Be still in the Presence

Be still in the presence of the Lord,
and wait patiently for Him to act.
Don't worry about ______________
or fret about _____________.


Psalm 37:7 NLT

I am thankful for a sense of peace. There are 12 days until Natalija and Vilnis come to live with us again. This time around I am so aware of how out of control I am over their well-being. Strangely enough, this has not caused more anxiety, but greater trust. I cannot know what the future will hold for us or for them. I cannot heal their hurts. I can ask God to help me love them for the month that I tuck them into bed and remind them to put their dirty clothes in the laundry chute. I can raise my eyes and heart in expectation to the one who loves them more than I ever could...and I can wait patiently for His best plan to unfold.

Advent- ears to hear

I love Christmas. Each year in October I start pulling out a large notebook of past ideas, recipes, decoration notes, shopping lists, addresses for cards and throw myself into the work of making the holiday season magical. If I am not careful, by Thanksgiving weekend, I have already peaked in terms of my energy and enthusiasm and am somewhat unenthused about finishing all of the tasks I have begun.


This feeling of being pooped out always brings me back to Jesus, who helps me remember who all this hoopla is for in the first place, and I settle into quiet moments with my Savior.


I love the tradition of Advent. I love lighting a candle at the table at mealtime and counting down the days until the awaited celebration. I love the season of finding a way to celebrate each day. I love sitting by the tree full of white lights and listening to the songs I have hand-selected on Pandora. I love having coffee in the morning while I read through Luke (24 chapters...roughly one for each day of the season...to focus on the life of Christ and not just the birth.) I love having cocoa or cider with my children sometime in the evening or afternoon when they desperately need some quietness too.


I have been asking Jesus for some new ideas on how to better devote myself to Him during this season of much joy and much activity.


Here are a few of the things I intend to try:


Listen and watch for opportunities.


This week I sat down with my girls and half-way watched two new holiday specials. I was not too impressed initially, since the content was completely secular. However, as I pulled clippings from holiday magazines and folded laundry alongside my t.v. watching kids, I heard messages that could honor Christ if properly noted.


In Hoops and YoYo, there is the theme of "giving up your dream so that another's dream could be realized." In Elf on the Shelf, is a song about how "Christmas is a great time for forgiveness". After we turned off the television, I took a few moments and asked my girls why they thought Christmas was a good time for forgiveness, and they were able to connect the babe in the manger with the offer of forgiveness given by God through His son. We talked about what sacrifice could mean in our lives.


I could have finished folding the laundry and missed the little opportunities hidden within a secular moment, but God is speaking all around us, even through cartoons, if we have ears to hear.


Do you hear what I hear?

Stop and Consider

Stop and consider God's wonders.


Job 37:14

O Lord, my God
When I in awesome wonder
Consider all
the worlds thy hands hath made.


I see the stars
I hear the rolling thunder
Thy power throughout 
the universe displayed.


Then sings my soul,
My Saviour God to Thee


How Great Thou Art!

Faithful love

Do not think that love, in order to be genuine, has to be extraordinary.


What we need is to love without getting tired.


-Mother Teresa

Again and again, the Lord keeps bringing me back to "Don't worry about doing something great, or being someone extraordinary. What I'm interested in is faithful love."


May I be acutely aware of the thousand small opportunities in front of me.


Yesterday I walked my children to their classroom. This was a  rare occurrance. They are always more than happy to jump out of the mini-van door in the carpool line and hit the pavement running ahead of me. But yesterday, I walked with them, trailing their dust. And on the way back down the hallway, I saw a small girl with breakfast crumbs encrusted around her mouth, sticky substances flowing from her nose, wailing at the top of her lungs. I saw a slightly larger boy fussing at her and leaving her behind as he went on to class. As I stopped to ask her what was wrong, I realized that she was lost, grumpy, and that her brother had no patience left for her tears. I asked her if she was in kindergarten, and she managed to nod her head. Turns out that she is classmate of my youngest daughter. We walked hand-in-hand to the kindergarten hall and I felt such a sense of God saying, "This is it. Notice the people who are in front of you." At least one hundred kids passed her by, and at that moment in time, no adults were to be found in that section of the hallway. It wasn't hard at all to stop, and that was the small assignment God had for me that brought great joy. I am sure that she went about her day and forgot all about our encounter, but God etched those moments in my memory. Stop. Notice. Care. Don't think about sanitizing your hands as you hold hers. Offer my faithful love.


