Ann Voskamp's Blog, page 141
June 10, 2017
Only the Good Stuff: Multivitamins for Your Weekend [06.10.17]
Happy, happy, happy weekend!
Some real, down in the bones JOY to celebrate today! Links & stories this week 100% guaranteed to make you smile a mile wide & believe like crazy in a Good God redeeming everything — and that there’s love everywhere & for ((you))!
Serving up only the Good Stuff for you & your people right here:
Mary Anne Morgan
Mary Anne Morgan
Mary Anne Morgan
when I sit with this woman’s photos, the world stops & exhales
we couldn’t stop smiling
Ales Krivec
Ales Krivec
Ales Krivec
love daffodils? this one’s for you: stunning
we circled ’round this one…
@lilbagsss
kindergarten to high school graduation: and 2 special reasons to celebrate
some of the best acts of love right here #BeTheGift #TheBrokenWay
Jennifer Tucker
had to share: please don’t miss some of these beautiful “Letter for the Lord” free printables
Such a great way to focus on God’s Word with a new verse and printable for every day this month!
let’s take flight on an eagle’s wings: for real
Raising overcomers: How to teach your kids to do hard things
this summer? be the one
Ginny Sheller
This lovely little set of 24 stickers features the beautiful nature photography of Ginny Sheller
Oh the flowers! Now we can all bring wildflowers to our planners and journals.
Let’s spend the summer writing long letters and sealing them with this lovely art. They come packaged in a pretty tin box–one for me, one for a pen pal.
recycling so much joy
Laima Žemeikienė photography
Laima Žemeikienė photography
Laima Žemeikienė photography
had to share this photography project:
Moms and their children with special needs to show their love for each other
“I want to tell people that yes, it’s a terrible disease…but you can still find moments of joy through it.” tears
Jimmy Chin
so did you hear about this?
Rock climber Alex Honnold completes a 3,000-foot rope-free climb of El Capitan in Yosemite National Park, on June 3. The historic event was documented for an upcoming National Geographic feature film and magazine story
happiness and hard work: at 99? he’s not slowing down
a homeless man makes a large financial donation to shelter: to make sure his friends are safe
#BeTheGift #TheBrokenWay
you won’t believe what she’s been doing
just so beautiful: ‘Tell them Chrissy sent you’: London victim inspires others to help homeless
after she lost her hearing: she wanted to do more with her life than just give up
Foundation 500 is a list of entrepreneurs growing their businesses in the harshest startup environments in the world.
we could do this: because life is too short to waste a chance #BeTheGIFT #TheBrokenWay
an engineer who is getting serious about giving back
every now and then I need to revisit this one: it’s just that good
Post of the week from these parts here
Dear Self and me and you and us —
Really, it’s all going to be okay.
Promise.
Tuck this away to read again whenever you need to know it again:
a letter to you…to keep for all of the hard days
a most powerful reading of Romans 8 with John Piper please don’t miss this
After viewing a wide range of their Bibles at their gathering center in Oklahoma, I could not be more excited about this, could not be anticipating this more: Museum of the Bible is a 430,000 square foot museum opening in Washington DC — just blocks from the Capital and the National Mall.
When it opens in November 2017, it will be the most technology advanced museum in the world — and it’s sole purpose is to get people engaged with the Bible.
Join me in a movement to honor the Bible, and add your name to Museum of the Bible’s One Million Names campaign!The Museum of the Bible’s One Million Names Wall will display the names of one million people who honor the Bible — please, be one of them, add your name to the wall? By adding your name, you are leaving a legacy and sharing your commitment to the Bible with the world.
As you make your declaration, you will be entered for the chance to win a trip to tour the museum with me (and really, you could not tour this museum with anyone more excited) before it opens to the public!
Let’s experience the emotion, inspiration and thoughts provoked by the impact, narrative and history of the Bible.
This truly is a unique once in a lifetime opportunity.
Museum of the Bible will fly you and a guest round trip to Washington D.C., provide a hotel stay for two nights, & schedule a pre-opening tour with you, so this Bible-loving farm girl can tour the museum with you. There is no entry fee or donation required to enter this drawing, but you must register to win before June 30.
ENTER HERE TO WIN A FREE TRIP FOR TWO TO WASHINGTON, D.C. TO TOUR THE MUSEUM OF THE BIBLE WITH ME!
Take the Dare, Join the Revolution, Pick Up The Broken Way
If you got chains? He’s a chain breaker. Amen and Amen.
…I know you’re weary, you do hard things and you keep getting out of bed and this is always the hardest part — and you keep believing that Christ didn’t leave this world until He showed us His scars — and He won’t ever let you leave this world until you leave your most beautiful mark. To show Him.
So Just For Today — listen: you’ve got to keep going.
That card you signed and sealed and put in the mail, the way you smiled and nodded to the white-crowned woman bent over the still-green bananas, the way you dug around in the dirt and and left that seed or that gift of the knees and that prayer whispered for a stranger or that glass of water you handed to someone and winked because you just knew — You’ve got to remember: we don’t know when and how we are leaving the greatest marks on the world. It all matters.
Believe it: Every tremor of kindness might erupt in a miracle on the other side of the world.
And the only way to ever leave beauty marks on the world is with bits of yourself — and at time this will hurt. Things of realest beauty don’t bring us glory — but Him glory.
[excerpted from our little Facebook family … come join us each day?]
That’s all for this weekend, friends.
Go slow. Be God-struck. Grant grace. Live Truth.
Give Thanks. Love well. Re – joy, re- joy, ‘re- joys’ again
Share Whatever Is Good.
June 8, 2017
what we’re called really sticks: how our words can change a life
I’ve been around the world with my wise friend Shaun Groves. He was there when my heart was broken by poverty for the first time standing at the edge of the city dump in Guatemala. And my life was forever changed. Not only is Shaun helping Christians discover what they were saved for, but he’s a voice for children around the world, desperate to be saved from poverty, saved into the hope Christ alone can extend. Shaun is writing today from Kenya where he’s traveling with Sophie Hudson, Jamie Ivey and Bri McKoy. Will you follow these Compassion Bloggers and dare to have your heart broken by their stories? It’s a grace to welcome Shaun to the farm’s front porch today…
The women kick up red clay dust, dancing with babies tied to their backs.
One mother takes my hands in hers, cranes her neck up at me and shouts “dance!”
So we dance.
Up the drive from the van toward the little pink church.
All the mothers are bending side to side, bending low, breaking into song about a God who sees even them.
They’ve come a long way.
They came from mothers who were never taught to read and fathers who married them off before their first periods came.
They came from communities where women are held down by men who cut away their capacity for pleasure.
They came from tribes where they were one of many wives, where they had no say and no right to refuse, where men shared them like property with friends.
They have come a very long way.
