Sunday evening I ran into my neighbours after having not seen them for a while. They are a very nice couple and I remembered to take a moment to thank them for sharing some veggies from their garden with us a few weeks before. I’d made a Roast Tomato Sauce which upped the awesomeness of my spaghetti by roughly 200%. They said they had more tomatoes for me and would be bring some over later, and by that evening I had two grocery bags full of gorgeous tomatoes, waiting for me to make some magic with them.
I set to work on Monday, planning to go ahead and roast the tomatoes in the afternoon so that we could have a good ol’ spag bol that evening. {Is that a totally British way of saying that or does it translate?} As I pulled some meat out of the freezer to defrost for the evening meal, I felt prompted to pull out extra, double the amount of meat sauce I was going to do, and give half to another family that just came to mind in a quiet whisper. I wanted to be a blessing.
{Story shared via Instagram that evening…}
The afternoon hummed along with the Tank skipping his second nap and deciding to play with water at the sink beside me instead (things got wet, but I got everything done and it was worth it!) and it seemed like the timing was going to be nearly perfect for me to run dinner over to my friend and get back in time to feed my crew.
As I worked through the afternoon, I pondered the thing that has been coming to me through the Bible studies I’ve been taking part in over the past few weeks. One is on Colossians and another is on Nehemiah — and one constant theme emerging and challenging me is the idea that, regardless of how challenging our circumstances may seem, we really need to get over being completely focused on what’s going on in our own lives, in order to look up at the Lord and ask what He expects of us, and to look out at the world around us and see where we can be a blessing to others.
I’ve been very, very focused on preparing for the arrival of our third child, taking on some additional work that is bringing us additional income (cool stuff — more on that later) and trying to cross things off a continuously growing to-do list. As a result, I have become a bit like a turtle, finding the walls of her shell so much in need of attention that she scarcely pokes her head out to see what is going on around her.
Considering our privileged positions with relation to a world in need, however, staying inside our shells is just not an option. If we are going to obey God — if we believe His Word and want to do what it says — then we have to keep looking up and keep looking out. We have to keep redeeming the time, making the most of the opportunities He gives us to be His hands and feet {Col. 4:5} — both to our brothers and sisters in the Lord, and to the world that doesn’t yet know His goodness.
On Monday, when I spoke with my friend to ask about bringing over dinner, it just happened to turn out that her mother-in-law was going to be visiting for a week, arriving the next day. So somehow this just happened to be really good timing. She was busy cleaning her house for this unexpected visit, and her husband had to work late, so not having to figure out dinner for herself and the kiddos was great.
With a big pot of meaty sauce, noodles and the ingredients sliced up for her to throw together a salad, I was out the door with the boys, probably around fifteen minutes after I’d hoped to be leaving. Which, in these types of cases, is very good for me.
As I headed over to her place to deliver dinner, I was met with a wonderful sense of peace and joy. When we take the opportunity to serve and to bless others, aren’t we always richly blessed in return? Isn’t that why Jesus said It is more blessed to give than to receive?
The boys waited peacefully (glory!) in the van (watching a movie) while I dropped off the meal and caught up with my friend for a few minutes. We headed home to our dinner, and arrived to find a rather large tree branch draped across our driveway.
It had been raining, but there was still a dry spot where the van would’ve been parked if I hadn’t left.
That branch would’ve probably graced the hood of our “new to us” van — and possibly the windshield — with a little “love” {yes, damage!} if the van had still been parked there when it fell.
The encouraging lesson in all of this? Not only did I receive so much joy from listening to the leading of Holy Spirit and taking an opportunity to “look up and look out,” I also felt like that tree branch was just a beautiful confirmation about how good it can be to be where the Lord wants you when He wants you there.
How often — how many times a day — might we be narrowly missing something that would be such a discouragement to us because He is protecting us without us even knowing it? {And how many times might I have avoided a disastrous situation if I’d been taking the time to look up and follow His lead?}
Dear friends, where is your heart, where is your focus today? Can you take the time to look for an opportunity to be the hands and feet of Jesus? Can you take the time to listen for that still small voice and follow His lead?
You have the power in your hands, to be a blessing to the world around you — and sometimes the opportunity comes as simple as a whisper to double up dinner, because you have extra tomatoes.
Yesterday I spent a lot of time on hold and in conversations with ‘technical specialists.’ There were some website-creation issues that I hadn’t anticipated which was partially the fault of another ‘technical specialist’ I spoke with a couple of weeks ago who said this little migration thing wouldn’t be a big problem.
Long story.
It could’ve been at some point past midnight when it dawned on me, but I think it was when I was seeing things slightly more clearly this morning — the thought that all those people who chatted with me yesterday, sent me emails instead of answering my questions directly, and pushed me to purchase technical assistance when I kind of felt like they owed it to me to help me anyway because it was partly their fault I was in this predicament to begin with — those people don’t actually go to bed at night dreaming about how to further frustrate another disgruntled customer when they head to work the next morning.
They probably didn’t draw a picture of a telephone accompanying a sign that said “I want to work at a call center when I grow up” in kindergarten.
