The Garden

It's only been in the past year or so that I have become a plant person. For all of my adult life, I have never cared for living plants. Rather, I focused more on my children, my husband, and the comings and goings of our chaotic life. I would often say "I don't grow plants, I grow children." I also had a habit of killing anything remotely beautiful that my hubby would bring home for me within a span of 24-48 hours. 

Two years ago, we finished building our beautiful home and moved in. Suddenly we were stationary. No more moving every few years. We were homeowners! No more renting someone else's home. A shift occurred..... I bought a nice hardy succulent and it was still living a week later, a month later, a YEAR LATER! Since then I've added multiple plants and they are all still ALIVE! I like to talk to my plants, stroke their leaves, water them tenderly and smile at them. I think now that my children are getting older, I have more room in my heart and hands to nurture something else and watch it grow. 

My patio is one of my favorite places to sit. I have several plants out there, some flowering, others not. I have a hummingbird feeder that is the life of the neighborhood, I mean hummingbirds wait in line to get something to drink! The other day I was sitting out there early, before the sun came up, just being quiet and present with Jesus before my day got busy and loud. As I felt the wind and watched it rustle the leaves of the various plants on my patio, I smelled some of their scents and just admired their beauty. This caused me to worship God as I beheld His glory through His creation. As I sat there, I saw a picture in my mind and I felt the Lord speak quietly in that moment and I want to share it with you. 

I imagined God sitting on a patio, surrounded by various plants. He looks around at them, with love in his eyes and just enjoys them. Some are more colorful than others. Some have flowers that need to be pruned back often and need watering daily, while others have no bright flowers and only need to be watered once in a while. God loves smelling all the different scents and gazing at the beauty that each plant brings to his patio. God just wants to sit and enjoy us at times! He looks around at us decides "Oh that one needs a little extra water today. Now this one over here is doing great, it's hearty, I don't need to water it right now. I need to prune back this one, so it can produce more flowers." I felt like He was showing me how unique we all are and what a glorious arrangement we are to Him. How boring his garden would look if we all looked the same and smelled the same.!

May we rejoice in our differences and uniqueness, as well as our individual spiritual walks with Christ. For each of us bring joy to the Father and He, in His loving and tender way, knows exactly what kind of care we need to best bring Him glory. 

Triggers

Today I was triggered. I have a tendency to numb out when triggered, usually by cleaning my house with a vengeance, rather than taking time to pause, reflect and process the trigger and the emotions attached to it. 

Only recently have I learned that while I can forgive someone for an offense/betrayal once, I will be impacted by that offense at unforeseen moments for who knows how long, and I must stop with each impact, acknowledge the ripple effect of the first offense and forgive the current impact in the present. 

Forgiveness has always been a one and done for me. As a Christian, I have believed all my life that forgiveness is a command, and it is. What I'm only now truly grasping is that just because I forgave as commanded in a particular moment, I still have to choose to forgive the consequences of the original offense/betrayal over and over and over. 

Taking time to put my finger on a trigger, chew on it, think about it, own the emotions attached to it, and working it all out are not enjoyable processes. By nature and my personal worldview, I have a proclivity to shove anything and everything remotely uncomfortable or confrontational under the rug, or behind a closet door. But the past year has truly blown the door off the hinges and burnt the rug to a crisp. There is nowhere for these unenjoyable, ugly, hurtful, and hard things to hide anymore. 

I am learning to be awake and present to myself. 

I am becoming fearlessly authentic, what Jesus created me to be. 

Testify, Christian!

 

January 23, 2021

Our time is short, the enemy is hovering and advancing at an alarming rate. The time for playing Christian and being a lukewarm believer is OVER. Jesus is calling out to His Bride to stand up, speak up and be bold in proclaiming His majesty, His authority and His rule over the universe, this world, this nation.

Can you not see Him, He stands at the ready, waiting for His Father to say, “Go get your Bride!” He will not wait for the foolish virgins that were not ready, or the guests that refused to come into the feast. He will come in fury and glory, releasing His wrath on the nations and drawing His precious people to His side.