In the beginning God made the beasts of the fields and the birds of the air and brought them to Man to be named. Whatever man named them stuck. (Genesis 2:19)
Cat and Dog.
Zebra. Platypus.
Rhinoceros. Hippopotamus.
Man named and named and named….but not one could he call “friend.” (Genesis 2:20)
Inside the cool of the church, we sing and sing some more and dance the red dust right off ourselves.
“God is my only hope!” the women shout. “Who can I trust but God?”
Babies tug at the mamas’ hemlines.
Some women beat calf-skin drums.
A woman let’s loose a shrill tribal “lelelelelelelelelelelelele!” over the music.
“God is my rock! My life comes from God!” they sing.
God put Man into a deep sleep and then God reached in — not into the dirt, but into the side of Man and made something new from his flesh. Life from life. (Genesis 2:21, 22)
This creature God named.
“Woman,” God called her.
And the “good” Garden was for the first time “very good.”
The singing finally subsides and the pastor stands to speak to us all. Paul stands over six feet tall with broad shoulders and a husky voice.
He opens his black bible and reads slowly from Isaiah 58:
Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen:
to loose the chains of injustice
and untie the cords of the yoke,
to set the oppressed free
and break every yoke?
“This inspires my heart each day as I serve these women and children,” Paul says. “Unchain those who have been chained. Release the oppressed in the name of the Lord.”
“So many have been oppressed by sickness. Oppressed by lack of education. Oppressed by lack of opportunity. Oppressed by husbands. Oppressed by all the powers of darkness.”
“Compassion allows me to reach, to give hope, to say you are loved. You are queens.”
And whatever we are called — sticks.
Mildred was born and raised in the Mathare Valley — the second largest slum in all of Africa.
Over 600,000 people crammed into three square miles of rusting corrugated metal and filth and violence.
She was orphaned in adolescence and mothered by her sisters.
“I’ve always loved the law,” she says. “Even as a little girl I was very interested when the other children were fighting. I wanted to determine who was right and who was wrong.”
“Are you the oldest child?” I ask.
“No,” she says. “The youngest. But it is the oldest who tend to make others follow the rules, isn’t it? Maybe it is because the youngest suffer so much injustice from the oldest that I grew up wanting justice,” she laughs.
Mildred’s mother never learned to read or even write her name.
“It was common then. School was only for boys. A girl’s place was in the home, not in books.”
Mildred is in law school now.
This is how she plans to loose chains and speak up for the oppressed. She’s been speaking up for a long time.
“At nine Compassion sent me to school. They are unbiased toward gender. They want the poorest of the poor – gender makes no difference.
And when the boys speak up in class our Compassion teacher said, ‘You must speak up with the men. You must lead alongside them. You are just as smart.”
And what we’re called — sticks.
God made her and named her and man said, “Wow!”
“Bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh” the bible says.
In other words, “Wow! This is good! This is really really good! She’s more beautiful than Peacock, more graceful than Eagle, better conversation than Monkey! She’s amazing!” (Genesis 2:23 – New Groves International Version)
Woman. She is so treasured and essential that God couldn’t pull His pen through even one chapter of His epic tale without her flowing from His heart and onto the page.
Before misogynists demeaned her and governments oppressed her.
Before religion veiled her and preachers silenced her.
Before covergirls shamed her and employers underpaid her.
Before fathers neglected her and husbands abandoned her.
Before the world fell and forgot her worth – she was Woman.
Prized. Honored. Essential. Loved. A queen.
“My sponsor is Margo. She lives in British Columbia. She always writes to tell me a verse or a quote and ask how I am doing. She prays for me. She tells me I’m loved.”
And what we’re called really sticks.
Tell a child they are loved – by you and by God.
And pray every day it sticks.
Please come check in with all the other God-sized stories in Kenya that Sophie Hudson, Jamie Ivey, Bri McKoy, and Shaun Groves are writing?
Might I ask — will you pray about sponsoring a child in need today? They need you — and you need them…
Compassion is God’s heartbeat.
And whatever you are thinking and wherever you are at right now —
Might you please just take one moment and click over to pray for just one child in Kenya —
Thank you for giving the gift of prayer and time right now to just one child in need of Hope…
June 7, 2017
a letter to you…to keep for all of the hard days
Dear you,
Dear Self and me and you and us,
Really, it’s all going to be okay.
You’re going to be okay.
Promise.
Remember when you were 16 with that ridiculous hair?
And how you’d thought that by the time you got to here, to now, it was going to be good? That by now everything would be all good.
That by now you’d know down in the very marrow of your bones, what it’s like to really live loved. That you’d be known. Fully known. And wholly embraced.
That the Big Dream would have happened, that the peace and the purpose and the Big Point would be under your skin, that the awkward would be gone and that you’d finally fit and that your life made a real difference, you’d made a real mark, and that you really mattered.
You don’t have to worry: We all get to make one unforgettable mark. And every day, with every word, we get to decide: Do we mar the world, or mark the world?
Why in the world disdain the small? It’s always the smallest strokes that add up to the greatest masterpieces.
Because the thing really is: Do we ever really know which mark we make — that will matter the most? The extraordinary things happen nowhere else but in the everyday and today can always be the beginning:
That card you signed and sealed and put in the mail, the way you smiled and nodded to the white-crowned woman bent over the still-green bananas, the way you dug around in the dirt and and left that seed or that gift of the knees and that prayer whispered for a stranger or that glass of water you handed to someone and winked because you just knew — You’ve got to remember: we don’t know when and how we are leaving the greatest marks on the world. It all matters.
Believe it: Every tremor of kindness might erupt in a miracle on the other side of the world.
And the only way to ever leave beauty marks on the world is with bits of yourself — and this will hurt. Things of realest beauty don’t bring us glory — but Him glory.
Dear you, and self, and me, and us, — Just For Today — take these words, words of Dag Hammarskjold[image error], Secretary-General of the United Nations, words that you can take to the bank, take to eternity: “It is more noble to give yourself completely to one individual than to labor diligently for … the masses.”
Christ left the ninety-nine for the one.
Where you are, with that one child, that one street, that one call, it is a noble, Christ-called thing. It only takes one person to change the world — and one individual, one soul, can be all your world.
Really, beautiful You: The most exquisite marks anyone makes with their life — are the marks done in secret. The mark that no one — but One — will ever see.
And tell yourself this when you feel forgotten and invisible and unimportant: So the celebrities get their celebration here.
But the wise are the hidden who hold out for heaven — and the applause that comes from God. This is to choose the far greater.
I know you’re brave … and you’re scared. Because you keep doing big things that seems so small and you wonder where all this is really going and you only get one life here —
And though you’re weary, you do hard things and you keep getting out of bed and this is always the hardest part — and you keep believing that Christ didn’t leave this world until He showed us His scars — and He won’t ever let you leave this world until you leave your most beautiful mark. To show Him.