May I not miss the small assignments that God has for me today.

Kisses from Katie

I was privileged to hear Katie speak at Catalyst a few weeks ago. Hers is an amazing story of what it is like to follow God one step at a time and change the world, one life at a time.

http://www.wltx.com/video/1211539242001/0/22-year-old-is-Mother-to-13-Orphans

I just finished reading her new book, Kisses from Katie.

She says:

I want to be challenged endlessly.
I want to be taught by those I teach, 
and I want to share God's love with people who otherwise might not know it. 
I want to work so hard that I end every day filthy and too tired to move. 
I want to make some kind of difference, no matter how small, 
and I want to follow the calling God has placed on my heart.

my assignment...should I choose to accept it

Lord, you have assigned me my portion and my cup;
You have made my lot secure.
The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places;
Surely I have a delightful inheritance.


You have made known to me the path of life;
you will fill me with JOY in your presence,
with eternal pleasures in your right hand.


Psalm 16:5-6,11


Sometimes I struggle with my assignment. Sometimes my assignment seems too small. Too mundane. As if I'm making no progress in my desire to make a difference in the world. Some create mission organizations and travel the world. In this season I travel to the kids' school, the gym, church, and Wal-mart.


Other times my assignment seems too big. Eighteen minutes of choreography in the Christmas program? Five kids and only one of me to help them on a particular moment?


I'm trying to learn to rest in the boundary lines that God has given me. Each day I have a new assignment. It might be to do the same old laundry and drive the kids back to school again with fresh joy and a sense of purpose. It might be to beg him for parenting wisdom or a renewed love for my amazing spouse when life is causing distance.


At the Catalyst conference in Atlanta, I watched several artists paint during worship sets. As Hillsong United led 13,000 people in praising God, one artist worked quietly in a corner, painting his messages that would later be auctioned to support Amazima ministries in Uganda. The paintings all had a dead black bird, claws up, in common. As I wondered what message was hidden within, I later saw one that said, "Let it die"...Do you wish that the speaker's calling were your own? Let it die, so that His dream for you may live.


I don't know how many people stopped in the cattle-drive lines for lunch to take in what he was quietly saying, but it spoke to me. Let "your dream" for your life die. Give God full permission to do whatever He dreams with your life. Be it mundane and quiet, or spectacularly "significant" in everyone's eyes, including your own.


I recently had lunch with a dear friend for her birthday. We talked about how sometimes, feeling like you want to do something "big" for God is a misunderstanding. People tell us that we are smart and special when we are young, and instead of encouraging us to go and reach our potential, it places a hidden burden on our hearts of "you are not doing enough". We carry around inside of us the idea that we must do something "great for God" in order to count and fulfill the idea of what our life should be or produce.


I am forty years old and still reconciling that greatness in His eyes is completely different from what I consider to be noteworthy. He gives the assignments. If it matters too much for me to do something "big", then I need to spend some more time folding laundry.


God, I pray for your renewed perspective today. I ask to only seek you, and not influence or impact on the world. I pray that as I attend to your every direction, I will have exactly the life that pleases you most.
Help me love and attend to the ones you have placed before me. May I shepherd these well and not seek greater things.


Thank you for bringing rest to my body and my soul as I learn to release my hopes, dreams, and expectations to you.


Thank you for seeing my desire to do something (anything) that might please you. I think of Peter, James, and John who offered to build tabernacles for you on the Mount of Transfiguration after seeing your glory. (Luke 9:33)  They didn't have any clue what to say or do, but they wanted to respond to You. Take my desire to respond to You, and do with it, whatever you wish, for YOUR glory and delight alone.


Thank you for being patient with me.
Thank you for reminding me to "cease striving" and just know You.
I love you,
Taryn


Psalm 46:10 Cease striving and know that I am God.


Jeremiah 45:5 Are you seeking great things for yourself? Seek them not.

 

certain hope

Do not put your hope in 
____________________


which is so UNCERTAIN,


but put your hope in GOD,


who richly provides us


with everything for our enjoyment.


1 Timothy 6:17