Category: Trusting God

I have been hearing the term, reinvention a lot lately. Maybe it’s because the economy has been so bad for so long, that many people have had to reinvent their careers and themselves. The depth of  beauty and prosperity that can rise from ashes, never fails to amaze me.

I remember when Mount St. Helens erupted and the pictures that were plastered everywhere of the devastation. Pictures of the area now, are beautiful and pristine. You would never know what it looked like thirty years ago. Scientists say that wildfires are actually good for the forest. They clear out undergrowth and make them healthier in the long run.I’m sure the little woodland animals would disagree with that statement. They don’t know what scientists know.

Change is often hard, but forced change due to circumstances completely out of our control is particularly difficult and downright frightening. However, I have read many success stories of people who have lost their jobs and finally followed some long dormant dream because they had nowhere else to turn. These people are thrilled that they took that scary leap of faith, even if it was forced upon them.

We are never too old to follow a dream or reinvent ourselves. Moses was 80 years old when he became the leader of the Israelites and confronted Pharaoh. He tended sheep until that point. That wouldn’t seem to have been an occupation to help him build leadership skills. God thought otherwise.

Then there’s Paul, the king of reinvention. Not only did he persecute the new Christians; he had them killed. He was convinced this new church was wrong. He made it his mission in life to try to stamp out Christianity. You would think this would be the last person on earth to decide to preach the Good News far and wide. You would think this would be the last person on earth to start new churches and to write the majority of the New Testament. God thought otherwise. Paul’s perspective changed and he spent the rest of his days telling anyone who would listen to him about Jesus, even from prison.

The Bible is full of these examples of reinvention. It may be a new term for us, but it’s long been a concept of God’s. If you woke up this morning, then today holds new possibilities for you. As long as we are living and breathing, God is not done with us.

So the question is, where would you like to go? What would you like to do? Is there an idea or dream in the back of your mind or deep inside your heart that you have always held onto, but never nurtured? If it’s been there for a long time, maybe there’s a reason.

If it’s something that you can do to serve God, hand it over to Him and see what happens. I think God loves those kinds of dreams the best, the ones we thought could never happen, because those dreams are the ones only He can make happen and pursuing them takes faith.

Just be prepared, because when you say to Him, “Please use me;” you are likely in for a wild ride. God always takes the scenic route.

What have you been holding back? Feel free to share.

Have an awesome day!

Wendy 🙂

Today is the first day of Thanksgiving Break for my kids. They are out of school for an entire week this year. This long break has given many families the chance to travel for the holiday. In fact, the day before Thanksgiving is supposed to be the busiest traveling day of the year.

I have never been one to pack lightly. I always over pack, thinking of all kinds of contingencies, from weather changes to every possible medical need my family may have. I mean, I pack Advil and Pepto-Bismol and Dramamine and Benadryl. I pack four or five pairs of shoes and many changes of undergarments.

Why do I pack all of this stuff? Well, first of all, I’ll blame my sweet mama. She is a notorious over packer, much to the dismay of my dad. He always claimed that we looked like the Clampett’s traveling up and down the road when I was growing up.

However, if I look deeper, it has to do with my need to be ready for anything. It’s a type of control. Do I really need all of that stuff for just a few days away from home?

When Jesus sent his disciples out, he told them to carry no money bag, knapsack or sandals with them. In other words, he told them to travel light. I wonder what the deeper meaning of that command may have been.

What kinds of things do we carry around in our hearts on this life journey? Just like the airlines charge for extra baggage these days, there’s a price we pay for carrying around negative baggage in our hearts.

The beginning of the holiday season is a perfect time to do a heart check because if we are carrying around that extra baggage, it can often be forced to come out at family get togethers when tensions can sometimes run high. So, now is a good time for us to seriously ask ourselves, if we are angry with anyone, (especially a family member), or are we carrying around a long time hurt or resentment towards anyone? Do we have unmet needs for approval from family or loved ones?

After some soul-searching, we need to prayerfully and intentionally give this baggage to God and ask for healing and peace. If we need to forgive, we can ask God for help. But, keep in mind, once we hand these things over, we have to leave them there and not try to pick them back up. It’s a no take backs deal.

