Birthdays

Sometimes the things a kid does just amaze you.

I was riding in the car home from church tonight and Adie was talking about her birthday. Now, this might not be odd for some, but her birthday isn't for another 5 months. She kept talking about which princesses would show up, which of Lighting McQueens' friends would show up, and which of tinker bell's friends would come.

Then she was telling me which presents she would get and was talking about her cake.

So like any good mommy, I was trying to explain that she would have to wait awhile for her birthday. Nana's and Grandad's and Daddy's and Mommies would be here first.

But she was so insistent on her present and cake that I finally just said, if you want a present now, you will need to ask Jesus.

So she sweetly prayed, "Jesus, I want a present and some cake." Then without warning or prompting says, "HELP ME Jesus. Amen."

Then the rest of the way home, she is talking, as if reality, about the present she would get and the pile of cake.

Now, I have three choices as a parent. I can jump in and help make her prayers happen. But how does that help. In my zealousness to help her know God is real, I would jump in and not let him be the "savior" of the moment and I would make her prayers happen.

Or I could tone her down. "Don't get your expectations up kid." Not wanting her to have disappointment hit her.

Or the last and best option....I could encourage her precious faith to grow. Put Jesus on the line and let him meet her precious heart's cry in a way that she will remember and cherish.

So I am waiting.....and hoping that this teachable moment provides my daughter with the understanding that she matter to Jesus and that He is good to her. And that he is not just about her needs, but her wants.

So here is to...the faith of a child and the expectancy of a moving King.

Followers

For those of you who periodically read this blog, I'm going to ask you a favor. Please become a follower. I am trying to get a good grasp on how many people read this so I can know how to enlarge my following. 

So please become a follower. Thank you.

Reality

Once again it seems that the season is shifting. I'm not sure that I can put my finger on anything that has actually changed, but I feel it. It's like there is a certainty that I can't explain. I thought that I would feel this when we got a job, began to move forward, or just, well, anything different began. But none of that has happened. But the certainty that I feel is deep within my spirit. As if it doesn't really matter if life begins to look easier or not, it's just there.

I have had a necklace that was symbolic about this past season. It was made by a prophetic jeweler. It was about transition, change, new wineskins, and birthing destinies. I have been wearing it for the past 9 months. And yesterday, in a prayer meeting, the Lord told me to take it off. He said that the new season has come. That the shift has happened. That it has been birthed. I believe this has happened spiritually. Even if it hasn't manifest in the natural....yet.

But when I went to take the necklace off, I noticed something. It was very difficult to take off. Yes, I have gotten attached to it......it was because it stood for the promises. Hope for the promises that lay so engrained within my heart. So taking off this symbol was like taking the promise off. And in doing that, admiting that the season has changed. 

Now, that doesn't sound so bad. The season has changed, but the truth is. It is often easier to hold on to the promises than to begin to live in them. It is the reality and the challenge of the shift. The promise is comfortable. Even in the yuck and despair of not having the promise yet, hope is still there. But in living from the promise, there seems to be so much weight to it. Now it is moving forward no matter what it looks like. Now it is facing the fear while advancing in love. Now it is pursuing the dreams.  And that is much scarier than living in the promise of them.

Doves

Over the last couple of days when I have come home, I have noticed that there is an abundance of doves in our front lawn. I'm talking like 6-10 at a time.....In my yard. Now, we, over the past couple of years, have had birds take up residence here, but mostly blue jays, red robbins, and sparrows. Occasional doves, but it's like in the past week or two they have just multiplied.

So last night the Lord spoke a passage to my husband about the season we are in. He happened to use the passage out of Acts when Paul got shipwrecked. There are alot of crazy places and seemingly useless trivia about the locations and the winds. But other than giving geographical locations, they also give a deeper meaning. He left Fair Haven and sailed by way ofCauda and ended his shipwrecked experience on Malta. So he sailed from someplace just "fair and ok" by way of a "lame" path and ended up in a place that was a "safe-haven."

It's good to know that when you are desiring change that the promise is to take you from somewhere that's just ok to a place that is a safe-haven. Even if the journey seems a little boring, you end up at a promised place. Praise God.

