It has been hot as blazes in our part of the country for the past two weeks.
In an act of defiance, my husband and I emerged from the air conditioning to take a stroll (it was much too hot for a walk) down one of the quiet streets in our town.
I took my camera along with me because you never know where you are going to discover beauty.
It turns out, beauty is all around!
Take a moment and search for the beauty right in your neighborhood!
Happy Friday! 🙂
Filed under Friday Photos
In John 17:1, Jesus prayed the following: “Jesus…lifted up His eyes to Heaven and said, ‘Father, the hour has come. Glorify and exalt and honor and magnify Your son, so that Your Son may glorify and extol, and honor and magnify You.’
Today, let this be your prayer: “I will glorify and exalt and honor and magnify Jesus.”
THIS is the path to certain victory for your soul.
Regardless of how you feel.
Regardless of your circumstances.
Regardless of what your eyes can see.
When Jesus prayed this prayer, He was on His way to the cross. There is nothing you are facing this day that is worse than that.
Make the choice right now, that no matter what comes against you, no matter the disappointment or heartache, you can do this.
Stop magnifying the darkness.
You do not honor and magnify Jesus by worrying, fretting, holding onto unforgiveness, or being angry.
Decide instead to walk and live and sing and dance in the Light.
Lift up your eyes from the brokenness of earth and fasten them on the beautiful perfection of your Savior, who speaks to you both in His Word and through His dazzling creation.
When you do this, you will find His peace saturating your soul like water on thirsty ground.
Simply praise,
Simply trust.
This glorifies Him in the midst of your situation and utterly defeats the enemy, who constantly seeks to defeat you.
Glorify Him.
Exalt Him.
Honor Him.
Magnify Him.
And watch the ashes become beauty at the touch of His nail-scarred hand.
I have told you these things so that in Me you may have perfect peace and confidence. In the world you will have tribulation and trials and distress and frustration; but be of good cheer (take courage, be confident, certain, undaunted!). For I have overcome the world. I have deprived it of power to harm you and have conquered it for you..—John 16:33, Amplified version
Filed under Devotions
My son writing at sunset by the lake
I saw my son on Saturday.
He needed some supplies from the store so my husband, my mom, and I drove to the school to meet him.
He walked out of his dorm in response to my text and all of a sudden it hit me with razor-sharp clarity: he is a young man on the verge of adulthood. No longer my little boy.
He hasn’t been for a long time.
Yet, I found myself mildly surprised by this realization.
We only got to spend about forty five minutes with him, as he had to get back for an Ultimate Frisbee tournament with the guys in his dorm.
That entire time, I looked at my son through new eyes. He seemed to have grown in the two weeks since we had seen him. He looked thinner to me (“They have been serving Mexican in the dining hall,” he said with clear distaste). His skin was tanned from spending so much time outdoors in between classes. (After nearly a solid month of rain, the golden, beautiful sun has mercifully and delightfully re-emerged here in our part of the world). He looked tired but happy. Content. At peace. His smile was easy, his words were relatively few. He gamely answered our many questions, but did not offer nearly as much detail as I would have liked to hear.
(“He’s a guy,” my husband explained to me later).
I will always be his mother, but our relationship has undergone a subtle yet significant shift.
His daily presence in my life is no longer a given. Earlier in the summer he went to Canada and now he is gone for a total of five weeks. He now knows what it is like to meet life on his own, to make the choices he deems best, to experience things and people that do not include us.
At the end of our time together, he hugged all of us, thanked us for coming, and headed toward his dorm without looking back. I realized that I was hoping for a final wave but it was not to be.
Surprisingly… happily… I realized that was okay.
My independent son is moving forward into a future bright with possibilities. It is not really in his nature to look back. He possesses the gift of fully living in the present.
And that makes this mama’s heart a happy one.
“So rolls the changing year, and so we change;
Motion so swift, we know not that we move.
—-Dinah Craik
Filed under Friends and Family
This morning, I was reading Mark Batterson’s small book, Praying Circles Around Your Children and I was absolutely blown away by this passage:
“My friend Wayne…prayed through the entire Bible with each of his children in mind, starting with his oldest son, Timothy. He circled and underlined verses that were Timothy-specific. He wrote notes in the margins. He literally prayed every promise for his children. Then a few weeks before Timothy graduated from high school, Wayne planned a special event at a nearby restaurant…a handful of influencers in Timothy’s life presented him with gifts…But the most significant moment and the most significant gift, came when Wayne gave Timothy the Bible. In Wayne’s words, “My greatest joy is knowing I have prayed every word of God, every promise of God, with Timothy in mind.” Wayne said it was one of the few times in his life when he saw grown men sobbing uncontrollably.” (pp. 98-99).
When I read those words, I was awestruck.
There are many gifts we give our children over a lifetime. Most of us will leave things to our children when our journey on earth has been completed. But every single one of those things is temporary. They will get old, break, rust, lose their value.
