Toddlerhood: A Lesson in Grace

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Toddlerhood: A Lesson in Grace

Lately my two year old has been in fine form. There have been instances of her saying the word “no” in a very high volume, spitting in our faces when she gets in trouble, disobeying and being sneaky about it, and whining constantly. There are many days when this sleep-deprived mom of a two-year old and a newborn wants to pull her hair out because the “terrible twos” get a little too far under her skin. I know that she is acting exactly as should be expected in her developmental stage and sinful nature, but it still frustrates me to no end. I end up having to separate myself from her sometimes just to maintain a small sense of sanity. Can I get a witness? Any toddler moms out there know what I am saying? 

 

The more I have been thinking about my little girl and her ever-increasing bad behavior, the more I have understood the love and grace of Jesus in a refreshing way. There are so many times I act just like a toddler in my relationship with Jesus, and He continues to love, show grace, and discipline appropriately to teach me. I am so thankful he never separates Himself from me in those moments like I feel I need to do with my toddler sometimes.

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On Letting Them Go

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On Letting Them Go

Before we ever got pregnant, my husband and I promised our families that despite the fact that we live approximately 10 hours and several states away from them, our children would have time with their grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins every summer. In theory, this is a wonderful idea. We imagined our kids running barefoot through our parents’ backyards, playing at the pool with their cousins, visiting the mountains, swinging on tire swings and more. What we forgot was that when the kids were visiting our families, they wouldn’t be with us—and we would miss them terribly! The first day or two of peace and quiet without constant toddler questions is nice. But then, it is too quiet. Less joyful. The house feels a little lonely, to be honest. 

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The Jerry Maguire Lie

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The Jerry Maguire Lie

I will admit that I am a sucker for a good piece of dystopian literature with a good love story interwoven inside. Yes, I do realize most are teen fiction and I should be reading things more sophisticated, I guess. They are my guilty pleasure, though. There is something so hopeful about “true love” in the midst of everything awful in the world. It seems to ground the characters, keeps them centered. They really do complete one another. 

As a wife, I have to be very careful to watch how I get sucked into these books and love stories. They are not realistic, first of all, even though I try to tell myself that they are because the characters experience painful things together. They are still fiction in the end. I always wonder why these types of books draw me in and keep me. After years of reflecting on this, I genuinely think it is because I have always wanted a romance like that. I have always wanted someone to “complete me.” Thanks, Jerry Maguire, for putting that hogwash into my head.

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Birthing Babies and Good Work

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Birthing Babies and Good Work

Labor is hard. It is painful. It can be scary. 

So is life.

A few weeks ago, I gave birth to my second child. Both Labor and delivery with our daughter were easy, so I assumed everything would be even easier with Baby #2; it didn’t take long for me to realize this would not be the case. After breathing and pushing and pushing and breathing and pushing some more, all of my effort was met with encouragement from my doctor and the team to “Push harder.” Let me tell you, I was pushing absolutely as hard as I could. With each set of pushes, I was growing more and more discouraged. What was I doing wrong? I’d done this before. I thought I knew how it was supposed to work. You breathe when they tell you to breathe, then you push when they tell you to push. Then the baby comes out. Seeing the confusion and discouragement on my face, my sweet doctor began to explain what was going on. It turned out that our baby was facing up, which makes for a much more difficult and painful delivery, and could ultimately require the use of some tools (vacuum, forceps, etc.) to get the baby out, or even possibly a C-Section if things got serious. I was relieved to understand what was happening, but now we had to decide what to do in a relatively short amount of time, because the baby was starting to show signs of distress. We decided that during the next pushes we would hope for some movement further down by the baby, and then the doctor would go in and attempt to manually flip the baby over. After the next set of pushes, the doctor was able to successfully flip the baby over. Now I could see my pushing was starting to work! Soon the team could see the head. After just a few more pushes, the doctor wiggled the shoulders free and we welcomed our son into the world.

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You've Got a Friend

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You've Got a Friend

Relationships, whether family relationships, friendships, or romantic relationships bring us the greatest joy in life and also provide the greatest heartache and frustration. The complexity of relationships is that they are connections between people, who by our very nature are broken creatures. We mess up. We sin. We disappoint each other. We hurt feelings. 

So if relationships are hard and people are screwed up—why do we crave connection with others? I believe it’s because that as humans, we were created to live in community, with friendships—particularly biblical friendships—serving as guardrails on the highway of life. They aren’t the road itself but they help keep us on the right path.

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Stretch Out Your Hands

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Stretch Out Your Hands

Recently I read in the First5 app about the significance of Moses stretching out His hand each time God performed a miracle through him. Many times these miracles were plagues on the Egyptians but other miracles included calling water from a rock or parting the Red Sea. It was the visual that accompanied the display of God’s authority over all things. It got me thinking about what that means or can mean for us today. 

We stretch out our hands in worship or as we pray over others, but do we realize the magnitude of what we are saying and doing through this outward motion? Do we know the power of the God that we serve? Do we believe that He can and will use us if we ask and allow ourselves to be His vessel?

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Where Should Moms Go When Our Hands Are Full?

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Where Should Moms Go When Our Hands Are Full?

Moms are busy people. And we’re tired. We are often the primary caregivers for our little ones. We work all day, whether in the home or out of the home; then we often prepare dinner, clean up, get everyone into bed, and then get things ready for the next day. Our hands are truly full—with blessings and worries, with joys and sorry, with hope and fear. Where should we go with these full hands? Author Gloria Furman offers an answer in her book Treasuring Christ When Your Hands Are Full. According to Furman, we must go to Christ with our full hands, for resting in Christ is what is means to treasure Him. We must abide with him, constantly acknowledging His abundance in light of our lack. Furman’s book is an honest and easy read saturated with Scripture and sprinkled with personal anecdotes, making the reader feel at home in her own skin. I’ve offered three key takeaways from my perspective below.

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Leaving the Results Up to God

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Leaving the Results Up to God

If you were going to begin a ministry, what would you do first? I can tell you what I would do. I would map it all out with spreadsheets, flowcharts, group meetings, and a lot of coffee. I would surround myself with the best in the business. The one thing I would NOT do would be to launch my ministry before I felt it was 100% ready to go. No surprises. No unknowns. I would want to see a clear path from beginning to end. Let’s put “starting a ministry” down on the list of things where I have a lot more to learn from the life of Jesus. As it turns out, Jesus did the exact opposite of flowcharts and 5-point plans.

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