Control Relinquished

I recently heard a sermon on the familiar story of Daniel. The beautiful thing about Scripture is that it's Living and Active and the Holy Spirit reveals new thoughts and challenges to meet us where we are at in our journey through life. The part that jumped out at me last Sunday was in Daniel 1:8-16 where Daniel and his friends were determined not to defile themselves with royal food and wine. After a period of 10 days, they looked healthier and better nourished than those who had eaten the royal food. So, the choice food was taken away and everyone was served vegetables instead! I admire them for being willing to go 'extreme' for the Lord! They knew that taking care of their bodies, physically and spiritually, would allow God to use them in mightier ways than they ever imagined! Healthy diets and lives with exercise plans are permeating the culture all around us. It's scientifically proven that eating our fruits and vegetables help us live longer. Regular exerc...

I never meant to exit the blogosphere for an entire month. But that's how long it's been since I last wrote. To be honest with you, I've been resisting and wrestling this topic for weeks. Even after having several God-ordained conversations with other women about this very topic and knowing I wasn't the only one, I resisted being vulnerable and exposing the ugly, dark side of me. Until yesterday, when someone at church commented to me that I was such a relaxed and patient mother. My response was a chuckle and truthful, "Oh my, no there are definitely days I blow my top!" And I knew, it was time. Time to be truthful to myself and to the rest  of the world. Almost 2 years ago, I began noticing a trend in my parenting. I was beginning to yell, a lot . In the safe confines of my home where I couldn't be judged by others, I turned to yelling to control my kids. In the moment, it felt good to vent. Yelling reminded my kids who the boss was and their response ...

As humans, we make hundreds of choices on a daily basis. From small, insignificant choices like what to wear and what to eat, all the way to big, life-altering choices about careers and finances. When my kids were younger, they had no choice about what they were wearing or what they got to eat. I handed it to them and expected them to comply. But, recently, I began to loosen the reigns in this area. After all, they need to learn to dress themselves in matching clothes! I need to support them in their preferences in clothing choices and let them decipher what they're hungry for. (And, no, I do not make them all something different for dinner each night! This is simply for breakfasts/lunches!) For example, this morning they had a choice of eggs or cereal for breakfast. Although my main reason in allowing them more personal choices is so they  learn to dress themselves and make healthy choices, I've also discovered I'm raising some strong-willed children and choices=less ...

My husband and I recently had a date night where we decided to do something completely different from our usual choices. We decided to re-visit something we had done back in youth group together: indoor rock climbing! I must admit, we almost chickened out. When we arrived at the gym, it was full of youngsters and we really debated about us "oldies" joining in. Plus, I am not a huge fan of heights, so it was stretching for me to even look at the high walls above me and think about climbing to the very top! But, we did. And I'm so glad we did! It was a great workout, a lot of fun and God opened my eyes to some revelations! If you've never been climbing before, first you put on a harness. Then, you can choose different walls or courses that each have a variety of obstacles or climbing patterns to follow. Each of these stations has a rope that goes all the way to the top of the course. Each partner hooks their harness to opposite ends of the rope. One ...

Sometimes God takes us down a path that is hard to understand. It can be confusing to us because we can't see the big picture or the end result. His ways are mysterious and sometimes difficult to explain. The last 4 weeks have been emotionally and physically draining for our family. Last month, just days before Christmas, we learned that our adopted son has a baby brother. We were asked if we would be willing to become foster parents again. It was a life-altering decision. The reality was hard to grasp. We thought we were done with the baby stage. In fact, we had sold almost all our baby items and clothes. It was a struggle to picture bottles, diapers, and sleepless nights again. But God made it very clear. We needed to say, "Yes." We slowly began to feel excited. Our kids were elated. We reorganized bedrooms and restocked baby supplies. In a matter of 3 days, I completed 9 months worth of nesting. We even took our "announcement picture." Then, sudd...

A few months ago, we captured this family picture at my sister-in-law's wedding in Texas. I love everything about this picture. Our smiles, our outfits, our poses. I know I am biased since it's my family, but don't we look like the perfect, happy little family?! But, I think we all know there is no perfect, happy little family that exists. Every family has their bad moments. We all have our ugly sides. Therefore, I will share with you this picture that was captured just minutes before: No, I am not worshiping the sun. I am throwing up my hands in exasperation because, seriously, that was the 5th time my son fell flat on his face within the same hour! I'm not sure if it was the loose stones or his new cowboy boots, but he KEPT falling. Every time a picture was in order, he'd take off running and fall splat on his face! Thankfully, my son...aka Mr. Smiley...recovers quickly and easily smiles again! In this day of social media and photo shopping...

I know Christmas is over and perhaps many of you have moved on to thinking about the New Year and other things. But today's post are thoughts I continued to reflect on and decided to share anyway. This is a photo I dug from the archives! Ten years ago, I served a mission term in India and spent 5 life-changing months there. The church we were involved with organized a Christmas play and I was asked to play the role of Mary. It was a stretching experience, but I felt so honored. The scene pictured is the portrayal of Gabriel appearing to Mary and telling her she was going to give birth to the Messiah. Hopefully throughout this past month, God has revealed something new and exciting to you from the familiar Christmas story. This year, I really found myself identifying with Mary in a new way. These qualities caught my attention: Her obedience to God's call even though it didn't match up with anything she ever imagined.  Her willingness to accept God's...