baking cookies

Don’t quit. Don’t stop. Don’t give up. Don’t lose hope. Don’t walk away. Don’t throw it in the trash. Don’t give it back.

Stay. Stay the course. Stay a little while longer. Keep it in your heart. Keep praying about it. Keep thinking about it. Keep pursuing. Keep pushing forward. Keep going.

Hold on to it.

Hold on to the promise that God has given you. Hold on to the call that God has placed in you. Hold on.

No one goes into war without a weapon to defend themselves. God has given you his word as a weapon to use against those times the enemy is yelling in your head. Use it. It will sustain you. It will protect you. It will keep you.

If you don’t believe me – try it! There is a reason God says to “hide his word in your heart.” (Psalm 119:11). It is alive. It’s not just words on thin paper. The battle between your mind and heart is never ending.  Your mind thinks one thing, but your heart feels another. When your mind begins to tell you that you’re forgotten about, you’ll never make it, you’re not good enough, listen to what your heart says. Don’t just keep his word in your heart, think on it. When you begin to think about those scriptures you’ve read, your mind will be transformed. We control what we put in our minds, it doesn’t just appear there. We feed it life or we feed it death by what we allow to enter it and stay. The enemy is REAL. He is constantly trying to speak things in our minds and we choose to let it stay or reject it.

Keep holding on. Keep believing; keep his word alive in your life. The wait or the journey will become one you look back on and appreciate, one you’ll find growth in, one that will change you. More importantly, it will prepare you for the promises, dreams, calling, or whatever it might be that God is stirring within your heart.

God knows exactly where you are. He sees you right where you are. He knows exactly what he is doing, too.

You don’t bake a cookie in a cold oven – it has to be cooked at a certain degree. The oven doesn’t heat up to 350 degrees in an instant; it’s a process of going from cold to hot. When it’s at the right degree it’s ready to go. In other words, you may be feeling the heat, and it may get hotter, but God knows the right degree you need to be at. He loves you more than you love cookies or whatever else you love.  

Beauty in the chaos

Life is beautiful. Your kids are beautiful. Your marriage is beautiful. Yet for some reason you don’t feel beautiful. You see beauty around you, but feel chaos within you. You see happiness in those you are surrounded by, but feel loneliness and sadness on the inside. You see love, you give love, you know you are loved, yet you can’t feel it.

What is wrong with me? Why am I not normal? Why, why, why? You say.

But Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens and I will give you rest.” (Matt. 11:28 ESV).

Too many times are walk around feeling so repressed that we totally miss out on the beauty around us and in us. When Jesus was carrying his cross and suffering, he saw the beauty in the chaos because he knew that, that chaos would someday give you beauty, or his splendor.

Why is this important? Because. You are important, and God has a reason that you’re still breathing.

There is a real enemy against you. His number one goal in your life is to rob you of any and all joy.  It isn’t always life’s greatest heartaches that leave you feeling empty. Sometimes it is ourselves and the moments when we listen to those voices that say, “You’re not enough.” Maybe it is life’s biggest struggles and heartaches, but whatever it is for you, there is more – you are worth more.

God wants to crown you with beauty, instead of Ashes. Ashes represent something that is dead or burned and in Christ, we are made new and alive. He wants to give you joy instead of mourning and praise in your heart instead of despair. All of this so you can be a display of HIS splendor, and feel his beauty instead of your chaos.

(Isaiah 61:3)

#newyeargoals

Every year I have some type of health and fitness New Year’s resolution. A “grow closer to Jesus” resolution, be a better mom/wife/friend/person resolution and while all of those things are great and are still on the list of resolutions, I have started to realize that all of those things will line up and come together the more I choose to have JOY in my life. In the everyday, the mornings, kid's bath time (when they're flooding my bathroom floor), bed time, bible time, ALL the time.

Joy… not your neighbor down the road, or your aunt, but the word: Joy. 

My kid’s laughter makes me happy. My husband giving me a random hug while making dinner makes me happy. Finding $20 in my coat pocket from the year before makes me happy. My kid’s finally potty training (we’re getting closer!!)  and the thought of not spending money on diapers, makes me happy. Not waiting in line at the grocery store makes me happy. My kids throwing a fit or disobeying, on the other hand does not. A chaotic day that has me so stressed I can’t think straight, does not. An argument with my spouse doesn’t make me happy. Losing a loved one, doesn’t make me happy. Wrecking my car, losing my phone with all 900 of pictures of my kids, getting cut off in traffic, doesn’t make me happy.  But in the midst of everything life throws at us, we make the decision or not to choose joy. Happiness is easy – it just happens. Joy, on the other hand is a decision, a choice – something you have to decide on in the heat of the moment.

Happiness is what makes us temporarily feel good, joy is what permanently sustains us when things are not good.

1 Peter 1: 8-9 says, “Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls."

If I can be completely honest here, I truly and honestly have no idea how an individual makes it through life, daily, without Jesus living in their life.  This life is way too hard and complicated, and God knew that ALL of those years ago and that is why he sent us a savior - his son to us. He knew we would make mistakes, screw things up, have bad days, have hard times and that’s why Jesus gave up his life to save you and I. Even more, to exchange our brokenness for joy.

I love what 1 Peter 1:8-9 says, because it is SO true. This whole Christianity stuff, people debate it, argue it, try to prove it true and not true – you can go down that road all day long, but it still won’t change what you feel on the inside. No, I haven’t seen Jesus – but I believe in him because of the change he has made in me. Because he came to rescue a sinner, bad attitude, pessimistic, negative Nancy, person like me. And, because he did so, I have this inexpressible joy that literally is what it says, inexpressible. When I became a mom, I 100% understood God’s love for me. It made sense. We are made in his image, I am a child of God, he loves me unconditionally and in a way that is inexpressible. That’s how I feel about my kids. If I’m right here, you do too about your own. Can you explain the love you have for your kids, no. It’s indescribable.

That’s the kind of Joy I’m talking about.

As Christians, we are given that kind of joy. But it is up to you and I to live and walk in it. It is possible to experience Joy in suffering.

Romans 12:12 – Be JOYful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.

BE is a verb – a verb is an action. The action is up to you. You either choose to be joyful, or you choose to be miserable.  Even in the most miserable of situations, you can still be joyful.

How much different or better would your life on the daily, or your current circumstance be if you would just choose to be joyful? How much better would your relationships be if you were full of joy, instead of full of grumpiness? What kind of impact could you make in the lives or those around you, the grocery store, home, work, etc., if you would chose to be joyful. 

Will it be hard – absolutely. Is it impossible – absolutely not. Life isn't full of rainbows and unicorns - but it's full of people like me and you and well, that's pretty much all that matters! 

2016. You don't know me...yet!