“All that is gold does not glitter,
Not all those who wander are lost;
The
old that is strong does not wither,
Deep
roots are not reached by the frost.” – J.R.R. Tolkien
This is just where I am today. Hopefully it’s ok to think out loud a little bit.
A bit of friendly, unsolicited advice for new moms and dads:
Fill your homes and cars with singable music. Trust me, it will bless you now, and continue to bless you in years to come.
One of my favorite precious memories is how my little middle boy would sing out this song from the back of the car in his car seat, precious toddler slightly-offkey voice praising God. Whenever this song comes on my playlist today, I feel the same joy I felt then, and it keeps close how much I’ve loved being his mom through all the stages of his life, and helps me remember the ‘little years’ and keep them close in my pondering nostalgia, too, even as I am filled with wonder to watch him as a new dad with his own little one.
Another precious
memory is as a brand new mom with our first born son, you know how in those
early first few months you can be so tired and the middle of the night
wakenings can be so exhausting, but I remember rocking my sweet boy, too tired
or emotional to know how or what to pray in those early morning hours, and
singing the first hymn that would come to mind, which for some reason was very
often, “There is a Fountain.” I remember so many nights singing, sometime
though tears, loving my little newborn. Well, many years later, when this
little guy was no longer little, but taller than me and standing next to me in
church as a teenager, and we sang this
song and he turned to me and said, “I love this song.” That filled my heart,
this song, whether he consciously remembered it or not, had been planted into
him and it was good.
And then there’s our youngest, our daughter, who when she
was little loved to twirl and dance to whatever praise music I had on at any
given moment. Music has been a sweet part of our lives.
So, young moms and
dads, sing. Fill your homes with song. When you feel like it, and especially
when you don’t. It’s sweet in the moment, and it will turn your heart to Jesus
when you need Him so much, and it will fill your heart in years to come when you
remember those sweet days fondly. I cherish the memories and sometimes miss my
days of parenting little ones, even as I’m so incredibly thankful I get to be
part of their lives as they blossom into the precious adults God is molding
them to be, and how excited I am to get to be Grammy to this new little one,
and those who will one day come into our family. What an amazing gift it is to
be mom to these incredible people.
These are the books I read in 2025. As always, being on the list doesn't mean I necessarily endorse a book, just that I read it. Some I commented on, many I didn't. Here's the list:
I was recently talking to my wise friend who counseled me to live in the Psalms when this kind of thing happens. Psalm 34:22 says, "The LORD redeems the soul of His servants, and none of those who take refuge in Him will be condemned." That's a good promise to camp out on when you feel wronged or alone. Because I'd much rather camp out on God's word and let my feelings take a back seat. But sometimes that's easier in principle than in practice. That's why we need to practice it.
I had a situation not too long ago that I just couldn't quit thinking about all the wrong I believed was real, and because writing and words are how I process things, I finally wrote it all out in a confidential, very well worded paper. I shared that paper with my son who is currently studying at seminary, and he read it and texted me that it would be stronger if I leaned into the scripture to address the wrongs and my hurt, otherwise it could be perceived as personal grievances. I read that text right before going into church yesterday, and that young man is wise beyond his years. During the last song before the pastor came up to bring his sermon, I fell apart in tears, realizing I had to let go of all my personal grievance and do what God has called me as His child to do, and that is to love. But, that person just doesn't look much like Jesus, it's hard, I really have been wronged, what they continue to do really is wrong! But I'm not called to love people only when they look like Jesus. Who would be left, if so? And, what brought me to tears there in the pew was, I realized my anger and brewing bitterness and lack of love didn't look at all like Jesus, either. So I metaphorically laid that paper out before the Lord like Hezekiah with his letter from the Assyrians and said all that is merely personal grievance I must leave at the feet of Jesus. He can handle it. He is my defender. I do not have to make my case, He's got it. He was kind to Judas, knowing what was about to happen, He knows, more than anyone else, what it feels like for people to say unfair, unjust, unkind things about Him. What He suffered for me in making the way for me to be made a precious child of God was way more than any grievance I may face here. Puts that in perspective.
I've been reading a book about the fruit of the spirit in the life of Jesus, all about His character, and I've been praying that He would chip away at the things in me that don't look like Jesus. The first time I prayed that I stopped and thought, that's a hard thing to pray. It's going to hurt. Pruning the rebel out of me hurts. And the Holy Spirit graciously showed me a little bit of His pruning yesterday. And in the pruning I had such an overwhelming sense of freedom. I can rest, I can wait on the Lord and just see what He's going to do in this situation. I can rest in my Savior.