What if we leave them the ONLY thing that will remain forever: God’s Word? There is no greater gift, no greater legacy!
I am much less concerned about leaving my kids my legacy (which is that I am a sinner who has been saved by radical, breathtaking, extraordinary grace) than in leaving them with One Name forever imprinted on their hearts and minds: JESUS.
I can think of nothing more wonderful than to leave them each with a Bible that has been selected by my hands. Read over. Prayed over. Highlighted. Underlined. The margins filled with my handwriting, recording my deepest prayers for their lives. A precious gift that will be with them for the rest of their days to guide, encourage, equip, and strengthen them for the journey.
In doing so, I will be giving them an eternal gift. His Words that He breathed onto the pages of the Bible so that all of us could know and experience Him, will live forever.
The single most valuable gift we can give our children is our prayers…Scripture soaked, Gospel-intoxicated prayers. Anything else that we do for them on this earth will end when we take our last breath. But this gift—of His Word and of our prayers—will continue on, long after we have left the scene. Why?
Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will never pass away. —Jesus (Matthew 24:35)
Jesus has promised that He hears every single prayer that His followers pray to Him. Regardless of what we feel or what we can see, our prayers ascend directly to the center of His heart. And because He is eternal and His throne is eternal, our prayers remain long after our work on earth is done.
I have lived long enough to know that this life can be heartbreaking. My children will also know heartbreak as they live out their own stories. I want to leave them with a solid anchor, the one thing they can touch and see that will breathe life into their very souls: God’s Word.
There is truly no more beautiful gift.
The good news is that it is never too late! Even if your children are grown, you can still do this for them! You can do this for your grandchildren!
Nobody on the face of this earth loves your children as much as you do.
Begin today by leaving them an eternal legacy. Purchase those Bibles and begin your journey deep into the heart of God on behalf of your precious children.
You will never regret it.
The law of the Lord is perfect, restoring the whole person; the testimony of the Lord is sure, making the wise simple. The precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart; the commandment of the Lord is pure and bright, enlightening the eyes. The reverent fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever; the ordinances of the Lord are true and righteous altogether. More to be desired are they than gold, even much fine gold; they are sweeter also than honey…by them (we) are warned (reminded, illuminated, and instructed) and in keeping them there is great reward. —Ps. 19: 7-11
Filed under Devotions
My husband and I just returned home from the bus station, where our daughter was joining twenty eight other students from all over our state to begin the first leg of their journey to the United Kingdom. The hours before she left were a flurry of activity and last minute picture-taking.
We met her fellow travelers at a local bus station, which would take them to Logan airport. After a group photo for the parents, they kids boarded the bus, their first leg on a journey to another land and exciting new adventures.
Doug and I stood with the other parents, waving at the bus until it was out of sight.
Several moms were wiping tears from their eyes, but not me. Instead, I felt an odd mixture of pride, happiness, gratitude…and a certain hollowness. A part of my heart was speeding toward Logan airport, further and further away from me.
I texted our son, who is at an advanced studies program at a boarding school in the same town. Today was a day when visitors were permitted. Did he want us to stop by? Did he need anything?
My phone buzzed almost immediately with his cheery reply: “Nope! I’m good!”
As we drove homeward, I looked over at my husband, this man I have loved for twenty three years, who has shared this parenthood journey with me and smiled, however tremulously.
“We did good,” I told him in a quiet voice.
We have raised two independent, smart, fun kids who are unafraid to take on the world, to risk, to stand up for what they know is right, to be a good friend to others. They both have clear goals and big dreams. No they are not perfect (nobody is) but they have survived our often imperfect parenting and thrived. Proof that God takes our sometimes inadequate, broken efforts, infuses it with His grace, and transforms it into something beautiful and good. His mercy makes me weep.
Julia texted us from the plane before they took off for London. They would arrive at Heathrow airport at 1 a.m. our time. As I drifted off to sleep, I thanked Jesus that He watches over our loved ones when we cannot. Knowing that He was in the U.K. with her gave me peace.
I was jarred awake by the ringing of the telephone.
I glanced wild-eyed at my bedside clock. It was 2:10 in the morning.
Sheer terror flooded my heart as I stumbled across the room to pick up the receiver.
“Susan Brown?” The voice was low, serious in tone.
“Yes?” My heart felt like it was going to beat right out of my chest.
“This is So-and-So from the parents’ phone tree.” Pause.
“Yes?” My voice was high-pitched, unrecognizable to my own ears. What went wrong?!
“Just wanted you to know that the kids’ plane just landed safely. Please call the next parent on your list.”
What?!?!
I could not believe it. I told my husband the message and he was incredulous as I was. Everyone knows that phone calls after midnight are never good news. Why would they scare people like that?
It took me a few hours to get back to sleep. I reached for my Bible and turned to Psalm 121, a psalm that always comforts me. Verse five caught my eye: “The Lord is your Keeper.”
I looked up the meaning of “keeper” in the original language and learned that it means: “to guard, to observe, to keep watch, to protect.”
