Roxee, our youngest, is 5 years old. There are two things Roxee absolutely loves! Candy and treasures! Almost daily she comes home from school with some type of treasure she found that day. She has brought home so many treasures from kindergarten this year, that I have a box of all the things. Roxee doesn’t know I have been storing these treasures away, and at the end of the school year, I will give her the box. I also mentioned she loves candy. Everyday she asks for candy or tries to bargain with me to earn a piece of candy. She asks for candy when she wakes and it’s also the first thing she asks for when I pick her up from school. She is candy crazy! Recently, I took a month or so away from painting after trashing several pieces I just was not happy with. The pieces did not bring me joy; but they did bring plenty of frustration. So, I took a break from painting at all. When I did return to painting the first piece I did was a suggestion from Roxee. She wanted me to paint a Gingerbread House. Roxee guided me on all the elements she wanted: a house, snow, and lots of candy! As I was creating it, I thought a lot about our home. It’s loud and messy and has sticky spots and fingerprints. And of course, hidden candy! My mind reflected often on these verses in Proverbs: Proverbs 24:3-4 By wisdom a house is built, and through understanding it is established; Through knowledge its rooms are filled with rare and beautiful treasures. The Gingerbread House painting was at a time when I was just getting back into painting after several failed attempts and a month off. I had the knowledge of how to paint a picture and I had the supplies… but I was definitely out of practice. So, this painting looks a little sloppy and crooked and strange in places. But I did it. I made the time, I listened to Roxee’s suggestions, added the elements she requested, and she loves this painting. She treasures it. My husband and I decided long ago that we would always claim Joshua 24:15 in our home. It says “But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.” Putting God first, telling our children about God, storing our treasures in heaven… this is us establishing what is important to us in our home while simultaneously filling it with rare and beautiful things and people. It can get messy at times, but when it does, it means we are out of practice and we are letting other outside influences creep it. That’s when we have to be intentional again and lean on God and His wisdom to focus on what is truly important. And to us, the most important thing is… keeping God first. The next time you see a Gingerbread House, ask yourself if God is head of your household. God bless your journey!
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My oldest daughter, Rylee, and I attended a painting class last year. Rylee was 6 years old at the time. It had been years since I had painted. My dad had spent lots of hours instructing me in painting before I had kids. He taught me to take my time, don’t rush, notice where your source of light is coming from, and pay close attention to light and shadows. My dad has always felt that anything worth doing is worth doing right. And wouldn’t you know… I have that same mindset. As my dad instructed me in painting, years ago, he would remind me “we are just layering.” If an area of my painting bothered me, he’d say “go back and re-do it.” But one thing he insisted on, as I said before, was “Don’t rush, take your time, and enjoy the process. Painting should be fun and relaxing.” So as my oldest daughter and I are at this class painting together, my dad’s words came flooding back. He had spent his time and patience instructing me, and thankfully, I was in a season of my life where I was open to receiving his instructions. Because I listened to him, my skills grew and matured. I’m not a master painter… I’m mediocre at best… but I absorbed the information, made myself available, and heeded his instructions. I do regret not heeding all the guidance and advice my parents have given me over the years. I could have saved myself a lot of heartache. But I didn’t always listen to my parents… which got me to thinking about Proverbs 1:8-9: 8 My child, listen when your father corrects you. Don’t neglect your mother’s instruction. 