Thankfulness Challenge 5/19/2016

Posted on by Mary

ThankfulnessChallenge

Welcome to this week’s Thankfulness challenge!!  I’m glad you are here.  This is a wonderful time for us to share what we are thankful for in this sometimes crazy upside down world we live in.   Sometimes  it is very hard to find things to be thankful for, that’s why I have called it a thankfulness CHALLENGE!

Well here it i the 19th of May, Can you believe it?

I can’t it doesn’t really seem like May after all it did snow on Sunday!

so as I have been contemplating on all day about what I am thankful for, God and I had this conversation…Ok I did the talking but you know what I mean…..it’s actually the Number 1  thing I’m thankful for, and I was shocked as I uttered the words I am about to share with you…

I am thankful for…..

  1.  The really hard things.  yeah I just said that  2 years the unthinkable happened/  I am not however thankful that it happened…that would just be all sorts of sick and twisted and WRONG.  However after journeying through it I now Have the opportunity to hold a friend up as she now finds herself journeying through that same nightmare.   I am grateful and thankful that God was with us every step of the way, and now I get to be that voice of truth in her life…that voice, that help that encouragement I soon longed after.  I will confess it is not easy to journey with her, but my pain, anger, frustration are NOTHING compared to what she is feeling.   God’s got my mess.  I don’t need to worry about that, but I can understand her pain and how she feels far deeper than most, and I won’t let her alone in it.   My story does not end with me.  and her story will not end with her.  we are both world changers….we change the world through Christ one person at a time…..in hard times…and in silly times…..and in times when we have more people than there are staff 😉
  2. a local crisis pregnancy center that shares the hope of Christ day in and day out.  It’s beyond my comfort zone…..but it’s a place of change love, grace and mercy.   I get the distinct privilege to watch God change lives, through me and through my friends.  we fight for these girls and babies, and kids in all of their messes (some are mighty huge)
  3. For quietness…you say Mary you have 4 kids, three of whom are boys…and not just any bus, but “those” types of boys.   we have two volumes INSANELY LOUD and fast asleep.   so today I made a choice.  A choice to not to  go on a field trip with 10-12 kindergartners, and some 1st graders some other parents and siblings and a couple of teachers  I sent my hubby instead!  They had a ball and I had something I have experienced in quite some time…SILENCE.  I’m an introvert by nature.  Give me a book and a soft chair and silence  I will be re-charged. and life lately has been light speed, warp drive, go go go with nothing resembling  anything but a dull roar.  TODAY WAS GREAT.
  4. My hubby.  My kids loving considerate, pastor hubby turned 35 yesterday. He gives so much of himself too many people and a lot of times all he gets in return in a whole lot of complaining.  complaining that something wasn’t done to someones liking or not fast enough or……you fill in the blank.  so many people love to complain and yet when push comes t shove, they aren’t willing to help, they are just willing to put their testimony  in a compromising place….for out of the mouth the heart is made known.   (Matthew  15:18)
  5. a home, a place to call my own, a sanctuary..a place of peace and rest.  A place I can be myself……that is something special, not just for me, or my husband but for my kids as well…a safe place for them to stretch their wings…test out new things, a place to nat be made fun of, teased or picked on.  A place to grow.  This is not only important to our family but also to those we welcome into our home.

So here’s the question, what are YOU thankful for this week? will you Take the THANKFULNESS CHALLENGE…leave your links in the comments!

Thankfulness Challenge 4/14/2016

Posted on by Mary

ThankfulnessChallengeWelcome to The Thankfulness Challenge!   A few years ago I participated in a weekly blog meet-up  called Thankful Thursday centered around thankfulness.  The host  later opted to no longer host it, and I  wrote for a short time about Thankfulness and what i am thankful for, but then I too let it fall by the wayside.  However this past year as I prayed through what was important to my blogs re-boot..THANKFULNESS became a HUGE  priority.

