FMF: Mighty

HAPPY FRIDAY!!! Today's post is on...yup...you've guessed it...."MIGHTY". (you guys are so smart!)

Throwback to 4 years ago (almost 5 years now..yipes!)

Okay so when I first hear the word "mighty" the immediate image that comes to my head is "Mighty Mouse".  Does anyone remember him?  You know, the little mouse that had great strength.  I'm afraid some of you may be aging me at this point...but just to validate my young age (hee hee) we used to watch it in color on a vhs that my parents stumbled upon and found it worthwhile enough to share with my generation.
 ANYWAYS, getting way off track here....so thinking about Mighty Mouse and his size brings another thought to my mind, one which my mom always told me when I was young, and that is this, that "you are small but mighty".  At the time it was more a reference to my tiny size due to being a figure skater, and my ability to be successful in athletics despite my small frame.  However many years later that phrase has new life as I face chapters of my life called "being a wife" and "being a mom".

I can't recall how many times in a day or a week I am plagued by the thought, "you're just a mom", or dread being asked the question, "so what do you do?", only to have to answer, "I'm a stay-at home mom" as images of a Leave-It-To-Beaver type mom fills my head and I cringe at the stereotype that I never wanted to be, and in reality aren't. (phew!)

So many times I undermine my strengths, gifts, and the roles that I've been called to serve in...especially that of motherhood.  But I'm so grateful for friends and community that remind me that being a mom is nothing small, and nothing to be looked down upon.  Being a mom encompasses more roles than I ever could have imagined; it is challenging, rewarding, fulfilling, heartbreaking, and heartwarming, and most of all it changes you.  It changes you from ordinary to mighty...and not because it swells your head with all of your accomplishments, but because I can see that in my weakest moments Christ is right there with me, giving me the words to speak, the love to share, the patience and endurance to not give up, and the vulnerability to keep my heart wide open to these little ones who sometimes fling so much emotion and hurt my way.  He is there with His strength, and He makes me mighty.

STOP (Yep....I went 15 minutes this time....sorry...what can I say...it's late...I'm a night person...I like to talk..I tend to babble and......wait a minute....there I go...DONE!) :)

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Join in the Five Minute Friday Party with Lisa-Jo Baker (who just came out with a wonderfully new book called "Surprised by Motherhood" that will be released on April 1st. Go to Amazon now to pre-order your copy!)
How? Just write for 5 minutes on the given topic and link it up here.

The only rule is that you must visit the person who linked up before you and encourage them in their comments.  (Yay! Building community!) :)

FMF: Joy!

Sadly I missed out on the Five Minute Friday Party last week because (not-so-sadly) I was away for a family overnighter, but great news, I'm back for this one!  So here goes, five minutes of unedited writing on the topic of Joy.

Ready...GO!

This topic couldn't be more fitting for this week because lately everywhere I turn I have been hearing the words "joy", "celebrate", and "free".  I've been thinking a lot about these things lately and about how we were created to be joyful, and to celebrate this gift of life that we have been blessed with.

So many times we can confuse joy with happy, when really the two words are as different as night and day.  Happiness is more of a feeling that is driven by our outward circumstances and situations, whereas joy is an inward state of the heart.  It is a strength that sustains throughout difficult seasons and spills out carrying us over to the other side.

So how does joy equal strength, and what does it have to do with celebrating and being free if it isn't happiness?  Well for me joy brings strength because it causes me to change my focus from the present circumstances, and to look toward God and His faithful promises.  These promises bring hope because they shift my perspective into an eternal one instead of a here-and-now one.  When I look at eternity, and more specifically eternity in Heaven with my Savior, I become free from the effect of the cares of today, which are fleeting and momentary (as the Bible says) and am strengthened to carry on in celebration of what lies ahead.

STOP! (Okay...so I went 5 min over again...so-o-o-o-ry! Still a newbie here) ;)

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Join in the Five Minute Friday Party with Lisa-Jo Baker.
How? Just write for 5 minutes on the given topic and link it up here.

The only rule is that you must visit the person who linked up before you and encourage them in their comments.  (Yay! Building community!) :)

Created to Worship

So often I've heard it said among Christians, "don't be led by your emotions", or "emotions are deceiving", to the point that I end up feeling like I can't hear Christ through my emotions, or if I feel a feeling in my times of conversing, or worshiping Him that I can't trust those emotions, therefore they have no validity in the moment and I should shut them off.

However, during some time spent worshiping God today the thought suddenly occurred to me that what if God not only wants me to experience Him in my thoughts, but also in my feelings....that what if...those feelings are a way for me to feel Him and be directed by Him, a way to experience His love, His joy, His peace, and His fulfillment.

