We Trust
“Trust in him at all times, oh people; pour out your heart before him; God is a refuge for us.” Psalm 62:8 Scott asked me if I wanted to watch a movie. Since we’ve got nothing going on right now, I happily complied. I had …
Tag: fear
Dear Anxiety,
It’s funny what our minds will believe. It’s crazy how easily our thoughts become our truths. We know that our anxieties are false narratives, but we still believe them.
Move Out
A few months back, I decided to make a theme for myself for each month. I try to use the first letter of the month for the first letter of my theme. March was, Make Room to Grow. April brought me Always Be Kind. And May? May is gonna be tough.
Move Out of Your Own Way
Do you ever get in your own way? I do. Doubts. Fears. Insecurities. Listening to the wrong voices. Listening to my own voice. I get in my way and it is time I step aside.
I thought this post was going to be more dream driven but, what I am finding is that it is driven by faith. I don’t know about you, but I can get in my own way when it comes to my faith. I want answers. I want to figure God out. Sometimes, I wonder if I really believe all this stuff. I get in my head and I can’t get out.
- What is real?
- What is fake?
- Can this really be true?
‘He called a little child to him, and placed the child among them. And he said: “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever takes the lowly position of this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.’ Matthew 18:2-4
Kids don’t question. I mean, they question us (like, a million bazillion questions a day). But, when it comes to believing, when they are little, they just believe. They don’t get in their own heads. They don’t need all the answers or to figure it all out. They just believe. I want some of that.
In John 14:15-21 (click the link to read), Jesus tells his friends about his departure. He doesn’t fully leave them, though. Instead, he leaves an advocate; the Holy Spirit. Listen, I know talk about the Holy Spirit freaks people out, but stick with me.
We listen to outside voices; too much on most occasions. These outside voices are only speaking based on their experiences and their opinions. We are so quick to believe their truths but don’t hold tight to that pit-of-your-stomach gut feeling. That feeling is the Holy Spirit. The more aware we are of the Holy Spirit, the more we learn about God. Lean into that.
I’ve got to move out of my own way; get out of my own head. I don’t know about you, but I need to stop trying to figure God out. My hunt for answers are keeping me from God; from a full life of faith.
We need to create space to rest in the mystery of God. We can still learn about him: about his character, his attributes, his plans, and his promises without getting wrapped up in figuring God out.
Learn about his character and his love for you. This is where you will find God. This is where you will find that abundant life you hear about.
This May, let’s all move out of our own way and let God in.
Love & Blessings,
Meg
There’s a Band-aid for That
Our kids need to feel, need to fail, and need to hurt. Taking this from them is one of the greatest travesties of our generation as parents. We are robbing our kids of an opportunity to grow, strengthen, build their character, empathize, believe in themselves, build the fight within their spirit, empathy for others, and so much more.
Momo No Mo: YouTube and the Rise of Parenting Scared
If I open my feed and see Momo one more time, I may take a hammer to my device. If you haven’t seen this terrifying puppet thing with a creepy and distorted Snap Chat filter, consider yourself lucky. It’s like a character straight out of …
Feeling Good
One of my boys is more emotional than the others. He feels big and loud. I’m not sure where he gets it from. (Actually, I am sure. I know exactly where he get it from). The other day, his emotions got the best of him. We sat together to chat about what he was feeling and how he could better handle his emotions in a healthy way. I don’t want him to grow up thinking he couldn’t feel or express his emotions. I want him to feel.
God created us to have emotions. Even Jesus cried. (John 11:35) He designed us to feel. Yet, we live in a day where feeling all the life feelings is seen as a bad thing.
“A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; a time to seek, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away; ” Ecclesiastes 3:4-6
We are on a constant hunt to subdue our feelings. We put out pillows and soft landings on the road before our children so they won’t get hurt. No one wants to feel pain. We post all the happy moments instead of the real ones. We are afraid to feel. Because of this, we have become a society of zombies; a people walking thru life numb to it all.
