Let there be thanksgiving...

Have you ever known a person that is just impossible to please??  No matter what you do, you're never going to be able to satisfy them?  (And how many of you secretly wanted to slap that person by the end of your time with them...or worse?)  I've felt like that with my kids before.  They always get so jealous of the little pre-K'ers, because they get snacks everyday.  So, the other day, we had snacks.  We made the cutest little snowmen snacks:  marshmallows for the body, pretzels for arms, raisins for buttons, and mini M&M's for eyes...and then we "glued" it all together with frosting (my parents probably wanted to kill me...).  It floored me how many kids threw almost the whole thing away:  "Mrs. Wilcox, I just don't like that..."  Seriously??  It was frosting...what better snack could there be in the world??
Now, how many times have I been that person?  Yesterday is a great example for me...in fact, it's almost embarrassing to admit how good of an example it is.  I griped when I thought I had to go to school at regular time, then griped again when I found out it was canceled because I was already dressed and ready to go.  I was bored, so I went to the office to see Kade, then got frustrated when I worked in the office and he was working in another room.  How many times in the past few weeks have I thought about how nice it would be to have just a day at home, with nothing to do but read and sit in front of the fire?  Then once I get it, I complain about how bored I am...
By the end of that, I wanted to slap myself.  In some ways, the Lord did.  Look at these words in Ephesians, "Let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking, which are out of place, but instead let there be thanksgiving."  This isn't the only place in the Bible that mentions the importance of thankfulness and gratitude.  It's throughout.
Think about it.  When I choose to be thankful, my eyes are off myself.  I'm acknowledging several things:  1.)  That I don't deserve to have everything going my way (which is a truth I need hammered into me every single day...), 2.)  That I do actually have things to rejoice in (which is always very true...), and 3.)  That the Lord is more than everything.  When I choose to be thankful to Him in everything, I give Him the praise and the worth that He already deserves.
So...I challenge you (and even more importantly, myself) today with four simple words:  "let there be thanksgiving."

Beloved Children

It's crazy how pregnancy completely changes your mindset.  Now, I promise, I haven't turned into one of those woman who can only think about pregnancy stuff and baby bottles and room ideas...it hasn't completely taken me over.  But, I would be lying if I said that it hadn't really changed the way I think...especially when I hear or see something that has to do with children...
Like my morning time with the Lord a few days ago.  I'm slowly, slowly working my way through the book of Ephesians, and I have been completely humbled and amazed by the Lord's faithfulness and goodness in His sovereignty.  It was no different with the first verse of chapter 5, "Therefore, be imitators of God, as beloved children."  Of course, right away, my soon-to-be-mommy ears perk up at the word children.  I think about how toddlers learn to imitate everything:  voice sounds, clapping, throwing, blowing kisses...they're little mini-you's moving at miles per hour.  It makes total and complete sense...it's how they learn, how they absorb, how they change from being a child to becoming an adult person, capable of thinking, conversation, movements...everything. If they have no one to imitate, how are they supposed to know??
It's such a beautiful, perfect picture of our dependency on the Lord.  If we do not always put our eyes upon Him, if we do not make Him our focus, if we do not center ourselves upon Him, how are we supposed to learn holiness, righteousness, mercy, and goodness???  Like small, innocent children whose eyes are fixed on mommy and daddy for everything, our eyes must be glued to Him as our Source.
But, that's not the entire picture...there's more.  I love how the last two words say, "beloved children."  It's such a sweet picture of the fact that the Lord loves us so much...and His love is so perfect and pure.  But what I love even more that Paul uses the word "children"...but He's writing to Ephesians believers...people who were not of Jewish descent.  They were Gentiles, who were supposed to be completely outside from the promises and covenant of the Lord.  Except the Lord had a purpose and a plan.  If you go back to chapter 1, verse 5, Paul says that, "In love, He predestined us for adoption as sons."  The Ephesians were not part of God's people by birth...they didn't naturally have that heritage or destiny.  And because of the Lord's grace...they didn't have to.  He chose them to be sons and daughters...with an identity totally and completely in Him. 
The same is true for us.  It's such a beautiful picture of His grace.  We, who have been made to be His children only because of His goodness and mercy to us, can now be called His beloved, and look to Him...as our Father.
I pray this week that you might find your eyes constantly turning to your Father, as His beloved child, striving to imitate Him.

