Love has come! ...stop running

The kids are all tucked in and the house is quiet.  My heart beats in excitement, Mike is coming home tomorrow!  As he begins his 22 hour journey home, I keep marching through all that needs to be done before I head to bed...switch out the laundry, clean the kitchen, pick up piano bags left on the floor, finish dusting the living room, clean up wet towels left on the floor, clean up the mess from a muddy dog, check homework, balance the checkbook, reply to emails, blah, blah, blah.  Every Mom knows the drill.  In order for tomorrow to go smoothly, you first have to check all the boxes for today.  Otherwise, we wake up to an unorganized mess!  I go over my calendar reminding myself what beat I'll be marching to tomorrow, but what I really want to do is chuck the calendar out the window.

The pressure in my head has been pressing unusually hard for days.
  

I repeat these words of truth over and over

...he leads me beside still waters

he restores my soul...

...he leads me beside still waters

he restores my soul...

Isn't it interesting how life keeps moving.  We turn the page of our calendar, start a new year, December is over.  Time to keep marching, soon it will be Valentines Day!  Running in every direction.  Lots of joy in the running, but running none the less.  And to be honest, there has been less joy and more running, this week.  I'm tired.  Very tired.  

Sweet child, have you forgotten?  

Love came for YOU!  

To bring joyful abundant life!  Don't turn the calendar after Christmas, start marching, and forget the greatest gift I've ever given to you.  

I know you are weary.  I know your plate is full.  I know your head has been pounding for days.  

I am with you.  Come to me and I will give you rest! 

I purpose to slow, to rest at the still waters.

It is well with my soul

His sweet face presses against the bus window and their smiles are wide, stretching deep and far.  

Peace fills the cracks of doubt in my soul.  

Waves good by and sweet fragrant kisses being blown straight to my heart.

...This is good...  

...They are good...

...There is joy...

...They are growing...

...I am growing...

...The weight is lifted...

...I can breath...

...God is working in a new way! 

...I am seeing His beauty everywhere in everything... 

...Fear and pride have a way of suffocating...  

...I am suffocated no longer!

I take in this moment.  

My humble grin can be seen a million miles away as I blow back a kiss and they both catch it as the bus pulls away. 

...joys runs deep...

it is ALL grace around here

Be Still...

My heart has been beating a bit faster this week in anticipation of a sweet baby's arrival.  It was nine months ago, I got a call from one of my dearest of friends, the kind of friend that you can lay around in your pj's with and eat cookie dough straight from the bowl, kind of friend.  She knows my heart, the good, bad, and ugly.  She is a gem!  "Surprise!"... God had not finished growing their family and He has an amazing plan for this sweet child.  But to say, it has been nine months of blissful anticipation would be a lie.  It's been a journey with the the highest highs and the lowest lows.  We bow low, praying and trusting God with every detail.  She is wonderfully made and I know that full well!  

And yet, my heart still races, I've had many sleepless nights thinking about this little one and her dear family.  I see the load they are carrying, and it is no small load.  Ugh, my heart aches and the lump in my throat is large.

  

Do I not trust you Lord?

Last night in the dark of night, as I cried out to Him, His whisper filled my heart.

...Be Still and know that I am God

God is God and I am not 

I can only see a part of the picture He’s painting 

God is God and I am man 

So I’ll never understand it all 

For only God is God

God is God by Steven Curtis Chapman

You have searched me, LORD,
   and you know me.
You know when I sit and when I rise;
   you perceive my thoughts from afar.
You discern my going out and my lying down;
   you are familiar with all my ways.
Before a word is on my tongue
   you, LORD, know it completely.
You hem me in behind and before,
   and you lay your hand upon me.
Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,
   too lofty for me to attain.

 Where can I go from your Spirit?
   Where can I flee from your presence?
If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
   if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
   if I settle on the far side of the sea,
even there your hand will guide me,
   your right hand will hold me fast.
If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me
   and the light become night around me,”
even the darkness will not be dark to you;
   the night will shine like the day,
   for darkness is as light to you.

For you created my inmost being;
   you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
   your works are wonderful,
   I know that full well.
My frame was not hidden from you
   when I was made in the secret place,
   when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.
Your eyes saw my unformed body;
   all the days ordained for me were written in your book
   before one of them came to be.
How precious to me are your thoughts, God!
   How vast is the sum of them!
Were I to count them,
   they would outnumber the grains of sand—
   when I awake, I am still with you.
Psalm 139

So thankful for His gentle whisper of truth.

My heart is resting in Him.

He is the author of her life.  

He has always been, and will always be, a faithful God.

“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.  

Jeremiah 29:11

This sweet miracle will arrive tomorrow morning at 9am!!!  

I know they are humbled by your prayers!

Everyday Blessings

The house is quiet as the ones I love are tucked into bed sleeping peacefully.  

These moments of quiet are priceless.  

There is so much joy in the busy of this life, yet many days my head is spinning and my heart needs to take time to regroup, refocus, and recommit.  So, I spend these quiet hours (when I should probably be sleeping) doing just that.  

...Dwelling with Him and resting in His amazing peace.  

He whispers a reminder to LIVE thanksgiving.  

Not just occasional moments of praise, but rather every breath I take.    

It's easy to give praise when life is going smoothly, but living a life of true thanksgiving means praising Him, in ALL circumstances ...even in the hard stuff of life.  No easy task for this Mamma's heart.  I'm so thankful for His grace, as I turn the page in my gratitude journal.  

His beauty abounds...  

  

Give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus

Give thanks to the LORD Almighty, for the LORD is good; his love endures forever.

The LORD is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in him, and I am helped. My heart leaps for joy and I will give thanks to him in song.

I will give thanks to the LORD because of his righteousness and will sing praise to the name of the LORD Most High.

I always thank God for you because of his grace given you in Christ Jesus.  For in him you have been enriched in every way

Let us come before him with thanksgiving and extol him with music and song.  For the LORD is the great God, the great King above all gods.

Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name.

And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body; and be thankful.

And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

All praise, honor, and glory to Him.

His Grace

From the fullness of His grace

we have all received 

one blessing after another.

John 1:16