It's that time of year again when I decide what I will use as a plan for daily Bible reading for the coming year. Back in 2003, we had just moved to Indiana and my husband was on a year-long deployment overseas. As a lonely young mom effectively functioning as a single mom in a new state that year, when our pastor challenged us if we had never read the Bible through in a year, maybe this was the year to do it, I decided that was exactly what I needed. And for the past more than 20 years since, I've made it a practice to do just that, some plans were heavier on the amount of daily reading than others, but always including at least one time through the Bible in a year. This is a practice I strongly encourage. Too often we read the Bible out of context and those favorite verses we love just may not mean what you think they mean if you take the time to read what they are actually saying. Any Bible reading plan needs to take context seriously, not just a verse here and there. Maybe you won't read the whole Bible all the way through every year, but everyone ought to take the opportunity to read it all the way through at least once, so you can grasp the whole arc of the scripture in context. It really is edifying.
Another practice I gleaned from encouragement from another pastor is to read the Proverbs every day. There are 31 chapters in Proverbs, so it works out nicely to read through the book each month, taking a chapter a day. That practice I'll continue this year, as I've found it very edifying and it is neat how the wisdom in Proverbs begins to filter into how you think through life's situations when you're spending every day reading through it.
This year, however, I think I am going to change things up a bit. I've noticed the past couple of years that the amount of chapters I had set to read each day were sometimes challenging, and it was becoming more that some days felt more like kind of a 'check the box burden' feeling, and I'd find my mind drifting and realize I hadn't really taken in what I'd read rather than really digging in and every day pondering what I was reading and digesting it well. Some days were better than others, but overall, I think I've suffered a bit in deeper devotions and study. Also, I found that reading ahead for the various group Bible study opportunities I have during the week was suffering. I need to change things up this year and I'm hoping for a deeper devotional time for it.
So, all that said, here is what I plan for my own personal daily reading this year.
Every day (Sunday-Saturday): Read through the Psalms and Proverbs, repeating as often as the year allows.
Monday: Read and think over the passage we will be studying in our Wednesday morning women's study.
Tuesday: Read and think over the passage we will be studying in our Wednesday evening study.
Wednesday: Read the Wednesday am passage again and prepare for the morning.
Thursday: Read and think over the passage for our Sunday school lesson.
Friday: Read and think over the Sunday school passage again and the passage for the Sunday morning sermon if we know it.
Every day: Work on scripture memory. (I've been stuck on Colossians 1 for way too long now)
I'm looking forward to this new plan for the coming year. It will be different for me, and I have a feeling it will feel really weird not to be starting over in Genesis on January 1, but I'm looking forward to being better prepared for the group discussions and to learning more for myself as well.
May I encourage you, too, whatever plan you might choose, to spend some good time in Bible reading and prayer each day? It is a gift of God's grace that we have these means to draw near to Him.
I got to share the devotional this morning at our church's women's ministry Christmas party. It was a sweet time with my sisters from my church family. I thought I'd share the thoughts here on my blog as well:
One of my
very favorite things about the Christmas season are the decorations. Not so much the cutesy, schmaltzy, cluttery
ones, but the beautiful, shimmering, glittering, brilliant lights as they glint
and shimmer in the all the gold and silver and glass. We all have our
preferences for what makes for beautiful decorations, but for me, I’m partial
to white lights and candles and the gentle twinkle as those lights shine on the
tree, reminding us of the starry night sky. Lights play a big part in our
Christmas decorating. For us in the northern hemisphere, Christmas takes place
in the winter with its long, dark nights, and we light up our homes with
shimmer, lights, and shine as we try to push back the darkness with wonder and
beauty as we await all the things that make Christmas wonderful for us.
What I like
to ponder while I sit in the quiet of my living room on early December mornings
and watch the beautiful twinkle of lights on the glitter and glass on the tree
is how that beauty points to an even greater, more immense, more significant,
brilliant, and glorious beauty – Jesus, who is the light of the world.
The motif of
light is quite prominent in the arc of the scripture. When God creates the
heavens and the earth, what is the very next thing He creates? LIGHT! “Then
God said, ‘Let there be light’; and there was light. God saw that the light was
good; and God separated the light from the darkness.”
In this
first opening chapter of Genesis, we get a picture of what God will do
spiritually for the rest of the ages – after mankind falls into darkness, when
we disobey and reject God and become marred by sin and plunged into spiritual
darkness – God, in His grace and mercy, sets into motion the rescue of His
people from the darkness of sin and rebellion to bring them back to His light.
The history
of mankind is rife with evidence of the darkness our sin causes in this world. Every
one of us has sinned and rebelled against our Creator and felt sin’s devastating
effects in our world and our lives. And yet, God gives us the light of His Word
so that we may know Him, so that those who walk with God can walk in light. In
Isaiah 9:2, the prophet gave hope to God’s people, Israel: “The people who
walk in darkness will see a great light; Those who live in a dark land, the
light will shine on them.”
Many years
later, in Luke 1:78-79, John the Baptist’s father speaks a beautiful word of
prophecy reflecting that Isaiah 9 prophecy, about the Messiah who was soon to
come, the One for whom John would be the forerunner and prepare the way, “Because
of the tender mercy of our God, with which the Sunrise from on high will visit
us, To shine upon those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death, to guide
our feet into the way of peace.”
