I am passionate about helping families gather around the table. Whether it’s sharing a recipe, selling Pampered Chef products, planning freezer meal workshops, teaching workshops about meal planning – I strive to share practical advice and encouragement to help provide tools to make family dinners more feasible for busy families.
Multiple studies have shown measurable benefits to regular family dinners, including:
Better academic performance
Higher self-esteem
Greater sense of resilience
Lower risk of substance abuse
Lower risk of teen pregnancy
Lower risk of depression
Lower likelihood of developing eating disorders
Lower rates of obesity
(The Family Dinner Project is just one resource that highlights the benefits of regular family dinners. )
But how do you routinely get dinner on the table between kids in multiple activities and sports, plus church activities and busy work schedules?
One tool that I have found to be indispensable in this process is my Instant Pot. (I have the Duo 7-1, 6 quart.) With just a little research, you will find that there is almost a cult following to the Instant Pot – recipes, Pinterest boards, Facebook groups, etc…
The Instant Pot is basically an electric pressure cooker, sauté pan and slower cooker in one. Most models include other settings to make rice, yogurt, grains and beans. It has a timer to allow you to program a delay start, a cooking time and it automatically goes to a warm setting once cooking is complete.
The huge advantage to an Instant Pot over a slow cooker is the time it takes to cook. I can pull a bag of frozen soup I have prepped in my freezer, throw it in the Instant Pot with a piece of frozen chicken and it is done in less than 30 minutes. I can cook 2 lbs of dry beans in 25 minutes with no soaking required and make perfectly cooked boiled eggs in 2 minutes!
The quality of cooking in a pressure cooker vs. a slow cooker is remarkable, especially when cooking meat. I can cook a pot roast in about an hour instead of all day in the oven. Plus it can cook while we are aren’t home!
Another feature that I love is the sauté feature. I can brown meat for tacos, chili or spaghetti sauce right in the Instant Pot, throw in the remaining ingredients, set it to cook (to cook/warm the other ingredients) while we are at volleyball or soccer practice and dinner is waiting when we come home! Best of all, there are no additional dishes to wash.
The company also firmly stands behind their products. Two weeks ago I had a fatal error on my Instant Pot. I contacted the company and they sent me a brand new unit, even though mine was outside the 1 year warranty!
I could go on and on, but it truly is a one pot wonder and worth the investment! Amazon Prime Day or Black Friday normally feature the best prices, but occasionally sales can be found during other times of the year.
What are your favorite Instant Pot recipes or tips?
I’m so excited to feature my friend Ali as today’s Missionary Monday! We met her and her husband Eric and their kids while we were stationed at West Point. Her story made such an impression on me of the impact at our finger tips through these organizations. I encourage you to pray about how the Lord would have you respond as you read her story!
When I received Stephanie’s invitation to write a post for Missionary Monday, my first thought was “Did she really mean to ask me to write a blog post? She must have gotten me mixed up with a different Ali who is involved with Compassion International.” I almost responded right away with, “Are you sure??” And maybe I did, because one, I don’t consider myself a missionary and two, I’m definitely not a writer.
Aren’t missionaries the people who leave the country for years at a time to go start schools and live in the bush? I’m sorry…I really like my air conditioning and queen-sized, bugless bed. My husband is the aspiring writer in our family by authoring our annual Christmas letter. I only write teacher-notes, grocery and to-do lists — that’s it! So I am completely humbled and honored to write as a guest on her blog.
Have you ever heard of Compassion International? I hadn’t either until I was 22, on my wedding day (story to follow). I was involuntarily signed up to be a child’s sponsor, which just goes to show that this isn’t about me. It’s about God and His plans, how He knows what we need way before we do and way better than we do, and how He orchestrates our lives to achieve His purposes. The following is the story of our involvement with Compassion International.
The first time I heard of Compassion International was from my husband when we got married. I think it was actually on the altar after we had just said our “I do’s” when he snuck it in there…”I do…(now in a whispery voice) Oh, by the way, a female friend and I sponsor a child in the Dominican Republic through Compassion. Since you and I are married now, it’s going to be your job to write her letters and make sure we send our monthly contribution (because that used to be my female friend’s job, and I decided to marry you, not her). That cool with you?” Me: “Uh yea…I guess…isn’t this something you should have told me before we got married?! So I just said ‘I do’ and all of a sudden I now have a child to sponsor in the Dominican Republic?!? I didn’t sign up for this!”