By nature, and being an "artistic" sort of person it could be said that I am fairly emotional and sensitive to things that others would not normally respond to.  I've always tended to view this as a bad thing because of all of the negative things I've heard from Christians about our emotions; however I don't recall reading anywhere in the Bible that the Holy Spirit only wants me to experience Him in my mind, and in this moment spent worshiping today when this thought occurred to me I felt so full of God's presence as I let the guard down in my emotions and felt free to finally experience Him in my emotions without any condemning thoughts to hold me back.

In that same moment of being free to experience Christ in my emotions I was singing the words, "To worship You I live. To worship You, I live, I live, to worship You", and in that moment I felt such peace, joy, and a fulfillment that can't even come close to being matched, flood over my emotions, and overtake every thought, and every part of my being.  And in that split second everything made sense....I was created to worship....what I worship is my choice, I can choose to worship the created things that fill my world, or I can choose to worship the Creator of those things and of my very soul.  In that moment, the only sensible thing to do was to worship the Creator, the only One great enough to be worthy of worship and worthy of praise; nothing else even comes close to being worthy of that kind of adoration.  This is how I want to live my life... to worship Christ and experience that kind of deep fulfillment, and peace fill up my entire being...over and over and over again.  Nothing else will do, and I won't settle for less.

To worship You Jesus I live,
Crystal

Dream with Me

Hello friend, foe, or family! ;) So glad to meet up with you here on a wonderfully warm March Break!  (relatively speaking of course with the crazy Canadian winter we've been having here)

I was sitting down tonight to work on a few lessons for later on this week and (most likely in an attempt to distract myself) decided it would be a fantastic idea to write a wee blog (small on the "wee" and big on the "Blog" part) as I likely won't get a chance later on this week due to recent developments of weekend plans (insert a "whoop whoop" here).

With all of the mild weather it's been perfect for puddle jumping and mud squishing...even if the boots are a bit small and the pants a bit big. ;)  And while others are off taking part in grand adventures or meaningful works, we're just enjoying the simple pleasures in life around here.  I won't lie, this has come very naturally for my kids, but it has been a challenge for me.

I tend to be a "dreamer" sort of person, regardless of if it's the ones that satisfy the shallower parts of me to be a world-wide traveler, or the grander, deeper dreams that beckon me to be a revolutionary world-changer; I tend to resort to dreaming larger-than-(my) life type dreams much more than I wish.  Now being a dreamer isn't necessarily a bad thing, in fact, it can be quite good when it is harnessed correctly and is on a solid foundation, but when the dreams begin to consume the dreamer, they have crossed that healthy line.

This week throughout the course of the daily tasks of housecleaning and being a stay-at-home mom I found myself in "dreamer-mode"...not bad...but then a funny thing began to happen as I continued to dream...I began to despise what I was doing and wish that I were elsewhere.  The happy daydreaming very rapidly declined into a place of miserable-woe-is-me-complaining, which then led to that very unhealthy place of "I'm not making a difference, so what's the point?".  Not good, but  sad to say, that's where I was...(side note: why is it that no one pictures this when we say the word "dreamer"???  Hmm...time to insert happy dreamers again)

Aren't they the cutest?!
(If only they always behaved in such an endearing way)

To make a long story short, my priorities had gotten off because I failed to be thankful for what I had and had allowed my eyes to be more focused on what I didn't have.  I had shifted from finding my fulfillment in my relationship with Jesus to finding it in what I did or did not do.  Such a simple little thing, but it makes all of the difference in the world.  And here's the really good news...when we practice that thankful heart attitude, with our fulfillment coming from the one place that never changes, our dreams become just one small part of a much bigger picture that God is painting, to touch and change more hearts than we could ever imagine on our own.

So with that being said, today I'd like to ask you to join with me in helping to support a bigger dream.  I don't normally use my Blog as a place to "solicit", but it was on my heart to do this so here I am.  My good friend Nadine, Ambassador of Hope, from the Organization "Hope for the Nations" left today for Kenya to visit the Children of Change at the Kiungani Home with the purpose of empowering these children who were once without dreams to now not only dream of a better tomorrow, but be equipped to reach it and accomplish their dreams through Project Entrepreneur.  She will be bringing business ideas with her, and teaching ways they can earn and manage money.  Wouldn't it be great if she could reach her goal while she's there!  Whether it's $5, $10, or $100, every little bit helps and will go towards mattresses, blankets, and other basic needs for these Children of Change.  CLICK HERE TO DONATE, and select the picture with the children called "Project Entrepreneur".

Could there be a more beautiful way to plant the seed of your dream than by depositing it in the soil of these Children of Change's dreams...and you don't even have to leave your house!  Thank you, thank you, thank you, I'm excited for dreams coming alive!

Crystal

PS: Surprise Nadine! ;)

FMF: Willing

Well here we are again, I'm back for my second edition of Five Minute Friday where we write for five minutes of unedited time and then link back later to encourage our sisters who are writing with us.

(Incase you couldn't tell by the title) Today's topic is: WILLING

Ready.....Go!

