Lessons from A to Z ~ Demo Day

The kids took the first swings of the sledgehammer.

Our basement remodel is now in full swing. And in the days leading up to it, the kids were so excited for "Demo Day". The day when construction officially begins with demolishing - building up, by tearing down. They couldn't wait to swing a sledgehammer, put holes in walls and tear things down - turning the hopes of a new basement and bedroom into a reality.

I however always enter this day of a remodel with mixed feelings. I too am excited for new construction and the beginning of new and better things. But with a demolition, things always look worse before they look better. Demo is messy, dirty, dramatic, sometimes dangerous and even injurious. And afterward there is no going back to exactly what it was before.

There is the underlying fear that it will stay in this state. Many a house has been deserted after it's demolition, when the cost seemed too great a price to pay. Others are rebuilt using shortcuts, with  problems left hidden behind the walls. Less valuable and left incomplete. BUT even the most valuable, highest quality improvements cannot be done without this crucial step. A house cannot be improved on without some deconstruction. And therein lies my HOPE.

We all have areas in our life that need deconstruction - it is called sin. We are ALL in need of a remodel. Starting with some demolition. Maybe we need a sledgehammer, maybe we need smaller tools to carefully deconstruct. But either way, we need to allow The Carpenter to remodel us. It is our one hope. 

So like my kids, let's get excited. Let's get messy. Let's power through the necessary demo, and continue working toward the hope of Christ remodeling us.

Let Demo Day begin.

Behold I make all things new. ~ Revelation 21:5

The bricks have fallen, but we will build with dressed stones; 

the sycamores have been cut down, 

but we will put cedars in their place. ~ Isaiah 9:10

You yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, 

to be a holy priesthood, 

to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.  ~ 1 Peter 2:5

Lessons from A to Z ~ A Lesson From Hagar

Every weekday morning, I drive the kids to school. We have 4 minutes in the car together. And I use that time to pray out loud for each of them. I pray over anything specific they have for the day—a test, a project, friend issues. I pray that they will be a blessing to their teachers and peers. I thank God that He loves them so much, that He wants to use them in their school, and that He is with them through the day. And then I open the car door and send them off to their own little worlds of elementary and preschool. Worlds I am not a major part of. I don’t follow them. I can’t see or hear them. But God does.

“You are the God who sees…” ~ Genesis 16:13

I was reminded of this verse last month as I spoke on Hagar at our annual Women’s Breakfast. Her story is a powerful one and can be found in Genesis 16 and 21. In both chapters, Hagar encounters God in the middle of the desert when she is most desperate and alone. She is reminded that: God SEES you, God HEARS you, and God has a PLAN for you.

I love that. I pray this over my children so they will remember this as they enter school: that even where I can’t follow, God is with them and has a plan for them. This has been such a comfort as we work with them through heartbreaking friend drama, frustrating subjects and disciplines that seem oh so hard to master. He sees them in class, He hears them on the playground, and He has a plan for each of them. 

Like Hagar, I pray our family can all say “I have seen the One who sees me.” (Genesis 16:13) Have you seen Him in your life?

From Trash to Treasure

Lessons from A to Z

Abby and Zoe have trash detail in our house. At first, they couldn’t have cared less about the garbage, trash day, or the mundane details like what size of can we had. Until it became their chore and they had to invest time into doing a good job.  It didn’t take long before they started to care that the recycle bins were sorted properly into glass, paper and plastic.  They even looked forward to the promised day we would get the all-encompassing recycle cans in our town.

As you can imagine, the day the larger recycling can came was a day of much rejoicing for them! So much so, that we took these pictures. We could finally fit the vast quantities a family of six recycles. No more stomping down garbage or bagging up the overflow. They ran out to meet the truck, thanking the sanitation workers, and brought the can up our driveway like a found treasure. A treasure! Because that’s what it was now.  A valuable commodity for their investment of time into that chore.

Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. 

~ Luke 12:34

This verse shows us how wise God was in building us this way. Do you ever wish you cared a little more about something, but honestly just don’t? I have. But there is hope! This verse encourages us to invest in the stuff we know is good and worthy of our concern, even if our heart isn’t in it yet. If we are faithful to place our treasures of time and money into the hurting places of this world, God is faithful to steer our hearts toward those very things. Where is your treasure?

Lessons from A to Z ~ I Have Not Come for the Well

Last month we geared up for another fancy Easter at our house. I got out our best china and laid out the kids’ fancy Easter clothes. All to celebrate what Christ came for…NOT the fancy. Not the people that “have it all together”. But for the sick, the lost, the people that have it all falling apart.  This has caused me to seriously re-think my approach.

