I bought these ornaments a few months ago, hoping that this was the year.
That I could wrap them up and give them to my husband and mom, and when they would unwrap them, they would be unwrapping a miracle. The one we’ve been praying now for eight years. I know healing is my inheritance because of Jesus. He paid such a high price for me to be healed. I know more than ever that truth, and that we will see that healing manifest.
I was just really wanting it to be this year.
I think it’s so easy to do the things we do without being intentional behind it all. In this season of my life, with every day being full to the brim, it’s been so important for me to choose to be intentional and move forward with purpose. I am so excited about sharing over the next few weeks how I live with purpose as a mama, with my kids, in my home, and in our routine.
What I love even more about this series is that you are going to hear how other women live with purpose and intentionality too! Several lifestyle and design bloggers in my area, asked me to join them in sharing this series. And I couldn’t be more excited about it. What I love about the four of us, is that each of us have completely different platforms, but share the exact same message. These girls are amazing at what they do, and they love Jesus.
I don’t think I’ve ever, in my entire life, experienced such rest and tangible peace as I did when we stayed in Moravian Falls last weekend. Just coming off of a full fall speaking schedule, I honestly had no idea just how strategic the Father had placed this weekend as a bookend, summing up such a full season.
The original plan was for me to go to Moravian Falls by myself on a writing retreat. Because let’s be real, with three little kids and all the things that comes with them, writing something than a few paragraphs at a time, just isn’t happening. (I’m writing this very blog post during quiet time! And all the mamas said. “Amen!”) I’ve known for quite some time there is so much in me stirring around, just waiting for the chance to come out. I just knew I needed to give myself space to let those words be birthed.
It’s been quiet around here lately.
I’m so sorry about that.
Do you ever feel like you can’t balance your life? Or is it just me? Surely it’s not just me. It’s like I’m an awesome mom and tanking the ministry thing, or I’m writing and not speaking, or visa versa. Either my legs are shaved or my hair clean. And don’t get me started about house. If the dishes are done, the laundry probably isn’t. Know what I mean?
I’ve chosen in this season to use the word “full” instead of “busy.” I feel like being busy is just running around without intention and lacking purpose. Full describes our season much better. Everything that our family is doing is intentional and filled with purpose. It just means we have to give our very best yes. And a lot of “no’s” along the way too.
Every morning when I wake up, I ask the Father, “What do you want me to put my hands to today?” Sometimes I work on The Garden all day. Somedays I only work on stamping jewelry. Somedays I just need to play in the floor with my kids or go on a date with my life crush. It’s been something I’m definitely growing in, yet learning what it looks like to live in this full season of life out of a posture of rest.
We got away just the two of us for a week in paradise.
We had these big plans when we were newlyweds that our tenth anniversary we’d go to Hawaii or someplace like that. But then life happened. We paid for several rounds of infertility treatments, two adoptions, lots of unexpected medical procedures for Micah and before we knew it, Hawaii just wasn’t going to happen.
But it didn’t matter to us. I know this sounds cheesy, but just give me this man, a beach, a book, and fruity drinks and that’s my paradise. So we took our thousandth cruise to the Bahamas and loved every single sun-kissed second.
I’ll never forget the first time I heard the illustration of “special sauce.” Leif Hetland talked about “special sauce” and how it radically changed the way he operates in the Kingdom at a conference several months ago at our church. I wanted to stand up, wave my hands around, and run around my church like a crazy lady, because he finally gave language to what has been stirring in my heart for so long.
The deeper I journey into the heart of the Father, the more revelation I have on my true identity, His daughter. Stepping into that identity, has changed every single thing about my life. I am not the same girl I was several years ago, because that other girl knew Jesus, but lived as an orphan. Walking in my true identity as the Father’s daughter, that I have His inheritance, it’s His blood that now runs through my veins, and His kind eyes of approval over me is now what truly makes me, me. And the more I am learning about who I really am, because of Jesus, the more free I am to be me. The more I believe what my Father says about me, the more, ME, I get to become. Identity is something I will never stop talking about, because it has radically changed my life.