Category Archives: God

Be ‘Knowing’ You Are BELOVED.

Aren’t you, like me, hoping that some person, thing or event will come along to give you the final feeling of inner well-being you desire? Don’t you often hope: “May this book, idea, course, trip, job, country, or relationship fulfill my deepest desire.” But as long as you’re waiting for that mysterious moment you will go on running helter-skelter, always anxious and restless, always lustful and angry, never fully satisfied. You know that this is the compulsiveness that keeps us going and busy, but at the same time makes us wonder whether we are getting anywhere in the long run. This is the way to spiritual exhaustion and burned out. This is the way to spiritual death.

Well, you and I don’t have to kill ourselves. We are the Beloved. We are intimately loved long before her parents, teachers, spouses, children and friends loved or wounded us. That’s the truth of our lives. That’s the truth I want you to claim for yourself. That’s the truth spoken by the voice that says, “You are my Beloved.”
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These beautiful words are from the book called ‘Life of the Beloved’ by Henri JM Nouwen. This is an author that my counselor recommended that I begin reading. His books have tremendously blessed me. And today my prayer for myself, my dear family, my friends and every person that reads these words today would know that they are God’s Beloved.

Uniquely created.

With individual DNA.

Distinct fingerprints.

Exclusive ancestry.

Chosen by God.

Yes.

You.

Me.

All creation shouts His name.

May this fall season encourage us all to see with our hearts, minds, bodies and spirits that we are uniquely His BELOVED.

Be Halloweening

I am sure if I looked into the history of Halloween or asked one of my non-Halloween-going friends, we may not participate in October 31st activities. But we do and we do it well! IMG_6818.JPGIMG_6819.JPG
Decorating the front of the house for trick or treaters.

Getting together with beloved friends to carve pumpkins.

Creating costumes that express themselves and empower our boys. IMG_6815.JPGIMG_6816.JPGIMG_6817.JPGTaking snacks to school to share with classmates during the Halloween party. (This year it was watermelon cutouts.)

Going door-to-door to meet our neighbours and share a story or two. IMG_6820.JPGGiving out chips and chocolates to each person who comes to our door.

Looking at photos of our cousins who dressed up.

Celebrating relationships.

Allowing Uniqueness.

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Being a part of Community.

Accepting Neighbours.

Treasuring Friendship.

Loving our Family. IMG_6827.JPG
Pouring out.

Pouring into our boys.

Building roots.

Going deeper.

Eating lots of mini chocolate bars.

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Witnessing one of the most incredible sunsets I have seen in awhile.

Glory!

God gets all our praise for this night and the people who surrounded us this Halloween!

Be Resonating with Beth Moore

Sometimes I read Beth Moore’s daily devotional called “Breaking Free” and the words float on by. Often, I am in the exact same place as I read her word and scripture for the day and I am blown away.

Here was yesterday’s devotional:

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I was blown away as we ponder our time together as a family, our life in church, my new job and the ‘shoulds’ we perceive in our life.

May prayer continue to be our priority. I know I could ‘should’ all over myself every day and miss opportunities to truly live!

Glory to God!

Thank you Beth Moore for your depth of insight.

Be Having a Pumpkin Party

What rituals or traditions do you have, intentional or unintentional?

I love me some traditions!

Yearly activities to look forward to.

Our God, seasons and people to celebrate.

Four years ago we started a pumpkin carving party with some very good friends. We have managed to make it happen every year, even during last autumn’s cancer journey with mom. Here are 2013 photos!

My heart overflows with gratitude for this incredible evening we got to share together carving pumpkins.

Simple fun.

Together.

Memory making.

Creating.

Laughter.

Competition.

Food.

Friendship.

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Look at these creative people:

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Proud boys.

Their very own creations (with help from Papa, Lizzie and Princess Penny).

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Be Standing in the Light

Me.

Yes, me.

I encourage you to stop.

Pause.

Stand.

Take one moment.

To be.

Watch your breath.

Listen.

Really listen to the sounds around you.

Right now.

What do you hear?

What do you see?

Why are you choosing to do what you are doing on THIS day?

Death is forever.

Life is now.

I choose to stand in the light.

Imperfectly me.

Humbled.

Vulnerable.

In His light.

Just being.

Me.

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I am not sure how I got this photo, but again it was through nothing that I did.

Just being.

In His light.

Be Gobsmacked

Gobsmacked.

Flat on my face in awe.