So this Easter had special meaning when we got the opportunity to spread love and the Easter Message to the kids at Syringa—the low-income trailer park that Resonate has adopted. Here's how it happened this Easter:

I was out of town, speaking to women (about this very topic), when I received an email from one of our Syringa team members: “We had the wrong dates for the Easter Party at Syringa. It is TOMORROW and they need 30 baskets and an egg hunt!” It was too short of notice to do much, and I couldn’t start making calls in the middle of a conference. I said a quick prayer for helpers to rise up, and left it in God’s hands.

The next day, Chad texted me the following pictures. (No, I hadn't called him about this.)

 

Xavier & Zander help deliver baskets.

He had seen my email and took action! That morning he called people to sponsor baskets. Then he, the kids & the team met at Walmart and bought everything for 30 baskets. Then they went to Syringa, filled the baskets, had a party and played with our little friends there. I was so proud of my family! (And of Chad for knowing my heart for this! 1000 extra bonus husband points for Chad!)

30 baskets filled and ready for kids!

A close-up of each basket, filled with goodies and Easter info.

Egg Hunt on the lawn of newly re-opened community center.

We are learning as we go, folks. But this became the highlight of our Easter week by far! Easter is too good of news to keep it as a fancy church affair. It is news worth sharing, worth taking a basket to a child, a ham to a neighbor, or an egg hunt to a slum. It is worth taking the message of Christ to his prime audience: those who are not well yet.

Some of the team, our kids and Syringa kids.

And Jesus answered them, 

“Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. 

I have not come to call the righteous but the sinners to repentance.”

~ Luke 5:31-32 ~

Lessons from A to Z ~ Crashing Waves

One of the highlights of August was our annual trip to Seaside Oregon with Chad’s extended family. This year the weather cooperated and was warm enough for the girls and I to play in the waves. We weren’t in there for long before I noticed how differently Zoe and Abby played in the waves.

Abby preferred to stay in the shallower waters where she was more mobile. As waves got close to her, she turned toward the beach, readied herself like a relay racer and ran. Once the wave had ended, she returned back to her original spot,  unscathed. She never got knocked down.

Zoe’s approach was much different. She didn’t run. She ventured deeper. She stood strong and  braced herself before each unavoidable wave crashed around her. Sometimes she screamed with the thrill of it all. Other times she would throw her arms out as if embracing the oncoming wave.

The girls reminded me of the waves that we face in life—the temptations, trials and tribulations that inevitably come. Some waves we should RUN from: temptations that could destroy our relationship with God, our spouse, or our family. God tells us to flee from temptation (2 Tim 2:22). Like Abby, watch for them while they are still far off and run!  Other waves are unavoidable and God tells us to BRACE ourselves (1 Cor 16:13): trials and tribulations that inevitably come through perhaps no fault of our own. Like Zoe, stand strong in the Word, face them head on and brace yourself!

Waves will come in our lives, God wants us to pay attention and be ready to run or to stand.

If only you had paid attention to my commands, your peace would have been like a river, your well-being like the waves of the sea.  ~Isaiah 48:18

Pretty Peonies - Ombre Style

I love Peonies.  They are my favorite flower.  They are similar to roses but with twice as many petals.  So get ready for a second post about flowers.  Its summer now and I just can't help myself.

I have been stalking driving by my favorite place - our local flower farm - every few days, watching and waiting for the first Peony buds to open.  And now that my favorite place has my favorite flower, I can't help but share them with some of our favorite people - our teachers!

The kids and I gathered an armful of peonies (for just $7!) to divide up into gift bouquets. 

Following the teacher theme, I became the Art Teacher to my kids while we made these bouquets, teaching them the art word of the day: Ombre.  Ombre means having colors or tones that shade into each other - used especially in fabrics and design in which the color is graduated from light to dark.  Its actually an old French word meaning "shaded". 

So if you didn't know that, there's your art lesson.  Ombre is all the rage right now - in fabrics, flowers, party themes, fashion, even hair.  Google it, I'm telling ya.

Anyway, we created "ombre" bouquets, using all the shades of pink peonies we could find, then clustering them from lightest to darkest.  We kept this theme for the gift tags too, by using paint chips (free at the paint store) that also were in graduated pink shades.

Here's all it took to make this pretty little gift:

- Mason jars ($0 - we already had these, you could even use a soup can)

- Pink ribbon ($0 - I already had different bits of pink ribbon. But twine or string can work too.)

- Paint swatches ($0 - free at the paint store)

- Peonies ($7 per bunch at the flower farm = four bouquets, plus a little left for me.

