Posts

Showing posts from July, 2024

Strong Enough to Admit my Weakness

Image
  We all want to be strong. Strong enough to do it on our own. Strong enough to open the jar of pickles without help. Strong enough to meet our own needs as well as help others. We see weakness as a sign of, well, weakness. But scripture looks at it a little differently. Here’s a few examples: [2Co 12:9 NIV] 9 But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. [2Co 12:10 NIV] 10 That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong. [Rom 8:26 NIV] 26 In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. [1Co 1:27 NIV] 27 But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of th...

How do we Really Pray?

Image
  So Mary said, “Yes, I am a servant of the Lord; Let this happen to me according to your word.” Then the angel departed from her. Luke 1: 38 Then he said to them all, “If anyone wants to become my follower, he must deny himself, take up his cross daily, and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life because of me will save it. Luke 9: 23-24  May your Kingdom come, may your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.   Matthew 6: 10 I can picture today’s verses being sung by a choir of nuns as I walk slowly down the open hallway of a convent deep in the European mountains. Melodramatic, I know, but I did love The Sound of Music as a child. We make these promises to God. Our lips move, and our hearts want to mean what we’re saying, but until we are faced with a real situation, it’s all just desire. God, we want what You want. We trust You. Then the stuff hits the fan. Our prayers change. Fix it God! Heal my child! Sa...

What We All Need

Image
It’s nearly 2AM last night and we’re trudging off the plane and through the airport. Ok, it’s really 10:45pm, but my body says it’s almost 2AM because it’s still on East coast time. We’ve gathered all our belongings, reassembled my wheelchair, and used the restroom and I’m just going through the steps to call the parking lot shuttle when I hear our last name called out over the loudspeaker followed by, “Please bring your ID to the podium.” My husband, hauling our luggage and pushing my wheelchair, stops short. “Did you hear that?” I look over and notice that the gate next to us has a flight heading to Anchorage and realize they must be calling our daughter! What a fun coincidence that we would be in the exact same place at the same time when she tends to jet set around the world! But as I look around, I don’t see her anywhere. I pull out my phone and call her, straight to voicemail. But just in case I try again and this time she picks up. She’s in the middle of TSA, where you’re not ...

EDS From Head to Toe

Image
This week I had the wonderful blessing of being able to attend the EDS Society's 2024 Global Learning Conference in Philadelphia. This year's theme was EDS from Head to Toe and they covered how EDS affects bodies in every area.  EDS is a collection of genetic conditions that affect the collagen in a person's body. There are potentially more than thirteen different types. I have the most common of these, hEDS or Hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome. At this time, about 1 person in 5,000 is diagnosed with this, making it a rare disease. Experts believe, however, that it is drastically under diagnosed and that the incidence is far more likely to be 1 in 500, making it as common as diabetes. So why isn't it diagnosed more? Simple. Doctor's don't know about it. In most medical schools, EDS is a paragraph in a chapter about rare diseases at best. Unless they are exposed to it for some reason, most medical professionals don't have EDS on their diagnostic radar.  So w...

Living in Grace and Faith

Image
For by grace you are saved through faith, and this is not from yourselves it is the gift of God; it is not from works, so that no one can boast.  Ephesians 2:8-9 Long ago, I used to struggle with blame. Whose fault was it that something had been done or not done? Whose responsibility was it? Keeping track of everything was exhausting, and left me feeling bitter and very unhappy. These days, I’m so glad to say, my home is run far more on grace. If something needs to be done, I either do it or ask for help with it. If something gets done, I am blessed and grateful for it. It feels so much better. The other thing I struggled with was worry. That’s something that will eat you alive! Especially with kids. There is no end of things to worry about. I would worry all day and all night. Do you know what the cure for worry is? Faith. I had to start handing all my worries over to God and trusting Him that He was able to handle them and He knew best. I had to recognize that I wasn’t i...

Launching

Image
 Then Jesus came up and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”   Matthew 28: 18-20 The ultimate goal of parenting is successfully launching our progeny out into the world and watching them flourish (you thought I was going to say grandkids, didn’t you?). Jesus managed to do this with His disciples in only three years and we are typically given more like 18-20. He got to start with adults, you might argue, making it easier to teach them! Ah, but He also had to UNteach them! By the time Jesus got them they already had a lifetime of bad habits developed that Jesus had to patiently work with and love them through. One of those bad habits, Judas’ greed, even got Him killed. But Jesus didn’t have to deal ...

Putting Feet to Faith

Image
When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them because they were bewildered and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into his harvest-ready fields.”   Matthew 9:36-38 When the kids were younger, they got to participate in ministry with us in lots of ways. They served as helpers at Sports Camp and VBS at church. They acted and directed in our church’s dinner theater. As a teen, my daughter got to go on a mission trip with my husband to the country she was born in, Liberia, West Africa. Most of them have served at the homeless mission with my husband both in the kitchen serving dinner and out on Search and Rescue visiting the homeless camps. One of our sons even got to serve in the -3 degree freezer alongside my husband for a day sorting it out. They grew up in an atmosphere of service, seeing its importance and getting to experi...

