Reflections and Blessings

In an earlier post I had shared a verse that my family is trying to use as a source of encouragement when life hands it's ups and downs.  It was our way of trying something new. Instead committing to a New Year's Resolution we are committing a verse to memory.  Here is the verse from Psalm 29:10-11...

The Lord sits over our home.

The Lord is enthroned

as King forever.

The Lord gives strength to our family.

The Lord blesses Matt, Sarah, Peyton and Maya with peace.

I recently had the chance to reflect on this verse and how it has helped in our lives.  Since it is 6 months into 2012 I went back to remember when we've see God's hand or cried for his help.

January

All is new when you start out the year.  Through birthday celebrations and a family Greek wedding, January certainly brought us God's peace and joy.

February

This month we were busy with Maya's ANNIE play, beating the doldrums of school, the winter blahs, and joyously welcomed our niece/cousin Catherine Faye into the world on leap day!  God sat in our home with wisdom and provisions that would have gone unnoticed if it weren't for this verse.

March

SPRING BREAK is on our mind!  Our annual trek to Florida with some dear friends proved to be well needed family time and enjoyment.  The Lord gave us strength and precious measures of blessings.

April

During this month Matt and I needed to be reminded of who sat over our home.  We went through some medical concerns with our daughter and needed to remember that God indeed has her best interest.  The end of the month brought the girls' dance recital where it is wonderful to watch the blessings that God has given them.

May

A difficult month.  A month filled with emotion and frustration.  In amidst of all that God was here.  He sat over our home for protection.  He was enthroned during difficult conversations and in the end gave us peace.

We are still working in June :)  but how awesome to see his work and to feel his love in our life.  No, it hasn't been easy and we certainly have had tears.  However, reflecting these last few month and using Psalm 29 to help shape our thoughts has brought joy and hope.

Take a moment and reflect on what God has done or is doing in your lives over the last few months.  I bet, like me, you will see how richly he blesses you and gives you peace.

With a Smile,

Sarah

Linking with Jen and the great women of SDG

Remembering When

Remember When...

Do you remember when we went to the American Girl Store when I was seven?

And going to the "Dora" show and getting the back pack?

Do you remember when we went to the Country Club for the

American Girl tea party? And when Maya was born I sat with you

to hold her?

Do you remember when we were at my conference in 3rd grade and Mrs. Rubel farted?

Making my sea turtle in 4th grade?

When you and the family came to my pre-school circus?

Do you remember when we went exploring together?

You came to my share day in Kindergarten?

The time we went to Madison to have 'the talk?'

These are the special memories I have of you.

Happy Mother's Day!

This is the poem I received from my 12 year old daughter, Peyton, on Mother's Day.

I cried when I read it.  I do remember all these times.(And many more!) 

It does my heart good to know that she does too and she holds them special. 

As a parent, I often find myself remembering the moments where I lost my temper and yelled or slammed a door.  Or the time I left a grocery cart, full of groceries, in the middle of the aisle because of a screaming toddler.  And, yes, the proverbial saying that every mother says through her clenched teeth, "JUST-WAIT-UNTIL-YOUR-FATHER-COMES-HOME!"  As if that ever helped my dear daughters stop the undesired behavior! Can you relate?

And then one day, out of the blue, you get a poem like this; that let's you know YOU HAVE made a difference despite the sinful nature in us.  That your child DOES remember and despite the fact that she rolls her eyes each time we tell her "NO" to a cell phone she still holds special memories of her and I.  That just makes me smile. BIG smile.

How was your Mother's Day? Any thoughts shared by your loved ones to make you feel like you've done the job right?

PS: Peyton peeked at this posted and said that I need to let her know how many 'likes' it got.  I had to remind her that this was a blog and not Facebook.  (LOL)



Writing MoJo

I have been journaling for years.  I have at least a dozen journals going back to 1996!  (Perhaps you can call me a closet blogger) I write feelings, notes, prayers, things I am grateful for, questions, and answers to questions.  You can mostly find me writing in the morning but really if the moment begs a thought...I will write it.

I'll let you in on a secret.  I hated writing. I used to find writing painful.  During my freshman year of college I had an English professor by the name of Anders.  Anders sat me down in her office about mid way into the semester and told me I was a horrible writer.  She told me I had no voice, no fluency, no ingenunity and I wrote way too many sentence fragments.