Okay, it didn’t really happen exactly like that, but kind of, and I did start writing to our first sponsored child, Odannay, and sent our monthly support each month until she graduated the program. I actually wasn’t a very “good” sponsor back then. I didn’t write to her as much as I meant to, and at that time I didn’t totally grasp the importance of the sponsor-sponsored child relationship. I just thought if we sent in our money and it helped her and her family that was enough.
We started sponsoring Manuela when she was 12. She lived in La Romana, Dominican Republic, which is about an hour east of Santo Domingo. I tried to write to her more often, but she definitely beat me in the letter-writing department. I sent sporadic letters and our monthly contribution of $38 for a couple of years, until one day when everything changed…
It was 2011. I had just started reading Ann Voskamp’s blog A Holy Experience, and one post in particular was about how she sponsored a Compassion child and was able to go on a group tour to visit her for the first time. Her story about meeting that little girl was so beautiful I wept. My eyes opened to what sponsorship could be about, something that I had actually wanted for years! I realized it was so much more than just the monthly $38; yes, that definitely is an important aspect of it, but what it’s really about is a relationship with another human being, a child living in poverty, in a faraway place who may be just surviving.
That evening I told my husband about Voskamp’s post and that I thought we needed to go meet Manuela in person. And if you know anything about my husband, he’s a DO-er. I have to watch what I say around that guy. The next thing I knew (well, after some background checks and applications and updating passports), we were on a plane to Santo Domingo to spend time with Compassion International Dominican Republic and Manuela.
Compassion DR’s Headquarters, August 2011
That trip to DR did three things for us. First, it gave us a behind-the-scenes look at Compassion International’s headquarters. We saw where all the in and out going letters were translated, the staff opened up their financial books to us, and we learned how the staff supports the various Compassion project sites around the country. The crux of the organization’s success is how they partner with local churches, enabling their ministry to children not leading or forcing it.
Second, we walked through a “project site.” This is the community center and tutoring program that our monthly contribution directly facilitates. It includes academic and Bible instruction, a healthy meal, counseling services, and even vocational training. In a devastating family emergency or natural disaster, the local church uses the infrastructure of the project site to provide for needs of the children and their families. It was so inspiring to meet the half-dozen or so volunteers that nurture hundreds of children flowing through these facilities each day.
Finally, we experienced first-hand the life impact of Compassion. When we walked inside the center I saw Manuela for first time, that little girl from the picture that hung on our refrigerator. She had grown since the last photo I received of her, and her smile was beautiful. Later, Manuela’s family invited us into their home, where they presented us with gifts, humongous avocados from their tree, and warmth and love only strangers who know Jesus can share. To say that Eric and I were humbled by their hospitality, by the sacrifices they made to purchase gifts for us, by them opening up their small, bed-sheet-for-a-wall home to us, is such an understatement.
And then…Manuela left the room and brought back a box. In it was all the letters I had ever written her. All of them.
Manuela and me at her home in 2011
We visited Manuela two more times since then. She graduated the Compassion program this past year and is now working to earn money so she can go to school to be an accountant. Compassion arranged for us to say goodbye to her one last time when we visited in June. Our final goodbye was so bittersweet. We talked about how God used Compassion to grow Manuela into the young woman she now was, we praised Him for allowing us to be a part of each other’s lives for nine years, and we cried and embraced one last time.
We now sponsor a little girl our daughter’s age, named Hidekel, and a little boy, our son’s age, named Leudy, both from the Dominican Republic. We brought our daughter, Glory, with us in June of this year so she could meet Hidekel. They’re actually pen pals. Hidekel always draws pictures of her and Glory playing together or as princesses outside a castle. Watching them communicate despite the language barrier, marvel at aquarium fish, eat ice cream, laugh, be little kids together was a beautiful site, and my heart was full thinking about how God has let us be a small part of these children’s lives and how they are a part of ours.
At Hidekel’s project site in Santo Domingo, 2015
That’s what Compassion International is about. It’s about the love between a sponsor and a child, the local church and Compassion centers being the hands and feet of Jesus, and releasing children from poverty in Jesus’ name, one letter at a time.
I have so many more stories about how Compassion International has impacted the lives of our sponsored children, their families, and us. I could write about how Compassion is such an efficient and above-board organization; how they invest over 80 cents of every dollar directly to sponsored children and Compassion programs. I could list stats on the percentage of children who finish high school and then pursue higher education because of the Compassion program, the number of babies that survive their first year because of Compassion’s ministry to pregnant and new moms, about their clean water initiatives around the world, etc. But I won’t include all of that here. If you want to know more or learn how to sponsor a child, please go to www.compassion.com or contact me at alikat0630@gmail.com.