Then, we can move forward into this season of thanksgiving with a heart that has room for love and joy and the other gifts of the Holy Spirit. We will have a heart that is no longer burdened with unnecessary baggage and then we make sure to keep it that way. “Above all else, guard your heart, for everything that you do flows from it.” Proverbs 4:23

I’m going to try to travel with a light heart this season. Then, maybe I’ll work on the physical luggage. 🙂  Anyone care to join me? Feel free to comment.

Have an awesome day!

Wendy 🙂

I have always like boats and being on the water. There’s nothing quite like having the wind blow through your hair when you are riding on a boat. Now, when I say I like boats, I mean boats with motors and steering wheels. I like to know that my captain is in complete control of where we are going. Being at the mercy of the wind doesn’t sound like much fun to me.

Sailboats aren’t like that. There is no motor. They have to rely on wind and current to get them where they are going. I find that kind of frightening. I mean, who knows where I might end up? Sure, a good captain knows how to steer the vessel, but even the best ones have to depend on the wind.

But, there are people who just love sailboats. They find sailing to be the ultimate adventure. I suppose if I were to be completely honest with myself, we are a lot more like sailboats than motor boats. Our lives are often at the mercy of forces that are beyond our control whether we like it or not.

We can do a lot of the steering, but sometimes the currents just pull us in a direction that we don’t really want to go. Sometimes it gets stormy and the skies get dark. Sometimes, there is no wind at all and we just have to drift. How do we handle that? Do we fight it and attempt to sail against the current or try to insist on our own will and sail when there’s no current?

This is where I think it’s important to remember that we worship the One who created the seas and He has the power over the currents and winds in our lives. “He stilled the storm to a whisper; the waves of the sea were hushed.” Psalm 107:29

Yes, the seas of life will get rough from time to time and at other times, we feel like we have been stuck in the same spot for so long, that the winds will never pick up again. But, this is where we have to have some faith.

If there’s a storm blowing around us, we have a lifeline in Jesus. He will help us stay afloat during the storms and grow our faith and make us stronger than we ever were before. We just need to ask for strength and He will provide.

If we are drifting in a sea of endless monotony, we should again take heart, knowing that God has a plan and different timing than our own. He’s taking a season for us to rest and reflect and grow. But, don’t get too comfortable; if you are really praying for some action, it’s coming, so get ready to hang on. Life with Jesus is never boring!

I’m still not sure that I love sailboats, but I can certainly relate to them. How about you? Feel free to share.

Have an awesome day!

Wendy 🙂

My husband inherited this fabulous quilt from his grandmother. Some quilts have very intricate designs and some tell stories. But, most of them are works of art created for warmth from whatever scraps the seamstress had access to. Once upon a time, not so long ago, people didn’t throw things away when they got worn. They re-used them in a different way. Recycling was born.

From clothes with holes to flour sacks, if it was made of fabric, it was usable and it was used. Those tiny pieces of scraps created something beautiful and useful. People saw the possibility in what seemed to be trash.

God is a lot like that with our lives. We make huge mistakes and messes that stem from bad decisions and the Master Weaver takes our garbage and creates something beautiful and useful.

In my own life, I had a disastrous marriage in my early twenties that ended in a painful divorce. I remember being on my knees praying that God would forgive my mistakes and lead me back into His will for me. He did. I prayed more and listened more. I began to follow His lead, not mine and he sent me a fantastic Godly man to share my life with. Then, He blessed me with two great kids.

Next, He lead me to teach a Sunday school class which was kind of intimidating, because there was no curriculum and it was middle schoolers and I had toddlers. I reluctantly answered the call. I really had to start reading the Bible and I enjoyed the class and the kids and what I was learning.

We changed churches and my hubby and I got to participate in an adult class for the first time and we enjoyed it too. We learned a lot together. Then, there was a need for someone to teach the middle schoolers. This time, we both answered the call. We have learned so much about God and grace from the kids and from each other.

I would have never believed in my twenties that I could have been so fulfilled and useful in my forties, but God knew. Just as He knew with Ester, when she agreed to stand up for her people or Ruth, when she decided to follow her mother-in-law to a foreign country, even though her husband had died.

