Joy in the Journey

 "Don't ask for patience!" Ever hear that? The saying usually goes, "Don't pray for patience, or God will give you opportunities to be patient!" or some other rot like that. I've never been a fan of the saying. As if God is standing up in heaven holding some kind if special long-suffering lightening bolt, just waiting for someone to ask for it so He can target practice. "Lee wants to be more patient? Alright, let's see how she handles this little doozy!" If patience came by just gritting your teeth and enduring alone, I think there would be a lot more "patient" people in this world. But I don't think that is really the definition of patience that we are looking for. We don't just want to endure though situations, the patience we want includes peace while we are going through it.  James 1:2-4 says:  "My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials,  knowing that the testing of your faith produces  patie...

When I first went through infertility (read about that HERE ), it was the most cutting blow. From "there is hope, somehow" to "all is lost". It ripped something so deep in me, shattered my picture of how life should go, and left me forever changed. That initial blow was the worst. That final blow, that "zero chance", that devastation hit in the fall of 2016 after already being hurt by the inability to get pregnant the years prior to that. I remember, back when I was single, I had a sweet friend that had lost a baby. Her and her husband's daughter was born without a skull, and died shortly after birth. I remember my friend wearing her daughter's name on a necklace. I remember her grieving. I remember the pictures of her permanently sleeping little one around her apartment. Though I'd never felt that level of pain, I watched hers. photo credit: istockphotos.com Years later, she was able to not have one, but several beautiful and healthy babies. W...

 Boy, did I made a mistake. I have some regrets.  I've been thinking about this a lot lately and just read an article on it this morning, so I thought I would share my story with you.  The women's Bible study I attend just finished a study on the first part of the book of Exodus. I'm sure most of you are familiar with the story of Moses. God saves him as a baby and sets him apart to be the person to deliver his people from slavery. Moses tries to do it on his own power and ends up fleeing the country and shepherding in the wilderness for forty years. Then God shows up in a burning bush. Most of us roll our eyes or at least shake our heads as we read the account of Moses arguing with God. He has this miraculous sign of a bush burning without being consumed and God's audible voice speaking with him, and what does he say? "But I can't....But how...But what if...?" I've always been critical of Moses' statements, anyway. Then it hit me hard that I am gu...

God is not using your pain to punish you. Read that again. I was reminded a couple times this week of the story of Joseph in the Old Testament. Jo was a special kid. He was the long awaited son of a couple that really loved each other. His name meant "He will add", which speaks to me of the excitement that he brought his parents of continued blessing. He grew up loved and favored. He had a special relationship with God that included dreams of the future...then things went south. We don't know if Joseph's motivation for sharing his dreams with his family was just honest excitement or pride and conceit, we just know that his brothers didn't like it. Jo soon found himself a slave in a foreign land. Then, though he was a man of integrity, he found himself wrongfully accused and thrown in prison, forgotten by someone whom he had helped for two years, and then raised into a position of great power. Jo's life certainly had a lot of ups and downs. Were all his trials ...

 Get ready, mama, because I'm about to give you the best parenting hack you have ever heard: Ask for help. "Well, duh!" you may answer, "Everyone says that." It's true that everyone else may say that, but I'm not talking about typical help from you hubby, mom, neighbor, family, or friend (though those are all good resources). I'm talking about asking someone who knows your children even better than you do. I'm talking about the One who created them. You may think that sounds a bit "woo-woo" but let me tell you from experience: it works! And it makes sense. Just the other night my friend and I were talking about how each of our children is so different. What works for one of them may completely flop for another. And some methods of teaching or discipline only last for a season: it was working great for a while and then your child reaches a new level of development and you have to readjust. Or, some methods work great for some circumstanc...