Tag: success

Quiet morning thoughts

Quiet mornings with Jackson before work is one of my very favorite things ❤️

Jackson having a morning snack by the tree

Last week, every morning was chaos. Dogs, child, pee and poop 💩 of all kinds everywhere. Cold and flu season. All of the things. But man, God’s tender mercy got us through.

It’s hard not to be grateful when it’s Christmas time.
A time filled with reminders of Promises kept.

🎄 Jesus, the Promised One, came to save and give grace. We cannot save ourselves, but Jesus died in our place so that we could be His forever and made new.

🎄 The Bible holds hundreds of Promises, and Jesus is the answer to each one. In Him, we have hope, joy, peace, and love.

🎄 Jesus came as the Promised One long ago.

👑 Someday, He is coming again to make all things right forever because God ALWAYS keeps His Promises.

🙌 God keeps every last one.

🙏 Cling to this truth today if you need it friend. The holidays can be hard. I remember for so long this time of the year had a sting. It was a reminder of all the things I did not have. I did not have a safe home, family, a warm place to snuggle or a soft place to land. And some years were just dark.

🍎 I can now look back and see that I was hearing the lies of the enemy over the trumpet of grace. I was hearing the lies of the enemy say I was not worthy instead of knowing My King 👑 calls me Worthy.

Because of Christ, I now walk in freedom from the bondage of sin that leads to death. ✝️

The greatest gift of Joy is knowing Christ. You CAN rest in His faithfulness to us now and in the future as we remind our heart’s of God’s faithfulness in the past.

Friend, I don’t know why you may be hurting today- It may be because it is cold and flu season and you have poop all over your house or maybe it’s something deeper that you may not even know how to say –

Let me encourage you with a gentle reminder: HEALING AND HOPE will only be found in Jesus. Not in the Pinterest worthy pictures or elaborate decorations this season.

In Christ alone is rest, joy, comfort.
Behold Him this season.

❤️

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Be Gentle

“Gracious words are like a honeycomb, sweetness to the soul and health to the body.

It stands to reason, then, that ungracious words can produce an adverse effect on our well-being. Allowing ourselves to express frustrations enables “feelings” to rage unchecked in our system.

But when we make certain words and tones off limits, we begin retraining the neural pachways of our brains toward gratitude and positivity – a process that Scripture calls the “renewing of your mind” (Romans 12:2) and one that secular science is finding more and more support for. And this is something our Pastoral team has mentioned in several Sunday sermons as of late.

I find it fascinating how the Lord has created us as holistic beings. The physical affects the emotional, which can bolster or wreak havoc on the spiritual.

I don’t know about you all, but for myself I am really having to bring my thoughts back to Christ constantly right now. Rallying together with others and comparing or complaining about the loads we are bearing, the election season!!, and the coming holiday stresses are not good things for us to be doing Christians! Even when we do not move forward with the intention of participating, it is all around us in the world right now. Praise the Lord that for the Christian this is not our home! We are set apart for HIS kingdom and HIS glory!

The only real load we have ever bared was taken from us at the Cross when our Savior chose to drink from the cup the Father gave HIM – so that in and through HIM we could be made FREE!!! Praise the Lord! In light of this not much matters except furthering HIS kingdom.

The more you shovel your feelings in the Lord’s direction – the less important your feelings will actually feel – in the BEST possible way!

Minute by minute,

Lord, help me to be calm.
Jesus, give me kind speech.
Father, show me how to be gentle.

👉Colossians 3:12 says, “As God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.”
👉Ephesians 4:2 admonishes us to “be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love.”
👉And of course, the famous “fruit of the Spirit” in Galatians 5:22-23 includes gentleness with love, joy, peace, self-control, and other stellar attributes.

The Bible has a lot to say on gentleness –

Don’t use grace as an excuse not to grow.
In Christ, we CAN choose gentle speech.
And when we get it wrong, cause we will, know that Christ’s love covers a multitude of sins.

