(And I totally correct my kids when they say “shut up.”)

Maybe you’ve joined me on the 2020 wave of online workouts? 

The hubs and I have used different apps to work out from home for several years now.  

My sister is currently offering online workouts on a fantastic membership site if you want to check it out! She likes to say “Good things come to those who sweat.” 

The tough thing about working out is… it’s hard. I usually don’t want to do it. 

I don’t want to get out of bed, spread out a mat, do planks and push-ups and burpees and bear crawls.  

And sometimes this gal with an interesting foreign accent (not my sister) has us doing these crazy hard things. And she’s doing them at the same time.

She jumps like twice as high as me. 

And makes it all look effortless. 

And she’s not even breathing hard. 

We’re in some awkward reverse plank or other and I’m sweating and fighting to stay afloat, and I think she’s going to bust out a Julie Andrews song or something. 

She reminds me to breathe and I want to tell her to shut up. 

(Again — not my sister!)

This week Proverbs 19 reminded me about the fear of the Lord. “Fear of the Lord leads to life, bringing security and protection from harm,” verse 23 says.

On the surface you might think — isn’t it odd that we should be scared of God?

But I think this verse is saying the exact opposite thing. 

When we are fully convinced of God’s love for us (Henri Nouwen so elegantly explained that we are His Beloved) we start to believe that His will and His ways are always, hands-down the best possible option.

So we fear stepping outside of His will because we believe that being the all-knowing God who is wise beyond compare, if we choose to follow His lead, we can trust Him to work things together for our good.

Will our lives be daisies and sunshine ad infinitem? No. We will experience hard times and hard places. But we will experience them trusting He is with us in those valleys, and He is the God who will see us through.

What an eye-brow crunching thought this was for me this week: that so many people go their own ways, make their own choices, take no heed to the wisdom of God for their lives, and then are so angry at Him when things begin to unravel.

God invites us to revere Him, and stand in awe of His complete other-ness. His greatness. All those incredible things He explained to Job that made Job reply, “I am unworthy! I put my hand to my mouth! How can I reply to You?”  

Sometimes God invites us to do hard things. It’s tough, the paths He calls us to are often not the easiest.

But He sees the whole picture. He leads us to the paths that truly do bring life and security and protection from harm. 

Good things come to those who sweat, yes, it’s true.

And? Good things come to those willing to take the hard road, the narrow path, the way that is an invitation from Jesus.

P.S. How to Crush it as a Newbie Homeschooler started last week and we are having fun! If you missed the chance to sign up but you’re interested in hearing when it opens again, pop your details into this form right here!!

You know what I want to give you today, friend? 

A wonderfully good gift. 

The world is a very daunting place to be right now. There are struggles we need to lean into. Reasons for us to pause and search our own souls, ask hard questions and think about our choices. 

This isn’t navel-gazing. This is part of the work of becoming a better human being.

But there’s something else I think we need, too. 

We need to take some deep breaths. 

We need to ponder that beautiful saying, “This too shall pass.”

And? We need to laugh. 

The Hubs and I recently started watching The Chosen. If you’ve haven’t heard about it, it’s a fantastic TV series about the life of Jesus. What’s also remarkable is that it’s a crowdfunded project, which means folks like you and me are donating to make it possible. {I’ve included links below if you want to know more!}

My favorite thing so far is how likable, approachable, genuine, light and funny the portrayal of Jesus is. We know Jesus taught on some pretty serious subjects. We know he delivered sermons from mountaintops. 

But if Jesus loved the children — and the children loved Jesus — I imagine He also had this whimsy about him. I imagine He was the kind of guy who made you just feel a little bit more at ease being around Him.

Like C.S. Lewis described Aslan, Jesus isn’t safe, or tame — but He is good.

A few years ago (inspired by my sister) we started collecting some of the funny things our kids have said into a little spiral notebook, to remember and go back to them later on.

A cheerful heart is good medicine, right?

My soul purpose in sending you this email today is to give you the gift of a smile — hopefully even a laugh. 

Below I’m listing a few of these funny moments we’ve collected. I hope you’ll take a breath, take a break, read on, and remember just how good a cheerful heart can be for you.

Ready?

Once we asked the kids what they were thankful for, and one piped up, “I’m thankful for my underpants.”

Mark told Arabella she was getting bigger, and she joyfully replied, “Yes! My head is getting bigger! I can feel the food in my head right now!”

(Around age 5) Blake dressed himself to go outside and said, “I’m like a kid. But I’m a little baby monkey, but I can transform into… THE HULK!!!” 

Blake also once told us he felt like something was blocking his little intestament.

Arabella commented, “I like it when I’m asleep, and that’s my favorite part of sleeping.”