So in this season of asking God for confirmation, it is good to know that He is making our house a safe-haven. You see, dove season is open now and the dove consider our house a safe-haven. And more seem to be coming all the time. Amen.

Bikes

There are just days where the craziness of life and the pressure of it's situations just seem to overwhelm you. Your feet feel like they are lacking the strenght to stand in faith, and your thoughts just seem to consume you in negative ways.

In these times, religious sayings don't seem to help, scriptures don't seem to speak, and testimonies seem to be for everybody else but you.

Today was one of those days. But tonight, we pulled out the bikes. I rode my bike with Adie on the back and Paul drove his awesome "old school" beach bike with Kai attached to his tummy in a carrier. We rode and enjoyed the weather and just the peace. After a little sweat and some laughs, life gets put back into perspective.

Praise God for bikes.

Longings

Pr 13:12 says "Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life."

The subject of longings is one that seems to be coming up in my conversations on a regular basis right now. People longing for their dreams, people longing for their mates, people longing for a change, people just longing...

The Lord began to speak to me about longings. Sometimes in the midst of wanting to avoid hope deferred or to avoid the attacks of the enemy, people avoid the longing. It seems easier to squelch the longing, push it down, and pretend like it doesn't exist. We believe that we are helping ourselves function, but there is a slight problem. We begin to live in denial......denial of our heart's longing. Instead of learning how to embrace the longing, we avoid it.

So I may be talking in generalities so let me talk a little more specific. Say you are a single young woman who would one day like to be married and have a family. It's a longing that is very real and very true. But sometimes the enemy attacks and makes you feel undesired, undeserving, and everything else in between. So the easiest way to live is to push down the desire and wait. But in the waiting it can seem so hopeless and like there is nothing you can do. So many swing to the opposite. The flip side of the coin is to engage the longing in an improper way. By dwelling, worrying, and fantasizing. 

Obviously the correct answer is to "take the longing to the Lord." But sometimes cliche' statements seem to hold very little power. They don't seem to convey a practical way of handling the age-old truth of taking it to the Lord. Maybe I am just speaking for me, but I tend to take the longing to the Lord, let go, and then if it arises again, squelch it.

I think the kingdom way is not to avoid it.....not to fantasize, but to embrace it with purpose. I am learning that I have not done this very well in the past. I believe there has to be a healthy way to engage heartfelt full longing without wavering to and fro.

There is a place in the psalms where David says, "All my longings lie open before you, O Lord; my sighing is not hidden from you." 

To have your longing open before the Lord means you can't hide it or manipulate it. You allow yourself to feel the raw emotions that are evoked by such a place of yearning.

So what does this look like. Instead of having a longing but being too scared to feel that deeply for something you don't have....why not take a healthy amount of time to embrace that longing. Now, I'm not talking about dwelling from it, but take some time to feel deeply what you want, let it drive you to fasting and intercession for what God has for you. Truly embracing it and leting it lie open before the Lord.

So for me..right now.....I am in a season of letting my desires rise to the surface. Letting my longings truly be that....something I long for. Letting my sighs not be hidden, and being determined to long rightly. With purpose and vision for the "PROMISE" from the Lord. Because for me, that is the key. Living from faith for what God has for me coupled with the understanding that in the "now" I must embrace that which seems overwhelming.

A thought fulfilled doesn't produce a tree of life... .....An idea fulfilled doesn't produce it either. BUT a longing fullfilled does.  So I am now determined to long, that I may be fulfilled.

Last Ditch Efforts

Enemy. You are going down. No more messing around. Period. 

I've had it with his foolish antics. Why does he think that he can run us away from our promises. We will break through into the new wineskin. We will birth a movement of love. 

I just hate that his attacks are so timely. Paul and I are trying to faithfully walk out this transition. Living in the fine balance of faith and action. In the middle of looking for jobs, where does he attack....finances. 

Well, I've had enough. I am making a declaration to all who hear. We won't be detered. We won't turn back, and we will advance into everything He has for us. We will be a Cyrus. We will shift. We will. 

Oh yeah, and stop messing with my friends too.