Graduating with my BSN next year

Having a teenager in the house (next month!)

Teaching Micah to read

Going on a medical missions trip

Growing in Christ

Learning a foreign language

Grandchildren (a long time from now!)

The return of Christ (come quickly, Lord Jesus!)

My dad (he passed away in 2005)

Homeschooling (I love being with my children!)

Newborns (not that I want another but they sure do smell amazing)

Texas (it will always be home)

Sunrise (I’m at work before the sun comes up)

Jamaican jerk chicken by the ocean (mission trip)

My grampa’s sense of humor (he died in 1989)

Paula Zuniga’s Mexican food (nothing could touch it!)

Tomorrow: Things I’m looking forward to!

There isn’t much better reading on the subject of faith in the Bible than Hebrews 11. Known as the “Hall of Faith,” it is a dizzying recitation of people who chose to believe God, even when some of their natural eyes never saw what they were believing for. Do I have that kind of faith? The faith to simply trust God?

God is not ashamed to be called their God. Heb 11:16b

Wow. God was so moved by their faith that He was proud to be called their God.

I want to be that person, the one who pleases God in that way. I know as a mom I want to be proud to be my child’s mom. God is the same. But the difference between my parenting and God’s is our works don’t make Him happy, our faith does.

Faith is what makes God happy. He said so.

But without faith it is impossible to please him. Heb 11:6a

Faith, Simply childlike trust in Him is all we need. Not works of the flesh, not perfection. Then He is proud to call Himself our God and I can rest knowing He has the whole world in His hands.

(Doesn’t that phrase just make you happy?)

Good. Things. Good things.

What are good things and why should we care about them?

Good things, the best things, are things you can touch, like kisses and hugs.

They are things you can’t, like laughter—and tears.

They are things that cost money, like a safe home.

And things that are free, like a smile.

Good things are everywhere and nowhere.

We care about them because they somehow make our lives better. Good things always do.

What are your good things?

Thermometers and thermostats seem similar on the surface. Both deal with environmental temperature. Both use numbers. But inside they are very different.

Thermometers simply tell you the temperature of the area. They offer a reading of the local temperature. This is handy but not life changing. It cannot to anything to change the environment, it only reflects it.

A thermostat, on the other hand, does not tell you what the temperature is. It tells you what someone wants the temperature to be. Thermometers are read, thermostats are set. Thermometers tell you the current state of things. thermostats tell you what things could be.

I want to be a thermostat. I want my character to set the tone from the inside out. I do not simply want to reflect the mood of the room—or the society. I don’t want to be relative, reflective.

The Christian Educator from the position of God’s Word must subdue the environment rather than submit to it. In teaching students his use of the environment should emphasize the internal demands of conscience as causative of behavior and action and the external environment as effect.

Slater, R. J., & Hall, V. M. (1975). Teaching and learning America’s Christian history (American Revolution Bicentennial ed.) (95). San Francisco: Foundation for American Christian Education.

God please help me to live life from the inside out. Help me not to simply reflect culture but to shape it. Help me to listen to your voice and to do the hard things.

…is:

world peace

a billion dollars

a trip around the world

perfect hair at all times

my own space shuttle

But I’ll settle for a hot bubble bath. Oh, and maybe some time to read a good book.

I am trying to keep my word for the year in the front of my mind. Pour. I am a seeker, searching meanings and clues to what this word means in my life this year. I want to be truly transformed by this idea of pouring.

“Pour” denotes an activity, which is very different than emptying. Being emptied is passive, it can happen without your consent or participation. Things can happen every day to empty us. Tragedy and stress and life itself can tear holes and drain out most everything.

Pouring takes action. You can’t pour out of a container without first taking hold. Purposeful holding. I want to not just be emptied this year, but to be poured. I place my earthen vessel in the hands of Jesus and trust that I will be poured out as He sees fit, as He fills me with whatever He deems useful and worthy.

Hope is sometimes not easily embraced. When in the throes of trouble sometimes it is easier to hold hope at arm’s length, to wallow in the negative feelings of the moment instead of holding hope close to the chest, allowing it to permeate the soul. Hope is all sunshine, warm and life-energizing. There is nothing to lose and everything to gain by embracing the hope that Christ offers.

It is not my nature to hold to hope, at least not on a regular basis. I tend to let my flesh run free and wallow in the muck of sadness, frustration and self pity. In the darkness it is painful to shine the hope that heals. My spiritual eyes have adjusted to the darkness and the shock  of light hurts. But once the eyes adjust to the warm rays I can see the Hand extended to raise me from the mire, that hand that was always there, waiting for my hopeful embrace.

To celebrate this day of love I thought I would share one of my favorite songs that talks about the Greatest Love.

I don’t have time to maintain these regrets when I think about the way He loves…

No need to dress up

Room to mess up

Strength to fess up

Home is where grace lives.

More corny jokes

Laughter evokes

Fun, happy folks

Home is where joy lives.

No secrets to keep

Enjoying sweet sleep

Drink it in deep

Home is where peace lives.

Forgiving a wrong

Heart ties are strong

Where I belong

Home is where love lives.

©Anna-Marie Hawthorne