Total cost: less than $2 per bouquet, plus a little time.

Here is the end result: (Sorry the quality is not great, I forgot to take this picture until we were in the car making our deliveries.)

We put the bouquets in a shallow bucket in the car and the kids took turns delivering them.  Since school was already out for my kids before the peonies bloomed, we didn't have a chance to give these to their teachers so we opted to give them to the teachers we knew personally.  We were able to deliver them to their doorsteps on their first full day of summer break.  Happy summer!

It was a fun summer activity, it made a pretty little teacher gift, and it was a great way to get our kids involved with giving back and having a thankful heart.

The Lupine Lady

Its lupine season.  Have you noticed? If you don't know what Lupine flowers look like, here they are:

Beautiful aren't they?  They are quite hearty and can grow wild (or in gardens) around here.  I don't think I noticed them much as a kid.  That is, until my mom read to me the children's book Miss Rumphius. 

If you've never read this award-winning book and you have kids, check it out at the library.  Beautifully written and illustrated by Barbara Cooney, the story follows Miss Rumphius who has 3 goals in life:

1. Travel the world.

2. Settle down by the sea.

And most importantly, 

#3 - Do something to make the world more beautiful.  This is how she  becomes known as "The Lupine Lady". 

The story is so lovely and so haunting (in a good way) that it has stuck with me to this day.  I love that thought. I want to do that. I want my kids to do that too. 

So with all these lupines around, I was reminded of the book and decided to check it out again. So that I could read it to my children just as my mother read it to me.  I also had a hankering to get an armload of lupines from our local U-Pick Flower Farm.  (Any excuse to visit this little piece of heaven!)

In a way, the woman who runs this flower farm is her own version of The Lupine Lady.  The world is a more beautiful place because of her. And for only $7 you can bring home a whole armful of this beauty.

And that's what I did.  And this is what was waiting on the table for my kids when they came home.

 

It was wonderful to read it to my kids and share the dream with them - to be our own versions of the Lupine Lady when we grow up and make the world more beautiful.

Lessons from A to Z ~ Life Abundant

Springtime came a little late here in Pullman. In fact, we almost skipped it altogether! One week there was still frost on the ground in the mornings, the next week it was 70 degrees outside and we were barbequing. With the warm weather, came my eager anticipation for all of our flowers to bloom! Each day I watched our colorless gardens, waiting for the first flowers to come out. And finally now, a few weeks into spring, we have an abundance of life blooming!

One example that Abby marveled at the other day was a Poppy in our yard. The Poppy has the most interesting large, pale green, fuzzy bud. She didn’t yet know what it was, but couldn’t help break one open, just to see what was inside. There she found beautiful, delicate ruffles of petals just waiting to pop.  This week the first of our Poppies opened and she got to see the incredible flower in all its vibrant glory.

With all this life blossoming around us, I can’t help but think of Zoe and her baptism this month. Much like a flowering Poppy, baptism is an outward sign of a new vibrant life within.  It is the symbol of a new life in Christ. Not only that, but Zoe’s name literally means “life” in Greek. And anyone who knows her can attest she is bursting with spunk and life! One of my favorite verses using her name is John 10:10, “I came that they may have LIFE [zoë], and have it abundantly.” Not just biological life (“bios”), but an abundant, vibrant quality of life (“zoë”)!

Zoe - waving to Resonate Church after getting baptazed

As her mother, I have watched her life begin and grow in eager anticipation.  God put a lot of spunk and spirit into such a small little bud!  And now I am so thankful, humbled and excited to see the vibrant things God does in and through her life.  No longer just a little bud, God has given Zoe a colorful, vibrant, abundant life in Him.

I came that they may have life

and have it abundantly.

~ John 10:10

Head In The Sand

Ostriches don't actually hide their head in the sand when scared, But just go with me on this.

OK, here’s the honest truth about why I stopped blogging:  I’ve had my head in the sand for awhile. 

It is not without good reason. This has been a challenging year for me and for our family. Challenging in a good way, not bad - but challenging just the same. I am navigating my way through ministry, family and (for the last year and a half) being a foster mom. And I love it. But it has been the most risky, heart-breaking, gut-wrenching, wonderfully beautiful thing I have yet to go through so far in this life.  I have quite a few more gray hairs because of it and I am proud of them (while simultaneously covering them with a few more minutes of hair dye).

I could stop there. That’s an honorable reason to be incommunicado. There is a season for everything, and a different calling for everyone. And given the option, I’d much rather be too busy with life to blog about it, than the other way around.  But for me, I’m not being totally honest if I stopped there. Because God has challenged me as a leader to communicate what He’s putting me through!  And with 18 years of ministry behind me, I can say that He pressed that desire into me long before I ever thought of being a foster mom.

