ENCOURAGE - EQUIP - EMPOWER
IT STARTS HERE.
Over the past few years I have strived to explore a great majority of the White Clay Creek Preserve. The trails are vast and branch farther than I ever realized. I am thankful for this space that is so close to where we live; not only for the amazing trails, beauty, and peace it provides, but the lessons it has taught me as I have explored the winding water in the creek. It never ceases to amaze me. Each visit there is something different and new. Take for instance a lesson I learned from these pictures.
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Sometimes I feel like something is wrong with me. I might be struggling in a parenting battle with one of my kids. I can’t seem to have a creative breakthrough on a task. A friendship is not going quite how it should. All of us have situations like this throughout the day. It could even be a deeper issue…
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How do you respond in a crisis? I have always been one of those people who just puts her head down and does what needs to be done. I push through the difficulties, often not stopping to check what I am thinking and feeling. I just do the next thing until the crisis is over! Then when I come out on the other side, I look back and see how God worked in the situation. This tactic is not working too well right now because the length of the “crisis” is so long. It’s been six months of unprecedented craziness. That’s a long time to keep your head down!
I’m about desperate for a visit. No one has come over to my house in what feels like forever. If you came over to my house, I’d let you choose one of my special teas, and I’d steep it in my glass teapot over my tea warmer and pour us each a cup. Then I’d tell you this story of what God did for me during the pandemic.
If you’ve been around church or Christians for any length of time, you may have heard someone say, “Just lay your burdens at the feet of Jesus.” Have you ever really thought about that? The concept sounds great, freeing even. But in reality, what does that truly look like? How do we lay down our burdens and troubles?
In the six weeks following Christmas, all three of my kids have birthdays, which means they receive a lot of presents in a short period of time. After the first awkward incident when my son looked at his grandmother and said, "But that's not what I wanted," we learned to prep them before parties and family gatherings when we knew they would be receiving gifts.
When I was in my early twenties if someone asked me something along the lines of “Where do you see yourself five years from now?” I would offer an answer that included something about a fabulous job. But if I was honest with myself, I fully expected to work for about 2.5 years after college, then get married and blissfully slip into homemaker mode and get started on the five children I had always wanted to have.
Over the past two years, many events in my life have been unexpected experiences. We were pregnant with twins only to lose them far into the pregnancy. Started a new job to further my career only to realize it wasn’t a good fit. I got pregnant again and miscarried that baby. We started fostering children, and found it to be its own journey down the unexpected.
When I think about trusting God, it usually relates to big decisions. The life-altering ones that keep you up at night, cause you to eat chips and salsa way past bedtime and have loud discussions with the people in your house. Last week, our oldest son graduated from eighth grade -- which is really silly….
I am training for a triathlon this summer, and it is hard work, my friends. I am not a natural runner, so I’ve been training for the run portion since October. OCTOBER, PEOPLE. Those 6 miles of running after the 1-mile swim and 24-mile bike just might be the death of me, I think. But I’m doing it anyway because I feel like I need some practice in discipline.
Driving to a soccer practice. Texting. Cooking. Cleaning. Reading. Chasing after my German shorthair pointer. As a working mother to two busy girls, I find myself pulled in a variety of directions. In the span of five minutes you can find me whipping something random together from my fridge for dinner to responding to an email from my boss that popped up on my phone. All the while my kids are vying for my attention. Do you ever struggle with simply being present?
Have you ever noticed that belief comes far more easily than trust?
I believe a lot of things about God. I know He created the world and sustains it. I believe in Jesus -- that He came to earth, died and rose from the dead so that I can have a relationship with Him. I do not doubt that these things are true. My problem is that, even amidst those strong beliefs, I don’t always trust Him.
