Choosing the Here of Life

Five Minute Friday

Here is my five minutes of thoughts, unedited to share.  

Our word is HERE:

::Go::

In the midst of the weeds, here we find ourselves in the final stretch of summer. 

 Stores are beginning to send out their notices, reminding us it is time to gather our back to school items once again. Then they will begin to batter us with the next holiday or event and continue to try to entice us to live for that, instead of being fully here in our today. Here it is summer in all of it's glory and we are beginning to once again look at the
 'What's coming next.'  

How often do we live in what is not the HERE?  I know so often in my life I have got caught up in the very dangerous trap of looking ahead (or behind) instead of staying present in today.  

I am not saying planning or setting goals isn't good.  What I am trying to remind myself of (and you if you need a pep talk too) is that being HERE is important.  Living in today is what God is asking of us.  Doing His will NOW and His work today is what is required.

Here I am.  Pondering simplicity.   Happy to enjoy today.  Glad that homeschooling doesn't require much shopping. Not wanting to push it aside and hurry into something that isn't here right now.

Often one finds it hard to stay in the here and now.  So often we look back, or look forward and forget that today counts.  Today, is a full 24 hours of God given time that we can be.  It's a choice.  It takes effort to remain here, but I am finding that as I simplify life, it becomes easier.  Less clutter of life grabs at you when you can choose to live fully in today. 

breathe:: HERE I am Lord! 
 I am present and waiting for You!

Glad to be here and glad to breathe deep in the now of summer. Hope you find time to breathe deep too!

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If At First You Don't Succeed

Five Minute Friday:   :: TRY::

::Go::

What rose in my heart when I saw Kate's word prompt for this week's Five Minute Friday was;

If at first you don't succeed, try, try again.

It made me think of parenting.

It made me think of how it came to be that I am the mother of 8 children who call me Mama.

It made me think of how the road to motherhood was paved by a call of God on my life to adopt.  I heard God calling me when I was only 13 and just newly saved by His marvelous grace.  How I had to step out in faith to follow Him into it.

Now I love adoption, let's be clear on that upfront.  It is a call of trust, not just for the money involved, but for all that will come, once that child becomes yours.

Parenting is hard.  It isn't anything that one has practice on before one becomes one.  Sure you can read books, sure you can look to your childhood (good and bad) and of course you can look around and see others who have gone before you in it.

BUT 

you will make mistakes. 

 You will need to try and try again at this thing called parenting.  It is not a one time and done kind of thing.  Each child is their own little person, made in the image of God.  They all have their own bends, gifts, talents and need I say troubles.  We are all sinners who fall short and need to humble ourselves and come again to you to be forgiven and set about right.

In the road of parenting, it doesn't matter if they are homemade or adopted, you will need to keep putting your hand to the plow and trying to till the soil of their hearts while you can.  Trying to reach the broken places, trying to show them the narrow road to walk as they follow the One who made them and has a unique plan for their lives.

  You will try to show them by your own life, by the words of your lips and the actions you take up daily; so as to point them like an arrow at the heart of Jesus.  

Some days it seems so easy, others not so much~ to the point of wondering how you might have entered into this madness you call life.  

But ultimately, we are not the source or the solution for our children, it is Jesus.  So when I empty myself and follow Him, letting Him shine through me, I find success at this thing called parenting.  But when I fail, when I doubt, when I get to the edge and want to jump...well, guess what?  I need to again fall on my knees or on my face and tell God that I need Him.  Tell Him that though I have tried, that still it seems in the natural to not be working.  Tell Him that I need a spirit boost and a soul tune-up.  I call out to Him knowing that my success comes from Him and Him alone.

Lord, you've called me.  Help me to continue to try to do all You have asked of me.  Help me to do it with the right heart.  Forgive me for wanting to quit and forgive me for when I fail so miserably at this motherhood-parenting thing.  I need Your help and I need Your Spirit to love them and to point them to Your heart. In Jesus' name I ask it.  amen.

 Ecclesiastes 9:10

Whatever the activity in which you engage, do it with all your ability, because there is no work, no planning, no learning, and no wisdom in the next world where you’re going.

 

Galatians 6:9 

Let’s not get tired of doing what is good, for at the right time we will reap a harvest—if we do not give up.

  

 Proverbs 16:3 

Commit your work to the Lord, then it will succeed

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What Do You See?

:: Hope::

go

I woke up this particular morning in an old country cabin in the Northern Woods, the cabin happened to be mine. Joy rose out of my heart as I embraced this new day that God had given me.  As my eyes focused on the surroundings I was drawn to the only area of light seeping into the cabin this early summer morning.  Though I had seen this so many other mornings of my life, this morning what spoke to me wasn't the beautiful blue sky or the front yard and its beautiful landscape.  It was the cross that became my heart's focus.  

How many times in our life do we forget the cross?  How many times, whether in seasons of plenty or during the seasons of hardship, do we see the cross?  Our soul (our mind, will and emotions) often want to take control and lead us down soulish paths.  If only when we looked around us we saw or were reminded of the cross and what Jesus did for us there; things would be so different in our spiritual walk.

We could see so much more of Him in our days if our hearts would begin with the cross.  If we would check ourselves to see if we have added Him in to our day or if we enter the day knowing He is already here and waiting for us.  He longs for our company, He desires us to walk with Him through our every moment.

How thankful I am that because of that cross and because of God's great love for me, that I can look at life through His window.  My soul can be transformed and I can become who it was that He is longing for me to become.  

It is a process this life.  But perhaps it is easier than we think, maybe it is just what we think on and what it is that is always before us.  We need to remind ourselves, we need to follow Him. He doesn't want to follow us, but wants us to see things through His heart and with the view of the cross permeating everything that our eyes and days take in.


My hope is in you Lord.  

What about you, 
what does it look like from your soul and spirit?

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