waiting. resting. being renewed. ready to fly.

Sit down and shut up..

But those who wait for the Lord [who expect, look for, and hope in Him] shall change and renew their strength and power; they shall lift their wings and mount up [close to God] as eagles [mount up to the sun]; they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint or become tired

Isaiah 40:31

So I know there are times just to be silent.

There are times just to wait.

There are times to interceed and there are times to petition the Lord for the desires of my heart.

It is always time to praise Him.

What time is it right now? I feel like it is time for me to sit down and shut up. 

So something I have been trying to work on, per the Lord's loving prompting through my Bible study, is the art of "listening" to God. He has been impressing upon my heart to just be still (literally!), wait and listen for Him. I feel like am not very good at this...yet.

I always thought I needed to invest all of my quiet time in prayer and studying. Getting knowledge, finding divine revelations through scripture but lately I have just felt the need to just sit and be quiet. It's really adding a whole new meaning to my quiet time. It's been fairly quiet lately!  And still. Not in a way that I feel He is ignoring me but it's a restful, peaceful stillness.  And in the stillness there is a lot being accomplished. Not by me, however.

 When it comes to listening in the stillness I am wondering oftentimes (instead of listening) ,"now what am I listening  for again?? Is there something I should be doing first?" I don't even know what I am listening for but I do know WHO I am listening for and that is really all that matters.

Then when I am at my  busiest, I get that divine revelation through a quick word to my spirit from His.  Uncanny how that works, really:

 Quiet and still= silence (most of the time) Busy and multi-tasking= words from the Holy Spirit.

Something God has spoken to my spirit during my very quiet time with him recently is this: 

"Missy, I AM enough.

 It's enough just to sit here with me and let me refresh you. 

Stop trying to fuflill your check list and just be with me."

So I am waiting..

and waiting..

And in the silence-

 I am hopeful. 

Because in the waiting, I am finding new strength to serve.

 I am finding new strength to love. 

I am finding new strength to hear his voice in my busiest of moments. 

I am finding new strength to obey what he asks me to do. 

And I think that's the point.

Keep Praying for Haiti!

  

Keep praying. Keep giving. Keep asking God what your part is in this disaster. Everyone can help. Everyone can do something. While many relief efforts have been canceled and some aid is tapering off, keep the country of Haiti in your prayers. Go there.  Support those who are willing to go. Do something.

 

 

 

Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.~James 1:27

 

 

http://www.missionofhopehaiti.org/

http://www.convoyofhope.org/

http://www.haitianchristian.org/

The Lord blesses his people with..

The Lord blesses his people with..

Our Proud Moment? Joy in the Meantime

Our Proud Moment/ Joy in the Meantime

Since a majority of our friends near and far are either becoming pregnant, thinking about getting pregnant or actually having their babies I wanted to write and share our good news with everyone.

After months of waiting to see if our garden would be successful, weeding and watering faithfully everyday we are proud to announce that we picked our first ripe watermelon on Saturday evening! There still is another little guy out in the garden waiting to ripen. It was 10+lbs! We were/ are so proud of ourselves. Gardens are NOT easy to grow so much. You just don't plant the seeds and hope for the best. OH NO! weeding, building supports, readjusting leaves, keeping critters out, watering, misting (yes! there is a difference), debugging...it's a job. BUT WELL WORTH IT. We are now eating not only watermelon but tomatoes(4 different kinds), green peppers, zucchini, snow peas. R.I.P red peppers...they didn't make it.

Anyway, we are glad that we were successful at this and are proud of ourselves and our "harvest". I LOVE growing things and watching them develop. I am an ISFJ after all (meyers-briggs talk).

We took pictures to commemorate these exciting few moments before we sliced into it. After we sliced into it, holy cow! It was one of the sweetest watermelons I've tasted this year.

Serious note (focus) we (John and I) LOVE to nurture and grow things. We both want children greatly however, until our time comes, like I mentioned in the cat post(see below), we find joy in and through other parts of God's creation i.e.: gardening, mentoring kids in our scatter group- other people's children, loving our animals and cherishing our family of 2 until it grows. I find myself sometimes missing out on joys in life because I wish for the next best thing. I am finding that there is so much joy to be had in the "meantime".....and I find great joy in eating watermelon that I helped grow!

We revel in our success as agricultural geniuses!

YAY!

Being silly with the watermelon

He's being extra silly with it!

WeLOVE our watermelon. Its first bath

Then we ate it- score!

Turn,Turn,Turn

warning: this is a bit somber and may be a downer
Blah. That's me lately. I've been holding it in but then that's not really good for a person so much, is it now? Somehow posting a blog makes it easier to work through. Things aren't bad- just blah.
With all of the daily routines, friendships, traditions, habits, events, family gatherings, relationships... I find myself totally bored. Not so much with the people and processes in my life but the way I find myself in the midst of it all. Where did my excitement go? It could be just a little low after a tremendous summer of going and going. Haiti, a fabulous vacation with my husband, going to and fro. It could be that I've just become blah on my own. In addition, I am feeling a quite spiritually anemic right now. Also, I feel at a loss for girl time. John and I are both pretty bored with this season of life (our lives being up in the air) I miss my family A LOT lately. So close and yet so far away. My creative outlets are diminishing, by my own lack of pursuit though. Wah, wah, wah...
God is good. Happiness is a state of mind. Blah is a a passing season. There is much to be joyful about even when I'm honestly not feelin' it. Which I'm not.
This is one of my favorite verses because :
a.) it's true
b.) it was on my wedding invitations (in part)
c.) it reminds me that a both a physical and spiritual season change are just around the corner.

