that we were made to reflect the divine.

Reflect:  v. to reproduce, show

I am learning that I can only reflect what I see.  What my eyes are fixed on is what I will become.  We become what we behold.  What am I beholding?  Where is my focus?    Am I focused on what I need to accomplish, on how I want my children to behave, or am I focusing on my loving Heavenly Father? Am I studying His word and discovering how Jesus interacted with his disciples?  How did he treat his disciples in their lack of faith, in their disobedience, as they interrupted him during his quiet time?  My heart's desire is to reflect His image.  This has been written on a piece of paper by my computer for several years.  This will not just happen because I wrote it down and look at it every day.  I must invest...invest in prayer, in studying the Word, in understanding who it is that I desire to reflect.  And I must stop wasting my time focusing on things that are not true, honorable, just, pure, lovely, commendable.

Sally also presented a picture of Fatherhood by looking at God the Father through the focal point of Jesus.  What beautiful imagery she shared as we explored the attributes and roles of God.  Do these attributes characterize your life?

Parent, Lover, Creator, Provider, Shepherd, Teacher, Trainer, Servant, Son, Redeemer, Righteous Judge, Lord of Hosts.

I hope that one day Sally will put her created message into a book.  The depth of study and wisdom is beyond the scope of a blog post and worthy of savoring over time again and again.

My encouragement for us today is to think about what we reflect to our children, our husband, our friends and family.  And start beholding who it is we were created to reflect.

"We are all starved for the glory of God, not self.  There is greater healing for the soul in beholding splendor than there is in beholding self."    John Piper

Photo from Hannah Joy Patterson

Created: Reflections Part 2

The first part of the Created message that Sally shared with us is that we are created for God, by God, to know, love and serve God.  My pastor frequently says, "If God created life, then He gets to define it."  God defines His greatest commandment to us in Luke 10:27, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself." (see also Mark 12:30, Deuteronomy 6:5, John 17, Revelation 2:4)

Sally shared that God designed the life that each of us lives...those children, that husband, those deaths...these are all our portion, our cup.  That is the place you can most glorify God.  We have a choice each day to take our cup.  Jesus accepted His cup and by taking it brought salvation.  As we live our lives each day, ask, "I wonder what you have to teach me here?"

Through reflecting on the scripture and truth that Sally imparted, I am learning that the cultivation and expression of this love and choosing each day to take my portion, will not just happen because I think about it every now and then.  It is an active, intentional, daily process.  Not motivated by guilt, obligation, or fear, but out of the desire of my heart to know my creator, be more like Him and reflect His love and glory to those I am around each day.

Cultivate: v.  to promote or improve the growth of by labor and attention

I need to cultivate loving God, loving scripture, and allowing this transformation and filling of my heart to pour over onto those entrusted to my care.  I need to cultivate these things in my children by intentionally seeing all of the moments in my day with them as my portion, my place to best glorify God. 

Several months ago God spoke to my heart that I need to "take time to receive."  I spend a lot of my time giving to my children, husband, and those around me and even at times feeling like I am giving in my quiet time as I pour out my heart to Him.  But He clearly showed me that I need to be still, be quiet, and take the time to receive from Him.  The imagery was of a little girl curled up in a big comfy chair with her loving father.  She does not feel restless, desiring to get up and get her list of tasks accomplished for the day.  She really is not even thinking of anything other than soaking up her father's presence and love.  And after receiving from God, we will have the ability to cultivate.  This is what we were created for.

My encouragement to you is to cultivate intentionally today.

And for a little motivation to cultivate loving scripture, leave a comment with a Bible verse that you would like to memorize.  I will randomly choose the winner, and send you the scripture in adhesive vinyl (can be safely removed, but not reused) for you to put on your wall, your mirror, your journal or anywhere else you will see it each day.  You can choose the font and size too.

