spiritual stuff

Sow a Seed

November 13, 2012 by Amy 2 Comments

Last week I was in my backyard watering a vine my parents gave me from their garden. My version pales in comparison to theirs, but it doesn’t resemble chopsticks yet so I keep watering it.

Beautiful purple flowers are actually blooming, but what caught my eye last week are the seed pods. They resemble a pea pod but in a rich plum color.

I started thinking about how beautiful the seed pod was and just could not let it go. God could have created that seed pod any old way he wanted but he made it this pretty plum color. How awesome is God that he does that? I mean, God could have made its reproduction mechanism in a thousand other, boring ways but he didn’t.

Just a day or two later I ran into this amazing set of Pinterest boards. I wanted to print every board as a magazine, grab a cup of coffee in front of our fireplace and flip through slowly.

I ran into one particular board that left tears streaming down my face.

The title of the board is Nuts, Pods & Seeds. I’d never really thought much about nuts, pods or seeds much but given my fascination with my vine just days prior, I was glued.

So many beautiful, unique ways for these plants and flowers to reproduce. I can hardly stand it.

I started thinking about God’s Kingdom and all these seeds.

In Luke, Jesus teaches a parable about seeds. He says the seed is the word of God. The word of God is planted in a person’s heart and for those that seize it and hold on, it reaches a harvest.

Before His ascension, Jesus sent us on the Great Commission to make disciples—to plant seeds and reproduce.

But he never really said how.

In the same way he gave these plants unique, beautiful ways to reproduce, he gave us each a beautiful and unique way to reproduce and fulfill the Great Commission.

Just think about the one that writes

or the one that speaks

or the one that gives

or the one that paints

or the one that listens

or the one that encourages.

Each gift plants a seed of belief in others. But more than that, just like these seeds and pods, it’s never, not once in the same exact way.

Some writers are fragile and some are tough.

Some speakers are meant to fly and some are meant to dig deep.

Some painters paint with color and others are plain.

Some giver’s gifts are plentiful but others are not.

Some encouragers are spiky and funny and others are soft and small.

You are as unique and beautiful as these nuts, seeds and pods. And just like these pictures brought me to tears in awe of our Creator, you and your unique gifts will do the same.

He could have designed this process in a thousand other, boring ways but he didn’t. Aren’t you glad?

Mark the Sacred

November 6, 2012 by Amy 6 Comments

A week ago I returned from Allume. Allume’s purpose is the following:

Our goal at Allume is to minister to the woman, the blogger, the story teller. We want to love well, encourage, and spur women on to shine the Light that lives within them. We want to serve you in ways that cultivate the Light in you, help you expand your influence, use your influence well (in your home, your community, or around the world) and encourage you with stories of those who are living out the Light.

While at Allume, I attended Stephanie Bryant’s session on finding your personal brand. In the session, she advised us to create 5 Pinterest boards which would help guide us to find our own brand. I created the following boards:

While I could see there was definitely a consistent style there, I couldn’t quite tell how to pull it together. I still can’t, to be honest (feel free to send me feedback).

I solicited help from a few friends to help me analyze the pins and a friend picked up on one theme within the photography board that I hadn’t noticed in the least upon pinning.

Light.

Source: 500px.com via Amy on Pinterest

While I was pinning these, I had no intent to pin pictures with such an obvious theme of light. I was just pinning photographs that looked pretty to me. Nothing more, nothing less. I didn’t even pick up that it was a theme until many emails were exchanged. But looking back, it’s obvious.

Just a few days after I returned from Allume and pinned these pictures, I started reading through the Bible with a group on Facebook on November 1st. On the first day of reading, Genesis 1:14-15 stuck out to me

And God said, “Let there be lights in the vault of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them serve as signs to mark sacred times, and days and years, and let them be lights in the vault of the sky to give light on the earth.” And it was so.

I could not shake the idea of lights “marking sacred times”. I had no thoughts of Allume or my boards though.

Gary Morland spent his 31 days series talking about connecting dots in our lives. Some might refer to it as God’s tapestry, seemingly unrelated strings woven together. I’ve definitely seen this at work in my life before.

All these themes of light started coming together in my mind over the weekend.

Before and even during Allume, I was very close to closing this site. I wasn’t sure of my purpose anymore. But that phrase “marking sacred times” has given me my purpose.

Matthew 5:16 calls us to shine our light before men and I look back to Genesis and find my why. Just as the sun and moon mark sacred times, my words help me shine His light, marking the sacred: the sacred moments that he speaks to me, the sacred moments I question Him, the sacred moments I share with my children.

As if all of theses weren’t enough dots to connect, a friend emailed me just the other day, not knowing about my Pinterest boards or Allume’s purpose statement or even my Bible reading and says “I look forward to your posts, they make a difference to me, your light is shining BRIGHT.”