Do not be consumed with temporal things, this world and all of its trappings, work, the pursuit of money and pleasure. Those things will burn in the fire of His judgment. He is looking for a people that are consumed with Him and only Him, with conviction to share His gospel with the lost and despairing. A people whose soul desire and purpose in life is to glorify His holy name, no matter the cost, no matter the persecution. We overcome by the blood of the Lamb and the word of our testimony! Testify, Christian! Testify! Praise His Holy name, for He alone is worthy of all praise, glory and honor! AMEN!

Testify by Jervis Campbell

GOOD-BYE FACEBOOK

SOCIAL MEDIA- it has become such a foul taste in my mouth. I've come to the place where I dread even opening my Facebook account for fear of the latest political backlash, COVID-19 conspiracy theory, racial horror, human trafficking atrocity, and the list goes on and on. Social media use to be a place of joy where I could catch up with old friends, and browse through pictures of my family members. I enjoyed sharing updates on our family's life. Lately, I avoid it like the plague. As I've pulled more and more away from it, I've been chewing on the idea of closing my social media accounts altogether. 

God has been stirring up in me the idea of  "smallness". I sense Him calling me to look closer and be more intentional with those in my life, at home, across the street, in my community, the local grocery store, etc. Social media is not small. It is larger than life, and I truly believe there cannot be authentic community on a platform where you can cast your opinions, thoughts, and words out so carelessly and not have to consider the cost of them. When we gather in the culdesac, or around the table, we are forced to consider the heart of the person across from us, where we can witness the brunt of our words on their faces and in their lives.

I cannot do life with my neighbor transparently or vulnerably from behind my screen. I do not have to contemplate the weight of what I type and share with others. I can cast it out for all the word to see and think to myself, I haven't hurt anyone, who cares? I have a RIGHT!

As a Christian, I am called to "love God with all of my heart, all my soul, all my strength, and all my mind. AND love my neighbor as myself." Luke 10:27. How can anyone truly love their neighbor as themself on a social media platform, from a personal agenda? I wonder if Jesus were here, now, in this time, would He be on social media? I have to believe He would not. He would be among people, present, talking with them, touching them, and in community with them. Jesus was all about "smallness". He ministered to the crowds, yes, but He did life and discipled only 12, and had three men that were his closest friends. How can I be like Christ on social media? How can I love Him and love others as Jesus loved us on social media? I cannot answer that question. I cannot justify my need for social media and I refuse to bend to its demands anymore

My children are my legacy. What legacy am I leaving them? That question causes me to pause and evaluate how I do life with them and others. Am I teaching them to look up, look out, to see the person in front of them, and to do life with that person? Or am I teaching them that in order to be seen, heard, and valued, they must be on social media and promote their agendas loud, no matter who it hurts? I want my children to see the effect of their words and actions on the people around them, not through a screen. It starts with me. 

 I challenge you to consider your need for social media. What is your agenda, what is behind it? Does social media define you? Can you truly present the real you on social media? Someone out there, next door, across the street, or at work, needs to meet the true you, the authentic you. The one that cries in pain and rejoices in victories. Go be that person to someone you can see, face to face. Do life with them. Watch the world change. 

If you know me well enough, we have done life together in some manner. You know how to connect with me outside of social media. I look forward to it.

Back to Normal?

Despite the efforts of COVID-19 and social media advising otherwise, my 5 children have officially gone back to school, face to face, after 6 months. I have had mixed feelings. After 6 months of being together, I assumed I would be exuberant that the house would be empty and quiet again, and not to mention CLEAN. There has been some of that but I've realized something about myself. When I am alone for extended periods of time, and left to my own thoughts, I can feel a sense of sadness creep in and I quickly try to shove it down, telling myself I should be happy and leaping through the house singing at the top of my lungs. Well, it just isn't so for me, at least not yet.

This is when I can wrestle with old lies and a skewed belief system that says I derive my worth and value from my works and the roles I fill. When all of the children are gone, I have struggled with feeling like I have no purpose, if I sit in this uncomfortable feeling too long I may even begin to dabble in the idea of going "back to work", whatever that means after being out of the workforce since 2005. 

