The Power Of Praise

This morning I woke up at 6:30 am with the weight of the world on my shoulders.

Perhaps it was because I am still not feeling very well.  Oh sure, I've been pressing on doing everything from school programs to field day to beach time to field trips and everything in between.  But I have still been feeling poorly, fighting sinus issues that are wearing me out.  Have you ever noticed when you aren't feeling well physically, you are more vulnerable emotionally?  When my eyes opened and my throat still felt sore and my body weary, my mind also felt cluttered and my heart overwhelmed. Questions without answers surfaced.  To do lists loomed.  Stress tugged at the covers.

After getting everyone off to school, I spent some extra time in Bible study. Interestingly, one of the passages my David study took me to this morning was 2 Samuel 22:1-51, a long chapter where David praises God for His deliverance from the Philistines.  David's song of praise calls God his rock, his fortress, his deliver, He who is worthy to be praised, who saved him from his enemies, who was his support, who is his strength and power, who is the one and only God.

Reflecting on the passage, Beth talked about how we need to celebrate old victories once more and new victories for the first time.  How we need to remind ourselves of God's faithfulness.  She asked us to ponder how we could make celebration a more regular part of our relationship with Christ, a more regular occurence in our life.

I took some time to journal some victories both past and present, some battles the Lord has won in my life.  I thanked Him for those.

Then I turned up the praise music.  I had sheets to wash and laundry to fold and a sink full of dishes to attend to, but I did so to the soundtrack of praise.

The first song my Kari Jobe Pandora station cranked out was her song You Are Good.  Over and over, I heard these words...

Every day, I'll awaken my praise

And pour out a song from my heart

You are good, You are good, You are good

And Your mercy is forever.

Your kindness is forever 

Your goodness is forever

Your mercy is forever, forever.

My mind settled down and became more focused.  My spirits were lifted.  The burden felt lighter.

My initial thoughts which overwhelmed were replaced with thoughts that overcame.

I continued my chores and my day with an intentional spirit of praise and celebration.

It's not that I listened to some worship songs and, zap, all my questions were answered, my body was healed, and my problems were solved.

No, it's not that at all.

What is true is that when I awakened my praise, my focus shifted from my hurts to His kindness.  From my stresses to His goodness.  From my failures to His mercy. From me to Him.

And that is the power of praise.

We're Gonna Make It (Reflections Of A Mom Around Mother's Day)

It's interesting how much I thought I knew about being a parent until I became one.

All the babysitting, teaching, working with young people, books read, and articles considered could not have prepared me for what it would take to care for and nurture a child.

The never ending journey it would be.

The way my heart would indeed walk outside of my body from that first cry on.

I would not realize the complexities...how I would strive to make them feel like one in a million and engrain in them what a special, unique creation of God they are, all the while trying to teach them the world does not revolve around them.  Not to mention the other thousands of intricate lessons that are part of the mosaic of character we are trying to help them piece together while they are under our wings.

I would not realize the extremes...how I would experience the greatest of joys and the deepest of frustrations, give out boundless energy and sometimes feel exhaustion all the way to my bones.

I would feel the delight of glowing teacher's reports and various accomplishments, but also remember the humiliation of dragging a tantrum throwing toddler out of the store (with a full cart of groceries and carrier bound infant in tow).

I would know love like I have never known, love that would actually draw me closer to God and help me understand Him better, but a love so deep that it would make me ache at times.  When you love someone to their core, when pieces of you take on lives of their own, your souls become intertwined.  You feel their hurts.  You pray like you never have before.

I love being a mom.  I love my children.  They are the greatest gifts God has ever entrusted to me, and the time I have spent investing into their early years has been worth more to me than any worldly possession or dream.  We have had some of the best times together.  Magical memories made.  Joy in simplicity.  Laughter that comes straight from the belly.

We have also had fussy days where I have gone ahead and cried right along with them.  Days where I felt like throwing in the towel.  Days where I was convinced I was a failure.


Grace has covered me.  It has filled in those gaps.

When I meet God in the mornings, I am more equipped for what the day may bring.  I still fall short, but His Word is there to help me rise up.  To teach them His precepts. To build their character.  To help shape their hearts.  To wrap them in love.  To draw boundaries that will protect them.


To not grow weary in doing good.

We spent the Saturday before Mother's Day at the beach as a family.  As I looked at some of our snapshots by sea, lyrics immediately came to mind.

