Pull your husband close and dance barefoot in the kitchen.
Cradle your littles and kiss those chubby cheeks.
Hug your tweens and tell them they’ll always be your baby.
Grab that teenager and tickle those stinky feet.
Pray in the car.
Point to Jesus.
Serve when it’s hard.
Choose love when it hurts.
Be thankful.
Gather your family for meals every day.
Speak life every chance you get.
Choose worship over worry.
Live,
Read,
memorize,
and teach your children
The Word.
Give honor to the One who created your family.
Fall in love with Jesus by falling on your knees.
Courageously pour hope into your home.
Stand your ground, mammas.
have a mother’s courage.
đIt means so much that you’re taking this journey with me.â¤
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Knowing you may not hold someone you love for much longer leaves the days feeling fresh and fragile. I remember sitting next to my Poppa when he was passing away. I listened carefully for the next breath, knowing any moment the next breath wouldn’t come. I wanted to be with him, inhale deeply next to him, sing to him, pray with him, hold his hand while it was still warm.
I find myself watching our foster daughter with similar thoughts breaking ashore–just allow one more day with her; Father God, give me more than one more breath.
With our baby girl, I can only plan for her needs six months at a timeâŚbecause that’s how long it is between court dates and decisions. I turned down bigger sized clothing, walkers, and high chairs when she was first placed with us. Now, I’m turning down toddler beds and trikes. I don’t plan for her life past April, our next court date. I find myself thinking, “this may be the last time we (fill in the blank) with this sweet girl.”
I’m waking up. I want to be as diligent and intentional to soak in every life around me, not just my foster daughter’s. We’re not guaranteed one more breath with anyone. Many of us know this truth well. Life can change in a flutter.
This journey has taught me to stand in awe, awakening to each day as one more gift from God. The sunrises are stunning, snoring husbands are cute instead of irritating, stinky soccer socks cause me to pause and give thanks for healthy children, and every baby milestone feels magical. Seriously. Baby girl shoving puffs into her mouth (and all over the floor) makes everyone in this house party like it’s nineteen ninety-nine. It’s so stinkin’ cute.
We’re trying to dig into every day over here. And although we cannot plan out the future, God is teaching me three things we can do: Pray, Prepare & Play.
Pray for God’s purposes.
What if we don’t know God’s purpose or plan for our lives? Instead of trying to force the future into the box I’ve delegated for itâI can lay that all down and pray, “Lord, I ask that your perfect purposes for the future be accomplished in my life and the lives of my loved ones. Let nothing stand in your way.”
Prepare your heart.
God’s plan may not line up with my limited ideas of perfection. We can remember God’s good and always trustworthy. This helps us prepare our hearts to accept whatever the future holds. Since we’ve become a foster family, I often pray, “Lord, please prepare my heart (and the hearts of my children) for whatever lies ahead. Give us peace.”
Play with the people you love.
Grab the people you love and take pleasure in them. We may not have tomorrow, but we have today! I’m not sure why we don’t memorize this scripture in Sunday school, but maybe we should make it a thing (especially the part about bread and wine),
“Seize life! Eat bread with gusto, Drink wine with a robust heart. Oh yesâGod takes pleasure in your pleasure! Dress festively every morning. Donât skimp on colors and scarves. Relish life with the spouse you love Each and every day of your precarious life. Each day is Godâs gift. Itâs all you get in exchange For the hard work of staying alive. Make the most of each one! Whatever turns up, grab it and do it. And heartily! This is your last and only chance at it,,” (Ecclesiastes 9:7-10 MSG)
Dear Lord,
   I don’t know your purpose or plans for my children and loved ones, but I pray for it. I ask that you go ahead of them, paving the way for peace and provision. I pray you are parting seas they don’t see. I pray you are planting people of godly influence in their path before they get there. I pray for wisdom when they are pressed against the hard rock of life.
I pray for forgiving friends who point them to your love. I pray for protection over their hearts and bodies. I pray faith rises fiercely in their soul when doubt pushes down. I pray for eyes to see your blessings when they feel cheated. I pray they run to you, instead of away, when their hearts are broken. I pray they love bravely because that’s why you made them. I pray your voice reaches them when mine cannot and whispers, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” I pray they know love because they know you. Amen
It means so much that you’re taking this journey with me.⤠I’d love to send you a FREE SEVEN-DAY DEVOTIONAL: CLICK HERE FOR DEVOTIONAL
Iâd love to travel the globe with my kids. I imagine weâd get lost down colorful alleys, pop into every restaurant oozing with the smell of butter and spiceâŚbut right now, we spend most our time at soccer practice, and in the school drop off lines. Itâs our life stage and I adore it. But I long to instill a sense of passion for the world and all Godâs created into my children. Teaching our children to pray for the world is a powerful act of love.
