The Jozen One

The EVERYTHING He is  speaks well into my heart. If ever I forget, it's buried in that part.  For nothing could persuade  my memory to erase,  the ever growing knowledge of His never ending Grace.  He's alive in me  and when I choose to see,  He marries every breath I breathe into eternity.  This is what I know,  and this is what I see He is absolutely everything that I'll ever need.

"We had to decide; do we let it go on further than is good and healthy for our family.. or no?" We determined that anymore time spent in that situation was ultimately not going to bring Glory to the Lord. It didn't matter what the situation was, who was right or who was wrong, whether or not there was spiritual abuse or disorganization..none of those things mattered... What mattered was this question, "Is staying in the situation going to bring Glory to God?" Our realization was that no, it would not. What's the point? God is faithful, He will place you where you are purposed. God is generous, He gives us the wisdom we ask for to make determinations about when and why to dust off those sandals and move on. God is patient, He will teach us again and again and again if that is what it takes. God is Good.

When I was a young mom, I was so very unaware of so very many things. Today, I am remembering all the times that I felt like I didn't get enough done. The weird anxiety that built up in me when I looked around the house and thought about what my husband was going to think when he got home. Surely he was going to think I just sat around and played blocks with the kids. No body knew how much time I spent cleaning up that awful weed bed in the front yard, how much effort it took to get 2 load of laundry into the washer between nap time, lunch time, pick up time, and errands. In hindsight all of that was super silly, he was never judgemental, and I was not that bad at life. Yet, that pressure was real! In the midst of it all, I would really be hard on myself about my home and my efforts. Particularly when I looked back over the week and could not remember what I had wasted so much time on! The practical solutions to what I was beating myself up for were these: Schedule hous...

It was simple really.  Her life was a series of finding out too late who the catty, jealous, vindictive women were. Little did they know, although she looked tough...she hurt deeply, cried privately, and was very unlikely to retaliate.  Someone once told her that to stop trying would mean the end of real friendships. So, she just picked up the pieces and moved onto the next place.  She was desperate to find other women who would love her ways that she was different from them. It was simple really.  Her life was a series of sisters who leave, women who crush, and all the messy little in betweens.

We start with Baby books, cataloguing everything so that we can look back and remember.  We write down the first words, first steps, first teeth, first birthday, first teacher…and on and on it goes. After attending a funeral a few months ago, I remembered one thing that was so prevalent in my mind during times when I’ve had to say goodbye at a funeral. You want to remember and hang on to the last time you had a moment with them…and it occurred to me that when we are cherishing life events, what we usually don’t write down are the “lasts”. Recently I was struck by the importance of cherishing somethings for the possibility that it will be the last. I tell people now, how one day my husband and I looked at each other and with tears in my eyes I said, “I didn’t know that last year was the last time we’d ever do that as a family.” Although I know that this happens often when there is a loss of life in a family, how often do we try to cherish these things with those who ...