So Just For Today — listen: you’ve got to keep going.
His Kingdom is Upside Down and in Him your part is large and lovely and needed and art.
So go get the milk and take out the trash and throw in the laundry and wave giddy to the neighbors because there is a plan and there is a purpose and there is a God in heaven who didn’t just ink you onto the palm of His hands but etched your name right into Himself with nails and He’s hasn’t just got your number, He’s got your heart.
He sees you, hidden in Him, and you aren’t ever forgotten because God can’t forget those right in Him. You’ve never missed the boat when you’re holding onto the Cross.
So really — you’ve got to believe it for your 16 year-old-self and 56 year-old-self and for yourself right now: really, it’s all working out okay.
Because God’s writing your story and He never leaves you alone in your story, and His perfect love absorbs all your fear and His perfect grace carries all your burdens, and your story is a happily ever after because Christ bought your happily ever after so you always know how this story ends:
You’re going to be okay.
Dear Self, tuck this away to read again whenever you need to know it again — and promise me, you’ll laugh and sing and dance a bit today?
Heaven and His Kingdom and The Feast is coming! — so go ahead and pass down the fudge brownies.
Love,
Me.
Related:
Print your June #beTheGift list
June 5, 2017
why we really need to stop the blame game and turn our hearts downriver
Emily P. Freeman and Myquillyn Smith (The Nester) describe their dad as a believer who recognizes his sufficiency in Christ and a father who loves his family well. Gary Morland, however, describes himself as “a guy who should have died but didn’t, with a wife who should have left but stayed.” Gary’s story is one of an alcoholic rescued and a family reunited, all in the love and mercy of Christ. The power of God’s grace and forgiveness in Gary’s family is breathtaking. It is a grace to welcome Gary Morland to the farm’s front porch today…
We think of family as the ones we see now, along with those gone before us whose memories and stories we share.
But our families are bigger than that. Your entire family, going back generations, is a mighty river. Upriver goes back further than any scrapbook can hold. We can’t see that far. We only know that this spot in the river came from back there.
We can’t see very far downriver either. We can’t get high enough to see where it ends; we only know that what’s in this spot today will keep flowing in that direction.
We are a part of something much bigger than us, even though the section of river we’re in right now seems plenty big.
We paddle this part the best we can, usually without schooling or guides, learning to navigate the rapids as we go.
One of the many rapids in my family? My great-grandfather abandoned his family. Then, years later, one of his sons killed himself.
I don’t know the whole story. I only heard references to it, and I never asked any questions. I guess I thought it was none of my business.
Today, I think the story could have served as a meaningful connection between family members sharing grief and life lessons.
But, like many families, we didn’t bring up shameful or bad things.
I assembled the pieces over the years from cryptic comments made by family members who knew more than they wanted to say.
My dad was twelve years old, living with his mom and his dad, Pop (my grandfather). Pop also supported his brother and his mom, who lived with them.
One Sunday everyone except Pop’s brother went to church. When they got home, they couldn’t open his bedroom door. Something was wedged against it. Closing that bedroom door was the last thing he did while he was alive.
Was his suicide related to Pop’s dad abandoning his family years earlier when Pop and his brother were kids? Who knows.
But the influence of the abandonment was still being felt decades later in my family growing up.
My kid sister would get upset with our dad, and Mom would tell her, “Don’t be too mad at your dad. Look who raised him—a guy who felt rejected and didn’t have anyone to raise him.”
When Pop became an adult, he changed the spelling of our last name to forever separate himself from his dad, as if to say, “Since you wanted to leave, you’re never coming back. You won’t find us.” The echo of this is heard generations later every time I spell our name for someone: “That’s M-O-R-L-A-N-D with no E.”
But it’s only an echo.
Our family was not destined to a straightline repetition and payment for one person’s sin.
Your family isn’t either.
The consequences of what happened upriver have altered our family, but they have not trapped us into a destiny.
Your parents and family are in the boat with you.
You get into a family that’s already flowing. They had parents and a family too, and on back it goes.
If we can blame our mom or dad or anyone else in our immediate family for how things turned out, they can do the same. If we pass something upriver, they can too. And on back upriver the blame goes.
Much of what our families become is because we’re part of what has gone before. We can’t escape it:
“I may __________, but so did my dad; I learned it from him.” True.
“My parents never taught me __________.” True.
“My mom never showed me __________.” True.
“My dad never __________; he always just __________.” True.
“My uncle __________ me, and so now I’m __________.” True.
These things are all true, and they may have affected us and changed the course of our lives.
But if I blame my family, and push responsibility for who and what I am onto them, the blame can go all the way upriver.
It goes downriver too.
From Brenda and me, through Myquillyn and Chad and Emily and John, through their kids and families, and their kids’ kids and families, the river flows. Each of them could pass the blame back to Brenda and me.
Most of us probably don’t consciously blame previous generations for how we turned out. But it’s a very subtle temptation because it gives us an excuse for our faults and failures.
It takes a lot of courage to face who we are and a great deal of responsibility to deal with it.
Blame lightens the load a little bit, doesn’t it? Saying to yourself “If only this hadn’t happened” sometimes makes life more bearable.
But blame is irrelevant. It only matters if you want an excuse for not taking responsibility for yourself.
It is helpful to understand the things that have contributed to your story, to what happened in your family upriver. These things may help to explain who you are today.
But it is your fault alone if you allow those circumstances to keep you from being all you can be.
You can stop the chain reaction.
Accept your family (or lack of one) as within God’s overall will for you, and accept His ability— and promise—to use it for good. Then let Him.
My dad’s dad (Pop) was an alcoholic. My dad was an alcoholic. I am an alcoholic. My children are not alcoholics.
If God can stop that chain with me, He can stop whatever is plaguing you with you.
All we have is our part of the river, right here, right now.
We put a canoe into this family story when we are born, and our canoe pulls to shore when we die.
But what we do while in the river—our actions, attitudes, words, values, accomplishments—will roll on.
They are our legacy.
Gary Morland is a professional communicator with more than thirty years of radio experience sharing his own life story and helping others share theirs. As a twenty-five-year sober alcoholic, he describes himself as “a guy who should have died but didn’t, with a wife who should have left but stayed.”
A Family Shaped by Grace: How To Get Along with the People Who Matter Most will transform your family culture and your family legacy — starting with yourself. As a teenager, Gary lived in an unhappy, dysfunctional family characterized by addiction and disharmony. When he started a family of his own, he brought with him those same destructive patterns. Yet he sensed there must be a way to have a family shaped by acceptance and grace, a family that was loving, whole, and at peace with one another. The problem was, he didn’t know how. In this life-giving book, Gary shares his journey of discovering the timeless tools of family peace that will help so many of us.
