on hold

there is a season for everything.....
and I'm learning this is just not the season for blogging deep spiritual thoughts!
please join me over HERE where I blog about family, faith, and food....
and randomness galore. 
check back when my kiddos are bigger and I have deeper thoughts than
"when's the last time I changed her diaper, have my kids been watching too much t.v. and when's the last time I vacuumed the carpeting.  Yesterday?  Oh.  It looks like it's been a month...."

Love, Laurie

transparency

There is stuff I'd really like to blog about but I just feel so inadequate in my knowledge or life experience to touch on. 
Topics I know that people struggle with and I'd love to put my arm around them (in a bloggy sort of way) and help them through
Issues in life that I know people are dealing with that I'd love to come alongside them (through blogland) and help them cope
Through God's Word and through what God has taught me or is currently teaching me.
But really?!  Scary territory.
I'm no expert and I would never want to come across as one. 
The only thing I'm really known for in my ministry style is
my transparency.
Like.....how many times was I told in the 7 years Justin was in the pastorate
"You do NOT seem like a pastors wife!"
What exactly did they mean by that, anyway?  lol.  I never spent much time thinking about it....

But it was really music to my ears everytime. 

Because I'm pretty sure what they meant by that, by the context in which it was said....

Was that I didn't come across as perfect

and that I really helped them bring me off that pedastal so many people

put pastors and their fams on by taking myself right on off and being

REAL

Any thoughts on this concept in our reaching out to others?!

Being REAL

Transparent, even

So as to help people in their real struggles of life

With the goal of pointing them to Jesus

what's the word

I was challenged here to pick a word for 2011.

You know how you have a word in mind and you really want that to be the word....cause it's like so poetic or something? Or. simple?!
But then the word picks you--or maybe (con.vic.tion) it's really God picking the word for you.
Considering all my prayer requests of late and all my thinking is revolving around this simple, yet difficult word.....it just has to be it.

Not to mention my absolute fav Bible verse:

"Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight." ~Proverb 3:5-6

What's your word?

faithfulness of God

Looking for God's faithfulness amidst the storms of life is one of those things I wish I really rocked. Sometimes I get it right. Sometimes I want to get it right. But then there are those moments.....

But when I can look back and see what God has done, what He has been doing all along and (sometimes) I chose to ignore it--I realize that every step of the way, in all things, He was completely faithful.

God was faithful when I chose to be faithless and He was faithful when I brought out the mustard seed-sized faith. God was faithful when I chose to be grumpy and He was faithful in the midst of my joyful following after Him. God was faithful on my mountaintop and faithful when I found myself in the valley of life.

That's why I just love this theme of Deuteronomy that keeps coming to light:

Remember the times when God brought down heaven to show you great and mighty things. Keep those hidden in your heart so that you can share with others how awesome God is. So when you go through times of struggle, God's faithfulness is the first thing you choose to cling to.

I challenge you to look for what God is doing and how He is working even in the midst of heartache and pain. Record moments in your life when God did something amazing. Take a picture to capture the essence of what that time in your life meant for you, so that you will always remember, and never forget, the faithfulness of God in your life.

I have a picture of the car that God provided for us when our car was stolen just months into our marriage and one of an anonymous check given to us at Christmastime in 2005, arriving just in time.

I have a picture of my husbands "working man" jeans to remind us of the season where God provided through unexpected avenues and taught us so much.

What are your pictures? The snapshots of your life that display the faithfulness of God in extraordinary and ordinary ways.

"You were shown these things so that you might know that the Lord is God; besides Him there is no other." Deuteronomy 4:35

the OT

The Old Testament.

Sum it up as a book of history that tells us about those Israelites.

How sometimes they got it right but mostly they seemed to get it wrong--this following God thing. Right?!

Lately I've been a little more into the Old Testament.

I've been the most fascinated with Deuteronomy.

The emotions and struggles and pleas behind the stories.

You've got Moses and he's giving these long speeches to the Israelites--God's people.....

And at some points he's like,

"PEOPLE! LOOK! SEE! WILL YA?!"

(and for pity's sake--OBEY)

And there's got to be some frustration and there has got to be some passion behind the words we read here. I mean, Moses goes so far as to give some blame to the people for his punishment of not being able to enter the Promise Land. (1:37)

But ultimately.....Moses loved the people God called him to lead. And that love is so evident as I read through Deuteronomy.

But even more than that is the great love of God for His people that comes shining through.

Defeating their enemies

Often with strange directions & rules of engagement

Leading them through the desert

All 40 years of it

Providing for all their needs

Sustaining them with manna, falling from heaven

Just enough and Just in time

None left over, Not a moment before their need

And so, time and time again, you have Moses

In his final days with them, he simply asks