I feel a bit awkward talking about my blog on my blog and “letting my little light shine” might seem juvenile, but for me, when I see God confirming a message in many places, it’s sacred. And you might now agree, I would be remiss not to mark it with words.

And P.S., just as I finished writing these words, I flipped over to my reader and saw these words from Sarah Bessey:

A few months ago, I wrote an essay for Deeper Story called In which I am practicing. It was born out of a turning point in my own life, and I wanted to mark it by writing about it.

Really? Really, God? I think He just likes to show off, eh?

My prayer from here is not just that you’ll continue to come here to read these words, but that you’re looking for your own strings and connecting dots and finding your unique way to mark the sacred.

31 Days of Wisdom: Wisdom in Nature

October 30, 2012 by Amy 4 Comments

“Four things on earth are small,
yet they are extremely wise:
Ants are creatures of little strength,
yet they store up their food in the summer;
hyraxes are creatures of little power,
yet they make their home in the crags;
locusts have no king,
yet they advance together in ranks;
a lizard can be caught with the hand,
yet it is found in kings’ palaces.

Proverbs shares 4 small yet, “extremely wise” animals in chapter 30. Here are four wise principles to learn from ants, hyraxes, locusts, and lizards.

From the ant: prepare in times of plenty for times of little
From the hyraxes: although we are weak, we ought to hide under our strong Savior
From the locusts: we are stronger in community
From the lizard (or spider in some translations): Men may not only not provide for us, but want to destroy us. But remember the Lord has his hand on us. We ought to persist in our work just as a spider will continue to weave another web if one is destroyed.

God is everywhere if we just look.

Challenge: In what areas could you be preparing? Are you hiding under our Savior if things are tough? Who could you join arms with to complete your tasks? What tasks has God given you that seems thwarted but you just need to get back up and keep going in?

This post is part of The Nester’s 31 Days Series

Wisdom of Allume 2012 and How it Made Me Cry

October 29, 2012 by Amy 26 Comments

On Saturday afternoon at 4, you would have found me sitting on a piano bench against a conference hall wall with my face in my hands crying to a friend.

This conference newbie had officially become overwhelmed.

I was worried going into Allume that I may miss out on a session and while I did miss many wonderful sessions, at 4pm on Saturday it was clear the speakers God had led me to had struck a chord.

On Thursday night Phil Vischer made us laugh and cry with his story about Big Idea Productions and reminded us to love God more than any dream we have.

Sarah Mae reminded us to keep our life more than any blog.

On Friday morning, Sarah Markley inspired me, reminding me to find God in the every day. She taught me how to tether truth with story and made us cry when she read her story of how she found God in a fish.

Darren Rowse humbly presented lessons he’d learned in the past 10 years of blogging. What a blessing for him to share. He gave me a laundry list of to-do items including knowing our audience. But in the midst, I couldn’t help but feel a wee bit small knowing I started this blog 6 months before he started his first. Or knowing his eBook sold $70,000 in 7 days and mine, well, didn’t.

Friday afternoon Trina Holden was just what I needed. She encouraged us to find our kingdom-driven why of blogging. She reminded us smaller bloggers that it was a gift we had that we could interact so intimately with our current readers and that’s just what we should do. Making even a 1% difference in 1 life is impact.

The Nester inspired by teaching us about how to find our purpose and helping us to say no when it’s needed.

On Saturday Darren captured the crowd with his story of blogging. And the one person I had compared myself to reminded me I should only compare me to me. Celebrate the growth that’s there. He reinforced Trina’s comments to care for the readers I already have. He challenged us to take small actions even if the big picture was daunting. And most of all, he encouraged us to feast on the Lord.

Stephanie Bryant was a treasure of insight on creating and managing your online brand.

Tsh Oxenreider encouraged us once again to find our purpose in blogging, work smart and be real. She inspired us to think outside the box and think about eBooks, training or podcasts. She encouraged us to get an editorial calendar and delegate what we could.

And finally, Kat Lee burned with a passion as she spoke about knowing our audience and having a passion for their needs. She talked about the body of Christ marching into the darkness and letting God shine.

It was then I walked out, managed to get some coffee with a friend, and then sat on a piano bench in a hall with her and cried.

The speakers were so full of wisdom. I’ve spent nearly an entire month here posting about its benefits and I so wanted to soak it all up and do every single bit. What is my purpose? Who are my readers? eBooks? Training? Auto-responders? Online brand? I was overwhelmed with wanting to serve you well for the Kingdom’s sake that there was no clear starting point.

I’m just a girl with a blog that loves Jesus and wants to share life with people she loves.

After the tears and the big breaths, I escaped to my room but managed to come out for dinner and the closing session.

