Bring Life Into Your Home This Winter

We have had a few days of single-digit temperatures here in Colorado. When the world outside is frozen solid, it is even more important that we bring life, warmth, and beauty into our world inside, our homes, where we will spend the majority of our time for the next couple of months.

Candles and hot drinks are always welcome during these cold winters, but one of my favorite ways to bring color back into my days is by placing vibrant flowers throughout my home. A beautiful bouquet never fails to remind me that spring will eventually come, and offers me joy in the meantime.

How do you bring life into your home during the winter? What helps you get through snowy, inside days? Tell me in the comments!

Lean Into Life As Something Beautiful

Trusting that God works all things together for good despite the challenges we face is a gift of worship we give to Him. Perhaps our marriage is different, or our children are in some ways mysterious to us, or our circumstances more challenging than we thought they would be.

Our unique puzzles are a place of His design. It is in our unique story where we bring His light and that we might add love, healing, hope, and variety to the world. And He can use our combination of circumstances — even the painful ones — for our good and His glory.

Read more about this in Different.

Tea Time Tuesday: Be Gentle With Yourself

Click here to play today’s new podcast episode.

Tea Time Tuesday

Be gentle to yourself. Your discouraged or broken heart matters so much to God.

We are all fragile, vulnerable, limited human beings. We only have so much energy before we become exhausted. We have limited emotional and spiritual strength as well. Life is a constant drain on our personal resources. We mamas can be so hard on ourselves.

Yet, God understands those times when you are empty to your toenails and discouraged or feel that nothing you do matters or is making the difference you hoped for. Your discouraged heart matters to God.

Recently, I was doing a reflection and study about the vulnerability of Jesus as a human being living in this fallen, chaotic world and how often he felt a sadness in this world. We read in Matthew that Jesus said, “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who have been sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were unwilling.”

When Jesus attended the funeral of his precious friend, Lazarus, and sought to comfort Mary and Martha, we read that “Jesus wept.”

At the end of His ministry on earth, most of Jesus’ followers left him and he posed a question to his disciples, “You do not want to leave too, do you?” Jesus asked the Twelve.

In Hebrews, we learn that Jesus was tempted as we are and He understands our temptation to doubt, be discouraged, feel unseen, and so much more. We read, “For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin.”

And there are many more.

As a child, we can rest in the arms of our sympathetic, loving Heavenly Father.

Join me on my podcast, today. Hear about 2 books I’m reading, blueberry cobbler, Starlink Satellite, and breathe in Jesus’ compassion, love and sympathy that he has for you and me.

Praying His grace-filled blessings for you, friends.

Subduing The Domain Of The Home

Establishing and caring for a home is so much more than a decorating dilemma or an organizational challenge or even a call to love one's family. It is a commitment of heart, mind, and soul to the task of subduing a very specific part of the earth — the domain of the home. It involves teaching minds and nurturing hearts and shaping souls, in addition to getting the rugs vacuumed and dinner on the table.

To me, at times, this task has seemed almost overwhelming. But the example of so many lovely homemakers in my life has assured me it can be done with grace and patience. Every instance helped me to develop a vision for my home as a lovely gracious, lifegiving place.

This vision has kept me going through times of discouragement when my work seemed endless and thankless. It has helped me to keep my priorities straight and my budget focused. And because I knew what I was striving for, it has helped me to recognize the results when I saw them and give thanks to God for helping me shape my home according to his purposes.

Read more about this in The Mission Of Motherhood.

The Heart Of A Reading Home

When my kinds were young, most days found us sequestered in our living room, sharing and engaging in a rousing book together. All four cherished this daily rhythm as one of the favorite memories of their lives and as the habit that shaped their souls.

What I discovered was that entering into rousing tales, great adventures, historical battles, and romantic tales does open children’s minds to wonder about infinite ideas, dreams, and creative possibilities and to truly enjoy the beauty of learning and growing. A sort of mutual intelligence and understanding through the discussions we shared and things we wondered about out loud formed patterns of imagination that fueled our children’s intellect.

Read more about this in Awaking Wonder.

Tea Time Tuesday: Best Friends Are Built at Home

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Tea Time Tuesday

Saying goodbye to my children as they foray back out into the world of their work and dreams is a melancholy experience for me. I want them to be happy and to flourish in their lives and work, and I will also have a hole in my heart when they leave. They have become my best friends, worthy companions who share memories, dreams, fears, success and failures, and know me and love me.

Over the holidays, I delighted in heart-felt conversations with Joy and Keelia who were home with us to celebrate. Cultivating deep, soul-filling, heart strong friendships with women who call you to your best self is becoming more and more rare. Yet, love, companionship, comfort, understanding, sympathy, “being known and loved” is one of the ways we were created to experience the Love of God in our lives. Love gives us the oxygen we need to breathe in grace through the taxing days of our lives.

Friendship is an imperative part of a healthy life!

I invited the girls to join me in a podcast today because I thought it might be fun for you to hear from them and what they are pursuing in this season of their lives. We have so much fun. And we took a photo on Christmas Day together to document a sweet time together. Enjoy!

Trust God With Your Days

You will always have a choice to make. Don’t look at the fear; keep the memory of His power and beauty always before your eyes and ever in your thoughts. Beauty will be strewn across your path so you can observe His fingerprints.

Our God, who created beauty for us to behold and who has shown His power through His creation, wants to fill you from the tip of your toes to the top of your head with the very same energy that created all of this so that you will know His full companionship, love, beauty, and wisdom each step in your journey ahead.

Read more about this in Own Your Life.

All Lives Tell A Different Story

All lives tell a different story, and all of us are uniquely created by God to live our lives according to the hopes and desires and work He has set within us. An essential part of our role as parents is simply not to suppress these variances amongst our children.

It is clear that God values diversity in His creation. And so must we. How important it is that we look at the heart of who a person was created to be. To respect each person’s uniqueness is to worship God for His wonderful design.

Read more about this in Uniquely You — out now!

Uniquely You Launch Day

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"Your children are fearfully and wonderfully made by Him! Through patience and commitment, we will eventually reap a harvest. Today, I encourage you to begin the journey of discovering the individual wonders of each one." (from Uniquely You)

Today my outside-the-box son Nathan and I officially release our second book together, Uniquely You. This book comes directly from our hearts and is a celebration and exploration of the beautiful uniquenesses God has created both of us, and everyone, with.

Our desire is that our stories, words, thoughts, and reflections will offer you comfort and hope, both in your and your family's story. Nathan and I continue our conversation about why we are so passionate about the themes in this book in our latest podcast, also out today. And we giggled the whole way through!

Order your copy today!

Every Child Reflects The Artistry Of God

Each child, and indeed every single person alive, is created with their own impossibly complex web of personality traits and opinions and ways of seeing their environment, and this complexity reflects the dynamic artistry of the great master artist who created us all.

Even as flowers have infinite colors, shapes, and scents, we too are created with effectively limitless possibilities of potential expression. God delights in this dynamic contrast, and it is part of our faith that we learn to see with God’s eyes the glory of His varied creation.

Order your copy of Uniquely You today.