As we head into the busy season of Fall, we're going to need to be even more purposeful about getting into the Word and living it out in our busy lives.  Whether you homeschool, drop off at school, teach school, attend school, or barely remember the place, I'm guessing you could use a deep study of Scripture that won't take a huge chunk of your time.  It's okay to say "word" here, sometimes it just needs to be said.

Spending 7 days at a time on one area, we'll journey together through Scripture and how to apply Its precepts and concepts.  Sometimes we'll do a direct study, other times we'll focus on a particular topic and see how God's Word teaches and trains us to approach it.  Every time we will be walking away with a deeper understanding of how the Lord has set us apart from this world and made us His very own.

Monday a new 7 day adventure begins and I hope you'll join me! 
Grab your Bible, invite a few friends if you want, and meet me in Philemon!

Having just sat down to dinner with over 600 awesome ladies at the She Speaks conference, I didn’t expect God to call me out on my sins in such a personal way.  When He decided to claim a phrase I had long despised, and use it for His own purpose, I never saw it coming. See, my husband* likes to drive home his points {however few and far between they may be} by pulling out a phrase that really gets under my skin.  “Get over yourself,” was the most recent.

Sitting among so many of my Sisters, all so radiant with the glow of Jesus, my internal dialogue had taken a turn for the worst before being pleasantly interrupted by our merciful God.  The conversation began with a moment of doubt, as so many of my chats with Christ do. I had started to worry that the tug of war happening between my gut and my sassy new pants was about to become the sideshow act of the weekend.  As I tend to do, I began to feel less-than in a room of women seeking to be more like Jesus.  God stopped me before I really got going on a self-induced, self-involved, self-loathing binge–and all it took was one phrase. 

I’ve never quite been able to reconcile the “me” inside with the version other people see.  Sometimes shy, others outgoing, there’s just no telling what impression I might leave.  When asked point blank, I finally put a name to the dichotomy—I am a closet extrovert. Oh, I’d love to take you by the hand as we chat and laugh the time away, I’m just too chicken to chance looking like a fool and giving away too much of myself in the process.  God is wooing me out of my closet and into the life He’s called me to live—one I’m perfectly content to look a bit foolish living if it makes Him a tiny bit more famous.

Having only just discovered the Lord’s movement to break down the barrier I’d been hiding behind, I wasn’t expecting the prompting He placed on my heart.  I certainly wasn’t looking for something so profound, but there it was, and it happened at Wal-Mart!


Head over to the blog at Hope for Women Magazine to read more of this week's column!

When I agreed to write a follow-up to the testimony I shared for Mandy’s series Journey of Healing, I wasn’t sure there was a Glorifying update to my story.  My life fell apart, I got mad and asked God where He had been during it all, He led me to Isaiah 54:7-10 in answer to my loaded question, and He’s been picking up the pieces since.  The. End. 

I knew God had been working to heal me and grow me into the woman He had designed me to be, and I knew that process wouldn’t be complete this side of eternity.  So I agreed to tell more of my story and I prayed the Lord would show me just what I should share.

I had left off with an open ending of sorts, because that’s just what our life with the Lord is like.  Sometimes we’re so busy living the season we’re in that we can’t see a good reason to visit the one we just left.  Often times, there’s too much pain in the past, or too much time gone by.  Returning can’t mean reliving, there’s just no Life in that.  What makes going back again worthwhile is seeing God reveal more of His love for you.  More of His sovereignty and His might.  More of His faithfulness and His providence.

The prior testimony painted a powerful picture of God’s amazing healing, one I stare at some days and just praise God I’m on my knees, broken before Him and not just broken like I had been before Him.

What connects that story to this new creation I am in Christ? 