Ann Voskamp closed with an absolutely beautiful, timely message. I scratched on my notebook quickly every few sentences feeling as if I were scribing another chapter of Proverbs—you know, that one about blogging. Most of all, she reminded me to turn my ear towards Christ. Lean on the Guide not the guidebook. If indeed I do have a place in blogging, He will guide me.

I flew home yesterday, eager to get to my family realizing this was a lesson for all of us. Life is overwhelming but God is in control. We never know where to start or what to pick to do or what people think of us but if we’d just turn our ear towards Him, He has the answer.

The fear of human opinion disables;
trusting in God protects you from that. Proverbs 29:25

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I was an obsessive note-taker at Allume. Could I serve you by typing them and sharing as a PDF? Please let me know and I will be happy to and share on our Facebook page. UPDATE: Doc is posted to the Facebook page! Enjoy!

Thank you for reading, my dear readers. Please know you were thought of intensely all weekend.

Day 28: Be Generous to the Poor

October 28, 2012 by Amy 1 Comment

Be generous to the poor—you’ll never go hungry;
shut your eyes to their needs, and run a gauntlet of curses. Proverbs 28:27

Last Sunday I posted Answer the Cry of the Poor and shared about our church’s Compassion Day. It may seem redundant to reference a verse about helping the poor again but I love in these verses it says be generous.

We talked this week in our small group about the Good Samaritan and how he didn’t just throw an encouraging word or fistful of money, but went way beyond. He was generous with his time, money and efforts towards someone he not only wasn’t responsible for, but by cultural standards, should have hated.

I thought I’d also share the video we contributed to for the special. It is a rare occasion to get Scott Bennett on camera. Love his heart.

Compassion Day 2012 – NRHC Sponsors from North Rock Hill Church on Vimeo.

Challenge: If you didn’t take the challenge last week, go sponsor a child.

This post is part of The Nester’s 31 Days Series

31 Days: Wisdom Tested

October 27, 2012 by Amy Leave a Comment

The crucible for silver and the furnace for gold, but people are tested by their praise.

I wasn’t quite sure what to make of Proverbs 27:21. I’m tested by my praise? Like, when I praise God for what he’s done? How am I tested?

After checking out some commentary, I realize that’s not at all what Solomon meant. Just as gold is tested in the furnace, a man’s wisdom is tested by praise—from other people. When you get complimented, does your pride puff up? Do you pat yourself on the back? Do you become conceited?

Or, when you are praised, do you remain the same other than to be more thankful to God?

Challenge: Take note of how you act the next time you’re praised and you will see if you are indeed wise!

This post is part of The Nester’s 31 Days Series

31 Days: Don’t Gossip

October 26, 2012 by Amy 2 Comments

Without wood a fire goes out;
without a gossip a quarrel dies down.

I really have struggled with gossip over the years. Not that I made up lies and spread them or purposely spread untrue things. But I think at some points in my life I prided myself in knowing something another person didn’t. It took a few times of breaking confidence and hurting people’s feelings that I learned my job was not filling a person in on the finer points of someone else’s life.

Gossip is not just hateful or untrue talk. It’s ANY chit-chat over someone else’s personal life. Sure, there’s a time and place for talking about specific situations but overwhelmingly, it’s just plain old gossip.

Proverbs 18:8 from the Message says it like this: Listening to gossip is like eating cheap candy; do you really want junk like that in your belly?

It’s junk. Just plain old junk.

Proverbs 26 continues teaching against gossip and says a quarrel would just die down if people would just quit gossiping! Oh boy, does that strike a chord. Everywhere from junior high to church have I seen that to be true. Just like a fire can’t burn without wood, a lot of problems between people would just disappear if people would quit talking about the problem.

Challenge: What quarrels or arguments are you in the midst of gossiping about? Put an end to it.

Post edited from Words

This post is part of The Nester’s 31 Days Series

31 Days: Have Just Enough

October 25, 2012 by Amy 1 Comment

If you find honey, eat just enough—
too much of it, and you will vomit.

If there ever was a verse I need to memorize, it’s this Proverbs 25:16. I’ve read it so many times and just now is the truth of it settling in.

I’m well known for my addictions. Whether it be to a TV show, artist, song or food, I’m either in or out. When I like something, I LOVE it. It’s my favorite. I have to find out every single detail about it.

I’ve learned over the years that Solomon was right…you end up vomiting too much of a good thing.

My addictions become chains that I can’t seem to step away from and then I no longer enjoy it just to enjoy it.

Solomon isn’t suggesting to abstain but to have just enough.

But what I’ve learned is when you’re like me and you can’t have just enough, don’t have it at all.

Challenge: What is your honey? Are you having just enough or too much?

This post is part of The Nester’s 31 Days Series