I read a verse the other day that I’ve read many times before. The end of it stuck out to me like it hadn’t before. Here it is:
For by that one offering [Jesus’ death on the cross] he forever made perfect those who are being made holy. – Hebrews 10:14
Did you catch that? He has made us perfect and yet we are being made holy, still in process. How does that work? Continue reading
For a long time there were gray lines on our brightly colored, floral kitchen wallpaper. My brother, sister and I were always eager to compare the measurements dad had made the year before and see that we had grown. Sometimes we couldn’t wait a year and asked him to check us more often, hoping to see a change. We’d check to make sure everyone had their heels on the floor and stretched our necks up as straight and high as we could. Just having that little pencil-line proof gave us a little boost of confidence and made us smile proudly. Of course, inside we hoped to end up taller than the other two siblings. Continue reading
My sister, Jodi, writes a monthly newsletter for women about overall well-being and making healthy choices. Her words are always encouraging and helpful. This month she shared a great illustration about a vine that keeps cropping up near their house, because although they’ve cut and pulled it away time and time again, there is evidently still a root in the ground somewhere and so it keeps coming back. Jodi says that similarly, in our lives, if we don’t get to the root of a problem, we can cut and pull at symptoms that show on the outside but they’ll just keep recurring. So true!
If a negative attitude or thought sits long enough inside our hearts, I believe it begins to take root and will be harder to get rid of than if we extract it as soon as we notice it there. Continue reading
I still smile and laugh to myself when I remember our youngest girl, Kristine, at the age of 4, telling me that she didn’t want to grow up. When I asked her why not she answered, “I don’t know how to grocery shop. I don’t know how to drive.”
I giggled and said, “It’s okay, when you get older you’ll learn those things. You don’t have to worry about that right now. You’ll know when you get there.”
“Well I don’t want to be a mommy.”
“Why not?”
“I don’t know how to take care of babies!”
I think I eventually convinced her that although she didn’t know at the age of 4 what she would need to know 15-20 years down the road it was okay. She wasn’t supposed to. It would come later. I tried to help her see that growing up was fun and good, that she would like it and that it’s just what happens naturally to all of us.
God brought this memory front and center this morning and showed me that I do this all the time; I look waaaay down the road and panic thinking “I don’t know how do those things!” In my heart I try to jump way ahead and figure everything out, I guess so I’ll feel I have some minute amount of control over my life and the outcomes. The “what ifs” pile up into needless anxiety.
I feel like He’s saying to me this morning, “You don’t have to know what to do when and if that time comes because when you get there, you’ll know. I’ll show you. I’ll teach you. Why are you worrying about that now?” Continue reading
Along the Narrow Path 