2011 October

When You Wish for Less Mess

I walk through the house lugging my weighty suitcase behind me, seeing evidence our week has been full of the crazy. Three half-way carved pumpkins sit perched on the dining room table. Unfolded laundry lays crumpled in baskets. Crumbs cover every counter. I’m leaving for Relevant and planes don’t wait, so clean-up does. In the mean time, half done projects and fully made messes make themselves at home.

I like to leave things neat and finished, tied up with a bow. But life just isn’t like that. Messes make themselves right at home.

Isaiah says:

I have not said to Jacob’s descendants,
Seek me in vain.
I, the LORD, speak truth. I declare what is right.

Isaiah 46:19

Life throws the out-of-control crazy at me, and I panic when it does. I go on a tirade about messes and kids’ rooms {heaven help me}, desperate to control something. It’s not until I close my eyes and seek Him that perspective comes. When we run to Him, we aren’t running in vain. We find Someone. Accepting what is out of my control means accepting Who is in control: the One Who speaks truth, is truth, declares what is right. I set the Lord before me, between me and my mess. I see Him. The circumstances are what they are, but He is who He says He is. He is always good, and I cling to that.

Life may resemble a tattered mess right now, but one day it will be tied up just right, topped with a tidy bow. And this truth sweeps my heart clean.

{Thanks to Kristen Welch for sharing her wisdom on this with me!}

If you would like to get a little Blue Skies encouragement for free in your mailbox, just click here. You’re welcome to connect with me via Facebook, too!

October 31, 2011 4 Comments Filed Under: Faith in Action, Family

How Blogging Gives Life {And How You Do, Too}

By Kristen

I’ve asked myself this many times: Why write a blog? Why share my rambly observations and big fat opinions, anyway? Sure, writing helps me process life, it’s one way the Lord asks me to work on me. But still, why write publicly when I could just as easily and viably write in a private journal?

I read this the other day, and it stuck with me:

When you need comfort, I [Jesus] love to enfold you in my arms. I enable you not only to feel comforted but also to be a channel through whom I comfort others. Thus you are doubly blessed, because a living channel absorbs some of whatever flows through it.

Sarah Young, Jesus Calling p. 303

As I take in Christ’s love and send it to others, I become a living channel. Christ’s love moves in a current through that channel, and the movement holds life, in it is life. The tongue brings life or death to others, there is little middle ground. When I speak life into someone through encouragement, I receive life right back into my own soul. While I love encouraging dear ones in person, blogging allows me to piece together my love for encouragement, women and writing into one living tapestry. “Publishing” online is the current that moves encouragement through the channel. It makes me come alive.

This week, I’m attending the Relevant Conference thanks to winning the “Hope & Encouragement” sponsorship provided by the most encouraging blog on the block, (in)courage. The speaker line-up is a-maz-ing, and I can’t wait to learn how to write more thoughtfully and encourage more deliberately. As a side benefit, I get to hang with gals I enjoy and friends who inspire. Last year, the entire woman in me {wife, mama, friend, writer/blogger} was ministered to, and I know this year will be no different. It will speak Life so I may come alive.

This world holds many messages that speak death, that try to kill our all-around worth. It screams we don’t have enough smarts, talent, accomplishments, looks, height and courage. My voice and this blog might be whispers of a small light in this dark fight, but through both I hope to radiate Light and give Truth that encourages, heals, and matters. I speak Life so others may come alive.

Words satisfy the mind as much as fruit does the stomach;
good talk is as gratifying as a good harvest.

Proverbs 18:20 {The Message}

What makes you come alive? How do you combine your desires and talents to be a light in the dark?

If you would like to get a little Blue Skies encouragement for free in your mailbox, just click here. You’re welcome to connect with me via Facebook, too!

October 24, 2011 8 Comments Filed Under: (In)Courage, Encouragement, Faith, Writing

For When Those Crazy Winds Blow

By Kristen

Fall in Colorado exudes magic. We’re on fall break here, so we’ve been able to ultra take it in. The quivering aspen’s golden leaves are falling, but my fiery red maples’ leaves still hold on tight in spite of crazy winds.

Isn’t that what we parents do, hold on tight in spite of crazy winds? And it’s only when we cling to Hope we can soar on wings through those winds.

It’s been quite the week here at the Strong casa, each day proving my boys lay smack dab between childhood and young adulthood. How I adore them both, those anything-but-identical twins. They are the very best sons God could have given me, and I wouldn’t trade them for anything. I know the same is true for your kids, too. It’s no accident they are yours.

Still, parenting can feel two steps forward then ten steps backwards, walking on a tightrope. I remember miracles take time, change happens slowly, and progress occurs outside of my view. Still, the good-days-bad-days parenting pendelum swings and the crazy winds blow. So I hold on by a wing and a prayer.

And today, the Lord gave me *this* prayer, the one where He told me to pray for my children but replace the names of Israel {Jacob and Jeshurun, both other names for Israel} with my own name. So I say this out loud with ‘Kristen’ laced throughout:

“But now listen, O Jacob, my servant, Israel, whom I have chosen.

This is what the LORD says–he who made you, who formed you in the womb, and who will help you:

Do not be afraid, O Jacob, my servant, Jeshurun, whom I have chosen.

For I will pour water on the thirsty land, and streams on the dry ground;

I will pour out my Spirit on your offspring, and my blessings on your descendants.

They will spring up like grass in a meadow, like poplar trees by flowing streams.” Isaiah 44:1-4

His promises of old are every bit as true for us today. Let this truth sink into your soul and refresh your spirit. Praying for you and your children as we hold onto Him Who won’t let go.

If you would like to get a little Blue Skies encouragement for free in your mailbox, just click here. You’re welcome to connect with me via Facebook, too!

October 21, 2011 9 Comments Filed Under: Encouragement, Faith in Action, Family, Parenting, Tweens

How to Fight the Left Out Feelings Funk {Plus Party Invite!} :: at (in)courage

By Kristen

I still remember what it felt like seeing Katie Black at the movies, that time I asked her to go with me but she said she couldn’t because she had stuff to do with her family. So I went to the movies with my own family, and there she was laughin’ it up with friends after all.

Well.

Even as a grown up girl, there’s something about feelin’ left out that brings out the 8th grade girl in me. And it doesn’t take someone purposely leaving you out to feel left out. Sometimes you don’t get to hang with people you really want to hang with because they’re there and you’re here. We’re talkin’ about that at (in)courage today. And lots more. Want to join a party where ev-er-y-body is in? Want to enter a sweet giveaway, too? And hear more about giveaways going on all week? Read the details here.

It’s like Christmas in October, I tell ya! Goody goody gumdrops!