[ Our humble thanks to Baker for their partnership in today’s devotion ]
June 3, 2017
Only the Good Stuff: Multivitamins for Your Weekend [06.03.17]
Happy, happy, happy weekend!
Some real, down in the bones JOY to celebrate today! Links & stories this week 100% guaranteed to make you smile a mile wide & believe like crazy in a Good God redeeming everything — and that there’s love everywhere & for ((you))!
Serving up only the Good Stuff for you & your people right here:
Warren Keelan / Instagram
Warren Keelan / Instagram
Warren Keelan / Instagram
because you know you need to just exhale
he captures the waves like no one else I know
the experts are weighing in and say YES: chocolate cake for breakfast is beneficial (!!)
maybe a fun summer project with the kids?
Erik Johansson
extraordinary projects months in the making:
the most stunning photos tweaked with photoshop you may ever see
future days? brilliant idea right here
5 Reasons to Streamline Your Life: New research shows why it’s better to live a less cluttered life
a really special retirement
Geert Weggen
Geert Weggen
Geert Weggen
his subjects took aim right back
good thoughts: Two Words That Can Transform Your Parenting
defining success in a beautiful way: “learn to give beyond yourself”
What My Sons on the Autism Spectrum Have Taught Me
an ‘old soul’ with an impressive idea beyond his years — to help those with disabilities
#BeTheGIFT #TheBrokenWay
JPC Van Heijst
JPC Van Heijst
JPC Van Heijst
we thought these were really something: pilots have some of the most stunning views of our world
learning to walk in each other’s shoes – a fascinating year long project
at 98? she’s written thousands of letters to military members deployed overseas
#BeTheGIFT #TheBrokenWay
caring neighbors & kind words will always outnumber evil
Wonder Woman: Doctor fighting for her life hailed as hero
“Don’t borrow the worries of tomorrow because they may not ever come and you’ve wasted today focusing on that,” Dr. Garmon-Brown said. “That’s how I try to live my life, living with cancer.”
“Broken pots spill more water. Be glad you’re broken. That means God can use you.”
yes, yes yes: “…it’s not always about how much money you can make in this world, but what kind of a difference you can make”
a simple act of caring creates an endless ripple
Post of the Week from these parts here
…maybe the best way to live a good year is to do a reset halfway through the year. Just keep showing up — because this is how you never, ever give up:
need to rescue your year in the middle of the year? How to make June the new January
And then U2 and Bono took everyone to church … and the audience leaned in with U2 and sang about Christ’s deliverance through the cross:
“He will lift you higher and higher… He will lift you up when you call… He will bring you shelter from the storm… I believe in the Kingdom Come… Then all the colours will bleed into one… Bleed into one… But yes, I’m still running… You broke the bonds… And you loosed the chains… Carried the cross of my shame… “
…and because you so want to love right now —
Download your June G.I.F.T list & be part of the joy we all need?
We could all together kinda start a little movement of Giving It Forward Today, choosing to #BeTheGIFT, living broken & given like bread out into a world down right hungry for love right now.
After viewing a wide range of their Bibles at their gathering center in Oklahoma, I could not be more excited about this, could not be anticipating this more: Museum of the Bible is a 430,000 square foot museum opening in Washington DC — just blocks from the Capital and the National Mall.
When it opens in November 2017, it will be the most technology advanced museum in the world — and it’s sole purpose is to get people engaged with the Bible.
Join me in a movement to honor the Bible, and add your name to Museum of the Bible’s One Million Names campaign!The Museum of the Bible’s One Million Names Wall will display the names of one million people who honor the Bible — please, be one of them, add your name to the wall? By adding your name, you are leaving a legacy and sharing your commitment to the Bible with the world.
As you make your declaration, you will be entered for the chance to win a trip to tour the museum with me (and really, you could not tour this museum with anyone more excited) before it opens to the public!
Let’s experience the emotion, inspiration and thoughts provoked by the impact, narrative and history of the Bible.
This truly is a unique once in a lifetime opportunity.
Museum of the Bible will fly you and a guest round trip to Washington D.C., provide a hotel stay for two nights, & schedule a pre-opening tour with you, so this Bible-loving farm girl can tour the museum with you. There is no entry fee or donation required to enter this drawing, but you must register to win before June 30.
ENTER HERE TO WIN A FREE TRIP FOR TWO TO WASHINGTON, D.C. TO TOUR THE MUSEUM OF THE BIBLE WITH ME!
Take the Dare, Join the Revolution, Pick Up The Broken Way
on repeat this week: Good Good Father
…carry this with you today: Success isn’t about being amazing…it’s about being obedient.
Before you blink and your one life’s a tendril of smoke, a memory, a vapor, gone, know this: you are where you are for such a time as this—not to make an impression, but to make a difference. Break free of your comfort zone today and do something — touch someone, give something, help someone, pray for someone, serve someone, #betheGIFT for someone.
What really matters is living a life that is good on the inside — not one that just looks good from the outside.
Today — only move with compassion. Go slow enough to be moved with compassion: “When [Jesus] saw the multitudes, He was moved with compassion.” Mt9:36
Do whatever He puts in front of you and do it with great love — this is what makes any day, any life, anybody great. Miracles keep happening in the mundane.
[excerpted from our little Facebook family … come join us each day?]
That’s all for this weekend, friends.
Go slow. Be God-struck. Grant grace. Live Truth.
Give Thanks. Love well. Re – joy, re- joy, ‘re- joys’ again
Share Whatever Is Good.
June 2, 2017
need to rescue your year in the middle of the year? How to make June the new January
The snowball tree out at the mailbox is this flurry of flakes on the cusp of June.
So you can go out to get the mail and stand there with all these petals round your feet.
You can realize: A year can evaporate before you know it.
In the middle of a culture of outrage, where judgement can be be our dialect of choice and angry, finger pointing posts can go viral and sicken our communal well, you can just want to stop at the end of the lane and watch the sun over the fields.
You can want to smell the flowers and inhale deeply, you can want to make your moments make your days make something meaningful, that will last beyond the loud.
You can walk into the house, sort the mail, put the farm paper down on the table, turn and look at the calendar and just quietly exhale:
The best way to live a good year is to do a reset halfway through the year.
June is the Second January.
Get up early and watch the sun rise. Open a window so you can breathe it all in. Open His Word. Pour a cup of orange juice. Don’t try to face anything until you’ve faced Him: First 10 Minutes always with your First Love. Word In. Work Out. Work Plan.
I set a vase of snowballs out in the middle of the table. The light catches in them, frees something in us.
Since the Farmer first planted our crops, you can see how he’s walked the fields. How he has time to breathe, how he has time to bend and watch how seeds grow.