But that calling has been almost as scary and overwhelming to me as being a foster mom.  And I couldn’t face TWO scary things at the same time on my own strength! So I stuck my head in the sand and hid for a little while – for the same reasons that scared little ostrich does – it comforts me, appeases me, helps me cope.  But those scary things that dare to threaten my comfort, are still out there.  And this little ostrich is doing herself no favors hiding from them.

So I’m coming up out of the sand and trusting God with more.  God is teaching me on a daily basis how to live beyond my own little self, how to rely on Him, and how to tell others His Story at the end of the day.  So join me won’t you, on this risky, heart-breaking, gut-wrenching, wonderfully beautiful journey.  It won’t always be about hard stuff, it will be about good stuff too.  It won’t always be serious, it will be fun and even trivial too.  But I hope it will always be about the story God is writing in my life.

I hope it will encourage you in your own story with God too.

“Let the redeemed of the Lord tell their story” ~ Psalm 107:2

Lessons from A to Z ~ Modern Day Foot Washing

Laundry. 9 piles long, 3 piles deep, and more in the washer and dryer.

     A picture speaks a thousand words, so I’m starting this lesson with the picture above—please observe.  This. Is. A lot. Of laundry. At least, it’s a lot for me!  With four kids now (one who plays hard at recess, one who attracts all the mud from our long country driveway, one who has diaper blow outs, and one who drools chronically), I have entered a whole new realm of laundry.  Multiply that by a few days of not doing laundry, and you get the above picture.

     At first, folding this much laundry was like conducting a scientific experiment.  “How much dirty laundry can I find throughout the far corners of our house?”  But after the novelty wore off, fascination was replaced with my own pity party.  And as the piles grew, so did my pity party.

     “I did post-graduate work in seminary for this??  What a waste.”

     “I should be out there, ministering to the multitudes! Not in here muttering to piles of laundry.”   I pictured Jesus preaching the sermon on the mount.  “I want to be more like Jesus.”  Sigh.

     Then another picture came to mind.  Jesus—God incarnate, the Great I AM—washing the feet of his disciples.  Washing Peter’s feet who denied him, washing Judas’ feet who betrayed him.  And it was in NO WAY a waste of His time.

     In that simple, humble act, He demonstrated what it means to be a servant, and what it means to truly minister.  Humbling stuff. I am in no way “too good for this”.  I am in no way wasting my time or ministry.  But through serving my children, I will better understand how Christ served us, sacrificed for us, and modeled how leadership and ministry should be done.  My new prayer while folding, cleaning (or washing little feet!) is that I will be a better leader and minister “out there”, because I also served here.

“Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, 

you also should wash one another’s feet.  

 I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you.” 

~ John 13:13-15 ~

Lessons from A to Z ~ Resolutions

 

    February is not only a time to celebrate love, it is also a good time to check in on January resolutions.  By this time, they’ve  either been long-forgotten or better yet, are taking root as new habits.

     It was during Christmas that I was inspired to make one of my resolutions.  The kids had asked me what they could get me for Christmas.  My answer was probably similar to what millions of parents have said before me, “I just want you to be good kids, love one another, mind your parents and God.” Maybe I asked them to color a picture for me too.

    But it got me thinking—what can I give to my own heavenly Father?  He gave His only Son, so that I may be His child too.  What can I possibly give Him? 

     Doesn’t He want the same thing for me, as I do for my children? To love the Lord with all my heart, soul, and strength.  And to love others as myself (Luke 10:27).  What can I give Him that would help me depend on Him more to do this? 

     For me the answer came easily and humbly… my impatience.  It is a gift certainly only the Lord could appreciate and handle!  With foster parenting, going from 2 to 4 kids, and now having two in  diapers—it hasn’t always brought out the best in me!  How quickly and easily I realize I can run out of patience: with myself, with my situation, with these 4 precious children.  It has been humbling.

     Thankfully, God brought this verse to mind (and continues to bring many others!) that help me with this new resolution...

Humble yourselves, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up

in due time.  Cast all your cares on Him because He cares for you.    

~ 1 Peter 5:6-7 

     So I cast my impatience on Him—as a “gift” only He would want, as my resolution for the New Year—asking for His grace, patience and strength in return. 

 What does God want from you this year?

 He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you,

 for my strength is made perfect in weakness.”

Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses,

so that Christ’s strength may rest on me.

~ 2 Corinthians 12:9