Follow the prompt!

You know those times when you get a card from someone or a phone call from someone you haven't talked to for a while and you are amazed at the timing of that note or call. It came at just the moment you were feeling a discouragement or a insecurity and made all the difference in your day.

Or what about that moment when you feel that you should write a note to someone or make a call to see how someone is doing. It doesn't pop up on a screen like a prompt does on the computer to tell you what you need to do next or answer next. It's just a sense you have that God wants you to take action in some way. Sometimes you go ahead and do it and find that your note or card came at just the right time to encourage them.

But sometimes you don't! Not because you don't want to- you do! You start to more than once, but something interupts you and then it's too late- or too early, you'll do it later. Time just gets away from you and you don't. Pretty soon the feeling fades and you pray that someone else did write or did call and you move on- not knowing if it would have mattered or not.

But not this time! This time, it might have mattered. This time, it might have encouraged. And you know it might not have changed things- but it also might have. This time, you are only left to wonder. Because it is too late! She is gone! You'll never know.

What IS God saying to you in this moment? Where do you feel the Holy Spirit prompting you to give voice to your pain or give voice to you encouragement? What are you hearing? What are you sensing?

I know- God is soverign! I know- He is the Blessed Controller! I must trust Him to know better than I! But I also know that above all else- I want to be part of what He is doing in the lives of people.
And that means stopping!
Listening!
Learning to hear his voice above the roar of the noises in life!
And then responding to His voice & His promptings!

I don't want to be left to wonder again!

You're the bird!

Have you ever considered how great your impact is on the world?

I pondered that this morning as I looked out my office window. I saw gray skies and a soft breeze blowing the bare branches of the trees and the swing that hung there. I wondered how much impact I actually had on the world I was part of.

Just then a small robin with it's reddish-orange vest on fluttered by my window perching on a taller branch of my tree. I watched as it hopped from one branch to another till it was near the very end. And then I heard it! A crisp, clear melody that it began to sing. I wondered why it would sit so fraily on the edge where the blow of the wind made the most difference to the movement of the branch! Why not sit somewhere where you didn't feel that wind so much- somewhere that felt 'safe' somehow? And why did she wait with her song until she was at such a place.

That's when it struck me! Stepping out of my comfort zone, stepping out in faith is much like that bird on the end of the branch. Sometimes it's not till we step to that precarious perch where we feel the wind blowing in our face, at the edge of all we have formerly known as 'comfort', that we feel a song growing up in us. That is when we come to know that the 'roots' of that tree are founded not in us, but in Jesus himself. That's when we know that all He created us to be and do is being tested and proven and bringing glory to our God!

I'm not the wind in someone's life- though some people might think I try to paint sunshine or perhaps rain on their parade. I'm not the tree that gives roots and shade much of the year.

I'm the small robin- finding a place on the edge of the branch to sing a new song to Him! My song may only be in your life a brief time or for a life time. But I pray that God will use it, along with His wind and His roots to do his work to draw you to himself!

I'm ok being the bird! What kind of bird are you?

Happy Birthday Brie!

Today I celebrate you!

Though I have been for weeks now! To hear you speak and process and love and laugh with such depth, richness & authenticity has been so inspiring.

I'm amazed how your bold step to spend last fall in Rome- so far from home, actually brought you back home in so many ways- with calm, and contentment & much joy! It gave you confidence to take other bold steps in life to find health and healing, adventure & peace.

I wonder at the clarity of purpose you gained while in a surroundings so different than you've ever known. Your attention to what you saw and experienced made you keenly aware of those 'awe inspiring' moments that left you breathless- speechless- full of wonder!

I love how you are translating that awareness to your work and relationships here at home. Your art shows how you SEE and feel and love. I see it! I feel it! I love it! It's so awesome to see the real you in all of your beauty continuing to grow and develop.

I know you are looking at your 'one more year' in school as a very short time to get it all in. But it's only a beginning of all there is to be amazed by in your world.

Work like you don't need the money! Love like you've never been hurt! Dance like no one is watching!

I love that you are my daughter! Happy Birthday, sweetheart!