Thankfulness is easy when it’s the good stuff…Sunny days, rainbows, new pets, birthdays and  school concerts (just to name a few)  and somedays it is all we have…or at least that’s how we feel!  But the Bible tells us to be THANKFUL IN ALL CIRCUMSTANCES (i Thessalonians  5:18)  In all honesty THAT IS SUPER HARD.

I once read a book that referred to what the author called “PollyAnna syndrome”, which is finding the good in all things.  The Christian author used it in a negative light however, Pollyanna Had the right idea.  It’s actually a Biblical principle.  So that is what this post is all about.   Or t least I’m going to try. Each week we will share our 5 things we are most thankful  for!.  Some might be simple things  but I want to encourage you to go deeper…look for the good in hard things too.  It will change how you view your world.

So let’s begin….

  1. I am thankful for sunshine…..and warmth.  Yep I know I started off with simple….but wait I will go deeper 🙂   As a person who lives in upstate NY, most of our months are cloudy,  and we spend half of the year FREEZING!   I also  have a touch of seasonal effect disorder so it compounds the problem of dreary- constantly. We are heading into a week long stretch of SUN and mostly sun.  It always makes me feel like I am being rejuvenated!!
  2. I am thankful for Dentists who know how to fix broken teeth…Yep you read that right.   A few weeks ago there was some playing around…FUN -GIGGLES- PLAYING…then BAM in one split second two teeth broken….I felt Horrible.   On Monday this week His teeth were fixed.   The look normal.  There was a day in time where they would have been pulled and forever be missing his two front teeth.  (BONUS: I am also thankful we live in 2016)
  3. I am thankful for NEW adventures.  Growing deeper in God’s word is taking me on some new adventures.  some of them are very hard.   I know though , that at the end of them as long as I have a willing and teachable spirit we will grow into what God has intended all along.
  4. I am thankful for the ability to write.  At college I learned my sophomore year that if I spent 30 minutes writing…not my thoughts, but creatively That I could then focus on my homework.  it began a practice of journaling that has since been my way to clear my head.  At that time it was a pen and a pencil….and looseleaf paper today it takes all shapes and forms.  I am by nature a pen and paper girl and I use LOADS of color, but it also looks a lot like my blog too…and the Pages  and Chapters s apps on my laptop and iPad….it also looks like ART!  growing my my drawing and painting right in my journal.
  5. Homeschooling- Im not gonna lie. It has been HARD . But I have grown and So has our son with Autism.   and it’s rewarding to watch and grow and thrive.  Especially after so many people said.  I couldn’t or that I shouldn’t.    And to hear my two older children say….”wow he’s in those books, we never made it that far. Those were for the kids who were ahead!”

And so there you have it….What are you thankful for? I’d love to hear!I

THANKFULNESS CHALLENGE

Posted on by Mary

Thankfulness Challenge

Good Morning so welcome to the new Thankfulness Challenge weekly post.  Every week (hopefully we will talk about 5 things we are thankful for…..EVEN the hard stuff!

Ephesians 5:20 says….

giving thanks always and for EVERYTHING to God the Father in the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ. (emphasis added) ESV

So leafs get started.

1.  Im thankful for Sunshine.   It has been an incredibly LONG winter here in NY.  The warmth and the sun combined  makes for all things new.  Spring came as  an amazing reminder that we all have those deep dark winter moments.  things seem  bleak and oh so stark, but each spring life is renewed!

2.  I am thankful for my sons autism.  Yep a lot of days it is REALLY REALLY hard BUT this struggle keeps me thinking outside the box, it keeps my eyes open to other moms who need to see HOPE face to face, just like I did!   It gives me the opportunity to minister to other moms like never before.  It gives me  an open door to talk about the HOPE that is Jesus! AND I get to be the mom of a kid who sees the world far differently than most.  he brings my attention to sounds that I can’t notice and he sees details missed by almost everyone.  And On those super special days he welcomes me into his usually closed off world!

3. I am thankful for a properly working washer and dryer…..after 3 years of struggling with a set that had almost daily temper tantrums, my eyes have been opened to a new sense of freedom!

4.  I am thankful for a very skilled husband who can fix LOTS of things…somewhat related to the above but also to faucets, showers, tractors, build furniture and paint!