You can see it, when you watch how he works:
To love your life, do nothing with rush or resentment, but do everything as if you love it.
Every morning, I make it a habit to make our bed, smooth out the coverlet under my hand. This is how I love us.
He works late into the night, stays up with a sow giving birth. He tells me this without saying a word, just by the way he smiles:
He makes the most of his work — who makes most of the gift of getting to do his work.
Because this makes the most of the grace of God.
When he walks the rows of his fields, I watch him at the window:
He’s not looking to be seen or noticed, he’s not looking to jump on any soapbox or get anyone riled up — anger and outrage and striving and discontent can be exhausting.
Let the world go ahead and get loud and large. There are fresh starts in quiet starts. There are small and hidden seeds that are growing into forests, that are growing into the greatest yield.
When the Farmer walks the fields, no, he’s not thinking of sales or return on investment — because he knows that: successful people are the ones who choose to let the joy and satisfaction of simply getting to show up be their payment.
Keep practicing the presence of being aware of His presence.
He lives that everyday: Genius is only one percent cleverness and ninety-nine percent a very long endurance. Keep going and never, ever give up.
He chooses that everyday: When you work faithfully, creativity comes faithfully. Keep showing up — because this is how you never, ever give up.
A late May frost killed off some of the bean crop a few roads to the north. We had to pull out the planter and start again, plant again, had to hit reset and begin again, come June. It’s never, ever too late to begin again. June can be about new beginnings.
You can even tell by the way he wears his cap, by the way his smile comes easy out in a field of seeds: He makes it a habit to hope. Even in the middle, even when you have to begin again.
Change your habits and you can change anything into a possibility.
I light a candle every day at the prayer table. Write a bit in my journal, not words of mine, but Words of His, copied out, like writing them with my hand can shape my hand, can shape a life. These are simple practices, life-giving habits.
We set timers for our work, each of us, the best timers, used at the piano, at the computer, at the desk.
Our habits unclothe us — they expose our wounds, our insecurities, our idols, our addictions — or our hopes, our dreams, our prayers. Our habits are us. The patterns of our lives reveal the form of our souls.
Read more words on papers than on screens.
A pail with a pinhole loses as much as the pail pushed right over. A whole life can be lost in minutes wasted… in the small moments missed.
Make gratitude your attitude of habit — there’s no other way to make joy your life.
Every little day just has to be just a little bit better: Small things done consistently, consistently make the biggest change.
And you get to do hard & holy things, you can do hard and holy things — for the joy, for the love. Because whatever you do for joy, you can do forever.
Habits matter because: Habits are the spine of our self-control.
You change your life when you change what you do everyday.
I listen to His Word while I wash my face. Set the timer on my phone to make a complete hard stop and pray — because life without hard stops crashes. Habits are small gears that leverage your life — and the habit of hope can resuscitate anything.
Even what looks like it has a snowball’s chance in hades of happening or changing…
The snowball tree releases petals in the wind, a habit of letting go and hoping better things….
And all these small seeds keep across the field grow —
like this growing trust that the smallness of A Seed Life, of faithfully stewarding seed moments, is what grows a habit of astonishing abundance.
Related:
Dear Christian, Why You Never Have To Be Ashamed of the Bible: Stand With the One Million Who Honor The Bible
Resources for a Reset: Best Summer Habit: 60 Days to Joy ….Best Timer …. Daily Scripture Reflection Devotional … Daily Audio Bible … Prayer Books: Common Book of Prayers, Valley of Vision … ESV Journal Bible
June 1, 2017
Dear Christian, Why You Never Have To Be Ashamed of the Bible: Stand With the One Million Who Honor The Bible
The woman made a living digging up dirt.
Actually, the woman dug up the dirt of Megiddo — the same Megiddo that is known as Armageddon.
In other words, she dug up the end of the world. Because, yeah: the world has enough women who know how to do their hair — it needs more women to do hard and holy things.
Women who get to the bottom of things, women who aren’t afraid of going against the current, women who don’t stand on the sinking sand of popular things, but on the rock solid truth of eternal things.
With a brush in one hand and the Bible in the other, Guetta, swept away time and the remains of 34 cities, and the shards of all their clay gods.
The woman knew you had to dig up the dirt of last battles, because she knew:
You can only win your battles if you know where the real battles are happening.
That old book in Guetta’s hand? She thought it was an ancient, dead book, a book of myths and legends and historical stories to search for archaeological details, the artifacts of dozens of cultures that believed in a myriad of gods.
Esther Havens
Archaeologist & Esther Havens’s sister, Jennifer Guetta
Esther Havens
Museum of the Bible, Washington, D.C., coming November 2017
Museum of the Bible, Washington, D.C., coming November 2017
Esther Havens
Museum of the Bible, Washington, D.C., coming November 2017
Archaeologist & Esther Haven’s sister, Jennifer Guetta
Museum of the Bible, Washington, D.C., coming November 2017
Esther Havens
Museum of the Bible, Washington, D.C., coming November 2017
Esther Havens
Museum of the Bible, Washington, D.C., coming November 2017
Museum of the Bible, Washington, D.C., coming November 2017
Museum of the Bible, Washington, D.C., coming November 2017
Esther Havens
Museum of the Bible, Washington, D.C., coming November 2017
Museum of the Bible, Washington, D.C., coming November 2017
Esther HavensUntil Guetta felt hunted by a darkness she couldn’t shake.
There is a darkness that can make you seek the light. Guetta said she tried to outrun that darkness, but that the darkness didn’t shrink back at the name of Allah, or Buddha, or Shiva or even Jewish prayers — but that darknesss fled at the name of Jesus.
And Guetta picked up her Bible and read line after line — and for the first time in her life, Guetta knew it, coudn’t stop declaring it to anyone who would listen: “This book is alive!”
“The very book which I used to undermine, came to life and it had character… His name was Jesus and He was still the same after 2000 years,” Guetta said. “The Bible is a living book that has lasted already more than 2500 years and even though scientists, scholars and archaeologists have tried to pull it apart they have not been able to stop God’s Word from spreading all over the world… just as Jesus predicted.”
Guetta knows it by heart and in her veins and bones: “For all humanity is like grass, And all its glory like a wildflower. The grass withers, and the flower falls off, but the WORD of the Lord endures forever.… (1 Peter 1:24.) History passes away but God’s word truly endures forever.”
Popular words endure only long enough to get social media’s ovation — but God’s Word endures forever and will be standing unwaveringly at the end of creation.
Guetta’s words dig up bits of the last battle: “It seems today that the spirit of “tolerance” is everywhere, and is being confused with ‘love.’ People don’t want to sound like they are discriminating others. But real love is actually telling them about the freedom that only Jesus can give. We cannot tolerate everything to bring peace to the world. Only Jesus brings real peace — because only Jesus defeats darkness.”