9 What you learn from them will crown you with grace and be a chain of honor around your neck. There certainly is wisdom to be had, shared, and experienced if we are open to it and in a place to receive it! In this biblical instance, a father was preparing his son for life in the world. Our Father, God, uses His word to do the same for us. God’s Holy Word, the Bible, is our instruction guide. As we are reminded in Proverbs 3:13: Joyful is the person who finds wisdom, the one who gains understanding. This is the tool you need. To keep with you. This tool will help you find the answers you are seeking. Open it today and start filling your mind, body, and soul with the goodness and wisdom of our Heavenly Father. Rylee and I finished our works of art and we felt so proud to have completed them. I think we will definitely take another art class soon and invite the 5-year-old sister to join us! Hopefully they will listen and heed their mother’s instructions! God bless your journey! My parents lived at the Outer Banks of North Carolina for a long time. My husband, children and I would go several times a year to visit them. It is such a beautiful area… and if you know the right places to go, you can catch the most splendid sunrises and sunsets imaginable! Talk about captivating… just watching God paint the sky over the ocean or the sound was such a blessing to behold! It never got old. Never. As a hobby, I paint. I have tried numerous times to re-create the beauty that I’ve seen God paint. I fall short, but it’s still fun trying. And I learn so much every time I paint a sunrise or sunset. At the Outer Banks if you want to catch a sunset, you have to go over to the sound side. And of course, to glimpse a magical sunrise, you have to be on the ocean side. But no matter which side you’re on, the infinity beauty of the sky mixing with the water abounds all around you and is absolutely stunning. While painting a picture of a sunset recently, I was thinking about the infinite beauty in God’s creation, and it made me think about the infinite value of knowing Christ. In Philippians chapter 3 Paul is writing to the church in Philippi telling them how awesome it is to know Christ and how worthless everything else is compared to Jesus. Paul says in verse 8 “Yes, everything else is worthless when compared with the infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus.” Right before Paul said that, he reminded the Philippians that it wasn’t by works or human effort or obeying the law that saved them. It was by faith in Jesus! Paul said if it was by effort then he would have and could have confidence in his own effort. Read what he wrote in Philippians 3:5-9: 5 I was circumcised when I was eight days old. I am a pure-blooded citizen of Israel and a member of the tribe of Benjamin—a real Hebrew if there ever was one! I was a member of the Pharisees, who demand the strictest obedience to the Jewish law. 6 I was so zealous that I harshly persecuted the church. And as for righteousness, I obeyed the law without fault. 7 I once thought these things were valuable, but now I consider them worthless because of what Christ has done. 8 Yes, everything else is worthless when compared with the infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have discarded everything else, counting it all as garbage, so that I could gain Christ 9 and become one with him. I no longer count on my own righteousness through obeying the law; rather, I become righteous through faith in Christ. For God’s way of making us right with himself depends on faith. After studying these passages, I don’t ever want to just look at infinite beauty without first acknowledging the One who has infinite value – Jesus Christ my Lord! Don't you agree? Thank you for reading! God bless your journey! This is going to sound incredible. And yes, I do mean incredible in its literal meaning – impossible to believe. However, it’s not a unique story. When I’ve shared this flaw of mine with others, they too feel like they are in the same boat. What am I referring to? Falling through the cracks, of course. If my name is supposed to be on a list as the next person to call, I will somehow get overlooked. If I’m supposed to receive something someone else has promised me, they will forget me. If I’m the next in line, the line will close after the person in front of me because they didn’t see me there. Overlooked, forgotten, unnoticed. ALL. THE. TIME. ALL. OF. MY. LIFE. Sadly, I have passed this malady down to my children. I’ve witnessed them be forgotten and overlooked time and time again. It hurts my heart. It makes me question God. It makes me doubt my worth, but it does the opposite for my children’s worth - - when it comes to them, I think things like “Why wouldn’t you want him at your party? He is the life of the party. Why wouldn’t you want her to sit next to you? She is loyal and kind. How could you forget him? He just spent an hour with you the other day. He’s unforgettable.” I undermine my worth and correctly elevate my offspring’s worth in these conversations in my head. Conversations with myself that quickly turn into a pity party of ‘why oh why are we being overlooked yet again? How did we fall through the cracks… yet again?’ Then I convince myself ‘it has happened again, because I’m not worth remembering.’ Have you ever told yourself that same lie? I hope you haven’t. That one lie has led me down the deepest, darkest rabbit hole of more believable lies. And that place is a tough place to climb out of. One that has taken me decades to tunnel through… because just when I think I see daylight; the deceiver sends me on a detour full of shame and worthlessness. Then I convince myself “no wonder I fall through the cracks; I’m not worth remembering.” Thankfully, this is not the end of my story. I thought it was. Falling through the cracks has always been part of my story, so I just finally surrendered that it was my only story. The only story I’d ever know. The only story I’d ever live. The story not worth sharing because it was about me and no one wanted to hear about me. Then one day it hit me. “Ginger, when your children fall through the cracks and they are overlooked, you build them up so high, and encourage them so much, that they quickly forget the hurt of being left out and move on towards living the next moment of their lives. Why can’t you do the same for yourself? You get stuck in feeling sorry for yourself that you only see the few instances of being neglected. Then you completely ignore all the bountiful blessings that surround you daily.” BAM. WHACK. WOW. What an eye opener! Now, when my paperwork gets lost, or my phone call is not returned, or my reservation is botched… I don’t automatically blame it on my shortcomings as a human and think “Of course! This is happening to ME again.” Instead, I pause, breathe and remember God is in control and is using this exact circumstance for my good…. Because He loves me and thinks I’m worth it. Not because He wants to punish me and sees me as worthless. The latter is only a bunch of lies I let the deceiver feed me for too many years. Don’t be fed the same lies. God is using these instances for your good… because you are worth it. Transcript below if video does not play I find it ironic how drastically my vision, my physical eyesight, has changed in the year 2020. It’s getting harder and harder for things to come into focus. I’m having to extend my arm further and further to be able to read words on a page. I’ve had to take things to my older children and ask them to read it for me when my eyes could not. It’s the year of perfect vision, 2020, and mine is anything but. I do foresee progressive lenses in my future.
But how do we progress forward in a year where so much has changed for us all? As I write this, today is Friday, November 13, 2020. Historically, all Friday the thirteenths are seen by some as cursed. Many people already feel the entirety of 2020 is cursed. So it’s kind of like we are holding our breath today praying nothing bad happens….. in our homes, in our communities, in our country or in our world. And if something terrible does happen today, we will say “I’m so done with 2020!” We know the things that scare us about the year 2020. We have realized them, lived them and been tossed upside down by them. They have shattered us, displaced us and plagued us. We can’t seem to escape the reality of some of our worst fears coming true. But what if…. Just what if…. This year which we thought would bring clarity and perfect vision is actually the year God is using to restore our vision? But how? We feel we were blindsided…. Caught unprepared…. Attacked from an unexpected position. And the hits keep coming. The waters have truly been muddied this year. I’m talking about eyesight and mud. Where else have we heard about eyesight and mud? I’ve read about both recently in the bible. Do you remember? In the book of John, chapter 9, Jesus heals a blind man using mud. 2020 conjures up for us a vision of normal eyesight. All the turmoil of this year with a pandemic, racial tension, a world shutting down, deaths of people we know, loss of jobs, chaotic elections…. This all conjures up a vision of a muddy mess. But what if this muddy mess is the concoction God is using to heal and open our eyes to the truth? One day Jesus and His disciples were walking along and saw a blind man who was blind from birth. His disciples, wanting to understand, asked “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” Do you remember what Jesus said? “Neither this man nor his parents sinned. This happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life.” What about us? Think back before March of this year when the world shut down. What all was going on in your life? For us we went straight from soccer season, to basketball season to baseball season. Our 4 kids were in 2 different schools. My husband worked an hour away and he always felt like he was rushing from one thing to another between his work schedule and our kid’s extracurricular activities. We were flying blind most days. In a frantic rush to get from one thing to the next. We rushed out the door in the mornings and rushed through the quickest or closest drive-thru in the evenings. We weren’t doing anything for the kingdom of God. We were just trying to survive each day only to find ourselves