Through the Glass Dimly

We will feast in the house of Zion We will sing with our hearts restored He has done great things, we will say together We will feast and weep no more Maggie-May. My sweet little spitfired spirited seven year old. Today our church met at our house for service, and you had been weeping in your room for a few minutes before church was about to start. You very passionately wanted both options of what I had offered (a colouring sheet or a lollipop for during the sermon)... it didn't seem fair to you and you didn't know why I was trying to gently guide you to the lollipop... because I know you, and I know that a lollipop will help you focus better than a colouring sheet will and I know that your heart needed to be with your Father today. Before we began I went and picked you up and held you and invited you to lead the songs with me from the back of the room (in the kitchen), drying your tears as we walked, because I knew that coming and being a part of worship would rest

She was deeply distressed and prayed to the Lord and wept bitterly.... ‘O Lord of hosts, if you will indeed look on the affliction of your servant and remember me and not forget your servant...’ Hannah was speaking in her heart; only her lips moved, and her voice was not heard. Therefore Eli took her to be a drunken woman. And Eli said to her, ‘How long will you go on being drunk? Put your wine away from you.’ But Hannah answered, ‘No my lord, I am a woman troubled in spirit. I have drunk neither wine nor strong drink, but I have been pouring out my soul before the LORD. Do not regard your servant as a worthless woman, for all along I have been speaking out of my great anxiety and vexation.’ Then Eli answered, ‘Go in peace, and the God of Israel grant your petition that you have made to him.’ And she said, ‘Let your servant find favour in your eyes.’ Then the woman went her way and ate, and her face was no longer sad.   Excerpts from 1 Samuel 1 This is the word of the Lord.

As I've been studying the book of Luke for the past week, I feel like I've gotten to know the apostle Peter a bit better... especially in the last days he spent with Jesus before the Lord is arrested and crucified. There are so many stories of Peter in the gospels displaying extraordinary faith (think following Christ out to walk on the water), and his great commitment to following Christ anywhere and everywhere (he is in pretty much every story where Jesus goes with only a few followers). So it actually makes sense, in our humanity, that Peter has started thinking pretty highly of himself and his placement within the 12 closest followers of Jesus. During the Last Supper, an argument arises about who is thought of as "the greatest". Jesus has JUST finished telling them that one of them would betray Him to death, and that His body and blood would be broken and shed for THEM. With a deaf ear to what the Lord was actually telling them, they immediately begin question

When I wake up in the morning there are about 25 things running through my head. There are so many tasks to be accomplished. I have not mastered the art of mornings... As a wife, a mother, and a business owner... life is busy, and at any given time there are maybe one hundred things that I should or could be doing... I wake up and think about doing little girls hair, getting them dressed appropriately and adorably, feeding my family... what is for dinner tonight? Do I have a shoot today? Who do I need to email? Who am I meeting with today? Do I have childcare covered? Does my husband feel supported and cared for?? Did Ellie get her homework done? Have I prepared well enough to get my family through this day?? It's important to prioritize things... but so often we get our priorities catawampus, or even upside-down. We all do it. Check out this story from Luke. "Now as they went on their way, Jesus entered a village. And a woman named Martha welcomed him into her house. And

"... the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many." Matthew 20:28 "Sitting down, Jesus called the Twelve and said, 'Anyone who wants to be first must be the very last, and the servant of all.'" Mark 9:35 I've been reading through the gospels lately... I started with Luke.. then went to Matthew, and when I finished Matthew I felt as if I had just finished a really amazing novel and was sad to see it come to an end... so I started reading Mark. One of the things that has truly struck me in these last few months of studying the gospels, is the necessity... well... really the mandate for which we are called to serve the body of Christ. Today the Lord was teaching me about what it means to truly honour and to serve our parents, which is another blog post all together... But today I want to write about what I've learned about our relationship with the church, our eternal family... And how to honour

“The books or the music in which we thought the beauty was located  will betray us if we trust to them; it was not in them, it only came through them, and what came through them was longing.   These things—the beauty, the memory of our own past—are good images of what we  really desire; but if they are mistaken for the thing itself they turn into dumb  idols, breaking the hearts of their worshippers.  For they are not the thing itself; they   are only the scent of a flower we have not found, the echo of a tune we have not heard, news from a country we have never yet visited.”  ―  C.S. Lewis ,  The Weight of Glory As humans we become obsessed with "What our life is supposed to look like". We imagine our lives will be beautiful and fragrant... and when it's not what we expected... we feel heart broken... or when it is more than what we could have hoped for... It's beauty becomes an idol... When our longings become self focused... the danger begins. When I was in u