And while it can be pretty darn frustrating when the person across the counter… in the other lane… or at the other end of the line in India just doesn’t seem to be seeing things from your perspective — maybe it would help if you were able to take a moment to see it from theirs.
Maybe they’re not living their dream. Who knows what’s going on in their personal lives outside this 9 to 5 they feel enslaved to? And is their supervisor listening in to half their calls to make sure they don’t over-assist a customer who should be paying for additional support?
And more seriously — what about that thing in their hearts that they were created to do, born to do — that dream that is burning in each of them, the thing that they might actually be thinking about when their head hits the pillow at night, that they’re too afraid to step out and give a shot because their life is consumed by getting shouted at by disgruntled customers all day, which has kind of affected their self-confidence… what about their dream?
One of my favourite moments from a kids movie, like ever, is the scene from the movie Tangled where Rapunzel’s guide takes her to a rough tavern, hoping that it’ll scare her into heading home instead of following her dream. Instead of getting frightened into running home, she asks a simple question that resonates with the rough and brash and burly ruffians she is supposed to be afraid of.
Haven’t any of you people ever had a dream?
And this is the answer she receives to that question:
I love it.
The truth is, there is always more than meets the eye to each person we encounter every day — and remembering that each one of us was created with a purpose — whether or not we know that purpose or believe we have one — can completely change the way we perceive each other and the way we receive each other.
It seems like when Jesus looked at people He saw something other people didn’t see. He looked at that rich young ruler and loved him. He saw Zacchaeus in the tree and wanted to spend time with him. He was ready with compassion when everybody else was ready to throw stones.
He saw worth and value. He responded with love.
Can you see the dreamer inside the people around you today? Can you look for the God-given worth and value that the rest of the world can’t see?
Sometimes the only thing necessary to change our day is that kind of change that looks in the mirror and starts in our own hearts.
I guess you could say we’ve launched into birthday season, full swing. The Bear’s birthday was last Friday, and today it’s the Hubs’ turn. (And mine is just a few weeks away…and then my Mom’s… and a few weeks after that {maybe six?}, Bump the Third will be making her glorious appearance!) But first, it would just be wrong not to stop for a moment right here, to celebrate the awesomeness of the Hero Hubs. Who is available to shoot weddings throughout eastern North Carolina and the surrounding areas, in case you didn’t know that already.
We were interviewed yesterday for a very cool little magazine called The Washington Magazine, where HH and I had the privilege of talking about Quiver Tree Photography, our lives, our kids, our love story and how we met, and it was just so good to reflect briefly. And out of that conversation, the sweet gal who interviewed us ended up also asking some questions leading to featuring us in the “Faith and Family” moment in the Washington Daily News today. So while the magazine story is still a wee while away from print, this little article here has made its online appearance already.
{From that big old trip where he asked that big ol’ question…January 2007!}
I love Mona’s title: Faith, Photos, Finances Unite Couple. And I think those words are the result of us both believing in a very big and very good God, and are the formation of hundreds of tiny decisions, made on a regular basis. Because when life is hard, there are two directions a couple has the choice to head in. They can either allow the tough times to band them together in a we’ll-get-through-this kind of way, or they can allow the tough stuff to put space between them, forging little rifts and wedges that seem to somehow get bigger and bigger over time.
Daily a debtor to grace, friends, this I am sure of — and it is in God’s good grace that we are drawing nearer to Him, and to one another.
It was just an inkling of a suspicion on this day six years ago — on the Hubs’s birthday — when a big group of us went to see the Screwtape Letters being performed on stage during the Edinburgh Festival. And that strong and mysterious fellow whose day we were there to celebrate was sitting at the opposite end of a long row of folks from church, and upon the arrival of my friend and I, he excused himself from his previous company, and came all the way around to the end where I was sitting. I left that evening — a little early because I had a hen-do {bachelorette party} to attend — with this whispering suspicion of a hope that I’d almost let go of, because I’d already had feelings for the guy who I thought was the one for a long time.
And bless his heart, he is the guy who walks in the door after a long day at work, cuddles and wrestles our rambunctious boys and comes all the way ’round again, this time just to the kitchen, to look me in the eyes and give me a kiss and say hello. And I’m so glad six years, three countries and almost-three-kids later, he is still coming to find me.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again… Change and movement, suitcases and packing seem a chorus in the song of our lives. But love has been the rhythm, the beat, the lyrics, and the reason to sing.
How joyful I am, in trusting that this song, with my South African Gentleman Cowboy Hubs, is really just getting started. Feel free to head over to Quiver Tree’s page on Facebook to wish him a Happy Day!
Happy Birthday, Hero Hubs! I feel ridiculously fortunate to call you mine.
In case you happened to stumble across my site {or attempted to} within the last 48 hours and found that it was nowhere to be found, I thought I’d take a moment to ‘splain. I started encountering some funky stuff a wee while ago — for example, none of those links across that navigation bar up there were working, and in the Google Search Results, it appeared that I was selling performance-enhancing drugs which, um, I don’t want to mention here because I don’t want Google to think I am selling those drugs.
Because I don’t sell drugs, you see.