Humbled.

Grateful.

Watching God’s miracles (coincidences) on a daily basis.

Living the presence of God.

This week, a friend was healed from months of pain in her foot. God’s touch healed her.  In one moment her pain was gone.  I have never experienced anything like this before in my life!

On Thursday, I took out a jacket that I bought for my mom last autumn to bring her warmth and comfort as her body shrunk during chemotherapy. I placed this jacket over my shoulders and I was overwhelmed that this beautiful jacket fits me.

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Last night, Sexy Neck told me that he wanted to keep a few large blue Tupperware bins that I was going to give away. I unpacked each of these bins. One of them had 0 to 3 month old boys clothing and at the bottom of the bin, I found a ring Steve bought me for our fifth anniversary that I lost SEVEN YEARS AGO! I am grateful Steve asked me to keep the bins.

20140914-102704-37624893.jpgThis beautiful ring now sits back upon my finger. I am amazed at God’s goodness. I grieved losing this ring when my oldest was a newborn.

And now this morning…

Often I leave colouring or activity sheets or notes for my boys on the table when they wake up in the morning.

This is the sheet I picked out for OC.

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Notice the scripture on the bottom of his colouring sheet?

As OC was colouring his sheet, I opened my bible to look up some scripture on a 40 day challenge I am doing from Igniting Hope Ministries. If you are curious, here is the website.
Anyways, I open my bible to look up the scripture I was wondering about AND IT IS THE SAME SCRIPTURE THAT IS ON OC’S SHEET! I had to underline this word in my bible.

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Flat on my face.

Wondrous God.

Gobsmacked.

Can’t think of a better word.

Be Introducing Sexy Neck

This is Sexy Neck, aka Steve, one year before we got married. (1996)

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We met playing volleyball, living 785 kilometres apart, then dated long distance for four and a half years living 298 kilometres apart.  We had never lived in the same city until we got engaged.

Sexy Neck is first and foremost kind. Also very athletic.  Intelligent. Loves God.   Witty.  Sexy.   Artistic (most people don’t know he can draw and learned to play guitar by ear).  Hardworking.  Dog lover.  Gardener.    Handy.   He’s an idea guy.    I think he tells me about a new idea every day!

And he is incredibly “cool”.  He loved taking “Selfie’s” before selfies were selfies.

Here we are back in 1996!

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Full of gratitude for this man.

His strong shoulders.

The love for his boys.

His passion and care for me.

Sexy Neck,  are you blushing?

P.S. We ran into a friend’s mom that we had never met before, but she had been reading the blog.  She giggled when she saw Steve, called him Sexy Neck then asked to see his neck.  It was one of the sweetest moments in our new neighbourhood with an old volleyball friend’s mom!

Be Talking About Money $$ (and Food)

September should be the new year.

New activities.

New routines.

An almost new school year.

New lessons while cooking dinner.

And talk about money!

Sexy Neck and I have embarked on an intensive look at our budget.

Spreadsheets.

Bills.

Bank statements.

Daily conversations.

We have lived in our home for over a year.  Our boys are in the activities they would like to be in.  We have found our places to grocery shop and realized how our spending has changed. We miss our backyard rental suite that we had in our old home, but we have ideas.  STAY TUNED!

I have been working on our budgeting spreadsheet as well as listening to Youtube videos about budgeting.  I have come across a very interesting man, who was once bankrupt, who believes in God and now teaches others about finance.  His name is Dave Ramsey.  Youtube him and you will find out some interesting things.  I listened last night to a short eight minute video and here are some of the highlights:

  • God owns money, stuff, time and talents.
  • We are the managers.
  • These things (money, stuff, time and talents) are not ours, stop worrying about them.
  • God made us to be givers.

He also spoke about giving money to others or tithing.  He basically said that to tithe means one tenth.  We could give away one tenth of our income right at the beginning of the month.

Today, I was cooking dinner and thought about this concept of giving away one tenth of our income right away.

 

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When I was cooking dinner, I was stretching our leftovers from last night to feed us all dinner as well as make sure that I had leftovers for Sexy Neck’s lunch for tomorrow.   I decided to first put the food in Sexy Neck’s lunch and then serve the rest of us dinner.

Guess what?  When I served the lunch first there was enough for dinner, but I know if I served dinner first there wouldn’t have been any leftovers.

I wonder if we gave away ten percent of our income right at the beginning of the month… I bet there would be enough for everything else too!