by Stacey | Dec 4, 2014 | Devotionals, reflections, and encouragement
My latest article is out in the December issue of the MB Herald. Read the teaser blurb below and click the link for the rest.
The closer we get to December 25th, the louder Christmas gets. Bing Crosby paints a picture-perfect holiday season. His deep timbre rouses images of glistening snow, jingling sleigh bells and rosy-cheeked children.
And I love it.
But my visions are more complicated than twinkling lights and fireside moments. They don’t revolve around Santa slipping down the chimney or leaving out cookies and milk. They are more than dreams – they are prayers.
I’m praying for a white Christmas. To read more click here.
by Stacey | Nov 27, 2014 | Devotionals, reflections, and encouragement
My heart breaks a little. She asks another question and I try to hold back raw emotion. No child should ever wonder who they are or where they came from.
But, she does.
This is a hurt that I cannot take away, no matter how much I want too. I feel incredibly inadequate. Overwhelmingly unable.
We speak of God’s goodness and our broken world. We discuss God’s sovereignty, and how He takes what man planned for evil and uses it for good. We discuss a heart torn in two, between what is, and what might have been, and how our God is bigger than both. We affirm His love, His plan and how He never defaults to plan “B” because plan “A” ALWAYS works.
She smiles, satisfied, and I tuck her in.
Then I cry.
God, you are my God, and You are her God. You created her in her mother’s womb. You knit her together and planned all her days before one of them was lived. I believe You have a plan for her life that is good. I believe that she can wrestle these questions down, and that you will not leave her floundering. I believe that the answer to every question is You. May she turn to You. Make she seek You. May she find satisfaction in You.
Draw her near. Make her childlike faith come alive like never before. Reveal Yourself to her. You are enough.
Remove all fear and fill her with Your peace that passes understanding. Remove all doubt and fill her with certainty. May her adoption story be bigger than her adoption into our family, but include her adoption into Your family. May she see this as beautiful and precious. May Your truth penetrate her heart as Your glory meets her suffering.
And then I cry some more.
I am inadequate. Blessedly inadequate. But my God is more than enough. He is more than enough for me, and more than enough for her. And despite wishing it could be easier, despite wishing I could carry this burden for her, I submit to the will of One greater than me.
And it is well with my soul.
by Stacey | Nov 20, 2014 | Devotionals, reflections, and encouragement
It’s snowing. The first real snow of the season. Shrieks of joy fill the living room as the children press their noses against the window. They scamper outdoors, poking and jabbing every sparse flake as it flutters to the ground until it is time to go.
We pile into the car and the ride goes something like this.
Her body wedged between theirs. Booster to thigh. Thigh to booster. Squeezed across the tiny bench seat in the vehicle that provides the most miles per gallon.
It begins with a poke. A small jab. A fluttering under the breath. Someone wants what someone else has. But isn’t that how most battles begin? The temperature inside the vehicle plummets as the battle for elbow space rages and the light snow turns ugly. It’s war.
War is always ugly, bringing to the surface what hides within—
—Within every one of us.
The car swerves to the side spitting gravel and jerks to a stop. “THAT IS ENOUGH!”
The youngest covers his face and cries. “I don’t like that sound!”
The sound of the small vehicle shuddering as tractor trailers fly by? Or the sound of his mother’s anger?
Conviction falls like that snow. Softly, then poking and jabbing my hard, cold heart, burying me under the ugly truth. War rages in me, bringing to the surface what hides within.
It. Is. Ugly.
The anger is mine. The sin is mine. And it is time to own it.
Be angry and do not sin.
It is no longer about the correction and instruction of my children. It is about accepting correction and instruction from my Lord.
Forgive me.
And the snow eases. Once piled high in weighty conviction, it disperses into gentles flurries that bury me under a blanket of white that covers a lifetime of failure. Making me, white as snow.
White as snow. Though my sins were like scarlet, Lord I know, I am clean and forgiven. Through the power of your blood. Through the wonder of your love. Through faith in you I know that I can be white as snow.~ Keon Olguin
by Stacey | Nov 13, 2014 | Devotionals, reflections, and encouragement
A house of superheroes. Meet Batgirl, The Flash, and Robin. Superheroes fascinate our children, dominate their dress-up attire, and inspire them to be brave and heroic.
I am thankful for these three super kids and how God is using them to grow both my faith in Him and my dependence on Him.
Despite not being pictured, I am also thankful for Ironman. No, not the one created by Stan Lee for Marvel Comics, the iron girls (plural) who sharpen me. You ladies know who you, are and I am thankful for YOU.
Lord, thank you for Iron Friends. Friends who sharpen. Friends who stretch my boundaries and limits. Friends who refuse to tickle itching ears. Their stirred love creates action powered by your Holy Spirit. Heavy burdens are lifted together. Two are better than one.
Thank you for admonishment, encouragement, help, and patience. All gifts from you received through my Iron Friends. I want to be like them, because they want to be like you. And more than anything, I want to be like you, Lord.
Knit our hearts together in love, grant us the rich experience of knowing Christ with certainty and clear understanding. We have everything when we have Christ.
Thank you for Iron Friends. Now, help me be one.
Proverbs 27:17, Hebrew 10:24, 1 Thessalonians 5:11, Galatians 6:2, Ecclesiastes 4:9-12, 1 Thessalonians 5:14, Colossians 2:2-3, 10
by Stacey | Oct 30, 2014 | Devotionals, reflections, and encouragement
Last week we prayed powerful Scripture over our husbands, and this week we apply the same principle to how we pray for our children. Praying Scripture is more than uttering a collection of magic words or reciting a written script. Praying Scripture is admitting that we need God’s help—even to pray. I need God’s help to pray for my kids, because He knows better than I do what they really need most.
Father God, who not only loves me with an everlasting love, but also loves my children with an everlasting love, who desires that none should perish, but that all should come to know You through the Lord through Jesus Christ, please hear my prayer.
I pray that (insert your children’s name) will delight in your laws and meditate on them day and night. Make them like trees planted by streams of water, yielding fruit in season whose leaf does not wither. May Your Word dwell in them richly, teaching and admonishing them with thankfulness in their hearts to you. May they seek You, seek Your wisdom, and Your kingdom first, asking for wisdom in faith without doubting that You are the giver of good gifts.
Take their heart of stone and make it a heart of flesh. Strengthen them through the power of Your Spirit so that Christ may dwell in their hearts through faith. May they be rooted and grounded in love and fully understand the depth of Christ’s love for them. Fill them with the fullness of You.
Give them a desire to, through the power of your Spirit, put off their old selves and be renewed in the spirit of their minds to put on their new self, created after the likeness of Christ. Remove all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamour and slander and malice, stirring up love for one another—tender-hearted and forgiving love that mimics the love Christ has for them.
Grant them complete satisfaction in their current state, teaching them thankfulness and contentment. Hide Your words in their hearts, filling their minds with life changing Scripture, gently yielding their wills to Yours.
Lord, have your way with them.
There is nothing more powerful that I could pray for my children then the very words and desires of God. Moms, let’s move our prayers from surface comfort toward deeper and truly life changing prayers.
2 Peter 3:9, Jeremiah 31:3, Psalm 1, Colossians 3:16, Matthew 6:33, James 1:5, James 1:17, Ezekiel 36:26, Ephesians 4:17-19, Ephesians 4:22-24, Ephesians 4:31-32, Hebrews 13:5, Psalm 119:11
