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d and we ll find him when we re looking so my personal faith becomes a filter for finding god s truth in the show call me crazy it s okay i feel a little nutty and kinda weird blogging about a tv show as if it is important but maybe a tv show can be important if we re able to glean something valuable from it and judging by the rather extensive list of topics themes in the notepad app on my phone maybe there s something more to learn from once upon a time than what life would be like if fairy tales were real and so let s get back to that quote i shared it s from an episode a couple weeks back and i didn t really notice it when it happened instead this quote came back to me as i was praying a few days ago i ve been reading a book by mark batterson called the circle maker highly recommend it good stuff and the idea is circling your dreams and your fears in prayer or maybe it s circling your prayers in faith it s kinda both and so i ve been thinking very intentionally about what my biggest dreams and strongest fears are and trying to put circles around them to declare to god that i won t move from these prayers until he s answered them as he s promised to do frankly that s easy to do in the middle of the night when i have my quiet time because it s quiet in the middle of the night i can concentrate and be sincere and profound and righteous and it s awesome it feels great but in the middle of the day in the chaos and the noise of having a strong willed eighteen month old who can t tell me what he wants needs feels it is hard and all those wonderful feelings of i got this prayer thing down just flies out the window taking my sanity and stability with it in the middle of the noise a ll the promises i circled all the prayers i prayed everything i asked for everything i committed to do just disappears and so i said to god this is hard in all the noise and he said that s the point if it was easy i wouldn t need prayer i wouldn t need my bible his word which brings clarity truth perspective into my life if it was easy i wouldn t need him in this world you will have trouble but take heart i have overcome the world john 16 33 living the life isn t easy it is hard it takes faith it takes trust it takes commitment it takes perseverance i have many quailities some of them even good or godly but perseverance is not in my wheelhouse i tend to give up when the going gets hard but mark batterson says in his book that too many times we give up when times are hard and we forfeit the miracle and he uses counterfactual history to make his point what if daniel hadn t prayed through what if elijah had given up major miracles would ve been forfeited blessed is the man who perseveres under trial because when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life that god has promised to those who love him james 1 12 let us not become weary in doing good for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up galatians 6 9 so in my quiet time now i ask god to give me a promise to circle something to stand on from his holy word his word never comes back void it always produces fruit it always makes a difference and the only way to achieve my biggest dreams incidentally my biggest dream is to be a blessing to my husband and a godly mother to my son is being infused with his strength power and hope in my biggest moments of trial and weakness so the first night i asked for a promise this is what i was given he is the one who gives you power to be successful in order to fulfill his covenant deuteronomy 8 18 and the next night your pattern of worship will change deuteronomy 12 8 god s covenant is that i am an overcomer because jesus has overcome the world i am made new in his image by the daily renewal of my mind my heart my soul even my body with his redeeming power i have strength that isn t mine to propel me through the noisiest most chaotic moments and when i realize that true worship is living a life that is pleasing to god not just singing on sundays then my pattern of worship will change i worship with my whole life my whole heart mind body and soul and it all somehow works together to glorify god in the interest of full disclosure i make it sound great but i m not there yet the leap from rhetoric to reality is much larger than the spaces between the words every day has the possibility of failure as well as success but as one of my favorite bands puts it i am free to struggle but i m not struggling to be free you see i may still be struggling to become that blessing to my husband and a godly mama to my son among other achievements i pray for but because the spirit lives in me i have been set free from the consequences of sin i don t have to struggle to be free from sin s claim on my soul just its grip on my habits and mindset so yes it s hard to concentrate on the promises in all the noise that s why intentional quiet time is so important it lays the ground work and the daily input of promises will build a wall layer by layer day by day to help shield me from the arrows wind and rain that breaks my concentration perseverance in prayer and in deed is a must regina is right concentration is hard practice is essential that s the point posted by rebecca at 2 12 am no comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest labels ouat perseverance promises sacred in the secular struggle the circle maker monday november 4 2013 what s the story morning glory what do you think stories are for these stories are classics there s a reason we all know them they re a way for us to deal with our world a world that doesn t always make sense mary margaret snow white once upon a time pilot do you know why peter pan would fly to the nursery window of the darlings house each night it was to listen to the stories in fact this is why peter brought wendy to neverland with him in the first place he wanted to hear her stories wendy even spends some time on the jolly roger regaling captain hook and his pirate crew with her stories the most dastardly of villains and the most impish of boys both softened by stories in the book a little princess sara crewe becomes the most popular girl in her boarding school not for the many lovely gifts her father sends her but for the stories she tells when sara loses everything upon her father s death sara copes with her loss and her poverty by spinning marvelous stories to believe in her stories give her hope and comfort everyone favorite red headed orphan anne shirley did you really think i was going to say annie puh lease survived lonely days and lonelier nights with stories a voracious appetite for reading and a verbosity only a lonely little girl can have made anne a masterful story teller anne could even imagine away her carrot red hair and her plain name and many of us have fallen in love with their stories we all love a good story and lean in close to soak it in stories are our common language like music stories cross cultural barriers and give us a common experience even the simplest stories tackle something of the human condition hope grace redemption faith commitment second chances true love rescue this is the stuff of good stories from cinderella to les miserables from the brothers grimm to charles dickens stories are full of emotions fears and desires we can relate to this is why we love stories we see something of ourselves or something we hope to be our church recently started a series called the story the