5.the ability to smell…..I know that really sounds silly but we have a friend who can’t smell or taste.  And you know what..she doesn’t really dwell on what she can’t smell or taste, she is thankful for the things she can’t smell or taste!   What a blessing she is!

 

SO my dear friends what are your five things you are thankful for?

A Soul Divided

Posted on by Mary
Soul


The man answered, “‘You must love the LORD your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your strength, and all your mind.’ And, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’”

A Soul Divided has been the hardest of the four posts to write for sure- mostly because the nature of the soul itself. Hubby and I have spent so much time hashing out this post together. We have a wonderful time hashing out things together.

The very first thing that you have to is understand what exactly a “soul” is. After looking at many commentaries and bible dictionaries and the general consensus seems to be that your soul is your life, or better yet your being or who you are.

I liked the way the New Illustrated Bible Commentary (Thomas Nelson) put it best,

Soul may simply refers to life’s is true f the same Greek word translated “Life” in verse 25. It seems best to say it looks at the basic self.

This is referring to the passage below.

Matther 16:24-28

24 Then Jesus said to his disciples, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross, and follow me. 25 If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake, you will save it. 26 And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul?[a] Is anything worth more than your soul? 27 For the Son of Man will come with his angels in the glory of his Father and will judge all people according to their deeds. 28 And I tell you the truth, some standing here right now will not die before they see the Son of Man coming in his Kingdom.”

And specifically honing in verses 25-26.

And this my friends the basis for most Christian movies out there. (NOT ALL just most). The story line and circumstances are different but the decision is almost always the same.

“Am I going to live the way Jesus wants me to or am I going to compromise to gain money (hmmm sounds like yesterdays post), a relationship, a job promotion, fame” and , the list can go on and on.

It’s not just a “movie thing”.

I know that many Christians joke that Christian movies can be all the same. BUT the reality is we are all every day, many times a day faced with moments of “Compromise”. Now Granted it may not look like that’s what is going on- if we don’t stay on top of our decisions, one tiny “insignificant ” decision can lead to a compromising moment that can be life changing.

When we start making those “insignificant” compromises our souls become divided. And before long we find ourselves in verse 26. We have gained the “whole” world, but lost our soul (who we are ).

A Personal Story

Initially I had a vague example of this- it wasn’t exactly what I wanted. And then as I was writing this a perfect example came to mind from my own life.

If we rewind all the way back to August and the beginning of this journey we now find ourselves winding down together, I talked about how I had gotten LOST.

Well, here’s the thing, I was living with a divided heart and soul. And it all started with fear. I let fear of what people thought of me and my writing take control. I didn’t consider what God thought of it. All I cared about what the negative comments – AND it was coming from one specific person. And I let that fear take over. (Yes I was doing all the Christians checkboxes and praying for that person). I would give it to God and Yank it right back and hold onto that.

Clearly God didn’t have all of my heart. Then this changed how and what I wrote. I had lost my purpose in writing AND in my ministry- I changed who I was and what I stood for because of this person. And so my soul became divided.

And when I had a divided heart and soul…..

I began to buy into all sorts of other lies. The main one? This is how everyone views me….INCLUDING GOD.

WHOA!

And just a note. I wasn’t trying to gain the “whole world…I was just trying to make this person happy. I was trying to gain peace…..from the wrong place and I was willing to sacrifice who I was and let fear take over to do so.

I didn’t wake up one day and just decide that’s what I was going to do. It started with a baby step and then another and another, until before long I didn’t really recognize myself.

A very vivid picture of my divided heart and soul

So about a month into the 100 day blogging project I started looking for a draft of a blog post I wanted o finish.

I knew it was saved as a draft so I began searching and what I came to realize was I had A LOT OF DRAFTS. Blog posts that I sat down to write and many of them never making it farther than the title. And it’s funny as I read through those posts I can remember EXACTlY what happened. I got scared and I started living in the “”what if…”

And I just let myself get distracted And I changed what I was doing . During that time I have a whole lot of Happy Homemaker Mondays and Thankfulness Challenges (because that surely can’t get me in trouble right?) Don’t get me wrong I love these posts! But they were easy and non-confrontational….RIGHT??

