Category: Soul (Blessings, Miracles, Prayer, Spiritual Growth)

There are few blessings in my life greater than my kids, who aren’t so little anymore.  The two oldest are 21 and 20 now (which is hard enough to believe when I can remember their delivery like it was yesterday).  We can, and do, have deep conversations about the meaning of life (quite literally) as well as many other topics..

During their teenage years, as friends of mine were complaining about the tumultuous drama that often accompanies those years, I felt awkwardly blessed that we seemed to skip that phase.   Our home has always been the “hang out” home, and we’ve hosted countless bon-fire / flashlight tag events over the years, where it seemed the kids and their friends enjoyed themselves.  In all of these events, I typically hang out right with the kids.   I remember one event where one girl was dropped of at our house by her older brother.  As they pulled up, I invited him to stay, and he gave me that look that said, “really?  I’m going to hang out with my little sister and her friends?”  He politely declined, but before leaving, struck up a conversation with some of the other kids who were there.   He ended up staying the whole time, and had a great time.  I kidded him about coming back sometime and he said, in all seriousness, that he would – that he had an amazing time.  “You people are cool” is what he said.  His sister was mortified, but I was flattered.

Yep, your mom is the “cool mom”, their friends would tell them.  I found it so amazing that their friends would often hang out with me when they were at our house.

As many of my readers will know, I like to have fun – to that end, several years ago, my kids and I created an Amusement Park Bucket List, and have begun working our way through visiting all of the Cedar Fair and Six Flags amusement parks in the domestic US.  This summer, I will be attending a conference with my youngest daughter and our youth group in Orlando, and will be visiting Universal Studios – later in the year, we have a day-trip planned for Cedar Point (our favorite Cedar Fair park).   In discussion with my youngest daughter (14) one night, she literally said, “mom, do I have to hang out with my friends at the park, or can I just hang out with you?”

At first I thought she was being facetious, but as we talked, I realized she was entirely serious.  She knows that when I DO a park, I DO a park – and what we’ve learned from other trips is that most people don’t do amusement parks the way we do – open to closed, 110% committed to every thrill ride, stay hydrated and fed just enough to not get sick, and ride til you can’t ride no mo!   We’ve learned that most people aren’t like that.

Beautiful.  just beautiful.  it warmed my heart.    I thought the initial conversation was the end of it, but as we were talking about the concert I’m taking her to for her birthday (21 Pilots), she remarked again that she’s looking forward to hanging out with me at the park, too.

Im not so naïve to think my kids won’t grow up and have their own lives… but am so incredibly blessed that each of them still think I’m a cool mom.’ I will enjoy every minute of it.

‘Blessed beyond belief,

SB

As my avid followers already know, my two favorite inspirational authors are Mark Batterson and Erwin MacManus. I’ve read (and re-read) nearly every book they’ve each authored and find myself just as inspired as the first.

Each of them pastor churches in the United States, one on the east coast and one on the west coast. A few months ago, I was honored to attend MacManus’ church, Mosaic, in Hollywood, CA. One day, I hope to attend Batterson’s church in Washington, DC.

On my most recent business trip, just before I left my house at 4 am for my early morning flight, I downloaded Erwin’s book, Chasing Daylight on my Audible App so I could listen during the flight.

Like the other books I’ve read, I found myself with tears welled up on multiple times throughout the flight as his words resonated deep within my soul.

I’ve finished only the first two chapters and had to go back and listen again, this time capturing a few of the nuggets to share. I would actually encourage you to get the book yourself and read it, but will share the nuggets I take away…

“The greatest tragedy is not the sins we commit but the life we fail to live. We cannot follow God in neutral. He has created you for something … He created you to do good. And doing this requires initiative. There is a subtle danger in hiding apathy behind piety. Getting rid of the sin in your life? Great. Now it’s time to do something”. Erwin Raphael MacManus

“What God makes clear is that when we’re committed to seizing His divine moments, He’ll make sure He’ll get us to the right place at the right time. What God can do with a person who’s willing to act is limitless”

“Jesus considered it wicked, the person who leaves his talents unused”

My Lord, and my Savior, I am so completely humbled at Your blessings. I am deeply committed to seizing Your divine moments. I am passionately committed to living a life to do good to honor You. I commit to use every gift and talent You’ve given me for Your glory. I can see so clearly Your hand before me, pouring out blessings to bring the ideas You’ve given to me to fruition. It honestly seems like a dream.

