This is the place you’ll find hope. The kind of hope that can carry you through those hard places you unexpectedly find yourself in.
I’m no stranger to the hard life throws at us and in the midst of trying to find my way through one of those dark places I heard 4 words deep in my spirit,
“Lift Up Your Eyes.”
It was a gentle reminder from our great God that I needed his perspective instead of my own to walk through my husband’s unexpected journey to Heaven.
Those words carried me and you too if you’ve followed along with me. They also led us to creating the Seek and Savor podcast which equips us to lift our eyes on a daily basis.
I’m Mama to four amazing young adults and Nana to six darling grands with two more on the way.
My sweet husband got to meet his Savior at the age of 47 after a year long battle with brain cancer. We miss him every day.
Life for me, felt like it was ending but God was doing a new thing.
I don’t know where life finds you today beloved, but God, He is all about doing a new thing in us and it begins when we fix our gaze on Him instead of our circumstances.
Life may be filled with hard things dear one, but we were made to do hard and holy things and in the process we become vessels of beauty, fit for the KING.
“My presence will go with you and I will give you rest. ” Exodus 33:14
I’d love to connect with you.
Email me using the form below and I’ll respond soon. I’m also available for speaking events for women of all ages and stages. For a list of topics, please visit my Speaking Page.
She isn’t tiny anymore. But as I look at her little bowed head and heart full of faith I am reminded that God is faithful. We may live on a battlefield and feel the tug of war over our hearts and those we love but we forget something beloved. Our God is able. He isn’t dependent on our earthly wisdom. He doesn’t rely on our ability to figure things out. Even as a mature grandmother who walks with God I find my own heart forgetting. I find myself anxious about waves that come against us, the ones that threaten to overtake us. But when I quiet my soul, and surrender I remember. I am not alone. We are not alone. He fights on our behalf. Will He use us? Yes. But the answers, the relief, the rescue lies in Him. I got the joy of talking to this dear girl this week who isn’t this little anymore, about hearing God’s voice. We talked about how to recognize it, and how to make space for it. Ah… that is the rub isn’t it friends?
“My soul waits in silence for God only. From Him is my salvation.” Ps.62:1 “My soul waits in silence for God only, for my hope is from Him.” Ps. 62:5
When was the last time you waited in silence? If your heart feels conviction you aren’t alone.
Who is willing to wait on the Lord with me?❤️ #waitonthelord #hopefortheworld #seekandsavorpodcast...
So often fear makes us want to turn around and go the other way.
Or we think we must hurry ahead to achieve all the things we want to. Staying steady, our hand in his hand is often hard. The enemy comes in and tells us that uncomfortable is not the place we want to be. He says “in control” is better.
But, oh beloved what joy is found in surrender.
“For I am the LORD your God, who takes hold of your right hand and tells you: Do not fear, I will help you. Isaiah 41:13
I am trying to remember to press in. I want to be in tune with His voice not just when I am desperate and in times of deep suffering. But also when the sun is shining, my to-do list is long and all is right in my world that day. Commune means: To converse or talk with profound intensity or intimacy. I have not mastered it, but I long for it to become second nature, this walking and talking with God. No more boxes of time that he must fit in! Morning devotions, Bible Studies and church, yes, but also doing the laundry, taking a walk, driving in my car. When you walk in relationship with someone beloved there is a back and forth a giving and receiving.
Paul said that he had NOT YET attained to knowing Christ as he ought, but he pressed on toward that goal. Phil, 3:8 I want to know Christ and I want to be sensitive to His voice. Imagine a world where we listened more and talked less. What are some ways you make time for the Father to speak to your heart? #hisstillsmallvoice #leanin #soulfuel #hopeforthefuture...
I sat in a room this week where we talked about obedience coming from a place of love. And I remembered a simple prayer I have prayed for years, “Increase my love for you, Father.” It is a prayer I have prayed on repeat. Then today God took me back to a little swing I sat on beside a lake in Minnesota. I was a young college student with a freshly broken heart and God’s presence with me on the swing that day was tangible. He was tending my heart while also inviting me deeper. All these years later I am so grateful for his invitation to go deeper, and to remember we don’t have to do any of this alone. I am human and I forget. Sometimes my heart defaults to fear or anxiety. I forget the invitation. But I believe that simple prayer to increase my love for Him has been guarding my heart all along. When I forget I’m not alone He reminds me. When life feels unbearably hard, He lifts my chin and says, “ Lift up your eyes beloved.” When I am walking in times of answered prayers, surrounded by love He calls me to notice it. Love for Him increases in my heart and I am compelled by His love to continue this obedience journey. I am compelled to follow Him. “I love those who love me and those who diligently seek me will find me.” Prov. 8:17 How have you seen God pursue your heart? #drawmedeeperlord #liftupyoureyes #seekandsavorpodcast #renewyourmind...
I ran across this quote one day that I’d saved from T. Davis Bunn- “The whole world’s out there screaming for our attention and only one little voice in our heart is whispering ;The answers not out there. It’s in here.” Oh how I want to listen to that still small voice beloved!
There have been times in my life I desperately wanted to hear from God. I know you have too. Write it on the wall, Lord. ❤️ Isaiah 30:21 says, “And your ears shall hear a word behind you saying, This is the way, walk in it.” Now more than ever it’s imperative that the sheep know the Good Shepherd’s voice. We could just make up our own path but why would we do that when He can see down the road? He can direct our steps and lead us in triumphant procession. For more on this check out my Seek and Savor podcast and search the episode, “The Good Shepherd.” #seekandsavorpodcast #hearinggodsvoice #liftupyoureyes...
