Category Archives: Spirituality

Weary

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Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.
~Matthew 11:28-30~

I am a busy, work-at-home mom. I wear many hats and have a lot of responsibilities. I often do not get enough sleep; (who am I kidding, I never get enough sleep.)

I am weary.

I am physically, spiritually, mentally and emotionally weary.

It is time for me to find rest in Him.

Why does it always take me until I am so drained I can hardly move before I decide that I need to take it to Him and find rest? Why do I not just do this daily?
I am sure I would not grow quite so weary if I just gave it all to Him, every day, as He asks me too.

Unfortunately, I tend to be a stubborn child and it takes a lot of poking and prodding for me to lay it all down.

I am grateful and I am thankful that I do have a place to lay it all down. I am so incredibly blessed that I have a Father who will take my weariness upon Himself.

During my bible study last week, It was brought to my attention that God intends for us to rest. He placed the Sabbath in our weekly lives for a reason. He knows we need rest. Rest from the world. Rest from the busyness. Rest from ourselves.

Our Savior himself even took time away from his duties for rest.

But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed.
~Luke 5:16~

Rest is not an option.
Without rest, our spirits and bodies grow weary.
Without rest, we are unable to pour out into others.
Rest is a necessity.
We need to embrace it.
We need to rest.

Now excuse me, I think I’m going to go take a nap.

Testimony Tuesday~ Sharing My Testimony a Little at a Time

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Each week, I have been sharing a little bit of my testimony. If you missed the first installments, be sure to read them HERE.

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I first laid eyes on Jon in the line at the store waiting for my roommate (who happened to be of legal drinking age) to finish her purchases. It was my 20th birthday and I was having a party. Her boyfriend had decided he would invite Jon to my party and I would finally get to meet him.

The second I saw him, with those cute dimples and the big ears (I have a thing for men with big ears) my heart stopped. I knew right then. He was it. He was The One.

I will spare you the details of the first few weeks. Nothing out of the ordinary, nothing unusual; just the usual college “dating.”

One month later, Jon was there when I needed him most. My father was trying to regain control over my life from afar and when he couldn’t, he decided that I was going to be disowned and was no longer a part of the family. Disowning me was his way of issuing control. Jon took my late night phone calls. He talked to me, he comforted me, he let me lean on him in my lowest moments. He did what a lot of other “men” his age would never do. He showed maturity. He showed kindness. He showed heart.

I never looked back after that. He was definitely “The One for me.”

We spent the first year of our relationship long distance. We lived about 3 hours away from each other. If a couple can make it through that, they should be able to make it through anything, right?

Because of my past, I had some serious issues to work through in my life. Issues surrounding myself, my thoughts and beliefs about men; issues that would take me a long time to work through.

I had issues with trusting other people and letting my walls down for them. I had difficulty communicating my problems and my feelings. I kept many things just bottled up inside me until I finally broke. I thank God that Jon was there to save me from the many times I tried to take my own life. My hurt and brokenness and depression ran so deep, my self-worth was so little, that I believed the world would be a better place without me.

Jon is such a strong man. The things that he supported me through and what he stuck around for still amazes me. Many men would not have hung around and dealt with all the things I put him through. Many men would have given up on me and walked away; just as all the other men in my life had done.

God had other plans.

God knew I needed an earthly angel. He knew that he had to find someone who was strong and sturdy and had big enough shoulders to be able to hold up under everything I threw at him.

We got married a short 2.5 years later.

The Making of a Princess

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This weekend I had the opportunity to treat my daughter like a princess. We celebrated her half birthday by having a few of her friends over for a Princess Tea Party.

My fabulously, wonderful best friend offered her home (since ours is in packing and moving chaos) and helped with a lot of the planning and the work.

Dakota requested princesses, pink, purple and more pink.

There were fun little fruit cups and pumpkin bread shaped into flowers and castles.

Let us not forget the cupcakes.

The girls were super excited that they were able to use real tea cups and plates.

Dakota picked the place setting with the pink plate….of course.

