**This is a short and sweet one – a prayer for grace.
Open mouth wide. Insert foot. Swallow.
Foot in mouth disease. I’ve got it. And, I don’t want it.
And, I did it again. Said the wrong thing – at the wrong time -to the wrong person. Oops!
Somehow, oops just doesn’t cover it. [Read more…]
I feel like I’m in a middle season of life and it hasn’t been what I’d expected.
I would have guessed this season would be like a quiet, still pond and I’d see myself clearly as I stared into the water’s reflections. Instead, I’ve felt like I am standing barefoot at the water’s edge with a rugged tide rolling in, causing the sand to shift and pull out from underneath me. Not. What. I. Expected.
C.S. Lewis say it best for me….‘Courage, dear heart’.
Learning requires great frustration. So, I guess I’m frustrated. Or learning. Or, just confused. [Read more…]
‘More‘. What Do You Long for More of?
I’m a happy – well, correction – I’m an ecstatic grandmother of two. When you become a grandmother you find yourself not only with a new role, but, also needing a new name.
Will you be ‘nana’, ‘grammy’, ‘grandma’, ‘mimi’, or ‘gran’?
I never thought about requiring a new name until sitting with my grandson in my lap, and wanting to call myself something to alert him to my special role in his life. My relationship needed naming and I wanted it to be good. [Read more…]
My 3 year old grandson is currently immobilized in a bright blue and red body cast with a spiderman emblem emblazoned like a small badge of honor in a belt around his waist.
The cast starts below his armpits and follows his body down each leg to just above his ankles. He can move his arms, hands, head and wiggle his toes and that’s about it. This cast is holding his hips solid while he heals from 2 hip surgeries he’s had for a genetic hip dislocation.
When I first saw his pale, waif-like body fully encased in a cast in the hospital, propped in a bed of white pillows, not moving, I felt a crushing blow to my body. A physical, visceral reaction.
“No!”, my heart cried, “this isn’t right.”
Yet, these surgeries are right. They are realigning his hip and leg bones enabling him to walk tall and straight. These surgeries are correcting his off-centered wobbly gait and allowing him to walk normally into adulthood.
This road to walking for him is not easy, but it can’t be avoided.
Life is full of troubles.
I’ll be honest, my usual approach to troubles are wild attempts to get out of whatever trouble I’m facing.
My prayers sound something like this:
“Get me out of here! Now!”
I was challenged recently to pray and seek a bigger vision – a vision of what God is doing in the midst of my troubles. I’ll be honest, I’ve never done that. (Priscilla Shirer, “The Voice of God”)
I’ve never looked for God in my trouble. I’m too busy trying to get out of them.
Can you relate? Is there some place in life you want ‘out‘? Is there some trouble you want removed?
I need to stop trying to get out! Rather, ask God to ‘Come in‘.
‘Come by here, Lord. Show me Your glory. Work out Your plan. Move in this place – Thy kingdom come. Right here. Right now. In the midst of all this.’
Troubles are not good. But, God is good and God is able to redeem troubles for His good and perfect purposes.
Maybe you and I aren’t in the wrong place, rather you and I are perfectly placed for what God plans to do. (*Priscilla Shirer Simulcast April 17, 2017) .
Maybe this is what a faith position looks like.
Faith asks us to lean in – in trust. Relax your shoulders and your clenched teeth, relax your tightened grip – your attempt to hold on to control of your situation, and move into the waiting arms of God.
From this position we can watch God work. Watch God’s plan unfold in the hard place. See how God lifts us up, causes us to stand, and walks us into His good plans and purposes for our lives.
“To him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy.”
– Jude 1:24
LInking up with Holley’s CoffeeforYourHeart, Kelly’s RaRaLinkUp
‘Accept yourself in your weariness’.
I read these words this morning, well more like, I drank them in. Thirsty for their truth. Thirsty to be relieved of my burden for ‘do better’ – ‘do more’ – ‘get going’.
The small voice in my head often tells me: “Do it, Sandra!”
Yes, I’m a doer. [Read more…]