Nice...huh?  Anders words scarred me and it bothered me that she never taught me what good writing was.

It wasn't until Leaver came into my life that I thought differently about writing.  Not Leaver the soap but Mr. Leaver.  Leaver taught English 102.  I decided to meet with Leaver right away so I could tell him about my struggles with writing.  On the way to his office I remember telling myself not to get worked up...  "You did pass English 101 and you can only do better."  I had brought him some older English papers to read so he could see my terrible writing.  Sitting there in his office brought back painful memories and I am pretty sure my palms were sweaty.  After reading the papers, he removed his glasses and looked at me and replied, "These papers are not terrible."

What? Can you repeat?

He continued with, "You have interesting ideas and voice. If anything needs some work it may be punctuation and we will go over that in class."  I sat stunned in silence.  Oh, what sweet music to my ears and my heart!  My writing mojo was back.  Take that Anders!

Have you ever gotten discouraging advice? What did you do? How have you overcome 'bad' words that someone may have said to you?

G.L.U.E.

A few months ago I was asked to speak to some lovely moms at a MOPS group.  (MOPS stands for Mothers of PreSchoolers)  The topic; how to make time for yourself.  A topic I find important but also still struggle to do myself.  God laid some great moments (in my life) and verses on my heart in preparation for this talk.  With His prompting and some great prayer warriors I was able to create an acronym that helps me take time for me and this became the focus of my talk.  I would like to briefly share it with you here.

It started with the thought from God about glue.  Yes, glue and I know it's strange.  I often feel like I am the glue that keeps my home and my family working together.  Think of the saying..."If Mama ain't happy, no one is."  That applies to me.  If I am out-of-whack it seems the rest of my family can quickly become out-of-whack too.  Then God showed me how He is my glue that keeps me together.  My time in his word or in worship help me to stick to truths and not lies.  This is how G.L.U.E came to be and this is how I work at making time for me.

G stand for God.  As I mentioned before spending time in His word or in worship help to keep our focus on things above and not earthly things.  (Col.3:5)   To allow for you time take the time to spend a few minutes each day in the bible or reading a devotional.  Pray, ask God for help in your day to day tasks.  Share your frustrations and ask for his wisdom.  Take time to thank and praise him for his gifts that he gives.  In giving Him a time of quiet; He gives me time in my day.

L is for Learn to Say NO.  I am sure you say no at least several times a day to your children...learn to say it for yourself.  Stop wasting time on things you don't really like or things that suck the life out of you.  It is ok to say no.  In learning to say no I find I have more time for the things I enjoy and that helps to make me a better mom and wife.

U stands for YOU!!!!  Understand the importance of you.  How much you are loved by a Heavenly Father, your spouse, your children and many others in your life.  To often we moms can feel insignificant because of our day to day live...i.e dipaering, meals, garbage, cleaning, traveling from soccer, to dance to soccer and home.  While all of those things are important, YOU, too, are important and learning to take care of YOU is important.  Adjust your priorites and make YOU a priority.

E is Enjoy.  Take in all that is around you and simply enjoy it.  I used the quote from Maya Angelou...

"Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take

but the moments that take our breath away."

Too often we can get caught up in the things of life and not the moments.  Moments like the freshly bathed baby smell, a child's belly laugh, a look from your spouse, the laughter with a good grilfrend. These take your breath away moments last far longer than the blinking light on my cell phone...these moments just plain feel good, so stop and take the time to enjoy them.

So there you have G.L.U.E...how I stick to God so he helps me stick to my family :)

How do you take time for you? Can you relate to any of the G.L.U.E acroymn?

A Change in the Making

I have been in a spiritual dry place for the last few months.  I wasn't even aware of it until I finished Beth Moore's Living Beyond Yourself and the book Made to Crave by Lisa TerKeurst.  I knew something was up when I finished these books and was feeling the overwhelming sense that something needed to change, something needed to happen to push me forward.  My only problem was I didn't know what that something was.  I didn't know even where to begin.  So, I did what any other girl would do; I cried.  I cried in quiet moments that were for God. I cried because I knew he would hear me and he knew my words when I did not.  I cried.