WRONG I have gotten in trouble MANY years ago about sharing a verse that had impacted me at a conference I had attended the weekend before. I had no purpose behind it , no commentary with it JUST the passage of scripture used. The result of that confrontation over that very? I shut down my whole blog for over a year. Now there was a whole lot of other reasons for that AND it was the wisest thing for me to do during that time. BUT can you guess what came back to haunt me as soon as this blog went live again?

I had given it to God but as soon as it went live I yanked it right back and when this other person started unleashing negative comments I held onto it even tighter.

This is just one little piece

We all have things like this We all have made little choices here and there that lead to being and living divided lives.

And it is a daily choice for me….and for you to not be. At any point I can yank back those things…or things that happened 25 or 30 years ago.

I love what verse 25 says “If you try to hang onto your life you will lose it, but if you give up your life for my sake you will save it”

I chose to give up my fears and my version of peace to follow what God has called me to do- write here. And ya know what? I found a different kind of peace. The peace of knowing I am doing exactly what God wants me to do! This peace doesn’t require me to strive for anything- it just requires me to follow. Is it easy? Nope this post is a great example. I really had a lot of turmoil over this one and I think it was because God was really working out this example in my own life.

But it is completely and totally worth it!

What have we become

What have we become? Are we fearful? Anxious? Angry? Bitter? Or are we solidly rooted in our relationship with Jesus? Are we constantly Yanking back what we give to him and are defined by those things?

The Great news is we don’t have to stay there. There is no magic formula and it takes moment by moment choosing to live like Christ. It’s refusing to yank back what you have given to him. It’s trusting him with all of it, not just some of it. And I want to be very clear here- trusting God is long term. You cannot just declare that you have trusted him long enough. THAT isn’t what faith is about!

Thanks so much

I am so very glad that you joined me today! Let me know your thoughts in the comments below and if you are new here please introduce yourself in the comments below.

You can check out the other posts in the choosing Courage -100 day Blogging Project here..

Peace- Positive Influence Trait #3

Posted on by Mary
Peace

“I’ve Got the peace that passes understanding down in my heart! Where? Down in My heart! Where? Down in my heart to stay.”

This words echo in my heart as I sit here contemplating peace. These are the words of a Sunday school song that I sang as a small child and that I taught my kiddos when they were little as well. So many times we say we want World peace- or a peaceful home. But let’s be honest we live in a pretty chaotic world and our homes can be just as chaotic- and I’m not just talking busy. Busy doesn’t equal chaos. Chaos is defined as complete disorder and confusion. There have been times in our lives when we have lived in complete chaos. BUT just because our circumstances can be chaotic, it doesn’t mean we have to be. The world sees our peace in the middle of the chaos….and they want it AND that can be a HUGE influence.

But as I thought about it I had to ask myself what really keeps peace in the middle of chaos. Because even though the world we know is going crazy around us and even though we feel like we are spinning out of control we can have peace…..The Peace of God is what separates followers of Jesus Christ from the rest of the world.

So how do we get this Peace that passes all understanding?

Amazingly, we have to look no further than the book of Philippians for the answer!!! (I must confess when I started studying Philippians I had no idea that we would be camped there for the majority of this writing series).

6 Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. 7 Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:6-7 NLT

Let’s break it down

First off we have a two fold command

  • Do not worry about ANYTHING
  • INSTEAD Pray about EVERYTHING

I just love it when the Bible tells us how to replace a problem- it gives us an alternative to combat the sin that is going on in our hearts. BUT it doesn’t just leave it at pray. it tells us how to pray.

  • Tell Him what you need
  • AND Thank him for all he has done.

You really do need both steps here. You need to converse with God about what is wrong. BE HONEST. God wants us to communicate with him. He wants to know our hearts and what is weighing on them. He wants us to trust him with that. It’s an act of faith. AND then he wants us to recall and thank him for his past faithfulness. THIS IS HUGE. This is the very reason I choose to do a thankfulness challenge here on my blog every week. Because I know I need to be reminded of God’s faithfulness and goodness.