Little Things with Big Effect

Image
I have a brain tumor measuring 0.8 x 1.1 x 1.2 cm. That’s pretty small. You know what’s smaller? The space it’s in between my brain stem and my cerebellum. That means it’s pressing on several things, including the nausea center of my brain. That is a very small thing indeed that has VERY big effect. You see, it is not the size of a thing that matters in a body. You do not have to be a hand or a foot to be of importance. The nausea center, or the tumor pressing on it, even though drastically smaller, can have just as great a power. For just as in one body we have many members, and not all the members serve the same function, so we who are many are one body in Christ, and individually we are members who belong to one another.   Romans 12: 4-5 All the parts of our body matter and work together. In the same way, all the parts of the body of Christ matter and need to work together. God designed us to be a community, to need fellowship, to be a team. While there might be lonely se...

The Power in our Words

Image
  And let us take thought of how to spur one another on to love and good works, not abandoning our own meetings, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging each other, and even more so because you see the day drawing near.   Hebrews 10: 24-25 Studies vary significantly, but they show that people speak from 6-7,000 (lower end) to 15-16,000 (higher end) words per day ( How Many Words Does the Average Person Say a Day? (wikihow.com) ) That sounds like a lot, but once you take into account that the average person speaks at a rate of 150 words per minute, that’s just 20-60 minutes of speaking per day. As you can imagine, people in speaking professions, like teachers, would use a lot more words than someone like me who stays at home most of the time. When you take into account the power that our words can have, that is a very great responsibility. How often have you thought something encouraging about someone, but the thought never left your mouth? Encouragement nev...

The God of all Comfort

Image
  Blessed is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in our troubles so that we may be able to comfort those experiencing any trouble with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.   2 Corinthians 1: 3-4 What does comfort look like? The original Webster (1828) defined comfort using the words strengthen, invigorate and cheer. In the Psalms, it talks about God comforting us with His rod and staff and His promise which preserves our lives. In Isaiah, God’s comfort is compared to the comfort of a mother for her child. When you comfort someone, you are bringing them up. If they are depressed, you are cheering them. If they are physically weak, you are invigorating them perhaps with food or rest. The goal is to increase their strength. This is so important that the US Code actually defines giving comfort to our enemies as treason and it is punishable by death. The rod and staff of the sheph...

Then and Now

Image
These words I am commanding you today must be kept in mind, and you must teach them to your children and speak of them as you sit in your house, as you walk along the road, as you lie down, and as you get up.   Deuteronomy 6: 6-7 Teaching my children God’s Word looks a lot different these days than it did when they were little. When they were young, they went to Sunday School and after church we would discuss their lesson at lunch. On Wednesdays they would do AWANA and we would practice their memory verses at home. We homeschooled, and our most important subject, the one I never skipped, was Bible. We went through lots of different curriculums for this subject, but for years we practice a mastery model where the kids would read a story out of a story book for themselves, read the scripture verses from the Bible that it was based on, write out questions about the story, and then present the story and their questions to their siblings (learn-practice-teach=mastery). It was e...

Home

Image
But may all who take shelter in you be happy. May they continually shout for joy. Shelter them so that those who are loyal to you may rejoice. Certainly you reward the godly, Lord. Like a shield you protect them in your good favor.  Psalms 5:11-12 Home. The word means a lot of things to different people. It can conjure up feelings both positive and negative. What it isn’t, is neutral. We tend to feel strongly about home. I’ve always desired to make our home a place that generates good emotions and memories. When my husband or kids think about coming “home” I want there to be a longing in their heart, a feeling of warmth and peace. This is not a place in life that you get to accidentally. My husband and I have been very intentional about showing our kids that our love is not based on their performance and they are accepted regardless of their choices. I’m certain that we haven’t always succeeded, and if they are reading this they might even be surprised that this was...

The Wife of Noble Character

Image
Her clothing was strong and splendid; And she laughed at the time to come. She has opened her mouth with wisdom, with loving instruction on her tongue. Watching over the ways of her household, she would not eat the bread of idleness.   Proverbs 31: 25 - 27 Over the last few years, several of my traditional jobs have become impossible for me. I no longer clean the bathrooms, and don’t really do the thorough cleaning of the kitchen that I used to. I only vacuum occasionally and sweep even less. At times, I’m not even able to do the cooking or the laundry. There have been moments where I have questioned my role in the family, my worth and value. My husband is so gracious. When I approached him with my concerns, he shared with me that he believes my role in the family is the nurturer. I bring the softness. I help people feel loved and seen. I round out his rough edges and help the kids know he loves them too. In some ways it’s a tall order, in others, it doesn’t feel like quit...