From L to R: Hidekel’s sister, our daughter Glory, Leudy, Hidekel, 2017
A few months ago my husband announced, “I’m going to order you a sandbag.” I rolled my eyes, but he insisted.
See, I used to go to the gym 4-5 days a week. At my best in New York, I was consistently running, actually improving my times and training for my first triathlon. I had two young kids and my husband was deployed – I had nothing but time for long workouts and routinely used my daily max of 2 hours for childcare at my local Y.
Fast forward six years and gym time is now basically impossible. I know, I know…there are many homeschooling moms that consistently knock it out at the gym. However, I’ve just struggled with how to fit in workouts consistently while juggling a baby that gets up at 6AM, nursing, naps, teaching school, making 456 meals and snacks a day, writing, co-ops, church responsibilities, etc…
Throwing school work in the car and going to the gym 3 mornings a week has just never worked for us and no matter what time I get up to workout, my little guy knows when my feet hit the floor.
I’ve done body weight type workouts at home for a while, but I had no accountability, no real plan and my fitness suffered.
Enter the sandbag. As my husband promised, it has been the answer to my fitness needs at this stage in my life.
There are many different sandbags on the market, but we have the Brute Force Athlete bag, which holds up to 75 lb. of sand. The bag comes with inner, removable bags that you fill with sand to your desired weight.
My favorite part is the accompanying app that provides daily workout. They normally take less than 30 minutes and I can a lot of them in my house during nap times. If a workout includes sprints, I either do them on my sidewalk or sub stair runs inside.
Since we move a lot, I love that we don’t have to haul around heavy kettle bells or weight benches. When we are ready to move, we simply dump the sand out and pack the empty bags.
It may not be a crossfit gym or a 10 mile run – but it certainly gets the job done for this busy mom! Maybe it could work for you too!
I recently began studying the idea of rest in the Bible. Our high paced society is starving for rest, for moments of stillness and peace. Look at the Ten Commandments – we tend to skip right over “keep the sabbath day holy.” Over the next few weeks, I hope to wade deeper into this topic here as I explore exactly what rest should look like in our busy, 21st century lives.
For today, I thought this post I wrote a few years ago would be a great place to start…
Be Still
Have you ever seen someone in pain? If you are a parent, you have no doubt seen your children in pain. If you have been a parent for any length of time you can, with almost 100% accuracy, listen to the cry of your children from afar and know if there is an immediate need for action. Just the other day I heard a scream from the down the hallway. As I walked, I said, “I’m sure I’m going to find body parts detached when I get back here because nothing else would warrant such a scream.” Rest assured, all body parts were intact, no blood even.
Raise your hand if you are a momma. Those of us that have born children know pain. Kidney Stones anyone? I have had four children and can assure you that my two kidney stones brought far greater pain (and a lot less reward) than childbearing. What is the recommendation to reduce pain when you are in labor (babies are kidney stones fit nicely in this analogy…)? Breathe. Be Still. Relax. When are children are in pain, what do we say?
“Shhhhhhh.”
We try to calm them down, knowing that the flailing and screaming about is only increasing their pain. We want them to relax, take a few deep breaths and try to relax their body in order to reduce the pain. Relaxing and taking a breath doesn’t unstub a toe, unbreak a bone or make a kidney stone magically pass – but it does make the pain more manageable in the moment of greatest distress.
If you are working on a read through the Bible in a year plan, this time of the year, you are in the midst of the story of the Children of Israel. This past week I read about their deliverance from Egypt and their first few weeks in the desert. These folks get a bad rap. Rightly so on many levels, I understand, but how quick are we to judge them? The doubt, the murmuring, the complaining, all while God was literally in their midst. In I Corinthians 10, Paul sheds some light on their situation: “Now all these things happened to them for examples; and they are written for our admonition…” Their road is an example for us. Their journey is a picture of the Christian life. Maybe more often than not, an example of what we shouldn’t do rather than what we should, but either way, we are told to pay attention.
One example for us to ponder today – In Exodus chapter 14 they are at the Red Sea, Pharaoh and his army closing in. They are terrified. There is clearly no way out. Their response in verse 11 seems silly to us, but only because we know the end of the story. We know the Red Sea is about to part, the good guys win and the bad guys die. What about when it’s us? When the diagnosis comes from the doctor. When the phone rings. When there is a knock at the door. When someone who promised to love us forever delivers news that crushes our soul. When the worst happens and our world shatters. We writhe in pain. We cry out. We crumble under the weight of the burden we’ve been given. We want to know the end of the story but can only see the pain and despair in front of us.
