Splash in the Rain Puddles

Over the past year, I have felt a shift in my phase of life.  As our children get older and more independent, it's almost like coming up for air after a season of survival.  Surviving the daily grind of discipline and training little ones...staying persistent and wondering if anything was sinking in...managing 3 schedules of extra curricular activities and piecing it together like a jigsaw puzzle each month.  This is certainly not to say that I think the challenges of parenting are coming to an end.  That proves daily, not to be the case.  But there is a significant change in the issues we deal with and how we go about handling them...it feels just a little less all-consuming.  With new phases, come new challenges and questions.  What does this new phase look like?...as my kids are requiring less of my physical presence, time, and discipline and more of my understanding, encouragement, and oh so many prayers.  Am I effectively encouraging their in...

When I think about my mom, a few words come immediately to mind.  Loving. Kind. Patient. Faithful. But one of the most accurate...Strong.  When you look at all 4 feet 11inches of her, it might not be the first thing that comes to mind.  But spend any time with her, know her story, witness the way she lives her life, and very quickly you will see the strength. Strength in the sense of never wavering in her faith in the midst of multiple life altering tragedies.  Strength in the sense of being a calm and steady presence in our family as we were buckled in for all of the twists and turns life took us on.  Strength in the sense of allowing and encouraging me to travel at a very young age, to far away places to gain life experiences that have shaped who I am. Strength in the sense of aging with such determination and perseverance, as this chapter in her life has some parts she never would have chosen.  Strength in the sense of being a shoulder to lean on...for h...

In our ladies Bible study group at church, we are currently going through the book "Heaven", by Jennifer Rothschild.  It has been such a thought provoking and faith stretching first couple of weeks.  It's one of those topics, that the more you study it and read what the Bible has to say about it, the more questions you have.  And at the end of the day you need to be ok with having unanswered questions...there are things that our human minds simply cannot handle knowing...and that is why we have faith.  Faith in knowing that heaven will be everything and so much more than we could possibly ever imagine...faith that, even though we cannot understand how, when this earthly body dies our souls will immediately be in the presence of Jesus.  What an amazing moment that will be.  In the study, we have also been focusing on our dash.  We all have the day we are born and the day we will die...but what about the dash that's in the middle of those two dates? Are ...

Over the last few weeks, our pastor has been preaching on our identity in Christ, with topics of He sees us, He hears us, He knows us, and this past week...He loves us.  Loves us with a mind boggling kind of love.  And through the entire sermon...my most favorite of all old hymns...kept running through my mind.  I've probably posted it in the past somewhere along the way...but it's so worth posting again.   The love of God, is greater far than tongue or pen, can ever tell. It goes beyond the highest star, and reaches to the lowest hell. The guilty pair, bowed down with care, God gave His Son to win. His erring child, he reconciled, and pardoned from his sin. O love of God, how rich and pure, how measureless and strong. It shall for evermore endure, the saints and angels song. (and my favorite verse) Could we with ink the ocean fill, and were the skies of parchment made, were every stalk on earth a quill, and every man a scribe by trade.  To write the love o...

I truly believe that one of the greatest gifts we are given when we choose to live for Jesus is the peace that His Spirit brings....peace that passes all understanding...peace that makes the unbeliever look at the Christian and wonder where in the world that kind of peace could possibly come from...peace that sometimes is the only thing that gets us through a tough day, month, year....thank you, Jesus, for the peace You bring. I heard a quote yesterday that said "peace is a person"...and I love that so much. It's not found in our successes, in our spouses, our kids, our possessions...it's found in God alone and the supernatural contentment that His Son brings. When we believe in the promises God gives us...that He works all things for our good and His glory...we can rest in that. Of course in our humanness, fear will creep in and do its best to take our focus off of where it should be. But when we return our focus back on God, and invite His peace to meet us in ...

With my return to the blog I started thinking about the title…Splash in the Rain Puddles.   When I first started blogging 14 years ago, I was a young momma of a 1 and 3 year old, with only a hope that God had one more baby in our future.   I wanted my little boys to splash…literally and figuratively.   I wanted them to splash….whether that was actually splashing in rain puddles…or building blanket forts… or covering the entire driveway in sidewalk chalk…or cannonballing off the diving board….or riding in the tractor with daddy, just dreaming of the day they could drive on their own.   But I also wanted them to splash…like when they took a deep breath and put on their bravest faces when they walked into kindergarten for the first time….or when they changed schools and had to make new friends and learn new routines…or when they needed to stand on their own as their circles of friends expanded and not everyone believed what they believed…and when they said yes to Jesus ...