Surrendering Fear. Exercising Faith. Living Free.

Shawn and I have been learning a lot about trusting the Lord in the little things lately. To you, the example I'm about to share might seem trivial, but to us it was monumental. Just like the saying "You can't run until you walk," my husband and I have been realizing that we won't be able to trust God with the big things if we don't learn to trust him with the little things. So, last week, our little thing was a patio table. For about two months now I have been searching for a patio set. High and low. The problem is, we didn't have the money in our monthly budget to buy a new one. We have been following Dave Ramsey's 7 baby steps from his Financial Peace University and we know that buying things used or for really cheap at the Goodwill is wise at this point in our lives. For me to stay home with Caleb, we've had to make a lot of sacrifices in terms of our "standard of living" and used things are pretty much all that fit in anymore, here

After several months of being without a laptop or way to blog about the things Jesus, and my pastor, have been teaching me, I am so excited to share with you the one thing that was the most mind-blowing and eye-opening for me. It's from a recent Northpoint Church series called Brand New that our pastor shared last month. The reason behind the name "Brand New" is because Jesus came to Earth with a brand new covenant. Yet, so many of us are still trying to live under the old covenant, and the old rules. Andy talks about something called the Temple Model, and explains how our thoughts about God and Christianity have been influenced heavily by it. So, what is the temple model? Basically, it is a model of religion that most of today's churches are founded on, where sacred men, in sacred places, with sacred texts, do sacred things. And there are usually scared, or scarred, followers who don't know any better and are therefore very dependent on these sacred men. These me

My time in God's Word has been very powerful this week. As I seek him more and more, he is revealing more and more to me. It's amazing! This week I read an awesome article from Proverbs 31 ministry about Mary, the Mother of Jesus. It was great! The devotion was written by Max Lucado and is entitled "The Power of a Simple Prayer." In it he talks about how life doesn't always fit our mold for it, that the pieces we are given don't always go together, and that things often don't work out the way we think they should. The important part, though, is how we react to that. Is our response one of fear, anger, frustration, or prayer? He reminds us of the power of a simple prayer by highlighting John 2, which tells the story of a wedding in Cana that both Jesus and his mother were invited to. While Jesus was there, the wedding party ran out of wine. Most of the women I know are fabulous hostesses and I know they would be freaking out over this, particularly of wh

For those of you who have been following, you know I felt very convicted that coming to Atlanta would force me to rely on God, rather than myself, completely. In our daily lives it's almost easy to forget that God is in control of everything. We wake up, go through the moves and motions of a morning routine, go to work or stay home with the kids and perform whatever activities and roles coincide with that, we eat dinner, we get ready for bed, and we repeat that the next time. We might pray to The Lord with special requests, in times of need, or about a certain challenge or problem, but we tend to feel like we only need him for certain things, right? It's just our human nature. In reality, he's in charge of it all, allows it all, sends it all, holds us through it all, and knows it all, whether we want to acknowledge that or not. There's nothing like a move, or something major like a job loss or illness, to pull the rug out from under you and leave you as blank as a white

So as most of you know, we moved to Atlanta, GA this past week. This was a huge decision for us, and boy oh boy did we go back and forth. We prayed over it a lot and didn't feel like God was leading us to Atlanta. In fact, I actually felt pretty convicted of the fact that God was asking us to stay in Buffalo to focus on growing in our faith through all the classes and ministries at our church, and to trust that HE would provide for us when it didn't look like my husband's salary would do a very good job of that. He hadn't had any luck finding a job in Buffalo for months and when he did it was a lower salary than he has ever had and one we knew we would have trouble getting by on, let alone continuing to save for a house. Appearances aside, because obviously staying in Buffalo didn't seem like a "smart" decision, I felt led to Matthew 6:33, which talks about not worrying about the things we need, like clothing or food: "But seek FIRST his kingdom a

As I continue to grow in the Lord, I'm finding it challenging to trust him. I say I trust him of course, and it's easy to trust him when things are going well, but the moment an unexpected trial or hardship strikes, I often notice that trust begins to waver. Other times the peace I feel (thanks to him) in the face of adversity surprises me, but then as I continue to walk it out day after day, as other things happen to tempt me or weigh me down even more, that's when I start to lack trust. Because what is trust? The definition from Dictionary.com says "reliance on the integrity, strength, ability, surety of a person or thing; confidence." So if I say that I trust God, that means I know I can rely on him, no matter how bad things get or how bleak they seem. I can rely on his integrity, his strength, and his ability. Of course I can; he's GOD! He is perfect, all-knowing, unconditionally-loving, forgiving, helping, encouraging...everything! I find the last word of