"The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak".  We find Jesus telling His disciples this in the Garden before He is led away to be placed on trial and later crucified.  His soul is in anguish, doing the real work of denying His will, and His desires, and pleading for another way if it is in His Father's will.  His disciples are tired and lack the understanding of what is about to take place, and in exhaustion struggle to stay awake and pray with Jesus.  Jesus encourages them to pray that they would not be led into temptation because the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak.

How many times do I find myself in this exact same place, needing to hear these words from Jesus in my weary soul?  Too often I have a willing spirit to do those things that I am called to do, or to respond in the way that Jesus would, but I find that my flesh is just as weak as anyone else's.  My spirit wants to do great things, and being one of those people that are "blessed" with a strong will (it wasn't a blessing for the longest time believe me...but it is now), I find that I can start out with a bang and push myself quite a ways, but sooner or later my flesh kicks in and the negative thoughts start rolling out, the exhaustion setting in, and eventually weariness and laziness begin to take over.  At these times, more than ever, do I need to hear these words from Jesus, to pray that I wouldn't be led into temptation because my spirit is willing, but this flesh of mine is oh-so-weak.

So right now I just want to pray for myself and you that we will have fresh strength from our Father to run with endurance in what He's called us to do.  I ask Him for new thought patterns to replace the old well-trodden negative thought patterns, and His ability to step in where our ability is limited.  Thank you Father that where our flesh is weak, and our spirit willing, we can run to you for Your strength which is greater than our flesh, and even more amazing; thank you that you still willingly choose us despite all of our weakness.

STOP. (I can't lie...I went over on this one...so sorry FMF friends!) ;)

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Join in the Five Minute Friday Party with Lisa-Jo Baker.
How? Just write for 5 minutes on the given topic and link it up here.

The only rule is that you must visit the person who linked up before you and encourage them in their comments.  (Yay! Building community!) :)

Wash, Rinse, Repeat if Desired

Back when I was still a single gal living at home with not a care in the world (relatively speaking of course ;) ) and had more time than I knew what to do with, I had a funny little habit during shower time of reading all of the labels on the products in the shower and rearranging the letters to see how many new words I could make out of the product names.  (Yes, I know I'm slightly crazy)  Anyways, it seemed on nearly every product the phrase, "wash, rinse, repeat if desired" was present somewhere.  Personally I rarely ever took this advice when it came to my cleansing routine, however fast forward a husband, a four year old, and a two year old later and I'm thinking that I practically live by that advice now.

I'm sure you can relate.  Sometimes it can feel as though I'm stuck on repeat.  The day begins, and there are baskets full of laundry to wash, dry, fold, and put away, stacks of dishes to wash that magically grew overnight, even more stacks to put away, toys that crept out of their boxes, dust bunnies that have reproduced, and enough loose papers, drawings, and crayons to equip an entire kindergarten classroom.  Not to mention the ongoing symphony of "he did this...", or "she said that", "I'm hungry", "I'm thirsty", "I don't like that", "I want...", "I need", etcetera, etcetera.  It's nearly enough to drive a person insane sometimes!

My lovely sink...even the picture is crooked. ;)

So my solution to the above is to immediately go into what I like to call A.D.D. cleaning-mode as I start on one task only to be distracted by another en route, until about mid morning when I find I've accomplished roughly one quarter of half of all of the tasks, the kids are on their third breakfast and I'm still running on caffeine and a prayer.  Now instead of feeling like I've made some progress, I am left feeling like I've only regressed as I look around despairingly at the multitude of partially finished tasks and the clock that just keeps on ticking.

I know I'm not alone in this.  Your struggle may not be one of a stay-at-home mom facing the repetitive tasks of cleaning, dispute resolution, entertainer, and chef, but all the same, sometimes it can feel as though life can be stuck on repeat, whether it's a mundane career, endless school reports, or the ongoing inward battles of the heart.  Often times we can find ourselves in these situations and we think, "I just finished cleaning up that mess, and now there's another one", and we can be left feeling purposeless, drained, exhausted, and overwhelmed with where to begin, or if we should even bother.  So what can we do to overcome this place of hopelessness and begin moving forward?

Well, for me it means stopping to ask God for help as I pick up that hundredth piece of paper, or resolve that same old argument.  Not so much help for the task at hand, but help for my attitude as I embark on the task.

Our attitude is like the rudder in a ship, steering our day in either a positive or a negative direction; the direction is up to us.  I am so encouraged though to know that even when my attitude is sour and I have no desire for change I can still come before my Savior and ask Him to give me His perspective which changes me and gives me fresh courage to break out of the old repeat cycle where it really matters; in my heart and in my mind.

I pray you too, receive fresh courage today from God to face those situations that seem overwhelming, and a new perspective to help you face those ordinary, wash, rinse, and repeat days.

"Attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference." ~ Winston Churchill

♥ Crystal