Come, Thou Fount of every blessing Tune my heart to sing Thy grace Streams of mercy, never ceasing Call for songs of loudest praise Teach me some melodious sonnet Sung by flaming tongues above Praise the mount, I’m fixed upon it Mount of Thy redeeming love I don’t know about you, but my heart easily gets out of tune. We’ve been in a long season of God doing something, but we’re not sure what. I don’t know when or...
I was reading Psalm 109 this week and thought, “Wow, David sounds kind of dramatic here.” Most of the Psalm is David pleading for God to punish his enemies harshly, cut off their posterity, blot our their names and their memory from the earth, etc. The usual. He laments: “For I am poor and needy, and my heart is stricken within me. I am gone like a shadow of evening; I am shaken off like a locust.” Psalm 109:22-23...
“Sing to him, sing praises to him; tell of all his wondrous works! Glory in his holy name; let the hearts of those who seek the LORD rejoice! Seek the LORD and his strength; seek his presence continually! Remember the wondrous works that he has done, his miracles and the judgments he uttered, O offspring of Israel his servant, children of Jacob, his chosen ones!” (1Chronicles 16:9-13 ESV) Happy new year dear friends! As I start this year, there are...
“Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you. But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the...
I don’t know about you, but I’m in a desperate sort of place. Fading are my illusions of progress and maturity. God help me practice patience today, I prayed this morning. God, forgive my lack of patience today, I prayed tonight. My little people, my current calling, this winter gloom, my heavy heart, all leave me . . . low. Functioning, but low. Maybe God is stripping away the self-righteousness that keeps me from clinging to His righteousness alone. ...
Isn’t “help” such a simple, but beautiful word? It brings encouragement and relief. It says “You’re not alone. I’m in this with you.” This week my husband unexpectedly came home early from work one day and announced that he had taken the rest of the afternoon off. He would get the kids down for rest time and I was free to take a nap or do whatever else I needed to do. Truly, it was a beautiful thing for...
Have I mentioned that this season of motherhood is wearing me out? I know I’m not the only one feeling more weak than strong these days. We all have our own brew of weaknesses made up of internal and external factors. My recipe? Allergy headaches. Anxiety. Depression in the family tree. Introversion in house of chatty girls. Seven months of interrupted sleep. Sometimes I wonder why God knit me together this way (Psalm 139:13). Wouldn’t I be more effective strong? ...
There have been times this last week when the challenges of parenting compounded with physical weaknesses made it all seem just too hard, and discouragement creeps in. It seems silly to write it; I’m not gravely ill or suffering anything serious. It’s just the moment-by-moment challenge of life currently. My friend Laura recently shared the quote pictured above on her blog, The Blog Around the Corner. Laura is a friend that used to be part of our church...
Do you know those moments when you’re faced with your own brokenness and failures? Other than my daily flops and flounderings in mommying, nothing makes me face this more than a good ‘ol argument with my husband. We don’t argue often anymore (our first few months as Mr. and Mrs. were a bit of a doozy), but there are still times when we completely miscommunicate. This happened recently. We felt and saw the same situation totally differently and ended...