Godâs entrusted us with the upbringing of eternal souls. If we desire these precious souls to be world-changers for Jesus, theyâll need a love for its people, because âGod so loved the world that he gave his one and only Sonâ (John 3:16). How do we do this?
This is one tradition thatâs brought us a step closer to Godâs heart; one small way to start loving on a global level. I pray it inspires you to have some meaningful fun this summer!
how to teach our children to pray for the world
Choose! Each week we take turns choosing a country on our world map. We have a map that you can scratch off the color of each country as you go, but I also love the idea of sticking a colorful pin in a cork map.
Pray! After weâve chosen a country we open up our book, âOperation World: The definitive prayer guide to every nationâ by Jason Mandryk. I canât emphasize how I cherish this book. Here youâll find all sorts of interesting nuggets about the country. My favorite â the most urgent prayer needs. This is what we focus on. Whatever those prayer needs are (poverty, persecution, government corruption, child exploitation, orphans, lack of natural resources, etc.), we include them in our family prayers over dinner. The book also includes a section of answered prayers for each country!
Give! After our eyes have been opened to the immediate needs of others, the heart is always moved to action. If one of your kiddos shows particular interest in the need of another nation, help them research an organization that they can support through their allowance. My kiddos have even set up lemonade stands in the past to raise money for water wells in Africa.
Cook! We chose recipes from our chosen culture and cook meals together. This can be a beautiful mess at times! Some of my major #kitchenfails include Russian borscht and Ethiopian injera (Yes Eli, Iâm sure I followed the recipe. No, I donât know why it doesnât look like the picture!)
Learn! We go to the library. I let the kids run amuck and grab whatever books they can find about the country. Itâs so fun to share with each other what weâve learned after we read our books.
Have fun! We plan a fun movie night. If your kids are older, you can choose a documentary. The library has great choices for documentaries for littles too! You donât have to get super serious about this. When my kids were babes we totally counted âBeauty and the Beastâ as French culture (ya know, because of all the baguettes and bonjours in the opening scene). Youâre making the effort, no oneâs judging you!
Hereâs the point: Taking time to learn and pray for others around the world, demonstrates to our kids that we should care; we should care about hearing peopleâs stories who are different than us. We should be intentional to understand the needs of the world outside America. Our children wonât learn to cultivate a love for all Godâs people if we donât model to them that itâs the heart of Jesus.
here are some resources to help teach your children to pray for the world:
I was a cheerleader. Not the cool kind. When a routine called for the splits, Iâd lower my skirt to hide the fact I was several inches away from nailing it. I couldnât do a toe-touch. Iâd routinely jaunt across the quad with my skirt unknowingly tucked up under my backpack. Yeah.
One of our important cheerleading jobs was painting the ârun-thru” for the Friday night football game. This was serious stuff. We had to make life-altering decisions like: What should it say?! What colors should we use?! If we use too much paint, will it be too hard to tear?
A stampede of sweaty teenagers ran through this thing before theyâd compete. It signaled the battle of Friday Night Lights had begun; they were ready to face their opponents and build a legacy.
God asks us to do the same thing at times. He’ll require we charge towards a stronghold before announcing, âYouâre ready to step on the field.â
âThere is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavensâŚA time to tear down and time to buildâ (Ecclesiastes 3:1,3b).
Sometimes we must tear down before we can build up. The Hebrew word for âtear downâ in this verse is parats. In the tense used it means, to break or burst out (from womb or enclosure). So another way to understand this is, thereâs a time to burst out from whatever youâre stuck inside of.
Weâve got to break-through in order to build.
I found the same Hebrew word used nine other times in the context of increasing blessing or territory.
âThe little you had before I came has increased (parats, break or burst out) greatly, and the LORD has blessed you wherever I have beenâ (Genesis 30:30a)
Thereâs a blessing when we press past our comfort zones into new territory.
Whatâs stopping us from making that phone call, having the hard conversation, going to the adoption seminar, applying for that job, taking the first step towards healing our marriage? Maybe weâre too busy staring at the daunting banner in front of us, forgetting we have a banner over us. Moses declared, âThe LORD is my Bannerâ (Exodus 17:15). We are to lift up His name and bravely march forward.