Photo courtesy coriwittman.com

Created: Reflections From My Mom Heart Weekend....Part 1

  

"What may happen when the redeemed soul, beyond all hope and nearly beyond belief, learns at last that she has pleased Him whom she was created to please. There will be no room for vanity then. She will be free from the miserable illusion that it is her doing. With no taint of what we should now call self-approval she will most innocently rejoice in the thing that God has made her to be..." 
C. S. Lewis Weight of Glory

Created. 

Not a mistake.  Not an accident.  Not a mere happenstance.  Created.  And to be created, there must be a Creator.  And to be created, there must be a purpose, a reason for the created one to be created.

I had the blessing of learning from Sally Clarkson and a precious group of women this past weekend through Whole Heart Ministries' Leader Intensive Training.  Sally shared her heart with us and discussed what we as women are created to be.  We are created for God's glory, to love and serve Him.  We are created in God's image. We are created for marriage.  We are created with a purpose.  We are created to be a mother.  We are created to be an artist.  We are created to be a teacher.  We are created for ministry.  We are created for people, to love and disciple others. 
I would love to expound on each of these topics and share the hours of truth that Sally shared with us, and in time I hope to as I pray and study my notes and His Word.  My heart was molded in new ways and filled in ways that I did not imagine could happen.  I am so thankful to God for orchestrating the details and bringing all of these women together who wholeheartedly want to serve and glorify Him more than anything else.  I met women who are real, thoughtful, passionate, prayer warriors, servant hearted, and love unconditionally.  My heart is full of gratitude for their willingness to open their hearts, share their experiences, encourage and pray together. 
Many deep, life changing things happened in my heart through studying God's word and praying together.  My home will be a different place...less harsh, more affirming, more nurturing, more guiding and purposeful.  I also received clarity and inspiration for many practical changes in the day to day.  One thing that God spoke to my heart was to write down what I see God creating in each of my children.  They are all so unique, and God created each of them with a different personality.  I prayed for each child and asked God to give me eyes to see them as He sees them and then recorded on a card for each child what He showed me.  If I had to choose one word to describe Sally's mothering/parenting it would be intentional.  She is intentional about loving, training, nurturing, and inspiring her children.  One of the ways she intentionally loves them and encourages them is through one on one time in her room.  She creates beauty and invites them in to share it with her.  So after I had written on the cards for my children, I prepared a tray with a candle, chocolates and the card and invited my children one at a time for alone time with me.  I shared with each child how I prayed and studied God's word with other mommies while in Colorado and that God showed me things that he is creating in each of them.  My son made me giggle as he plopped down on the couch and shoved the entire piece of chocolate into his mouth at once and looked at me with this expression of, "Okay, what's next?"  As I shared with him, he relaxed and talked and talked.  Each of their faces glowed after our time together.  Later in the day as I was moving the laundry from the washer to the dryer, I heard my "out of the box" son (dressed in full cowboy gear) reading his card to himself, "I am thoughtful, I am loving, I am a friend, I am a warrior...." When I poked my head around the corner, he was folding and tucking the card back in his pocket.  My heart was full and yes, the tears flowed.  My son whom I love so dearly, the one we have had many challenges with this year, felt God's love through his mommy today and is beginning to see a vision for what God created him to be.  Thank you, Sally.  You are an amazing mentor, friend, spiritual mother, and I am forever changed through the truth you allow God to teach you and so graciously share with others.

Chapter Eight Thoughts

I have taken quite a long blogging break from both our family's blog and the book club.  My word for this year is focus, and I needed some time to just do that.  To focus on the source of my peace, my joy, my strength.  To focus on the one who is all grace, all love.  To focus on His calling for my life, both big picture and in this season and seek clarity in it all.  God never fails to meet us where we are, to restore our soul, to give us what we need for each moment.
Thank you for your beautiful posts, for sharing how God is using this book in your life to make you more like Him and to bring Him glory.  I love sharing this journey with friends from all over the country and feeling such a connectedness and understanding.  Your lives are a beautiful encouragement to me and you have filled many numbers in my eucharisteo notebook.