And I reach over and grab that Book and we’re the People of the Book who hold on to this Word because:
Selecting a few favourite passages to the exclusion of others, is like selective hearing. You grow deaf to the whole heart of God. Only the whole Bible can heal our whole heart.
Only those who love the whole Bible — know a whole lot about love.
We can’t be about love — unless we’re about loving His love letter that ultimately defines love, explains love, claims to know what love is and Who love is. No one is really for Love if they’re actually forsaking the Scriptures.
Walk back from Scriptures, and you walk back from the Saviour who saves — and then you walk by what you feel, instead of by what His Word reads.
You can’t love like Jesus — and walk back from the love letter He lived by. That’s not walking a slippery slope —- that’s walking straight off the edge of a cliff.
We’re the People of the Book who hold on to this Word because:
They can try to put the Bible out of business, they can try to amputate bits of it, reinterpret it, belittle it, dismiss it, or distance themselves from it — but it’s the very Word of God that breathed the cosmos into this choreography of glory and His words on the page form an oxygen for flame in the soul, in the bone, and it is what resuscitates the alienated and the subordinated and the agitated and it breathes warm breath of relentless resurrection into the dry bones of dying marriages.
We’re the people of the Book who hold onto the Word because:
It breathes expanding hope into the shrivelled lungs of the overstressed and depressed and oppressed and do not doubt that this Word is living and this Word cannot be slain, and it will not restrained and it will not once return void.
The pages of His Word do not hold not the words of a good man, but either an insane man or of the God-man; not the words of a loved teacher, but either a lunatic or the Lord of Lords, a crazy madman or your King and Messiah.
Disregard Him, demonize Him, disdain Him or declare Him divine, but do not deign Him merely a sage because He never said He was some guru, He said He was The Word who takes away the sins and wounds of the world.
We hold on to this Word because:
If you want to know how things are going to turn out every day — read the Bible every day.
Turns out — God is still in control, you are still in His hands, He is always good and you are always loved.
We hold on to this Word because: You will be able to handle your world, as well as you handle His Word.
Our greatest source of relief is not running from the world, but running to the Word… not running from our life — but running to God’s lifeline.
There is a Word that finds you when you can’t find your bravest self, that touches the edges of you when you feel like you’re crumbling away, that knows you, renames you, remakes you, revives you, and it is not an idle word for you; it is your life. And by this word you will prolong your days, and by this word, you will have a blazing light to find your way forward, and by this word, you will find what you’ve spent your whole life looking for.
Around our old barn beam farm table, kids pile in and steaming plates are served up, and when those plates are pretty much licked clean, those eight drawers built right into that farm table are opened.
Eight dovetail drawers, that hold eight bibles, open after every meal, and as a family, we take up His Word, open the only Word that is actually living, alive, and we eat the only Living Bread at every meal because our soul never stops being famished for Him and we’d be fools to starve our own beings.
And we hold the Word in our hands where the last battle will happen — the last battle that decides what is Truth, what is Faith, what is Love.
We hold in our hands to the end of the world, the Word that which cannot and will never be, defeated, destroyed, decimated, deterred or devalued.
We excavate Grace and Truth and hold in our hands…. the heartbeat of God.
After viewing a wide range of their Bibles at their gathering center in Oklahoma, I could not be more excited about this, could not be anticipating this more: Museum of the Bible is a 430,000 square foot museum opening in Washington DC — just blocks from the Capital and the National Mall.
When it opens in November 2017, it will be the most technology advanced museum in the world — and it’s sole purpose is to get people engaged with the Bible.
Join me in a movement to honor the Bible, and add your name to Museum of the Bible’s One Million Names campaign!The Museum of the Bible’s One Million Names Wall will display the names of one million people who honor the Bible — please, be one of them, add your name to the wall? By adding your name, you are leaving a legacy and sharing your commitment to the Bible with the world.
As you make your declaration, you will be entered for the chance to win a trip to tour the museum with me (and really, you could not tour this museum with anyone more excited) before it opens to the public!
Let’s experience the emotion, inspiration and thoughts provoked by the impact, narrative and history of the Bible.
This truly is a unique once in a lifetime opportunity.
Museum of the Bible will fly you and a guest round trip to Washington D.C., provide a hotel stay for two nights, & schedule a pre-opening tour with you, so this Bible-loving farm girl can tour the museum with you. There is no entry fee or donation required to enter this drawing, but you must register to win before June 30.
ENTER HERE TO WIN A FREE TRIP FOR TWO TO WASHINGTON, D.C. TO TOUR THE MUSEUM OF THE BIBLE WITH ME!
May 30, 2017
when you’re desperate for some quiet in a crazy, runaway world
It took a crisis, the absolute unraveling of a cherished 15-year friendship, before she could see what her life had actually become. Her marriage, was fine. Her children, were fine. Life, was fine. But at that very moment, it began. Nicole Johnson could now clearly see, that no, life, was not fine. In the minutes, hours, and days that followed, Nicole did the only thing she could through the rush of overwhelming confusion and grief: she sounded the alarm to those closest to her. And, slowly but surely, she could begin to hear her Creator’s call once more – to be held, to rest in the calm that can only be found in Him. It’s a grace to welcome Nicole to the farm’s front porch today…
O ne night, as I was saying goodnight to my son, I became increasingly frustrated by his inability to settle down and fall asleep.
Elliot was in bed, under the covers; teeth brushed, prayers said.
“Mom, I saw this amazing save by Jonathan Quick on YouTube!” And in flash, Elliot is about to jump out of bed and do the splits like the goalie he loves, saving a puck in the Stanley Cup Finals.
I stop him quickly. “No, honey, first thing in the morning, okay? Right now it’s time for bed.”
“You know I’m really hoping to get goalie gear for my birthday.”
“I know, sweetie. I’m going to turn out the light now.”
My son has a gift for words, and communication comes quite naturally to him. He’s very expressive for a boy of his age and his curiosity and wonderings have a way of creating his opinions and then forming persuasive arguments.
“I think it’s safer for me to play with my own gear. You want me to be safe, right?”
“Absolutely, Elliot. That’s why I need you to go to sleep right now.”
“Can we look for goalie gloves tomorrow after school?”
“Maybe, son, I don’t know.” I’m not sure about my name, let alone tomorrow afternoon. “Just lay here, and be still and quiet.”
“Do you know how to calculate the circumference of a circle, Mom?”
“Buddy, right now it’s time for sleeping, not more questions.”
I might as well be asking him to build a 747 out of toothpicks! So I lie down next to him and put my arm around his squirmy body. After five more questions and three more observations and an act of Congress, he finally gets quiet and then still. And I’m not kidding, in less than thirty seconds he’s OUT.