Head over to Brokenness into Beauty for more of my journey of healing

My husband, Jay, and I had planned the cutest little wedding two teenagers with a baby could afford—one paid for with money borrowed from his grandmother. The dress was bought, the invitations sent. We were all set to wed outdoors on a beautiful spring day…until we weren’t. If my husband were here, he’d start going on and on about how he’d been ready to marry me from the day we met and he’d even rat me out as being the one with all the doubts, but he’s not here, so we’ll just skip right over that bit.

Sure, I’d been holding out for some swell mix of John Cusack and Jake Ryan to show up and profess his love for me over cake and under a boom box. Still, we were not ready to be married. We weren’t even ready to be parents, but that’s not something you can just run away from, and honestly, you wouldn’t want to if you could. From that first positive pregnancy test on, my future husband had been asking me to marry him, and I’d been semi-sorta-kinda-almost-respectfully declining.

Two weeks before the big day, I came back to my senses, or maybe I freaked out a bit. Yeah, that’s right, I canceled the wedding 14 full days in advance.

Present Perfect, you had me at opening each chapter with quotes and prayers that read like poetry, leaping from the page and taking up residence in the mind and heart.  Then you reeled me in further with the recurrent post-its urging me to ask myself, “Are you awake?” 

Oh, how I need that question to follow me around, prompting me to live in the now!  Why can I not hear the words “live in the now” without Garth Algar saying them?  Even as I read, my mind will wander to this, that, then, and when—and my life looks much the same. 

I miss the moments. 
God clued me in on this fact while I was looking through old family photos.  As I flipped from one to the next, a pattern emerged.


Read more of my thoughts on Chapter 2 of Present Perfect by Gary A. Boyd
Follow along and join the discussion as we explore the entire book together
Grab your own copy of the book and read along with us, too!

All of my efforts to become whatever it was I thought a Christian blogger evolved into left me burned out and drained of the joy that once had me sharing the wonders of God’s Word.  Don’t get me wrong, I’ve loved every endeavor I’ve been on, I just lost focus.  I couldn’t see that my family was only getting a half-there version of me.  I missed the fact that my ministry starts at home, and more importantly, at the Throne.  I forgot that I have nothing of real value to say without it coming from the Lord.  I was swept away by my own ideas and feelings and it was a rush that left many half-done things in its wake.  

God has been training me {queen of obliviousness} in paying attention, discerning, and acting on Spirit-given feelings--a life long learning process, no doubt.  Recently, this has yielded a deeper desire to stay in line with my God-given passions for Scripture and for helping others to know they can understand the Bible and enjoy the many benefits of taking our Father at His Word and inviting Him into our daily lives. 
It would seem the Lord equips us to offer the very things we most desire.

Here I was chasing my tail and letting the dizziness guide me through one rabbit hole after another as I tried in vain to logic my way out of an issue of spirit.  Instead of asking myself what I could walk away from, I needed to be asking my Father how I could walk closer to Him.  I needed a lot of things.  Guess what.  They all started with humbling myself by confessing that I took my eyes off Jesus and placed them on the world.  I had to once again come to grips with the reality that being good enough is not going to happen this side of eternity.  In order to have real joy in life--real success, real friendships, real value--we've got to get real with God.  He digs that junk. 

It’s so funny how sometimes we don’t have to cut anything major, just the fat we’ve injected in hopes of being more “well-rounded”.  Cutting the fat allows for getting straight to the meat of life!  During my time away from blogging, one thing has become clear enough to see through the muck of writer’s block and to-do lists that were scrambling around my so-called mind.  God wants me where He’s got me, and then some.  It has never been about doing more.  Or better.  Or less.  God wants me--and you--right as we are this minute.  He'll let us know when it's time for the "and then some" part.  Oh, you know I'm gonna have to elaborate in a post all its own. Until then, here's some food for thought...oh, and our boy Jesus, He makes a mean humble pie...if you feel so inclined.    

Join the conversation ::  Have you left instincts unexamined or ignored a gut feeling? 
                                                 What helps you decide which instincts to act upon and which to leave alone?
                                                 Do you feel pressured, by yourself or others, to be more "well-rounded"?