Chapter eight....trust.  God revealed a diagram to me as I journaled through this chapter.  My word last year was joy, and Ann spoke so beautifully about the connectedness between joy and trust in this chapter.

"Isn't joy worth the effort of trust?"  Trust is work and must be intentional and focused.  "There is no joy without trust."  "Remembering with thanks is what causes us to trust...to really believe."  "Opening the hand to receive the moments.  Trusting what is received to be grace."

My diagram looks something like this.....Focus on eucharisteo.....eucharisteo leads to/causes.....Trust....trust leads to/causes....Joy!  Simple, but powerful in my heart as several years of surrender and study of His word came together.

I am learning to open the hand......to receive the moments.....to trust what is being received as grace.  I am learning that it is okay for this to be work...to pick up the pen in the moment and count it, write it down, close my mouth and write it down...it is hard when my flesh wants to be frustrated, to complain...but "isn't joy worth the effort of trust?"  Oh, yes it is....and I choose joy.

Ann Voskamp Interview

Hi!  I came across this interview with Ann recently, and her words encouraged and challenged me greatly!!  If you haven't seen it, please take a few minutes, grab a cup of coffee, and watch it!

Here it is!

Enjoy!  :-)

Living Out Eucharisteo Before My Boys

I just finished chapter 8. I can't believe it myself (especially thinking of the way I devoured the first seven chapters so quickly!), but I got distracted and set the book aside for a bit. So, I re-read chapter seven and then moved on to chapter 8. As I read this morning, I kept thinking, "how did I possibly allow myself to set this book aside????".

Anyway, I loved reading about Ann's encounter with her son...the attempt to understand what was happening "under the toast". I have always had a deep need to understand the issues behind our boys' actions and reactions. In fact, this has caused some conflict along the way when my dear husband has felt that we should simply discipline or punish more quickly rather than talking through the situation. I will admit that there are times he has been right and I've been wrong...sometimes the consequence was clearly needed and should have been expected right away by the guilty boy. BUT I have seen God bring healing and understanding as we've opened up situations and looked at the deeper issues. As I read chapter eight, I felt God affirming that and also leading me to show these three boys how to really SEE God in their brothers, in their conflicts, in their dealings with each other.

I begin to wonder...do I model this? Do I really see God in their little faces? Of course, I want my answer to be yes AND in the moments when they are being so sweet and cute and "God-like" (or at least my interpretation of God-like), I can answer confidently that I see God in them. BUT do I see Him in their faces of disgust or bitterness? Do I see God when they are demanding their own way? Do I give thanks when I feel like a mother duck being pecked to death by her ducklings? Do I see God when they don't look the way I think God looks? Will I be thankful in the next little while when one of them wakes up before I am done with my alone time this morning?

I have some work to do. I want them to see Eucharisteo lived out before their eyes in all kinds of situations. My hope is that giving thanks and seeing joy will be as much a part of them as breathing.

a great day of hiking during spring break with my posse....

The Miracle Of The Hard Eucharisteo

I was feeling pretty good about the whole eucharisteo business, thinking to myself that I was getting to be an amateur Ann Voskamp of sorts. Look out world, maybe I’ll write a book. Ok probably not that, but maybe an interesting blog post at least.

Oh, but wait. Not so fast little missy.

I was sitting at my doctor’s office, enjoying a few minutes of peace while the kiddos were at home with the babysitter. (Side note: Nothing like looking forward to your annual gynecology visit because you know the waiting room will bring some sweet, uninterrupted reading time. I know you’ve all been there girls!)

Up on the table frocked in one of those lovely hospital gowns, I crack open chapter 5. Gulp. I read of her neighbor’s son being killed, her son undergoing a terrible injury, her memories of her mom holding her baby sister as she lay dying, and suddenly, I don’t feel like such an expert anymore.

It’s a little easier to be thankful for beautiful spring flowers in the middle of a busy day changing poopy diapers. This appeals to the writer/creative side of me. It’s romantic in a way.

