The Mothership

“If your fellow believer sins against you, you must go to that one privately and attempt to resolve the matter. If he responds, your relationship is restored. “Receive this truth: Whatever you forbid on earth will be considered to be forbidden in heaven, and whatever you release on earth will be considered to be released in heaven. Again, I give you an eternal truth: If two of you agree to ask God for something in a symphony of prayer, my heavenly Father will do it for you. For wherever two or three come together in honor of my name, I am right there with them!” ‭‭Matthew‬ ‭18‬:‭15‬, ‭18‬-‭20‬ ‭TPT‬‬ You walk into your house and you see the couch on fire. You decide, I’ll put that out later and move on because… I need to finish up work or the kids have practice or  you need to get groceries or   you’re replacing the garbage disposal or  fixing the fence, etc.  That scenario sounds crazy, right? This example above is one from Danny Silk, author of...

Have you ever noticed that when something is missing or lacking or empty, it is the absence of it's presence that you even knew it was supposed to be there in the first place? The absence makes you miss it. When I can't find my scissors because someone took them without asking, it was the fact that they are missing, that I became frustrated they were missing. When a grocery item, like my salt & vinegar chips, are missing from the grocery - for the hundredth time - it is their lack of being there that I even knew I NEEDED them so much. When my son says, "I'm not hungry," but his behavior indicates otherwise, it is the lack of self control that reminds me I forgot to make lunch. When no one says thank you for the ways that you cared for them, it is the absence of the thank you that made you believe you even needed their affirmations in the first place.  It is not until "we can't find..." that we realize we are lacking. Going through life, realizing...

My heart hurts. It hurts for those who have to feel the loss of a loved one. For those who deal with pain, physically and mentally, on a daily basis. It hurts for those that don’t feel loved. And it hurts for those that feel they have to hurt others. I have been trying to formulate words about the violence in our world. I feel with every fiber of my heart what I’m sure is only a spec of the pain that God feels when we hurt. During worship one evening I feel like he encouraged me with this. I hope this encourages you. A girl runs effortlessly through a field in the midst of a valley. She runs with abandoned insecurities. She twirls as if there is nothing to loose. Some days she runs and some days she walks through the valley taking in all the details. It’s a familiar place. And all she can see is beauty before her. Joy spread across her cheeks. Joyful because she knows the love and the protection that lies within. She KNOWS his voice. It is written on her heart, in her mind, and s...

Every person needs to have at least one LOYAL friend.  Loyal friends are hard to find. The definition of the word loyal: faithful to any leader, party, or cause, or to any person or thing conceived as deserving fidelity deserving promises ... In order to have a loyal friend they have to think that YOU deserve promises and holding up to those promises.  I have been friends with Tori for 21 years!  I would say that is some loyalty right there.   Today is Tori's birthday...and even though she would appreciate NO accolades, I will be giving them because I can do that...embarrass her...21 years of friendship means I can do that. Cheers to Tori! She is: strong - both physically and emotionally.  She pushes me to "snap out of it" quite frequently, and I have seen her in a boot-camp class.  She could take you down like a ninja. real - the girl will tell you from the get-go if something is jiving or not with her...and she doesn't ev...

I was gardening in my flower bed the other day planting a new flower.  As I was digging, I ran into a root from an old bush that I pulled out and relocated to a different spot when Luke was a toddler.  I remember so fondly his little hands helping me pull and pull so hard to bring the bush out from under the soil that we both fell backward and just laughed (that's right, just like a Hallmark movie) .  I can hear in my mind his little "umph"...and "woah!" that his little voice made.  I'm so thankful for that memory because it speaks right to Luke's nature of serving and helping even at a young age and it's just a great memory for me as a young mommy. I'm also thankful that I had a bush to pull out. It meant we had a yard to maintain and it needed no attention for the first few years. But pulling it out and relocating it meant there was room for something new to grow.  I wasn't getting rid of the bush, I was simply putting it in a ...