completely exhausted by the end of each day. Then BAM! We were on this Damascus road rushing to the next thing, when we were blindsided by a pandemic. Who does that remind you of? Yes, Saul. God blinded him so that Saul could truly see God’s glory. Saul became Paul and we have book after book in the New Testament that shows us the work of God displayed through Paul’s life. Let’s go back to the blind man from birth. Jesus said “This happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life.” I’m going to take a few liberties here, please keep reading. What if 2020 is our mud on our eyes. After Jesus rubbed the mud on the man’s eyes, He told him to go wash in the Pool of Siloam (this word means Sent or one who has been Sent). God is sending us…. Out into the world as the Great Commission states. We are guilty of our complete unawareness of our spiritual blindness and need. We are guilty of others complete unawareness of their spiritual blindness and need. Let’s not overlook God’s gift to us of a special year in 2020 to prepare our eyes to be opened and no longer blinded. The mud has covered our eyes these past 8 months. Now, He’s given us clarity of what it looks like to live in a world without the hope of a Savior. So many around us are hopeless. God is sending us. Let’s share the hope we have found in Jesus with others. He has used 2020 to put mud on our eyes, now He’s asking us to go wash so we can see and then be sent. See a world that needs Jesus and He’s sending us to lead them to Him. I pray your Thanksgiving and Christmas brings you plenty of opportunities to share with others what all Jesus has done in your life. Thank you, friends! Jesus loves you. Thoughts from a conservative, Christian woman, wife and mom. Some will tune out right now. And that is perfectly ok. I thank God we have the freedom of free speech and also the freedom to tune out what we do not want to hear. For those of you who will continue to read, I thank God for that as well. He wants us to be open to being used by Him. That’s why I’m asking God to search me and let me know if any of this is offensive to the kingdom of God before I post. Find any fault in me, Lord, illuminate it and fix it. I give you full authority, Father, to change me into what you’d have me be.
Now to my thoughts…. I have been humbled this election season. It’s an election like none other. A pandemic, a threat on our freedoms, a hatred that courses through people’s veins. It’s easy for me to get caught up in it all and start to fear. It’s easy for me to hear people with opposing views from mine and start to hate. It’s easy for me to preach “at” people and their morals when I “think” they don’t line up with mine. It’s easy to let Satan take control and use my mentioned weaknesses for his glory. Satan gets so loud in my ear. He infiltrates what I hear on the radio. He infiltrates what I see on TV. He consumes what I read in the news. He has had a field day of epic proportions…. And that is because Satan has full dominion here on earth. But then when I intentionally seek God, get quiet and listen to Him….. His quiet, calming voice reassures me… THIS IS NOT MY HOME. There is no man or woman here that I should put my trust in. There is no perfect legislature that can save my soul. There are no political promises that will build my treasures in heaven. God is the only ONE trustworthy. God is the only ONE who can save my soul through the blood of His Son, Jesus. And my most precious treasure is having Jesus in my heart and telling my loved ones about Him too. But doesn’t it go farther than our loved ones? YES! Jesus died for ALL! Believers, non-believers (which is how we all started out), liberals, conservatives, atheist, blacks, whites, sinners, saints, pro-choice, pro-life, yellow, brown, red, homosexuals, heterosexuals, thieves, liars, murderers, animal lovers, leftist, rightist, LGBTQ+, people who identify as kangaroos, etc. JESUS’ BLOOD COVERS ALL. But ALL do not know Him. That is what my commission is… to share Jesus. His love. His desire for a relationship. His promise of eternal life. His “come as you are” message. I can’t discriminate against WHO I share God’s message with….. He just asks us to share it. Kings and kingdoms will all pass away…. But Jesus will remain. Not Trump. Not Biden. Not any other man or woman. All of us have a chance today, because we are alive today, to tell Satan he cannot take away our hope… which is found in Jesus. He also cannot stop us from sharing that HOPE with others. Pray for eyes to be opened, ears to listen, hearts to receive the message of the love of God and His Son, Jesus. Proverbs 12:25 Anxiety in a man’s heart weighs it down, but a good word cheers it up. This morning after dropping my two youngest off at playschool, I stopped by the local supermarket. As I was getting groceries from my list, I became very tired and