{Keep smiling… right?}
There were other funky things related to feeds not properly updating, and it basically seemed like Google thought I was an evil spam bot hacker troll malicious website or something. There were problems.
So Hero Hubs, being the Hero that he is, uninstalled and reinstalled my entire site, installing a clean version of wordpress {the content management system I use} and doing a big old heap of work at dream host, where this site is hosted. It was a lot of work and I prayed a lot and got a little stressed, and eventually kind of just removed myself from the situation and just trusted that it was going to work out okay.
Like, losing three years’ worth of writing would be kind of a bummer, right? I had everything backed up but I was still nervous. ‘Course.
So any who… it seems like things are mostly back to normal. Thank you for bearing with me. If you normally access the site a certain way and things have not been happening the way they normally would, I’m sorry. And if you replied to an advertisement to order medical supplies of some kind, I’m going to have to deliver the disappointing news: I don’t sell drugs. Sorry.
If you happen to notice anything out of the ordinary around here over the next wee while (or ever, really), I would love it if you would just leave a comment somewhere — on any post or on Facebook or you can shoot me an email — just to let me know. There are still a few hitches in the giddy up we are figuring out!
Friends — this was all a good reminder to me, that I write because I want to encourage you, I want you to leave here with a smile or a tear, or basically just touched in a way that makes you want to draw closer to your Creator. You mean a lot to me. Your kindness and encouragement means so much to me.
Thank you for reading. Thank you for sharing what you read with others. I believe we are making a difference in our world together.
The Hubs enjoyed two stellar homemade Father’s Day cards and a six pack of his favorite Scottish ale today. Well not the whole six pack, that would be a little excessive, wouldn’t it? {And in case you’re curious and not offended by the fact that my oh-so-Southern Hero Hubs partakes of alcoholic beverages, Belhaven’s wonderful ales can be purchased at Wine and Words here in wee Washington. And it is just such an irony, because the Hubs always said the Scottish ales were something he was really going to miss when we left the UK — and here they are, for sale in me wee hometown!}
We rustled up a festivus of a feast for G-pa today as well — steak on the braai {remind me to tell you about a new marinade I’ve been tweaking, inspired by Jamie Oliver…magic!} corn on the cob, hedgehog potatoes {I need to share that recipe, too!} and green beans, also making an appearance on the plate because it wasn’t looking green and I forgot salad at the grocery store.
But even with all the local celebrations it would’ve felt wrong not to also say Happy Father’s Day right here, to my Dad who’s not so far away, and also to my dear Father-in-Love who is, sadly, rather far away. What a privilege for the Hubs and I to have some great Dads in our corners! We are thankful!
After reading James Dobson’s Bringing Up Boys, I was thankful all over again for, if nothing else, just having a Dad in my life — though my Dad most certainly went far above and beyond just being present. The statistics of what it does to a child, to have an absent father — oh man, it breaks your heart, and you can see the strategy of the enemy of this world, and how tearing away at the nuclear family as the framework of society, weakening the relationships between fathers and their children, how this can absolutely wreak havoc on so many levels.
The Lord, does want us to understand Him as our Father — and how hard is that for children who haven’t met their fathers, or…
I am digressing.
I simply want to say thank you to my Dad, the Hubs’ Dad, and so many other Dads who are loving and caring for their children, and standing in the gap for Dads who are unable or unwilling to do so. Without you guys, society as we know it would crumble … fast.
G-pa, thanks for all you do. Goo-Goo — we miss you heaps and wish you were here!
This is one of the most remarkable videos I’ve seen in quite some time. And the Hubs showed it to me a week ago, quite literally the day after it happened — and I marveled for all kinds of reasons. Like, look how this video has become crazy popular in a day. And look how much effort this man put into asking this woman to be his wife.
And what is it in all of us that is hungry for amazing? Huge. Gigantic life by the gallon. Like when the Hubs asked me to marry him and I delighted in the fact that it just felt so epic. Different and special and fantastic and gosh, this must be what it feels like to live a good story.
I feel like all of us are hungry to live a good story. {Could that be because we have a Creator who created us/wants us to live a good story?} And I have some thoughts about that coming up in the morning. But for now, I just had to make sure you saw this video. It’s epic.
{The video apparently doesn’t want to be embedded anymore — it worked at first!?! — so click here to view it.}
I create resources to help people find deeper, more meaningful relationships with God through pursuing, pondering, and prayer. The "Shop" link above will take you to the home of many of the lovely resources I’ve created to help you keep walking one day deeper with Jesus.
, I was thankful all over again for, if nothing else, just having a Dad in my life — though my Dad most certainly went far above and beyond just being present. The statistics of what it does to a child, to have an absent father — oh man, it breaks your heart, and you can see the strategy of the enemy of this world, and how tearing away at the nuclear family as the framework of society, weakening the relationships between fathers and their children, how this can absolutely wreak havoc on so many levels.
I create resources to help people find deeper, more meaningful relationships with God through pursuing, pondering, and prayer. The "Shop" link above will take you to the home of many of the lovely resources I’ve created to help you keep walking one day deeper with Jesus.