Blessings,

SB

To think that the God of the Universe is interested in each and every one of the details of our lives is unfathomable at times, but that’s exactly who God is.   I am being so deeply blessed by Him right now that it is literally hard for me to wrap my brain around all that is happening.

I have been on an incredible journey throughout my lifetime – a journey filled with ups and downs like everyone else… filled with not-so-good choices and better choices, good times, challenging times, depressing times, elated times.

About a year ago, someone told me, “I can see the evidence of God all over your life”  At the time, I couldn’t fully appreciate what they were saying.

Back in the early 90’s, I was the accompanist for a small church where I became very close with the pastor and his wife.  One of choruses we used to sing was called, “In His Time”…   I was much younger then, ((LOL)) but as I sit and look back on events in my life, I can see so clearly that God’s hand was in all of it.

In his time, in his time
He makes all things beautiful
In his time

Lord please show me everyday
As you’re teaching me your way
That you do just what you say
In your time

In your time, in your time
You make all things beautiful
In your time

Lord my life to you I bring
May each song I have to sing
Be to you a lovely thing
In your time

Lord please show me everyday
As you teaching me your way
That you do just what you say
In your time

In your time (in your time), in your time (in your time lord)
You make all things beautiful
In your time

Hi, Friends! (By the way, I love that there are friends from all over our globe who subscribe to this blog… I am so completely humbled by that!)

You all know I’ve been praying some Jericho sIzed prayers for a long time now.

Well, pretty soon I’ll be sharing some crazy big news with you all. But for today, would like to simply ask if you would pray with and for me. God knows the details of what we’re praying for.

To Him all the glory, for ever and ever.

Many thanks!

SB

Lord, thank you for today.  Thank you for the rest You gave overnight, and for clarity of mind this morning.  Today is Your day.  I know you are with me.   I lay all of me out before You, my thoughts and dreams, my inspirations, my insecurities, my inhibitions.  I know You made me, and I know You are here for me.   Make me what You need me to be in order to fulfill Your purpose in me.   In your Holy Name, I pray.  Amen

Yesterday was filled with anxiety… which is very odd for me.  I have a few close friends who battle anxiety and, quite honestly, they come to me for guidance, which I happily refer them to 1 Peter 5:7 “cast all your anxiety on Him because He cares for you.”

and there I was, taking my own scripture pill, wondering why it didn’t magically disappear..    sometimes I think God allows these moments in our lives to give us empathy toward what others are going through.   Empathetic… I am.    I understand the helpless feeling of having anxiety for seemingly no reason and not being able to change it.   My simple answer is that, through this, God is trying to teach us to rely on Him, and to let go of our worries.  It is much easier said than done.

I am a work in progress, as are we all.   My heart is with all of you.

Be blessed as I am blessed today, my friends.

SB

Lord, my heart is unsettled and anxious, yet I know I am completely Yours. I’m so humbled that You love me. You’ve told me to cast my burdens on You because You care for me (1 Peter 5:7). I am casting them on You now and pray that You will give me Your peace about all You are doing, both in my life and in my work.

That which You’ve asked me to do is bigger than me. I am sometimes overwhelmed by the magnitude, yet believe so wholeheartedly it is of You. Give me your wisdom, beyond my own. Help me hear Your voice above all noise.

Show me Your sign. Continue to guide me and direct me, that everything I do will honor You.

Remove from me what You need to, replace in my heart what You need to, help me to obey Your voice.

Let Satan have no authority over me, or those who are with me, those who guide me. Let him have no authority over this endeavor. I pray, in the name of Jesus, that You will bind him up and remove him from this, Your endeavor.

I pray that Your blessings be poured out, that all those involved will know, without a doubt, that the blessings are from you.

Close any doors you need to. Open the ones You want me to enter, and give me Your courage and boldness to do so.

In Your Holy and Precious name,

SB

I wanted to share another experience from our first trip, a few years ago..  Ás I’ve talked about before, 4 students and 6 chaperones (overkill, I know) took 2 vehicles to NYC and stayed at a church in Brooklyn.   On street parking, which we were lucky enough to find 2 spots in front of our home church the night we arrived.  Because of street cleaning, however, the cars had to be moved every 2 days…. along with cars from everyone else in the neighborhood… which, as you might imagine, is no small task.   The gentlemen who came with us on the trip were kind enough to wake up early on the day they were to be moved.  I underestimated exactly what that meant, and I believe they did as well!  After two hours of looking for a place to park, they finally found a gated lot they could park for $25.00 per day and parked both vehicles.  After conferring with our leader, we decided to leave the cars there for the rest of the week – not having the aggravation of moving the cars was worth $25.00 per day.