If love is an ocean wide

We'll swim in the tears we cry

They'll see us through to the other side

We're gonna make it.

When love is a raging sea

You can hold on to me

We'll find our way tonight

Love is an ocean wide.

Moms, listen to me.

We're gonna make it.

If today is bad day, go ahead and have a good cry, say you're sorry, and move onward. If today is a good day, laugh with everything you have.  Enjoy the moment. No matter what today is, give your kids a hug and tell them how much you love them, how important they are to you, and how you wouldn't trade anything in the world for the gift of being their mom.  Those words are water to my children's souls.  I can see it in the way their eyes glow when I tell them.

And no matter what tomorrow holds, find a few moments to draw strength for your journey from God's Word.  We can't do this in our own strength.  But we can do anything He has called us to do in His.  Spend some time with a friend or two, friends who love you where you are and who nurture your faith and motherhood journey.  We don't want to try and do this alone.  We need each other. Don't give up.  We are in this thing together.

Leaving you with a quote my dad shared in his message Sunday morning...


There is no more influential or powerful role on earth than a mother’s. Stay at it, dear lady. Never doubt the value of your calling. Without your positive supportive partnership, the family could not survive.

Charles R. Swindoll

*lyrics from song Ocean Wide by The Afters

Sweet Delivery (And An Easy Lemon Cookie Recipe)

A few days ago, I got a sweet delivery from our friend Karen.  She knows I love Lemon Blossoms, and brought over a freshly baked plate of Lemon Cookies.  They were absolutely delicious and when I asked her about the recipe, she said it was unbelievably easy - and it was also a Gooseberry Patch recipe, which she knew was where I have found many of my favorites.

These little cookies are apparently as easy as 1-2-3...or should I say 3-2-1.  Because that is what they are called... 3-2-1 Lemon Cookies!

I looked up the recipe and found the link here.  I enjoyed one two several this afternoon with a cup of Blueberry Green Tea in my favorite teacup.  Along with the apples and grapes I had enjoyed a few moments earlier in Madi's classroom (more on that later), it was the perfect snack to brighten up a cloudy afternoon!

Thank you Miss Karen!  Your sweet delivery made my day!

Call Her Blessed

She raised us in the shadow of the nation's capitol.  A few years earlier, she'd married a sailor who had met Jesus, and this young wife helped put her husband through Bible college and seminary.  I'm sure she had other dreams at one time, but somewhere along the way her dreams became us and she nurtured those dreams.  She pinched pennies and did without but we never did.  Because she was always there.  We were rich in her love.

She would be a rock in our home.  Strong and steady.

But she would also be a pebble.  Smooth and gentle.

She would spend years giving us a peaceful childhood.  One that was without excessive conflict, one where there were no fears of anyone leaving, one where mom picks you up from school to bring you home for your afternoon snack at the kitchen table.  Every night she would put a meal on that same table, a table she bought at a garage sale and would paint many times over the next 30 years. I learned much about life and God and relationships around that table.  I learned much from her.  Not just from what she said.  But from how she lived.

She lived with joy and purpose.  Her easy laugh filled our home and she was our biggest fan.  She even loved us when we looked like this, and still denies that we ever went through an awkward phase!

I had to break it to her that we did, a long and painful one at that.  But in her eyes we have always been and always will be nothing but beautiful.  And now that I am a mother, I know exactly why.

My brother and I would find our way in life in a home filled with hand-me-down furniture and my mom's creative touches that would change every few years.  A home that might smell of homemade apple crisp or peach cobbler, depending on the season.  It is the only home I remember.  I walked out the same front door, down the same sidewalk, and past the same azaleas bushes for the first day of kindergarten and my wedding day. There is a lot of security in that.  I would not realize just how much until later in life.

During my teenage years, my mom and I had our share of disagreements like anyone else.  We didn't always see everything the same way.  Generations do not.  But she was determined that we would talk it out, and would stay up until the wee hours of the morning with me doing so.  Those late night tearful conversations would keep us close at heart.  I never did choose rebellion.  I thank God for that.  And I thank both my parents, including my mom and her willingness to choose conversation over sleep to try to understand and nurture her teenage daughter.

I was sixteen when her world turned upside down.  The doctor would call a few days after Christmas and say that the lump in her breast was indeed cancerous.  She would lose that breast, and her hair.  But she did not lose her joy.  Though I cried many tears during that time and saw her cry a few, I remember that being a time of much laughter in our family.  There is something about my mom that finds joy in the journey, no matter the circumstance.  I know it has to do with the way Jesus shines through her.  The way her heart rests in His.  The way she chooses to see His goodness.

