Ann Voskamp's Blog, page 57
September 13, 2021
Reaching Your Child’s Heart by Joining Their Dance
Lucille Williams dedicated her life to family and ministry when God planted writing on her heart. Her husband is a children’s pastor, and she has a loving heart for children and families. After years of rejection letters, her first book was finally published. When she received news she’d be published, she spent most of the day crying and thanking God. It was God who opened the door for her to be an author. It’s a grace to welcome Lucille to the farm’s front porch today…
guest post by Lucille Williams
I remember the day I parked at my children’s elementary school to get a glimpse of what they were like on the playground.
“I felt mortified as I watched girls dropping like flies.”
I witnessed in horror as my ten-year-old son, Tim, played a game in which he was throwing numerous little girls to the ground. He would run, grab a little girl, toss her to the ground, and then run, grab another, and on and on. I felt mortified as I watched girls dropping like flies.
As I went home and stewed, my thoughts went from What a terrible mother! to What am I raising? and I’m going to let him have it when he gets home!
But then God whispered. Have you ever noticed when God speaks to us it’s often in a tender whisper? Looking at 1 Kings 19, God approached the prophet Elijah softly—God was not in the roaring wind, the earthquake, the fire. He was in the “gentle blowing.” God showed up with a whisper.
When we are feeling frantic and life seems crazy and out of control, we need to stop, be quiet, and listen for God. “Stop striving and know that I am God,” says Psalm 46:10. Be still. Cease striving. Listen for God.
Suddenly, my demeanor changed. I began to think about Tim’s kind and compassionate heart. I witnessed him giving away his things many times to others. Classmates’ moms had told me he was kind to their daughters and often gave compliments about their pretty dresses. Teachers often told me he helped the other children with schoolwork.
So, why would he act in such an appalling manner? I decided to talk with Tim after school. Sitting him down, I told him about what I had seen.
Joy Prouty
As we talked, it became clear he didn’t realize how bad his behavior was with the girls; to him, it was merely a fun game. He played that way with his older and tougher sister and didn’t see the difference. After explaining it to him, he changed the way he played—and I know because I checked.
This same child is a pastor today with the same tender heart.
When we seek to understand our child, we are less likely to jump to incorrect conclusions.
“When we seek to understand our child, we are less likely to jump to incorrect conclusions.”
While leading a small group for teenagers, one of the girls said her mother had frantically accused her of doing drugs one morning because her eyes were red. Melissa exclaimed, “Mom! I am not on drugs! I was up late doing homework. If you don’t believe me, I’ll pee for you.”
If you’re tempted to overreact, ask questions and listen.
Also in 1 Kings 19, Elijah vocalized his despair and exhaustion to God, and God was understanding and patient. Elijah said, “I have been very zealous for the Lord, the God of armies; for the sons of Israel have abandoned Your covenant, torn down Your altars, and killed Your prophets with the sword. And I alone am left; and they have sought to take my life” (1 Kings 19:14).
Elijah had been running from Jezebel. He was scared, lonely, and weary. He was not being disrespectful to God, nor was he disobeying God. Our compassionate and loving Father gave Elijah instructions regarding which kings to anoint and who to anoint as Elijah’s successor.
Obeying God once again, Elijah did all God had commanded him. Later, God did one of the most amazing things in the Bible: “Then Elijah went up by a whirlwind to heaven” (2 Kings 2:11). And let’s not forget about the chariot of fire!
Looking at God as the perfect parent, there is much we can learn. We need to listen and understand what is going on with our kids and not jump to conclusions. Seek to comprehend what is happening in their world and look at their heart. Oftentimes, we are ready to take on a battle when really they are just tired or need a little compassion.
“Oftentimes, we are ready to take on a battle when really they are just tired or need a little compassion.”
And when you have an impossible kid, you have enough battles. Being understanding and providing choices helps him feel responsible, creating a receptive nature. So many things about a young person’s life are dictated by others, so when choices are given, it softens an impossible kid.
When we force our own agendas, we hinder our children’s growth and development.
When we guide them to make their own decisions, good or bad, they will learn. In that process they develop character.
The balance between rules, boundaries, and freedom is a delicate one. We want to give fair and reasonable limits; however, we do not want to restrain them from becoming all God designed them to be. Making decisions, failing, making mistakes enable them to grow and learn.
Don’t be afraid to let them fail. Just make sure you are there to help pick them up.
“When you connect with your children through being vulnerable and real, it gives them a chance to see your heart and your motives.”
If you strive to understand your children’s world, even arguments and disagreements can enrich your relationship. Help settle conflicts by sharing your heart and your love.
When you connect with your children through being vulnerable and real, it gives them a chance to see your heart and your motives. The greater the relationship, the less likely they’ll be to rebel.
God has commissioned you to raise His child.
No matter how inadequate you feel, God asked you to do the job.
Be faithful, ride the roller coaster, join the dance.
Lucille Williams has three great passions: God, family, and food. She serves alongside her pastor husband with a passion to see families flourish.
Her newest book, The Impossible Kid: Parenting a Strong-Willed Child with Love and Grace will help parents through 11 entertaining and relatable chapters including reflections from her impossible kid, Monica, now an adult and young mother herself. In The Impossible Kid Lucille has penned an exceptionally honest and funny account about parenting not only her strong-willed child but her two boys as well.
[ Our humble thanks to Barbour for their partnership in today’s devotion ]
September 10, 2021
Your Wounds Aren’t Your Identity
When I first met Aubrey Sampson, I was immediately struck by her deep passion for helping Christians who are hurting, whether struggling with challenges in their past or with the ongoing pain of their present. Beyond her radiant smile is a woman who has lamented and mourned and endured long seasons of pain and suffering. Aubrey is a wise teacher, a gentle guide into the tender spaces of our stories. She’s quick to share her soul and the reason for her hope. It’s a grace to welcome Aubrey to the farm’s front porch today…
Wounds are a part of my story.
I was sexually assaulted on a school bus at age thirteen and four years later by an employer at an after-school job. These are never good memories, to revisit those moments when I felt like a nameless object, used for someone else’s consumption.
“Because of God’s love, my wounds are not my identity.”
My reluctance is not so much about the distressing experiences themselves. I have been through a beautiful journey of healing in Christ, and I am grateful for every opportunity to share the powerful story of how God stepped in to heal me, removing my shame and pain.
Because of God’s love, my wounds are not my identity. I will keep on sharing that until I die. It’s just that I am deeply uninterested in my trauma becoming the defining narrative of my life.
Matthew, Mark, and Luke’s Gospels each include a story about a woman known only as “a woman having an issue of blood” (Luke 8:43, ASV; see also Matthew 9:20; Mark 5:25). At the beginning of the story, she is defined as no more than her past: She’d bled for twelve years straight, chronically tormented by her illness, isolated from her community because of it.