A new string of pearls...

Up until my wedding day, I had never owned a piece of "real" jewelry (other than my wedding ring...which I don't really count as jewelry...it's permanent :).  The closest thing I had to anything like that was a cheap pearl necklace I had found at a thrift store.  The pearls (or the beads that were painted to look like pearls) were way too big, and had turned this yellow-ish color rather than the ivory they were supposed to be. But, I didn't know any different.  I had never experienced anything better, and so I was completely happy with what I had...
Until my wedding day.  As my wedding gift, Kade gave me a real pearl necklace and earrings to wear as I walked down the aisle to him.  They are so beautiful:  just the perfect size, with an ivory color (not yellow...).  I couldn't have asked for anything better.  I know that I'll treasure them forever, not just because they are real and valuable, but also because of what they represent.  In fact, when I'm not wearing them, I still keep them wrapped up in the box, just like the day he gave them to me.
Now, imagine something me.  Picture my wedding day:  its close to time to take pictures, and all the girls are bustling around, doing what they need to in order to get ready.  Imagine me, in my wedding dress, putting on last minute touches with make-up and lip gloss.  And then, to top it all off, I put on my wedding jewelry:  my cheap, thrift store string of pearls, in all its faded yellow glory.
I really hope something seems incredibly wrong with that picture.  Does it make any sense to wear the same old jewelry I've always worn?  The jewelry that is cheap and imitation, that doesn't satisfy nearly as much as the real thing?  Of course not...
And yet, it's hit me in the past few days, that I do that very thing to the Lord.  My desire is so much for myself:  my ways, my plans...what I think should happen, what I want.  I choose my desires, myself, over Him...completely forgetting that He is the One who is sovereign and above all.  His is the only plan that brings about His glory...which is truly my greatest joy, and delight.  I was reading in Psalms 105, and came upon these words in verses 19 and 20:  "They made a calf in Horeb and worshiped a metal image.  They exchanged the glory of God for the image of an ox that eats grass."  My instinct here is to say that I'm not like that...I don't exchange the Lord for an idol (especially not an idol in the image of a cow...).  But how often do I choose my plans over the Lord?  How often do I throw aside the best He has for me, just in order to cling to my desires.  Oh Lord, open my eyes to the idols I have put in place of You...may You be the only glory I choose to behold.
I hope today, you might find yourself choosing the very best the Lord has to offer...Himself.  And in choosing that, may you choose to get rid of all those old, imitation necklaces that just don't measure up...

thoughts on motherhood...from one who knows nothing about it :)