And then, amidst tears, I heard his voice.  Soft, loving, and gentle telling me I needed to share and to seek help for me to find my somethings.  At first, I denied it for several weeks; I mean who really likes to admit they need help but then I heard him again.  It was still loving and gentle telling me I needed to change and grow and I needed to talk through some issues to find my something. 


So, I called.  I called and made an appointment with a Christian counselor.  I have met with her twice and we have named several of my somethings : shame and self image.  I am dealing with these somethings by using God's truths. 


Not long after I made the call to the counselor I was walking and heard a song by Addison Road called "Change in the Making."  I cried (this time happy tears) because this song was me, well, and you too.  We are all a change in the making.  We are all trying to be a better version for the sake of Christ.  We are all under construction.  I love that.  I mean really love that!  I am forever grateful that we have a Heavenly Father who is loving, gentle, and extremely patient to making me who He wants me to be. Click below to listen to the song "Change in the Making."

So, this is Sarah under construction (but still with a smile) :) My pride is being broken and He is chipping away at what I don't need. I am a change in the making. 

How are you changing? What is God chipping away in you?

Linking with SDG

Lessons on Grease

On a lazy Saturday I found myself flipping through channels with my daughters.  We stumbled across the movie Grease when I declared. "Oh, this is one of my faves."  We stopped there and started to watch Grease when I quickly found myself having to explain a lot!  Even with editing of the movie I had forgotten how much of the material and content was so sexual. (Thank you Holy Spirit).  We shut it off and I created and shared with my daughters what we can learn from Grease the movie.

Life Lessons on Grease

5. Any kind of loving shouldn't happen fast...especially Summer Loving. 

  Love, and true love take time. 

4.  Make a list of qualities that make a good friend. 

Do you want your friends to drink, swear, smoke or rat their hair?

3.  Be aware of boys who can sing a song about a car and turn it into sex.

Really, that is NOT what sex is about.

2.  Never. Never change your looks or clothing to impress people.

Be true to the person God intended you to be.

1.  In response to Frenchie's comment, "The only man a girl can really trust is her daddy."

You may have a wonderful earthly father but he is still human and is not perfect. 

Always trust your Heavenly Daddy!

A lazy Saturday turned into a teachable Saturday.

On a side note.  It is Spring Break in our part of the world.  Yes! I will be leaving the blogging world for a brief time to be with my family and enjoy the Florida sun!  Happy Spring Break to you and yours!

Good Question

             "For a man who had all the answers, Jesus asked a lot of questions."
                                                                                                             Cathy Davison

I sometimes feel like I don't ask good questions when I am getting to know someone.  My questions usually have a yes or no response and that makes it hard to really generate a conversation with someone new.  In her book, Becoming a Woman of Influence, Carol Kent has an entire chapter devoted to asking good questions.  She cites the ways Jesus used questions to expose lies and reveal truth, exposed people's deepest longings, questions that help faith grow, and using questions in teachable moments.  I am practicing the 'art of asking questions' with the 7th grade girls I work with at youth group.  It takes practice, as it is easy to slip into a yes or no question mode, but when I intentionally slow down I am amazed at the information they share when I ask the right question.  I am learning about their dreams, hopes, fears, family life, and how they see their faith.

Here are some example question from the book. 

What is your best memory of your mother? Your father?
How do you celebrate Christmas?
What is one thing you would like to do before you die?
What keeps you from being as close to the Lord as you'd like to be?
What is one thing you would like to change in your spiritual life?
In what area of your life do you need advice?
What women (historical or contemporary) would you most like to emulate?
How can I pray for you?

These are just a few! No doubt, some great questions!

Here is a thought for you...take a few of these and ask a friend or someone you are trying to get to know better.  (Make sure you have an answer of your own to the questions).  See where the conversation goes. Can you ask the right question that will help someone open up? Will you gain valuable insight in that person's life? I sure hope you do!

After all, on our journey as Christ followers, we are called to share and called to influence those around us. (Think of 2 Corinthians 2:15..."For we are to God the aroma of Christ..")  In taking time to ask and think of the right questions we can learn about others with the hope of sharing how Christ's love has transformed our lives.  We can be intentional about our questions and intentionally influence lives of others.

What do you think? Are you up for the good question challenge?

Linking with Finding Heaven