I imagine the setting: Me, showered and with makeup on of course, busily cooking dinner, a little harried as I’m jumping over toys lying in the kitchen floor, sweetly reminding my children not to strangle each other, and yet, I’m stopping to lift up a thanksgiving prayer for the singing bird on the window sill. I’m channeling my best Ann Voskamp.

Did I mention this was all in my imagination? I can do this I think.

But now…. this? Mangled hands and dead children? I’m not so sure I’m signing up for this chapter. Please, oh please, don’t ask me to go there Lord.

The HARD eucharisteo. Our worst nightmare.

”Joy and pain, they are but two arteries of the one heart that pumps through all those who don’t numb themselves to really living.” Ann Voskamp, Chapter 5

Can we have the joy without the pain please?

I don’t think it works that way here on earth.

And so, the alternative is to skip them both. To live numb with a hard shell covering our hearts. “Nothing’s gonna hurt me. I’ve wised up to the way things work down here, and I’m going to cruise here in the middle. It’s safe here.”

I’ve lived life that way for a while, while I was in the depths of depression. I don’t recommend it. It’s not a good plan really.

And so, that leaves me with the hard eucharisteo.

“Every step I take forward in my life is a loss of something in my life and I live in the waiting: How and of what will I be emptied of today?” Ann Voskamp, Chapter 5

Gulp!

Can I trust that He is good when it is easy to give thanks AND when it’s hard?

“No scripture glasses to read what God is trying to write through a prodigal child? Scrawl my own quick editing on the half-finished story: failure. Satan’s tongue darts.

Not wearing a biblical lens to decipher the meaning of a doctor’s ominous diagnosis? Just read Satan’s slippery interpretation: cheated.

Not using anything to bend the light of this world so I can read my own messy days? Spray on another layer of graffiti: worthless.” Ann Voskamp, chapter 5

And this is why she is writing the book, and I am not. In this one chapter she has written what it took me years climbing out a pit of depression to learn. God’s word is the only thing that will keep my perspective. It is the only thing that will allow me to both soak up the joy and live through the pain. Without it I can’t experience both with any semblance of sanity.

I will never forget calling the parent’s of a 19 year old on Christmas Eve and telling them their son likely wouldn’t make it through the night. Then, after a long night of call, falling into my comfortable bed at home and waking up to celebrate Christmas with my healthy, happy family. The stark contrast was enough to drive me crazy.

So unfair. Satan whispered, “Why do you deserve to be happy when they are not.” Guilt. He then chased that with one of his favorite weapons: Fear. “Just wait. You’re next.”

“Without God’s word as a lens, the world warps.” Ann Voskamp, Chapter 5

So true. So true. It took me many years to learn that. Satan and our sin love to take the truth and twist it and whisper to our hearts, “This could be truth”. Only it’s not. And it takes His word to bring the perspective back.

His word says He is always good. His word says He loves me even on the days I snap at my children while writing a post about eucharisteo (it’s back to square one for me ladies).

His word says there will be a day when “He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.” Revelation 21:4

And it’s HARD. And I have to be reminded over and over.

This weekend I learned one of my 32 year old friend has invasive breast cancer. She’s got 2 young boys the same age as my kids. She is facing bilateral mastectomy, chemo, radiation. Sorrow comes heavily. Then a familiar whisper, “Why should you be happy when there is so much pain?” Then my old friend fear,”O Lord, don’t ask me to walk that road. I have children who need me.”

Can I believe God transfigures all the world?

“Darkness transfigures into light, bad transfigures into grace, empty transfigures into full. God wastes nothing-“makes everything work out according to His plan” (Ephesians 1:11). Ann Voskamp

Lord, let me brave enough to live the miracle that everything is eucharisteo. It is the only way to live.

And now let me leave you with some of my practicing everyday thankfulness (and an excuse to show some pictures of my kids. Sorry).

A daughter who matches the spring flowers

The season's first watermelon

and a 10 year old faithful friend!