I don’t want my name to become “the woman with the issue of her trauma.”
But here’s the thing: That “woman having an issue of blood” didn’t stay defined by that. She chose to move toward Jesus, and He changed her name—and her story.
“She chose to move toward Jesus, and He changed her name—and her story.”
The bleeding woman took a massive risk one day and joined the throng of people who were following this extraordinary guy. When she finally drew close enough to see him, still separated by the clamoring crowd, she stretched her entire self toward Jesus.
All her hope, all her wounds, all her doubt, all her heartache, and all her trembling vulnerability grasped like a drowning person reaches for life, and she touched the hem of His clothes.
Barely a brush of contact, but that connection with Jesus erased the thing that had defined her for so long. Suddenly, in an instant, she was whole.
A little while after his encounter with the bleeding woman, the Son of God returned to His hometown to continue His ministry among family and friends. And when I say “ministry,” I mean performing miracles, healing people, overcoming evil, teaching with power, and transforming lives. Jesus was literally personifying the Kingdom of God.
Yet even though this is Jesus, and even though he’s doing all these glory-of-God-worthy things, his friends and neighbors don’t take Him seriously. “He’s just the carpenter’s son,” they say dismissively (Matthew 13:55, NLT). We knew Him when He was little. We know His family. He’s nothing special.
I love that this story is in Scripture because we all have some “He’s just a carpenter” refrain on repeat: places where our pasts or our brokenness or our sense of notenoughness define us. While “carpenter” may not be your exact kryptonite, maybe your “He’s/She’s just a _______” line of thinking goes something like this—
• I’m just a stay-at-home parent—what do I have to offer the world?
• I’m just a mess.
• I’m just too angry/bossy/controlling.
• I’m just an idiot.
• I’m just too weak.
• I’m just too sensitive, too emotional.
• I’m just a terrible sinner.
• I’m just alone.
• I’m just too old or too young.
• I’m just too fat.
• I’m just unworthy.
• I’m just afraid of what others will think.
Or, maybe your “I’m just a __________” beliefs are more along the lines of something like this:
• Everyone will realize I have no idea what I’m doing.
• I didn’t go to college or get a Bible degree, so I have nothing important to say.
• I’m broken, a failure.
• I’m disqualified.
• My best years are behind me.
• I’m damaged goods.
• I’m too traumatized.
We can learn a little something from Jesus in this “prophet in His own hometown without honor” moment.
“Because Jesus fully embraced His identity as God’s beloved Son, everything He did was from a position of approval, not for it.”
Because Jesus fully embraced His identity as God’s beloved Son, everything He did was from a position of approval, not for it. So this hometown rejection didn’t shake Him. The definitions of His past didn’t stick to Him.
Jesus shook the dust off His feet and walked away from those who misnamed Him.
There’s another part of the woman with an issue of blood’s story that I want to share with you. It’s actually my favorite part.
After healing power went out from Him, Jesus longed to find the person who touched Him.
So He combed through the unyielding crowd, ignoring His friends who tried to stop Him. Jesus looked and looked and looked until the woman realized that she could not remain unfound any longer. Ever so cautiously, she came near, falling at Jesus’ feet, afraid of the repercussions of her boldness.
But right there, right in front of her watching hometown, right in front of the community who had labeled her Unclean and Outcast for over a decade, Jesus spoke a blessing and new name over her:
“Daughter,” he declared, “Your faith has healed you. Go in peace.”
No longer “a woman having an issue of blood.” Defined by isolation. Defined by shame.
Instead, “Daughter.” Defined by relationship. Defined by belonging. Defined by wholeness.
“I am not defined by my pain anymore.”
This is the real reason why I don’t want the telling thing about me to be “the woman who was twice assaulted.” Partly because others have far more painful journeys than mine. And partly because I get exhausted, emotionally, from reliving the memories.
But mostly, because like the woman with the issue of blood, I am not defined by my pain anymore. I have encountered Jesus. When I couldn’t muscle the wherewithal to be brave, he looked for me. He found me. And he called me Daughter.
And then?
I rose, covered in and overcome by His victory. I became whole.
A miniscule amount of faith is all it takes to grasp the hem of Jesus’ endless power and inexhaustible possibility.
You, friend, are invited to reach out and rise up.
Aubrey Sampson serves on the teaching and preaching team at Renewal Church in West Chicago, which she co-planted with her husband, Kevin. She writes regularly for Christine Caine’s Propel Women and has contributed to Proverbs 31, Christianity Today, and more. She has earned her master’s degree in Evangelism and Leadership from Wheaton College and is the co-host of The Common Good daily talk show and the podcast, Nothing is Wasted. She has also authored Overcomer and The Louder Song.
Aubrey’s latest book, Known: How Believing Who God Says You Are Changes Everything, helps hurting Christians find healing so that they can fully embrace their God-given identities and purposes.
Known invites you to understand and embrace what it means to be created and named in the image of God. In the process, it will ignite a passion to speak life-giving names over others, to bless them through the power of the Name that is above every other.
With vulnerability and humor, Aubrey Sampson shows you what it means to be powerfully and personally made and named in the image of God. Everything changes when you believe this incredible truth: You are known by God.
[ Our humble thanks to NavPress for their partnership in today’s devotion ]
September 9, 2021
Time-Management to Keep Up: The Secret to Fresh Starts & Moving Forward
It was the one visual that moved me in the days after Labor Day, that days that kind of feel the relief of a second New Years, reset days, and, I guess, I was literally moved just because of the way she moved.
All summer long, she’d been the wisp of a girl who wrangled and wrestled and wistfully begged me if she could come with me too. Come bike the rocky, steep trail with me, straight through the corn fields, then back along the fringe of the field, only to wind the wild, serpentine path, snaking through the woods, then turn on to the gravel lane through the leafy maple limbs, toward the beckoning farm pond, and its neighbouring, meandering river — nearly a full mile away.
But her legs are short.
And the way’s hard, the rocks large, the potholes deep. And she literally has half a heart. She has this raised scar down the full length of her chest that bears witness to how hard her heart works to just keep beating through every ordinary day, every single minute.
And, to be honest, I find myself, without any heart scars or drumming with only one artery, ending up a bit out of breath, winded, every time I just bike cross-country, cross-hills, cross-woods, cross everything to the river farm, traversing there and back, almost 2 miles round trip.
Girl’s no fool. Last week, she asks if I would just bike with her around the laneway that laps around the barn. But when we get to the far end of the loop that curves around the barn, she looks longingly down the lane that strikes off between the cornfields.
“Can we — can I pleaaaseee — just try?”
“But, Hon” — I point, “See those hills? See how steep they are? How deep the valleys are? And you have to go straight up, and then straight down and not wipe out?”
I’m just trying to protect her from danger and failure.