As my daughter and her friends enjoyed eating their sandwiches, sipping their tea and playing beautiful princesses, I recalled how my daughter had twirled around in her new princess dress and told me how beautiful she looked.

I got to thinking about how every time she put on a beautiful dress or something “pretty” she claimed herself beautiful. Yet, I have never heard her exclaim that when she is just in her everyday clothes. I realized that I need to do a better job of reminding her that she is always beautiful. She does not need to put on an elegant dress or a pretty hairband in order to be beautiful.

My daughter is always beautiful. 

She is made in His image.

Because she is God’s princess, she is and always will be beautiful.
Even when she acts silly.

It is my job to make sure that she remembers she.is.beautiful.

You are altogether beautiful, my darling; there is no flaw in you.
~Song of Songs 4:7~

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Today I am linking up over at The Better Mom Monday Link-up.

Holding Onto What Matters Most

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Time.

There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven:
~Ecclesiastes 3:1~

We all complain that there is never enough of it to go around. We are always wishing we could have more of it. We all wish that we could grasp onto time and hold it in our hands.

God has other ideas for us.
God has his own plans.
God knows what path we are supposed to be walking along.

Our Father did not want us to have the ability to hold onto time.

He wants to teach us how to savor the moment, but not to hold onto it.

He wants us to continue to move forward; to grow and mature. Not only in our earthly life, but in our spiritual life as well.

Water.

Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him.
~John 7:38~

There is a song that I absolutely adore.
It is called Jesus Bring the Rain by MercyMe.

In the song, he welcomes the rain. He welcomes the pain and the tough path that God has chosen to lead him down.

Because without the rain, we would not be able to experience the joy of the sunshine.
Without the pain and the valleys, we would not be able to learn to become dependent upon our Father.
Without the rain, we never know how to be able to experience the blessings our Yahweh.

You cannot grasp water. You cannot hold it in your fist.

As I give my toddler a bath, I fill a cup with water and pour it out in front of him. I watch as he tries to grasp it in his hands. It reminds me of how we are always trying to grab onto things.

Money.

Beauty.

Time.

Somehow, they all still manage to slip through our fingers.

There is, however, One constant. There is one thing that we can always hold onto and as long as we hold on tight, it will never fall through our grasp.

The grace of our Lord was poured out on me abundantly, along with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus.

~1 Timothy 1:14~

Waiting and Finding Balance

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I really want to be able to write more. 

I want to be able to write more here on my blog.

I want to be able to write more about my story and my testimony so that others can find encouragement in it.

I want to be able to write devotionals and books that will glorify God’s Kingdom and change people’s lives.

I have this feeling that God wants me to write. He keeps placing the thoughts into my head and putting things into my path that keep pointing me in that direction.

I keep hearing many earthly voices telling me that I am a great writer.

God always answers our prayers.

Always.

But sometimes, the answer is “not right now.”
I keep hearing that whisper.

“Not right now daughter, I am still preparing the way.”

Right now, I need to focus on finding a new place for our family to live. I need to focus on packing things up and getting ready to move. I need to focus on Jesus. I need to focus on my family.

I need to focus on finding a way to earn some income to help my family.

It is not easy to find a job in today’s economy. Especially when you have been out of the work force for a very long time. It is not easy to find a job where I would make enough money to pay for childcare. It is not easy to find a job that is willing to work the hours that I am available to work.

So I have been hunting and searching for something, anything that would fit.

I recently found a blog called Real Ways to Earn Money Online. On this site, I found an enormous wealth of information on freelance writing resources. My husband had mentioned freelance writing a while back and I had been tumbling it around in my head, but I had no idea where to begin. God always answers prayers.

I know I may not immediately get hired, but I at least have a starting point. I know I will not be able to write what I really want to or to write where my passion falls, but at least it may bring in some money, I will still be writing in some form, I will be gaining experience, and I will be getting my name out there and building a resume.

God always answer prayers.
It just may not look how we had thought it would.

And so after waiting patiently, Abraham received what was promised.
~Hebrews 6:15~