To everything there is a season, a time for every purpose under the sun. A time to be born and a time to die; a time to plant and a time to pluck up that which is planted; a time to kill and a time to heal ... a time to weep and a time to laugh; a time to mourn and a time to dance ... a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing; a time to lose and a time to seek; a time to rend and a time to sew; a time to keep silent and a time to speak; a time to love and a time to hate; a time for war and a time for peace.

Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 I am pretty sure that the New English Contemporary Trendy Pete Seeger Version would mention something like " a time for feeling blah and a time not for feeling blah" It's in the blah times that I realize how good it is to be in the will of God, knowing he has my paths aligned, my heart in his hand. My moods, seasons and soul changes frequently but it's nice to rest in the fact that unlike all of these things, he never changes. Ever. At the appointed time, things change. "A time for every purpose under heaven" . In the meantime, I learn from this blah-ness and the non -change and will rejoice when the season will finally turn, turn, turn..

Choosing to Thrive

I was kept awake last night by my thoughts. As I lay praying myself to sleep I got this picture in my head. It wouldn't go away. Sometimes I have a hard time dipicting what is me and what is God. Thought-wise that is, not diety -wise:) I'm trying to venture out and stop overanalyzing ..trying to act more on what quickens my spirit rather than wasting time thinking about it and possibly missing an opportunity for something, toexperience God. I have tried to start this practice of listening to God. It's hard. I don't mean just hoping he shouts my name amidst my busyness or does some miracle while I am focused on something else but rather, chosing to be quiet for a designated ammount of time and listen. Turning off my radio and listening. Going into my room by myself, sitting and just listening. It's a weird thing to get used to. And a sometimes I just sit and feel awkward. But MOST times I hear something. Not audibly but really knowing in my soul God is saying something.Trying to be sensitive to that voice is not easy for me by nature. It really is a simple thing to try and do but not so simple to get good at. Good thing it's God who shows up. Constant, consistent God. Why would I expect less?
So I get this thought last night..and this is going to sound weird unless you know me and understand I love nature and connect with all things outside...this is it: I am a tree. Not literally. I am not talking mother earth stuff here but this is it- trees are planted, yes? by God...the wind may carry the seed the squirrel may re-locate the acorn but it's God who causes the tree to be planted. This is something I learned in high school: if there isn't enough light for a tree where they have been rooted, they will grow towards the light even if they have to wrap themselves around another tree. It pushes its roots down as far as it can and takes off for the light. It's not a quick process. Trees grow slowly season by season. Trees are meant to grow. I think it is pretty rare for a tree not to "take" to where it's been planted. It just makes due with the conditions it is in, takes root, and grows for the sunshine. There are different types of trees in different environments. Like the pastor of our church said, trees are to branch out to provide a resting place to reach other places, provide shade etc..trees have purpose. I do too. I have been planted here. For what reason, I don't really know and I think I am coming to a close of trying to figure it out. Because in doing so, I waste time and my roots aren't getting enough water, my branches are weak and I'm not focusing on growing towards my life source, thus keeping me a little tree. It would be like a tree trying to figure out what type of tree it is and why it is planted in this field alone rather than that forest where there are a lot of other trees..it would be dumb (obviously, since trees are inanimate). Who cares..let the sun make you grow! Choose to thrive! It's a slow process. (I hate that word: process.) Growing usually is a s l o w process. Sometimes is comes in spurts but never does anything that is living start and stop the growing process in a short time.

I often find myself wondering why it is taking me so long to get to "that point"-whatever it is, the point of arrival...mature christian, good wife, mother, successful at what I do. When will I have what I've always desired? The truth is is that I should be better at whatever I am doing than when I started even if it's just a little bit. The time I spend wondering wastes time in growing. I am am convinced when I start growing then the things I have always desired start making their way to me. I have to make the first move. Overanalyzing is wasteful. What's the point? In the Bible it says that not even the Son knows when the Father will be returning. So he knows what it's like not to know every single detail of life (just one!) and there is so much we don't know..we couldn't handle it. I can't handle a lot of things I know even now. Even when he did know his fate (the cross) he chose to go about healing, ministering, building relationships, grow, experience life. That's something that's amazing to me...I would not have been that way.
I choose to be the middle man in my own relationships many times. nobody likes the middle man usually. Scrutinizing motives, not wanting to be judged, building this facade of what I think things should be when I know that God wants -vulnerability, realness, transparency, effecting, encouraging, becoming that tree that other trees can wrap themselves around if they are too weak to grow a lone. That's thriving....letting God do all of the work without me in the way. That's what makes me grow. Nothing I can do on my own makes me better or bigger.
Anyway, choosing to thrive at whatever it is = a hard task. I think you have to choose to let anything in your life thrive. Marriages, friendships, lifestyles, jobs...it's not just a magical thing that always feels good or even right. Purposing to make something work without forcing it of course, is the key to flourishing, in my opinion.
While I may be uprooted and replanted in the field or yard of my choice someday(please, Jesus!).. for now, I want to grow during this season. I have more access to the sunlight now than I have had in a while. There aren't a whole lot of other "trees" around crowding me out right now. More sunshine for me. More time to grow. Focusing on the lack of other trees in my life isn't going to help me take root or mature.
Thank God I don't have to do it alone. Stop waiting for the magic and choose to grow, thrive, love, laugh,frolic,impact,do,listen,develop,serve, rest,vacation,experience, confront, laugh,ignore, let go....