Thursday morning thoughts…

I am working through a really thought provoking bible study right now with a mother’s prayer group. We met as a group this morning and had great, thought provoking discussion and now I’m sitting here, chewing on all those thoughts.

We are studying women of the Bible. This week we focused on Sarah and we discussed waiting, as Sarah waited a long time for motherhood. We discussed her handmaid Hagar, how she got mixed up in Sarah trying to do things on her own; and how God saw Hagar, even as she felt insignificant. He saw her and he saved her.

Yesterday, I listened to a podcast that talked about letting your light shine. It’s a podcast by Danielle Bean, the girlfriends podcast, it’s worth a listen! Anyways, she talked about figuring out the things that you are good at, your gifts, and using them for good. She discussed how you find what those things are and let them shine.

As I was walking the dogs and listening to the podcast, I named two gifts out loud that God gave me, writing and public speaking. I thought, I can use these gifts; I need to quit hiding them.

Hours later I got an email, asking that I speak. It’s for a conference at Georgetown University in Washington, DC. It will be one of biggest engagements where I have been asked to speak.

I felt a little like God had been waiting for my yes. As soon as I even thought it, he was like, “finally, I’ve been waiting; I have places where I need your voice!”

I felt like Hagar. Like in all my insignificance, he saw me.

It never ceases to amaze me how at work
He is in my life and how he even uses the very books I read and podcasts I listen to to guide me.

Before the weekend begins I will have turned 40. In the past few weeks I’ve thought about this new age, this new decade, this new beginning.

I thought back to my 30th birthday. I had 4 kids when I turned 30, the youngest had just celebrated his 1st birthday. My goal, the entire year leading up to my 30th birthday was to wear a bikini. I reached my goal and we celebrated at hotel with a waterpark attached. The kids had fun and I have fond memories of them going down the waterslides together and their soaking smiles!

Ten years later I can’t believe there was a time and yearn again for a time when the hardest thing was fitting into a bikini. Ten years is the amount of time it took our family to grow from six to eight; for 3 of our children to be diagnosed with a fatal and progressive disorder; for us to experience a miscarriage; for my husband and I to each lose a parent; and to experience the loss of a sibling. Ten years seems like a blink of the eye and it seems like an eternity.

I’ve grown and changed in 10 years. In some ways, I am the same and in others it is like that younger version of me never existed. I’m thankful for every experience because each one of them has shaped me into a person I am learning to accept, love, and be proud of. It took each of those experiences and many many others to get me closer to the person God is calling me to be. It reminds me of the quote by Saint Catherine of Siena, “Be who God meant you to be and you will set the world on fire.”

I have struggled always with accepting who God is calling me to be; to see my value. I swallowed lies and I made them my truths. I grew up around church and with faith my entire life, but somehow along the way, I either never learned or swallowed another lie. I never believed that there was nothing I could do to earn more favor with God and that there was nothing I could do to fall out of favor with God. I am just now internalizing the love of our Father. It had always been there, but because I thought I was unworthy I wouldn’t accept it. Many experiences in my life were so lonely for me because I could not believe I was worthy of love.

Discovering the truth is changing me. I feel it kindling in my heart. I feel the chains of fear and self-loathing breaking and beginning to fall. I feel myself in the beginning of a warm embrace with my true and authentic self. I am going to let God put all my broken pieces back together and make something beautiful them with them. I am going to let the light shine through my cracks.

I am learning to accept who God is calling me to be. I accept that I will not be perfect and that God already knows when I’m going to mess up. I accept that he will love me still. I am learning to love God’s daughter, just as he always has. That kindle is going to spark as I answer God’s call and I will soon be warmed by the fire Saint Catherine of Siena talks about.

I am excited to turn 40! I am doing something I’ve never done before. I’m going to let people celebrate me. I am going to accept it and soak it all in. For the first time in 40 years I’m going to smile (hopefully without too many tears of gratitude leaking from my eyes), I’m going to hug my family and friends, and I am going to embrace the strong and gentle, open and sensitive loving person that I am not afraid to be.

Recently, someone told me I was resilient.

For days before that, I was praying for God to put a word on my heart. I wanted to practice a word for the year.

I was thinking of words and considering many that I thought would be good, that could help me grow spiritually. But, once I heard the word resilient, it settled deep into my heart and I knew it was my word for 2020.

Recently someone told me I was resilient. I shook my head in disagreement.

I struggle to accept a compliment. I struggle to believe the good others see in me. Long ago, years before I was an adult, I adopted this coping mechanism. If I could tell myself and believe all the worst things, then it wouldn’t hurt as much when someone would say them to me.

I think focusing on resiliency this year is going to do a lot in my life.

I have been resilient.

I’ve been able to get through some difficult situations. This year, I think God is challenging me to think of resiliency in a different light. God is calling me to be more gentle with myself. I think God is calling me to be a person that loves herself and sees herself for what she is, His beloved daughter.

If I can be resilient to the one who attacks my heart and doesn’t want me to believe I’m God’s beloved daughter…

If my heart can be softer and more malleable…

If I give it all to God….

Then the crosses I will bear today, tomorrow, and later in my life will be as God’s Beloved daughter and through Him I will be able to pick up those crosses and follow Him.

I think focusing on resiliency is going to do a lot in the life of my family. Things I can’t even imagine.

My children, overhearing me talk to my husband about the word of the year idea asked me about resilient. After an explanation, one of my boys, my 10 year old who is currently transitioning to a power chair because disease progression is taking from him his ability to walk; Rowen said he wanted to be resilient, too.

He is already one of the most resilient people I know, this year going through more change and loss that anyone his age should have to and is making it out stronger and more independent. But to see Him and all of my children and my husband grow in this area will truly be the work of God in our lives.

I’m excited to see where this year leads us. I will continue to use this blog for many topic areas, but promise to update you here about the things we learn and experience on this journey with this word God has put on my heart.