An example of a really good decision made on the fly while serving the under-served in New York City.

We went about our missions projects (which I promise to write about) and got up Saturday morning to come home.   I was in our dorm room vacuuming the floor (and cheerfully humming a happy tune) when the other lady chaperones came to me with concerned looks on their faces.  I shut the vacuum off to see what was wrong.  I thought perhaps someone had gotten hurt.   The guys had just gone to get the cars from the lot, only to find the lot is closed on the weekends!

Hilarious.   I break into hysterical laughter for a few seconds before I realized the look on their faces dictated I should not have been laughing.   They were genuinely concerned!   I had to work really hard to keep a straight face – I’m not sure if it’s because I have a good 15 years on them and have experienced travel delays and other times when things don’t go as planned or if I was simply happy enough to spend more time in New York City, I just didn’t share their concern.  I knew enough about people, though, to empathize with their stress.

Fairly quickly, we began to put together “plan b” for getting the people home who absolutely had to be home to be at work on Monday morning.   I quickly volunteered to stay and wait for the garage to open.   HAHA   YAY! another weekend in NYC!  I loved it!

Turns out that one of our gentlemen is not only friendly, but resourceful and managed to find a phone number to call the owner of the garage, who, for a fee, was more than willing to come and let the cars out.   This escapade delayed our return trip just a few hours – and, amazingly enough, afforded us the opportunity to work in the kitchen of the church where we had stayed, and service their community breakfast.  Turns out that they had 9 volunteers call-off that morning, and there were 10 of us!

God, in His infinite wisdom, allowed our “misfortune” to be turned to blessing.  Ah, He does that so often!

My hope is that everyone learn to live life seeing the miracles of God unfold before their eyes! God is truly amazing, even in the midst of what seems like a crisis….   I’d call it a Chrisis!

Blessings to you,

1SB

All I can say is, “Hold on!”

When God asks if you’re willing to share your story, and you say, “yes, of course, Lord, but what story? I don’t really have a story.”   be prepared.  He’s about to give you a story that is so completely unbelievable that it can ONLY be written by Him – the author and creator of the entire universe.

I am so truly humbled to be His, and experience the unfathomable grace He’s giving to me right now.

To be quite honest, I’m not even sure I have the words to articulate the story appropriately right now, but I am confident that, in time, He will give me the words to say.

Yes, Lord, 1000 times YES.  I am willing to share all that You have done and are doing for me – for YOUR glory. I am trusting you with every single step I make.

Your goodness endures forever.

Blessings, SB

Lord, today is Your day. Keep me focused on you and your holiness. Help me to take every thought captive and hear only your voice guiding me.

Your blessings are so far beyond what I could have ever imagined. Your mercy I can’t comprehend.

Before You, I lay my plans, my opportunities, my failures, my relationships, my worry, my joy. Guide each step. Give me a sign that I am following where You want me to go.

Yours is glory forever and ever. Help me to glorify you in all I do.

Humbly before you today,

SB

When our perspective on every thing that we own is that, in fact, it belongs to God, would the way in which we treat it be different?  everything.   every thing.     our bank account, our salary, our gifts and talents, our homes, our cars,  our debts, our children… everything.

For much of my life, I never gave this much thought.  A few years ago, in deep contemplation after working hard to get my family’s finances in order, I had a change of perspective – and began viewing EVERY THING I have as belonging to God, and I’m simply the steward of what He’s allowed me to have.  It was both freeing and humbling to look at my possessions differently – I began to look at things in terms of how they could be used to further His kingdom.

I’m not sure if it’s our humanness or our culture that challenges this, but I’d daresay it’s probably not a “typical” viewpoint, if there is such a thing.  In fact, I have to continually remind myself to keep this perspective, else I drift back to default, which is to think of things as “mine”.  Hearing our lesson on the talents last night reminded me that I’ve drifted from center and need to re-ignite my realization that ALL I have is HIS.

As I stand before an open door to an opportunity that I’ve prayed about for years, watching it fall into place in such a way that there is absolutely no way to mistake that God is orchestrating it, I am reminded of the verse:

Luke 12:48 “To whom much is given, much is expected.”

Luke 16:9: “I tell you, use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves, so that when it is gone, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings

I am being blessed beyond measure that I might bless others beyond measure, giving God the power and glory forever and ever.

I am confident that God, who has called me to this purpose, will both provide and equip me to do His will.    He makes all things beautiful in His time.

Blessings,

SB