This weekend, my brother flew into town to surprise my mom for Mother's Day.  He and I would be able to walk part of the survivor's lap at a Relay for Life with our survivor.  God, we thank you for that walk.  We wore caregiver pins she gave us.  But in truth, she has always been our caregiver.

She daily cares for her own mother as age has begun taking its toll on her mind and body.  I marvel at what she gives.  She has cared for all of us through any health encounter we have faced.  I remember toast and tea on trays when I was sick on the couch as a child.  Then meals and anything we needed when HELLP syndrome wracked my body and Madi came into this world a month early.

From the moment our dimpled girl's first cry rang into the middle of the night, my mom has been the most extraordinary Grammie anyone could ask for.  My kids have grown up wrapped in her love and care.  She is a safe place for them.  She is comfort and understanding and fun.  They have mentioned a few times they wouldn't mind moving in with her.  It makes me laugh.  I understand.

She has meant more than any words could say to our little family of four.  She is generosity to its fullest extent.  Joy and laughter that brighten the toughest of days. Understanding that gives us a soft place to land.  Wisdom and grace on the journey.

She thinks we are amazing.

But we know she is.

Her worth is far above rubies.  The investments she has made and continues to make surpass any worldly investments she could ever have made.  She is a woman of great value.  We need her.  We love her.

And we rise up this Mother's Day and call her blessed.

Ramblings Of An Office Supply Geek

So, I'm wondering... is there anyone out there who can get excited with me about these?

Bought myself a fresh pack of "Bible Study Pens" today.  My favorite kind.  So happy!

I've always had a thing for office supplies.  When I was a kid, my mom would let me wander the office supply aisle at Giant while she did the grocery shopping.  In my memory, that aisle is huge.  I was mesmerized by the post-it notes, paper clips, highlighters, and legal pads.  At one time I had both lavender and aqua loose leaf paper.  It was beautiful.  I had one of those huge pens with, like, ten colors of ink where you would push down the little lever for the color you wanted.  I collected as many church and business notepads and pens that I could get my little hands on.  I dreamed of having a receipt book.  I had a special fondness for eraser caps.  Okay, I still do.  And don't even get me started on these...

(google images)

(google images)

Seriously, my heart just sped up looking at those photos!  I don't know how many times I drooled over these wonders in the aisle at Giant.  I finally got an off brand "Trapper Keeper" with a rainbow and unicorn on the cover at Dart Drug.  Had the legit teal green and purple Trapper Portfolio folders though.  Aqua and red ones too.  I honestly felt like my life was complete when I first brought that loaded notebook to school!  Oh, the memories of yesterday.  I wish I still had that thing.

But I do have my happy little pens.  

And tomorrow they will be waiting for me, full of ink and color and promise, all wrapped up with a perfect gripper.

Hey, Jealousy

I am in the final quarter of Beth Moore's David: 90 Days With A Heart Like His study. I know I have said far too many times lately that I will try to write about what I have been learning, but I admit, the task seems almost overwhelming.  I have learned so much from David's life thus far, both from the valiant victories and destructive downfalls.  I have taken note from his life and choices, as well as the supporting characters in his story.

One of the reminders I had early on in the study was regarding jealousy.  It was from the crazed actions of King Saul against a young and innocent but successful David. Saul's maniacal jealousy would cause him to throw spears at this young warrior, putting him in hiding as he hunted him down for the kill.

And this rage and insanity started with something we can all easily struggle with...comparison.

Leave it to the women in town to play the comparison game.  Here David killed Goliath, became best friends with Saul's son Jonathan, and "went out wherever Saul sent him, and behaved wisely" (I Samuel 18:6).  Saul sets David over the army and he gains the admiration of the people.  However, out come the women, dancing in the streets, playing musical instruments and singing the words that would send Saul over the edge...

"Saul has slain his thousands,

And David his ten thousands."

I Samuel 18:7

Oh, man.  Those were fighting words of comparison.  Verses 8 and 9 say,

"Then Saul was very angry, and the saying displeased him; and he said, "They have ascribed to David ten thousands, and to me they have ascribed only thousands.  Now what more can he have but the kingdom? So Saul eyed David from that day forward."