sore. You see, two weeks ago I had surgery and I’m supposed to be taking it easy. I’m not to lift anything over 10 pounds and I’m to rest. Undoubtedly by the time I made it to the checkout register, my pain level was apparent to the cashier. She seemed very concerned about me and the way I looked. She asked if I’d like some help getting my groceries to the car and I told her that would be a good idea. The cashier called for someone to help me to the car and load my groceries into my car. No one was available. Then a manager came over and said she was the only one available to help me. She seemed much inconvenienced to have to help me – she looked at my outward appearance only. She had no idea what I was feeling on the inside. She made a few remarks about being short-staffed and not enough people to do “extra”. Complete with eye-rolling and loud sighs. I really wanted to tell the manager right then to just forget it… that I would get my own groceries loaded. But I was feeling too bad to do that. I needed her help, even if it meant inconveniencing her. The cashier finished my transaction and then said she would be praying for me and for a speedy recovery. The manager heard her and her demeanor changed immediately. She realized something was wrong with me. She became softer and kinder to me. Then she had a pleasant conversation with me the whole way to the car. She handled my groceries carefully and wished me well. The whole experience ended up being lovely. Both ladies gave me a good word on a day I desperately needed it. They also relieved the anxiety that had built up because of my pain. Their sincerity to my situation made a positive impact on me; a stranger. As I read news articles and publications, I see where today’s kids and teens have more stress and anxiety than ever before. All of the reasons the experts give of “why” make perfect sense to me. I see it in my own children. The weight they carry is visible. My desire is to help alleviate some of these pressures, not add to them. As my family reminds me, “I”, “Ginger”, “Mom” set the tone in the house every day. They have told me if I’m in a bad mood, it puts them in a bad mood. If I’m yelling, then they yell. If I feel rushed, they feel rushed. And it’s true! My attitude sets our day. I’ve seen it too many times to disagree. What is my role given this information? To give a good word. Simple, yet effective. Remember? A good word cheers a person’s heart. Not a bunch of run-on sentences of me barking orders. Not me ignoring everyone until I’ve had my coffee. Not being short and impatient with my words. But a good word! Good morning! You look nice today! This is the day the Lord has made! Thank you for helping your sister! Thank you for packing your lunch! I’m proud of you! Thank you for being loyal! All of these are good words…. Simple and effective. Another good word we practice daily is reading the bible in the car on the way to school. My oldest son reads the verse of the day and then we discuss what it means to each of us. More good words. Proverbs 18:21 The tongue has the power of life and death. We can build others up and relieve anxiety and stress. Or we can tear people down and feed their stress and anxiety. I’m working on this daily. My family, bless them, are calling me out on it when I mess up. I’ve asked them to. We are working together to show honor, speak kinder and love unconditionally. Join us on our journey of speaking a good word. Middle school for me was three crazy years of trying so hard to fit in and never being able to. In sixth grade my hair was really long and I decided to have the top permed and leave the back long and straight. (See picture) Therefore I was called “Poodle Head”. Also that year I heard a lot of kids talking about what they were going to dress up as for Halloween and I mistakenly thought they meant “wear to school” on Halloween. I knew my parents didn’t have money for a costume so I made my own. The year was 1986 so I decided to dress as a “Punk Rocker”. I used a black trash bag to cut out a punk rocker dress, put a belt around it, found some gloves that I cut the fingers out and also wore some combat boots. I was so proud of my handmade outfit that I never once thought that maybe no one else would dress up and wear their costumes to school. But when I arrived, I quickly realized I was the only middle schooler who did. Unfortunately I did not have a backup plan and had to wear it all day. The teasing was merciless. Just before seventh grade we moved and I was the new kid. I only knew one person at my school and that’s because we had met at my new church. I was trying again to fit in and find my place. I wanted so badly to be liked and popular. I tried out for cheer-leading and didn’t make the team. I tried out for basketball and didn’t make the team. I was in band and the last chair flutist. I would challenge people so