Jesus is my candidate....

It's nearing election time in Texas, which, as per usual, has left me feeling a little frustrated.  Candidates that fall short on each side.  Voter opinion that falls just as short.  Media in the middle mucking the whole thing up!  I may be prepared to back someone with my vote, but decidedly not with my hope.  Because in today's political climate (and social and financial) I fear we are really all just going to be swimming in circles until Jesus comes!!

Isaiah 26 says "We have a strong city; God makes salvation its walls and ramparts" (vs.1).  As I think about this country, my state, city and community, I know I fortunate to be where I am.  The history laid before us, of service and sacrifices made by so many.  Though we are far from perfect, we know how far we've come.  We must protect that.  And yet....

Our world is fragile.  The buildings in which we live and work and worship are just that.  Brick and mortar and stone built by man and just as easily undone.  In God alone do we have what outlasts.  In God alone do we find salvation.  In God alone do we find peace. 

"Lord, YOU establish peace for us, all that we have accomplished you have done for us" (vs. 12).  

I don't know who your candidate of choice is for the upcoming elections, but regardless of who you vote for, you have a God that outlasts.  You have a God that builds walls that do not come down, a God of salvation, order and peace.  You have a God that says politics be damned, do what is right.  Love your neighbor.  Serve your community.  Seek justice.  Live in peace.  For no man or woman in any place of power may take these away when God has given them to you.

Your vote counts, friends.  But your faith counts greater.  

XOXO....Kelly 

Snake pants, 5 years later...

In my first blog post here 5 1/2 years ago, I wrote about a pair of snake-printed skinny pants I had mustered up the courage to put on after 6 years of being pregnant and having babies.  The pants, for me, became kind of a symbol.  A moving on from one phase into another, as my oldest started kindergarten and our youngest was...well...the last.  And a reminder, that the clothes on the outside of us are nothing compared to the peace of God that dwells within.

Those pants are still in my drawer.  I got to thinking about them the other day, maybe because I haven't worn them in a while.  (The peace of God is still certainly hanging around, but the waistline doesn't look exactly the same.)  This year my oldest starts middle school, so onward we go, into a new phase with new challenges and new opportunities.  The more we move on, the more joy I receive from getting to know God's peace....

My peace I leave you, my peace I give to you.  I do not give to you as the world gives.  Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.  John 14:26

You see, God's peace is not always ideal.  Sometimes the soul is tired.  Sometimes the soul is angry.  Sometimes the soul cannot see the path in front of it.  But His peace is constant.  It is faithful.  And when all the world around me is screaming, it is the whisper that keeps me balanced.

God's peace is also a promise.  When we cannot see it, cannot feel it, are not sure it is there...it is in these moments that Christ invites us to call out to Him, that we might receive His peace not as we might expect the world to give us a gift, but as He might give one.

I pray you peace for the road ahead, friends.  I pray for ups and downs that bring you closer to God, that acquaint more with his sovereignty, his mercy, his grace.  I pray for my kiddos as they begin a new school year, and for each teacher and staff member that will cross their paths and shape their minds.  I pray for myself!  May I be equipped to handle the road ahead of me, both seen and unseen, with God's help.  May I be a instrument of His good and perfect will.  

And just in case it helps....may I also be able to get into those snake pants again some day soon.....

XOXO--Kelly

Blake's most recent snake encounter, a rattler he encountered at the deer lease.  Don't worry...no pants were harmed in the killing of this snake.  

    

We have a sink hole.

Not too long after we moved into our home two years ago, we discovered what appears to be a small-ish sink hole in our back yard.  It's about 4 feet deep and a foot wide at the top.  It's flagged, of course, so no boy falls in it, and we check it daily for any potentially curious dachshunds.  We've talked to the county, to plumbers, to the neighbor next door as we try to figure out what to do about it, and have attempted to fill it on two or three occasions only to have it slowly reappear again over time.  I fear until we figure out what's lacking in the ground underneath we will never successfully fill that hole.  

And so with our hearts....

As God did create us, He also created within us a need for Him, as the source of our salvation, as the wellspring of peace and guidance.  It's a "Jesus-shaped hole" as my good friend Craig likes to say, and it exists in each one of us.  You can feel it on any given day, the presence of that hole.  It's what twinges when we hear others hurl insults at one another.  It's what weeps when the news reports another tragic school shooting.  It's what keeps us from sleep at night when we are struggling at home or at work.

So as only we know how we try to fill that hole.  Some fixes are good....vacation, home improvement, a new hair style, working out.  Some are not....alcohol, drugs, pornography.  None are permanent.  None are everlasting.  The only fix for our Jesus-shaped holes is Jesus himself.

It occurs to me as my kids get older how many things the world offers them to try to satisfy their longings.  It's a phone one week and a video game the next.  It's this activity and that one.  It's a test score, a pair of shoes, a sleepover with a friend.  And while--like I said--so many of these things are not all bad on the surface, if the foundation is not in Jesus Christ--a hole will always be there.  And the less Jesus they are offered the more they will try to fill that hole with something else.