God designed us to feel. Part of living an abundant life (John 10:10) is allowing our emotions to play out. We can all agree that a good cry, while difficult, is cleansing to the soul. We’d do anything these days, however, to avoid the tears.
Our children, everyone, can’t cope with life because we aren’t allowing ourselves to feel. We avoid any negative emotion out of fear. What we don’t realize is that our souls, our innermost parts, were designed to feel. Those hard feelings, the negative emotions we run from, are the very ones that lead us straight to Him. We don’t realize we need a Savior until we allow ourselves to feel.
Allow yourself to feel today. Don’t be afraid of your emotions. Know that they come from the Creator. There is purpose in your feelings; value in your emotions. Let them play out. Feel all the feels. And watch Jesus meet you there.
Love & Blessings,
Meg
When God says, “Lay it Down”
We all have a word. Maybe you don’t have a word. Instead, you have a thought, a goal, or a dream. You might not be a New Year’s resolution type, but we all want more for our lives. My word for 2018 is expectant. I …
Thorny People
If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing. 1 Corinthians 13:1-3
Paul spent a lot of time in Corinth. He knew the people well. When he received word that there was division within the church, he was prompted to write his letters to Corinth. This is where we find ourselves when we read the all too familiar 1 Corinthians chapter 13. This chapter is known to us as the “love chapter.” What we fail to realize more often than not, is that this chapter of the Bible was written because the people of the time were struggling to show love. Not only were they struggling with this whole love thing, they were not loving their brothers and sisters in Christ. It wasn’t like they were being unkind to strangers. They were divisive within their own family: the church.
Sounds familiar, right? It is not unusual for us to see division within the church. Many non-believers hold firm to church division being the reason they do not attend. As much as we don’t want to see ourselves in the reflections of the pages of the Bible, we often find ourselves in exactly this space.
Loving others is hard. Doing life with people is hard. Loving others can be exhausting. It can take everything from you and out of you. It takes sacrifice. And stamina. Loving others takes self-control (hello…biting our tongues). And sometimes, we need a little reminder to love. Loving others can be thankless and go unseen. But Jesus, Jesus loved us to the point He sweat blood for us. Loving others can be hard. But, I promise you, it’s worth it.
Loving others scares us. We don’t ever want to admit our fear, but we are scared. We fear that loving others somehow conveys approval. That loving others excuses poor behavior; or even hurtful behavior. I am here to tell you that loving others does not relinquish others of their responsibility for their actions. Loving others does not grant them permission to continue hurting you. Instead, loving others opens the door to inexplicable, undeserving, unrelenting grace. Loving others ushers in an opportunity for others to see Jesus.
I want that.
I want to be a part of that.
What kind of place are you for people to land? Are you thorny or soft? Can people lean into you without getting cut? Can they wrestle with hard things, have a different opinion, and make mistakes around you without feeling like they are going to get pricked by your thorns? What kind of place are you? Thorny? Or soft?
A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger. Proverbs 15:1
Are you stirring up gentleness or anger? Do you have everything but feel like something is missing? Paul and Proverbs remind us the importance of love; to not be afraid to love.
I recently saw a church billboard that said, “Go out and love. I’ll take care of the rest.” ~God If we believe God is who He says He is, then it is time we start allowing God to be God. Our job is to bring people to His alter. We need to leave space for Him to do the rest.
“What if we found out that God’s big plan for our lives is that we wouldn’t spend so much of our time trying to figure out a big plan for our lives? Perhaps he just wants us to love him and love each other.” Everybody Always, Bob Goff
Love & Blessings,
Meg
Lightning, Thunderstorms, oh…Revelation???
FLASHBACK POST: …a continuation of my series on miscarriage. This entry is vulnerable, real, and raw. The dead of night is always the hardest when you are going through something tough. It is when you are completely alone in your feelings. I remember this night …