Friends are so important to me.  They provide me with the ability to see things clearly.  They love and support me, yada, yada, yada.  I could continue but I think everyone, in a different season of their life, has different aspects that are important to them in a friendship. I know the characteristics I valued as a teenager are most definitely NOT the same as they are now.  I have learned through a lot of friendships, or what I thought were friendships, hard truths of what I value in a friend.  But isn't that one of the points of high school...learning who you are and what you value?  I feel like I've only REALLY been able to reflect on this recently.  I wish I could go back in time and save myself a lot of emotional torment and grief.  However, I think all the emotional hurt was vital to my growth and understanding what I wanted in a friend. In this season of my life, I just don't have a lot of time.  My time is separated and do...

I still have a lot to learn about love.  I've put in a lot of years with the same man - 19 to be exact - and yet, we still learn new things everyday.  We are not the same couple from high school ( definitely not in appearance ) nor the same from the first year of our marriage.  Some things haven't changed: we still have loads of fun, we still bicker, we are still each others best friends, we are both pursuing the Lord, he is still faster than me ( some things you just learn to embrace ).  But other things are different: we communicate better, we build each other up, we drop the small things, we prioritize for each other, we are better lovers, we have better boundaries to keep our relationship a top priority, we are teammates, and the BEST one is we are better at respecting each other.  Don't get me wrong, there are plenty of times we have thrown each other under the bus.  There are times when we are arguing in front of others and neither one of us is bei...

As the new year begins I have some things that I'm trying to change...I guess we'll call them resolutions.  Sure... I think resolutions in years past have given me a sense of things that I haven't accomplished or sustained.  They give me a false sense of identity.  I become fixated on what needs to be taken out of my life instead of what I should be pouring into my life.  When I focus on what Christ wants for me and my family, then I focus more on his image in me.  I was made in his image which means I have Him in me which means I can't be so bad...it means part of me is good. One of the things I am focusing on this year will be slowing down and taking the time to enjoy the kids...those HARD moments with the kids.  I realize how fortunate I am that Tim and I have made allowances for me to stay home.  And I really have loved my young kids...oh I have loved it so.  But as they get older and need more independence, I find myself having too many o...

I'm not sure I would have been happy with either outcome of this years election.  I've heard lots of comments like: " it's the lesser of two evils....we've had corrupt presidents in the past and lived through it...abortion shouldn't even be on the ballot... " and on and on the remarks for one side or the other go.  All the while each person trying to feel better about this situation.  All the while putting others down for not choosing their same side.  These past couple months I feel as if kind, intellectual conversation is on the demise and that corruption, money, and power seem to be at the forefront of everything.  And in the midst of all this awful talk, compassion is hard to find.  Wednesday, everything I was reading or hearing from friends put my heart through the ringer.  I didn't get much accomplished besides dinner made and cleaned up.  I wasn't just sad for the outcome, but for how people AFTER the outcome were treating each other. ...

What's your thing? My thing is kids...little ones fo sho...especially if they aren't my own. and... I can throw-down with the best of them for Meal Makers of America  (I mean not Iron Chef worthy, but I could hang with SOMEONE off the food-network, I'm sure) But what are you good at? What's your jam? What gives you joy? What's your thing? Because I'm sure if you think it's good, then it probably is... hopefully you feel compelled to share it with someone. God gives us great talents and a discernible heart to know what to do with those talents. It pleases God and honors Him to use our talents to the best of our abilities. If you are musically inclined, play for someone and add in a prayer. If you are the master of folding a fitted sheet...props to you...fold some laundry for someone ( if you decide this is your gift, see me ASAP ) If the feather duster is just and extension of your arm and you move it in wondrous ways...help a lady out...

I was supposed to have surgery today... but God had bigger plans for me.  Bigger plans than I could have ever dreamed. They always say healing happens, and when it happens it is usually not just for physical healing but for some kind of transformation...well, He's been working on more than my wrist. About a year ago I tore cartilage in my wrist...opening salsa...I know, true story.  Who does that ?  Anyway, it became so painful that I went to a doctor and after a few tests decided that surgery was the next step.  The doctor left it up to me as to when I should have surgery...having an 18 month old and surgery don't really mix.  So I waited...talked to God a bit...waited... and the pain increased. I could no longer do a push-up, open a can of beans, garden, clean the house, shake an inhaler for my son, lift my toddler into his car seat, crab-walk across a gym, pretend to be a horse for my kids to ride, sleep through the night without waking in pain...on a...