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 ...

Are you finding and savoring the good?

In this “instant society” we live in it is so tempting to ask for things like hope, joy and peace in a grocery list type of way.
I ask. He delivers.
And please don’t require me to wait.
Instead, it is more about relationship.
Like Jacob wrestling the angel of the Lord it is in the process of wrestling through life while holding onto the Lord  that good stuff is produced.
Ps. 16:11 says, 
“You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.”
Take 10 minutes and listen to the rest of this episode, “Finding the Good,” on the Seek and Savor podcast.
Something sweet happens when we realize there is purpose even in the hard and God wants to use it for our good! 💕 ...

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? ...

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 ...

God will always shine his light in the dark places for our benefit. He wants to tend our hearts. Are we looking for His light?

Removing things, that are dead or just taking up space will actually make room for LIFE friends!

And something wonderful happens each time we surrender to God. Whether that be the first time we surrender our lives to him or when we surrender on a normal day in an ordinary moment.

Hop over to the Seek and Savor podcast as we learn to disciple our hearts. ❤️
Link to listen in my bio. #seekandsavorpodcast #newheart #lightoftheworld ...

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? ...

For me, finding the path to being able to rejoice began with “lifting up my eyes.”
I was only months out from two very big griefs that had struck our family, and I was struggling to just breathe.
I was wondering if life would ever hold joy again and if I still had purpose on this earth.
Exiting the park after a long walk, I started climbing the sidewalk that would lead me home and I heard in my Spirit, “ lift up your eyes.”
This has become a life journey! One I wished I had begun long ago.
If you find yourself fighting to keep your circumstances from dragging you down don’t miss this week’s brand new episode of the Seek and Savor podcast.
I believe you will take something valuable with you. ❤️ Link in my bio. ...