I could move up in chairs, but never once did I beat them in the challenge. I wore Converse basketball shoes while all the other girls wore spotless, white Keds. No matter how hard I tried, fitting in just was not going to happen. My mind was in a bad place and the only thoughts I had about myself were negative. I rode the bus and a girl one grade older than me saw me as an easy target. She reinforced the negative thoughts I had about myself. She started bullying me in seventh grade and it continued all the way through tenth grade. She picked on my size, my clothes, my shoes, my hair (which she never saw when it was poodle hair, thankfully). She would tell me every day that she was going to beat me up. No matter where I sat on the bus, she would move behind me and start smacking me in the back of the head. She stole from me and started nasty rumors about me. I started to believe that I was worthless, a mistake, never going to amount to much, couldn’t do anything right and had no talents. Not making any of the teams I tried out for also reiterated those things in my mind. I stopped caring, I lost interest and I figured in school I’d just do enough to get by. It didn’t matter anyway… I was a loser and everyone knew it. I wanted so badly to be noticed… for something spectacular… not for all the awkward things people saw in me and I saw in myself. I constantly thought “if just one good thing would happen in my life then I’d be liked, accepted, popular, invited to parties, and a person people would want to be around. I kept seeking for that one good thing I could be noticed for. That one cool thing that people would like me for. If I could find it, then my bully would have to stop hurting me and my classmates would want me in their lives. They would include me. So I made a plan. I knew how to get people to think I was cool. This would do it for sure! People on the bus would see, they would tell others, then the whole school would be talking about it and I’d be popular! Brilliant strategy, Ginger. Brilliant! I was going to execute the plan the next day. The next morning I stole a cigarette and matches from my brother’s room. I walked up to the bus stop. No one else in my school lived near me, so I was always the only person at my stop. I was also the last person to get on the bus every morning and the last to get off every afternoon. The plan was to be smoking a cigarette when the bus pulled up. I would make a big deal about putting it out before getting on the bus to ensure people were watching and seeing me smoke. But here’s what I didn’t plan on:
I’d love to tell you that that was exactly what I told myself and the nonsense stopped at that moment. But unfortunately I’m a slow learner…. I didn’t take that advice until I was 35 years old. Three of my closest friends walked out on me when I chose not to follow the path they were taking. For the first time in my life I finally saw God’s truth in my life when it came to being accepted. Romans 12:2 Do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may discern what is the good, pleasing and perfect will of God. When these friends wanted me to follow their path of sin, I no longer longed for popularity or fitting in. I wanted what God wanted for me. He had renewed my mind so that I could see all the good He had for me. All the pleasing things He had planned for me. All the perfection in which He would bring about this goodness and plans. For me… Ginger… bleacher diving… fingernail burning… Poodle head… trash bag wearing… fake alcohol maker… overweight… college dropout… stubborn… impatient… unloved… unliked… no one showed up at my party… ME. God wanted me. Just as I am. Me. The person he made. Me. His wonderfully made creation. Me. My selfishness, my awkwardness, my flaws. Me. God loves me. I don’t deserve it. I don’t measure up. I mess up daily. But He still wants me just as I am. Only He can transform my mind, my heart, my actions, my life to be who and what He has made me to be. I am His. His perfect creation. You are His perfect creation too. It’s easy to doubt that. It’s easy to fall into Satan’s traps of thinking we don’t measure up to much. I believed it for 35 years and constantly doubted my worth. Don’t make that mistake, my friend. You are more valuable than any precious stone on this earth. Let God renew your mind and tell Satan and his lies to flee. If I can help you pray for that, just reach out to me. You are wanted. You are loved. You are desired. You are valuable. |
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AuthorA Christian wife and mother trying to balance too much... then God leans in and whispers "Come to Me to find peace and rest." Blogging is one of the vehicles I use to find that precious treasure God has promised me. Join me as we discover His love together. Archives
January 2024
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