These women had some hardship to overcome and they had difficult decisions to make. But, God was able to take their scraps and weave a beautiful story that eventually produced a savior. Who would have known?

God is the greatest recycler of all time. Give Him your mess and watch what He can create. Just be prepared to be amazed! Feel free to share how God has used your mess to make something beautiful.

Have an awesome day!

Wendy 🙂

I just spent the day subbing in the media center at the local elementary school. You remember the place; it used to be called the library. I rarely visited the school library when I was growing up, unless I was working on some type of research paper or project.

Finding a book was rather cumbersome. You first had to navigate the card catalog and then there was the ever intimidating, Dewey Decimal System. Sometimes you had to look up articles on something called microfilm. It was cutting edge stuff. Not to mention, you had to be quiet, something I was never really good at.

Boy, how times have changed. The media center I spent the day in had five student computers, plus one for checking books out, one for checking books in and one connected to a Smartboard. The card catalog is long gone and with a computer, the search for a book is instantaneous. The kids can search by author or subject and it will even tell them exactly where to find it. Done. No fuss. No muss.

This is a much better way, right? But, then I start to wonder, while no one misses the card catalog, didn’t using it teach us patience and perseverance? As a society, I think we’ve become like that bratty little rich girl, Veruca,  from Willa Wonka. Her main line was, “I want it now!”

I often talk to the middle schoolers in our Sunday School Class about the vending machine attitude towards prayer. We want to say a prayer and have it answered now, thank-you very much. We want prayer to be like putting change into a vending machine and pushing the button, for instant results. Unfortunately, it doesn’t work that way.

The Bible gives us plenty examples of the fact that God’s timing is different than ours. Abraham was seventy-five years old when God promised him he would be the father to many. He was one hundred years old when Isaac was born. It took the Israelites forty years in the desert to make what should have been a fairly short trip to the Promised Land.

In the New Testament, Jesus tells his disciples that he must go up to heaven so that the Holy Spirit can arrive. They watch him ascend into heaven and walk back to town and lock themselves in a room, praying non-stop for seven days before the Holy Spirit comes roaring in with a big whoosh. Seven days may not sound like a long time, but have you ever prayed non-stop for seven days?

I don’t think it’s a coincidence that patience is a fruit of the Spirit. Waiting can not only be difficult, but excruciating at times, especially if we’re waiting on news from a loved one or for test results. But, waiting is a part of life and if we have faith, we can grow our patience and with faith and patience, the waiting isn’t nearly as hard. Patience is a lifelong quest for most of us, but the peace that comes from it is well worth it. How about you? How well do you wait? feel free to share.

Have an awesome day!

Wendy 🙂

I had one of those non-stop, hectic days, yesterday. I began the day with a to-do list that was way too long, before I even got started. I was setting myself up for frustration and failure to begin with and then of course, there was a problem with the cable that required a phone call. It was just one more thing on the list and I dreaded spending thirty minutes to an hour on the phone trying to troubleshoot the cable box, when I knew they would have to send someone out.

I was grumbling as I looked for the phone number and I grudgingly stayed on the phone with a computer voice for fifteen minutes or so before it realized I needed a real live person. When the person finally came on, I went through all of my information. He was very kind and when he re-set whatever he re-set, it disconnected me and I had to call again. Did I mention that we have our phone service with the cable company too?  The second representative was also very polite and apologetic, but I had to give all of the same detailed information one more time. She sent a special signal as well that also, you guessed it, disconnected me.

At this point, I began to see red. How could these people be so incompetent? I saw my day slipping away. Since I’m trying to be more intentional about letting others control my emotions, I had to put the phone down, take a deep breath and say a prayer. “Dear God, please help me to remember that in the big picture, this tiny sliver of time won’t matter. Please help me try to remember that no one is intentionally trying to ruin my mood or my day. Please help me to remember that these people are people just like me who are trying to do their jobs. They didn’t try to fail on purpose. Most of all, Father, please help me to remember that I have a choice here. Amen.”

I calmly picked up the phone and dialed a third time. The fellow on the other line was delightful. After listening to my story and trying a couple of things, he sent a repairman that afternoon. We ended up with a new box with a clearer picture than ever and he did something to speed up the internet while he was here too.

