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.
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...
How in the world can we “rejoice always,” when we look at everything going on in your world and mine? Take courage my friend. God is still at work. Don’t miss this episode of the Seek and Savor podcast, Desperate for Rescue.#seekandsavorpodcast #liftupyoureyes #linkinmybio #rejoicealways...
New Year’s Eve is the anniversary of the day our world began unraveling…. But God was with us, carrying us, making a way. As I read and remember some words God gave me when we were in the thick of it, these are some that stood out as worth sharing. They are my gift to you as we enter a New Year. May they lead you deeper into Him.
“It was not enough anymore for me to just read His word in the morning. For, by the afternoon the pain of watching the changes in my Alan from the brain cancer would overwhelm my heart if I did not gird it up with MORE of God’s truth! I see now how beautiful the scripture is that says,
“You shall teach them to your sons, talking of them when you sit in your house and when you walk along the road and when you lie down and when you rise up.” ( Deut. 6:8) The Lord knew we would need daily, reminders of His Word. His Truth becomes the solid ground that we can build our lives on! The word is Living and Active and more powerful than a double edged sword. It is the ONE thing that is strong enough to carry us through hard times, to strengthen us when we are weary and renew our hearts when they fail us. Carve out time in your day to sit down with this GIFT. Ask the Spirit of the living God to open your heart and mind as you read it so that you might be transformed by the renewing of your mind ( Rom. 12:2). It is the Greatest Treasure and too often it just sits on a shelf. Let it be your daily bread for the new year.❤️#new #lifeafterloss #hopeforthefuture...
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 woke up this morning with these words coming out of my mouth. “Up from the grave He arose.” But they continued… “With a mighty triumph o’er His foes. He arose a VICTOR from the dark domain And He lives FOREVER…” These words are from a song written by Robert Lowry. But my heart claimed them aa my own upon waking. The enemy comes to steal, kill and destroy. But Jesus came that we may have LIFE friends! I don’t know the things you may find yourself wrestling with in your everyday life. I don’t know the wilderness season you may find yourself in or the grief that may feel like is breaking your heart. But I do know this good news is bigger than a day! It was for yesterday, today and tomorrow. It will carry you when you feel weary and hide you in the shadow of the Almighty as you wait for deliverance. The good news that Jesus came, He died and He rose from the dead is for EVERYONE! It’s for you beloved. John 14:1 (ESV) “Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me.“ Psalm 9:10 (ESV) “And those who know your name put their trust in you, for you, O Lord, have not forsaken those who seek you.“...
Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think....(Eph.3:20) We serve a God of FAR MORE beloved.
Somewhere along the way, whether by fiery arrows of doubt and fear from the enemy or by our own insecurities; this truth becomes threatened.
We begin to think small. We begin to ask for little. We begin to tell ourselves to settle for less. We may even begin to think that we are hoping for too much.
Ah, what welcome relief to know that we serve a God who is able to do far more, abundantly than all we ask or think. And the cherry on the top is the next verse: “According to the power that works within us!” When you follow Jesus and His Spirit comes to live inside you, you have this same power, the power that raised Jesus from the dead. That’s no small thing friend. So let’s dream with God. Let’s set our minds on things above rather than the earth. Let’s ask and seek and knock and do it all for His Glory. #seekandsavorpodcast #hopeforthefuture #renewyourmind...
Have you ever wondered what it means to LIVE by the words that come from God’s mouth? Matthew 4:4 tells us that “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.” Just like our bodies need bread to continue living, our spirits need the word’s breathed by God to sustain our souls. Breathed by God beloved. Of course it would be these words alone that have the power to actually Revive us.
Revive us according to your word God.
This is how His yoke becomes easy and His burdens become light.
It happens when we fill our hearts with so much of Him, He spills out in the pressing. I want to drip Jesus. Don’t you?...
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...
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...
Many of us have been asleep. We literally are moving from one day to the next, our schedules filled from morning til night with things for us to do.
We try to make our lives here as comfortable as they can be.
But God’s word says, to be on your guard, instead of asleep to stay alert and clearheaded. He calls us to prepare our minds for action and exercise self-control.
The enemy of our souls would have us remain asleep. He would have us believe that the action we might take surely can’t make a difference, so why try.
We have a choice whose voice we heed beloved.
Join us for today’s episode of the Seek and Savor podcast, “It’s time to wake up.”
This is one you might want to save/share. Find it at the link in my bio. You are here… today…. for such a time as this. ❤️ #wakeupnow #liftupyoureyes #seekandsavorpodcast #christianpodcast...