“I know, I know, but Mama, when I can’t bike, Mama? You know what I can do? I can just walk!” And she grins this huge toothy smile.
She’s just trying to protect me from living small and a sad-safe.
“Okaayyy… “ I smile weakly. “We can try just a bit of the trail — and see?” I brace myself half way up the loose gravel of the first ascent: Cue the fear and whining and distress, right about — now.
“In a world of whirl & wheels, never doubt that walking works.”
And when I look over my shoulder, there she is, in all her grinning glory, hands gripping handlebars — walking.
“See, Mama?” She’s crooning! Laughing!
“If you can’t ride? Just walk! Just walking works!”
My mind snapshots the scene as a poster for some noodled wall in my cerebellum:
In a world of whirl & wheels, never doubt that walking works.
The point of life is not to race through life to cram in the most amount of life, the point of life is to enjoy our Maker and the miracle of life.
And because that’s the point of being alive?
Just walking works.
Because the point is: You may get only about 4,000 Wednesdays in the course of your life. Why think you have to fly, ride, race through the only 4,000 Wednesdays you get?
Maybe the point is: You don’t have to race, you can— just walk. And if you can’t just walk, you can just take the next step, and if you can’t take the next step, you can just crawl, and if you can’t crawl, you can just take the next inch.
You don’t have to do it the way everyone else is doing it, to still get to do it.
“The point of life is not to race through life to cram in the most amount of life, the point of life is to enjoy our Maker and the miracle of life.”
Why in the world did I think that the only way through was the conventional way, the hustling way, the racing, fast, hurry-blurry way? Conventional wisdom may say we’re supposed be flying up and down the hills, driven by our fear of missing out, trying somehow to outrun time, so we can steal more time, but there is a far deeper, sacred wisdom that says walking may be the way to not miss out on actually living your life.
Forget whatever is conventional, but never forget what it means to be intentional.
The conventional way of life may be to race hard to beat time, but that only ends with your life being beat down hard by time.
The intentional way of life knows that we just need to consistently be consistent: Just one step in front of the other will move you to another place, make you another person, give you another kind of view.
One step in front of the other is all you need for another kind of life.
The kind of life that trusts walking works, because life isn’t about your pace, but about making space for sacred awe, very God, in your life.
“The only wise way to spend your life is by paying attention.”
To be exceptional, is to be intentional. I keep thinking that as I watch her walking down one hill, and up the next, nary a worry that she’s not riding her bike: To be exceptional is simply to be intentional.
You don’t need speed to take the inclines, you just need to be inclined to intentionally put one step in front of the other and live at the speed of awe. The speed of God. At the speed of meaningfulness.
The focus of life isn’t on the speed of travel, but the trajectory of travel. The trajectory of doing all things with deep intentionality, knowing relationship is the only real reality.
The only wise way to spend your life is by paying attention.
And when you’re spending your life paying attention, what matters is your pace. You don’t have to always hustle. You don’t have to always ride or fly or hurry. Just walking works. Maybe even best.
She can’t stop smiling over at me.
“See, Mama? I can just walk when I need to, because just walking works…” then she throws her leg over to straddle her bike, slipping back onto her seat, “and then I can ride, just whenever that works!”
“You don’t have to always hustle. You don’t have to always ride or fly or hurry. Just walking works. Maybe even best.”
And her smile’s making me smile. There is a time for everything under the sun, a time to walk and a time to ride or run, and for nearly a full mile, through fields and woods, uphill and down, potholes and stones and tree roots, winding and snaking and forging on, she rides when it works, and she just walks whenever she needs to, because walking always works.
She makes it. I’m in stunned awe.
She has half a heart — but she lives wholeheartedly.
She makes it and doesn’t give up.
You never give up because God always gives Himself.
She makes it all the way there, not once, in any way, griping or whining or complaining on the way, but instead she just keeps finding a way.
There is no need to gripe when you have grit. When you feel gratitude for the miracle of getting today, even with all of its valleys and hills. None of this might have been. Everything is miracle.
When we are under the shade of the maple leafy limbs on our 2 mile round-trip, cross-country, through woods, trek back to the farm, just as she turns the bend where the creek curls, a gust of wind catches her hair and she laughs and hollers it at the top of her lungs:
“It’s a good day to be aliiiiivvvvveeee!”
And I laugh and loudly echo her — and I’m deeply moved.
And that’s how we move the whole way home, riding when it works, and when riding doesn’t work — just walk. Just walk.
One intentional, miraculous step in front of the other.
September 5, 2021
Only the Good Stuff: Multivitamins for Your Weekend [09.05.21]
Happy, happy, happy weekend!
Let’s not let the everyday routines numb us to the miracle of living every day! Some real, down in the bones JOY to celebrate today! Links & stories 100% guaranteed to make you smile a mile wide & believe like crazy in a Good God redeeming everything. Never, ever give up…there really is hope, even for us.
Serving up only the Good Stuff for you & your people right here:
lucybee985 @ Glacier National Park
lucybee985 @ Glacier National Park
lucybee985 @ Glacier National Parkbreathtaking – hard to beat these views! Grateful she shares her work & life with us here
View this post on InstagramA post shared by Good News Movement (@goodnews_movement)
Amelia Barton/ESPN Imagesbecause we all need to know we’re not alone:
check this heart being formed by sheep, as Australian farmer pays tribute to his beloved aunt
New homeowners find the most heartfelt message written on the pantry wall
Never too Small: a unique off-grid tiny cabin
anyone else wanna go visit?!
cheering loudly: Peace behind prison bars: how a club is helping prisoners build a more peaceful world
you must come meet her: she’s the oldest Ironman Competitor Ever! They call her the 87-Year-Old Iron Nun
she shares some wise words
Nearly the end of summer!?!!
And a FREE Printable Easy PLAN to seize the Last of the Summer? Before winter comes & drives us indoors in the middle of pandemic? Um…. Yeeeesssss pleeeeassse:
Are you in?!!?!! Let’s SO do THIS:
How To Squeeze More Summer Out of the Last Weeks Before Fall: The Easy Plan (with Free Printable)
how (and why) we should take time to rest
Restaurant Makes Special Chocolate For Blind Customer With Birthday Message in Braille
“The fact that people have responded so much and so well to it just shows how much the world needs kindness right now, how much the world needs a message of hope, needs to see people doing things and going above and beyond for each other.”
he’s chasing a dream
Have you been socially-distancing? Not as much as Brent Underwood, who has lived during the COVID lockdown as the sole resident of a ghost town on the edge of Death Valley: the abandoned mining community of Cerro Gordo, California.
KRUTIK THAKUR: Instagram / Website: Sunphotographs.com
KRUTIK THAKUR: Instagram / Website: Sunphotographs.com
KRUTIK THAKUR: Instagram / Website: Sunphotographs.comstunning! Photographer captures sun and moon silhouettes in the most creative ways!
