Hi Friends, I’m in one of those marriages. You know the kind. One where my husband starts playing Christmas music the day after Halloween, and I am left dumbfounded that someone could so heedlessly skip right over the Thanksgiving season. Yes season! (I know about half of you are on team husband, but I press on.) I’m wanting to be more intentional this year about my thanks-giving. The cultivation of gratitude in my heart and life. And I’m starting this “thanks-giving” focus in an unusual area: What I’m not good at. Someone once told me that oftentimes, the very area in which we struggle the most is the area we have a wrong view of God. For example, if I struggle with being gentle to people through my day, perhaps I don’t truly believe Christ is gentle with me. Or patience. If I find myself regularly hurrying my children along or frustrated at listening to their long stories, I may also picture a God who’s always tapping His foot, waiting for me to get it together. For me right now, it’s peace. I can so easily be moving through my day when a random thought triggers concern. One thought leads to the next, and I’m suddenly worrying about my kids, their futures, the budget… anything can spin out into anxiety. Here comes the gratitude piece: Despite how I may feel, this truth is unchanged: when God thinks of my life, my future, my kids, His heart is at perfect peace. There is no storm of anxiety. God is the embodiment of every fruit of the Spirit, and His heart is at perfect peace. So how do we start to feel it? How do we get our anxious hearts to come into peace? How do we get our frustrated, stirred up souls to flow in patience? I think it starts with giving thanks. It starts with bringing our hearts before Him and taking a quiet moment to pray. Thank you, Father, that You are at peace. No matter what my life or future hold, You are not afraid, not taken by surprise, not worried. You are at rest. Thank you for this truth. Move my heart into Your peace. Make me more like You. — Anna |
I am a singer, songwriter, wife, mother, Jesus follower. I send out a 2-minute read every Tuesday about Jesus and life in God.
Hi Friends, It’s a cold, snowy January here in Kansas City. And while this winter has brought some wonderful things for us — hot soup on the back burner and kiddos reading on the couch while huddled under blankets — we are also rounding the bend of our second foray into the stomach bug. Noooooo! I know. It’s awful. It has me thinking today about dependency. In bold below are some lyrics I sing about this, and below that are a few thoughts. You touch my heart and cause me to thirstBy grace You...
Hi Friends, I love turning a familiar verse over in my hands and seeing the light catch in a new-to-me way. This time it is Genesis 1:14: Then God said, “Let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens to divide the day from night; and let them be for signs and seasons, and for days and years. Signs. We love signs. The star above the birthplace of Jesus leading kings to His doorstep in worship. The sun standing still in the heavens while Joshua and the people of Israel fight their battle....
Hi Friends, We had a huge blizzard this past weekend that dumped over a foot of snow in 24 hours. We woke up to a blanket of white. My kids are thrilled to have more snow shoveling gigs than they can handle. They shovel, stop by the house for snacks, throw their soggy gloves back on and head out to sled. After sledding? Shoveling… and repeat. Heavy snows seem to come at the beginning of January each year in the Midwest, and it always feels like they give the perfect visual for a new year. A...