Falling asleep is never difficult; getting still and quiet is the real challenge.
Not only for my son Elliot, it was the real challenge for me as well.
Turns out, it may well be the greatest challenge for every one of us.
I first encountered the writings of Blaise Pascal in college. I had no context or appreciation for a French 17th century mathematician and philosopher.
I read many of the greats during college to learn what I needed to know for the test. Years later, though, I returned to Pascal’s Pensees and discovered his incredible reflections about life and the living of it.
With the help of translators and the inimitable Peter Kreeft, I’ve come to value his timeless wisdom.
In fact, many of Pascal’s pensees, or thoughts, seem to apply better now than they did centuries ago when he penned them.
Like this one:
“I have often said that the sole cause of man’s unhappiness is that he does not know how to stay quietly in his own room.”
Really, Blaise? May I call you Blaise? This is the sole cause of man’s unhappiness? I can think of many more causes.
And what about women? Oh right, we don’t know how to stay quietly in any room, let alone our own room!
When Pascal wrote these words in the 1600s he was calling people away from all the things that distract and divert them. And his generation didn’t have anywhere close to the possibilities of distraction we have today.
They certainly didn’t carry devices in their pockets that chirped and beeped, interrupting them constantly.
And yet, still he names the root of man’s unhappiness as the inability to be still and quiet inside himself.
Twenty-five years ago, I participated in a silent retreat. It almost killed me! I’m not kidding. I felt lost and ineffective for five hours, uncertain of what I was supposed to be doing, which was nothing. Throughout my schooling, I maintained a 4.0 for talking, so not using one of my strongest gifts seemed wrong.
I felt panicked and anxious over what others must be doing with this time.
Surely it would be better than what I was doing with it! By the time it was finally over, I was joyfully relieved to get back to talking. I remember talking nonstop to anyone who would listen to me about why extroverts should never participate in silent retreats!
It has taken me decades to get to this realization: I have spent more of my time trying to control the crazy on the outside than I have working toward creating calm on the inside.
This was as big a revelation as the one that came in my late twenties when I finally understood that the way you look on the outside matters some, but only a fraction as much as who you are on the inside.
In the same kind of shift that turned my attention from the external to the internal back then, my attention has turned once again to the inside to provide the way to creating calm.
I’ve never talked to anyone who thought that getting still was a bad idea or practice.
But most people must think it is a good idea for someone else, because only a handful of people set aside the time to do it.
Why? Because when you try to get still, you will immediately encounter the kind of resistance that let’s you know you’re on the right track. You’ll find that:
Silence Is Uncomfortable
Distraction Has Become a Way of Life
Fear is an Aggressive Bully
I mention these because it’s very important to know just how normal these are. There are forces and fears that want to keep you from learning to be still and quiet in your own room.
Because in your room you might learn how to overcome those forces that keep you distracted, unhappy and afraid.
If we avoid stillness altogether we don’t have think thoughts like, Remember that silent retreat, Nicole? This isn’t your strength. I bet others don’t have this fear. Why don’t you focus on things you’re good at and leave this stillness to those who can do it better?
When I am falling down the rabbit hole of my own inadequacy, I have two choices:
Recognize these forces and fears and stand up to them in order to cross the threshold into stillness.
Give in to them believing they’re speaking truth and go start cleaning out the garage.
At fifty years old I am learning stand up to them. I know their game now.
When I call them out and refuse to allow them to deter me, I forge ahead to sit quietly in my own room, my sacred space and submit to the kind of spirit work that is nothing short of the key to a life in God.
Still and quiet are not bad words. They are not punishment or isolation, they are an opportunity to discover and cement our deepest identity.
Those who seek to be still and quiet will find a beautiful portal through which God’s voice of love can be heard in a world that drowns it in interference.
After all, it’s God who said, “Be still and know that I am God.”
It seems evident that that knowing is connected to being still.
So we can be still and know that God is God or stay very busy and wonder if we are.
Nicole Johnson, author of Fresh Brewed Life, has a uniquely creative voice. As an accomplished writer, speaker, and actor, Nicole has performed in thousands of churches and venues over the last twenty-five years, including more than a decade of touring with the national conference Women of Faith.
Nicole’s upcoming book, Creating Calm in the Center of Crazy, is a voice of possibility and peace for women seeking to find a calm spiritual center in a crazy, runaway world. Nicole’s writing is authentic, humorous, and practical, and at the same time deeply spiritual and real. Through her own personal story, Nicole explores all those things that bring impossible crazy to our lives, the gift of crisis, and the slow but sure journey back to the deep calm God intends for us.
[ Our humble thanks to Zondervan for their partnership in today’s devotion ]
May 27, 2017
Only the Good Stuff: Multivitamins for Your Weekend [05.27.17]
Happy, happy, happy weekend!
Some real, down in the bones JOY to celebrate today! Links & stories this week 100% guaranteed to make you smile a mile wide & believe like crazy in a Good God redeeming everything — and that there’s love everywhere & for ((you))!
Serving up only the Good Stuff for you & your people right here:
Mary Anne Morgan
Mary Anne Morgan
Mary Anne Morgan
Life is not an emergency, life is a GIFT. Get out there and enjoy the beauty of your weekend!
just who says you can’t have any fun on a rainy day?
this: 10 Things Your Teen Loves to Hear
this is one parade you won’t want to miss: just. the. best
Icako Stamatov via Bored Panda
then and now – a fascinating project
twin sisters celebrate their 100 years young: so fun!
yes, please: How a Bucket List Eliminated My Mom Guilt
a spirit not to be contained by a senior citizen status
“I don’t ever worry, I hand it over to the Lord”
Emily Gibson
beautiful: The Moment of Detachment
they asked everyone on campus for $0.25 – what can we go do?
Phillip Haumesser
Phillip Haumesser
Phillip Haumesser
the joys of simple pleasures right here
only a seat away: because everyone deserves to have a friend
Heart-wrenching story about a chance meeting with Mr. Rogers had to share
the whole earth is full of His glory!
Kayla Aimee
Kayla Aimee
THIS: How A Micro-Preemie Mom Is Learning To Let Go
“When your brand new baby tips the scales at just one pound, eight ounces and fits fully in the palms of your hands all of your expectations shift.”
the first time she’s walked in 10 years…on her wedding day
from homeless to hero: and how the community is giving back
one of the very best surprises you’ll see this month?
seriously — this mom is all sorts of amazing!?!
a charity designed to collect comfort, not money. Soul funding for those who feel broken.
“Life is messy. But if you’re going to love other people —
you’re going to have to be willing to step into their mess.”
yes: #TheBrokenWay #BeTheGIFT
her remarkable journey from homelessness to Harvard graduate: she shares some good words here
… so this is maybe one of the hardest confessions?