An antique store like no other
Hello September!
“Whatever you do, do everything…giving thanks” Col. 3:1
God’s will is for us to give thanks in all things…because this is how God knows we can live through anything.
Take the Joy Dare (3 prompts a day to find 3 gifts) – and hang it on the fridge for the whole family to take the #JOYDARE too! Scavenger hunt for God’s glory!
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Print the month of August Joy Dare, and the entire year of Joy Dares, right here:
And pick up a copy of the new 10th anniversary edition of One Thousand Gifts, and count all the ways He loves you, & fall in love with Him all over again! AND, when you do, you get an entire FREE Joy Tool Kit which includes 5 exclusive printables: a “How to Always Find Joy” Frameable, a Daily Joy Map & Planner, a Family Gratitude Gift Jar kit, a 12-Month Joy Calendar, and a Daily Joy Compass. Click here to learn how you can get yours today!
What is the Bible? This video covers a condensed history of how the Bible came into existence, and the different forms of the Bible in the Catholic, Orthodox, and Protestant Christian traditions.
Wildlife photographer of the year 2021 highly commended – in pictures
how she learned to really trust God …
because sometimes? we all need to be rescued
Granger and Amber Smith – Honesty in Suffering
“….everything is under His control and under His plan…”
glory, glory, glory
Break Your Promises
7 Inspiring Young People Living in Poverty With Disabilities
Beyond grateful for the life saving work of Compassion International
Books for Soul Healing:
Joy is actually possible, right where you are.
Take the dare to discover: Life is not an emergency…Life is a GIFT. Life is too short to do anything but truly savor it — to count all the ways you truly loved.
What if Brokenness is the Path into the Abundant Life?
You don’t have to be afraid of broken things — because Christ is redeeming everything.
There’s no other authentic way forward — but a broken way — right into a profoundly abundant life.
Journey into a deeply meaningful life with this devotional and take sixty steps from heart-weary brokenness to Christ-focused abundance. The Way of Abundance — is the way forward every heart needs.
Be the Gift is a tender invitation into the next step of deeper transformation, less stress, more joy and abundantly more peace & purpose. You only get one life to love well…to Be The Gift.
never, ever give up…
…straight up, it feels like the world’s gone mad at times, Lord.
And the world’s gone looking for real peacemakers who let the broken bits of their heart fill in all the cracked pieces & places in the world.
The world’s gone looking for a lot more good news — and maybe that starts with each of us busted and wounded telling the news that there is a Wounded Healer who touches our scars with His scars and says, ‘I know & I see & no matter how it seems, there’s more happening than you see, and this isn’t over yet.’
And the world’s gone looking for prayer warriors who don’t see prayer as the least we can do but the most we can do —
and then literally get down on their knees & pray us through this mess.
For we know that our praying is demon-slaying.
Praying is slaying.
Because it’s calling on the One who slays all the dark, wins us back from the mess, and cuts right through all the impossible knots of desperate things.
And all the prayer slayers said —
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.
September 4, 2021
How To Squeeze More Summer Out of the Last Weeks Before Fall: The Easy Plan (with Free Printable)
Only a few more weeks technically left of summer now.
Only a string of days left of sweet corn and swimming suits and bare toes and zinnia bouquets and light like this in their hair and all the days are adding up to make years.
And only a few more days till our youngest daughter starts back to reading and writing and arithmetic, and our oldest son heads out the farm laneway, turns and waves, and drives down our gravel road, off to Colorado for his wedding, a handful of days here in the last weeks of summer, before we stand on the front porch and wave goodbye, as the minutes slip away, and everything changes again.
“You don’t miss a beat when thankfulness is the beat of your heart.”
You don’t miss a beat when thankfulness is the beat of your heart.
You only get 18 summers with your kids — or maybe not even.
18. Or less.
Three of our 4 sons have about flown the coop, up and gone, calling another door home. All our time together, it all went by in a blink. Why did I think it somehow wouldn’t?
There are days when I have to blink back the brimming regret of the days we didn’t take off more for the lake, didn’t take more time to make a memory that would make a bunch of love that would last beyond time, didn’t light one more campfire and roast just a few more melting s’mores.
Before the sun even comes up this weekend, the first one of September, the clock ticking so loud in my ears — there’s this rolling over in the morning toward the Farmer, this desperate murmur in his ear:
“Only a few more days left of summer —- what are we going to do?”
The Farmer doesn’t even open his eyes.
“Be grateful. We are going to be grateful.”
And he draws me so close the words brush my ear, those words of every soul whisperer, and you never miss a beat when thankfulness is the beat of your heart.
“It’s never the wasting of time that hurts so much as the wasting of our intentions.”
And before the sun goes down, a bunch of the kids carry corn cobs up to the side porch and we sit there in this circle husking and I keep looking round at their sun-kissed faces, that’s all I can think, my hands all full of these husks:
It’s never the wasting of time that hurts so much as the wasting of our intentions.
There are corn husks and silks all over the porch. Who cares what the calendar says?
Calendars can con: there are really only as many days left as you actually really choose to live.
In the end, everyone ends up at the end of their lives — but only a few live the whole expanse of their life.
And come evening, after everyone leaves the dinner table, I’m still sitting there —
eating the last of chocolate crumbs right off the plate.
Free Printable of the Seize-the-Last-of-Summer Plan
Just do two a day:
1. Make a fruit pie
2. Eat under stars
3. Walk through the woods, some trees, long grass
4. Dip both feet in water
5. Sing hymns around flame {choice: candles or campfire}
6. Lick drippy ice cream
7. Find a swing and swing high
8. Pick a bouquet of wildflowers : set in sill. Or #BetheG.I.F.T. and give it away.
9. Play one game of anything out on grass {frisbee, baseball, soccer, croquet, volleyball}
10. Eat something fresh {from the garden or the market or your mother’s}
11. Lay down on grass, look up and watch clouds for five minutes
12. Dance. Dance on the beach, on a porch, on your toes, dance on until something in you feels lighter.
13. Open a window. Listen to the world. Slow. Still. Pray before that open window.
14. Sit with someone you love and watch the sunset. Say it out loud: Thank you.
Click here to Print your Free Seize-the-Last-of-Summer Plan :14 Simple Memories to Make Anywhere in the Last Few Weeks of Summer
{Looking forward to seeing your photos on FaceBook or Instagram of your own
#SeizetheLastofSummer #1000gifts}
Maybe in this season, we all just need the gift of Joy… a bit of Hope?
To stand together — FOR each other — knowing that an act of kindness, giving it forward, can be more powerful than any sword in starting movements that move us all toward Love.
The way forward —- is always to give forward.
We all only get one life to love well — and being a gift with you gives reviving joy!
August 28, 2021
Only the Good Stuff: Multivitamins for Your Weekend [08.28.21]
Happy, happy, happy weekend!
Let’s not let the everyday routines numb us to the miracle of living every day! Some real, down in the bones JOY to celebrate today! Links & stories 100% guaranteed to make you smile a mile wide & believe like crazy in a Good God redeeming everything. Never, ever give up…there really is hope, even for us.
Serving up only the Good Stuff for you & your people right here:
WEBSITE: https://www.paolopettigiani.com / IG: https://www.instagram.com/paolopettigiani/
WEBSITE: https://www.paolopettigiani.com / IG: https://www.instagram.com/paolopettigiani/
WEBSITE: https://www.paolopettigiani.com / IG: https://www.instagram.com/paolopettigiani/wide eyed wonder: Stunning Aerial Photos Capture the Bubble Gum Hues of France’s Salt Fields
Thank you, mama!
14-Year-Old Golden Retriever Brings Surprises to Neighbors Every Day
View this post on InstagramA post shared by Good News Movement (@goodnews_movement)
cheering loudly!
so who knew?! These clothes folding hacks are showing us we’ve been doing it wrong all along
Teacher’s viral ‘Band-Aid lesson’ is the simple way to teach kids fairness
“They remember this lesson all year”
Ethiopia’s Orthodox Chapel in the Sky
love her! and thinking you will too…
God’s Got This… must come read her story
“I know what it’s like to be on the edge of despair. I know the joy of being pulled out of the mirk and mire and want the same for others.”
because we all need help from a stranger every now and again
View this post on InstagramA post shared by Ginny Sheller (@ginnysheller)
let there be beeswax!
The Fun Theory: How Fun can change behavior for the better
“God Can Change Things”: 3 Families Transformed
Beyond grateful for the life saving work of Compassion International
a growing trend: Senior citizens and cats find their “purrfect” match
If You Have Someone to Talk to, it Could Stave Off Alzheimer’s, Researchers Find
Nephews Surprise Uncle After Buying Back Restaurant He Used To Own
paused and pondered this one, so good:
She Didn’t Believe, But God Heard Her Cry: I was privileged to be part of his answer
glory, glory, glory
COVID-19 Killed Our Sense of Personal Progress
Scripture says that might be a good thing
After God appoints Moses to confront Pharaoh and lead the Israelites out of slavery, they come to Mount Sinai, where God invites them to become “a kingdom of priests.” But things do not go as planned for the Israelites. In this video, we explore the beginning of the failed priesthood and the need for the ultimate royal priest, who will intercede on behalf of his people and offer his life for the failures of others.
Be the change you wish to be in the world… please come pray with us?
Changing how we think changes our lives AND our brains.
Watch more to discover this fascinating reality: Train Your Brain
love these stories! “So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed” John 8:36
Death Will Teach You What to Say Today
Running your own race means focusing on what you were called and created to do, not on what others are doing. God created each of us uniquely with a unique calling. The only competition you have is with yourself to be the best that you can be. So let’s stop comparing and run our race!
Books for Soul Healing:
Joy is actually possible, right where you are.
Take the dare to discover: Life is not an emergency…Life is a GIFT. Life is too short to do anything but truly savor it — to count all the ways you truly loved.
What if Brokenness is the Path into the Abundant Life?
You don’t have to be afraid of broken things — because Christ is redeeming everything.
There’s no other authentic way forward — but a broken way — right into a profoundly abundant life.
Journey into a deeply meaningful life with this devotional and take sixty steps from heart-weary brokenness to Christ-focused abundance. The Way of Abundance — is the way forward every heart needs.
Be the Gift is a tender invitation into the next step of deeper transformation, less stress, more joy and abundantly more peace & purpose. You only get one life to love well…to Be The Gift.
on repeat this week: Where I’m Standing Now
…prayer isn’t about getting what you desperately want,
but about getting more of the One Who desperately wants you.
What if we bravely lived what we humbly pray:
Your kingdom come —
not our kingdom.
Your will be done —
not ours.
Your story be written —
not our way, but Your way, because You alone are The Way.
Because you alone are God — and we are not.
And our problems fade in the light of Your gentle face, Your tender embrace….
[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.
August 23, 2021
Surprised by the Goodness of Limits: How Resurrection Hope Changes Everything
Ashley Hales and I met before the world shut down, in a small conference for pastors and those in ministry, The Way of the Lamb Conference in San Diego. Exhausted from ministry, Ashley shared how even still, God is good, and that in God’s kingdom, strength comes through weakness. Today, she invites us to see our limits not as barriers to success or freedom, but the way of flourishing. As we abide in Christ, we’ll be able to move beyond hustle habits and be surprised by a resurrection hope. Here is balm for our weary souls. It’s a grace to welcome Ashley to the farm’s front porch today…
They had curly ringlets and dressed up like Peter, High King of Narnia. Now they are off to middle school — this time in a new town and new state.
I worry about my kids. Transitions are so tender.
Will our calendar get too-full so we squeeze out surprise and delight? Will we make time for the meaningful things? Will this place be a place of flourishing? I wonder if my four children will learn to follow God’s good guardrails.
“Limits, given to the world by a loving God, are the conditions for life.”
But I am so very limited to make transformation happen — but this, I’m finding, is a good thing.
I remember how the world came to be with boundary lines. Limits are built into the fabric of creation as part of God’s loving rule and care.
Limits are not a result of sin, strictures and straight-jackets to hold us down, but a part of God’s very good plan. Creation was given limits: to reproduce, to be subject to the changing of seasons.
Subject to time, change, and a cycle between fallow and flourishing. There were limits on celestial bodies: the sun was to rule the day and the moon the night.
Even the naming of the world, of light and dark, of seas and land, gave meaning to something that before had no meaning. Without the loving setting of limits on the natural world, our world would be without form and void.
Limits, given to the world by a loving God, are the conditions for life.
We think guardrails restrict our freedom. When freedom is freedom from constraints, we live in a world we control—yet we find ourselves caged by the things we chase.
With the start of a school year upon us, we choose hustle and hurry to prove we’re worthy and to prove we belong.
But Jesus shows us the better way.
Jesus shows us how our God-given limits always lead to love. No one expected the Messiah to die, to defeat the powers of death and hell through death, and no one expected the resurrection. And this changes everything.
Until Love Himself breaks in, we have no imagination for resurrection. We must be, as the poet Rainer Maria Rilke said, “grasped by what we cannot grasp,” held by what we cannot hold. And when we, the limited ones, are grasped by the grace of the unlimited One, there we find surprise: the surprise of hope.
“My task is not to read the tea leaves to discern God’s handiwork but to remain within the guardrails He’s given. This is the invitation to hope.”
The resurrection brings the reality of future hope into our present, embodied lives. Jesus meets the despair of Mary and the dejection of the disciples on the road to Emmaus. Hope also pulls up a chair and sits with them in their actual, ordinary lives—where they walk home or find a quiet spot to cry in the garden.
Our imaginations, like theirs, are stunted, limited to the ways and workings of God.
We need the surprising hope of resurrection to meet us right in our dishwashing and studying, in our fighting and our despair, in our walking and mourning.
We need Hope to meet us as we begin a new school year, as we release children into schools and activities, and ask that we all might find ourselves in the story of Jesus.
We need to be met right in the middle of our preening and posturing and regular overwork where we ignore the limits of our time, bodies, affections, and calling.
Resurrection is an invitation to a surprising hope.
I practice praying for surprise as the calendar squares get filled up this fall, longing to be met by a traveler who comes to bring “news from a country we have never yet visited,” a place we will know when we see it (C.S. Lewis). He is a man who dignifies the ordinary, pointing to signposts on the road to resurrection.
My task is not to read the tea leaves to discern God’s handiwork but to remain within the guardrails He’s given. This is the invitation to hope.
Our limits, too, are not strictures holding us back but doorways into intimacy with God. It is only as we acknowledge and embrace the goodness of our limits that we can embrace hope.
“It is only as we acknowledge and embrace the goodness of our limits that we can embrace hope.”
Those who control and cajole, who court approval and fame, who must keep performing to be loved, often remain mired in cynicism. Grace upends. Resurrection surprises. Beauty remakes us.
The resurrected Christ meets us in ordinary places in ordinary times through ordinary means. He calls our names like He called Mary’s. Jesus let Thomas stick his hand in His wounds and He walked and talked compassionately on the road to Emmaus.
He invites us to simply walk on the way with Him. He meets us in our dejected despair on the road. He meets us in our incredulity and stiff-arming, He meets us in our sadness, and He meets us in our waiting.
We are free to bring our limited selves to Jesus, knowing hope has the last word.
Let us practice limiting our cynicism and control, our contempt and the supposition that if we just knew more, we would be more.
We are free to bring our real, dejected, limited selves to Jesus. Like beloved children, we are empowered to hope even when the way is dark, knowing we have a good guide who has gone this way before.
“We are free to bring our limited selves to Jesus, knowing hope has the last word.”
Resurrection invites us to hope, not just for ourselves but for our work in the world. Our limits then, aren’t like limps holding us back but gifts of self-restraint to steward. Christ, the only man who was truly free, limited His freedom so that He could give it away in love.
We too, enrobed in that love, are invited to love God and love others—not despite our limits but through them.
As my children file out the door to school and as the calendar fills up this fall, I see them as valiant children of the king.
The king who knows them, loves them, calls them by name, and surprises them with hope.
So we are invited to tend to small things. We change the sheets, we do our work, we welcome children home from school, we bring a meal, we follow in the guardrails of faith.
Jesus, the man of hope, will meet us there.
This too is enough.
Ashley Hales holds a PhD in English literature and thought she’d spend her days writing about writing. Instead, she’s found herself writing books like A Spacious Life and Finding Holy in the Suburbs. She hosts The Finding Holy Podcast, where she asks good questions and hears her guests’ laundry routines, and enjoys speaking and teaching.
A Spacious Life: Trading Hustle and Hurry for the Goodness of Limits is for hustle-weary women who want a better answer than keeping all the plates spinning. In A Spacious Life, Ashley invites her readers to reconsider freedom and significance not in doing more, but in following the way of Jesus right through our limits. The life we crave is found within the confines of God’s loving limits. Ashley helps us recognize that when we live within these boundaries, we discover a life filled with purpose, joy, and rest. Are you ready for a gentler invitation to the life of faith not around your limits, but through them?
Ashley is also offering a downloadable pdf of “pocket practices” — spiritual formation practices small enough to keep in your pocket — when you pre-order a copy of A Spacious Life. We’re desperate for rest, delight, purpose, and a way through loss. Let’s follow Jesus as He shows us how our limits are not barriers to success, but invitations to knowing God and being known by Him. Here is a more spacious life.
August 21, 2021
Only the Good Stuff: Multivitamins for Your Weekend [08.21.21]
Happy, happy, happy weekend!
Let’s not let the everyday routines numb us to the miracle of living every day! Some real, down in the bones JOY to celebrate today! Links & stories 100% guaranteed to make you smile a mile wide & believe like crazy in a Good God redeeming everything. Never, ever give up…there really is hope, even for us.
Serving up only the Good Stuff for you & your people right here:
Meg Loeks
Meg Loeks
Meg Loeks
Meg Loeks
Meg Loeksin awe of her work and the beauty she creates
we’re cooking up fresh boiled peanuts today if you’d like to join in!?
Study Finds That Your Metabolism Doesn’t Drastically Slow Down Until You’re 60
View this post on InstagramA post shared by Good News Movement (@goodnews_movement)
I am…
You teachers are heroes and soul shapers and generation strengtheners and we’re passing you a cup of hot tea and giving you a standing ovation! So well done, so. well. done.
KRUTIK THAKUR: Instagram / Website: Sunphotographs.com
KRUTIK THAKUR: Instagram / Website: Sunphotographs.com
KRUTIK THAKUR: Instagram / Website: Sunphotographs.comstunning! Photographer captures sun and moon silhouettes in the most creative ways!
Heavenly Fire: The Mystery of the Auroras… an exploration of why these incredible light shows occur, and what they reveal about God.
Cat’s Meows Lead Searcher to 83-Year-old Owner Who Fell Into Ravine
Are there times it seems God is asking too much of you? Perhaps it feels that your trials will overtake you. But as Joni reflects on a favorite song, she considers how trials are actually blessings. For it is through life’s hardest challenges that you are forced into the arms of Jesus.
amazing at this miracle: Local Ham Radio Hero Saves Friend’s Life Hundreds Of Miles Away
completely amazed: come see how he draws the world from his memory
Bethany Hope Photo
Bethany Hope Photo
Bethany Hope Photopause right here…what’s not to love?!
one to share with a friend who needs to hear? The Purpose of Your Pain
God Can Redeem Your Family History
the power of love…
August!
“Whatever you do, do everything…giving thanks” Col. 3:1
God’s will is for us to give thanks in all things…because this is how God knows we can live through anything.
Take the Joy Dare (3 prompts a day to find 3 gifts) – and hang it on the fridge for the whole family to take the #JOYDARE too! Scavenger hunt for God’s glory!
.
Print the month of August Joy Dare, and the entire year of Joy Dares, right here:
And pick up a copy of the new 10th anniversary edition of One Thousand Gifts, and count all the ways He loves you, & fall in love with Him all over again! AND, when you do, you get an entire FREE Joy Tool Kit which includes 5 exclusive printables: a “How to Always Find Joy” Frameable, a Daily Joy Map & Planner, a Family Gratitude Gift Jar kit, a 12-Month Joy Calendar, and a Daily Joy Compass. Click here to learn how you can get yours today!
glory, glory, glory
View this post on InstagramA post shared by Levi (@theartofhabit)
…when your son, in a heartbroken world, captures this gilded moment of light, down at the river farm, that reminds you that your heart can still break for all the beauty in this old world too.
never, ever give up: Keep Praying
What’s Happening in Afghanistan? Stories from Believers on the Ground with Jennie Allen and Pastor X
From Jennie Allen: “What we are witnessing right now is the decimation of the country and people of Afghanistan. The Taliban has a hit list of known Christians that they are targeting to hunt down and kill. But these believers are not hopeless… I’ve had 3 conversations this week with my friend Pastor X and his team that have changed my faith. History has shown that persecution grows the church and you guys… these Jesus followers on the ground in Afghanistan are still on mission, hopeful, and willing to die for their faith.”
Thank you, Sam Allberry: The truest thing about you is that you are the one whom Jesus truly loves.
In this video, we’ll explore the “water of life” theme through the biblical story and see how it leads to Jesus, who presents himself as the one bringing living water to a world that is desperately thirsty.
Haiti Earthquake: To Weep and To Hope
Ainsley Earhardt shares her story of faith
View this post on InstagramA post shared by Miles4Migrants (@miles4migrants)
real beauty in a breaking world: love in action
thank you, Priscilla Shirer: How to Trust God to Multiply What He’s Already Given You
Books for Soul Healing:
Joy is actually possible, right where you are.
Take the dare to discover: Life is not an emergency…Life is a GIFT. Life is too short to do anything but truly savor it — to count all the ways you truly loved.
What if Brokenness is the Path into the Abundant Life?
You don’t have to be afraid of broken things — because Christ is redeeming everything.
There’s no other authentic way forward — but a broken way — right into a profoundly abundant life.
Journey into a deeply meaningful life with this devotional and take sixty steps from heart-weary brokenness to Christ-focused abundance. The Way of Abundance — is the way forward every heart needs.
Be the Gift is a tender invitation into the next step of deeper transformation, less stress, more joy and abundantly more peace & purpose. You only get one life to love well…to Be The Gift.
on repeat this week: Where I’m Standing Now
…prayer isn’t about getting what you desperately want,
but about getting more of the One Who desperately wants you.
What if we bravely lived what we humbly pray:
Your kingdom come —
not our kingdom.
Your will be done —
not ours.
Your story be written —
not our way, but Your way, because You alone are The Way.
Because you alone are God — and we are not.
And our problems fade in the light of Your gentle face, Your tender embrace….
[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.
August 16, 2021
When You Feel Like You’re Not Enough
Denisse Copeland wants women to know that, in Christ, you are enough. After a difficult childhood grappling with the divorce of her parents and often feeling unwanted, she came to Christ and began to discover the set-apart life God had for her. Now, Denisse and her husband Rashawn minister via their online and speaking platforms. Join me as we discover how difficult comparison makes our lives, and how God invites us to live from peace. It’s a grace to welcome Denisse to the farm’s front porch today…
guest post by Denisse Copeland
God gave me a gift that was difficult for me to accept as a child. In a sea of perfectly straight-haired Puerto Rican girls, my hair felt chaotically curly, not beautifully unique.
I used to tie my hair in a ponytail as slick as you can possibly imagine. I hated my curls, didn’t want anyone to see my “real” hair, and learned every style that would conceal what God had given me.
I wanted to be like everyone but myself.
“I wanted to be like everyone but myself.”
The other girls at my private Puerto Rican school seemed to have way more than I did. Some had beautiful makeup, and some dressed in super nice outfits. Seeing them—all day, every day—led me to believe I needed to look like them in order to be accepted. I started applying makeup, but my first attempts were complete fails. I showed up at school with makeup but still felt totally “other” and embarrassed because I just couldn’t get the look my group of school friends had. I never felt comfortable in my own skin.
Truthfully, growing up apart from Christ was uncomfortable in a lot of ways.
Every circle I joined, including friends and family, overflowed with criticism, gossip, and dirty joking. I so often felt afraid of being who I was, because I didn’t want to be made fun of or judged.
In order to fit in and be cool, I would often “put on” different personalities.
I became the Denisse who was down for anything and everything, the Denisse who knew what she wanted in life, or the Denisse who didn’t put up with people’s insults.
I never felt secure or safe, because I was always changing myself based on who I was with, how I felt around them, and what I thought they wanted from me. It was beyond uncomfortable; it was completely exhausting.
When Jesus rescued me, my relationships changed dramatically. It brought me such joy to be myself and feel accepted, to be loved no matter where I came from, what I had, or where I might be headed. I relished the freedom that gave me. Maybe that’s why it surprised me when I started to struggle with comparing myself to other Christian sisters.
“Anyone else ever felt like you’re drowning in a sea of comparison, even with Christian sisters you love?”
Over the years, I’ve been tempted to compare myself with the outgoing, perfectly put-together Christian woman everyone loves.
Or to the woman who’s so brilliant in the kitchen that every meal is Insta post-worthy. Or the woman who never seems to fight with or disrespect her husband.
And what about the mom who knows exactly how to parent toddlers? You know, the mama with neatly labeled sensory bins who understands things like developing gross motor skills. How do I compare myself with her and not feel like a total failure?
Anyone else ever felt like you’re drowning in a sea of comparison, even with Christian sisters you love? I don’t want that! I want to celebrate what God’s given others, not feel less-than because of it.
I’ve even battled the “not enough” lie in comparing myself to my husband. He does so many incredible things for God; I honestly don’t know how he keeps up with everything the Lord puts on his plate.
After we first got married, Rashawn often traveled to influencer events and conferences, on mission trips and evangelistic outreaches. From Oklahoma to Los Angeles, the Philippines to Israel, Rashawn always seemed on mission. Because I couldn’t travel with him on many of these trips, I’d stay home by myself, feeling totally unimportant.
“Thankfully, we can find hope and freedom in hearing what God has to say about comparison, understanding our unique giftedness, and owning it with peace and joy in Jesus.”
I’ve played the comparison game all too often in my life. I imagine a lot of us have.
Thankfully, we can find hope and freedom in hearing what God has to say about comparison, understanding our unique giftedness, and owning it with peace and joy in Jesus.
Lots of books, articles, and blogs have been written about the story of Mary and Martha in Luke 10. I’ve also heard plenty of sermons and podcasts about these sisters. Most come to one conclusion: We should all try to be like Mary. I can absolutely see why this point is emphasized again and again.
A curious thing happens to many women who hear this message, though. Those of us who are task-oriented, those of us who are business-minded, those of us who are creative, those of us who are warriors—we feel like there’s something irredeemably wrong with us. We compare ourselves with Mary and feel seriously not enough.
But this game of comparison is not what Jesus intended. One set of giftings isn’t more valuable or honoring to Him than another.
He was simply pointing out how in that moment Mary was operating from a position of peace—I am enough—while Martha, in all her exaggerated busyness, was operating from a position of striving—I am not enough.
“This game of comparison is not what Jesus intended. One set of giftings isn’t more valuable or honoring to Him than another.”
Instead of being drawn to sit at the feet of Jesus, many of us feel like we’re competing with Mary, our sister in Christ. We assume she must have always gotten things right, but Mary was only human. Comparing ourselves to any woman in one isolated moment of her life can make us feel less than and not enough.
Nineteenth-century author Josh Billings once wrote, “Love looks through a telescope; envy, through a microscope.” We often take a microscopic—and loveless—approach to the story of Mary and Martha. We envy Mary and condemn Martha. But that’s not the point of this story.
Jesus is the point.
I want us to turn a telescopic glance back at Luke 10:38–42 and see Jesus’s love for both of these sisters. Christ wasn’t exalting Mary above her sister (or any of us). Rather, He was inviting Martha to be at peace.
Mary had chosen peace in that moment, but Jesus wasn’t encouraging Martha to competitive comparison.
He was inviting her to observe an example and follow.
He’s inviting us to follow that example too.
Denisse Copeland was born and raised by a single mother in Bayamon, Puerto Rico. Her upbringing offered little stability, and Denisse soon found herself on a seemingly endless quest to find love and acceptance. It wasn’t until Jesus shook her world that she truly found what she was looking for. Now a mother of two living in Oklahoma City, Denisse works alongside her husband, Rashawn Copeland, as an online minister and evangelist. Their ministry reaches more than 6 million people every year.
What do you do when that voice in your head tells you you’re not enough? Not smart enough, not pretty enough, not capable enough, not present enough. Where do you turn when the world’s promise that you can have it all becomes a crushing expectation that you must do it all, at all times, and keep a smile fixed on your face while you wither inside?
By unpacking the biblical story of Mary and Martha, as well as her own story of recognizing her unique giftedness, in Set Apart: Stop Comparing, Own Your Giftedness, and Rest in Jesus, Denisse Copeland shows you how to embrace your identity as a woman set apart to be exactly who God created you to be, whether that is a C-suite executive or a stay-at-home mom.
No apologies. No guilt. No compromise. If you’re tired of comparing your life to others as you strive to be all things to all people, Set Apart is your invitation to lay your burdens down and abide in Jesus–faithful, free, and fulfilled.
[ Our humble thanks to Baker for their partnership in today’s devotion ]
August 14, 2021
Only The Good Stuff: Multivitamins For Your Weekend [08.14.21]
Happy, happy, happy weekend!
Let’s not let the everyday routines numb us to the miracle of living every day! Some real, down in the bones JOY to celebrate today! Links & stories 100% guaranteed to make you smile a mile wide & believe like crazy in a Good God redeeming everything. Never, ever give up…there really is hope, even for us.
Serving up only the Good Stuff for you & your people right here:
Mary Anne Morgan
Mary Anne Morgan
Mary Anne Morganlet’s ponder the wonder & beauty everywhere
all the tears… the love of family
What Will Happen to Your Body If You Walk Every Day
wow! Dog Missing for Weeks Wanders Into Walmart and Finds Owner Working at the Register
an update on this beautiful story: A son fulfilled his mother’s dream, one cheesesteak at a time.
“7 Lessons I’ve Carried from ‘Narnia’“
highly recommend The Chronicles of Narnia! a family favorite here!
Sharing the Challenges and Joys That Disability Can Bring to a Marriage
When Tracey met Mike nearly 2 decades ago, she told him, “I use a wheelchair to get around, but I don’t let that get me down!” And these words have rung true for them as a couple over 13 years of marriage! Relying on each other for different needs, they are a true team. And although their marriage has challenges, there is also joy! Come here their story!
you’ve got to meet her: this ER nurse is helping care for hospital patients both on and off the clock
“There’s something therapeutic about the human touch… human talking, human touching, it’s that connection that we’re all hard-wired for.”
never, ever forget it: He Sees You
on letting kids be kids…
photo: Tyler Northrupcould not love her more: Having Polio Was a Privilege, Not a Punishment
“How a passage in John’s gospel transformed my perspective on God and suffering“
at 10 years old? Come see what he’s doing…
“Kindness is a virtue we can all possess. If we are willing to…so why not start today. Because right now, it’s what we need more than ever.”
5 Christian Innovators Helping Solve an Education Crisis
pausing and pondering: Francis Chan and the manifestation of the Spirit of GOD
Learning to Trust the Speed of God
glory, glory, glory
August!
“Whatever you do, do everything…giving thanks” Col. 3:1
God’s will is for us to give thanks in all things…because this is how God knows we can live through anything.
Take the Joy Dare (3 prompts a day to find 3 gifts) – and hang it on the fridge for the whole family to take the #JOYDARE too! Scavenger hunt for God’s glory!
.
Print the month of August Joy Dare, and the entire year of Joy Dares, right here:
And pick up a copy of the new 10th anniversary edition of One Thousand Gifts, and count all the ways He loves you, & fall in love with Him all over again! AND, when you do, you get an entire FREE Joy Tool Kit which includes 5 exclusive printables: a “How to Always Find Joy” Frameable, a Daily Joy Map & Planner, a Family Gratitude Gift Jar kit, a 12-Month Joy Calendar, and a Daily Joy Compass. Click here to learn how you can get yours today!
YES: With God, Impossible is Possible… thank you, Christine Caine
to encourage you…Praising God in the Pit
Why Help People in Poverty in Other Countries When People Need Help Here?
Beyond grateful for the life saving work of Compassion International
so good! Can you Relate?
Books for Soul Healing:
Joy is actually possible, right where you are.
Take the dare to discover: Life is not an emergency…Life is a GIFT. Life is too short to do anything but truly savor it — to count all the ways you truly loved.
What if Brokenness is the Path into the Abundant Life?
You don’t have to be afraid of broken things — because Christ is redeeming everything.
There’s no other authentic way forward — but a broken way — right into a profoundly abundant life.
Journey into a deeply meaningful life with this devotional and take sixty steps from heart-weary brokenness to Christ-focused abundance. The Way of Abundance — is the way forward every heart needs.
Be the Gift is a tender invitation into the next step of deeper transformation, less stress, more joy and abundantly more peace & purpose. You only get one life to love well…to Be The Gift.
on repeat this week: No One Cared For Me Like Jesus
It’s a good day to be alive,
it’s a good day to begin again,
it’s a good day to believe & hope & love & trust
that you are safe & all is always well
because you are always held.
It’s a good day to just, no matter what comes:
Let joy live loud in your soul!
[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.
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