The most powerful weapon in the world is at our fingertips. It has the power to destroy or to build up. It’s also the most volatile weapon because it is so uncontainable. What is this weapon?
To read more head over here to find my answer.
Thanks for reading and I would love to hear your story about this powerful weapon!!
Blessings,
Jessica
If we’re not careful our days and years can vanish like dandelion fuzz, and we wonder what we have to show for it. We experience seasons of flourishing and seasons of dormancy and each gives us the same opportunity: to grow in wisdom.
I have learned that I need to be willing to be reflective in the varying seasons and filter every lesson through the lens of God’s word in order to grow in wisdom. A season I have been in for quite a while is home educating our four children. I’m in the double digits now and I definitely know I haven’t got it all figured out, but there have been some lessons I’ve learned along the way that have served me well and made me a better wife, mom, and teacher.
This article is my top five tips for the homeschooling mama, but really? I think they’re applicable to almost any areas in life. I hope you will be blessed by it and see how these five tips can apply to your life as you experience your varied seasons of life.
Blessings,
Jessica
Dear you,
I appreciate you reading this fledgling little space called Welcome Grace. It means the world to me to know that you use some of your most precious commodity–time–here in this space. Thank-you seems so inadequate so I am going to say instead, ‘You make my heart glad.’
I’ve been thinking about you, dear friend and wondering how you are and where you are in your journey with God. Are you skipping along the path, gathering your arms full of tulips and lilacs and few sprigs of grass? Possibly you are in a place of peace and beside still waters and being called to resume your journey.
Maybe you are wandering in the desert, parched and faint and ready to give up or staring at the crossing of a dangerous river and you question you will make it safely to the other side. Could you be facing a treacherous descent after a beautiful view from the summit of a mountaintop?
Unique journeys. Difficult travels. Questionable weather. Sometimes we experience everything at once and other times it’s spread out over time.
But this I know–no matter what you or I may face — God is worthy of deep, deep trust.
May I pray for you today?
Holy God,
You are God and I am not. You are for us…remind us of this truth. You are faithful every step of the way and we open our hearts a little more to trusting you in the darkness. In you there is no darkness so we hide ourselves in your l light and rest and wait in you. Like a weaned child with his mother, we rest contentedly on your lap, trusting you to meet our needs in your time and your way.
Pour your spirit out on the one reading these words and may they know you are with them. May they become aware of your presence and stand in awe of you. Whisper love to their hearts. Sweep them away by the power of your goodness. Let them find comfort in your justice. Be bigger than their circumstances in their eyes. Magnify yourself, God in their life.
God, that you would fulfill your purpose and we would faithfully keep walking towards you. You have conquered all and we give you our vanquished hearts.
In Jesus’ name,
Amen
It is a privilege to pray for you and a privilege to trust God with you for what he’s doing in your life. May you rest in the trustworthiness of God’s character as you face today’s challenge.
Jessica
I have witnessed some of the most beautiful landscapes when they’re shrouded in fog. It’s beautiful to watch the fog roll in as it gently blankets the rolling fields or to wake to a winter fog and see every tree branch coated in glitter, sparkling as it reflects the sun.
This summer has been filled with many good things. I have seen family I don’t normally see. I went to a worship conference where I was taught and renewed. My kids are getting more involved in activities so I have become a keeper of the calendar. My summer is a blessing, but it brought with it a busier pace than most summers. I love it, but with the busy-ness came a brain fog.
A brain fog is a state of mind involving the inability to see or think clearly, which interferes with this thing called life. I am not a stranger to brain fogs, as I have experienced them off and on throughout my life, but I don’t like them. They make me grumpy. They interfere with forward progress and I feel trapped because I cannot see.
This God-life is a pilgrimage, meaning it’s not a one and done type of relationship. I am constantly growing and changing as my mind is renewed and transformed, and I have to set my heart on the pilgrimage and be willing to take the journey as it comes. The path is always narrow and sometimes it’s easy and other times it takes me down a twist that scares me. Sometimes skies are clear and the birds sing, but sometimes there are storms and the clouds hang menacingly low.
Foggy times are one of those times that frighten me because I feel so very alone and it is oh so quiet.
If I can get past the panicky alone feeling, if I can remember that God is with me even though he seems so far away, the fog becomes a time of beauty with my God.
It’s all in my perspective. Am I going to panic and believe my God has left me when I am shrouded in fog? Or am I going to trust him in a new way and ask him to reveal himself to me in the way he sees fit?
My own personal version of foggy days creates an environment of dependence on God.
The fog tells me to proceed with caution with the the words I say and the things I do.
It becomes a natural pause to an other wise crazy brain that chases the same thoughts round and round.
And when the fog lifts I see the light of God clearly.
Let me say this again—foggy times worry me because I feel as though I have lost my ability to hear God clearly. Foggy times seem unending because I can’t tell them when to come or when to go.
Until I became aware of what this brain fog was trying to produce in my life I became caught up in my inadequacies and I experienced inward turmoil. I pouted like a child and thought I could ignore my communion times with God. I grew aware of heart-conditions that needed to be touched by his healing hand.
So the next time the brain fog arrives, I am going to remember the beauty in fog. It gives me a chance to wait for the light to stream into my circumstances and it deepens my dependence on God.
This God-life is a journey and I can expect all kinds of weather, even fog. I am going to cling to my consistent God even when the weather is inconsistent. Difficult days do not mean we head out on our own, but it means we cling even harder to the one who knows the way.
What about you? How will you face your next foggy times? With trepidation or faith or a little bit of both?
Recently I felt like my life came to a screeching halt when I heard the news of a life changing diagnosis for a dear friend. Not long ago, I was overcome by drama as mothers of teenagers often are. I fight for bravery in the face of the unknowns of my future. Will things be okay? Where is God in all my wonderings?
Jesus said that I will have trouble in this life and life has proven this to be true. But there is a theme that began in the Old testament and has continued to be woven into the New. It’s one of the many threads that tie the two testaments together and it is this: The Lord will be with you.
Continue reading at Gathering Place for Sisters in Christ.