So what are we to do? As Paul asked us to do, let’s look back at the example in Exodus. In that moment, Moses didn’t chide them for their feelings.
“And Moses said unto the people, Fear not, stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord…The Lord will fight for you, and you shall hold your peace.” “You will hold your peace and remain at rest.” “You need only be still.” (Ex. 14:13-14)
“Shhhhhhh.”
Just like we tell our children, God whispers to us, “Shhhhh.” “But don’t you know I’m in pain? Don’t you see the walls closing in? Don’t you see there is no way out?” “Shhhhhh. I will fight for you. Just be still.”
Psalm 46:10 is a very family passage – “Be still and know that I am God.” The word know in this verse is the same know in Genesis 4:1, “And Adam knew Eve…” In stillness is the opportunity to know God – to know Him in a deep, intimate way. If our children are flailing about and writhing in pain, it is hard to comfort them and take care of their wounds. They could cause more damage and confusion in the moment. In our moments of deepest sorrow, deepest hurt and blackest of nights, He is calling us to be still. Even in our moments of confusion and frustration over the seemingly simple things of life, He is calling us to be still. We want to know the end of the story. We want to know that it all works out in the end. We want to know our pain will end. For the Children of Israel, the ending was a happy one, but for Job, he still lost his children. Countless other people don’t get the “happy ending” we think they should. Maybe we haven’t. The invitation is not to a happy ending – the invitation is to know God. To know Him and see Him in a way that is only possible in the midst of pain and turmoil.
Daniel 3:17-18 is one of my favorite passages in all of Scripture. Four young men are faced with certain death. Their response? “…Our God who we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace and he will delivery us out of your hand O King, But if not…” They knew their circumstances were dire. They knew that God could deliver them, but they also knew He may not deliver them out of the flames. However, their choice was to stand with Him and trust Him.
Our God is good. No matter what is swirling around us – on the good days and in the darkest nights – He is good and He wants to be known. That is the precious gift of trials – to know Him. May we rest in His arms and let Him fight for us. Let us trust that He can see the end of the story and He knows the best way to get us to the end. Our ultimate end – Him.
Raise your hand is you have a smart phone or computer.
Raise your hand is you are a parent, have a family or have a friend.
Then this book is for you.
Yes, it is written to mamas, but trust me, we can all use this message. Technology is so prevalent in our culture. It is virtually impossible to not use it and many forms of it are helpful and beneficial. Like many things however, technology – our phones, tablets, screens – can take over our lives.
I sat at Panera the other day trying to wrangle my 4 kiddos and carry 27 trays of food to our table. Sitting behind me was a lady with a 4 or 5 year old boy. He had his tablet propped up watching a TV show and she was flipping through her phone. It made my heart incredibly sad.
Do my kids use screens? Yes, they do. Do we have a perfect system of how often they use them? No, we do not. Have I been guilty of shoving a screen at my kid in desperation in order to keep them occupied. Yep, unfortunately I have.
But friends, there is a better way.
As a society we have bought a pack of lies that we need to be entertained and that our children need to be occupied. Far too often this is achieved through screens or other technology. In her book Hands Free Mama: A Guide to Putting Down the Phone, Burning the To-Do List, and Letting Go of Perfection to Grasp What Really Matters!, Rachel Mary Stafford unpacks why we should put down the screens and to do lists and learn to connect. I found this book is extremely practical and helpful.
She has a series of follow on books as well that address practical ways to slow down and focus on the things that matter most – the people around us. They can be found on her website.
One example she give is what to do while waiting for an appointment in a doctor’s office. The temptation is to hand our kids a screen and pick up our phones, but think of the connection that we miss with our children when this scenario is repeated time after time after time.
I have been convicted of this particular example and have challenged myself never to use a screen in a waiting room. If my kids are with me, we bring a “go bag.” We keep the go bag stocked with books, crayons, coloring books and small toys for Jake. Even if I am waiting somewhere by myself, I try to read rather than check emails or surf social media.
So, here’s the challenge – if you look at your phone this week, while attempting to carry on a conversation with another person, read this book.
I pray that my kids will remember me looking into their eyes when they talk to me. I pray that I will give them my full attention. I am charged with raising four members of the next generation, there is absolutely nothing on my phone more important than that.
Have you read this book? If so, what did you think? What other books you have read on this topic?
