A Life Surrendered
The start of this blog in 2011, which I named A Life Surrendered, was a response to God asking me to open up about the things I was learning as a wife and mama following God—the good and the bad, the ugly and the beautiful. He used Matthew 5:14-16 in the Message translation to call me out. The lines that urged me on and continue to urge me on are, “Keep open house; be generous with your lives. By opening up to others, you’ll prompt people to open up with God, this generous Father in heaven.”
It is my hope, as I share openly and honestly about the things I’ve struggled with, the things I’ve overcome, and the things I still have yet to overcome, that you would come to know the nature and heart of God. You don’t have to fear losing the loving of God when the process of transformation gets long and messy. There’s nothing you can do or not do that will cause God to ever stop pursuing you. He will not stop trying to get your attention, and you always have His.
Articles
When You Get Tired of Waiting
God unfolds His dream for us through seasons we must walk through. Often that dream begins as a seed, and there is a necessary process for its growth. The waiting in-between the conception and fruition can bring harsh and painful realities. The rubber-meets-the-road...
International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church #HopeforNations
Today, November 2, 2014 is the International Day of Prayer. Did you know that? I followed Instagram and Twitter feeds and read stories from the field when a few of my friends shared from the Middle East late last month, October 2014. My friends went there to learn...
Life is a Process with Mystery, Beauty, and Hope
Life is a process. There is as much mystery as there is beauty in how God designed life. Consider the seed, and see the dream God put in you as a seed. The dream for the life you know you are called to live. The dream that seems elusive and impossible. The dream you...
We Must Make our Personal Growth a Priority
We must make our personal growth a priority if we want to live a deliberate life. The process for living a deliberate life began two years ago for me, but I was unawares. What I did know two autumns ago was that God had growth on His mind, and as a blogger I naturally...
When You Think You are Ready
We live in Central Florida, so we have a myriad of theme parks to choose from. We get season passes to one each year. This year we chose Universal Studios. My youngest daughter, a fearless adventurer, loves roller-coasters, and Universal Orlando has an assortment. My...
It is in the Secret Place
May my most passionate pursuit always be of you, God. I pray it. I mean it. But I do not always live it. When I wander off too far in the wrong direction I hear God calling me back. Every one is called. What makes the difference is how we respond to it. God will not...
How do you know you are not living deliberately?
It is easy for us to not live intentionally, because we get swept off our feet by our life’s unwillingness to stop for us, and we don't even realized it. If we looked back, though, we would find we are leaving regret in our wake. I wrote a short list to help you know...
What does living deliberately mean?
This is more than a vocabulary lesson. I want to add depth to what it means to live deliberately. What Living Deliberately Means Living deliberately is the antithesis to living passively. Passive means accepting or allowing what happens without an active response or...
A Deliberate Life Can Still Be a Surrendered One
How can we live a deliberate life and still live a life surrendered to God? It is important for me to address this question at the very beginning. A life surrendered is not just the name of my blog, but it is the way I purpose to live every day. It was a way of life...