It was Jeffrey’s 8th birthday… and Mommy woke up with a terrible headache. Jeff sweetly told me he would take Jeffrey to school, so I hugged Jeffrey, took some ibuprofen, and went back to bed. A little while later, Jeff came into the room and said “Jeffrey said he needs cupcakes by 10:00.” My first thought was not “Oh no, I forgot Jeffrey’s cupcakes.” It was “I’m going to be late to work.” Then I started crying. What is wrong with my brain? My heart and mind have been so consumed...
read moreBeautiful God laying Your majesty aside. You reached out in love to show me life. Lifted from darkness into light. Yes. This is my most recent I-can’t-stop-listening-to-it song. Like An Avalanche by Hillsong United. King for a slave, trading your righteousness for shame… despite all my PRIDE and FOOLISH WAYS. Caught in Your infinite embrace. Praise God. And I find myself here on my knees again, caught up in grace like an avalanche. Nothing compares to this love, love, love… burning in my heart. Each time I sing...
read moreOf all the incredible worship music that came from Passion 2013, this one may just be my favorite. I love Christy Nockels’ voice, and I also love it when songwriters combine new stuff with old stuff. My Delight Is In You w/ Refiner’s Fire is a song all about finding the peace God brings when we delight in Him, when we let Him refine us, when we ask Him to draw us close, when we choose to be holy and set apart. I’m thankful that at any given time, I can turn my delight to its rightful place and allow His love and refining...
read moreThis Martha girl doesn’t often stop to let God say what He will to her heart. It’s usually hurry-up-and-get-time-with-Jesus-before-the-kids-wake-up. There are rare times (like tonight) when I get to go to The Bucks and spend alone time with Him, but these moments are easy. They don’t require a lot of intentionality on my part. They don’t really require me to MAKE time in my day, in my chaos. But a couple of weeks ago, the intentionality happened. I knew I needed a word from Him and was willing to wait until it...
read moreI realized something about myself a couple of days ago. In my quirky, perfectionistic, self-centered brain, if one little thing in my day doesn’t go exactly how I planned it, the whole day immediately becomes stamped with failure. Oh the blindness. Oh the ME-ness. That evening, I was beating myself up, literally fighting back tears because of a couple of things that didn’t go right through the day (in my eyes). My flesh wanted to jump to the defense. Insecurity stood up and anchored itself in the ugly bullying role it plays as one...
read moreI’ve been captivated by a lot lately. Mostly by me. Drawing my attention lately have been things and people that, yet again, I allow to try to fill that hole… the hole that can only be filled by the One who deserves our captivation. I’ve been doing a lot FOR God. Being captivated by things FOR Him. We can get so caught up in trying to do what it takes to draw others to Him that we forget how much we need to draw to Him ourselves. I love Pandora. It brings me songs I’ve never heard. And as normally happens when I run,...
read moreI’ve been missing it. The art of being. I’ve also been missing the way I normally process it all. The keyboard. It’s been too long and my fingers have been longing to brush the keys. The same fingers have been attempting to make art elsewhere. But tonight here I am. Too many times during my day-to-day, I miss the art. My mind and heart get caught up in the stuff to do. I forget to just be. But when we learn to just be, God shows us the art that He has given us everywhere… He is just waiting for us to take time to look...
read moreI haven’t been writing lately… and it’s really hit me that writing is how I process life and how I pour out my soul. Writing is healing and fulfilling for me. That being said, hopefully you will begin seeing more posts here again. It’s definitely been a while since we’ve had a Worship Wednesday, so today seemed like a good day to start back. The past few weeks have been an incredible mix of emotions in my life and in the lives of others around me. This song, Lord I Need You, has been a constant reminder of how...
read morePsalm 61:1-3 came up in my study today and it reminded me of a time a few months ago when this passage really spoke to me. As I re-read the following post from November, I realized that I’m here again… needing to find my way to the Rock that is higher than I. Maybe there are others who need to read this again today… ———— Life gets overwhelming. If you’re like me, days just seem to stack on top of each other… then one day suddenly you realize another year has passed. Sometimes, though life...
read moreEncouragement Cafe’s devotional theme for this week was basically to share about a time when our desires have collided with God’s heart. This topic resonated with me so well that I had to share. Hope you can stop by the cafe and read about my worship journey: Created to Worship. After you read, I would love to hear your thoughts! Leave a comment here or there… I’ll be checking both. By the way, if you would like to subscribe to emails from Grow Where You’re Planted, you can do that here: Grow Where...
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