Raw, unedited, picture of my brain....and it's ugly.

This is a raw, unedited, picture of my mind today. 

This week I am alone most of the day.  Both girls are out of town and I am seizing the opportunity to catch up on some neglected areas.  One of those areas was to finish a study I have been working my way through.  Boy have I needed this time.

The last month has been full of ups and downs. Highs from incredible times of service and lows from the most bizarre situations. Situations that have left me face down before the Lord, crying out for His healing hand.  In the last week, my phone has blown up with prayer requests ranging from tragic accidents and marriages in crisis, to friendships navigating misunderstandings. 

My heart is heavy and my mind spinning with questions particularly in one area. The only thing I know to do, is to go to His word.  I have searched the scriptures and asked God to help me understand the "why" of a specific situation.  As He promised, His word gave the answer and understanding I needed.  But I still found myself wrestling with how Christians could stoop low and especially adult Christians act a particular way.  Today He answered in a way that astounded me.

This quote from Beth Moore's "Jesus, The One and Only, explained exactly what God's word had already put on my heart.

Compromising people can't stand the site of excellence, and miserable people can't stand the site of happiness.

Not only did God use this (along with the rest of this day's homework) to help me understand....He slapped me in the head and pointed out some areas where I was compromising. 

And it hurt. It hurt because I had not even realized I was compromising!  Funny how sly the enemy is isn't it?  

We stand proudly behind our church attendance, position, title..... and look soooo put together on Sunday. But outside the walls of our church our lifestyle really doesn't look any different than the next person.

We have compromised. 

Our Twitter or Facebook updates are asking for prayer or quoting some cute spiritual saying one minute, and the next our updates and pictures are questionable and quite frankly, grieve the heart of God.

We have compromised.

And not only have we compromised, we poke fun of Christians who have not.  Why do we do that?

Personally, I believe it is because we see in them exactly what we know we should be doing. It makes us uncomfortable. 

We have, as God convicted me again today, sacrificed personal holiness on the altar of relevance. 

God did not call me to be relevant.  He called me to be holy. 

Today, more than ever before I feel this overwhelming urgency for believers to be willing to step to a deeper place with the Lord. A place that will demand that we look different, act different, entertain ourselves differently... A place that will demand us to be set apart... Please hear me NOT a list of rules, we have tried that and it obviously didn't work. 

Rather, have a life that lives Matthew 5:16. I love it here in the Amplified Version

Let your light so shine before men that they may see your moral excellence and your praiseworthy, noble, and good deeds and recognize and honor and praise and glorify your Father Who is in heaven.

Something tells me we don't have much time left here.  We must, I must, live in a way that consistently points people to Jesus Christ. 

Our pastor challenged us Sunday morning to stop simply singing the words trust and obey and DO THEM. 

My "obey" this week was to stop compromising in a very specific area and trust that God is enough to handle the consequences to my obedience. 

Just Thinking - Pillars

Maybe because both of my girls are invading my closet to borrow shoes, clothes, belts......

Maybe because I am looking them eyeball to eyeball without bending over....

Whatever the reason, this summer I feel time passing faster than ever before.

More than ever before I find myself drawn to pray for my girls. And not just my physical daughters, but also the sweet middle school girls God lets me love on during the school year in small group Bible study.

As we ended our Bible study for the summer, I shared with them a verse from Psalm 144 that I pray for my daughters as well as my middle school girls. It is verse 12 and it says


Let our sons in their youth be as grown-up plants, and our daughters as corner pillars fashioned as for a palace.


I look at that verse and when I see corner pillars I immediately think of a few words:

                  support system            carved/ornate          custom designed    strong

Towards the end of the school year it hit me that we have entered a more intense "training" stage of parenthood.  We have very few years left before we send them out. 

More than ever, I feel the urgency for them to be grounded in their faith.  They will be the support system in their homes, to their husband...I want them to be a strong, pure, holy, beautiful support system.  Pillars confident in who God says they are, and what God has called them to do.  Corner pillars that are solid and structurally sound, completely capable of holding up the area God entrusts to them. 

My prayer is that they are wise women who build their house on the rock, not the sand. (Luke 6) I pray that as they are strong pillars. I pray they understand that until they see the face of Jesus, they must continue the building process! The foundation must go deeper.  The support beams must continue to be strengthened and added or the corner pillars will begin to crumble. 

But just like God always does...the more I pray this over my daughters, the more God reveals weak areas in my foundation.  Areas that need attention.  Areas that need to be reinforced.

And it sends me straight to my knees.

I am the corner pillar in my home. 

Am I a strong, pure, holy support system to my husband?

Am I confident in who God says I am and what He has called me to do?

Am I solid, structurally sound and completely capable of  holding up the area God has entrusted to me?

Am I consistently working on my foundation? Adding support beams?

Am I checking myself for weakened areas? 

In other words:

Am I, the corner pillar in this household, spending enough time with the Father?  Am I giving my girls a clear picture of what a strong corner pillar looks like? 

I want, as Ezra 7:9-10 says, the good hand of the Lord on me! Changing me, making me stronger and capable to do the thing He has called me to.  Verse 10 of that chapter in Ezra says "Ezra set his heart to study the law of the Lord and to practice it and to teach His statutes and ordinances."

I am convinced and convicted that for my girls to become those beautiful corner pillars this mommy MUST:

Set my heart to

STUDY

PRACTICE

TEACH

This summer is taking a turn in a direction I had not anticipated. :) And I am so very glad.  Something tells me it will be one that will impact our family for generations. 









              

Welcome!

Happy Summer!!!!!

The last few days there have been quite a few new friends stopping in here. You and I both know what brought you here and well..I want you to know that you are very WELCOME. With all sincerity I say, grab a cup of tea and stay awhile!   I hope you will take a look around. 

Before you start looking around here are some important things to remember:

1. We love Jesus.  Not just in a bio on our twitter feed or in our social media updates.  We LOVE HIM to the depth of our very being.  We can. not. take a step without Him!

2. We want YOU to do more than know Jesus, we want you to experience LIFE with Him.  He is one wild ride! There is no high like the most high is a favorite saying from a Bible teacher I greatly admire. She is absolutely correct! Nothing compares to Jesus Christ. 

3. In this house we do forgiveness.  Whether you ask for it or not.  We believe that holding onto unforgiveness brings bitterness, anger, discontentment....  So, as hard as it is...we forgive.  

4. YOU have been prayed for.  Yep...I pray for the people who somehow wind up here.  Whether you like it or not. :)   Today, I am asking that God would make His presence known to you.  That you would realize just how precious you are to Him.  God sent his is one and only for YOU. His desire is a relationship with you.  Chad and I would LOVE to talk to you about that. 

So....

Welcome new friend.  Take a look around.  Leave a comment if you would like.  I'm glad you are here. 

Stephanie