I hope you have a wonderful weekend! I was playing around with this photo and made this picture and wanted to share it with you.
I’ll see you Monday for the beginning of the Cultivating a Heart for Motherhood Series! I can’t wait!!
Happy Weekend!
January 28, 2012 By
Mama NEVER Said There’d Be Days Like This
January 26, 2012 By
**This is a post from 2 years ago from my previous blog, reposted here. Praising the Lord that we have not found any more giant snakes near us in the recent days.**
Now…..enjoy….or not.
For as long as I can remember I have had a debilitating fear of snakes. The kind of fear that makes you cry, your hands shake, and even, on occasion, throw up. To some this fear may seem silly or irrational, but to me, it is all too real.
But I had no idea how real it was going to get…..
At first, we began finding these little baby pythons in the yard, on the back stairs, and even on the laundry basket. Let’s just say I didn’t handle it well. Picture me puffy-eyed, red-faced, on the floor of the bathroom crying to Dave about how I just couldn’t stay here anymore. We had to move, and quick. Every time I thought about these evil, evil things I would erupt into sobs once more.
Eventually I did pull myself together somewhat and managed to carry on (I even managed to leave the bathroom floor), although I wouldn’t go into the backyard for many, many days. I squirmed with fear every time I thought about these horrible things, and prayed that I would never, ever, ever see one again.
After all, here I am sacrificing comfort, missing family, and dripping with sweat every day all for the Lord, right?! Surely the Lord would answer my desperate pleas for a life free from any more snakes! Right?! Ahem.
In the end, they caught 22 baby pythons between our backyard and our neighbor’s backyard (which by the way, they found far more in the neighbors’ backyard, and my dear friend and co-worker handled the snakes far better than I did).
Life returned to normal (relatively), and slowly the threat of finding snakes faded into the distance. I still would not go outside in the dark, or ever walk in any kind of tall grass. But overall, I was able to carry on with life.
And then, just when life was returning to normal, last Wednesday I heard our Indonesian neighbor boy yell for my son, Britton, to come see the snake he found. Oh great, I thought, another baby python….here we go again.
But nothing could prepare me for what it was they found…..
This, literally feet from my house. Tears spring to my eyes and my hands are shaking just posting these pictures. My greatest all-time fear, right near my own house! It is difficult to even believe it.
Have we moved yet? No. We are still living in our same house, right in the middle of all the slithery action. Am I camping out on the bathroom floor? No, although I did have another melt down, the kind where it turns into the ugly cry. And I do mean the UGLY cry.
Yet, in it all, the Lord has given me great peace. Throughout my day, I keep singing the song from Rich Mullins,
Hold Me Jesus Cause I’m shaking like a leaf, You have been King of my glory, Won’t you be my prince of peace.That snake was big, really big. And I am shaking like a leaf.
However, the God I serve is bigger than that snake, and bigger than my fear. I have had to come to the end of myself and my own fears and realize that I serve the God who made that huge, disgusting creature (although I’m sure I don’t know why).
I raise my shaking hand and slip in into His and know that He is with me. It is very humbling, and very freeing all at the same time. The Lord doesn’t promise us a life free from trials, but He does promise us He will be there through all of them.
I have never held tighter to His mighty hand, and I have no intention of letting go. And the good news is, neither does He.
Snow Day in the Tropics
January 17, 2012 By
Here in Indonesia {right on the equator}, there is no chance of a snow day for my kiddos. So, what do we do instead? We have torrential rain days! When it rains really hard and everything floods, we head outside to play in the tropical rain and the muddy water! This is a picture of our neighbor’s back yard, completely flooded.
Just one way we “bloom where we are planted!”
Instead of making lemonade from lemons, we make snow from muddy water!
How do you bloom where you are planted?
Say Yes!- Priorities
January 16, 2012 By
“It’s not hard to decide what you want your life to be about. What’s hard is figuring out what you are willing to give up in order to do the things you really care about.“- Shauna Niequist
We’ve talked about saying yes. Ruth shared her family mission statement, and I talked about family as our primary ministry.
Let’s take it a step further.
1.Find some time to be alone and quiet for a few minutes and pray.
2.Get a piece of paper and write VISION at the top.
3. Write down all the things the Lord brings to mind regarding a vision for your life and home. Look back on your family mission statement. Kat at Inspired to Action has a great tool to use as well. This will be your “vision board”.
“Show me, O LORD, my life’s end and the number of my days; let me know how fleeting is my life.”Psalm 39:4
Here is mine for this year:
4. Take an honest look at your commitments, schedule, and time management. How do these things line up with your vision board? What changes do you need to make?
Head over to The Better Mom to read the rest of the post today and read my list of priorities! See you there!
Weaving
December 13, 2011 By
I weave among the cars and motorcycles in this city, my home of four years, but still so completely foreign to me. I do my best to get around trying not to hit or be hit. Tension reigns as I maneuver my little automobile amongst the chaos of pedestrians, food carts, and other vehicles.
