Mustard Seeds

A lot has happened in the last few months.  I may post more of an update on that later, but, for your information, we picked up our daughter right before Thanksgiving. As our daughter has grown, my husband has found a sure way to make her giggle that adorable little laugh.    EVERY TIME.    He looks at her and simply says, “I see you!”    I love to hear that little giggle.    It could go on for days.    Matt looks at her and says it.    She giggles.    He pulls back and then leans in again.    He repeats the words.    She giggles.    As I was thinking and contemplating this the other day, it came to me.    That is what every little girl wants – to be seen by her daddy. How true this is for every child of God as well.    We want to know that we are seen by God.  What better way to love someone than by letting them know that they are SEEN. ...

This post is what I shared at church this past week.   A little update on our adoption: We went to Kansas for the birth of the baby that we were matched with last month.  The birth mother decided she would like to parent instead of going through with the adoption plan she had made. Our hearts were broken, but we have come to terms with this change in our plans.  Of course, this is not a change in God's plans at all. Here's what I have shared: Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus,  6 who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped,  7 but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant,  and  being made in the likeness of men.  8 Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.  9 For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name,...

This is the lesson that I taught a couple of weeks ago at our women's night at church.  It's the last lesson I'm going to have from the class for awhile, as I am stepping down from the position for awhile. ....................................................................................................................................................................................................... I started out naming some local (and not local) people to see if anyone knew them.  Some of the names only one person knew, some a couple of people knew, and some all of them knew.              Do you guys see a pattern here?  Some of these people, only one person in here knew.  Some of them, a few people might know.  Some of them, just about everyone knows. Tonight, I’d like to talk about our spheres of influence as Christians.   Each of us has a circle ...

I was talking to a friend of mine a few weeks ago.  God really spoke something into my heart during our conversation.  She was telling me about some struggles that she was having at the time.  She is a military wife and mom of five kids.  She had just found out that they would be transferring duty stations in a few short weeks. This was right around the time that Jessi was waiting to hear back results from the tests they were doing on Baby Bean.  We were unsure what was going on and if Baby Bean was going to make it. Matt and I were in the thick of finding out we were chosen to parent a baby girl due in October and that we would have to have $50,000 for our adoption by then. Let me just tell you. Life as a woman is HARD.  It doesn’t matter if you have babies, are pregnant, are adopting, are empty nesting, or never had children to call your own.  Life is hard and wholly overwhelming sometimes. My ...

If you live in East Tennessee, you know it has rained A LOT these last few weeks.  I think it rained almost every day in the month of February.  March is off to a wet start as well. Last week, we finally started getting a little bit of a break from the rain. As I was driving to work one day, I noticed the most beautiful sunrise.  The next morning I saw another stunning sunrise. It's not that I haven't seen sunrises before.  They are actually some of the most beautiful parts of God's creation in my opinion. Here are my two pictures: They aren't the best by any means.  And pictures almost never do the real thing justice.  But after so many days of rain, it was like seeing it all anew. As I was driving, I started thinking about the work "sunrise".  I thought about how close it is to "Son Rise", which is what Jesus did the third day after He died on the cross. God sends us such a beautiful reminder of what His Son did for us all...