My Father's Daughter

Have ever noticed how easily the whole scene changes when your perspective is just a little shifted? Eyes can play tricks on us. So can our minds and hearts. It can be so subtle and many times we don't even know. Our bias, our eyes, tells what we're supposed to see, what we should see. But what if that bias is wrong? What if the eyes are lying? A few years ago I attempted to change perspectives, to look at things differently, to look at my faith differently. It was a nudge here and a new insight there. And then I felt whole philosophies of mine shift and then crumble. I suppose they weren't really my philosophies. It was someone else's eyes who had colored my view.  But suddenly I was aware I needed new lenses, a different glass, a new way to see. The old way was strange to me now, it just didn't make sense. The mirror was distorted, I saw all the flaws, the gaping holes. I had been given a better lense to see that was really there. And what

Five minute Friday...where some sweet writers write with a prompt for the love of it. Then we link up over at Kate's site and visit other FMFers, to say hello, to make a new friend. Today it's   I never used to think I had a story. I wasn't one of those Christians who was the end of it all and had God's grace come and scoop me up and change my whole life. I just grew up going to church and having my mom tell me God loved me. I'm not complaining. I am so very thankful for my mother making sure I knew who God is. But, it was status quo. I was a Christian. I taught my kids to love God. I struggled. I wondered when I'd get my spiritual life right. I hardly ever really found time to read the bible. I was overwhelmed, over worked, under appreciated. I didn't even know how my life could change. God's grace did reach down and scoop me up but it wasn't as obvious as some of those great testimony stories you

I turned 35 last week. And that's the first time I've seen that in print.  Age is strange. It's a label and an expectation. 35 years. Three and a half decades...I've learned some things. I've had some successes, some failures. I've grown. Birthdays have a way of making us think, looking back and planning ahead.  Just this week I've learned a few amazing things, things I had forgotten or maybe I didn't really know. Last weekend was a teary one for me. I spent time praying and crying for all the hurt that I've seen cross the screen over the last few weeks. Rockets and bombs still falling, the utter devastation and practical genocide of Iraqi Christians, the Revelations-type violence being perpetrated against people for their belief in Jesus . It's horrifying.  I also cried for a friend, a sweet lovely woman who is an amazing example of steadfastness, a woman I met through a friend of a friend on Facebook. A women who, through social media, I&

Another week, another five minute friday (on a Saturday)...writing for the love of it. Writing without edits or worries. We write. We link up. We encourage. This week it's Tell them now while you can. Tell him how he's filled your heart, how he is made for courage and strength. Tell her how she can be mighty and beautiful and do great things in her Father's kingdom. Tell them who they are. Tell them Whose they are. Tell of all the wonders their Creator has done on their behalf. Tell them of all the ways you love them. Tell them of all the ways they are loved by Him. Tell them why... why you delight in them why you look forward to each and every day with them why even when days are so very hard you'd do it all again and again and again. Don't wait for another time or another day. Not was of us is promised more time. Tell them when you have their ear. Tell them before the world's voice grows too loud. Tell them in the still hours

So I began sharing this story a couple weeks ago. It's the one that is asking to be told. It's been my jouney. It's changed my whole world. It's the story of me, of all of us, the story of now and of the future. It's the story of who we are and Whose we are. It's His Story. Today I want to share the part of the story that tell where I am and how I got here. How my faith and my family's faith has grown and changed. How I humbly see that so many of us {myself very much included} have been so very wrong for so very long. How the steps to unlearn and relearn have helped our roots grow deeper (and stronger). I'll continue this story. His Story. This part is my tiny sliver of that story. My beginning, my now. I think it was 2008. I was googling "written teen testimony". My stepson needed to write his before his baptism and confirmation. And like in many things in life, I went to see if a google search could give me ideas I could share

Five Minute Friday, early on a Saturday morning, but with a new host, Kate . Same deal: Word lovers write with a prompt for the love and the fun. No edits, grammar police or second guessing. Free writing for five minutes...And the heart of the community is that you visit the other lovely writers, to encourage, to make a new friend. This week is.... Go Fill instead of empty. Give instead of take. Pour and love and lavish. You'll feel empty. But when you frequent the well of the Water that always quenches you are never ever empty. Fill the hearts around with peace. Choose to avoid the chaos that expectations bring. Fill the minds with truth. Remember that the only truth is what is good. Something can be accurate but still not true. Fill the house with love because they won't really remember exactly what you taught them but they will remember how it felt to be there. Fill bodies with strength. Actual food and the infinitely more important Bread of L

I had a different post planned, but last night at sundown began Tisha B'Av or the 9th of Av. And I just can't get the significance of this day out of my mind. Av is the 5th month of the biblical calendar. It's a holiday. But not a particularly happy one. This day and those right around it are even referenced in the bible. ...Should I weep in the fifth month [Av], separating myself, as I have done these so many years?  -Zechariah 7:3 In the fifth month, on the seventh day of the month ...came Nebuzaradan ... and he burnt the house of the L-RD...  -II Kings 25:8-9 In the fifth month, on the tenth day of the month... came Nebuzaradan ... and he burnt the house of the L-RD...  - Jeremiah 52:12-13 This day is a day of sad remembering. Traditionally it is a day of mourning for the loss of both Israel's first and second Temple. Both. Because they both were destroyed on the same day of the year. About 700 years apart. It's also kind of mind blowing when one l