concept of this series that there are two stories constantly taking place the upper story and the lower story the upper story is god s plan for all of creation his utmost desire for us the ultimate goal the lower story consists of the individual narrative for each of us we all play a part in god s plan whether or not we acknowledge it or cooperate with him even in our rebellion we are never out of his story the bible tells us and i believe it to be true that the best way of living is in tandem with god s plan aligning my story with his story so that we re telling the same story this idea of the story is an appealing concept after all who doesn t love a good story and maybe this is why god thought it was fitting to relate to us through stories he knew that we could understand a story and that we d come back to it time and again his word is full of stories i believe true stories yup i m one of those evangelical fundamentalist kooks you caught me stories of loss worry fear and failure stories of hope faith adventures and fulfillment every story lined with grace redemption and second chances no one falls too far too hard or for too long for god to save them the only people who are truly lost are the ones who harden in the light the bible is full of the human condition there isn t a single aspect of human life that isn t addressed in some way oppression vengeance retribution forgiveness liberation loss loneliness hatred exile victory who knows better the human condition than the one who created us only one emmanuel god with us literature is full of heroes byronic heroes tragic heroes super heroes ordinary heroes unlikely heroes even heroines but only one hero can really save us and only one story really tells his tale we all love a really well crafted and expertly told story this is what drew peter pan to wendy s window gave sara crewe her friends and allowed anne shirley to survive it s what packs movie theatres tunes dvrs for that can t miss show and fills bookshelves and it s what makes the bible the number one bestseller of all time of all the stories in all the world it s the one that rings most true because it is and brings the most hope its author is our only hope for i know the plans the story i have for you says the lord jeremiah 29 11 jesus the author and finisher of our faith hebrews 12 2 posted by rebecca at 1 18 am 1 comment email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest labels bible human condition ouat story friday october 18 2013 do everything work willingly at whatever you do as though you were working for the lord rather than for people colossians 2 23 steven curtis chapman has a song called do everything which i fell in love with the very first time i heard it when i was working i really struggled because i kinda sorta really hated my job well i didn t mind the actual part when i worked with the kids kids are alright but there were some other issues made me flat our miserable the song was encouraging to me in those days because it helped me keep my perspective i was working for god s glory not just for a paycheck oddly enough for as much as i liked the song i didn t know what it was called until just a couple days ago i was listening to some of his albums on spotify and noticed the title for the first time do everything it stuck out to me because i just read in a book that one of the leading women s rights activists of the 1800s had a motto which was do everything this was a liberating idea for 19th century women that they could do more be more have more for these women it was about better education social reform the right to vote equal pay respect in the workforce and protecting the sanctity of the home this is how they dreamed a of a better life but i feel that do everything is no longer full of glittering possibilities instead it feels more like a prison sentence it s not about the betterment of lives but the idea of having it at all doing it all whatever this illusive it is our 19th century foremothers wanted the right to choose what their lives could be ironically i think we somehow missed the mark and ended up in the same boat so many women i know don t feel as though they have choices to do this or that but instead the choice is to deciding when to do this and that and we re buckling under the pressure of having to do it all our schedules are loaded with things to do and places to be we re supposed to be organic from scratch diy women who also work full time and still look beautiful for our husbands do everything is no longer about liberating women but exhausting them so how do we simplify do we simply hang up our business suits and go back to the kitchen no and i m a stay at home mom so i sorta feel like i m betraying my own kind with that answer i don t think the answer is to put every woman back in her home and make her stay there for some of us that s the answer it was for me for right now in this season of my life god wants me to be a homemaker and that s what will bring him glory he calls me to serve him at home and in the church and as long as i m faithful to do that then i m doing everything i m supposed to be doing that s my do everything which is what brings me back to steven curtis chapman the man has a knack for putting some pretty strong biblical wake up calls to some catchy melodies it just sticks with you and his song says that we should do everything for god s glory big or small glamorous or simple our purpose is to do the work god has designed us to do for example god knew before solomon was even conceived that he would be the one to build the temple in jerusalem so god equipped solomon to do the work so that he would be glorified david encouraged solomon in this task by telling him then david continued be strong and courageous and do the work do n t be afraid or discouraged for the lord god my god is with you he will not fail you or forsake you he will see to it that all the work related to the temple of the lord is finished correctly 1 chronicles 28 19 21 god will help us suc ceed at the work he has asked us to do if we re crumbling under the workload it s because we ve piled on more than what he ever designed us to do so the answer to the do everything dilemma is to do the work god has set out for you to do and then as you do everything you re called to do do it for the glory of god you don t have to do everything to do everything for god s glory you re picking up toys on the living room floor for the 15th time today matching up socks sweeping up lost cheerios that got away you put a baby on your hip color on your lips and head out the door while i may not know you i bet i know you wonder sometimes does it matter at all well let me remind you it all matters just as long as you do everything you do to the glory of the one who made you cause he made you to do every little thing that you do to bring a smile to his face tell the story of grace with every move that you make and every little thing you do posted by rebecca at 1 37 am 1 comment email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest labels do everything do the work true womanhood monday september 16 2013 mother of the year no thanks and what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul is anything worth more than you soul matthew 16 26 if you ve read my blog for any length of time you re aware that i struggled through a time of infertility before being blessed with my precious son dayton and i feel that since i begged and pleade...