But sometimes the hardest confessions makes us the realest real?
Maybe they hand us the real secret sauce for when life gets hard — that we wouldn’t have found any other way?
the real secret sauce when life, parenting, & people are hard
“It’s a beautiful thing to know even though in the midst of sadness and despair, that your loved ones perished so that we might have the freedoms we have.”
an interview with Bono: Beyond the Psalms
discussing the power of the Psalms for all Christians
Levi Voskamp
Post of the Week from these parts here
…after Manchester & a thousand heartbroken prayers: heightened fears & alerts. Crazy times. Injustices everywhere.
And really? This is the real deal:
Don’t be afraid to taste, chew, swallow it down deep. The world kinda desperately needs this right about now — no joke:
After Manchester: What They Don’t Tell You About the Real Justice Warriors
Take the Dare, Join the Revolution, Pick Up The Broken Way
always and only: Let it be Jesus
…as we look into the week ahead? Let’s hold on to this:
He’s making good out of even the bad days.
And God’s good plans are bigger than any of your messes, your regrets, your bad mistakes.
Lord, Thank You
I am not the mistakes I have made.
I am not the plans I have failed.
I am not the wrongs I have done.
I am not forgotten.
I am not abandoned.
I am not alone.
Because You say to the lost: Come.
You say to the Unlikely: Beloved
You say to the Battle Weary: Rest.
In a hard and beautiful world,
Your grace is the only pillowed relief for my tired soul
to rest in You this week — making all things new.
And all the brave heaved relief & smiled their Amen.
[excerpted from our little Facebook family … come join us each day?]
That’s all for this weekend, friends.
Go slow. Be God-struck. Grant grace. Live Truth.
Give Thanks. Love well. Re – joy, re- joy, ‘re- joys’ again
Share Whatever Is Good.
May 26, 2017
how to leave a really beautiful, meaningful legacy
I met the Green family once — we had dinner under a starry sky in Arizona. The most humble, kindest folks. David Green is the son of a pastor and grew up in small towns across the Midwest. He is soft-spoken, passionate about his faith, and dedicated to his family. David & his wife, Barbara, are the proud parents of two sons and one daughter, grandparents to ten, and great-grandparents to eight children. He is a down-to-earth guy who is pretty unassuming if you were to meet him on the street. But? He also happens to be the founder of Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc., the largest privately owned arts and crafts retailer in the world. Through his journey of business success, he has learned a thing or two about what real legacy means. It’s a grace to welcome David to the farm’s front porch today…
It has often brought a smile to my face to think that if Hobby Lobby had existed during the years I was growing up, my mother might never have darkened the door of one of our stores.
Her attention was fixed on beautiful things of another kind, like our family, and her spending was limited by the challenging life she and my father chose to live.
My childhood was shaped by my father’s work as a pastor in rural churches across Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, and Oklahoma.
In a practice that was common among religious denominations at that time, Dad was assigned to a new church about every two years. For me, this meant eight different schools by the time I finished high school.
None of these churches ever seemed to grow much larger than a hundred souls.
As a result, small towns, small churches, and small incomes defined our lives, making it a constant challenge for my parents to care for our family of eight.
We usually lived in a two bedroom house. With five siblings, that meant my brother and I often made do with a rollaway bed in the kitchen.
We never had a car. Our parents assured us that we each had two good feet to get us where we needed to be.
Generous cousins frequently sent secondhand clothes, so my parents had to provide only underwear and socks for us.
I don’t say any of this to complain.
I’m grateful for the life my family lived when I was a boy.
I am the son of two people whose feet were firmly planted in this world and yet who kept their eyes and hearts fixed on the world to come. A deep and unshakable faith in Jesus Christ flowed from my parents and filled our home. It was in their lifeblood.
What I learned from the fierce faith of my parents has shaped every day of my life since.
I can still remember hearing their voices raised in prayer and how they cried out to God for their children and for the lost people of our various communities.
They trusted in Jesus Christ completely, and because they did, we saw an almost unceasing stream of miracles. My faith grew as I saw God faithfully provide for our needs again and again.
As surprising as it may sound, my parents were also some of the most generous people I’ve ever known.
This may not seem to fit the picture I’ve painted of their spare living and meager income, but it was true.
I had seen evidence of my parents’ generosity through the years in a thousand different ways. Mother might have only three or four dresses in her closet, but if she heard of a woman who needed one, you could be sure Mother would soon arrive at the woman’s doorstep with a dress in hand.
Such acts were repeated time and again.
More than anyone else, my mother taught me the difference between what is temporal and what is eternal. It says in James 4:14, “What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.”
Mother understood that life in this world is short and that only what is done for God will last. Her unswerving emphasis on this truth is probably the reason that all of my brothers and sisters eventually went into some form of full-time ministry.
I can see how my legacy began with my parent’s example of fierce faith and contentment.
They knew what God wanted them to do, and they did it with everything they had. I learned from their radical generosity.
They gave from nothing.
It’s one thing to give from full coffers, quite another to give back to God what He’s given to you monetarily. Their generosity is etched into my heart.
My mother gave me a heavenly perspective. She was my equalizer. She gave me eyes to see the difference between what carries temporal significance and what carries eternal worth. I might have shrugged and hem-hawed while learning it, but looking back I now see how my mom taught me discernment.
Everyone will leave a legacy.
The legacy my parents left is based on eternal thinking – wanting to invest in those things that last forever, which we believe is man’s soul, and God’s Word.
They also wanted to pass on the values they held that shaped their eternal perspective. This part of their legacy is made of invisible things.
I believe we can chart a course for our lives and our families that allows us to think beyond one generation.
We can outline our vision, mission, and values. And we can live that out through our generosity. These ideas will allow us to stay rich for generations – not just in a monetary sense but in a values sense.
Consider now what you want your legacy to be.
The decisions you make today affect the legacy you leave behind. Today is the right day to make your decisions in light of the truth that God owns it all.
Live your life in this world while investing in the next.
As my mother always said:
“Only one life
‘Twill soon be past
Only what’s done
For Christ will last.”
-C.T. Studd
David Green is the founder of Hobby Lobby. In 1970 David borrowed $600 to buy a molding chopper, set up shop in his garage at home, and started making miniature wooden picture frames. Today, Hobby Lobby employs more than 32,000 people, operates 750 stores in 47 states, and has become the largest privately owned arts and crafts retailer in the world.
David has a new book, Giving It All Away…and Getting It All Back Again, that shares his incredible heart, vision and legacy, and it is my prayer that his book causes all of us to deeply think about the legacy we are leaving behind… A book I’ve been anxiously waiting to get my hands on — because this is sorta the crux of everything. A great family read.
[ Our humble thanks to Zondervan for their partnership in today’s devotion ]
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