Fast forward to Luke 2 when the brightness of
the glory of the Lord shines into the darkness of the night and startles a
group of shepherds outside Bethlehem with the good news of great joy that a
Savior has been born, and the heavenly host sings, “Glory to God in the
highest, And on earth peace among men with whom He is pleased.” And in
Matthew 4:16-17, we see the prophecy from Isaiah fulfilled in Jesus. Matthew
quotes that Isaiah 9 prophecy and then says, “From that time Jesus began to
preach and say, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.’” Truly, could it be any clearer that it is through
Jesus that God’s light shines on those of us who have been in darkness?
And then we
have John 1:1-14. This is one of my favorite passages in the Bible! “In the
beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was
in the beginning with God. All things came into being through Him, and apart
from Him nothing came into being that has come into being. In Him was life, and
the life was the Light of men. The Light shines in the darkness, and the
darkness did not comprehend it. There came a man sent from God, whose name was
John. He came as a witness, to testify about the Light, so that all might
believe through him. He was not the Light, but he came to testify about the
Light. There was the true Light which, coming into the world, enlightens every
man. He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did
not know Him. He came to His own, and those who were His own did not receive
Him. But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children
of God, even to those who believe in His name, who were born, not of blood nor
of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God. And the Word
became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only
begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.”
In John
8:12, Jesus says, “I am the Light of the World; he who follows Me will not
walk in darkness, but will have the Light of life.”
In John 10,
Jesus is in Jerusalem for the Feast of Dedication – this is what we know today
as the Festival of Lights, or Hannukah – and at a festival of lights, Jesus so
clearly identifies Himself as the Messiah that the religious leaders understood
He was claiming to be the Son of God and in their unbelief they took up stones
to stone Him. He clearly is claiming to be the One prophesied to bring the
Light.
In
Revelation 21:22-24, the New Creation is being symbolically described, “I
saw no temple in it, for the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb are its temple.
And the city has no need of the sun or of the moon to shine on it, for the
glory of God has illumined it, and its lamp is the Lamb.” Hallelujah – here
we find the fulfillment of what I said at the beginning that God rescues His
people from the spiritual darkness our sin plunged us into and brings us to His
light – He brings us to Himself.
We only have
time for a brief look at light in the Bible this morning, but if you want to
dig a little more you could probably do an interesting word study on light that
I imagine would be very encouraging. There is one more passage I want to share
before I share some practical application and close. For the past, I’m not sure
how long, I have been sporadically, far too slowly, trying to memorize the book
of Colossians. These verses in Colossians 1:9-14 have become precious to me:
“For this reason also, since the day we heard of it, we have not ceased to pray
for you and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all
spiritual wisdom and understanding, so that you will walk in a manner worthy of
the Lord, to please Him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and
increasing in the knowledge of God; strengthened with all power, according to
His glorious might, for the attaining of all steadfastness and patience;
joyously giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified us to share in the
inheritance of the saints in Light. For He rescued us from the domain of
darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, in whom we have
redemption, the forgiveness of sins.”
I know that
the holidays, and especially Christmas, can be a difficult time for many. When
so many voices and movies and TV shows and music all around us are so loud
about the so-called perfect Christmas, the pressure to have the perfect holiday
can feel dark and overwhelming if your reality is vastly different from the
worldly expectations or when you do not have what you wish you could have to
make this Christmas perfect. Holidays can be very lonely when life's events make
us weep.
My friends,
my encouragement for you this Christmas – whether you will have a houseful and
all the holiday cheer your heart desires and all your expectations are joyful,
or on the other hand, perhaps you may be feeling lonely, disappointed or bitter
with the weight of the difficulties of life in this fallen world, or maybe
you’re feeling burdened and overwhelmed with some sin that has robbed your joy,
or perhaps maybe you don’t even understand what I’m talking about today if you
haven’t yet met this Jesus and come to find the peace that passes all
understanding when you come to trust Him as your Lord and Savior – wherever
this Christmas season finds you, may I encourage you to take time to look away
from the world’s empty promises of what the perfect holiday, the empty promises
of what the perfect life looks like, and let the lights and all that comes with
them in this season point you to the true Light. Jesus has come! And He has
come to redeem you from your darkness. Most importantly, because Jesus perfectly
obeyed God’s Law, when we could not, because Jesus died as our substitute to
pay the debt our sin deserves, because Jesus rose again and is ever interceding
for His people, because of this, in Jesus we can be reconciled, brought into
right relationship, to God. When we come to Him, confess our sins and repent
and trust in Jesus alone for our salvation, we can be made right with God and
walk in His light. In Jesus, broken expectations, disappointments, and even
grief, can be put into proper perspective. Let the forgiveness, peace, and love
Jesus brings draw you near to God and into His light. Let your focus this
Christmas be so much less on what the world would promise Christmas is and so
much more on Jesus, whose promises never fail and who is the true Light of the
World.