I could have been angry or annoyed for the rest of the day over those forty-five minutes or so of frustration, but who would have won? There certainly is a time and place for righteous anger, when we have been seriously hurt or wronged, but this was not it. I’m working on trying to remember that emotions that are opposite of the fruits of the Spirit, “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control,” likely come from somewhere else.

I am happy to say that I won this particular battle and I know without a doubt that it was due to prayer. It really is a powerful weapon. How about you? How do you do with daily frustrations? Please feel free to comment.

Have an awesome day!

Wendy 🙂

Our heater just came on for the first time of the season. You know what that means, that disgusting, burning smell fills up the house. As I was driving my daughter to school today, they even had a radio call-in segment where everyone was complaining about that heater smell. Now, as much as we hate that smell, we sure do love the heat that comes with it. If you had to go without heat to get rid of the odor, wouldn’t you choose to keep the odor? The heat only has to run a couple of cycles and then the smell is forgotten until the following fall, but we enjoy the toasty heat all through the winter and into early spring.

There are a lot of life experiences like the first heat cycle of fall. At the very beginning, it may be misery, but if we keep going, it’s so much more comfortable and rewarding. Exercise is a perfect example of this. When you haven’t exercised in a while, you feel out of breath and out of shape. The next morning, everything aches and you wonder if it’s worth it. But, if you keep exercising, you begin to feel better and the soreness goes away. You feel stronger and you sleep better. You even look better and you are definitely healthier. But, you have to be willing to get past the beginning, uncomfortable phase.

Our faith walk can be uncomfortable in the beginning too. If you are searching for a new church home, walking into a new place full of people you don’t know may be intimidating. Walking into a Sunday school class where everyone is chatting like they have known each other forever can be uncomfortable. Attending a Bible study, when you have never read an entire chapter of the Bible much less a book, can be daunting. Learning to pray about everything can make us feel kind of foolish. We ask ourselves, “Does God really care about my little problems?” The answer is yes. He knows what you need before you know.

The Bible tells us in Philippians 4:6, “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be known to God.” We know what thanksgiving means, but what exactly does supplication mean? The dictionary defines supplication as, to ask humbly. Uhoh, we’re not big on humility these days. Humility is defined as: the quality or state of thinking that you are not better than other people.

Okay, so we’re supposed to pray about everything, (especially the big stuff, but including the seemingly trivial stuff), and we are supposed to be thankful every time we pray, which is not always easy because sometimes we wait until we are in a bind or facing some kind of tragedy before we pray in the first place. It’s difficult at that point to be thankful. Finally, we are supposed to pray with humility, which means we accept we don’t deserve what we ask for, but we ask it anyway. That requires faith.

This prayer discipline, this attitude, takes lots of practice and can be uncomfortable at first because it’s contrary to our human nature, but if we are diligent, our entire lives can be transformed. As I sit here enjoying the toasty heat (with no burning smell), coming from my vent, I think this faith journey and prayer life is worth the work. What do you think?

Have an awesome day!

Wendy 🙂

I am a lifelong optimist. Some experts say nature causes optimism and some say nurture. I don’t know which is true; I just know I usually am able to see the good in most situations. That’s not to say that I don’t have my occasional down day. I think that because I usually am so optimistic, when I lose sight of the light, it’s a particularly dark time for me. When you are used to seeing the good in everything, seeing nothing, but the bad is very disheartening and even kind of frightening.

On those half-empty days, I really call on God for help. I try to think of all of the things I’m thankful for and I count the many blessings I have been given, (and I’ve been given a lot.) On this day, financial worries were closing in. It was the beginning of  a new school year and everyone seemed to have their hand out. There were regular expenses like new school supplies, new clothes, joining PTO and locker money, (Can you believe the kids have to pay for lockers?), agenda money; the list went on. Also, our car tag taxes were due. My hubby and I were trying valiantly not to use the credit card. We are a one income family, so when unexpected expenses pour in, that can be tricky. We thought we had it under control this year. I had a band function to attend that night where I was expected to pay $60.00 in band fees and $70.00 for a band uniform. To top it off, I was fighting a three-day headache. I ran into the pharmacy to pick a few things up and the pharmacist informed me that my husband’s auto-refill prescription was ready. When he rang me up, it came to a total of $74.00. I was crushed. $74.00 doesn’t sound like a lot, but when money is super tight, it’s a lot. That $70.00 was budgeted for a band uniform.