Yes...it's official...I am going to be a mommy, and my very amazing husband is going to be the world's best dad (not that I'm biased or anything...:).  We had our first doctor's appointment yesterday, complete with blood work, other "samples", and a real sonogram (I showed the picture off all day at work...Kade showed his off all day yesterday...:).
I wish that I could honestly tell you that my heart has known nothing but joy about realizing I'm pregnant, becoming a mom, and everything else.  I really wish I could, but I can't.  If I did, I would be lying.  Don't get me wrong, I'm excited--unbelievably so--but believe me when I say that excitement has been a process.
Anyone who has known me for any period of time has known my thoughts on having children--the very thought of having a baby terrified me to no end.  It wasn't in my plans.  It wasn't that I thought something was wrong with having children, I just didn't think it was for me.  And then I got married....:)
I love so many things about Kade...his sheer joy for the Lord and life...the way he works and studies and does everything with such fervor.  He teaches me so much every day about what it means to truly follow the Lord and rest in who He is.  But one thing he had a hard time getting me to share was his love for children.  Anyone who has known Kade for any period of time has known that he loves children.  He rejoices in them...he thinks they're perfect...for so long he has yearned for his own.  (Not exactly my attitude, right??)  In marrying him, I realized that there was going to come a day where I was going to have children...while it wasn't exactly my plan, I was ok with it, because I knew it would be down the road.
We pretend so much that we actually have control of our lives.  It's almost comical.  Who am I to think that I actually have a right to tell God when and how He should put life inside of me?  How DARE I is the even greater question.  And yet, those were my very thoughts:  I was the one who determined my future, who decided when I had a baby...do you hear the selfishness in all of that??
And then, life happened.  The process has been a slow one to say the least.  But slowly and surely, the Lord has begun to teach me that my life is not my own.  Ephesians 1:4 says that the Lord, "chose us in Him before the foundation of the world." Do you hear the sovereignty in those words:  He is the one who chooses--not us.  Not only is He the one who has chosen, but it says that He did it before the very world was founded.  Oh Lord, forgive my arrogance--that I would even think the choice is mine for something like this goes completely in the face of who You are.
At first, absolute surrender to the Lord seems like such a terrifying thing.  And I have to be honest, there are probably always going to be moments where we are tempted to fear while following Him.  But in reality, resting in His sovereignty, rather than trying to keep a vice-grip on my life is such a comforting thing.  If I truly believe that He is God, totally and completely above and beyond everything, why wouldn't I want to rest my life in His capable hands?
And so, I come back to my thoughts on motherhood.  I won't lie...the thought of it still terrifies me...I mean, what am I going to do when my baby starts crying and I don't know why?  Or when he/she gets sick?  Or when they hurt and I can't fix it? 
Actually, I know the answer.  I'm going to have to do what I'm learning right now...to cling with all I am to my sovereign Lord, whose ways are so far beyond my own.  Today, I choose to trust in Him and delight with sheer joy at the gift He has given me, and in the fact that He has even chosen to grace me with such a treasure.
I pray that, whatever your circumstances, you might be able to do the same.  May you have no doubt that life in Him is more worthy than anything else.

oh, for sundays...:)

Sometimes, Sundays are just hard to do.  It's the official last day of the weekend before life as I know it starts back up, hard and early Monday morning.  No matter how much or how little I have done since Friday evening, everything within me wants to hold onto as much time off as I can (not always easy to do when you're at church by 9:30...).  To top that off, sometimes, it's just hard to go to church.  I'm so guilty of always playing the consumer:  wanting everything just the way I order it, church included.  I expect the message I want to hear, based upon the text I choose most worthy, surrounded by the songs I think most ignite a heart of worship.

Not really practical, or for that matter possible.  And, typical consumer that I am, when my demands aren't met, I get frustrated, put out...how many of you have done the same thing on a Sunday morning (or night)???  I doubt I'm the only one...

And yet here's a lesson learned--one that's especially relevant because it came from my experience in church this Sunday:  though I might bring against it my complaints and dissatisfactions, church is the only place in which I can fully gather with the rest of the body of Christ to worship Him in spirit and truth.  I'm not saying that true, spirit-filled worship can't happen anywhere else because it can, but I am saying that almost none of those experiences involve the rest of the body...fellow believers who find themselves in the same difficulties, tough times, and learning experiences that I do.  And without, I need that unity...

The lesson I gained from my fellow worshipers this week was that of the absolute faithfulness of God.  It started with hugs and encouraging words from dear friends and acquaintances as soon as I set foot inside the big double doors.  It continued with us, together, singing, "Great is Thy Faithfulness."  As I sat there and listened to the words, I felt myself counting all the ways the Lord had been faithful just in my two weeks for Christmas break.  A humbling thought when I considered how much of my faithfulness been to my wants and desires (imagine that....).

The lesson continued with the message:  the faithfulness of God made known through the very genealogy of His Son, the Messiah promised to the Jews and awaited for thousands of years.  Thousands of years...That's an incredibly long time.  And yet, over and over throughout that time, God reminded His people of His promise...over and over throughout that time, He remained faithful to His name...and then, at His appointed time, He delivered.

There's so much more to it than that...there always is.  And I don't even know if I necessarily made a main point...I hope that I at least managed to make a couple of small ones:  one of them being that my God is incredibly faithful to His purpose, and as part of that purpose, I get to experience the blessing of His faithfulness as well...another of them being that I would not have been reminded of that had it not been for the church...the beautiful body of Christ.