Let’s follow the Lord’s example this season, being slow to anger and abounding in love. (Numbers 14:18).

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The Faithful love of Jesus

How it started and how it is going! The faithful Love of Jesus! ❤️

5 years ago this week we plugged in at Coastline Christian Fellowship, wholeheartedly committed.

We had visited on and off through the year prior but we had lingering church hurt from prior churches and to be honest we were wrestling with feeling God’s pull – God’s wooing of our hearts AND wrestling with our flesh…

This little church in Olney became and is our family and for Jackson it is “the place of his people”. Jackson greeted and gave hugs to at least 30 people yesterday and shook 4 hands! 🥹😭😭

Jackson’s first visit to Coastline post being in a car seat
Jackson helping dad and friend vacuum our kids class room.

A very early (miraculously early) autism diagnosis for Jackson was the hurt, the longing, the fear, the “I cannot do this without you God” moment that changed it all for us. We surrendered and we kept showing up until we desired to show up and we hurt when we missed. 6 months later we began serving in the Minnows room and remain in there till this day. Seasons change but the everlasting Love of the Lord remains the same. He sought us and pursued us…

God pursued Adam and Eve after they sinned in the garden of Eden. (Genesis 3)
God pursued Hagar when she ran away from her problems. (Genesis 16)
God pursued Elijah when he ran from Ahab and Jezebel. (1 Kings 18-19)
God pursued Paul on the road to Damascus. (Acts 9)
And God pursues us.

Motivated by unexplainable love, God pursues humanity. No matter our state in life — married, single, dating, living for God or running from Him — God seeks to win the affection of our hearts by relentlessly and faithfully pursuing us.

We see a clear depiction of this pursuit in verses, John 3:16-17: “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.”

The love John refers to in this scripture is agape love, which is sacrificial and considered the highest form of love that exists. This love was costly for God, but He pursued us through the radical act of sacrificing His Son. God’s love is unmatched and far greater than any box of chocolates or bouquet of flowers.

And even more astounding is that God demonstrated His lavish and sacrificial love while we were sinners. He pursued us while we weren’t thinking about Him… Once and for all, God valiantly saved humankind from the spiritual villain Satan when we were in distress.

But God’s pursuit of us did not end with Christ’s sacrificial death and resurrection. For all our days, He will continue to pursue us with His unexplainable love.

If you long to be romanced and pursued, may this be an encouragement: You are the object of God’s affection. He has relentlessly pursued and will continue to pursue you.

God will not keep you from anything that will make you more like Jesus. For us, Jackson’s autism is a tangible tether between the heavenly things and the earthly things…. But it took us “surrendering” this onto the Lord.

What is the thing that may be hurting you that the ONE who made you and loves you is wooing and asking you to surrender to HIM?

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Wives, the Gospel gives us a better way…

Social media has impacted our lives in so many ways – the lie of comparison dramatically impacts us (especially women) in the areas of how we keep/style our homes, how we dress, and how we parent. But it also impacts how we view and treat our spouses. The expectations that we have for our spouses.

The great news for Christian women – we acknowledge a higher calling placed on us as wives AND the Gospel gives us a better way!

Creation: Imaging God in unique ways, Adam and Eve were created differently from one another but those differences were not divisive – they were assets. They needed one another to complete the tasks given to them by God. In Eden they were unified, two becoming one, as they selflessly worked together. Living out a beautiful picture of love and harmony through worship of God alone.

Fall: When Eve doubted God had a good design for her life and union with Adam, sin and division entered the world, forever changing the marriage relationship. Now instead of being unified as husband and wife, we can act like two individuals sitting opposite of each other. Instead of out-loving one another, we look to our marriage to fulfill our own selfish desires. And if we’re Mothers – we can have the tendency to hide behind our children who we grant unconditional love to while holding our Husbands to an unattainable standard. We often live as an “I” instead of an “We” because being in a union requires us to die to self.