Peace settled over my heart. He is still on His throne, regardless of what happens on earth.
I cannot be with my kids as they experience new places and new things. But Jesus can and is.
Not only does He keep and protect me, He guards, observes, keeps watch over, and protects my children at all times. He loves them even more than I do.
I needed that reminder.
Maybe you do too.
He goes with your loved ones where you cannot go. He is working in ways that you cannot see.
His love “always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.” (I Corinthians 13:7).
He is with us when we get those late night phone calls, whether the news is bad or good or ill-conceived.
I am so grateful for the tender loving care of Jesus, that spans continents, time, and all eternity.
Filed under Devotions, Friends and Family
“The art of mothering is to teach the art of living to children.”—Elaine Heffner
One of our very favorite places to eat is Sal’s Pizza. The staff is friendly, the atmosphere relaxed and casual, and the pizza is fresh and very tasty.
My husband, daughter and I stopped in for dinner yesterday afternoon. It was raining heavily and the sky was dark, but inside the restaurant was bright and cheery.
Just as we started to eat, a mom and her young kids tumbled inside, a flurry of activity and laughter. As the mom ordered the pizza for her family, the kids began to run around, full of energy. They were not being obnoxious, just kids being kids.
I heard the young man behind the counter tell the mom that it would be a 20 minute wait.
I could not help but think back to my early days of mothering when such a long wait combined with high-energy kids would have sent me into meltdown mode.
Not this mom.
She rounded up her kids and took them outside. Sal’s is located in a strip mall with a large overhang that protects the customers from the elements.
For the next several minutes, she joined them in exuberant play. They ran, danced, twirled, and chased. I saw her youngest child gleefully clap her hands as she watched her siblings from her seat in the stroller. It wasn’t long before she was lifting her chubby little arms in the air, a signal that she wanted to be able to join in the fun.
Her mom willingly lifted her up, spun her around, and placed her on the pavement. With a huge grin, she gleefully toddled around as fast as her legs would take her in an attempt to keep up with her brothers and sisters.
The mom took the lead in leaving the protected covering of the roof to dash out into the rain, arms opened wide, face upturned and wreathed in smiles, spinning wild. Her kids did the same…and my heart was filled with joy as I witnessed their utter and complete joy as they fully lived these precious moments.
An ordinary rainy Monday afternoon at the local pizza place had been turned into a time of magical fun and breathless laughter, all thanks to this mother who seized the opportunity to make what could have been a boring wait into a celebration.
On our way out, I could not resist telling her what an amazing mom she was and how much I had enjoyed watching her have so much fun with her kids.
Her face registered surprise, then broke into a big smile as she thanked me. “I just love everything about being a mom,” she said.
“It shows,” I told her. “I really wish I had done more of this kind of thing when my kids were little. Keep up the good work. You never get this time with them back.”
She waved in farewell and took her son’s hand as he excitedly led her back into playtime.
We walked back to our car, their laughter ringing in our ears.
I thought about many things as we drove home.
Our son is away until the end of the month at an advanced studies program at a local boarding school. Our daughter will leave tomorrow for a three week trip to Europe. The house will be so silent for a time.
One of my dearest friends had texted me earlier in the week to say that her 25 year old nephew had been killed in a motorcycle crash. Every mama’s worst nightmare. How my heart grieves for his mom as she confronts such an unimaginable loss.
We never know how much time we have with the ones we love.
The days of parenting our little ones can seem long and endless. But the truth is, those days are strung together like a shimmering necklace for us moms to treasure in our hearts, long after those days are gone.
If you are in that season right now, truly cherish these moments. No, they will not all be fun. Oftentimes, it will seem like drudgery: dirty diapers, crumbs on the counter, spilled milk, mountains of laundry, sibling squabbles, toys strewn about the house, doctor visits, homework battles, etc.
But if you can look above the day-to-day routine and remember that your children are miracles and gifts, you will be rich beyond imagining.
Don’t take things so seriously.
Smile. Laugh. Play more. Worry less. Pray hard.
Celebrate the little things. In the end, it is the little things that end up being the big things.
Search for joy and beauty in the midst of it all. It is there, I promise.
Study those sweet little faces. They change so fast.
Listen to their dreams…and dream right along with them. Share in their sense of wonder.
Treasure the feel of their little hands folded into yours.
Keep in mind that the childhood years are not the time to be overly concerned about having a perfectly clean house.
Turn off the TV and the computer at some point during the day and truly be all there with your kids. This day will not come again.
Don’t be so uptight. There is no such thing as a perfect parent or a perfect child.
Know with certainty that you are God’s “Plan A” for your child(ren).
Love with everything you have.
Above all, don’t ever take this time for granted. This time and those little souls have been entrusted to you.
Make the most of it.
Then watch those ordinary days become extraordinary.
“Sunsets, like childhood, are viewed with wonder not just because they are beautiful, but because they are fleeting.”—Richard Paul Evans
Filed under Friends and Family
Power Of A Moment 