I went home and began praying about finances (again). Why wasn’t God listening to me? Why wasn’t he answering my prayers?  Weren’t we living the way we were called to? Weren’t we teaching our children to know and love him? Why was this so hard and would my head ever stop hurting? I was in tears as I checked my e-mail. I subscribe to a blog called http://www.incourage.me You’ll never guess what the topic was. “When your God-sized dream is to be a wife and mother.”

The hair literally stood up on the back of my neck. The entire post was about how being a wife and mother doesn’t pay very well and we won’t get famous doing it, but that God’s call is not to fame and fortune. As Christians, we are to seek the Kingdom of God first. Tears were streaming down my face as I was reminded once again by my heavenly father who never seems to run out of patience with me, that he was in fact listening and I was on the right path. Matthew 6:33 popped into my mind. “Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need.”

As I drove to the band meeting, I felt a renewed sense of peace. I wasn’t sure how we would cover the $70.00 uniform fee, but I knew God would provide. The band director greeted us at the door and when I asked him where we could purchase uniforms, he informed me that we were not purchasing uniforms that evening. The e-mail had specifically said that we would purchase uniforms. I could almost hear God in my ear whispering, “Why do you ever doubt me?” I got back into my car, overcome again by the love of God for me. As soon as I got home, I wrote it all down to remind myself that even when my glass looks half-empty, in reality my cup runneth over. God always provides.

Have an awesome day!

Wendy 🙂

Fall is a time of transition and transition can sometimes be messy. My driveway is covered in leaves and so is our yard and our trampoline. The dictionary defines transition as the process or period of changing  from one condition or state to another. During labor, the transition phase is the most intense, but so important to get to the next phase of actually getting a baby into the world.

We spend a large part of our lives in transition. We transition from middle school to high school, from high school to college and from college to a career. We transition from children to teenagers and this transition is so infamous, in recent years, it’s been given its own name, the tween years. Next, we transition from teens to adults, from single to married and sometimes back to single. We transition from full-time parents to empty nesters and from working daily to retirees. Sometimes transitions are smooth with little to no mess or worry and sometimes these periods can be incredibly painful. Sometimes we wonder if we will survive them.

In the Bible, almost the entire New Testament is dedicated to people in transition. The new church was growing and spreading, but there were all kinds of issues and disagreements like how much Jewish law did the new Gentile converts have to observe. There was a huge struggle over legalism versus grace. Happily, grace won. They argued over how to worship and about women’s roles in the church, about submitting to authority and who was actually in charge. The list is almost endless. Some churches like the ones in Corinth had all kinds of problems. The Thessalonians, on the other hand, seemed to have very little trouble getting along with one another and keeping the faith, although they were often persecuted. All of the early churches laid the groundwork for our faith today. Their early struggles and transitions were recorded and give us all faith, hope, and guidance.

The most important thing to remember about transition is that it’s temporary. It’s a process or period, not forever. The caterpillar has to transition to a butterfly. It doesn’t just wake up one day and fly, no, it has to create a cocoon a tight, restrictive place where it changes into something completely different, but beautiful. While we may feel like we are in the never-ending doldrums or a suffocating cocoon or we find ourselves wondering if life will ever slow down or be normal again, we need to have faith that God has something fabulous planned just up ahead if we persevere.

If you woke up this morning, God is still working with you and through you and while yesterday may look better than today, take heart at the words of Paul:  No, dear brothers and sisters, I am still not all I should be, but I am focusing all my energies on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, I strain to reach the end of the race and receive the prize for which God, through Jesus Christ is calling us up to heaven. Philippians 3:13-14 NLT

In other words, if we keep our eyes on the prize of Jesus and where we are going, where we are at this very moment doesn’t really matter. We just need to keep putting one foot in front of the other trusting in our loving father and knowing he has huge plans for us, plans better than anything we could imagine ourselves. Are you in some type of  transition today? Please feel free to comment.

Have an awesome day!

Wendy 🙂