Offer them Jesus.
Let Jesus be offered to us.

When I said, "My foot is slipping," your unfailing love, Lord, supported me.
When anxiety was great within me, your consolation brought me joy. Psalm 94:18-19

It is the joy of knowing that Christ dwells within us, the joy of salvation in Him, the joy of doing his will that supports us and sustains us.  Whatever else fills our days and our moments, if it is not His joy that is the foundation we'll be dumping dirt into that hole for years to come.

In the meantime, we'll keep checking our sink hole for dachshunds.  And neighborhood cats.  And eventually probably small automobiles if we can't get this thing figured out pretty quickly.....

XOXO....Kelly





 

   

The voices in my head sometimes call me "Mom".

I don't know about you, but there are A LOT of different voices in my head.  Some of the voices are work-related.  Some of them have to do with school.  Some have to do with how I look.

There are neighbor voices.  Church voices.  Family voices.  Voices that tell me I've failed.  Voices that tell me I've succeeded.  Voices that tell me we're out of milk.

There's one voice that sounds just like my husband.  That's something they never tell you when you're getting ready to walk down the aisle!

Four of the voices move around a lot and look like this....

Just because there's a voice in your head doesn't mean it's necessarily troublesome, of course, though there are those.  But the reality is that, whatever the source, there is a lot of competition for our thoughts, and who we are, what we do has a lot to do with how these voices manifest themselves in our daily lives.  I was recently asked to do an inventory of my spiritual disciplines.  In other words, how do I connect each day to God's voice?  (There's nothing like doing an inventory of your spiritual disciplines to reinforce how much you're lacking said discipline.)  What I found was that I have taken holiness for granted in a big way.

You see, holiness is living in devotion to God.  Aligning yourself with His will and seeking it over and over and over again, in every facet of your life.  Holiness is not a given.  It does not come to us just because we love the Lord.  It does not come to us because we attend church.  It does not come to us because we are nice to others and live a good life.  It comes because we take time--intentional moments--to be with Him and listen for His voice.  It takes effort.  Repeated effort.  Over and over and over again kind of effort.

We sang through a great hymn today....an oldie but a goodie, if you will.  Take Time to Be Holy

1. Take time to be holy, speak oft with thy Lord;
   Abide in Him always, and feed on His Word.
   Make friends of God’s children, help those who are weak,
   Forgetting in nothing His blessing to seek.
2. Take time to be holy, the world rushes on;
   Spend much time in secret, with Jesus alone.
   By looking to Jesus, like Him thou shalt be;
   Thy friends in thy conduct His likeness shall see.
3. Take time to be holy, let Him be thy Guide;
   And run not before Him, whatever betide.
   In joy or in sorrow, still follow the Lord,
   And, looking to Jesus, still trust in His Word.
4. Take time to be holy, be calm in thy soul,
   Each thought and each motive beneath His control.
   Thus led by His Spirit to fountains of love,
   Thou soon shalt be fitted for service above.

I love some of the voices in my head, I really do.  Others I can live without.  But of all the voices in my head God's needs to be the loudest.  It needs to be the strongest.  It needs to be the voice against which all other voices are measured.

I know this will take effort on my part.  I must take the time to seek it.  I must take the time to maintain it!  A relationship with the Living God means constant pursuit.  But what I know of this kind of effort is that God always honors it.  When we take the time to listen for God's voice we can be assured we will hear it!

….Well, the voices in my head are telling me to get some sleep now.  Not before I pray over my day today, of course, and what lies ahead for tomorrow.  Like buying milk.  And toilet paper.  And I think we're out of eggs.  And the bathroom needs cleaned.  Good grief, these voices are bossy....

XOXO....Kelly  

     

 

When home is not a resting place...

I remember a season in my life a few years ago.  We were moving into a new home--trying to fix, pack and clean one while moving into the other.  I had just returned from a two-week trip out of the country.  Spring Break and Easter were nuzzled somewhere in the middle of it all on top of all sorts of spring-time goodness at the kids' school and extracurricular activities.

It was one of those seasons when I would wake up in the morning and first thing have a little panic as I tried to remember which day it was.  Every facet of our lives was busy...work, school, church, even home.  I remember feeling there was absolutely no place to just rest.  I jokingly asked my friend if I could come take a nap on her couch for a while because I was not actually responsible for anything in her house!    

We build our homes in the hopes that they would be a haven for us.  Home should be sacred a place, where we can unwind.  Where we can be real.  Where we can air our dirty laundry (literally!).  But inevitably home fails us from time to time.  Family strife.  Difficult phases of parenting.  Everything on the news (it's been a doozy here lately, hasn't it?).  Mud on the floor!  What do you do when home is not a place to rest??

I love what Ruth Chou Simons writes in her book Gracelaced...."A tidy home and sometimes a calm and quiet environment has often been my comfort--my shelter in the midst of crazy--messy seasons.  It was never meant to be."

Psalm 91:1-2 says, "He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty.  I will say to the Lord, 'My refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.'"