An airplane flew loudly overhead and Arabella exclaimed, “The sky is grumbling! It’s hungry!!!!” 

Asher and I discussed the fact that one out of three Europeans were killed during the plague. He commented, “Gosh, there weren’t many Europeans back then.” 

I told Arabella that Dada was working and not going to be home for breakfast. With eyes as big as saucers she gasped a big breath and replied, “Oh no! Who will make your coffee?!?” 

One morning at breakfast, Blake announced, “Mama, I smelled Asher’s armpits last night and they smelled like beans.” 

My all time favorite: We were talking about communion and asked the kids what Jesus did before He broke the bread. {Ya know, we’re talking about giving thanks.} Blake piped up, incredulously excited: 

Oh!!! I know! Jesus forgot to wash His hands! 

I hope you’re smiling today, friend. Maybe even laughing. We are living in trying times, but we have hope as an anchor for our souls, and His Name is Jesus. A cheerful heart is good medicine.  

Look for reasons to smile and laugh today and know — the Creator of the Universe is still on the throne. He is neither tired nor weary. He is not worried or afraid. And friend? He loves you. 

{You can click here if you’d like to see The Chosen app on your phone! Or Click here if you’re on a computer.} 

P.S. It’s finally ready to launch!!!! My online course “How to Crush it as a Newbie Homeschooler” is open for enrollment! If you’re considering homeschooling this fall, I believe this crash course is worth the tiny price, and worth your time! 

Finish what you’ve started.

Sounds like solid advice, right? 

But what if sometimes… it isn’t?

Now once upon a time, I was working on a PhD in Scotland. I took a six month sabbatical to welcome our first born, but when it was time to start back, it somehow just didn’t feel like it was time to start back.

I prayed and thought and prayed. And I felt it was time to set the PhD down. It was hard — but still, it seemed there was a whisper to my soul: This is the way. Walk ye in it.

A month later, my primary supervisor passed away unexpectedly. No one else in the Divinity School was a good fit to oversee my thesis. 

I deeply grieved the loss of such an amazing woman, but was grateful the decision was made before she was gone — so that I felt confident the decision was right.

When it comes to learning a new skill, starting a new thing, or braving a new venture, I often want to tell my kids to finish what they start. But sometimes it takes wisdom to know what projects were an opportunity to learn something in the process, and which are the things that need to be seen through to completion.

Give a moment to these words from Matthew Henry’s Commentary on Proverbs 16:3.

“The only way to have our thoughts established is to commit our works to the Lord. […] all our outward concerns must be committed to the providence of God, and to the sovereign, wise, and gracious disposal of that providence. Roll thy works upon the Lord (so the word is); roll the burden of thy care from thyself upon God. Lay the matter before him by prayer. Make known thy works unto the Lord […], not only the works of thy hand, but the workings of thy heart; and then leave it with him, by faith and dependence upon him, submission and resignation to him. The will of the Lord be done. We may then be easy when we resolve that whatever pleases God shall please us.”

Do you love that word choice as much as I do? We can roll the burdens onto Jesus.

This is where it all gets established — when we roll our works and roll the burdens we care about onto God. When we set our hearts and minds to do the thing we believe we are meant to do, and we give it our all, to the glory of God, because we’ve been instructed that whether we eat or drink or whatever we do, we do it fully for His glory.

So we do those things we believe we are supposed to do, but if it goes well, or if it goes poorly — that matters so much less than just having followed the Lord’s leading.

Isn’t it interesting that our thoughts will be established? Whatever happens with the efforts that we make, God will establish the way we rightly understand it.

So I attempt to do a PhD, following His leading into it, and then I perceive the time to finish has come to an end before I expected it, and I follow His leading out of it — but wasn’t this all the Lord?

Without the scholarship, I would not have stayed in Scotland. Without staying in Scotland I would not have married Mr. Collie. 

Continuing the PhD, we would not have spent those two God-ordained years of ministry in South Africa. God closed those doors just as clearly as He had opened them, and it was all in His timing, so clearly… We returned to the US and I had eighteen months before my Dad passed away, which I so often give thanks for.

We did what we felt led to do, even when it didn’t make sense. Even when turning down a full scholarship seemed nuts. Even when two years were all the time we had in South Africa, though we were hoping four.

We committed our works to the Lord by doing what we believed He was leading us to do. He established the way we thought about all these things in hindsight, and we have such a sense of peace that we were walking according to His leading. 

So is it time to quit… or is it time to stay the course and finish what you’ve started? 

We can roll this burden onto Jesus. Commit your next step to Him. And then the step after that. Don’t get overwhelmed by the big picture. Instead, look for the next right thing and do that.

Maybe it is time to quit. Maybe it’s time to press on and press in. The wisdom you find in committing your ways to the Lord is where you’ll discern the difference.