My goal in Missionary Mondays are to highlight people and ministries that need your prayer and support as well as to celebrate faithful men and women that serve the Lord selflessly everyday. Would you join we every Monday in praying for these ministries? Pray that the Lord would meet their needs, grow their ministry for His glory and bring laborers to serve alongside them – physically and financially.
When we were living in New York, we had the opportunity to partner with Pastor Rosey at Northeast Gateway to Freedom, an outreach organization reaching the children and families of Newburgh, NY. Located just 20 minutes from West Point and an hour north of New York City, Newburgh has one of the highest crime rates in the country. The high crime and poverty levels in the city leave many children in danger. Pastor Rosey and her team provide nutritious meals, homework help and a safe place for children to go after school.
Their ministry is small and their budget meager, but their hearts are committed to reaching the kids and families of their city for Jesus Christ. When I read her newsletters, I wish I could write a check to meet every need they have because I have seen the kids that hang in the balance.
For more information about their ministry, you can read the most recent newsletter or visit their website.
I am SO excited to welcome my first guest blogger today: Mya Parker!
It is no coincidence that she shares a name with our daughter Mya – she is her namesake! While I didn’t know Mya terribly well at the time we chose the name, I knew her well enough to know I liked her name (and I loved her hair…) and that her joy and love for the Lord would be exactly what I would want my daughter to possess. In the past seven years, I have watched her grow in her passion and love for the Lord. Her joy, smile and passion are contagious. Her commitment to sharing God’s truth has led her to recently launch a career as a speaker and writer.
She is a veteran, a homeschooling, crossfitting momma of 3 (with one on the way) and a wife to her husband, Nate. She makes this whole mothering thing look effortless as she does it from a place of rest and reliance on the Lord.
I know you will enjoy her encouragement today!
Bloom
Imagine…
I heard the Lord whisper to my heart as I took in all the beauty of this tropical pool-side bistro, espresso in hand. Being without at least one child on my hip or in my hand for the first time in over a year allowed me to begin my first mission trip with eyes wide open and heart even wider. I couldn’t stop gazing, inspecting even, the South American flowers in the surrounding garden. It felt like I was seeing flowers for the first time. The diversity of colors! The symphony of fragrance! The intricacy of each individual design. I would lean into one and tenderly cup it in my hand, all but tasting its petals. Lord, look what you’ve made! I marveled at His creativity. Backing away and seeing the array of each plant and how its individual design magnified the beauty of another nearly brought me to tears. Clearly a Holy Spirit moment of monumental counseling about to go down…people just don’t get this excited about flowers. Well, maybe some people…but certainly not me. Until now.
Imagine. His gentle power cut through my botanical feast.
Imagine if a sunflower spent its whole life and all its energy trying to make itself a rose.
The Lord clearly needed to use every day North American flowers to make His point with this brown thumb. I let my imagination go there and I nearly laughed at the absurdity of the thought. A sunflower sweating and groaning and grunting and toiling with absolutely no change to its design, exasperated and hopeless at its efforts. Its head hung low in shame and despair as it looked longingly at the rose. My near laughter turned to hot tears.
Oh my goodness, Lord. Lord! This is me. This is what I’ve done. Whoa. I had no idea. I had no idea. This has been me. This is all of us…
He continued with such empathetic compassion. Mya, what would the world look like if everyone simply bloomed as they were planted?
The vision of wild, fully confident, unique creations – eight billion of us! – came rushing in and the possibility of such a magnificent world took my breath away. The Lord planted something deep in the soil of my heart that balmy, Bolivian morning and has spent the last two and a half years pruning the garden around and the garden within – rooting out lies of who I thought I was, who I thought I wanted to be, how I viewed others – and began planting mighty seeds of truth in desperate, ready soil. I have, indeed, begun to bloom as I was planted by Him and it has revolutionized the way I look in the mirror, the way I look into His eyes, how I mother, how I love my husband, how I see you, how I view the future. Praise You, Jesus, for that world-stopping garden moment to bring me back to The Garden where it all began!
As we go back to the very beginning of creation to understand our unique design, we cannot ignore the fact that it all began in a garden – The Garden. God could have chosen any environment in which to dwell with His first-born children and He designed a place rich with life, teeming with boundless diversity of vegetation and wildlife. He could have chosen to introduce Himself as anything since He is everything and He chose Creator. In the core of His design, our Heavenly Father IS Creator and He is limitless as such – He can make literally anything, anyone, anywhere, with simply a word.
