The Process

I promised to share what has been happening in my silence.  Some of it I am still processing, still learning and perhaps will continue learning it for a long time.  I am amazed though, at the order in which God has worked in my life.

First, He overwhelmed me with His love.  He erased my doubts and fears about how lovable I was and proved Himself as love itself.  Oh, how He loves me (and you)!

Second, He exposed lies that I had believed for a long time.  He showed me the truth and it flooded my heart and set me free.

Next, I was Undone.  I continue to be undone and honestly, I hope to remain undone so that His finished work is what I trust in, lean on and cling to. What He does with my yielded life is so far beyond what I could do on my own.

Finally, He is teaching me that He does the work.  I trust, rest, follow and obey.  Where there are things in my life that don't meet His standard He is faithful to raise me up.  He is faithful to challenge me, teach me, lead me into all truth, and encourage me in what He has called me to do.

I am so blown away by God's heart for His daughters.  He longs for us to yield to His love and grace in our lives and He is  more than faithful to take us on the journey to get us there.

Sweet Fruit

This week has been sweet for me.  Partly because I finally get “it” and partly because I feel lavished upon with God’s love.  More about “it” at a later time but I’ll explain the lavished love now.

The other day it was a sweet new friend’s “I’m thinking about you.” And then a sister’s precious, encouraging words.   Then it was the gift of days for getting caught up and an unexpected blessing for my children that I had been hoping to get for them. 

All of these things, while technically from others, I see as God’s love lavished upon me.  The way I know it is Him is because He IS love.  There is no love absent of Him.  God is love and so any act of  {true} love comes from Him.  From His nudge, from His persuasion, from His doing. 

So I savor the sweet and look for His love in other places too. His love is in the gift of doing laundry and making dinner every night and breaking up the fights my kids get into.  I don’t have to do these things. I get to.  They are a gift and a privilege and a way for me to accept His love and share it with others. My service embodies His love and clothes others with it. 

The arguments my children get into are loud blaring screams that God’s love hasn’t yet been perfected in them {Perfect love casts out all fear, right? And fear is a result of a lack of faith that we are secure, loved and provided for}. So they become my opportunities to minister love to my children where it is lacking.

Seeing life this way is making it all so much more fun.  Really what it is is fruit.  Evidence of a work, greater than me, in me.  If God IS love and a fruit of the Spirit is Love then any ability I have to give love is evidence of Him in me, filling me and sloshing out.  I so hope that I can dump some of this good stuff out on those who are in my life.  Now that I have tasted this fruit I just want more.

Silence is Golden

This blog is special to me.  I treasure being able to fill it up with thoughts and words.  It has become one of my favorite things to spend my time on.

Lately I have been pretty quiet here though.  In the quiet there has been a deep working.  So deep that it insisted on stillness and quiet even when I was desperate to write.

God has been stirring things in me that, during the stirring, made me wish He wasn't.  But I know that the stirring only happens because He loves deeply, because He faithfully finishes the work He starts in us.  It's because this girl has asked to be set free.  To be unlocked from her cage and, in return, show others the keys to their own cages.  And because my God wants nothing less than my complete freedom He honors my request with deep stirrings.

The stirring seem painful at first.  It is a large God finger placed on the root of a lie in my life.  Pulling up roots can sting but when the roots of a weed are gone the beautiful flowers of truth can flourish. 

God has been pulling up the weeds of perfection in my life as I wrote about here and here.  I told my husband the other day that the title I chose for this blog, Purposeful Homemaker, was prophetic because God is truly working on my heart to turn me into a purposeful woman and get rid of my striving for perfection.  This striving has been my companion for as long as I can remember, even since I was a little girl.  God has been opening my eyes to my need for His grace in my life and opening my hand from the grasp that held so tightly to the idea of perfection.

Everything has changed.

You see, When you strive for perfection your goals are never realistic because they are always unachievable.  Everything you work for will fall short and it will leave you in a hopeless place. That is where I found myself.  Hopeless.  But don't feel sorry for me.  I needed to find hopelessness in my own strength.  I needed to be shown the error of my ways.  I needed to understand that His strength is made perfect when I am weak.

So now that I am back to writing and my smile has returned, I look forward to sharing with you my journey the past few months. It's been one of deep reflection.  God, as always, has been good to me and oh, so faithful!  It's been like difficult mining, but there is gold in there somewhere.  I think it's starting to shine through...

Making Listening an Art

Understand this, my dear brothers and sisters: You must all be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to get angry.

James 1:19

God has been speaking to my heart about this scripture when it comes to hearing, really hearing, my children.

Too often I am multi tasking when my children talk to me and only half-way listening. My kids need a present mother who cares about their thoughts and dreams. I don't want to miss the NOW opportunity to listen to them before they decide it isn't worth sharing their hearts with me because I don't seem to care much anyway.

So I am practicing stopping and turning to them {and often make it an opportunity for a hug} when they open their mouths to tell me what is going on in their head. It's often then that I get a better glimpse of what is going on in their heart.

Listening is an art and I want to be quick to do it.

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How do you make sure your kids know you are listening? What do you do when they interrupt and you need them to wait just a minute before you can give them your full attention? I'd love to hear Your thoughts today.