We look for shelter and refuge in all kinds of places, things and people, but God's word reminds us that it is the shelter of Him--who is Most High and Almighty--where we will truly find rest, where we truly find home.  We cannot rely on our physical surroundings to bring us peace, no matter how lovely the couch cushions are!  (Incidentally my couch cushions smell like socks)

That season eventually passed for us.  We got moved in and the other house sold.  Summer came and we all enjoyed the break from school.  I began to remember what day it was again!  Seasons come and seasons go.  Some stay longer than others, both in good and bad ways.  The only constant we can expect is the true and solid refuge of God.

Take shelter there, friends, and you will find rest.

Out with the old....

Well, I reached the point this week where it was either replace the tile in my bathroom....or clean it.  I weighed all the options.  Spent a good amount of time on Pinterest studying the latest tile trends.  Watched several YouTube videos on replacing tile DIY.  In the end I decided it was probably less wasteful (of both time and money) to just clean the tile I already have.  Sigh....

It strikes me how quick I am to just replace things.  Shoes, bags, furniture, cars.  The ease with which we can shop for and acquire new things these days makes it all too easy to avoid putting much effort into the upkeep of anything.  Out with the old--or slightly used--and in with the new!  Sometimes it's a lack of know how on repair or maintenance.  Sometimes I'm just plain lazy.  But either way, there's a danger sometimes to looking to something new so fast, to taking the easy way out.  Danger because this attitude can bleed into other areas of our lives...

Did you know that relationships are hard work?  Like really hard work sometimes.  Family, friends, co-workers, neighbors.  Y'all, there are all sorts of opportunities for someone to get under your skin.  And when you live in a city the size of Houston with a population of somewhere over 2.5 million people (y'all go home now....we full) wouldn't it just be easier to find someone else to talk to?

But that's not how it works.  Scripture is full of references to the fellowship of believers, the image of all people working together to form one body.  The idea that we belong to each other, and in that we've got to tend to our relationships with one another.  

"For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of you. For just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others." Romans 12:3-5

The foot cannot despise the hand and the body still make it.  There has to peace.  "Make every effort to live in peace with everyone and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord" (Hebrews 12:14).  We have to invest, maintain, repair.  Even when it is hard.  Even when the world is saying it would be easier to walk away.  It goes beyond just forgiveness.  It speaks to God's design entire design for us, in community and in fellowship.

Are there relationships in your life need some maintenance?  Repair?  Complete restoration??

Father, we lift them up to you now.  Help us to see others with the same eyes and the same heart as you do.  When we are tempted to discard and walk away, give us the humility to turn instead to forgiveness.  Restore our friendships, marriages, families, communities, that we might live into the truth you have designed for us....that we belong to each other.  And, that in that, we would see you more clearly.  Amen.  

 

When you're good looking AND you know everything....

It starts at a young age, people professing authority on things they know nothing about.  Let me tell you, for example, some of the things that my own children (God bless them) are "experts" on....

1.  Former football players and team stats that occurred before they were born
2.  Wild animals
3.  Deadly diseases
4.  The automobile industry
5.  Foods from other countries
6.  President Trump's wall

They can't tell you how long they've been playing a video game, but they sure can weigh in on foreign affairs.  Yes, at the ripe ages of  11, 10, 8 and 5 my kids are seemingly experts on most everything.  Whether this comes from a place of great confidence, or simply the inability to say "I don't know" when asked a question, well...I don't know.  But to be sure, in this day and age of information overload and a less than objective media, add to your list of parenting do's the skill of pause and discernment.

Because you can be sure for every ounce of truth out there you're gonna have to wade through a whole bunch of poo to get to it.  And poo-wading is not easy.  It takes time and prayer and thoughtfulness.  And we do not live in a society that necessarily elevates those virtues.  We like answers that are quick and make us feel good and think less.  Who has time for more than that?  Best just to write/print/post/spout off/vote for whatever sounds good and convenient in the moment.  Right???

Christ spoke of false prophets.  "They come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves.  By their fruit you will recognize them...every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit."  Matthew 7:15, 16.

Fruit takes time.  Apples don't grow overnight and neither does consequence.  See, this is the trick of the devil.  He knows our impatience, our willingness to fill in a gap, our uneasiness with time and effort and conviction.  But we can't play the game on Satan's terms, only God's. 

In the absence of immediacy we must rely of truth.  God's truth.  We have to teach our children, and ourselves, that God's truth is the lens through which we see the rest of the world.  That what falls outside of that lens cannot and will not bear good fruit, despite what the short-term promise is.  We have to teach them to say "I don't know why, but God does" and rest in that trust.  That the right answer is not always easy, but that it is right.  And that loving one another is always an option.  And when we cling to His idea of truth, though we change, God does not.

What your false prophets don't see is the end of the story.  What they haven't held in their hands is the world, and all of its creation.  What they can not possibly know is everything that He does.  What they can't give you.....salvation through Jesus Christ, His son.

Pause.  Think.  Pray.  And when you speak, speak Truth.

XOXO....Kelly