It's back... What We're Reading Wednesday

I love to read. I love to discuss books I've read. And I feel like I never get enough reading time these days. So, in the hopes of continuing to find and discuss reading time, I'm starting this back up on my blog. This was originally inspired by my friend Brooke, and I love the idea.
So this week, here's what we're reading:

I just started this in a book club online, and it's like a breath of fresh air. It's reminding me that God created me to reflect His beauty in specific ways, and even when days feel the most mundane they could be, life itself is still art.


And, this one... A beautiful story of loss and hope by a previous American Idol contestant and worship leader. I'm just starting this one too, but it's already been an encouragement in helping me remember I'm not alone in my journey of loss.

And as for the kiddos:


H is just finishing up this one for a school book report, and loved it! Went right along with her crazy big imagination. :)

 
L is a huge Magic Tree House fan! He flies through these books these days! And last but not least...


N does a book theme for his homeschool time each week, and this week it's on this fun book!

Would love to hear what you and your littles are reading! Feel free to comment, and happy Wednesday! :)

Anchored.

I’ve got this current obsession with anchors. I wear anchor designs, decorate with anchor themes, and can’t get enough of a couple songs with anchor references. And it’s all because of this verse:

"We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure." -Hebrews 6:19a

An anchor... connects a drifting boat to steady hard ground.

An anchor... prohibits much drifting.

An anchor... is used for support.

An anchor... attaches moveable objects to immoveable.

An anchor strengthens.

And my anchor? Well, it’s my hope. That secure that provides a foundation for my soul in the midst of my insecure. This world is temporary, fleeting, and filled with emotional highs and lows that literally drain me at the end of each day. I need Someone that is strong, does not change, will not allow me to drift with the current tide, and that I can lean on for strength.

And that’s my Jesus. The answer for every broken heart longing for healing. The bedrock my faith is grounded in when I don’t understand the ever changing world around me. The source of my hope that will not and cannot change.
 
And the best news about that?

All that He is, He is for you.

Just a shell

We were there once again at the grave side. Another month had passed. I’ve tried to visit once a month, but don’t bring the kids as often. Especially before the grave marker went in, there was nothing to see but dirt, weeds, and bugs. Nothing pretty about that, and not really where any of us long to hang out. Yet life has brought us there… to this place of seeing the ugly all around, but always longing to find some beauty in it.

So this morning, like in all of the other mornings that have come before and come after, I chose to focus on the hope that we have in the promise of the resurrection, and not in what I currently see. The words almost leap from my mouth as I try to help the kids understand it too. “Guys,” I say through my tears, “this is not Daddy. This is not where he is. We celebrate his life here, we remember how amazing he was and we cry because we miss him so much. But all this ugly – this is not him, and this is not where his story ends. It’s where his old body lies, but he doesn’t need that body any more. He’s perfectly happy and been given victory with a beautiful new forever that has begun in Heaven.”

"It’s just like an old shell you find at the beach,” I continue to explain. “The sea creature that used to live in that shell no longer needs it. He’s happily found a new home that fits him better now.”

And right then, my L comes running over holding these two little snail shells.

He gets it. And as I look around the cemetery, this ugly place filled with weeds and bugs and buried corpses, I realize that there are these little snail shells everywhere. Hundreds of them, maybe thousands, with nothing inside, reminding me that day and every day I visit that this is not all there is to life, and of the beauty to come. A reminder that there are glimpses of beauty that can always be found when I’m dedicated to looking for them.

I honestly don’t know how anyone gets through something like this without the assurance of Heaven. I cling to that assurance every moment of every day. I long for the day when I myself no longer need this current shell of a body, complete with its constant sicknesses and weaknesses and fears. But until then, this frail body forces me to turn to my fully strong Savior for its strength. 

Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality.

When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: “Death is swallowed up in victory.” “O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.

But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain. -1 Corinthians 15:51-58

Ambidextrous.

Ambidextrous. The word is defined as being “able to use both hands equally well.” I don’t know if I fit that exact definition when it comes to the word “equally,” but I’ve always been quite proud of my ability to do things with both hands. To use that as an adjective that describes me in any of those "get to know you" games. Though I’m a left-handed writer, I learned as a child to eat with my fork in my right hand, so as to avoid awkwardly bumping the elbow of the person sitting next to me at the table. As a schoolgirl, I got sick of looking for the one pair of lefty scissors in the bin during art class, and have cut with my right hand for as long as I can remember. And though I’m not all that stunning to watch in a game of baseball, I catch much better with the glove in my right hand.

It was not until recently that I have seen the meaning and the challenge of that very word in spiritual matters. I’m reading an incredible book called A Grace Revealed, which is the sequel to the very best book on grief that I’ve laid my eyes on, entitled A Grace Disguised. A Grace Revealed is all about the story of redemption that our Father is constantly writing.  In the book, a spiritual hermit from long ago named Abba Theodore is quoted:

     “This power we also can spiritually acquire, if by making a   
      right and proper use of those things which are fortunate, and
      which seem to be on the “right hand,” as well as those which
      are unfortunate and as we call it “on the left hand.”

You see, God is able to use both prosperous times and times of adversity to advance His purposes. He remains faithful and true throughout both, working through both prosperity and adversity to show His redeeming power. But the secret, I’m finding, is in something that is much harder for me to submit to – being spiritually ambidextrous. Being willing to surrender to both the good and the bad, the easy and the hard, and letting Him develop me into a person who can go through both still willing to trust and obey Him.

         “We shall then be ambidextrous, when neither abundance nor want
     affects us, and when the former does not entice us to the
     luxury of a dangerous carelessness, while the latter does not
     draw us to despair, and complaining; but when, giving thanks to
     God in either case alike, we gain one and the same advantage
     out of good and bad fortune.”
            (John Cassian, in The Conferences of John Cassian: The Wisdom of the Dessert)

I'm convicted.  It looks like I’ve got a whole lot of submitting and praising to do to be able to use both sets of circumstances equally well for the glory of God.

Just something I’m chewing on today…