Redemption: Jesus loved us more than any earthly Husband ever could. Living a perfect life and purchasing our union with HIS Life. Through this sacrifice, Jesus displayed only what marriage can shadow – the Covenant love between God and His people. This love paved a way so that we could die to our selves and this happened when we were justified before the Throne. This is then played out over and over again as we are refined and sanctified for our future glory. Through Jesus’ death we are made right with God and we are one in Christ.

This is great news for believers! The same love that was in Christ to motivate Him to be patient with needy people. Kind to those who hurt Him. And long suffering for those who didn’t follow His instructions – this love is in us!

His love took Him all the way to death on the cross for us.

In Christ – this is the same love a wife can have for her Husband!!

No matter how your relationship may be with your Husband today – Let him see the work of Christ in YOU! Let Christ’s love in you be greater than your own prideful heart.

What are some things you can prayerfully work on in the way you view and interact with your Husband?

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Fruitful Success, Leadership, and Servitude…

Studying in Joshua this morning and it gave me a great opportunity to reflect on how we (society) define leadership and success in the world, versus how we define these two things Biblically as Christians.

God gave success to the Israelites when they obeyed His plan and not their own.

Victory came when they trusted in the Lord; not in their own military or material wealth.

Just this week I had the opportunity to present for a speaking engagement as the Executive Director of the non-profit I work for. The group we were speaking for had chosen three non-profits to present and one of those would be awarded a nice donation to their program.

Leading up to this event I found myself asking the Lord to use this as an opportunity to glorify Himself in some way. I asked the Lord to help me lead with grace and humility and for His Will to be done EVEN IF that meant my program not being chosen.

In the past, I had the tendency to only consider an opportunity successful based on the accolades gained. I would burn myself out from exhaustion and the pressure to perform perfectly to a standard that no human is capable of. Thankfully, Christ has freed me from all of that. It is not through I but in Him that all things are accomplished.

I did lead with grace, the Lord blessed me with wisdom, and my program DID NOT get chosen for the award but the program who had the greatest need DID. After the presentations and awarding I was able to genuinely congratulate and celebrate the winner, something that I noticed not every leader did. As I was packing to leave several individuals came up with personal donations of their own to my program and while this amount was less than what the award would have been, the hearts behind the giving was MORE.

Isn’t that just like God to double the blessing, to take what little we have to give and to fill our cups until they are overflowing.

It is key that we pursue God’s standard for success rather than the world’s. Worldly success is subjective and never satisfied, success in the Lord is true and never changing.

D.L. Moody wisely said, “Our greatest fear should not be of failure, but of succeeding at something that doesn’t really matter.”

Success equates obedience! Success is not controlling others but it is allowing yourself to be controlled by God! Our examples of success comes from God’s word. Biblical success is evidenced by humility, grace, wisdom, and patience.

This mornings passage also gave me some reflection on leadership. Joshua is an example of an excellent leader. Joshua was confident in God’s strength and this made him courageous in the face of opposition and kept him seeking God’s advice!!

Strong leaders are led by God.

Joshua taking over as leader following Moses’s death had to be difficult for the people; as it is for any of us when we go through leadership changes. As a society we have seen the difficulties of leadership changes nationally – and locally. With this we have seen how those of the world have responded and the contrast of how those who are in Christ have responded. Christians have the hope that is stored up in Christ, Christians have the cross.

A few Biblical principles that we can remember when we are struggling with what the world is calling “leadership” and “success”.


1. God’s leadership can always be trusted. (Isaiah 48:17-18).

2.Whomever He appoints over us, we are called to pray for them. (1 Timothy 2:1-3)

3. We are called to submit to God’s Word as the ultimate authority, be subject to our governing authorities, (Romans 13:1) and follow godly leaders as they follow Christ. (1 Corinthians 11:1)

Act today on what you know God has said, and He will assure your success in carrying out His purposes!

Joshua 24:15, “But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve… But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord”.

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