So, today I am wrestling with that. God you are always gracious and tender with me, and I am so thankful for that. Help me to rest in you even as I wrestle with my discomfort in these eerily silent moments. 

Waiting

I'm sitting in the waiting room of my GI doctor's office, waiting to hear what the biopsies of my colon look like that he took when he did my colonoscopy several weeks ago. We are also going to discuss what medicine I need to start for my ulcerative colitis. This has been a long road for me. My colon started acting up as a teenager and has been a source of anxst for several decades. I am not a great patient advocate when it comes to my needs. I'm much better when it comes to my loved ones. Having been in the military for almost 20 years, the art of attaining continuity of care was lost on me. Knowing we would uproot and move every two years or so made regular appts for myself seem like a tedious waste of time. I had five littles to take care of and their health was more important and more pressing. But now I don't have that excuse. We are no longer relocating every few years and my children are healthy and more independent now. So here I sit, following up with my GI, anticipating great results from my biopsies and expecting low dose medicine for the time being. 

I've had a few cancer scares over the years with my breasts and my uterus but those all came to nothing, praise Jesus. I feel I have peace that surpasses all understanding with this colon appt because God has proven himself faithful time and time again. Jesus is my unshakable joy, in spite of my circumstances. He speaks into the storms of my life and even holds the boat of my life in the palm of His hand. I'm truly looking forward to addressing my chronic inflammation and seeing improvements in my health as I start medicine and make some lifestyle changes. I've started a Whole30 diet as well to address inflammation from a dietary standpoint. My hope and prayer is first and foremost that God would completely heal me. While I wait for that wholeness on this side of Heaven I need to be intentional about taking steps to honor the body God gave me. 

GI appt went very well. I have a very mild form of ulcerative colitis and will be starting on Tier 1 treatment with a follow up in 3 months. I am excited to see how God uses this treatment and my diet changes to bring healing and restoration to my body!

Where Have All The Words Gone?

Hello, blogging world. It has been a very long time. In fact, it has been over two years since my last post. Something I committed to doing regularly some four years ago, has turned into a  stray sock that fell behind the dryer and was lost forever. Until I did Spring cleaning of course and pulled the dryer out and found said missing sock. As for Spring cleaning, that is a bad word in our home, as is the word "bored". Deep cleaning and I have a hate/hate relationship. 

I digress.

Why am I back to the blogging grind after taking such a long hiatus? Words. Simply put. Words have a tendency to rise up in me, so many that if they do not spill out onto a page, they will insufferably be buried down deep and forgotten. It has been a long, dry, and isolating season for us all as we've suffered the effects of COVID-19 and have holed up in our homes, against our desire, for most of 2020. Now I've consumed my share of words, ideas, and opinions via social media, books, and other miscellaneous forms of communication. But I have not truly expressed very many of my own, organic words. I can get lost in books, both literally and figuratively as my husband and I both stumble over the piles of them I leave EVERYWHERE. If Amazon gave out awards for most prolific book purchasers, I would have that sucker on my desk, displayed proudly. But I struggle to set aside time to get my own words out and organized. What if I stopped worrying about organization and presentation and just got them out? 

Today has been an exceptionally low day. I experienced a "dark night of the soul". I locked myself in my innermost, Holy of Holies, aka my closet, and wrestled with God. The wrestling had less to do with the circumstances surrounding me and more to do with the wellbeing of my spirit man. Ask anyone and I am the poster child of "I'm fine, nothing is wrong!" It has only been these last 8 months or so that God, in His mercy, has begun to unpack my innermost emotional wounds and words, against my will I might add. To the point that I have to unpack, process, and sit in the moment whenever I am overwhelmed. I can no longer shove it down or under the proverbial carpet. It's actually impossible now. My soul refuses to be silenced any longer. Having a voice is a good thing, it's a God thing. For too long I've held a fearful hand over the mouth of my spirit and commanded it to hush. No more.