In verse 7 we are given a promise

THEN you will experience God’s Peace. (It exceeds anything we can understand) And Then the verse says what that peace will do for us….His peace will guard our hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.

What does this mean?

When we practice the Release (giving God all of our worries) and Remembrance (recalling and thanking God for all he has done) we experience the peace of God …..and that protects our hearts and minds from the effects of the chaos around us.

It’s easy to fret.

It’s easy to spend our days obsessing over things we cannot control. We live in a fear and worry induced society….Money, family, marriage, work, kids, home, animals, weather, COVID..Yep I went there. Loss of our freedoms (yep I went there too) Our health, our car, our world, the list goes on and on and on…..and each one f those has a million different things to fret over . Our days become filled with “what ifs”. Because our sight is turned inward . To quote Mary Poppins “we can’t see past the ends of our own noses”. We miss all that God is doing around us.

Story Time

I am only going to use this example loosely because it will be used more in depth in a few days in another blog post. BUT I have used this example before and for those who are new here I will give you a brief run down.

In December of 2020 I found myself in and out of the hospital in the worst excruciating pain I have ever experienced. I had two medical procedures (one an emergency). I was CONSTANTLY told “You are a very special case” and “we have never seen anything quite like this before”. Life felt so incredibly out of control and I spent most of December not knowing if I would wake up and need to go back to the hospital.

Low and behold there were lots of other things going on in my body that I had no idea was happening.

During December though as I found myself in the emergency room for the last time and one of the Doctors I had seen regularly came to visit me and see why I was there.. He clearly had looked at my chart before coming into my room. This was the absolute worst I had been in the 3 weeks since that nightmare started. The morphine wasn’t doing a whole lot. H e walked into the room and patted my foot. He told me what was going on…used those phrases agin. And we joked about all that was going on.

I was told that I had to have this procedure done. He used those phrases AGAIN and left. I was taken up to the OR and prepped.

The next morning this same doctor came to visit . I felt great- for the first time in a month. But just prior to him coming in the nurse had come in and flatly dropped a bomb shell. He walked in and I said ” we need to talk”. We talked about the incredible]y scary thing the nurse had said (he was frustrated she said anything). We talked about a few other things and then as he left He patted my foot again and he said ” You are amazing- I have never net anyone who has faced this type of trauma with such a good attitude”. He said that he has seen many other people be angry and rude and frustrated and I met it with a smile.

What he didn’t see…

He didn’t see the countless hours of tears and frustration welling up in my heart. I was at a point with the pain that I felt like I was going lose my mind. I had a handful friends that I could REALLY share my heart with and I knew they were praying for me. And in between moments of counting the tiles on the ceiling in my ER room or hospital room I prayed…about everything. Every little piece of the puzzle that didn’t make sense, every pain, every question, every concern, every what if….and then I thanked God for answering prayers from the day before and the hour before and the minutes before this moment. I had been working to build a life of gratitude for sometime before this. And despite all of the chaos swirling around me I found peace

Practice

In the months to follow the extremes from this experience prepared my heart for the anxiety and PTSD that would come. It was a vicious cycle for 9 months. Just because I had put Philippians 4:6-7 into practice didn’t mean that the anxiety and worry and fretting didn’t come again and again and again. It meant that when it did come my heart and mind were well equipped for the battle. So when my heart started racing in the middle of the night I could pray and sing and thank God for all of the needs he has met in the last year. My heart and my mind were GUARDED. JUST LIKE THE VERSE PROMISED!

Now it’s Your turn

How can you put these verses into practice? One of the most important things I have found is to have at least one person to remind you of these truths- who can ask you to recall how God has been faithful in the past!

ALL THE LINKS

Thank you again for doing me on this journey. Check out all the links below!.

Write 31 Days 2018 Influence Posts

Choosing Courage 100 Day Writing Project

Write 31 Days 2021 Link up List. (Scroll to the bottom)