Meet Tara

I’ve been asking the Lord for more.
I’m realizing I need Him more than I’ve reached for Him in the past.
What I mean by that is, of course we need Him to save us, friends.
But, He didn’t just sacrifice His life for ours and stop there.

Psalm 139 says He is intimately acquainted with all our ways.

When my husband went to heaven and the fog of constant grief started lifting, I began to see how very much alone I was..

Who would help me make all the decisions I was used to making with a partner?
The ones, we take for granted like; What’s for dinner?
What color should we paint the house?
Is it time to replace the water heater or should we wait?
And the bigger ones like how should I handle a conflict with my child or is it time to sell the house?
It only took a few weeks before I had decision fatigue.😰
Then one day out of frustration, I said, Lord, since he’s not here, I need you to do all these things….And you know what?
He did.
As I waited on Him, he answered.
I began asking him to be everything: my counselor, my friend, my physician, everything.
So, it was no surprise to me after one particularly stressful week, I came across this verse in my reading.

“The law of the Lord is perfect, refreshing the soul. The statues of the Lord are trustworthy making wise the simple.”
Ps. 19: 7(NKJV)

There He was again, giving me the perfect prescription for a dry, weary soul crying out for direction.

What do you need the Lord to do for you beloved?

Ask and he will answer. Seek and you will find.

Tag a friend who needs to remember that He wants to be our Everything!
#liftupyoureyes #seekandsavorpodcast #heiswithus ...

There’s a lot of things grasping for our attention,
Situations and circumstances that would draw our hearts away from the one who brings LIFE.
Proverbs 4 speaks a good word for us beloved. It reminds us to….

Keep your heart with all vigilance,
for from it flow the springs of life.
Let your eyes look directly forward,
and your gaze be straight before you.
Ponder the path of your feet;
then all your ways will be sure.

Setting our gaze on the right thing is the difference between overcoming or being overcome.
In Peter’s situation it was the difference between walking on water and sinking into it.
I know it can feel SO very hard but today, right now, what if you just “lifted your eyes?”
What if you took them off that THING and put them on your great God?
I promise you, Jesus makes everything look smaller.
And He will sit with you in the midst of it all.
#seekandsavorpodcast #hopeforthefuture #changeyourperspective #renewyourmind #wordofgodspeak ...

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 ...

I love this sweet reminder I stumbled across one day, that joy is found in His Words.

Although I often look for joy in so many other places, no one else’s words have the power to remake me.

Like a surgeon’s scalpel they can precisely strike the place in my heart that is believing something other than the truth.

And when His Word replaces that old lie, new life springs up and with it comes joy!

Oh that we would go to your Word FIRST, when all is not well, Lord! Gives us a hunger for it, so that it becomes our joy and delight!
#itiswellwithmysoul #onethousandgifts #seekandsavorpodcast ...

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 ...

Sometimes, we just need to step away and remind ourselves that our God knows all that is troubling our souls and He has not given us over beloved.

For me that often looks like walking.
After I walked this beautiful farm I sat on top of a hill and witnessed the ever changing sky. Minute by minute the colors changed, chasing each other until even the lavender faded to black.

It reminded me that everyday he goes to great lengths to show us He is present. We can either stop and notice or continue on, overwhelmed by what our feelings are speaking to us.

He is for you beloved!
How do you press pause and remind your soul this is true? ...

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 ...