We read in Genesis chapter one that The Trinity made us, you and me, in Their image – in Their very likeness. Being that God is perfect and is infinite in both His identity and His ability, it is only right to conclude that He had limitless access to His infinite creation warehouse when He had us in mind. I imagine Him leaning over a drafting board in the Heavens, a huge smile on His face, with a pen in one hand and ink wells of every color and matter at His reach. One-by-one, and with only one in mind at a time, He looks up and lets His boundless imagination take Him away as He dreams and drafts out the design for each of His children. From the way we look to how we laugh to what we love and what awakens us to the good works only we can carry out on this planet (Ephesians 2:10). And as He completes each dream-design, He births it to eternal life with just a breath and a deep, belly laugh dances it into existence on wings of never-ending love.
In Psalm 139, we worship “You created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. How precious to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them! Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand.”
I’m not sure where it all came from, but I spent most of my born-again life, after I received Jesus, with the unspoken belief that I had to remain in my impoverished, desperate state where I first met Him. I believed that my bowing low at the foot of the Cross and receiving grace there set me alive for eternity’s sake, but fear and a false sense of humility kept me on my face and mostly dead and powerless here on earth. One of the first things God said to me as I began escaping with Him weekly to “learn who He actually designed me to be” was, First we need to start with who I really am and what you have wrongly believed about me. Wow. Yes! He led me to places like 1 Peter chapter five where it teaches to humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt us and John chapter 14 that whoever believes in Jesus will do the works He had been doing, and will do even greater things than these, because He was going to the Father. As I just spent uninterrupted time with Him and openly asked Him to reveal who He actually is and how He designed me, He showed me over and over again through the Bible and with words straight into my core how much He moved Heaven and Earth to save me from all manners of death – eternal, yes, but also every bit of death and darkness here – because He really loves me. He REALLY loves me! He REALLY loves you! John 3:16 doesn’t say that “God was so obligated to save the world that he gave his one and only son…”, or “God so loved the perfected, eternal-life version of all his wayward, haggard, disgusting children that he sent his one and only son…”. It says, and take a minute to let this sink in, “God SO LOVED the world that he gave his one and only Son…God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.” And His heart is further revealed in Romans 8:32, “He who did not spare his only Son, but gave him up for us all – how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?” He really loves us. Like, really, really! And because He personally chose our each intricate detail in that Heavenly design studio before the creation of the world, I think it’s safe to say He really likes us, too.
When Jesus went to be with the Father after His resurrection, He left us with the Great Commission – to go and make disciples of all the nations. And then in 1 Corinthians 12, we are told that we are actually the Body of Christ – each with its individual, indispensable part. This isn’t just a cool metaphor, this is reality. I know it’s a shocking revelation, but Jesus isn’t walking around in flesh and blood anymore. When He ascended, we were given the highest honor and greatest responsibility of being His literal body as God lives in us by the power of the Holy Spirit. We have been saved, redeemed, commissioned, and empowered to love our desperate world as Jesus in flesh and blood and each of us were individually designed by Papa God to be the hands, feet, mouth required to administer an aspect of His love that only we can. We have sunflower missions that cannot – no matter the amount of futile effort exerted – be carried out by roses. It’s almost as if there’s an enemy of God so bent on not seeing the fullness of His glory actualized that he gives us cultural rose-colored glasses through which to distort our reflection and diffuse our unique effectiveness with comparison before we even leave the bathroom mirror. We are on to you, wicked one!
Jesus unrolls a scroll of Isaiah 61 in Luke chapter 4 and announces His fulfillment of the prophecy to preach good news to the poor and bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, to bestow a crown of beauty instead of ashes. He goes on to call us, the redeemed ones, oaks of righteousness, a planting of the Lord for the display of His splendor. In John 17:22, Jesus says “I have given them (us) the glory that you (God) gave me.” From before the foundations of the Earth, God purposed us to display His likeness and behold His glory as we continue to walk with Him in the Garden in the cool of the day. There was a major hiccup, to put it lightly, when sin entered the picture, but then the remedy was sent in Jesus and that original purpose remains.
Jesus, the Way, made the way to the Father through the sacrifice of His life, and now we are promised in John 15 that if we remain in Him, the True Vine, we will produce MUCH fruit and His joy will be made complete in us. The original purpose of uniquely displaying the splendor of our Creator, as only we can, has never changed and the way for that to be actualized, on Earth as it is in Heaven, has remained the same – relationship with the Father.