Perhaps weâre too prideful thinking we can run through the banner by ourselves? Listen, it took a herd of sweaty young men to burst through our epic signs. Call the counselor or friend. Get in a small support group or Bible study. If you have a stronghold or complacent spot in your life, gather some people around you and address it. Life is moving forward with or without your participation.
Maybe weâre unwilling to put effort into breaking through our fears, selfishness, insecurities or haunting grief.
Itâs a shame really.
Because thereâs an epic battle going on among us, and we werenât made to stand on the sidelines. God can heal and equip, and he passionately desires to do so.
Letâs do the hard work of identifying the banners holding us back. Letâs be brave and learn to run full force at them, knowing on the other side is where weâre called to be living our lives. On the field, with our brothers and sisters, co-laboring with Christ to build things that are âtrue, noble, reputable, authentic, compelling, graciousâthe best, not the worst; the beautiful, not the ugly; things to praise, not things to curseâ (Philippians 4:8-9 The Message)
Weâve got one life on this earth. One. Get in the good fight for the kingdom. Ask God to show you which areas you need to have a breakthrough and CHARGE!!
Do you really have to mash it behind your head like that?!
Please! Donât use the pillow as a food tray.
SeriouslyâŚwho thought it was OK to put a muddy cleat here?!
Why is Every. Single. Pillow. On the floor?!
Iâm dying.
Iâve been drooling over extraordinary pillows for the past year. Yes, there is such a thing as âextraordinary pillowsâ. They live at Anthropologie, where it smells like a magical forest.
I want them. However, theyâre a gazillion dollars. You canât always get what you want.
Target came to the rescue with some adorable Anthro knock-offs. So, for Motherâs Day, I pointed them out as, would be a great gift from the kiddos! (wink wink).
I see them enthroned on my 11-year-old, stained couch, and smile.
They’re pretty. Itâs simple as that.
Or is it?
These lovely pillows have awakened some alternate Type A personality in me.
My poor family. Relaxing is no longer allowed. It might disturb the decorative pillows.
Iâm being ridiculous. Whatâs the point of having pillows, if Iâm worried theyâll be ruined at the slightest touch?
Iâve found myself asking the same question about my faith. Whatâs the point of claiming faith, if Iâm too afraid it will fall apart when life leans hard against it?
Sometimes I view my faith as decorative. I can admire how lovely it sits on the throne of my existence, but when the big, dirty cleats of life tread on it, my shoulders tighten. Deep down, I questionâŚwill this destroy my faith? And if it does, what does that mean about God?
In the moments Iâve dared to pick up my faith, stomp on it, wrestle it, punch it with questions and bitterness, Iâve realizedâŚ
Real faith, is for real life.
And real life doesnât smell like Anthropoligie. God doesnât want us to be afraid to throw all our junk at it full force. The faith he gives is not a cheap knock off. It’s the real deal.
Paul tells us, âWe are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyedâ. (2 Corinthians 4:8-9)
If weâre taking our faith along for the ride, it will endure the same refining.
Iâve fallen face first into my faith and sobbed. Iâve thrown it powerfully against my closet doors and cursed it a liar. But the real lie is in thinking broken faith isnât fixable.
Iâve lifted my faith up to the Lord, tattered, dirty, horribly misshapen with stuffing pouring out at every ripped seam. Iâve felt ashamed, like a little girl who ruined her new doll by leaving it in the rain.
Look what Iâve done to the gift you gave me, Father. I took it out in the storm with me. Look at this messâŚ
His eyes are on me.
Sweet girl, I knit you together in your motherâs womb.
I can knit your faith back together, too.
And he always does. His healing fabric is durable, his stitch, solidly perfect. He knew the whole time that the testing of my faith would produce perseverance in me. (James 1:3)
I am weak. My God is strong. When I offer Him my feeble faith, HE strengthens it.
Maybe thereâs just a frayed corner that remains of your faith.
Thatâs OK. He just needs faith the size of a mustard seed to move mountains in your life. (Matthew 17:20)
We must approach God with our brokenness, so we experience him as Healer.
After the battle, our faith proves to be the comforting truth we rest our heart upon at the end of the day.
I was a cheerleader. Not the cool kind. When a routine called for the splits, Iâd lower my skirt to hide the fact I was several inches away from nailing it. I couldnât do a toe-touch. Iâd routinely jaunt across the quad with my skirt unknowingly tucked up under my backpack. Yeah.