10 years ago we spent our spring break at the beach. Alan’s body had just been buried but I knew he was fully ALIVE. 2 years after that I penned words sharing what the Holy Spirit spoke to my heart that day. The truth of them is still breathing life into me today.I find myself growing in the fertile soil of them. I pray they will breath life into you as well, no matter where your heart is challenged in believing today.
“Yesterday as I worshipped I felt Christ brushing past the rubble in my broken heart. In some ways the pain of Alan’s absence can feel fresh all over again. It’s on those days I’m made aware again of how life doesn’t look like I thought it would. The shock has gone. The flashbacks of painful days are fewer and fewer. Yet, I often found myself kneeling in a graveyard of broken dreams, unable to find a vision for the future. As I would walk about seeing others grow old together, I would wonder what that would have looked like and sometimes the new dreams God was giving me felt too BIG or far away. But God…
I felt the Spirit whisper to my heart, ‘The graveyard is the perfect place beloved. I am not daunted by death. No, I conquered it. In fact, you must know something… I Still Move Stones.’ Cue the tears friends. He still moves stones!
Have you ever heard more beautiful words? I can hardly think of any.
Mark 16:4 says, “ But when they looked up, they saw that the stone, which was very large, had been rolled away.” That great big stone that covered the tomb where they lay our Lord’s body had been moved. He came to conquer death. Then He tells us in Romans 8: 11, “ The same power that raised Jesus from the dead is at work in you.” At work in us? How is that possible? He is in the business of moving stones. The resurrected one wants to resurrect our hearts. He wants to conquer death on our behalf . Not just once when our earthly flesh fades, but every day! He longs to take the stones of brokenness, sin , heartache and death from our hearts. He wants to move the rubble out of our paths so we can LIVE resurrected lives. Because He lives, we can too.❤️#seekandsavorpodcast #christinus #liftupyoureyes #sundayiscoming...
It’s ok to take a step back and focus on what is in front of you. Because the truth of it is we only have today once. Tomorrow it will be yesterday. I don’t want to look back and see that I allowed my feelings about what might be happening in “today” to rob me of the GIFT of it. The sheer miraculous gift of what our eyes are seeing and the sounds all around us is evidence that God is here in our midst.
He is with us in the joyful and the mundane. His right hand holds us steady in the hard and His Spirit counsels and keeps our hearts. Quiet your heart beloved. Listen to His still small voice and proceed with courage. ❤️
* More on listening to His voice coming soon to the Seek and Savor podcast.
I am loving the Bible Recap with Tara Leigh Cobble as part of my daily reading this year. She dropped this truth bomb the other day and I had to push rewind and write it down. Truth from God’s word is worth savoring friends. The reality that God is Always working on our behalf and no man can thwart His purposes is an anchor for your heart on the days your circumstances feel like mountains no man can climb. We can trust in our faithful God beloved.
“In your strength I can crush an army; with my God I can scale any wall.” Psalm 18:29
Redirecting my eyes towards the truth of God’s word always redirects my heart. ❤️#seekandsavorpodcast #hopeinhim #rejoicealways...
Happy Birthday to my Alan! 10 birthdays in Heaven, and it makes me wonder. Is he celebrating being home from his mission on this earth? What is He doing while we remember the gift He was to us, and still is? Ever since he left I have been sharing words with you. Because I feel called by God to share in some small way the “JOY, that is set before us.” Sometimes it’s a joy that wells up and overflows for the taking and other times it must be fought for.
I can make a list a mile long of all the good God has brought about since he left. Because that is our God, good and faithful, chasing us down with His mercy and grace. I can also count the tears that have been shed, how many times we have longed for Alan’s actual presence and the memories we wanted to make with him. The in between, is the place I have learned to live. Holding both joy and sorrow, trusting that when I am weak Christ’s power is being made perfect in me and finding true joy in walking every day with my Savior. When we had to choose the words to mark where Alan’s physical body was laid, I waited a year. I wrestled, I cried but, then I knew…”Alive in Christ.” It was the single most important thing to say and it’s true. This is why we lift up our eyes beloved. It’s why we are not overcome by it all. If life is in between for you beloved, you aren’t alone. ❤️ May I pray for you? #seekandsavorpodcast #lifeafterloss #hopeforthefuture #rejoicealways #griefshare...
I like to think of joy as that feeling of bubbling mirth that just wells up inside us and spills out of our mouths in trickles of laughter. And it can be. I have memories of time spent with family sharing stories, reliving the past punctuated by outbursts of laughter. What has joy looked like for you?Do you have memories reuniting with loved ones you haven’t seen in a while? Your heart feels like it may burst when you open the door and they walk into your arms. You are overwhelmed with joy. This may surprise you but I have also found joy when life has so wearied me with its storms I find myself stumbling to the Word. Out of sheer desperation I gather it up close. Glancing down at the page the words seem to leap off of it and down into the soil of my heart and I feel seen. The God of the universe sees us friends. He knows us. Those words written so long ago were written for us, for such a time as this. Our hearts begin to fill with deep joy, as we remember He is with us. It’s as if our very soul splits wide open with a grin and His Joy becomes our strength! What brings you joy friend? #joyoflife #givethankstothelord #rejoicealways #wordofgodspeak...
This week I was reminded that often beauty and devastation go hand in hand. As I walked around my neighborhood I marveled at the trees glistening as if they were covered in diamonds. I also mourned the massive trees lying on their sides,roots lifted in the air. The longer I walk this earth I see how much we can learn that it is possible to hold both. It’s not only possible, good can come from it. Today’s episode of the Seek and Savor podcast is a reminder that we can still find beauty in the middle of broken places. Are you looking beloved? Comment link if you want to listen to this 8 minute episode. Save to remind your heart. ❤️...