It sounds almost too simple to be true, but it truly is that simple. So, I implore you, sister! We need you! You need you! Begin as I began a couple life-changing years ago, journal and Bible open, with the simple questions “who are You, really?” and “who did you create me to be, specifically, before this crazy world got ahold of me?” There is really nothing sweeter or more intimately joyful than looking into my children’s eyes and telling them who they are. Like our good and perfect Daddy, He can’t wait to answer you and take you back to that original, beautiful design that the world is so desperate to see and know and through whom to uniquely receive His love. May you ever see your actual reflection in His gaze alone and receive it fully, as He receives you fully, dear one.
On your journey to blooming as you were planted, you might find yourself wanting more resources to assist. The following sisters and brothers have ministered to me deeply through their writing, teaching, and musical worship: Abi Stumvoll, Lisa Bevere, Dan Mohler, Todd White, Kris Vallotton, Bill Johnson, Steffany Gretzinger, Amanda Cook and Jonathan David and Melissa Helser.
There I was again. The same hospital. The same waiting room. Maybe even the same chair. My two-year-old son, Harley, oblivious to my inner turmoil, sat next to me. He wiggled down my legs onto the floor. My face winced as his chubby little hands hit the orange carpet. While it appeared clean, I imagined the hospital floor must be crawling with germs. He had already been sitting for an hour at the cardiologist’s office. Two-year-old boys don’t enjoy sitting – especially not quietly. I tried to entertain him and keep my mind off where I was. My hand rhythmically stroked his blonde hair as I watched the minutes tick by on the clock above the door. I noticed his jeans hit just above his ankles; time to put those in the ever-growing pile for Goodwill.
The automatic doors shuffled quietly with the hustle and bustle of a busy hospital. Each time they slid open, a wave of warm, humid air wafted inside. Nearby, a young girl eagerly pushed a book into her mother’s hands. I listened to a husband and wife behind me make plans for dinner that night. She mentioned Mexican, but he wanted to try a new Chinese restaurant in the next town over. Hunger pains gripped my stomach as I listened.
It had been a long afternoon. It had been a long two years. I thrive on having a plan, on being in control; but the past two years had been a whirlwind of the unexpected. I clung to the fragments of life I could control, which were few and far between more often than not. Today was supposed to be different. I knew the plan for today – my appointment with the cardiologist to discuss my upcoming heart ablation, a quick trip to the hospital for paperwork and pre-op blood work, a stop by the bank and then home to put Harley down for a nap. Monday afternoon naps are quiet and peaceful – my reset from the weekend and busy Sundays at church. With my eyelids struggling to stay open, I planned to steal a nap with him today.
“Ashley Hallford”
I jumped at the sound of my own name. I gathered Harley and his collection of cars and followed the nurse down the hallway, her eyes never leaving the chart in her hand. The lines on the floor seemed to lead us like an ill-fated treasure map. As I turned the corner, I saw it. The nurse led me straight to the room where, just over two years earlier, my journey began. The drab walls, still pale yellow, stood in desperate need of cheerful artwork or something to brighten the space. A flood of emotions floated through my body, enveloping me as I stood in the doorway, briefly unable to move. It was like someone sucked the air out of the room. When the nurse finally glanced up from the chart, she noticed tears running down my face. Her eyes darted back to the chart, probably unsure of what to do. I was there for routine, pre-op blood work. A quick needle prick and two vials of blood and it would be over. She couldn’t possibly have known the source of my distress. She shifted her supplies and made small talk with Harley, in an attempt to give me a moment to relax.
“You ready, honey?”
I took a deep breath – forcing myself to regain my composure. The needle pierced my vein; I didn’t flinch. After everything I had endured, I barely felt the prick of the needle anymore. Harley’s wiggling had stopped. Mesmerized by the nurse’s quick, efficient movements, Harley sat motionless. It was as if time stopped for those few moments. As I held my son I thought about all that had happened – much of it in this hospital – since that day. The depths of sorrow and the height of joy were impossible to grasp. My husband, David, and I had walked through a storm like none we had ever imagined and sitting there, I relived it all at high speed.
I was abruptly roused from my thoughts.
“You’re all done. Have a good day.”
The nurse turned her back as she deposited the needle into the bin on the wall. I gathered Harley and stood up, steadying myself on the arm of the chair, with Harley’s little hand firmly in mine, his little round face and blue eyes looking intently up at my own face. I gave him a weak smile as I brushed the final tear away.
As I walked out of the room, I uttered a feeble, “Thank you,” and my feet rushed to put distance between me and that room. Maybe the thank you was to the nurse or maybe it was more of a prayer. So much uncertainty still swirled around me, but as I walked further down the hallway, my sorrow melted into thankfulness. Even if I didn’t live another day – the past two years with my husband and son were simply a gift no one ever thought I would live to see.