All around me, people. I groan. I grow frustrated. As a motorcycle cuts in front of me without looking, I let out an exasperated huff and honk my horn loudly. I am angry at the people I am here to love.
I return home, hot and sweaty, the smell of the city on my clothes. I weave among the chess pieces scattered on the floor, remains of an art project across the table, clothes folded but yet to be put away. I groan, and feel that frustration rise again. My head feels hot and the anger rises in my head and heart. I let out another exasperated huff, and stomp around to clean the mess. Yet again, anger directed at the people I am here to love.
As I retreat for a moment to sit in a dark and chilly room, and I ponder.
How could I get angry again?
How could I try and fail again? Why can’t I even love those He has called me to love? The ones that I have uprooted and travelled all the way around the world to serve and the ones that came from my own womb?
And the answer comes, gently. Have you still not gotten it? When will you stop striving?
Rest in Me and allow me to weave all that you need into your precious heart so that you may love and live in Me, and I will do all things well. You can do nothing without Me.
Allow Me to weave the love into your heart, allow Me to weave the patience, the understanding, the long-suffering.
Let Me.
I close my eyes, and drink His words in.
I am so tired. I fail so often. And yet, on He weaves.
Thanks for visiting! I invite you to subscribe to Grace Full Mama here.
Photo Credit, BinaryApe.
Advent in the Heart and Home
December 9, 2011 By
Join me at GraceLaced today as I share a little window into our Advent traditions and what it looks like to celebrate Christmas overseas!
See you there!
Poverty Lives Right Down the Road
December 5, 2011 By
Poverty lives right down the road. She is my friend. She works without end to care for her family. She is younger than me, but seems much older. She has lived far more life than I can imagine. She smiles and laughs, but in her eyes I see pain. At 32 years old, her vision is blurry. She has cataracts. Through the haze she labors on in hopes of one day earning enough to pay for her surgery.
I add it up. At the rate she is going it will take her more than 3 years to earn enough for the mere $200 it costs for a life-changing surgery. I think. I pray. $200 is really nothing to me. By US standards we are poor, 5 children on a meager salary, but over here we are the extremely wealthy. The uber-rich.But, it is always an interesting dance, giving money. We want to be careful not to enable others, make them dependent. In this case, we decide to go ahead.
I gather friends to join me in paying and praying for the surgery, not because I couldn’t do it myself, but because there is joy in joining together for a common cause. Joy in community.
The night of the surgery finally arrives…..
Please join me over at (in)courage today to hear the rest of the story.
Be blessed today, friends!
Simple Christ-Focused Christmas
November 30, 2011 By
My ideas for Christmas may not be the most stellar, cute, or original, but they are Christmas traditions that work well for our family. I have found that simple is what gets done around here, so that is what we stick with!
I really like the simplicity and Christ-centeredness of our current traditions. And that is my goal….to make Christmas all about Christ!
The Advent Book. I love this book. Each day has a beautiful door for kids to open, revealing more of the story of Christ’s birth (word for word from the Bible). Since every day you begin at the beginning and continue until you open the new door, by Christmas Day the kids have all of Luke 2 memorized!
A Simple Advent Wreath. 4 white candles, each one representing a different part of the Christmas story, with a red candle in the center representing Christ. Thriving Family has an downloadable Advent Guide with readings and extra ideas on how to celebrate Advent in your family. Ann also has a beautiful free Jesse Tree download. Another GREAT resource is this ebook Truth in the Tinsel from Amanda, geared toward preschoolers…it looks so fun!
Advent Calendar. A sweet friend made one of these for us. A simple felt calendar with beautiful clay ornaments representing the daily Scripture, one for each day leading up to Christmas. Simple and special.
Shepherd’s Pouches. An idea I found in the book, Treasuring God in Our Traditions by Noel Piper. Each child gets a pouch in which to collect money to give to Jesus on Christmas Day. We are going to use our money to make gift boxes for the kids at the English Club we teach. It will be interesting to see how my kids come up with ways to make money. Since our children do not get an allowance, they have to be extra creative!
Birthday Party. On Christmas Day, we will celebrate Jesus’ birth by having cake, giving Him our Shepherd’s Pouches, and singing carols to Him!
I am looking forward to a Christmas season spent with my wonderful family and focusing on Him!
Yes, that is our tree in the picture above. Yes, we have a Christmas tree in the tropics, and yes, it’s fake. {grin}
I’m linking up here:
and Works for Me Wednesday
What are your favorite traditions? I would love to hear!
Time for Blogging
November 28, 2011 By
Last year, I quit blogging. Altogether. {At my former blog.}
And it was glorious. Beautiful. Relaxing. I had hours back I had never had before, and my stress level went way down. And then I felt the Lord guiding me to begin a new blog, one that would be a fresh, clean start. I wrestled and prayed about the idea for a few months, and finally said yes to the Lord. Thus, Grace Full Mama was born and launched.
