Return Your Heart

Can’t sleep, Can’t eat, can’t even talk about anything else. My husband is like “are you serious?!” for the umpteenth time. Y’all I am in love. With My Savior. I am in complete awe and a huge mess when I think about how easy he made listening and obeying… okay, for those of you who don’t know, he’s perfect, which is kind of a HUGE deal in this mess of a world we live in. This consumer place where more, more, more is expected.  I don’t know about you, but almost nothing in the world gets under my skin than an ungrateful child that EXPECTS to get, get, get. SO WE, collectively, have decided to STOP, TO QUIT, TO GIVE UP, on living in excess and more, more, more. (Lord, forgive me for being this ungrateful child, more often than not.)

God you got me falling hard when you commanded me to, “Even now,” declares the LORD, “return to me with all your heart, with fasting and weeping and mourning.” Joel 2:12

Yes, Yes Sir. Conviction came hard and fast and My Savior didn’t just let go lightly…fasting and weeping and yet he still pursued me and whispered to my heart, and pulled me closer to him. (That’s what someone does when they love you too much to let you go.) I don’t know about you, but I can be stubborn, 99.8% of the time. The other 0.2% is ONLY when I am too tired to be stubborn. Jeremy, my beloved, will vouch for me on this.

Okay, so what’s the point, what am I getting at. No, we aren’t selling all of our things and moving to Africa (half truth) (ONLY because God told us our mission field is right here in America, darn you heating and air conditioning.) (please don’t go out on me, that was only a joke.)

So back to the point, we are selling, purging and cleaning out…ALL the excess in our home. IF we aren’t using it, it’s going, going, going to be going to someone who can.

“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal.” – Matthew 6:19

LOVE how Jen Hatmaker says, “Do not be fooled by the luxuries of this world; they cripple our faith.”

I was in utter amazement when I was in Kenya, Africa and the believers faith there was great, and they had wayyy less than me and they had greater faith for God to provide. They weren’t caught up in more, more, more to be happy. They just simply trusted God to provide, and he did.

HEY LADIES (AND MEN) YARD SALE TIME!

AND here’s the kicker, We can’t keep ANY of the money. After prayer and deliberation with my lover and leader of our home, we decided to donate it. We have an AH-MAZING God loving-serving friend, Katie Clifton, that works for African Christian Outreach. This is where God told us to put HIS money. Sure enough, in true God fashion, Katie was just praying for more partners when I called and told her our not so little secret. The cool thing about ACO is that they spread the gospel to East Africa. (My beloved Kenya is in East Africa!) You can read more about it here. http://acokenya.org/who-we-are.

AND this is where I need YOUR help. If you are local and would like to donate any items to our yard sale we would be forever grateful. ALSO, if you would like to become a monthly partner (for as little as $5) to ACO you can go here. http://acokenya.org/

 “I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.”-Matthew 19:24

I believe the point he is making is that you can’t serve two GODS… we either love money or love THE ONE TRUE GOD. When we are so preoccupied with money we are too consumed by it to love God with a pure and giving heart.

When we have a lot we want, more, more, more…. we feel entitled and like the Grinch, our heart is smaller than when we give, give, give. (That’s when our heart grows.) Money becomes our priority and we aren’t willing to let something come in between our money and us. (Preaching to choir here, I am GUILTY!) Let’s learn to give as Jesus commanded, TOGETHER.

“For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.” 1 Timothy 6:10

When my son and I were doing our bible study in 1 John we both LOVED this verse,”Dear children let us not love by words or tongue, but with actions and in truth.” 1 John 3:18

We also decided we needed to be Salmon. These fish swim upstream, to go back to where they originally came from, where they were born.

We, as Christ followers, need to be set apart from the world, to go against the grain. We need to remember where we came from and return our hearts to our creator, our God and Father.

May there be more of you, Lord Jesus, and less of me. Amen.

Dear 12 year old me

Dear 12 year old me,

You know that boy you are writing about in your diary… The one who you think is “dreamy” and “handsome“… The one you have a major crush on and are even practicing writing his last name?…(all girls do that, right?!?!)… Yep, that’s him, the one, you just “think” you know it now. See that picture up top… in 8 years that girl and that boy will be yall, picking up your marriage liscence.  In 7 years your paths will cross again. In 6.5 years you will be wondering who you are going to marry… you will be praying and pondering and preparing to meet “the one”. You will be intently praying specifically for your husband.

Qualifications:

• Love God first
• Love and adore me
• Does the dishes
• Someone I have met before

On January 14th 2007 you will begin praying/fasting for your husband. That you may talk to him in exactly one month. Deadline: February 14th 2007. Early on in January when you are feeling sad about having had your heart broken with the last few guys you dated and you think you “will never” meet a good godly man, God will lead you to a verse and a quote.

You will cling to Song of Solomon 2:7 “Daughters of Jerusalem, I charge you…Do not arouse or awaken love until it so desires.”

“A woman’s heart should be so hidden in God that a man has to seek Him just to find her.” -Max Lucado

Your list may be short and to the point, but God knows the desires of your heart that you have yet to have. In the man you will call husband God will create in him the passion and desire to be a great daddy to your children. You will have daughters and a son that he will adore and put as a priority over any job. Your heart will swell with love when you watch how gently he changes the diaper of your fourth child when she in the nicu, when he holds you as you sob and grieve for the loss of your third child, When he wipes away the tears of your second child after she falls and scrapes her knees, when he shows your son, his first born, how to get back up after he falls off of his bike. You will love to see the look in his eyes as he watches your children with complete adoration. He will teach you about true love, forgiveness, loyalty and how a husband and daddy should be.

These adventures and so much more God has in store for you, together, the three strands of you. The three strands that will not be easily broken-although the ruler of this corrupt, unfair world will try his best to distract you. From the good God has given to each of you. From the beauty of God that is yet to be had, from the ashes of brokenness.

Be patient. God has it all under control. For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Jeremiah 29:11

When you stand before your God, your family and your friends and proclaim,  “for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and health, to love and to cherish, until we are parted by death.”  The man you will promise these things to will adore and cherish you through it all. He will be an even better man than you prayed for. Our God is so good like that.

So when you are crying because some guy broke your heart or when you feel like you can’t go on because life just doesn’t make sense. It doesn’t have to make sense when you trust and know God is preparing your heart for your husbands heart. Your husbands heart for your heart. God is so carefully laying the foundation of a beautiful love story. No hollywood producer can compare to the love story that is being perfectly written for you and the love of your life. Hang on… life is a crazy, beautiful, wild ride. Enjoy your childhood because one day you will be raising children of your own. One day you will look back and see that God, your God, is the author of life and has paid attention to every grand and minute detail.

So when a boy from your childhood asks you on a date, say yes, that will be the beginning of a grand adventure and it will start on February 14th,2007.

Love,

28 year old me