Growing up, whenever I would ride with my dad, I would flip through these small AWANA verse packs he kept in his car. I was always amazed that I could flip to any verse, give the reference and he could say the verse. He certainly found a method of memorizing scripture that worked for him, but as an adult I struggled to find a method that worked for me. I tried journaling, notecards, highlighting – nothing seemed to give me the consistency of hiding God’s Word in my heart like I wanted.
Then a few years ago during Navigators at West Point, a friend introduced me to Scripture Typer!
Scripture Typer is kind of like a video game for Bible memory. You earn points for memorizing and reviewing verses. It is the only method of Bible memorization that has worked consistently for me as an adult.
It is really simple: plug verses in and then work to master each one. You can even choose preset groups of scripture based on topic. It has three levels of helps to build you up to typing the verse completely on your own. You don’t even have to type the whole verse – just the first letter of every word, which makes it quick and efficient.
Then once you master a verse, it automatically sets up a review schedule for each mastered verse, ranging from every day to once a year. (I cap mine at to review every six months.)
You earn points for your verses, can work to earn badges and see your progress against others on the leaderboard.
It has been very effective for me. If I run across a verse I want to memorize while I’m reading or listening to a sermon, I simply plug it in to have for later. Then I spend about 10-15 minutes each morning (most of the time before I even get out of bed) reviewing the verses for the day.
A few years ago I was challenged to memorize the book of James and this app gave me the tools to do it!
It’s not just for adults – it’s perfect for kids too!
My dad always dreamed of being an astronaut. Growing up we watched movies like The Right Stuff and Space Camp (ok…not educational at all, but a classic of the early 90’s). While space fascinates me as well, I enjoy experiencing it through pictures, planetarium, telescopes and documentaries while my feet are planted firmly on good old planet Earth. As a college student, I was captivated to hear Louie Giglio often talk about space in messages like Indescribable. Last year my girls and I studied Astronomy and I found the information awe-inspiring. And…don’t even get me started on how much I geeked-out over the solar eclipse. I cannot imagine how anyone can look at the planets, stars and galaxies and think that they were all orchestrated by chance.
Then this morning, after a 20 year journey, NASA crashed its spacecraft Cassini into Saturn. As I listened to the news story, my mind recalled a familiar verse:
“The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handiwork.”
The images Cassini has sent back over the past 13 years are incredible. They are just a sliver of the beauty and majesty that God has created and put on display to show off His creativity and splendor.
We’ve had a long week here at the Monroe’s. Chad’s been in the field, which always increases the load on us at home, but it has just been a tough emotional week as well. Our Brigade lost a soldier in training this week. Hurts, heartaches, physical tiredness and emotional weariness have snaked their way through our days. I’ve laid my head on my pillow many nights and longed to be more patient and kind rather than short and demanding.
Then this morning, as I looked over the beautiful pictures of Saturn, I read these words in Isaiah 40:
“Lift up your eyes on high, and behold who hath created these things, that bringeth out their host by number: he calleth them all by names by the greatness of his might, for that he is strong in power; not one faith. Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? there is no searching of his understanding. He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength. Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall: But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.”
Dear friend, the same God that spoke the rings of Saturn into existence, made you and knows your frame. He doesn’t grow weary. When we are at our worst and weakest, He is strong. When we don’t think we have the strength for another day or another trial, He gives us strength – His strength. He doesn’t get tired!! Oh what a relief to my soul that truth is. His power stretches beyond the infinite reaches of the universe and He offers it to you and to me – to give us wind beneath our tired wings.
Because it’s that exactly where we find His strength – in our darkest and most desperate moments. In the moment when we surrender our striving and trying only to fall into the net of His perfect strength. Paul said it best in II Corinthians 12:9:
“And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.”
Are you weary? Take moment when the house is quiet and slip outside. Look up at the stars in imagine the Creator that knows them each by name. Billions and billions of stars and He knows everyone, and He knows you. He sees your struggle. He knows your heart. A simple, yet powerful truth that I pray will bring you encouragement today:
“Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary?”
“He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength.”
Have a great weekend! Come back Monday for Missionary Monday!
One tool that I have found to be indispensable in this process is my Instant Pot. (I have the Duo 7-1, 6 quart.) With just a little research, you will find that there is almost a cult following to the Instant Pot – recipes, Pinterest boards, Facebook groups, etc…
I am SO excited to welcome my first guest blogger today: Mya Parker!