It would take me so long to fill in all the details and events that would incur, but to wrap it up succinctly with a quote from Beth in this study, "Jealousy proved the undoing of Saul."

I couldn't help but think as I read through this painful story of lost potential given away to the mania of jealousy, how often does our jealousy start with comparison?

As women, we are experts at comparing ourselves to others rather than focusing on what God has gifted us with and planned for us to accomplish for Him.

My wise husband calls it "The Killer of Comparison."  He first used that phrase with me when we were dating and I was going through a phase of comparison that was making me uncharacteristically self-conscious and insecure.  He was so right.  Comparison does kill things.  Comparison literally drove Saul to attempt to kill David on numerous occasions.  

Comparison and jealousy have another thing in common that my husband has warned about many times - they result from an unhealthy focus on self.  A self-focus is usually the cause of much personal destruction.  Take a look at another one of Beth's quotes from this study...

"Saul exhibited the core sin of all self-centered people: he focused on himself.  We need to recognize that a lack of confidence does not equal humility.  In fact, genuinely humble people have enormous confidence because it rests in a great God.  Saul's self-centeredness eventually cost him dearly, as a self-focus always does."

Things my husband has been telling me and the people he teaches and disciples for years!

Here's the thing.  I can tell you that when I have allowed comparison and jealousy to cause insecurity and ineffectiveness in my life, I have been miserable.  Sin always causes misery to a lover of God.  I have had to ask God to forgive me of this kind of self-focused internal struggle during different seasons of my life.

I have also been made miserable by others who have directed comparison and jealousy towards me as Saul did to David.  While I may not have dodged literal spears, I have certainly dodged verbal and emotional ones.  I have been devastated by the hurtful words and actions of those who had no other reason to act in such a way except for self-focused jealousy that I could not prevent no matter how hard I tried to nurture a positive relationship.  I have had to trust God and focus on pleasing Him during these hurtful times.

Let's learn from this story in God's Word, instead of learning the hard way.  Let's not allow self-centeredness to cost us dearly.  Let's not let jealousy be our undoing.  Let's pray these prayers together...

God, please forgive me for being focused on self and comparing myself to others in unhealthy ways, letting jealousy rule in my heart.

God, help me trust You to defend and protect my heart when others rally against me, throwing spears of comparison and jealousy.

God, please keep these sinful attitudes and actions out of my life so that I may be effective for You and Your kingdom.

Amen, and amen.

One Clear Certainty

A couple weeks ago on a beautiful morning, I sat on my front stoop, letting the breeze off the lake blow through my hair as one of my most faithful friends and prayer warriors read this Scripture to me over the phone from miles away.


I Peter 1:3-9


Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.


In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials, that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ, whom having not seen you love.  Though now you do not see Him, yet believing, you rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory, receiving the end of your faith - the salvation of your souls.

Those words were like water to my thirsty soul.  Around the same time, a woman I have never met but has become a friend thanks to the blogging world sent me this verse...

Job 23:10 But He knows the way that I take; When He has tested me, I shall come forth as gold.

More water to my soul.

Recently, this passage stood out to me and I sent this Scripture to another faraway friend who I knew needed to hear this as well.

Psalm 32:7-8, 10-11

You are my hiding place; You shall preserve me from trouble; You shall surround me with songs of deliverance.  (Selah)

I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will guide you with My eye.

Many sorrows shall be to the wicked; But he who trusts in the Lord, mercy shall surround him.  Be glad in the Lord and rejoice, you righteous; And shout for joy, all you upright in heart!

When I shared the devotion at our last ladies event, I told the women that if there is one clear certainty from the past several years of my life, it is this - God's Word is so powerful, and it is vital that I spend time in it daily.  It is my sword, my lifeline, my source of hope and encouragement, the lamp unto my feet and light unto my path.  I encouraged them once again to take time to learn, study, and apply the Word of God to their lives.

One thing I love about our church is the fabulous children's workers God has blessed us with.  Our kids learn so much each Sunday and Wednesday, and I can't even begin to express how grateful I am for the discipleship they are receiving at such a young age.  This past Sunday, Trevor came home with this...

I love the simple instructions at the bottom of the page regarding God's Word.

Read it!  Do it!

Now that is some great advice for us all.

*Note - This morning looks like it should be a quiet one, and barring any unexpected interruptions, I am going to try to spend some time sharing with you some of the lessons I have been learning lately from God's Word that I have been meaning to write about.  Stay tuned!