However, as I came back to this world we call blog-land, I wanted to do it responsibly. Christin posted about the ebook, Simple Blogging, and I bought it right away. I came away from that book with a vision and a plan. A way for my blog to fit into my life, and not the other way around.
I made a plan for myself, guard rails, if you will.
First, here’s my vision and purpose:
To use my story and my words to bring glory to Jesus Christ, to use blogging as my way to make art for the glory of His name, and to encourage and inspire moms in their job of mothering.
And, vision for the way I blog:
To enjoy life and always put my family first.
I decided before I ever started that I would limit my online time severely, and that I would only post 3 -4 times a week. I made that commitment to myself ahead of time, because I know how easy it is to get sucked into the vortex of blogging and social media!
And my schedule is a nutshell is this:
Monday- Friday-
-30 minutes in early AM to check Facebook, Twitter, comments, and email
-1 hour during kids rest time to work on editing posts {Thursday I have 1 hour 30 minutes cause older kids are at music class}
-10 minutes at night to do Facebook and Twitter {since it’s AM in the States}
Saturday morning-
-3 hours to write all posts for the upcoming week, including guest posts, etc. {my hubby works on Saturdays, and so I have someone who watches my kiddos during this time} The deal with the kids is that if I can have these 3 hours in the early AM to get my blog work done, then the rest of the day is theirs and we all go do something fun.
Sundays-
off completely
Now, this might seem like a lot, but it goes by quick. I have to be very intentional to fit in all that I need to accomplish in this time. But I wouldn’t want it any other way.
The other thing that I have done is enlist another blogger to keep me accountable. We email each other our schedule about once a week. Knowing that someone will be asking helps keep my computer time in check!
Dear, sweet Laura Booz has written an excellent ebook on this very topic, Blogger Behave, and I highly recommend you get a hold of it. She lays out some really practical ideas on how to love your life and blogging. I came away from it challenged, refreshed, and excited. I am sure you will as well. Here is the seriously adorable video she made for her book:
Email readers click here to see the video.
I am excited because all this week Laura will be doing a series at Sarah Mae’s blog on this very topic:
I hope you will join in!
Do you have limits for yourself and the computer? What are they? I’d love to hear your thoughts!
Sisterhood….Comparison
November 23, 2011 By
Source: elembee.com via Joy on Pinterest
So, we’ve talked about the call to sisterhood, embracing who God has made you to be, learning to get real with one another, accepting the differences of others, and then how we need to encourage one another as sisters.
And here comes the doozy….
In order to build a true sisterhood of Christian unity, we REALLY need to stop comparing ourselves with others. Seriously.
Each one of us is an important part of the body of Christ. Each person adds something beautiful. Let’s join our individual songs together…all of us together in unity and praise of our glorious Father.
Don’t let comparison steal your joy.
What is your thing? What has the Lord put into your life that drives you? Whatever it is that the Lord has given YOU to do, do that well, and relax and enjoy it! Do it well, and do it for the glory of God.
And don’t compare the results of your work with another. And for bloggers, in God’s economy there are no subscriber numbers, no page views, and no follower numbers.
“For the body is not one member, but many. If the foot says, “Because I am not a hand, I am not a part of the body,’ and if the ear says, ‘because I am not an eye, I am not a part of the body,’ is it not for this reason and less the part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole were hearing, where would the sense of smell be? But now, God has placed the members, each one of them in the body, just as He desired.” 1 Corinthians 12:14
And, here is where I get really honest. Last year, I was asked to speak at the Relevant conference as one of the speakers. I was flattered and humbled and I said yes. That was when I blogged at The Stay at Home Missionary. I was excited and nervous and slightly overwhelmed. Then, when all of the speakers were announced, and I found my name among them, I was terrified. I looked at the list and felt overwhelmed and small. It seemed that nearly everyone had a book published, had a ginormous following, and I felt small. I’m not saying this was right, but it is honest.
I let comparison steal the joy of my being asked to speak. It ate me up so much that I ended up backing out of speaking and eventually quit my blog all together. Me, measuring myself, comparing myself to others, instead of what God had called me to do.
Well, you know the rest of the story. I think God has quite a sense of humor, because not only did He have me go back and speak at the Relevant conference, but as a keynote!
God has made each one of us with a specific purpose. Are you going to fulfill the purpose He has for you by following His lead? Will you use your gifts, talents, and stories for His glory?
I am, how about you?
Check back next week for the conclusion of this series….the last bit makes me cry every time.
{This series is a slightly edited version of the keynote I gave at the Relevant conference. If you would like to listen to the audio of that session, you can download it here.}
Here is a list of the previous posts in the series:
1. The Call
2.Embrace
3.Get Real
5. Encourage
I’m linking up here:
