Lisa Jacobson's Blog, page 22
May 1, 2016
One Secret to Making It to Your 25th Anniversary
I thought he was going to have to pull over.
“Silver?” he shouted. “This will be our silver wedding anniversary?”
“I know, right?” I said. “Remember how old our parents were when they celebrated their 25th anniversaries? We’re not that old, are we?”
Two people in complete denial of aging.
But it is true. We celebrate 25 years on June 1st, and we both agree it has been a good 25 years. We went out for dinner last night, and we laughed together all evening. It’s a marriage that gets better with time.
“How did you get to the happily-ever-after of 25 years?” you might ask.
Yesterday I went to get the mail, and then I walked back in the house and closed the door. I started to walk to the kitchen, but then I stopped, turned, and gave the door one more good shove.
Click.
That’s the secret to 25 years. Did you hear that click? When you close our front door, it doesn’t latch all the way unless you give it an extra shove. It drives Matt crazy if he finds the door unlatched.
Continue reading One Secret to Making It to Your 25th Anniversary at Club31Women.com
April 28, 2016
5 Ways to Help Someone Cope with a Miscarriage
The five of us walked into the small room with a long cushioned table and a monitor on the wall, smiles on our faces and voices filled with expectation.
As I situated myself on the table, we all stared at the screen, waiting and eagerly watching.
But our expectations were only met with silence; our eagerness suddenly replaced with worry. Not recognizing any of the images on the screen, I finally voiced the question that kept circling my mind.
“Is everything okay?”
The ultrasound technician sitting to my right was only permitted to say, “You’ll know more after your images have been read.” But as my eyes searched the screen for answers, I finally saw something that looked familiar. A sac, only it was empty.
Fear instantly took hold of my heart and I frantically tried to hold myself together while my three children looked on just waiting, not suspecting a thing. My eyes met my husband’s, and as his hand found mine, we said everything we were feeling in that moment without exchanging a word.
The technician excused herself to get my check-up room ready for our appointment with my midwife while my husband quickly walked the kids to the waiting area and hurried back to me.
Continue reading 5 Ways to Help Someone Cope with a Miscarriage at Club31Women.com
April 27, 2016
The Truth About The Lies You are Believing
Fear and insecurity are insidious.
They form in unlikely places. They germinate easily. They propagate with the slightest encouragement and always thrive in the same environment – darkness.
I recently sat with a women I’d known for years. Not a friend, per se, but an acquaintance. One I had shared friendly greetings with, warm hellos, but a woman I didn’t really know.
It’s amazing how much we don’t really know.
Health issues had plagued her body and brought real physical limitations. But even more than that, insecurities had ravaged her heart. She was less than others, she knew it. And she was convinced everyone else knew it too.
At one time she wondered what everyone thought of her. She answered the question for herself. Truth was replaced with lies and darkness incubated the whole process. And it grew.
It became painful to see other people, knowing what they thought, knowing how inadequate she was. Those very thoughts festered and grew and claimed property in her heart and mind until they felt all-consuming until they weighed her down with a load she was never meant to carry.
Continue reading The Truth About The Lies You are Believing at Club31Women.com
April 25, 2016
Ready to Live A Beautiful and Blameless Life?
I know now that it was a mistake.
But how could I have known it back then?
It actually seemed like a nice idea at the time. I would drive into town, settle into one of my favorite coffee shops (where they serve the most amazing homemade tiny donuts) order a 16 oz. latte for “here,” and spend the rest of the afternoon reading Christy’s new manuscript.
Doesn’t that sound like a good idea to you?
Yes, that’s what I thought too.
Except it didn’t exactly go as planned.
I anticipated a quiet read through the smallish stack of papers, but it didn’t turn out like that. Not at all. Three pages into it I began laughing aloud – which can be a rather embarrassing experience when you’re in such a public place.
What’s more, this was the kind of cafe that business people go to in order to get their work done. It’s for serious stuff.
Not for laughing.
And besides, I was sitting alone and that made it three times as mortifying.
Continue reading Ready to Live A Beautiful and Blameless Life? at Club31Women.com
Blameless: Ready to Live A Life Free From Guilt and Shame?
I know now that it was a mistake.
But how could I have known it back then?
It actually seemed like a nice idea at the time. I would drive into town, settle into one of my favorite coffee shops (where they serve the most amazing homemade tiny donuts) order a 16 oz. latte for “here,” and spend the rest of the afternoon reading Christy’s new manuscript.
Doesn’t that sound like a good idea to you?
Yes, that’s what I thought too.
Except it didn’t exactly go as planned.
I anticipated a quiet read through the smallish stack of papers, but it didn’t turn out like that. Not at all. Three pages into it I began laughing aloud – which can be a rather embarrassing experience when you’re in such a public place.
What’s more, this was the kind of cafe that business people go to in order to get their work done. It’s for serious stuff.
Not for laughing.
And besides, I was sitting alone and that made it three times as mortifying.
Continue reading Blameless: Ready to Live A Life Free From Guilt and Shame? at Club31Women.com
April 24, 2016
How to Tether the Heart-Strings of Your Child
She slid up next to me, a sprig of a thing with her long, thin frame that will likely be taller than mine before the year closes. I was wiping down the counter — tasking — and she wrapped her arms around me and rested her head in the crook of my neck as if we were settling in for a late night story.
My children show affection in different ways, though all of us Hagerty’s tend to be cuddlers. This particular one, however, reserves her hugs as exclamation points. She doesn’t often initiate and when she does, I pay attention.
What was it today? I asked myself and then remembered that I’d been asking myself that more frequently with her.
You see, we’re living time backwards. My children are aging with the calendar but they’re also healing — four of them were orphaned, once — and healing tends to bring them closer to home, despite their age indicating that they’re closer to launch. When they move a little closer in — when they lean, when they initiate, when their eyes look straight into ours for a little longer — we take notes.
Continue reading How to Tether the Heart-Strings of Your Child at Club31Women.com
April 20, 2016
5 Hope-Filled Books for the Woman Hurting or Struggling with Infertility
When I was in the midst of infertility, my moods were as wild and vast as a mountain range.
Sky-high one minute and then plunging to the depths the next.
Some days I wanted to read about women who had overcome infertility and were happily raising their miracle-babies or adopted littles.
Other days if I read one. single. success story—I thought maybe I would scream in frustration.
Thankfully, God is faithful and good, and He met me right there in the wild craziness of my messed-up hormones and fears. It has been a long, hard road but I am more stable now than I ever hoped I would be.
And the books that line my shelves? It’s interesting how they came together and how God used them to reach the deep places in my heart.
This book list isn’t just a lineup of success stories.
Some of them barely have anything to do with infertility at all. But these are books that lifted me when I was crumbling, so I share them with you, in hopes that you will catch a glimpse of the Father’s heart.
5 Hope-Filled Books for the Woman Who’s Hurting, or Struggling with Infertility
When I was in the midst of infertility, my moods were as wild and vast as a mountain range.
Sky-high one minute and then plunging to the depths the next.
Some days I wanted to read about women who had overcome infertility and were happily raising their miracle-babies or adopted littles.
Other days if I read one. single. success story—I thought maybe I would scream in frustration.
Thankfully, God is faithful and good, and He met me right there in the wild craziness of my messed-up hormones and fears. It has been a long, hard road but I am more stable now than I ever hoped I would be.
And the books that line my shelves? It’s interesting how they came together and how God used them to reach the deep places in my heart.
This book list isn’t just a lineup of success stories.
Some of them barely have anything to do with infertility at all. But these are books that lifted me when I was crumbling, so I share them with you, in hopes that you will catch a glimpse of the Father’s heart.
April 18, 2016
Ready to Take the 100-Day Love Challenge?
How did you and dad figure it out? This whole love thing.
Because everyone around me makes it sound so hard.
So hard, it’s nearly impossible.
But it seems different with you and dad.
It was a Wednesday and our Girls’ Night. So there we were curled up on her bed and watching our weekly show together. Just her and me. This daughter who is not quite 18, but who has a strong heart and thinks deeply about things.
It took me so long to reply, that she thought I didn’t hear her or wasn’t going to answer.
So she started to ask it again.
But I stopped her and said I’d heard the question alright. I was simply trying to formulate my answer.
What goes into a loving marriage?
Such a good question. But not necessarily an easy one to answer.
If you want a loving marriage, then you get to choose to love the other person each and every day.
Purposefully. Intentionally. And sometimes sacrificially.
Continue reading Ready to Take the 100-Day Love Challenge? at Club31Women.com
April 17, 2016
Seeing God’s Beauty In Our Children’s Mess
Watching my kids make a mess can be torturous. There’s really no other word for it.
Art projects, dinner table crumbs and closet destruction….
Not being able just to step in, clean it, fix it or toss it, is just plain anguish.
So imagine the mix of emotions I felt when a friend of mine told she wanted to come over and do a craft with all 4 of the girls…at the same time! My initial thought was, “Wonderful they will love it!… What time should I come back?”
Turns out that is not what she had in mind!
As an art teacher, my friend had a “big-mess-party” planned! A plan that I knew my girls would LOVE. A plan that I knew would challenge my very instincts to keep them clean and seated properly, playing quietly with their tea sets and baby dolls. (This never happens by the way!)
She arrived loaded with tubs filled with a rainbow collection of paint, varying sizes of canvas, a huge roll of plastic and four tiny little aprons.
Sweet. Let the party begin!
Continue reading Seeing God’s Beauty In Our Children’s Mess at Club31Women.com
